Rosé In Montmartre
I’ve felt vaguely bad in the past for floating an ice cube in my glass of white to chill it, to make it more refreshing. I thought this was An American Thing, one more demonstration of our strange love affair Read More …
A Leffe In The City Of Love
While Paris lies under a flooded Seine, I remember the time spent there over so many years. My favorite city, a city for love, but one in which I’ve often been happiest alone. Why is that, in the midst of Read More …
Thank Goodness For Elephants
The drive from Port Alfred to George took us along South Africa’s dramatic eastern Cape towards the more well known Garden Route. We hugged emerald-clad cliffs dropping into the wild ocean on a road weaving along grades originally carved for Read More …
Windhoek in Port Alfred
Unless you have an airplane, it’s not exactly easy to get to Port Alfred, on South Africa’s windswept Eastern Cape coast. On this trip, at least, it felt like a test of will. The flight school we’d visit suggested a Read More …
Pubs: My First Real Pint
Pubs in England showed one face to me at first contact, like the “oldest pub in Oxford” where I went back in 2009–that had to be authentic, right? With its low ceilings and timbers so shellacked over the years by Read More …
Cider in Mayfair
Needing to stay in Town for a meeting at the Royal Aeronautical Society, you do well to find anything reasonable in Mayfair, but as I’d never been…the Holiday Inn saved me once again. In the U.S., the HI is where Read More …
Nora’s
Friends first led me to Nora’s Smoke Shop several years back on a work trip to Orlando involving airplanes and sales and the doldrums as the real estate market tanked in Florida…we needed a dose of cheer. The guys sized Read More …
Earl Grey On Emerald Hill
When you first find a secret spot it charms you…and even though it lies hidden from no one, just off the bustle of Orchard Road, Emerald Hill in Singapore feels like you’ve stepped through a door. Suddenly you’re away from Read More …
Yi, Er, Tsing Tao
Towered over by giant cans of the distinctive green, we made our way past tour busses into the shrine of Tsing Tao. The Germans brought beer to the city of Qingdao (the more streamlined Westernization of the name) in 1903, Read More …
Dirty Martini in the Writer’s Bar
If the cocooning comfort of the room embraced me more completely, I would be loathe to leave. I would conspire to remain in Beijing as long as my yuan would allow. How many writers and travelers had passed through these Read More …