Welcome to the April 2007 ExperiencePlus! Rambler E-Mail Newsletter

• Dear Folks, A letter from the owners
• More About Us
• Ireland's Western Coast
• Announcing our 2007 SATT Winner
• Chasing Annie Londonderry
• From Our Customers: Jane Ziegenfus-Martin
• Around the World in 80 Days
• From Paola's Kitchen - Hard Cider

Dear Folks,

We had a flurry of activity here the last couple of weeks with oldest daughter Monica moving her worldly belongings back to Colorado and storing everything to head off to Italy. Maria Elena, our youngest, also headed to Italy for six weeks and now things have quieted down some. Maria Elena returns to Colorado in May to begin her MBA program at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Both girls are working on new training programs for our tour leaders in conjunction with the National Association for Interpretation. This group, which is really "international," not national, is one of the primary professional organizations for park rangers, natural history associations, outdoor museums, and cultural heritage interpretation. You'll be hearing more about them as we train more of our tour leaders in interpretive techniques.

Paola and Rick leave for Italy in May. Paola will be in Italy for most of May and June though we'll both go on the Czech tour in June. Rick heads to Turkey May 15 to help lead our new tour there. Join us if that one appeals to you! Rick will also join our Saint Petersburg to Istanbul ExpeditionPlus! from Tallinn, Estonia to Warsaw, Poland (through the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad).

Rick had a lot of fun with this month's book and movie review, Around the World in 80 Days. Surely you've seen the movie or read the book? Well, read Rick's review and see if you remember how it ends. Was it 80 days? Or 81 days?

Bicycling Magazine mentioned our Annie Londonderry "round-the-world" bicycle tour in this month's issue. Take a look at that trip and consider it for 2008 (it's full for this year). Also, watch for more historic tours like this in future.

Among other news, we've added a Croatia departure in the fall due to popular demand. Our Slovakia trip in June is guaranteed so call on that one. And we're working on a new Cycling the Tuscany Coast for the fall in Italy.

Finally, our spring '07 catalog is in the mail, so watch for it soon in a mailbox near you!

Sincerely,

Rick and Paola Price

If all you know of Ireland is what you've seen in movies, the real thing is bound to surprise and delight you. It's hard to believe that a small corner of such a small country can hold so much natural beauty, vibrant culture and history, and great riding.

Our tour combines the remote Aran Islands, the Cliffs of Moher, the hills and loughs of Connemara and the wildflower-dotted moonscape of the Burren. You'll hear Gaelic spoken and traditional Irish music played in small pubs along the route. And the whole time, you'll be surrounded by a history as fresh as the potato famines that launched the great Irish emigration of the 1800's, and as ancient as a pre-Christian stone fortress - all while riding the "wrong" side of the road!

Click here to learn more about our Cycling the Emerald Isle bicycle tour, or call 1-800-685-4565 to reserve your spot.

Each year, ExperiencePlus! awards a free tour to a deserving public school teacher in hopes that the trip will serve as a resource to draw on in engaging their students.

Julie Horton caught up with Jeff Rudy, the thrilled winner of our 2007 Send A Teacher Traveling award for an interview. Jeff's plans are a perfect example of the philosophy behind the program:

Will you let us know how your trip inspires you in the classroom? Absolutely! I get goosebumps (no joke, no joke) just thinking about walking down the same streets of Florence that Dante wandered or drinking a cup of coffee in Ravenna where Dante penned The Divine Comedy. Those experiences will add so much to my classroom beyond the mere teaching of the book. I'm sure I'll be taking back the energy of those places.

Read more of Jeff's interview here.

In a two-part article reprinted from the Christian Science Monitor, Peter Zheutlin tells the story of his flamboyant relation and her adventures:

On an early summer day in June 1894, a young woman carrying only a change of clothes and a pearl-handled revolver climbed onto a Columbia bicycle before a crowd of 500 people on the steps of the Massachusetts State House in Boston. Then, declaring she would circle the world, Annie Londonderry, according to one newspaper, "sailed away like a kite down Beacon Street." It was, The New York World declared a year later, "the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman."

• Continue reading part 1 of Peter's article here.
• Peter's story concludes here.
• This summer, Peter will join ExperiencePlus! on a sold-out tour retracing Annie's route from Paris to Marseille.

Jane Ziegenfus-Martin provides this month's interview. All yours, Jane!

What's your favorite ride or hike in your hometown? Every August, the Lancaster Bike Club sponsors the Covered Bridge Metric Century Ride. As the route is marked (with paint, not chalk), it is available for rides of varying lengths (25, 50, and 100 km) all throughout the year.

Read the rest of Jane's interview here.

Intrigued by the story of Annie Londonderry, Rick has been revisiting the travel boom of the Victorian era - which once sparked a strong wanderlust in Rick and the rest of the baby boom generation:

Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days" was nearly forgotten. Then, along came Michael Todd and the film version.... Todd ignited the public's urge to travel. Arthur Frommer's "Europe on Five Dollars a Day" fueled the fire, and the baby boom generation began to discover the world.

Read Rick's full review of Around the World in 80 Days here.

In anticipation of hotter weather, Rich Young decided to get a brewing kit and try his hand at brewing some hard apple cider:

When I was in Ireland last summer for our Cycling the Emerald Isle tour, I noticed an interesting thing: as it got hotter, people were drinking less Guinness and more hard cider.

Click here to read the rest of the hard cider recipe.

If you would like additional recipes, visit our online recipe archive. You'll find recipes for European and Latin American specialties like Panzanella: a Tuscan Salad, Tapenade, Gallo Pinto, and more.

Happy Walking and Cycling until next month!

E-mail us at tours@ExperiencePlus.com with comments and questions. Or give us a call at 800-685-4565.

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