Off to Cape Town and Botswana

The Volvo Ocean Race, the world’s premiere ocean sailing race that began back in 1973 as the Whitbread Round-the-World Race, returns to Newport May 8-20. The 2014-15 edition of the race attracted over 125,000 fans during the 12-day stopover in Newport and quickly became one of the biggest sporting events of the year in New England. This year’s Race Village opens on May 8th and is a free, family-friendly event that features music, interactive displays, food and, of course, viewing the state-of-the-art racing yachts. The in-port race takes place May 19th before the competitors sail off on their next leg to Cardiff, Wales. Come join the festivities in Newport, a town known for welcoming sailors, having hosted the America’s Cup for over 50 years.
There’s something about spring that makes many of us want to grab our car keys. Maybe it’s that the season’s longer days mean there’s more sunlight to get out and enjoy; maybe it’s that the drab winter landscapes are newly ablaze with color. Maybe it’s just good old-fashioned spring fever, pushing us to get outside, to get out on the road for a new adventure. Executive Travel has just published my favorite spring drives in America, including cruising the Mississippi Delta from Clarksdale to Natchez, driving from Portland to Cannon Beach and the Oregon Coast, and hitting the Blue Ridge Parkway between Asheville and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where fragrant mountain laurel and colorful rhododendrons line the drive this time of year. Enjoy, and as always, if you have any questions about any of these trips, feel free to ask!
When told that we would be making one last stop on our Golden Circle route, at a greenhouse, most of the people on our tour scoffed at the idea, simply wanting to get back to our hotel in Reykjavik. It sounded like some hokey add-on, like visiting a gift shop owned by the bus driver’s brother. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Friðheimar is no ordinary greenhouse, but a massive year-round tomato and cucumber growing operation that yields close to a ton a day of crop thanks to the geothermal energy. I met the owner, Knútur Rafn Ármann, popped a tomato in my mouth (delicious), and then was treated to a sublime cup of tomato soup garnished with cucumber salsa and paired with fresh baked bread. It was probably the best dish I had in the country. Afterwards, we watched Knútur’s son and daughter (he has five children) ride the Icelandic horses he breeds. Friðheimar is open to the public for greenhouse tours, meals, and, in the summer, a 15-minute horse show. It’s the ideal way to end your trip on the Golden Circle.
Guest Post and Photo by Dana Volman
Some of us chase after the morning train to get to work. The more indulgent will chase down that shot of bourbon with a pint of Guinness. And the truly intrepid? They follow Ed English as he chases icebergs. Come June, it’s not unusual for villages on the east coast of Newfoundland to wake up to a mountain of electric blue ice the size of a 15-story building. The icebergs calve from the glaciers of western Greenland and begin a slow 1900-mile journey south with the Labrador Current on a route dubbed Iceberg Alley. English, owner of Linkum Tours, takes sea kayakers up to his lighthouse inn on Quirpoon Island, the northernmost point of Newfoundland, to get as close as possible to the huge crystalline structures before they float away. An added bonus are the pods of humpbacks, minkes, and the occasional beluga whales who feed in Iceberg Alley as they make their way north.
We arrived into Hong Kong at sunrise Sunday morning after a 15½-hour direct flight from Boston on Cathay Pacific (great airline which I’ll delve into further on a later blog). We dropped our bags off at the Intercontinental (soon to be the Regent again) and then took a taxi over the Prince Edward neighborhood. There was already a line at One Dim Sum by the time we arrived. They gave us a menu with checklist to fill out and soon we were dining on the first of many delicious har gow on our trip. Afterwards, we walked over to the nearby Flower Market to see row after row of fresh orchids, exotic fare like proteas, and numerous mandarin orange trees that people purchase to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We bought a cute stuffed animal, a pig to celebrate the Year of the Pig, and then wandered over to the Bird Market, where hundreds of parrots, parakeets, finches, and love birds are for sale. The birds were adorable. The food they ate-buckets of crickets, worms, and other assorted bugs, not so adorable.