Welcome to the February 2008 ExperiencePlus! Rambler E-Mail Newsletter

• Dear Folks...
• Cycling the Danube: Europe's Longest River
• History and Geography of the Danube River
• Film Review: Graham Greene's The Third Man
• From Our Customers: Steve & Kathy Price
• Book Review: The Venetian Empire, by Jan Morris
• From Paola's Kitchen - Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Dear Folks,

2008 brings an array of new offerings to our palette of bicycle tours and old favorites as well. Paola and Rick, owners of ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours have set their May/June tour schedule and will personally lead several tours. Click here for a list of those tours - but you should definitely consider our Greek Bike, Walk, and Cruise May 29 to June 6th. Rick and Paola will both be on that trip.

If you love the sea you should also consider Puglia May 6th or October 7, the heel of Italy's boot, featuring great food and fascinating history ranging from Magna Grecia to 17th century Spanish baroque churches. Corsica, too, starting May 13, combines the best of French and Italian Mediterranean culture, cuisine and history. Where else can you hear a 16th century Genoese dialect spoken? Rick will help lead that tour.

If it is classic cycling and historic regions you want then any of our Venice to Florence or Pisa tours are a must-do. Alternatively, there is the Camino de Santiago May 25, an epic journey by any measure, and our Classical Greece tour May 14th from Athens to Olympia. (Rick’s essay on the History and Geography of the Olympics has been republished twice now in Middle School Readers and is consistently one of the most searched essays in our reading room!)

For the history buffs our other favorite bicycling trips are Cycling Provence (May 28th) and Paola's favorite tour of all, Cycling the Dordogne in southwestern France June 10th. Both are laden with history, medieval villages, and great food.

Don't forget to think about someplace completely different from the more traditional destinations as well. Our Romania bicycle tour, June 15 - 26 is a fascinating bicycle ride through Transylvania, home of Count Dracula. The hill rides on this trip are like those in Tuscany and the food is great! Finally, join us to pedal the length of the Danube River from Germany's Black Forest all the way to the Black Sea. If you can’t take the full month to do this ride, you can join us for the first part just to Budapest, Hungary. This is classic cycling along one of Europe’s most popular bicycle routes, including Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.

If you just want to kick back and relax in a cozy villa or B&B in Italy or the south of France, we’ll deliver bikes to your villa for a week of easy rides. Take a look at our www.BikeRentalsPlus.com web site and tell your friends about this new service that we offer.

Also, for those of you in Colorado, Rick will be hosting two slide-shows towards the end of February about the Bike, Walk, and Cruise the Greek Islands tour. Check our slideshow schedule for more information - we hope to see you there!

Rick and Paola Price

Our new tours along Europe's Danube River promise spectacular scenery through farm villages, forests, and vineyards, and a real sense of accomplishment for having cycled one of the most classic routes in all of Europe.

Read more about what makes these tours unique, or jump straight to the tour information for each one below.  Note: Book before Feb 15 and save!  Check the tour pages for more details.

• ExpeditionPlus! Bicycling the Danube River from Germany's Black Forest to Romania's Black Sea Coast.
• ExpeditionPlus! Stage 1 Bicycling the Danube from Germany's Black Forest to Budapest.
• ExpeditionPlus! Stage 2 Bicycling the Danube from Budapest to the Black Sea.

Rick writes about the importance of the Danube River, Europe's longest, and invites you to join us as we cycle along it all the way to the Black Sea.

You probably learned in 7th grade geography that the three most important rivers of Europe are the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Danube - but that is likely the extent of your knowledge. Unfortunately for most Americans our knowledge understanding of world geography stopped with those kinds of simple, unconnected facts.

• Read the rest of Rick's explanation of the Danube.

Reminded of this movie by researching the Danube, Rick reviewed this classic post-war movie set in Vienna.

There is no better reminder and introduction to the history of Austria in the mid-20th century than this classic British film dating to 1949.

• Read more about Rick's thoughts on this classic movie.

Steve & Kathy Price were kind enough to answer our questions this month. They are organizing an ExperiencePlus! MS150 team.

You have just created an ExperiencePlus! MS150 team. What can you tell us about the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's bike events?
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society MS 150 has over 100 cycle trips in almost every state in the Union.

• Read more from Steve & Kathy here.
• Click here to check out Kathy's MS 150 webpage and help our ExperiencePlus! Team reach the goal!

For his book review this month, Rick turns to travel writer Jan Morris's description of the The Venetian influence in the Greek Islands.

I enjoy popular history books by good travel writers and Jan Morris qualifies. His short paperback volume on the Venetian Empire is one of the best books about Venice away from Venice that you can find. And it is excellent reading to take on the airplane and a bike, walk and cruise of the Greek islands.

Read the rest of Rick's review of The Venetian Empire here.

ExperiencePlus! programmer Rich Young brings us this simple homemade Ricotta Cheese recipe:

If, like me, you've always assumed that making your own cheese is too arcane for normal folks, you should find this recipe pleasantly surprising.

Click here to read the rest of Rich's Ricotta Cheese 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.

Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information:

Subscribe: We send the Rambler E-mail Newsletter on the first Tuesday of each month to cyclists and walkers interested in learning more about ExperiencePlus! and our tours. To subscribe to our Rambler newsletter or to change subscribe options for our other newsletters, click here.

Unsubscribe: To unsubscribe from all ExperiencePlus newsletters, click here, fill in your email address and push the "continue" button.