I write here occasionally about airline food, especially if I think it might be relatively healthy. Most of what is served on the majority of airlines, in my experience, isn't very healthy, but then, I suppose we crave something loaded with sugar and fat when we are under stress, flying at 35,000 feet in cramped conditions with too much noise and too many germs surrounding us.
On a couple of Air Canada flights recently, I noted with pleasure that some of their food seems healthy enough, and that you get a discount if you buy more items, something I had not encountered before. The foods are available on most flights over 90 minutes within North America and to or from their Central American, Caribbean, Mexican and Hawaiian destinations. You can save 20% by pre-ordering an Onboard Cafe voucher before your flight, too, at www.aircanada.com/travelinfo and look for Meals and Beverages.
I thought their breakfast item of berry and vanilla oatmeal ($4) sounded good, as did a snack of carrots with ranch dip ($3). As for meals, their $7 sandwiches (asiago chicken wrap, roast beef on whole wheat or vegetarian) sound pretty healthy, the pizza (also $7) not. You get a $1 or $2 discount if you order a meal and a snack for $9, a $4 to $5 discount if you order a meal, snack and beverage together for $13.
Another neat deal is a discount of about $2 each way on your Toronto Airport Express ticket from airport to downtown, cutting the one way fare to $19.75, roundtrip to $32.60, if you purchase the ticket from a flight attendant.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
With the spate of accidents involving the deterioration of the fuselages of Boeing 737 aircraft, the question arises--just how old are those "workhorses" of the aircraft industry, a sobriquet often applied to the 737? There were 1,113 of the 737-300 series built during the 15 years they were produced, between 1984 and 1999, that is. The largest number were built in the years 1986 through 1988.
What this means is that the youngest 737-300 is 12 years old, the oldest 27, the average about 23. There have been numerous incidents of the fuselages splitting open, two of them recently on Southwest Airlines alone, in July of 2009 and April of 2011. Southwest has the largest number of 737-300s in the world, with 169 such aicraft. Second largest in number is 33 for Lufthansa, third largest 28 with Air China. The second largest nunber with a US airline is 18 with US Air.
The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) ordered the immediate examination of certain Boeing 737-300, -400 and -500 series that have accumulated more than 30,000 takeoff-and-landing cycles for early signs of incipient fatigue damage. There are about 175 of these planes worldwide, 80 of them US-registered aircraft.
Let's only hope that the current negotiations in the US Congress to cut the budget don't eliminate the funding for such examinations, making our air travel less safe.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
There’s a royal wedding afoot and the British tourism industry is going crazy. London Zoo is giving anyone called Will or Kate free entry over the royal wedding weekend. One Bristol hotel is offering couples called Will and Kate a free wedding venue. Meanwhile, married couples called, you guessed it, Will and Kate, can renew their love on the London Eye for free.
But where can you celebrate the royal wedding on vacation in the UK if your name doesn’t have that distinctly royal ring? Here are the best places to sample that royal experience, whatever your degree of royal fervour.
Photo Caption: Royal Wedding commemorative plate. Photo by KKOutlet.
God Save the Queen You can bet your Charles and Diana commemorative teapot that the wedding procession route will be jam-packed with Union Jack-waving well-wishers. Conservative estimates put that number at 1.5 million so arrive early to bag a good spot along The Mall, Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall or Parliament Square. The bride will travel to Westminster Abbey by car but the newlyweds will retrace the route back to Buckingham Palace in an open carriage at midday.
Walking the procession route before the big day will give you the royal perspective. Start with the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace and admire the pelicans in St James Park. Move from autocracy to democracy as you wander along Whitehall, past 10 Downing Street, Big Ben and Parliament Square. Finish at Westminster Abbey, royal wedding venue and final resting place of many a monarch including Mary I, Elizabeth I and George II.
Photo Caption: The Long Walk at Windsor Castle. Photo by Flickr/hmcotterill.
Any excuse for a party If the thought of fighting over-excited crowds for a glimpse of freshly buffed royal flesh puts you off your bangers and mash, get your taste of royalty elsewhere. St Paul’s Cathedral survived the bombs of World War II to host the wedding of Charles to Diana, resplendent in her 25-foot wedding dress train. Practice saying “I do” in the dome’s Whispering Gallery, where a design quirk makes a whisper audible on the opposite side.
The Queen’s main residence is Windsor Castle, the oldest and biggest inhabited castle in the world. If the flag is flying, the Queen is home. Travel there by train, getting off at Windsor and Eton Station where part of Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech was filmed. You can then take a stroll along The Long Walk, a tree-lined, poker-straight avenue from George IV Gateway to the 1829 Copper Horse statue on Snow Hill.
Photo Caption: Boscobel House and the Royal Oak. Photo by English Heritage.
Hang me for treason Not everyone in the UK adores the royal family. While many Brits relish the prospect of a royal wedding, or at the very least the prospect of an extra public holiday, it’s fair to say that there are a few among us who would, quite frankly, abolish the royal family altogether. Of course, it’s all in keeping with a strong British tradition of attempting to overthrow the monarchy.
