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December 2012 issue | Appears on page 53

Market visit and lunch in São Luís

By Jackie & Maurice Black

Maurice Black and two sculpted “black mamas” in Restaurante Antigamente.

After a morning walking tour of the historical section of São Luís, Brazil, our guide, Juan Pitacco (jmpitacco@hotmail.com), showed us the central market square, or Praça do Mercado Central.

Juan identified some of the many fruits of Brazil that have no English names simply because they grow only there. One of the most important is the açaí, a deep-purple, vitamin-rich fruit that health food stores in the US are selling at exorbitant prices as a magic elixir to cure all ills.

December 2012 issue | Appears on page 53

New Zealand by camper van

By Martha Wiseman

When my husband and I headed Down Under a few years ago, we thought that the month we would spend in New Zealand would be an appetizer before the main event, Australia. We couldn’t have been more wrong.

We arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, on Jan. 23, 2009. We had rented a camper van in advance. The company (which no longer rents vehicles) delivered it to our hotel. A month later, they would pick it up from our hotel and we would fly on to Sydney. We gave ourselves a few days to get...

December 2012 issue | Appears on page 56

Zuiderzee Museum, Arnhem

By Nancy Norberg

My husband, Ed, and I love learning about the history and culture of a country so tend to gravitate toward natural history and folk or open-air museums. In April 2012 in Arnhem, the Netherlands, we toured the Openluchtmuseum (Sept. ’12, pg. 53) and on another day enjoyed the Zuiderzee Museum (Wierdijk 12-22, 160 1LA Enkhuizen, NL; phone +31 [0] 228 351111, fax 351212).

Parking at the port in Enkhuizen cost €5. The ticket for the passenger ferry from there to the site plus entry to the...

December 2012 issue | Appears on page 73

Almost too pretty to eat

By Steven Emmet

Plates at an upscale Japanese restaurant in Gion, Kyoto

Almost too pretty to eat — when dining at an upscale Japanese restaurant in Gion, Kyoto, I couldn’t resist taking out my trusty pocket camera and snapping away at each elegantly presented plate. What a wonderful way to remember a fantastic meal!

STEVEN EMMET Solana Beach, CA

November 2012 issue | Appears on page 11

Buying train tickets online

By Kathy Wilhelm

I am a big fan of rail travel and have taken quite a lot of trains in both Europe and Asia. These days, I often wait to buy my tickets in-country. On my last European trip, in Serbia, Bosnia and Hungary in fall 2011, I would buy each ticket on the day of travel or the day before travel.

Since I’m very bad at languages, I write down what I want — the source and destination stations; the date and time of travel, and the train number, if I know it — and just hand the paper to the clerk...

November 2012 issue | Appears on page 27

Custom tour of Cornwall

By Beryl Bogan

I strongly recommend the services of Midway Motor Travel (Southerwicks, Corsham, Wiltshire, England, SN13 9NH, U.K.; phone, from the US or Canada, 800/214-8738 or, in Britain, +44 [0] 1249 71657).

My husband, Michael, and I had been to Britain many times but never to Cornwall. I saw the ad for Midway in ITN’s MART classifieds and contacted owner Anton Prole, who was most efficient and helpful. Over a few months, we planned a customized trip for March 20-30, 2012.

The...

October 2012 issue | Appears on page 14

Capital One account changes

By Mark Price

As someone who takes advantage of the Capital One no-foreign-transaction-fee credit card, I was excited to read from many sources in the September ’12 issue (page 38) that Capital One had a high-yield money market account with a debit/ATM card with no foreign transaction fee.

I went online but could find no way to apply for such an account, so I called Capital One and was informed that Capital One had purchased ING a couple of months previously, and Capital One no longer offers such...

October 2012 issue | Appears on page 33

Culture and color of Guatemala

By Charles Burke

Colorfully dressed vendors in Chichicastenango.

Eager to explore Guatemala, my wife, Gail, and I chose Caravan Tours (Chicago, IL; 800/227-2826) for our trip, Jan. 2-11, 2012.

We arrived in Guatemala City for two nights at the centrally located Barceló Hotel, with comfortable rooms, a great pool and good food (served buffet style).

With our guide, Belinda Sanchez, on our first day we traveled by motorcoach to the National Museum of Archaeology to learn about Guatemala’s pre-Columbian history, then toured the city.

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