A Few Places I Hope To Visit In 2010
14. Minorca
While the beat of disco pounds in Ibiza and Majorca, their quiet sister Minorca offers a tranquil contrast to the glitz next door. The entire island is a Unesco Biosphere Reserve, so the Spanish megahotel development frenzy of the last decade has largely skipped over this patch of the Mediterranean. That means miles of beaches —some 120 of them, in fact, like the northern sweep of crystal-clear swimming waters in the coves called Cala d’Algaiarens, with fine sand and rolling dunes. And Minorca’s eco-diversity extends well beyond the coasts: forests, deep gorges, wetlands, salt marshes and hillsides covered in lush greenery that sometimes look more New England than Mediterranean. Even the island’s sun-bleached towns — Mahón and Ciutadella, each combining elements of their British colonial heritage, Moorish roots and modern Spanish identity — are more peaceful than their Majorcan equivalents.The ideal visit to Minorca celebrates islanders’ emphasis on agritourism — sleeping in rural establishments like Ca Na Xini (www.canaxini.com), a dairy farm that offers an eight-room temple to modernism inside the shell of a century-old manor home. It’s like spring break for eco-conscious adults. — Sarah Wildman
25. Vancouver Island
Vancouver will have the sporting world’s attention when it hosts the Winter Olympics this year, but the most rewarding outdoor exploration is found outside the city, away from the crowds and off the beaten path. Hop the BC Ferry (www.bcferries.com) from Vancouver to Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island’s east coast, and drive three hours through mountain passes to the wild, dramatic west coast. The new Wild Pacific Trail (www.wildpacifictrail.com) skirts the rocky, rugged shoreline, overlooking sandy coves lined with driftwood and tidepools and the Pacific beyond them.The hiking trail is being built in sections (there are three of seven set up so far), hand-cut through dense old-growth forests of cedar and spruce, with viewing platforms that let hikers see turn-of-the-20th-century lighthouses, kayakers heading to nearby islands, and the annual gray whale migration (about 20,000 pass by the island from February to late May). The base for the Wild Pacific Trail is a folksy fishing village called Ucluelet, a former First Nations settlement dotted with seaside inns, bed-and-breakfasts and beach cabins like the Terrace Beach Resort (www.terracebeachresort.ca), which has direct access to the trail. BONNIE TSUI
Vancouver Island
My plan for Vancouver Island is to fly into Seattle, shuttle up to the ferry for the San Juan Islands. Spend a day or two on the islands — San Juan, Orcas, Shaw — then head over on the ferry to travel on Vancouver Island for a few days, flying back from there.
Also returning to Berlin (Next10), a great city. And I hope to set things up to return from Europe on one trip via the Açores, a Portuguese achipelago 1000 miles west of continental Europe.
So far, nothing has dragged me to China, but I would love to see Shanghai and Hong Kong. Maybe someone wants me on a speaking tour?
Double Secret Security Measures?
- Micheline Haynard and Lix Robbins, New Restrictions Quickly Added for Air Passengers
In the wake of the terrorism attempt Friday on a Northwest Airlines flight, federal officials on Saturday imposed new restrictions on travelers that could lengthen lines at airports and limit the ability of international passengers to move about an airplane.
The government was vague about the steps it was taking, saying that it wanted the security experience to be “unpredictable” and that passengers would not find the same measures at every airport — a prospect that may upset airlines and travelers alike.
But several airlines released detailed information about the restrictions, saying that passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps. It was not clear how often the rule would affect domestic flights.
There may be a serpentine logic in not telling us what to expect at the airport, but I don’t buy it.
And this notion that passengers will have to sit an hour without any personal items in their laps — does that include books? headphones? — what sense does that make?
Aren’t the elaborate security checks designed to catch dangerous materials getting on the plane in the first place? If they don’t work, should the laws be based on minimizing the luggage that people drag onto the planes? Shouldn’t they require all luggage to be checked?
The illogic involved in this baffles me, and indicates that the authorities are jerking their knees, doing something, anything, to make people feel like they are in control — ‘We’re on this, people’ — when in fact it’s a shadow play.
Real security in the air would require taking everything away from passengers — zero carry-ons — and a complete strip search. That is deemed uneconomical and intrusive. Do you remember when you had to prove your computer could power up, to demonstrate your battery wasn’t C-4?
Also, airlines make money from charging passengers to check luggage, when the economics — for security purposes — should work the other way.
But anything less than a ‘zero carry-on’ has more risks, and the regime we are in right now has enormous risks because the level of security imposed is minimal, although incredibly annoying.
What if all our security was based on the assumption that you can’t stop terrorists or lunatics from getting bomb materials onto planes through on-the-ground security check points like the ones we currently have?
Source: The New York Times
Obama’s Passenger Bill Of Rights
New Penalties for Airlines That Keep Travelers on Planes]
The federal government will impose stiff penalties starting this spring on airlines that keep passengers waiting too long on the tarmac without feeding them or letting them off the plane — a remedy that will relieve many travelers but mean longer delays for a few.
The Obama administration took the strict new approach in response to several highly publicized events in recent years, and in the face of likely Congressional action if airline regulators did not respond to the consumer outcry that ensued.It acted on the eve of the busy Christmas travel season, and just as airlines struggled to recover from extensive weather-related disruptions to air travel to and from the Northeast over the weekend.
Under the rule, airlines that do not provide food and water after two hours or a chance to disembark after three hours will face penalties of $27,500 a passenger, the secretary of transportation announced on Monday.
In recent years, relatively few flights have been held on the ground for more than three hours — about 1,500 a year, or roughly one out of 6,200 flights — but that has been enough to affect more than 100,000 passengers a year and to create substantial public resentment.
“This is President Obama’s Passenger Bill of Rights,” said the secretary, Ray LaHood, using the term favored by proponents of like-minded legislation that is before Congress. The administration’s action does not require Congressional approval.
So, if Obama thought the bill of rights was a good idea, why didn’t he put it in place in the summer, so that now, in Winter, the penalties and provisions of the new rules would be in force for the 2009 holidays?
Source: The New York Times
Faial, an island in the Azores.
I am planning a retreat to the Azores, maybe a week or two in the spring. To write.
Source: destinazores.com
JetBlue figures customers paying for more legroom will generate $65 million this year, said Marty St. George, senior vice president for marketing.
Halfway across the ocean the other day, somewhere near Godthab, Greenland.
What’s the little pirate ship?
Erratic inquiries of Stowe Boyd, who means well, despite everything.
