Top Dream Days of 2019, Seeing Big Buddha in Hong Kong

I loved our entire week in Hong Kong last January, including two great hikes climbing up Victoria Peal and atop the Dragon’s Tail, but our day with Big Buddha is perhaps the most memorable. It’s hard to grasp the immensity of Big Buddha until you’re high in the sky on a cable car looking down at this massive sculpture perched atop the hillside on Lantau Island. The sitting Buddha is one of the largest in the world at 112-feet high. We jumped on the excellent subway system to the Tung Chung station and then walked over to the Npong Ping Cable Car. We waited in line with our timed ticket and soon we were on a 25-minute cable car ride past the international airport to the mountainous silhouette that houses Big Buddha. Once the ride ended, we walked past the shops and climbed the 268 steps to go face-to-face with the statue, which made its debut in 1993. Amazing! Then we strolled over to the large Po Lin Monastery, where people were lighting incense and saying prayers for good fortune at the start of the Chinese New Year.

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Climbing the Duomo in Florence

We chose to stay at Hotel L’Orologio in Florence, an easy 5-minute walk from the train station and just as close to the Duomo. It’s located at Santa Maria Novello, a quiet piazza overlooking the historic 14th-century picturesque church (worth a visit to see the wonderful cloisters in the back). We dropped our bags off in our spacious room and then walked over to the Duomo where the crowds were immense, even in October. There was a long line, at least an hour long to enter this grand building, the cornerstone of the city. Thankfully, we had already purchased timed tickets to climb to the top of the dome. I can’t recommend this enough. Not only do you gain entrance to the Duomo by skipping the line, you climb the twisting stairs (463 steps) for an up-close view of Brunelleschi’s crowning achievement, built between 1420 and 1436 and an architectural feat to this day. It’s breathtaking to see the interior of the dome so close and to look at Giorgio Vasari’s frescoes of the Last Judgment (1572-9), including many ghastly looking devils. An added bonus was the chance to walk outside and get a panoramic view of the entire city. 

 
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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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A Perfect Day in Vancouver with Good Friends

Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches 

In mid-April, I flew to Vancouver, British Columbia for a reunion with two of my dearest friends, women I’ve known since I was 21. Living in Toronto, people are often telling me, "when our kids go out to Vancouver, we never get them back," akin to what my peers in the US say about California. Now I know why. 
 
To explore the city, with the sun reflecting off snow-capped peaks, we set off on the efficient Vancouver SkyTrain system, transporting us from our accommodation in historic Fort Langley, an hour east of Downtown, to the Yaletown area. Yaletown was once the Western terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, but the area’s more recent reinvention dates to when it hosted many of the venues of the 1986 World’s Fair. We were hungry — we googled best food in Yaletown — and we ended up at Manousheh, sampling three delicious varieties of the "national pie of Lebanon." I can definitely recommend all, especially zaatar, the original manousheh. 
 
From there, we walked to False Creek, hopped on one of Vancouver’s ever-present small ferry tugboats, and jumped off at Granville Island. What a fun destination! In the early 1900s, Granville Island was home to factories, plants, and sawmills. Technically a sandspit and not an island, there’s a Public Market (see Steve’s story for The Boston Globe), as well as a cultural district with theatres, artisan workshops and craft studios. Among our purchases: a small handcrafted broom woven using Shaker methods, from the Granville Island Broom Co. 
 
Leaving the Island, we ferried and then walked along the seawall into Stanley Park — our vista filled the whole way with mountains and container ships, coming and going. The day started to wind down as we entered Coal Harbour, a former shipyard neighborhood now bursting with seaplanes, marinas, docks, and parks. Thirsty, you guessed it, we googled best pubs in Coal Harbour and found The Blind Sparrow, where we enjoyed craft beer, live music, and amazing fresh oysters. Ah, Vancouver, I’ll definitely return. 
 
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Wish We Had More Time in Lecce

Of all the stops on our 18-day visit to Italy, Lecce was the most surprising. I really didn’t have any expectations beyond Lecce being the starting point of our 6-day bike ride through Puglia with DuVine Cycling. We arrived around 6 pm and walked from the train station to our hotel for the night, the wonderful Patria Palace. The 20-minute stroll was an eye-opening experience as we passed exquisite baroque churches, plaza after large plaza, and Roman and Ottoman Empire ruins, like an old amphitheater down a side street. It only got better on this Saturday night as thousands of locals swarmed the streets and walked arm and arm to dine and drink at the outdoor tables. Wow, was this place alive, and the people were a striking mix of Persian, North African, and Italian blood. There were also very few tourists. We went to a recommended seafood restaurant, Pescheria, where you see the fresh fish on ice and pick what looks enticing. We went with grilled dorado, mussels, prawns, and a heavenly pasta dish with hazelnuts, topped off with a lemon tiramisu. Fantastic! Then we strolled through the large plazas and cobblestone streets looking around every bend at the next architectural wonder. I’d happily return to Lecce to spend at least 3 more nights here. 
 
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Berlin Unveils New Airport and New Airport Park

The big news out of Berlin this year is the opening of the $3.4 billion Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, set to make its debut on June 3rd. However, I’m more excited at what Berlin did with its former airport, Tempelhof, which is now the vast Tempelhofer Freiheit public park. Families come to bike and roller blade on the old runways and picnic on the grounds. Germany has always been at the forefront of reclaiming former industrial spaces and transforming them into parks. Landschaftspark in Duisburg-Nord is a former coal and steel plant that now features a high ropes course. It’s wonderful to see urban designers blurring the line between civilization and nature to create parks from former contaminated sites, landfills, abandoned manufacturing plants, and older airports.
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A Soothing Day Surrounded by Lavender on the Outskirts of Toronto

Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches 
 
I was intrigued when I read about a lavender farm right outside of Toronto, and, on a glorious summer afternoon, I visited Terre Bleu in Campbellville, Ontario. Talk about something lovely to look at…and it smells darn good too!! Owners Ian and Isabelle Baird moved from downtown Toronto with their young children when they were inspired to go back to their rural roots. They bought a hay and horse farm. Then, in 2011, they planted 10,000 lavender perennials. Today, the family runs the largest commercial lavender farm in Ontario, home to over 40,000 plants of eight varieties. Not only is there purple and green everywhere, but you wind through a short trail in a 200 year old cedar forest to see the back field. A musician was playing under a tent when I was there, and folks were lazing in Adirondack chairs listening, while sipping fresh lavender lemonade, or eating local lavender ice cream. Terre Bleu’s distillery for the production of premium essential oil uses traditional copper tools from Portugal and old European traditions. For sale at the farm are essential oils, lotions, soaps, dried bouquets, wreaths, shortbreads, cheese, macarons, and more. Naturally, I came away with some goodies. 
 
Peak time is from July to mid August. You can even take a yoga class right in the lavender field (10-11 am, most Saturdays and Sundays over the summer), which includes a “cooling face cloth scented with pure essential oil.” Isabelle Baird is a former Olympic Games competitor in the Triathlon. I wonder if she teaches the class? There’s also a “Zen Den” if you like to sit quietly in the woods with the scent of lavender in the air. Who wouldn’t?
 

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