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The Skate Girls of Kabul

One of the great benefits of living in Toronto, the 4th largest city in North America (after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles) is its diversity. Over 180 languages and dialects are spoken here, and approximately half of Toronto’s population was born outside of Canada. Everywhere I go locally, I learn something about another part of the world. A small but powerful outdoor show at the Aga Khan Museum is a perfect example. On a warm October afternoon, after visiting a pumpkin festival in Markham, Ontario, we stopped to see the amazing photos of the “Skate Girls of Kabul” installation. These young women are participants in an NGO called Skateistan whose mission is “empowering children and youth through skateboarding and education” in Afghanistan, as well as Cambodia and South Africa. In Kabul, sports are off-limits to most girls, but fortunately the skateboard was perceived as a toy, thus allowing them to participate. And, for both genders, many Skateistan programs require an equal amount of time in the classroom as on a skateboard: being taught to skateboard as a way to get students into full-time education. In 2016, Skateistan hit the 50% female milestone. Props to Skateistan founder, Australian skateboarder Oliver Percovich, and to photographer Jessica Fulford-Dobson. The exhibition is on display until October 29th. 
 
Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches

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Visiting Lake Geneva’s Lavaux Wine Region

Lavaux’s majestic vineyards are sculpted into the steep hillside like the rice terraces of Bali. Many of the stone walls that hem in the rows of vineyards were first created by monks. The perfect introduction to the beauty of Lavaux is aboard the circa-1910 paddle steamer, La Suisse, preferably on one of their gourmet cruises for lunch. Heading east from Lausanne to Montreux, the hillside is awash in vines surrounding small villages and centuries-old villas. 

 
After dining on leg of lamb or cod paired with wild mushrooms, washed down with the Lavaux wine, the cruise lets you off at the magical Chateau de Chillon. This impressive castle on the rock dates as far back as the mid-12th century, when it became the home of the Count of Savoy. But it was the British poet, Lord Byron, who made the chateau famous by penning his poem “The Prisoner of Chillon” in 1816. Byron writes about the Geneva monk, Francois de Bonivard, who was imprisoned in the dungeon of the castle for six years from 1530 to 1536. You can still see the pole de Bonivard was chained to as well as Byron’s name, which the poet inscribed into another nearby pole. Byron’s poem was so popular that it inspired a slew of writers and artists to make the trip to Chateau de Chillon, including Henry James and Eugene Delacroix. 
 
Yet, to truly appreciate the Lavaux wine region and realize why it was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site, you have to walk from small village to village in the region. Yesterday, we took the train to Cully, where we met the 5th-generation winemaker Melanie Weber. Remarkably, Melanie creates each of her vintages in the bottom two floors of her 4-story home in the middle of the community. She was just getting ready for the annual harvest when we walked in and tried her 2012 Chenalette, a white wine made from the Lavaux’s most popular grape, Chasselas. The wine was crisp, with hints of apples and pears, perfect for a warm autumn day. 
 
Then we strolled on narrow concrete paths through the vineyards, watching workers cut the grapes off the vines by hand. Within 15 minutes of heading uphill, we were in the charming village of Epesses, at the heart of this winemaking region. Follow the vineyards down the steep slopes and you’re staring in awe at Lake Geneva and the jagged peaks of the Alps that stand on the opposite shores. Your eyes, however, don’t need to drift too far to capture the beauty. Around every bend is another enchanting stone house with terra cotta roof, home to the more than 20 winemakers who live in Epesses. We had one of my favorite meals of the trip at Auberge du Vigneron on an outdoor terrace with glorious views of the Lavaux. Sipping wine made from the surrounding vines and dining on risotto with wild mushrooms is as good as it gets. 
 
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The Latest Changes at New Hampshire Ski Resorts for the Upcoming Season

The big news out of the Granite State is the opening of the first phase of the RiverWalk Resort at Loon Mountain this past June. The $30 million project is located on the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River at the base of the South Peak of Loon Mountain. Phase One of the ski-in/ski-out resort is now open, featuring 79 1, 2, and 3-bedroom units, a full-service spa, fitness center, restaurant and lounge, game room, heated all-season pool, skating rink, and personal storage lockers. Loon is celebrating its 50th anniversary this winter with events planned throughout the season, including a special anniversary weekend January 28-29. Over at Bretton Woods, their new $110 ZIP & SKI package lets you hit the slopes then soar above them on the Bretton Woods Canopy Tour. Cross-country skiers who always wanted to learn how to skate now have that opportunity at the renowned Jackson X-C. Jackson offers a $65 package that includes an all-day trail pass, skate equipment rental, and a one-hour private lesson.

