A travel companion (TC) and I visited Paris, Jan. 14-18, ’05. We were lucky with the weather. Temperatures were in the upper 30s or low 40s every day, with no rain except on the last morning of our trip. According to the weather forecast info at www.worldexecutive.com, Paris has less rainfall in winter than it does in spring and summer. If that’s true, then our weather experience for January was the norm.

We took a taxi from Paris’ CDG Airport to our hotel in the sixth arrondissement...

While in Bled, Slovenia, you should definitely spend a couple of hours in Bled Castle. In addition to touring the museum and chapel, be sure to stop by the print shop where, with the help of a friendly, traditionally garbed printer, you can print a souvenir certificate for yourself for a small fee.

The printer leads you through selecting the paper and the details of your certificate, sets the type and shows you how to operate the printing press. It’s a lot of fun and gives you a...

A customized, private tour to Mongolia was created for my wife, Darlene, and me for Aug 1-17, ’05. Featuring nomadic culture and Buddhist heritage, with an extension to the South Gobi desert, it was arranged by Original World/Spirit of India (Box 446, Mill Valley, CA 94942; 888/367-6147 or www.originalworldjourneys.com) and used Active/Adventure Tours of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The land cost of this trip was $2,968 per person ($2,188 plus $780 for the Gobi extension). Airfare was $2,...