Hermanus - The World's Best Whale Watching Destination

Hermanus: the best land based whale watching in the world. Hermanus town looks over the protected shallow waters of Walker Bay where the Southern Right Whales come to mate, calve and rear their young. Between June and December every year you can sit on the rocky cliffs overlooking the bay and watch the whales breaching, sailing, bobbing or just frolicking around in the waves. August is peak time for calving and August and September are the months you will find the most whales in the bay. An incredible site that cannot be missed!

Boat based whale watching is offered from Hermanus where one can get within a few metres from the whales. The Whale Show is offered, a unique whale and dolphin audio-visual presentation that runs twice daily (10h00 & 15h00) at the Whale Museum - A worthwhile show that provides you with detailed, fascinating information on our gentle giants.

Not too far from Hermanus is the Great White shark cage diving mecca, Gansbaai. Six nautical miles away is Dyer Island, possibly the best place in the world to view these magnificent predators. The island is a bird sanctuary and a breeding site for the African penguin and many other coastal birds. Adjoining it is a second, smaller rocky island called Geyser rock, which supports a large seal population. Separating Geyser and Dyer is a channel aptly named "Shark Alley", arguably THE prime spot in the world for encountering the Great White shark. The cage diving is an exhilarating experience and a "must do"

Blue Gum Country Estate kindly invited me to come and stay for the weekend. Accepting the offer with glee, I disappeared from the hustle and bustle of the city driving only 2 hours to arrive in the Overberg region. Blue Gum is situated on the slopes of the Klein River Mountains just outside Stanford only 20min past Hermanus. It offers a luxury country lodge feel, superb service, great food and beautiful surroundings. After arriving in the late afternoon, I was invited to the cosy lounge area to enjoy tea and scones with jam and fresh cream.

Unfortunately I chose the worst weekend to get away. The weather turned really grim and 3 consecutive cold fronts bringing massive amounts of rain, hit the western cape. Thousands of people were left stranded, homes washed away particularly in the poorer rural areas. The Klein River, which Blue Gum Lodge overlooks, came down in flood and completely washed the bridge away between us and the outside world! I must have arrived at about 16h00 and by 17h30 water rushed over the bridge preventing the remaining guests from joining us for the night. They were forced to retreat to Stanford.

Rain belted down during the night, thunder and lighting created a dramatic atmosphere. The guests huddled inside around large cosy fireplaces after a great 3-course dinner, the friendly staff offering nightcaps. I got chatting to a fun English couple, Douglas and Nicky who were visiting the area hoping to go Shark Cage diving. Much to their disappointment this was called off due to the bad weather. Douglas was celebrating his 40th birthday this day so we enjoyed a couple drinks over a game of Trumps, a card game introduced to us by Douglas. Louise the lodge manager joined us and merrily served us more and more tequilas and Jagermeister as the night went on. I retreat to my luxury spacious room before things got too out of hand!

In the morning we heard about a back route out from the lodge to Stanford that travelled through farmlands at the base of the mountain, a rough gravel road crossed by 3 little rivers that tested our off road driving skills in our low laying city cars. Nic, the owner of the lodge, led the way in his pickup truck assisting us where possible. The largest river at one point was approximately 25cm deep at its deepest point and about 6m wide, all very well if you were driving a 4x4, but most of us weren't! After a couple of knocks and bumps and much adrenalin racing through our bodies, we made it! Only to return again later in the afternoon once we had enjoyed our days excursions.

Blue Gum offers a number of activities although all weather dependent, such as horse riding, mountain biking, quad biking, tennis, hiking and boat cruising on the Stanford River. The Birkenhead Brewery is just down the road. From Wednesday to Friday at 11h00 and 15h00, one can enjoy a tour of the brewery and learn how the beer is made. The tastings can be enjoyed everyday at the restaurant and it is nice to combine it with a pub lunch. After enjoying the good service at Blue Gum, I was disappointed with the service here though.

I returned to the lodge for an afternoon nap, happy to see that the rivers had subsided a bit making the road a little less of a challenge. At 18h00 I awoke with a knock on my door. Delicious snacks and an aperitif were brought to me. What a nice surprise! I sat in the quietness of my room enjoying cheese and biscuits and fresh fruit served with white sherry while looking onto the beautiful Klein River Mountain.

Although Blue Gum Lodge is a lovely place to get stranded, we were all hoping that the rain would ease off. If more rain fell, even the back road would become a problem. All the rivers subsided nicely by the morning, I checked out and said my farewells to everyone at the lodge and commenced my journey home.