 
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The Caves and Monkeys of Barbados

The allure of Barbados has always been the stretch of soft white sand on the west coast that serves as a welcome mat for the warm aquamarine waters of the Caribbean Sea. Yet, it’s the ecological wonders in the northern and eastern section of the island that make Barbados an intriguing island destination. At Harrison’s Cave, you hop on a tram that slowly ambles into the dark corridor of limestone coral. The 100-foot high Great Hall is teeming with stalagmites and stalactites, the color of a creamsicle. Even more impressive is the crystal-like formations found in the Rotunda above pools of rushing water. Next stop is the Barbados Wildlife Reserve, home to green monkeys that were first brought to the island as pets of slave traders in the mid-17th century. The monkeys tend to be shy, so you have to be still. There are also flamingos and pelicans drinking from the shallow ponds, toucans that blurt “hello” from inside an aviary, and peacocks who squawk at the slow moving red-footed tortoise. You finish with a swim on one of those blissful beaches.

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Travel to the UK with Lisa Fagin Davis and the Medieval Academy of America

Excited to announce that our good friend and client (we designed an itinerary for her and her husband to visit their daughter in Australia), Lisa Fagin Davis, is leading a trip to the UK in October. Lisa is the Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America and we’ve seen firsthand her passion for history, including a guided tour of an exhibition she co-curated in Boston in 2016, "Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections." Participants in this October 23-28 trip will visit two rare exhibitions: "Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms" at the British Library and "Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth" at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, with curatorial introductions and expert guides in addition to Lisa. These exhibitions overlap for only one week, making this trip a unique opportunity to see them together. 

According to Lisa, the real star of the British Museum show is the Codex Amiatinus, the oldest known complete Latin Bible. It was written in England around the year 716 (that’s 1300 years ago, for those keeping score) and left England on a journey to Rome shortly after its completion, where it was to be laid at the shrine of St. Peter in Rome, a gift to Pope Gregory II from Abbot Ceolfrith of Wearmouth-Jarrow. The Abbot died enroute, but the monks who were with him finished the journey to Rome. Eventually, the manuscript made its way to the Abbey of San Salvatore in Amiata (in Tuscany), which is how it got its nickname of Amiatinus. By the eighteenth century, it had landed at the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence, where it has been ever since. But it is going back to England for the exhibition!
 
"My friends at the British Library tell me that this loan was the result of years of secret negotiations. In fact, one staffer recently told me that only a few people in the library even knew the negotiations were ongoing. It was all top secret until the deal was done," says Lisa. Read the full story of the manuscript here. 
 
The Bodleian exhibit will look at how Tolkien’s work in the field of Old English and medieval Scandinavian epic literature shaped Middle Earth, showing his correspondence, drafts, sketches. "For Tolkien geeks, it’s going to be pretty amazing," says Lisa, adding that "Tolkien wrote one of the first seminal studies of Beowulf, a classic article that students of Old English still read today, so it will be great to see the Beowulf manuscript one day and see its influence on Tolkien the next!" Price for the land package is $2580, including 4 nights lodging, most meals, guides, and tickets to all events. 
 
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Life Gives You Lemons, Make Pastrami




We were all packed to go on our kid’s first jaunt to Europe last week when our flight was cancelled because of the volcanic ash. There would be no touring of the Tate Modern or dinners at French bistros, at least for now. Obviously, we were all disappointed when we realized there was no way we could get a flight to Europe over our children’s April break.  So we did the next best thing. Got in the car and drove to Manhattan for four days. Instead of Madame Tussauds in London, we visited Madame Tussauds in Times Square. Instead of dining at L’Entrecote in the 17th arrondissement, we dined at the new L’Entrecote at the corner of Lexington and 52nd Street. There is only one item on the menu, steak frites, served tartare, rare, medium, or well-done, and paired perfectly with crispy French fries.

Our favorite day was going down to the Lower East Side to take one of the tours at the Tenement Museum, grab a sour dill from the Pickle Guy at the corner of Essex and Grant, a crème brulee doughnut from Doughnut Plant around the corner, taste the lox at the century-old Russ and Daughters, and then feast on the best pastrami in the city at Katz’s Deli. After lunch, we ran into the artist Shepard Fairey, creating his latest work on the corner of Houston and the Bowery. An added bonus was seeing Green Day perform live after seeing a performance of “American Idiot,” the new Broadway musical based on their music. In the end, we had a great time and London and Paris will have to wait until the summer. After all, the nature of travel is to be spontaneous. 

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Hieronymus Bosch Turns 500

Seven years ago, the director of a small museum in the Netherlands set out on an impossible quest: he wanted to borrow every surviving work in the world by the wildest imagination in the history of art, Hieronymus Bosch, to celebrate his 500th anniversary in the city of his birth. In an exhibition opening in February (February 13-May 8), Charles de Mooij will unveil his haul at his Noordbrabants museum in Den Bosch, officially known as ‘s-Hertogenbosch. He has secured 20 of the 25 surviving panels, including several reunited triptychs, and 19 of the 25 drawings, a collection he believes will never be assembled again. Many of the paintings could only travel because money from the Getty Foundation paid for state-of-the-art conservation work to clean the surfaces of the oak panels. This small Dutch city is planning to go bonkers with Bosch fever. There will be moving projections of Bosch paintings in the marketplace, and 3D recreations of angels, demons, damned souls, mermaids riding on flying fish, drunken priests, lascivious women, and monsters with the legs of a giant chicken and the body of an egg. Sounds like one exhibition that should not be missed. 

 

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