November 11, 2009
I can’t believe this is already my sixth newsletter going out! I’m glad it is, because I have some exciting news for this edition. There was a contest on my website, sponsored by Pond’s and if you entered your travel tip, you could win a Pond’s Travel Essential gift pack. The contest closed last Friday and in this newsletter I’ll announce the winner, yay!
But there is more exciting news. Well, I hope you’re as excited as I am :) I installed something new on my website, so you can contribute your travel story or photo. You can share your most beautiful beach spot or your most memorable experience. And in the future you’ll be able to write a review of the hotel you stayed in or a cruise you made. If you’re not fond of writing yourself, you can read others opinions on hotels, cruises,...
But I would say, try it, even if it’s a few lines you want to tell or just a photo you want to share. You can brag to your friends about it! Show them you have your own webpage online. How cool is that! I already have some great contributions made for ‘Most Beautiful Beach’, you can have a look at some great spots!
I’ve also added more information on the city of Lisbon. You can find a Lisbon map, practical Lisbon info and Lisbon excursions to Sintra, Cabo da Roca, ...
That’s what has been going on at the website last month. A lot of new additions eh! Lets have a look at the topics for this newsletter:
- Things to Do: Destinations to visit in the month of DECEMBER
- Things to See: Description of a destination: Bruges
- Things to Make: Belgian Waffles
- Things to Know: Travel Updates: Airlines Holiday fees
- Fun Facts
- Tip of the Month
- Quote of the Month
Things to Do in December:
- Caribbean
Where better to go in the Winter time to escape the cold, than some exotic island. As some of you might know, I love cruising. I’ve been on several cruises already (you can read about them here.) and I booked another one. I’m so excited! I’ll be leaving in December from NY - how awesome is that! I can even do some Holiday shopping, because I’ve decided to spend some extra days in NY, yay! - to the Caribbean. It’s with Royal Caribbean on the Explorer Of The Seas. Here’s a sneak peek of my itinerary:- Departure from Cape Liberty Cruise Port, New Jersey
- 2 days of cruising
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
- Samana, Dominican Republic
- Labadee, Haiti
- 2 days of cruising
- Arrival at Cape Liberty Cruise Port, New Jersey
- Lille
Another great place to go Christmas shopping is Lille. Lille is a city in the northern of France. It is the capital of the Nord-Pas de Calais region. I’ve been there twice. Unfortunetaly not for Christmas, but non the less it was a lovely city to visit!
In the heart of winter, Lille sparkles and glows with joie de vivre! With the wave of a magic wand, the city takes on a festive atmosphere and welcomes you to a winter wonderland. Its Christmas market is the first to open in France each year. It is also the Christmas market which goes on for the longest amount of time. The Christmas market starts from November 18th till December 30th 2009.
It’s a place to dream... and to do some Christmas shopping!
Source: Noel a Lille. Their Christmas website for more info.
Looking for a hotel to stay in? I stayed once at the Mercure Lille Centre Opera Hotel. This hotel has a great location and a wonderful breakfast!
More hotels in Lille
Official website for information on Lille: www.lilletourism.com.
Things to See
Bruges is one of the most famous cities in Belgium, next to Brussels of course. It’s a beautiful city with lots of historic buildings, museums, canals,... When you visit Bruges, you might want to check out these 10 places:
- Rozenhoedkaai
- Burg Square
- Beguinage
- The former Hanseatic Bruges
- Church of our Lady
- Concertgebouw,‘t Zand
- Market Square
- The Flemish Primitives
- Almshouses
- Explore the veins of the city on the water
And don’t forget to make a stop in one of the chocolate places. Don’t worry, there are lots of them. For my personal favorite and more info on the accommodation, click here.
Things to Make
Belgian Waffles
This is one of the things Belgium is known for, besides the chocolate and the beer of course ;-) And because I already talked about Bruges, Belgium, why not give you my mom’s recipe for Belgian Waffles. (Yes, that’s right, she gave me permission to share it we you!)
Serves: 25 waffles (it depends on the size of course)
INGREDIENTS
500 g (1,1 lb) butter, 500 g (1,1 lb) sugar, 500 g (1,1 lb) sifted flour and 7 eggs.
DIRECTIONS
First melt the butter, add the sugar. Mix! Separate your eggs for egg yolk and egg white (you’ll need the egg white later). Add the egg yolk to the butter and sugar. Mix. Then add the flour. And the last ingredient is beaten egg whites. So you have to first beat your egg whites. Slowly add the whipped egg whites with a wooden spoon. (avoid over-stirring, which can deflate the whipped egg whites.) Then you’re ready to bake your waffles!
Heat your waffle iron (grease your iron a little bit with butter, so the batter doesn’t stick), cook waffles until crispy and browned.
BON APPETIT!
Things to Know: Travel Updates
Holiday air travel fees
Most of the major US airlines have increased their surcharges for domestic flights during busy holidays to $20 (€14) each way, brazenly doubling the $10 (€7) fees which became widespread just last month. Late September American Airlines became the first airline to explicitly charge a $10 (€7) premium each way for three days around Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. As expected, nearly every major US airline immediately followed suit.
Concurrently, the number of travel surcharge days went from three in winter to a total of 13 over the entire year. Only US budget leaders Southwest and JetBlue have not added the surcharge and stated they are not planning to adopt such fees.
Surcharges are done on an airline by airline basis, but the holiday surcharge phonomenon seems to be only occurring in the US.
Dates to expect a peak travel surcharge for travel in the US
- November 29-30, 2009: Weekend after Thanksgiving
- December 19: Saturday before Christmas
- December 26-27: Weekend after Christmas
- January 2-3, 2010: Weekend after New Year's Day
Fun Facts
More Flemish phrases > At a restaurant
menu de kaart (duh kaahrt)
breakfast het ontbijt (het ont-baiyt)
lunch de lunch (duh lernsh)
dinner het diner of avondeten (het dee-nay/av-vohnd-ayt-en)
Food: rare, medium, well done rare or saignant (rare/say-nyon),
medium (medium), doorbakken (doorh-bah-kuh)
The bill, please. Mag ik afrekenen. (muhk ik ahf-ray-kuh-nuh)
Tip of the Month
Well, this month’s travel tip comes from the winner of my contest…Without further hesitation…The winner is Deb & Dave from The Planet D!
I have to admit all the travel tips I got, were great! So, it was a difficult decision! You can see all the other entries here.
The Planet D’s Travel Tip:
Pack Everything in Zip Lock Bags
We tend to travel with back packs more than in a nice and fancy suitcase, so organization can be a problem. Packing all of our clothing and toiletries in zip lock, not only makes finding things easy, it keeps everything clean and dry. As backpackers, our bags can travel on top of trucks, buses or on the deck of a boat in rough seas. Keeping everything dry can be a challenge, but when things are zipped up tight in a zip lock, our contents are clean and … read more.
Congratulations on winning the contest! And thank you to Pond's for sponsoring :)
It’s been a pleasure writing this newsletter and I hope to see you all soon on my website for more new information! If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, spread the word to your friends! And if you want to be informed about the latest additions to my website, you can subscribe to my RSS or follow me on Twitter! @IsabellesTravel
Keep your eye out for the next edition next month. As always I end with the Quote of the month:
“Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.” – Frank Herbert
HAPPY TRAVELS,
Isabelle from Isabelle’s Travel Guide