After executing Charles I in 1649, Oliver Cromwell ran England as a republic. Two years later he had to hunt down Charles’ son, Charles II, who was trying to rouse the royalists into an uprising. To cut a long story short, Cromwell’s army won and Charles II fled, finding shelter in an English oak tree in the grounds of Boscobel House, Shropshire.
Timber-framed Boscobel House still stands and is open to visitors. The descendant of Charles II’s oak tree stands in its grounds – the original oak was hacked apart by souvenir hunters. Nowadays The Royal Oak is one of Britain’s most popular pub names and a very appropriate place to raise a pint to Britain’s monarchy, past, present and future.
Technology advances again, as Alaska Airlines announces it is evaluating Apple's iPad with a small group of pilots to see if they can use the tablet computers as the sole reference source when on the runway and in the air. The maps and charts on the iPads would replace the cumbersome paper charts and maps now in use. Last month, says The Seattle Times, Executive Jet Management, a unit of NetJets that flies small chartered jets, became the first commercial operator authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration to use the iPads as the sole reference souce in flight.
A Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen, makes the iPad app used by both Alaska and the Executive Jet operation. The FAA says that Southwest Airlines is already using iPads for ground operations such as maintenance, and more airlines are expected to test iPads aloft.
Let's hope pilots won't use their iPads in the same way that those pilots over Minnesota a while back missed their airport while perusing personal laptops up in the cockpit. With luck, the airline will provide the iPads and make sure there are no video games or other toys loaded into them. And maybe the pilots should carry paper charts in case their iPad batteries die on them? Just asking.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
It's a good idea to know what you're eating, to think about it, on the road, especially, but even when you're at home. One of the best sources of food information I have found is the Nutrition Action newsletter, published by that champion of us all, the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The Nutrition Action newsletter tells you what is contained in the food you eat, counting the calories, yes, but most important, keeping food manufacturers honest.
They do this by checking what is really in the food against what the producer puts on the label, and they often find that providers of food are lying. They've discovered, for instance, that 39 of the 46 Ben & Jerry's "all natural" flavors have at least one non-natural ingredient. They also just list the calories and ingredients of restaurant foods. They discovered that an order of Spaghetti & Meatballs from Olive Garden has the calories and saturated fat of two McDonald's Big Macs. And the Garden's "Tour of Italy" entree is even worse. Also, a Chipotle Chicken Burrito has as many calories and as much sat fat as three 6-inch Subway BLT Classic Subs.
As for desserts on the road, avoid the Cheesecake Factory's Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake, with 1,670 calories and 2.5 days' worth of saturated fat (48 grams). Even coffee can be bad for you, with a Starbucks Venti (20 oz.) White Chocolate Mocha, with 2% milk and whipped cream, being worse than a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese (the coffee having 580 calories and 15 grams of saturated fat). When trying to decide which of those tiny colored envelopes in the restaurant table holder to use in your coffee, they advise using Splenda for an artificial sweetener instead of NutraSweet and saccharin, the latter two perhaps promoting cancer, Spenda being "probably safe."
You pay only $8 a year for a subscription to Nutrition Action, and that price also gets you a Healthy Foods guide. This publication has received awards from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention), the FDA (Food & Drug Administration), the American Medical Writers Association and Vegetarian Times, among other groups. Details at www.orders.cspinet.org.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
With winter heaving its last hoary breath, a quick trip north into the last of the snow is in order. Whatever I expected from the Mohonk Mountain House -- oft likened rather mythically to the fictitious summer resort where The Shining was filmed (actually a soundstage in England) -- my anticipations are too modest to compare to experiencing the real thing. I knew it would be amazing, but no mental preparation accounts for the nuances and quirks at this modernly retro all-inclusive hotel.
After about a 2-hour drive north of New York City into the Catskill Mountains, I drive through New Paltz, over a small bridge that spans a picturesque snow-covered river. I take the left-hand turn at the sign pointing toward the lodge, give my reservation information at the guest house, and hug the gently winding curves up the mountain. The fairytale castle in a hodgepodge of architectural styles looms impressive and large as I pull up to the valet queue in front of the modest stairs at the entryway. The vibe of the guests milling among the bell carts is more ski casual in midafternoon than resort chic, and service is friendly, fast and laidback. My room isn't ready since I'm a bit early and the hotel is mobbed with midwinter-ers, so I check my bags to do some exploring.
After milling around taking in the lay of the land--a series of convoluted warren-like stairs, sporadic alcoves, eclectic artwork, and twisting corridors, I am enjoying a cheesy melty panini in the cozy Carriage Lounge when I get a cell-phone call from reception that my room is ready. After a quick check-in and welcome, I climb the stairs to the fourth floor with anticipation, and key in (literally--no electronic key cards here) to my lakeview king-size room. I quickly take in its rustic comfort, but the woodburning fireplace and view of the lake blanketed in a layer of snow topping a thick crust of ice tips the scales toward luxury and romance. The view from the balcony is refreshing and relaxing with the crisp mountain air and distant sounds of cross-country skiiers making merry as they come back from the trails and morning doves cooing in the lodge's eves mere feet away from my own perch in the cool mountain air.
