Travelers' Intercom

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, the orchestra was playing “Auld Lang Syne” as we sailed the South Atlantic on our way to the White Continent aboard M.V. Discovery.

Antarctica is truly magnificent, with mountains, sea, snow, icebergs, glaciers and ice packs but not a bit of green. It is a land of breathtaking beauty, where we experienced unexpected howling winds, snowstorms, sea lanes blocked by ice, and dazzling sunlit panoramas. The only settlements are small, isolated scientific stations and penguin colonies, both of which we visited on 12-man Zodiacs (rubber rafts).

We...

On our trip to Australia in October several years ago, we spent two days in Melbourne, staying at the Hilton. We enjoyed this conservative, most British of Down Under cities with its many parks (we especially liked the Royal Botanic Gardens), museums, cultural events and attractive buildings.

A highlight was dinner on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant (Box 372, South Melbourne, Victoria, 3205, Australia; phone +61 3 9696 4000, e-mail reservations@tram restaurant.com.au or visit www. tramrestaurant.com.au), one of several moving trolleys with lovely décor and great food, service and...

My husband, Jim, and I took the trip of a lifetime in August ’05. It was both an experience and an education.

Since selling our business six years ago, we have taken two or three trips each year to exotic destinations. Thus far, most of our travels have been to Asian countries. Because of the distance, we typically stay a month at each place. While working, we had been limited to shorter trips to less distant destinations.

We always travel with groups of no more than a dozen persons. As we journeyed, I made it a point to ask members of our groups which countries they enjoyed...