Green Miles

As one of the most rural in the country with a population of just 608,827, the Green Mountain State is also a free-spirited, rider-friendly citadel of real democracy, practiced through yearly statewide town meetings. There is even a secession movement in progress, with the goal of making Vermont an independent country. "Better for tourism," they say, so perhaps some Vermonters are also a zealous lot. Nevertheless, the state offers riders a chance to explore like no other with lush farmlands, picturesque villages, ski resorts and hundreds of miles of scenic, serpentine roads.

My riding partner, Joe "Mr. Happy" Loverchio, and I took off on a hot, sunny day from Sloatsburg, New York. We planned a zigzagging route, choosing as many scenic roads as possible, and rumbled north along treelined Route 17 to the New York Thruway, then Route 84 east to the Taconic State Parkway.

If I could ever fall in love with a four-lane highway, the Taconic is it. Restricted to cars and motorcycles, it rolls north snaking through forests and farms. At Route 295, we headed east to Route 22 North, a rustic road rambling through New York's hinterlands, then took Routes 7 and 9 into Bennington, one of Vermont's larger towns with a whopping population of nearly 9,200.

We stopped at the Bennington Battle Monument, which stands 306 feet and is the highest structure in Vermont. It offers scenic views of three states and honors the Revolutionary soldiers who defeated the British invading army in 1777. American General John Stark said to his troops before the battle, "There they are, boys! We beat them today or Molly Stark sleeps a widow tonight!" After losing the battle, British General Burgoyne said of the Vermonters, "(They are) the most active and rebellious race on the continent and (they) hang like a gathering storm on my left."

From the monument we rode Joe's Kawasaki ZG1000 Concours and my Nomad 1600 north on scenic Route 7A to Mount Equinox, the highest mountain in southern Vermont. There our machines easily climbed the toll road to the summit, where a spectacular view of mountains and countryside spread out before our eyes like a colorful inland sea. On a clear day, the view encompasses parts of New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Quebec.

The mountain preserve is owned by a Carthusian Monastery that acquired it from a private family, which explains the grave marker I found on a hike from the summit to Lookout Rock. It marked the burial site of the family dog:

Mr. Barbo

Born April 20, 1943.

We loved him and he repaid that love with enduring devotion that only a dog could give.

Shot and killed by a malicious hunter on Nov 2, 1955.

Clearly, Mr. Barbo was the victim of some feud, but being a dog person, I fully understood the family's desire to leave a loving marker in memory.

A few miles beyond Mount Equinox is Manchester, a postcard village that can be viewed from Lookout Rock, and the mansion Hildene. This 24-room Georgian Revival mansion was built as a summer home by Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham's only son. His descendants lived there until 1975. It's well worth a stop and the $10 admission charge.

From Manchester we rolled on to Route 30, then Route 11, zigzagging through the Green Mountains to Route 100, one of the most scenic roads in Vermont. We were heading north though farmland, forests and Vermont villages, as well as past Pico and Killington, two of Vermont's most famous ski areas, until we reached the Central Jersey Ski Club Lodge where Joe, a member, had arranged lodging for us.

After a night's rest at the lodge, we fired up the bikes and sailed north. Route 100 is a great road that zigzags its way north through small towns, farmlands and alongside mountains. Unfortunately, like many of Vermont's roads, it takes a beating in the winter, so unless repaved you bounce along on frost heaves and cracks in the roadway. Nevertheless, the sweet sounding rumble of my Nomad and the eye candy that is Vermont more than compensated for a few rough stretches.

We stopped briefly in the Green Mountain National Forest Visiting Center in Rochester and talked with Kevin Demeurers, a volunteer, who was very helpful with scenic route planning. The first side route he recommended was taking Route 17 at Waitsfield, and boy was he right. We rumbled up and down the sinuous mountain and then back to 100. What views!

Our next stop was Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury. These two self-described losers were part of the hippie migration into Vermont in the late '60s and early '70s. After failing at every attempt to make a living, they took a mail-order ice cream course, opened their first store, and soon became a nationwide corporation of peace-and-love ice cream, practicing the values of the '60s on a corporate level. But as with all fairy tales, they eventually sold out and Ben & Jerry's is now part of a conglomerate. Nevertheless, it's a fun place to see, and the tour of the plant is a worthwhile part of the visit.