Tearing myself away, I head down to the ice skating pavilion and gear up in the small shop/changing room next to the rink. I make a somewhat wobbly entree onto the ice and skate off into the fray. Nonskaters huddle clustered for warmth in front of an enormous fireplace built into the wall of the shop, and the views of the lodge across the lake are equally amazing when you circle back in the opposite direction.
I reluctantly drop off my skates and head back to prepare for dinner in the dressy dining room. The service in the restaurant is friendly but professional, and the Tasmanian salmon the waiter recommends is the standout--milder and creamier than the wild Pacific-catch or farmed versions most of us in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic are accustomed to.
Staff deny any relations to The Shining -- though the rumor mill alleges Stephen King is a frequent patron of the resort -- but as I got back to my room and found my key not working, two mysterious not-quite-twins carrying identical oversized tote bags appeared at my side, pulling out a master key to let me into my room, after making a call to verify my ID. I did some stargazing from my balcony while waiting for a bundle of wood to be delivered, and cozied up in front of the firelit hearth for the perfect end to a wonderful day. Already I am dreaming of my return trip, possibly in spring when the ground has thawed, or maybe summer when the mountaintop is in full bloom and crickets fill the night with music....
I know most of my friends and family will be surprised to see me posting about the Royal Family (they're really not my favourite subject), but I just want to thank Kate and William for giving us Brits a day off -- now to decide what to do with it?
One thing is, everyone seems to be on the bandwagon, from PhotoMeBooths in my local supermarket where you can have your picture framed next to William or Kate, to the Google 3D map, below, featuring what's likely this year's most overplayed tune (Mendelsohn's "Wedding March") while Google's bird's-eye-view takes us along the Wedding Procession route.
What actually now worries me is that we still have 6 more weeks of marketing to go -- whatever next? And which plane shall I take to get away from it all?
I was traveling in the former East (Communist) Germany when Chernobyl exploded in nearby Ukraine, and I remember the panic in East Berlin when news that drifting radioactive waste was heading towards that city. There was little iodine to be had in the Communist pharmacies, in any case, and some East Germans begged me to go buy iodine for them in West Berlin and bring it back for them. When I finally got back to West Berlin, there were no pills left in drugstores there, anyhow.
Americans needn't panic just yet about the nuclear disaster in Japan. It will have its effects in that country, where people may be directly affected, but every expert contacted here says you need not worry about radiation in Japan having an affect on you. Just as happened with the Chernobyl explosion in the USSR years ago, when only trace amounts reached the U.S., practically none of the radiation being released in Fukushima now will ever reach the U.S., and then only in negligible amounts. So don't copy those Americans who have panicked and run to their drugstores to get as many packages of potassium iodide as they could.
"The best thing to do is nothing," thyroid expert Mary Shomon says. These tablets are supposed to be taken just before, or immediately after, actual exposure to radiation; otherwise, they won't work at all. And they may just be harmful to those who take them when not exposed to radiation.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
Because the FAA (Federal Aviation Adminstration) has ordered the removal of some lavatory oxygen generators, you could die in the airplane toilet if you're unlucky. That's because airplanes with chemical oxygen equipment can no longer have outlets in the lavatory "for security reasons." The FAA won't explain exactly why, but we know that the chemically-based oxygen generators at each seat and in the lavatory produce heat as well as oxygen, and the heat may be a security factor.
In any case, should you be in such a lavatory when the plane's ordinary oxygen system fails rapidly, you'll be out of luck and could suffer from inability to breathe, resulting in death from suffocation. The alternate means of supplying emergency oxygen to passengers is bottled oxygen, without a chemical reaction, so these are not banned, apparently. So you might be lucky, but I doubt if most cabin crew will know the answer to the question, "Do you have chemical oxygen or bottled oxygen in the lavatory?" should you ask.
I have waited, with others, while people nearing the end of a flight go into a lav and spend many long minutes, even half an hour, applying lipstick or other cosmetics (and it's the occasional male, too), heedless of others just wanting to use the loo for more mundane reasons. They aren't exactly dawdling, but in any case, my adivce is, don't spend any more time than absolutely necessary when using the loo.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
With a horrendous winter behind us, you might want to think about getting the kind of insurance that will reimburse you for your future troubles, in many instances. InsureMyTrip.com is one such provider, with several kinds of trip cancellation packages.
The one I like best is the Cancel For Any Reason option, and is self explanatory. Other choices include Destination Made Uninhabitable, if your resort, hotel or vacation rental is devastated by a storm; or Cancellation Due to Weather, when common carriers such as airlines and cruise lines cease service due to weather;and Cancellation Due to Hurricane Warning, when your trip destination is under NOAA-issued hurricane warning.
There also is Primary Residence Made Uninhabitable, when your own home sustains destructive storm damage. (This does not include the kind of problems one of my friends went through on Long Island this past winter, when he said he had to dig himself out 27 times in the past 4 months.)
Contact InsureMyTrip at www.insuremytrip.com or phone them at 800/487-4722. You can also connect to them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter (@insuremytrip).
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
