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Don’t Overlook Bern When Traveling to Switzerland

We adored our three days in Bern so much that I’m going to write a much larger story on Switzerland’s capital city for Everett Potter’s Travel Report. You can easily spend 3 to 4 days in Bern. We went inside the famous Medieval Clock Tower to see how it works, spent a day on an electronic bike in neighboring Emmental Valley, visited the apartment Albert Einstein lived when proving his Theory of Relativity, and checked out the sinuous building Renzo Piano built to house the works of local talent Paul Klee. Our favorite activity, however, was swimming in the Aare River. Every afternoon, we would walk down the hillside from our wonderful hotel, the Bellevue Palace, to a park where hundreds of people lined the river catching rays. Then we would head down a paved path upriver with a long line of folks who dragged their tubes, rafts, and dry bags. Pick a spot to jump in the cool water and off you go with the strong current. The hardest part is finding a place on the shores to stop and pull yourself out. 

 

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Dining in Bloomington, Indiana

After my visit to Kentucky Bourbon Country, I drove 3 hours from Lexington to Bloomington, Indiana for the Dad’s Sorority Weekend with my daughter, Melanie, at Indiana University. First stop was Mother Bear’s, the classic pizza joint in town that I’ve been visiting regularly since Mel’s first visit to campus. That night, Mel and her friends brought me to a new Mexican restaurant on North College Avenue called Social Cantina, which features a great taco selection, washed down with potent margaritas. The place was hopping and it’s a great space, with a long bar serving a vast selection of tequilas. The same owner also has plans to open a nearby barbecue and bourbon joint called Smoke Works. We always end our weekend at Mel’s favorite brunch spot, Uptown Café, for omelets, fresh baked bread, and good coffee. There’s usually a wait on Sundays but the line moves fast and it’s worth the wait. 

 
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Peru Week with Abercrombie and Kent: Two Magical Nights at Sol y Luna in Sacred Valley

After touring the historical core of Lima, including the impressive Museo Larco and its vast collection of pre-Colombian art, we flew to Cuzco and headed onward to Sacred Valley. Our lodging for the next two nights was Sol y Luna, where spacious casitas, all with fireplaces and some with hot tubs, dot the grounds of this majestic landscape, surrounded by the serrated ridges of the Andes. I loved it here. Everywhere you walk are flowering shrubs and tall cacti in bloom, another photo to be taken, especially when large hummingbirds would fly into the golden flowers of my back deck. Vases of yellow roses were also found inside the casitas, along with wonderful local painting and sculpture. At night, our group of 18 met in a ranch-style setting for cocktail hour and then a sublime dinner, worthy of the property’s Relais and Chateau rating. We started with pisco mojitos, created with the sweet local mint grown in these parts. Then we dined on trout carpaccio and beef tenderloin, finishing with a dessert of tres leches. This is one Virtuoso lodging that I will recommend highly to our clients. 

 
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Countries on My Wish List for 2014, Panama

The Panama Canal turns 100 in 2014. That alone will garner the country much press. But we like the fact that Copa Airlines, the wonderful Panamanian airline, is now offering direct flights to Panama City from Boston. At this point, there is no direct service to any other Central American country from Logan, including Costa Rica and Belize. What you’ll find is the same rainforest, exquisite coastline, eco-resorts, macaws, and howlers you’ll find in Costa Rica with far less traffic. Upscale lodgings like the Waldorf Astoria are also starting to pop up on the Panamanian map. Go there now before it becomes overbuilt. 

 
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Idaho’s First Whitewater Park Opens This Month

For those of you headed to Idaho this summer to brave the rip-roaring rapids of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River or Hell’s Canyon on Snake River, you might want to get a little warm-up at the new Kelly’s Whitewater Park. Located an hour and half drive north of Boise on State Highway 55, the park is open to all kayakers, canoeists, rafters, and tubers, regardless of experience. Beginner and advanced areas of the park are divided by a man-made island, so simply choose your level of wave action and go play. The park is open to the public for free and a kayak school will help novices master the tough rapids to get them over to the expert section. The park is located in Cascade on the North Fork of the Payette River. 
 

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Notchview Ski Area Now Offers Rentals, Food from Old Creamery

My favorite place to cross-country ski in Massachusetts, the Notchview Ski Area in the Berkshires, is now offering ski rentals and lunch. Run by the Trustees of Reservations, Notchview is the largest Nordic ski area in the state, with 40 km of trails covering 3,200 acres. Grab your skies and go counter-clockwise on the Circuit Trail, passing meadows and skiing under a tunnel of snowed-under pines. The web of branches keeps you snug within the forest, protecting you from wind. After passing a small shelter, turn onto the Whitestone Trail and enter a winter wonderland of uprooted trees and branches arching over the serpentine path. A downhill run brings you back to the main lodge, invigorated by the fresh smell of pine and the exercise. To top it off, the place I usually head for lunch after visiting Notchview, the Old Creamery in Cummington, is now supplying sandwiches, soups, and hot and cold drinks at the new café. The perfect ending to a perfect outing. 

 
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Travel Outside the Box, Fifth Stop, Azerbaijan

All it took was one stunning building designed by the late great Zaha Hadid and suddenly the world was looking at their maps and searching for Baku. The Heydar Aliyev Centre is a real eye-opener, featuring Hadid’s signature sensuous curves and undulations. When it made its debut in 2014, it quickly received accolades like the Museum Design of the Year award by London’s Design Museum. Yet, it’s only one of the many futuristic structures currently being built in this oil-rich country on the Caspian Sea as the Azerbaijani government continues to spend an estimated $6 billion a year on architectural projects. Baku has an authentic medieval core surrounded by an old city. Old Baku is elegant, with turreted stone buildings. New Baku and its latest skyscrapers surround the old city, eradicating the hideous concrete apartment blocks that were gifts from Russia until the country’s independence in 1991. Stay at the beaux arts-style building that is now home to the Four Seasons Baku. Then take a short stroll over to the waterfront and the 15th-century Palace of the Shirvanshahs. 
 
Outside of Baku, the landscape gets greener and more wooded. Wild horses gallop free in valleys and gorges ringed by anonymous peaks as you pass open-air roadside bread ovens, tea plantations, and sheep herders. The ancient mountain city of Gabala caters to Bakuvians who come for the alpine air and views. Only a 2-hour drive from Baku is Quba, home to Krasnaya Sloboda, a Jewish community of 3,500 whose forefathers came from Iran and Iraq a few thousand years ago, and who live today in perfect harmony with the large Islamic population. 
 

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