We motored on to Stowe, the quintessential Vermont ski town at the foot of Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak. Although closed to motorcycles now, the last time I was here I took the Mount Mansfield toll road to just below the summit, and then hiked a relatively easy 1.5 miles along the ridge to the actual summit, where the views are awe-inspiring. I felt like an Olympian God gazing down from the heavens at massive Lake Champlain and New York's High Peaks region to the east, the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the west, north into Quebec, and south over the Green Mountains of Vermont. Today you can take a gondola ride and then hike, but that trail is more challenging than the one from the road, and so far there's no toll-road shuttle service provided.

Not wanting to take the gondola, we continued on Route 108 through spectacular Smugglers Notch, a scary ride near the top as the road narrows and makes hairpin turns. From there, we continued northwest to Route 15, which isn't the prettiest road in the state but does give you a taste of working-class Vermont, which was a nice change of scenery from the rural, yuppie postcard side. Then we took Route 14 South to Route 2, rolling into Vermont's capital of Montpelier, population 8,035.

People-watching is a great pastime in Montpelier, with folks from all walks of life-foreign tourists, hippies, coed lovelies, local farmers, yuppies, bikers, government workers and so on. With fine restaurants, stores and

the State Capitol building to experience, spending time in Montpelier is worthwhile. On my last ride here, Vermont's senior Senator Patrick Leahy's mother was actually conducting tours of the capitol building, an impressive structure with a gold-plated dome.

With the day growing late, we decided to head back to the lodge. At Kevin's suggestion we took Route 12 south and then 12A, which is really back-road Vermont. After rumbling through one minuscule town with a locals-only kind of feel, we reconnected with 12 and Route 107 along the pristine White River to Route 100 and back to the lodge.

Heading toward the White Mountains in New Hampshire the next morning, where we planned to camp for two days, fate and weather dealt us an unexpected blow. The Whites, notorious for their extreme weather, were shrouded in dark, ominous clouds. We stopped in the Visitor Center and spoke with a ranger who showed us the forecast for thunder and lightning storms, high winds, even the possibility of hail and flooding with no relief in sight.

"What do you think, Joe?"

"It's sunny in Vermont; let's go back there and camp," Joe suggested.

And so we did, but first plotted a back-roads route to Calvin Coolidge State Park. The sun followed us for a little while, but then the heavens opened and we were pummeled by a deluge. We couldn't see 15 feet in front of us and there was no place to safely pull over. We finally reached the town of Sharon, got directions at the general store and headed to Woodstock...and sun! After setting up our tents we built a fire and relaxed after a challenging day on the road.

Although the trip hadn't worked out exactly as planned, Vermont is a fantastic riding state with its picturesque villages, farms, rivers and mountains. As the newest Vermont slogan proclaims, "Vermont was green before it was cool." To that I'd like to add, "Vermont was cool before it was cool to be Vermont."

Find Your Inner Child at Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris might not be every parent's cup of tea, but there is no question that kids love it. The opportunity to meet their favourite characters from Disney's ever-popular back catalogue, as well enjoy the themed rides, shows and entertainment will feel like a wish fulfilment, whatever their minders might make of it all. That said, even the grumpiest grown-ups won't be able to deny the surge of adrenaline prompted by Disneyland Paris's thrill rides. The internet is probably the best place to look for cheap holiday deals to Euro Disney.

Disneyland Paris is split into three distinct areas: the original Magic Kingdom, now Disneyland Park, where most of the main rides can be found; Walt Disney Studios Park, where visitors can get a behind-the-scenes look at the world of cartoon film making; and the Disney Village with its various Americana themed hotels.

Once settled, most head straight for rides such as Space Mountain Mission 2, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and Big Thunder Mountain. Alternatively, younger children might prefer to stick to more sedate options; the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups and the Pirates of the Caribbean experience, for example. A few Gallic twists to attractions at Walt Disney Studios and Discoveryland's Les Mysteres du Nautilus, a chance to see the mechanical submarine from Jules Verne's '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea', are salient reminders that you are in Paris, not Orlando.

Booking your visit during out of season is the surest way to avoid the crowds and to ensure you spend less time queuing. Since Paris doesn't benefit from the Floridian climate, late spring and early autumn probably represent the best balance between cold and crowds. However, it is possible to pre book the most popular rides through the "Fastpass" timeslot scheme. If you're visiting any time between 2 April and 8 November, it might be worth considering a Paris Visite travel pass, which gives cut-price entry to Disneyland Paris as well access to all metro, bus RER and SNCF services in the Greater Paris region.

