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

• Dear Folks...
• Spring Training in Europe
• Costa Rica this Winter
• From Our Customers: Ron & Ellie Jones
• Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride
• From Paola's Kitchen - Rick's Famous Sardinian Pork Chops

Dear Folks,

We did a slide show at La Dolce Vita Café in Fort Collins yesterday and somebody who had never been to Italy (or Europe) asked the following question: "People go to Italy for the history, the art, the food and the landscape. How do your tours accommodate the need to see or experience all of that?"

If you have traveled with us you can answer that question. Indeed, we all ride bicycles (so we can eat!) and there is no better place to bicycle and to eat than Italy. As for the landscape, on a bicycle tour you "experience" a landscape rather than just viewing it as a spectator. One May fifteen years ago, Paola and I were with a Venice to Pisa group as we pedaled a tree-lined street. They were linden trees, and the smell of the blossoms permeated the air. Paola commented, "I'd forgotten what Italy smells like in the spring!" You don't get that on a bus tour or in a car. (For more on the experiential aspect of bicycle touring see my Costa Rica essay in this newsletter).

As for the history and the art, the great thing about bicycle touring is that you have a mix of the physical pleasures and the intellectual, historical and artistic. What better way to experience Venice and Ravenna than pedaling between them? Bicycling over the Apennines into the land of the Medici family, pedaling to Vinci, the birthplace of Leonardo, and arriving by bike in the Roman city of Lucca gives history context. Don't get me wrong - you can never spend enough time in Venice, Florence and other historic art cities. But a bicycle tour allows you to take those doses of history, art and architecture a little at a time with dashes of great food, gelato, and encounters with the locals in between.

Speaking of great experiences, we've got some great tours in Latin America this winter. Costa Rica is always a wonderful winter getaway and I've highlighted some of the reasons to bicycle there in my essay. If you are looking for something new and different, we may have a few spaces left on our new Argentina tour in April. Or, if you have given any serious thought to a longer ride - one of our ExpeditionsPlus! trips, our ride across the Andes in January is calling you and so is our extraordinary ride from Saint Petersburg, Russia to Istanbul, Turkey next summer. Book and pay for this last trip by December 10th and you'll save $2,000 - more than enough for round trip airfare for this ride.

Speaking of savings, we still have a few booking early discounts available ($150 per person or $300 per couple) for those who know they will travel with us next summer. The discount requires you to book now and pay in full by Dec. 15. Early booking helps us judge demand for the 2008 season, consolidate and guarantee certain tours and get our hotels booked. Give us a call for those tours that are now guaranteed to go in 2008.

Our tour leaders in Italy are gathering tonight (Tuesday, Nov. 7th) for the final dinner, but then about thirty of our European staff are headed to Kalamata, Greece where Yorgos Paraskevopolos is hosting them for several days to pick olives and feast on Greek food! Yorgos owns or manages about 400 olive trees for his family and is glad to have the extra hands for the olive harvest. (If you've not been on tour with Yorgos, you've missed out!) This is an ExperiencePlus! Thanksgiving week for our tour leaders.

We're headed to Oregon for a little moisture, walks on the beach and Thanksgiving with family. But we'll be dreaming about bicycling South America this winter and Europe next spring. Call us if you start dreaming too!

Sincerely,
--Rick and Paola

Long winters turn to active springs, and there is no better motivation for staying in shape during the cold months than planning a spring training trip with ExperiencePlus! Jump-start your spring by rewarding yourself with either of this month's two featured tours.

• Read more about our Spring Training tours here.
• Get the details on our Spring Training in Provence here.
• Or learn about our Spring Training in Tuscany and Umbria here.

Looking back on fifteen years of tours in Costa Rica, Rick remembers why it's such a magnetic destination, and why there's no substitute for seeing it by bicycle.

While driving, I heard no howler monkeys, no screeching parakeets and no rumbling volcano. I stopped my car and sat by the side of the road for forty-five minutes, binoculars in hand, just listening. We go to Costa Rica to enjoy the natural environment and the wildlife; in my rental car I was missing half of it!

• Read the rest of Rick's story about how we got our start in Costa Rica here.
• See a list of our offerings in Costa Rica here.

Ron and Ellie Jones are seasoned travelers who joined us for their first bike tour in Provence this year.

What's the most exciting adventure you've had while traveling?
Once we went snorkeling in Hawaii at a remote beach we thought was wonderful because we had it all to ourselves. As we were leaving we discovered a HUGE sign that said "WARNING! SHARK PRESERVE."

Read more from Ron & Ellie here.

For his review this month, Rick takes a look at Peter Zheutlin's book on the mid-1890's exploits of his great-great-aunt, who was equal parts adventure athlete, women's sports pioneer, and opportunistic self-promoter:

In 1894, presumably as part of a wager, Annie Kopchovsky agreed to undertake a bicycle tour around the globe.... The details of the wager were either too vague or too detailed, depending on which story Annie decided to tell. Zheutlin even suggests that Annie herself may have invented the whole wager story to both rationalize and to sensationalize her voyage.

Read the rest of Rick's review of Around the World on Two Wheels here.

While traveling with his brother-in-law in a remote corner of Italy twenty-odd years ago, Rick came across a simple and delicious preparation for pork chops that he's been improvising on ever since.

We stopped in the only restaurant in Jerzu and the fellow there offered pork chops, so we said we'd take what he had. He brought out two of the best pork chops either of us had ever eaten; and since Alberto is a chef, that's saying a lot!

Click here to read the rest of Rick's Sardinian Pork Chop 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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