Vorarlberg is the western-most state of Austria, bordered at the north by the Bodensee, or Lake Constance, as well as Switzerland to the west and Germany to the north. It’s a land of gentle green hills covered with hay, striking Alpine peaks streaked with snow, and meadows filled with the […]
I met up yesterday with another local tourism official, Cornelia Kriegner, at my hotel, and we didn’t go out to her car, as I would expect. Instead, we waited for the local bus and rode it up a few miles past the village to a trailhead. Conny was taking me […]
My first full day in Bregenzerwald was long and full of fascinating sites and an overwhelming number of alluring mountain vistas. Around every corner, another tidy home punctuated by red geraniums and stacks of narrow logs neatly tucked away came into view. Many of the people around here use these […]
I had dinner at the fine restaurant at my hotel, the Gastof Hirschen Schwarzenberg, and I ordered the chef surprise. No idea what was going to be served, I left the four courses up to the chef. And a good choice it was! They set four forks in front of […]
I’m having breakfast in the mountain village of Schwarzenberg, in the Vorarlberg region of Austria, the farthest west of Austria’s nine states, right near Switzerland. At the top of the map is the Bodensee, which some call Lake Constance. The region was formed in 1919, and this part of Austria […]
On Thursday night I’ll fly to Zurich and then drive about 50 km over to the region of Vorarlberg, in western Austria. It’s right on Lake Constance, and it’s a part of the world I’ve never seen. I met these folks at a European travel exposition, and they kept talking […]
Deerfield really feels like we’ve taken a turn into a new chapter. For so long, the symbol of our downtown has been the tired old building that once housed Franklin County’s Cable TV channels, which is now for rent. We’ve had a lot of empty stores and sad “now leasing”signs. […]
It was the perfect evening, still in the 80s, but cooling off, as we headed down a dusty farm road to a big tent you could see in the distance. The occasion was a customer and vendor appreciation dinner at Atlas Farm, the farm store where we buy lots […]
Denver is an inspiring city, the biggest metropolis for 500 miles around the vast American West. I just spent five days exploring and enjoying Denver and the surrounding countryside, and I came away once again, impressed with how vibrant the place is. Last Sunday I joined a group of travel […]
Our town has been energized over the past few months, because of development that suddenly seems to be pushing the limits of the townspeople. First, the big development on Sugarloaf Street was approved, after pretty much token opposition. Nobody could really do much because it was following the town’s master […]
Travel publishing and the demise of travel magazines and newspaper travel sections is a topic near and dear to my heart. I have witnessed it, and last month out in San Francisco, I got to speaking with Spud Hilton, the travel editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. Hilton was interviewed […]
I’m done driving for Uber. Why? Because it comes down not making enough money for all of the efforts, and the fact that when you get a long fare somewhere like Bradley, you usually don’t have the same long fare returning north…so you spend your own gas in an empty […]