Visitors can choose from five official Disney Hotels as well as seven partner hotels. The official Disney Hotels share a kitsch American theme, ranging from Disney Hotel New York, apparently the Big Apple in microcosm, to the Disney Sequoia Lodge, a faux version of a National Park. For the full experience, the Cinderella-like Disneyland Hotel is ideally located at the park's entrance. Disneyland Paris is approximately 25km east of the capital, and is easily reached by train. Take the RER line A at Gare-de-Lyon or Nation to Mame-la-Vallee/Chessy station, which is just opposite the park gates.

Favorite Fireworks Spots at Walt Disney World

For many people the fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom is the perfect way to end a day at the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom. Watching the fireworks explode high above Cinderella Castle is truly a site to behold. The fireworks, music, and environment come together in a special and magical way that only Disney can create.

Watch Tinkerbell fly through the sky from Cinderella's Castle and the magic of Wishes begins. Jiminy Cricket hosts this stunningly spectacular event, accompanied by several favorite characters. Ask anyone who has visited the Magic Kingdom and they will not be shy about telling you their favorite place to watch all of the action take place.

But with this experience you have a critical question to answer: From what location do you want to watch the show? There are many choices and each has advantages and disadvantages. Let's look at some of the options.

The Usual Suspects

Main Street, U.S.A. is a great place to watch the fireworks, but is often crowded and it is difficult for children to see without the aid of an adult's shoulders. Directly in front of Cinderella's Castle is another great location, but can also be quite crowded. If you get claustrophobic at all, don't choose this spot.

Ride and Watch

Some guests take their thrill seeking up a notch and add riding an attraction to their viewing. Popular choices for this are Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad. You won't see the whole show from either ride, but half the fun is doing two things at once!

Restaurants

California Grill at the Contemporary Resort and Ohana at the Polynesian are both crowd favorites and they each have tables near the windows, allowing for especially great views. The Contemporary even has an outdoor viewing deck, which can be used by guests with reservations any time that same evening.

The Road Less Traveled

Maybe you want to find a spot that's a little less crowded and maybe near some food, but you don't want to have to have a sit down dinner to do it. There are options for that as well. Main Street near the ice cream parlor is a favorite, as is the patio at Starlight Ray's Caf. Outside Storybook Treats is another great spot to relax with a snack and watch the show.

Each Spot Is Special

No matter what spot you select, you are sure to enjoy this nighttime spectacular - it's the perfect way to end your day at the Magic Kingdom.

Experience the Mountain Thunder Lodge Breckenridge

Located right in a quiet forest right in the heart of Breckenridge, is the most luxurious and elegant condominium suites in town called Mountain Thunder Lodge Breckenridge. This stone and timber designed lodge has a very stylish design and many amenities to satisfy even the worst critics of resort lodges.

The amenities include in-room high speed internet access, complimentary shuttle service to where ever you need to be taken around town, ski lockers to keep all of your recreation equipment, hot tubs, outdoor pools, and a state of the art exercise facility. The Mountain Thunder Lodge Breckenridge offers exclusive town homes to make you feel like you are in your own house, and beautiful condominium suites.

The types of rooms that can be chosen at the Mountain Thunder Lodge Breckenridge are one, two, three, and four bedroom suites, two and three bedroom town homes. Each unit comes with special extras such as multiple televisions, private balcony or patio, high speed wireless connection, DVD players, full gourmet kitchen, and a moss mock fireplace which is really beautiful in the evening when you and your family may be settling in after a long day of fun. The Mountain Thunder Lodge Breckenridge also hosts different activities within the lodge itself such as orchestra concerts. The Mountain Thunder Lodge Breckenridge is also a choice meeting place for many large companies that have workshops for their employees. This lodge has 43,000 square feet of meeting space that is used for corporate meeting, family reunions, and weddings.

The Mountain Thunder Lodge Breckenridge also has a full service reservation center. The main representative of whatever event is being planned can contact this reservation center and plan everything about the event from the dining to the breakfast and everything in between. They can do it all for you from start to finish so you can concentrate on the event and not on the planning.

The Mountain Thunder Lodge Breckenridge also has twenty four hour guest service, complimentary underground garage service, complimentary curb side service, laundry facilities, on-site bicycle rental, outdoor barbeque grills, DVD rentals, and state of the art fitness facilities. The Mountain Thunder Lodge Breckenridge also has year-round outdoor heated pool, pool house, deck and hot tubs. A beginning skier can also sign up for ski lessons with a fitness instructor in order to learn the basics of how to ski so that they don't miss out on all the fun.