April 12, 2020 – The Grand Tour

THE THOMS SUNDAY TRAVEL SECTION.

WHERE TO?                       TASTE.                        SEE

April 15, 2020, I am departing for Athens, Greece. Among other reasons, to celebrate the 24th anniversary of when I first set foot in that magical land. Also, my first time in Turkey. Setting off a love affair with just about every country touching the Mediterranian. Alexander the Great, Emperor Hadrian, and I have the same taste in empires.

Unfortunately, something came up, and I am no longer going this week.

Life is so unfair. Everything happens to me. I have to cancel my trip, my, my, my, me, me, me.

And as the second… third… fourth… week of isolation begins I hear it creeping into too many voices. I am canceling my trip in June, August, October, next year, some year.

Wow, you’re magic eightball, or Psychic flimflam is much stronger than mine.

I am still debating what to rename my peanut butter sandwich for lunch today. (Warning sign 2,578 you may be losing touch with reality.)

And others can say with certainty where the world will be six months from now.

Or maybe, just maybe, some of us are getting as dramatic as the “real” actors (cough) on Bravo.

Snap Out Of It! – Loretta Castorini, Moonstruck.

There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

And tomorrow’s just a dream away – Robert & Richard Sherman.

It is not a good idea for me to start on songs with “tomorrow” in the lyrics. So can we just say, let’s eradicate the words, “never” “ruined” or reasonable facsimiles from our vocabulary? Let’s replace them with “soon,” or at least “someday soon.”

P.S. – I took a look at my crystal ball. It was going to rain the entire time you were going to be there. Better opportunities are preparing to abound.

But I Was Doing the Grande Tour of Europa.

It took me three attempts before I got to London. And I had my foot on the train’s step in Southampton one of those times. I probably cancel as many trips as the ones I go on. And they rarely end up the way they were going to be in version one.

And that’s without a worldwide pandemic going on.

Step back, take a breath. Things happen for a reason, and there can be some good in them.

Will you get to Europe this year? If we all want to be honest for just a moment, nobody knows that answer today. NOBODY. No politician, doctor, travel agent, and indeed not the brainless talking heads and their verbal diarrhea.

Then what can I do?

Plan a trip! – WHAT? You just said we might not travel.

You MAY not win the Olympics, or the best employee award or the lottery. But at least once, did you do some form of athletic activity or buy a lottery ticket?

Why? Faith, hope, a dream, a goal, call it what you will, but it is part of your forward motion. We all need to move forward, in our minds, thoughts, just not towards the refrigerator.

I hope, dream, have a goal to get to Europe in 2020 if events will allow. Maybe Europa is too iffy for you to visualize right now.

So maybe you need to plan a Grande Tour closer to home.

But I Was Going to Paris

To see the Eiffel Tower? Or explore the Arch de Triumph, Notre Dame? To lose yourself in the Louvre Museum or stroll along the Seine and see the beautiful bridges?

You can do all of that without leaving the United States, almost. Some may be closer than you think.

The Eiffel Tower

If you have been to Las Vegas, you probably know where this is going. One of my favorite places to sip a glass of wine and people watch is the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. It sits about 100 feet up overlooking the Strip. At night it is crazy, people jamming to see the fountains across the street. But mid-afternoon, after a harrowing donation spree at the casino, or retail therapy, it is perfect. Did you know this Eiffel Tower was going to be a replica of the original? The nearby airport put a halt to that. The Vegas structure is 50% the size of its namesake.

Is Vegas too far? What about Cincinnati, Ohio, or Richmond, Virginia? Kings Island and Dominion both have observation towers resembling the Eiffel Tower. At 315 feet, they are a third the size of the original.

The Colosseum

Yes, there is a Colosseum in Las Vegas and a football stadium in southern California with the same name. They are both places where teeming mobs gather, some looking for blood, but most similarities end there. However, most round stadiums owe some gratitude to the original mega-stadium in Italy.

