Travelers' Intercom

May 2011 issue

Charged through France

I traveled in France, Sept. 15-Oct. 10, 2010, and visited Paris, Lyon, Dijon and several small towns and villages in Burgundy. I used my American-issued Visa credit card, American Express card and Visa debit card without any problems at all in ATM machines and at merchants’, restaurants and hotels.

There were only two minor problems. My American cards did not work in the automated ticket machines in the Paris Métro or in the automated ticket machines at the railroad stations. However, at the rail stations I was able to use my credit cards in the ticket office.

SUSAN JERRICK...

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September 2009 issue

Inca Express bus

When we think of buses in Central or South America, we often think of old buses where people ride on the top. Well, our bus from Cusco to Puno, the Gateway to Lake Titicaca, was the Inca Express (office in Puno and Lima and at Av. La Paz C-32 Urb El Ovalo, Wanchaq, Cusco, Peru; phone 084 247887, www.inkaexpress.com) and was large and quite nice.

The trip took nearly 10 hours and covered about 235 miles. We stopped often to visit missions or to take a rest stop and eat.

All seats aboard the bus were reserved. I had an aisle seat and initially was not happy that I did not have...

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January 2009 issue

Vienna Boys Choir

You can hear the Vienna Boys’ Choir sing at Sunday Mass in the Imperial Chapel at the Hofburg (Hofburgkapelle) in Austria’s capital. You are actually attending Mass, but I would recommend that you buy tickets. They do allow people to attend on a first-come, first-served basis, but you must stand through the entire service. If you buy tickets, you are seated.

Tickets run €5-€29 (near $6-$36). You can order them online (www.hofburgkapelle.at/index.php?id=2 or www.wien.info/wtv/eventdatenbank-e.html) and then pick them up the day before. I e-mailed my reservation directly and then paid...

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December 2011 issue

Violins and more in Cremona

Perhaps the reason Cremona, Italy, is less touristy and more “off the beaten path” is because it’s not on a major train line. I stayed there three nights, May 8-10, 2011, which was just right.

My main purpose in visiting was to hear the Raccolta dei Violini, the “exercising” of the priceless violins displayed in the Sala dei Violini in the loggia of Cremona’s town hall, Palazzo Comunale, located off Piazza del Comune, the main square.

Before the music, I visited, under guard, the small locked sala (room) containing the Stradivari and...

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July 2009 issue

Tips on visiting Lisbon

I would like to share the following information gathered during a trip to Portugal with my husband, Kip, Nov. 5-14, 2008.

Although taxis in Lisbon are inexpensive, we remind you to not trust the drivers. We had six taxi rides, and we know positively that three drivers tried to cheat us. The others may have cheated us as well but we just didn’t catch it.

One driver tried to shortchange us by €3. Another didn’t turn on the meter when taking us from our Lisbon hotel to the airport. When we asked him to turn it on, he said there was a flat rate of €17 ($22) to the airport. Not...

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June 2011 issue

Offbeat in Amsterdam

My companion, Judith Martin, and I aren’t drawn to charmless chain hotels, but for a stay in Amsterdam we were intrigued by the name misc eatdrinksleep (Kloveniersburgwal 20, 012 cv, Amsterdam, Netherlands; phone +31 0 20 330 62 41). We stayed in this delightfully offbeat small hotel, on a canal near the red-light district, in September ’10 and were not disappointed.

Misc eatdrinksleep is a renovated 17th-century canal house. Its narrow ivory front, flanked by tall green plants, said “cottage” to us. The mullioned windows of the reception area and bar looked out on ducks swimming...

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February 2009 issue

Guide in Berlin

My husband, Leroy, and I took a wonderful trip in early June ’08 to Finland and its Åland Islands plus the Baltic States and environs as well as Belarus and Poland, all with Protravel (Beverly Hills, CA; 800/301-3993, www.protravelinc.com). When that trip was completed, we flew from Kraków to Berlin to spend three days before returning home.

I had noted a reader’s report (June ’06, pg. 89) of a Berlin guide, Markus Muller-Tenckhoff (Markgrafenstr. 39, 10117 Berlin, Germany; phone 0049 [0] 160 80 88 011, www.markus muellertenckhoff.de or www.guidesinberlin.de/markus). We called Mr....

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August 2009 issue

Venice to Munich by train

I was a nervous wreck about making it to each train. I left Venice on May 8, 2009, and I HAD to be in Munich by May 15.

Fortunately, two of my hotels en route were within a block and a half of the local station, and the one in Vicenza was only a 7-euro taxi ride away. I ended up doing “dry runs” (without luggage) in each location, which eased my mind a bit. On the dry runs, I figured out where all the elevators were so I didn’t have to deal with the stairs under the tracks for the different platforms.

The Rail Europe tickets (booked through www.raileurope.com) arrived in good...

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