Venetian Canals

Is there as much congestion as the ones in Italy? Probably not. Are they as toxic? Not right now, and Italy is making incredible strides in cleaning the Venice canals. But there are canals in Venice, California, Venice, Florida, and even in my backyard in Southern Florida. And occasionally, you may see a gondola.

The Parthenon.

You think I’m going to mention half the buildings in Washington D.C., especially the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. I could. The Palladian architecture comes from Italian Andrea Palladio, who stole it from the Greeks.

But I am talking about the Parthenon. If you have never been to Nashville, Tennessee, you may not know what I mean. In Tennessee, there is a full-size replica of Athen’s most famous structure. Dating from 1897, the Tennessee one is in better shape. It even has a statue of Athena, which the Greek one doesn’t.

There is no existing blueprint of the original. It has a few pieces missing, so the Nashville version is as close to the original as possible. Today, it serves as an art museum.

Take a Grande Tour Today

Did you know there is a Stonehenge in America? There are a few. There is one near Salem N.H., but it is not a replica of the one in England. But somewhere in Texas is a replica of the original measuring 90% as wide and 60% as tall. I’m not going to tell you where exactly, take a Grande Tour on the internet. It will do your grey cells some good.

A Leaning Tower in the midwest? Maybe.

And then there’s EPCOT. Do the Grande Tour in a day, and for almost the same price.

See European Bridges

There are no bridges in the U.S.A. quite like Tower Bridge. But we do have London Bridge, despite its structural integrity coming into question in song.

A cruise down the Chicago River will take you under some fantastic bridges.

Then there’s the Brooklyn, Golden Gate, Mackinaw, and others. Do you know where the Frankford Avenue Bridge, dating from 1697, is? Time to take a Grande Tour. Did you ever walk across a covered bridge?

Europa Churches

We do not have THE Notre Dame Cathedral of Hunch back or fire fame. But, we have Notre Dame churches in America. Did you know there are more than a hundred Notre Dames in France?

The United States cannot rival Europe in the age of most churches. But, there are some architecturally amazing religious structures in the U.S. The cathedrals in Washington D.C., New York, and other large cities are awe-inspiring in size.

Cathedrals in St. Paul, Minnesota, and St Louis Missouri can give many churches in Europe a run for their money.

I find two of the most exciting churches to be in New Orleans and St Augustine, Florida. We all beeline for beignets, (me included), but what about the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France? The who, the what? The church is sitting on the north side of Jackson Square. You probably have pictures of it from your trip. Take a look inside.

In St Augustine, there is the Memorial Presbyterian Church. Henry Flagler builds many structures in and for the city circa 1889. Of the two churches, he gives the town; the Memorial Presbyterian has inspiration from St Mark’s in Venice.

Are there more amazing churches around the country, including Crystal cathedrals and Cadet Chapels at the Air Force Academy? You bet. Take a google trip or better yet plan a Grande Tour.

Europa in America Summary.

We did not even touch on museums, castles, or cuisines. Do those exist in America? Take a…

So before you go looking for your heart’s desire abroad, why not start with looking in your back yard. At least for the next several months.

Plan a trip for June, or August, or later. I don’t know the future.

Go to the drug store or Wall Drug, a local market, or the Pikes or Reading Market. (Google it)

Put something positive in your future to get your forward motion going again. A positive project.

This summer, start planning a grande Tour of Rome, Iowa, Paris Texas, Warsaw Indiana, Vienna Virginia, or Athens, Georgia.

This fall or next year maybe Europa – baby steps.

Turn the T.V. off and get out of your head for a few minutes.

Pick up a travel magazine or peruse a travel website.

Take a Grande Tour of Europe in your imagination. The air is safe there.

Read more about Planning A Trip.

Scroll down to the “Please Leave a Reply” section at the bottom. Please tell me your thoughts on: 

“Where do you want to “go” on your virtual Grande Tour?” 

Please help me spread the news by rating, commenting, and sharing this blog below. – THANKS!

“See the World” Continued on Page T3. “Taste the World” Continued on T11.