londonlover's VirtualTourist Home Page
| Page Views: 16,369 | Onward and upward... by londonlover - last update: May 21, 2009 |
| Soaking up the local color in Venice... |
Life of a Travel Fanatic (Finally updated) Musings of the Moment... 2009 marks my eighth year as a VT member! I have to admit I've been much less regular about updating recently, but I still enjoy surfing the site on a regular basis. |
| Hanging out with Lillian at a B&B in the Cotswolds |
The Thrill of Travel and the Joy of VT I have such fond memories of my travels, and especially my third and most recent visit to the UK, in Fall 2007... My most complete UK pages are London, Paris, Bath, Broadway, Edinburgh, and York, but I need to upload a lot more info soon. I took nearly 600 pictures on the last trip! Also, unfortunately I most drop a non-so-subtle hint...I'm not inclined to reply to questions or comments from people who post no information about themselves or their travels on their own VT homepages (or those who never even acknowledge a detailed response to a question they've asked through email or in a forum). VT is a travel community, and as most of us know and appreciate, we all have the responsibility (and privilege!) to help each other out with travel plans. This works both ways--so if you want to know something about a place you're going to see, please share a little of your own knowledge in return. Makes sense, right? |
| With my aunt and sister in San Juan Capistrano |
What's new on my VT pages? NEWEST PAGES:
York, Broadway, AND Bath, England
MOST RECENTLY UPDATED PAGES:
*Venice -- finally added more info on June 7, 2008
*New York City -- New restaurant, must-see, general, and lodging tips, plus travelogues.
MOST THOROUGH PAGES: Chicago, New York, and London
TRAVEL HISTORY:
Orange County & San Diego -- December 2008
England -- September 2007
Florida -- March 2007
Orange County, California -- December 2006
Varenna/Venice/Rome/Positano/Milan, Italy -- September 2006 (details to come!)
New York City -- May 2006
Banff, Alberta -- July 2005
FUTURE TRAVEL SCHEDULE
Spain and France -- September 2009 |
| Chocolate Buffet, Chicago |
For the love of food!
You'll notice throughout my VT pages that I tend to take a lot of pictures of restaurants and food. :) I love to eat, and I love various cuisines, and fun or unusual places to dine. I appreciate a great value when dining out, but I will also splurge occasionally if the time and place warrants an exception.
Also, I don't drink, so you won't find tips on bars or clubs in my pages. I honestly don't understand why people spend their trips bar-hopping. You're on vacation!...See the sites, take pictures, savor the local food, soak up the local flavor...don't waste your time getting drunk and not even remembering what you did. But that's just my opinion. :)
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Keeping things sane on VT...(my two cents) I also want to drop a gentle reminder that VT is not a political forum, not is it a place to parade your opinion about controversial world events, policies, or politicians. There's a place for that type of discussion, and I'm all for free speech, being keenly interested in political activity myself. However, if you have something overtly political to say, (i.e., speaking out against a controversial current issue, not just commenting on political history), then I suggest that you make a non-VT homepage of your own, using a free service like tripod.com, and fire away. Provide a link to that site on VT if you want (you'll see I've done so myself), but please keep inflammatory remarks off what should be a pleasant, non-confrontational VT experience. Many times I will browse VT homepages, become irritated at a member's overt promotion of a political stance with which I disagree, and then find it difficult to even appreciate their travel pages after that. We don't need that kind of distraction on a community dedicated to travel, nor do we need offensive comments made on each others' pages. So please just stick to describing the beauty of exploring other cultures, geography, history, and nature, and sharing what you've learned with all of us eager armchair travelers! |
| Enjoy the journey, but wear good shoes! |
P.S. This is not eHarmony.com! :)
I also feel I must add that VT is not a dating service. While some members may use it as such, I hope that most of us single VT members are only here to celebrate travel, share helpful tips, and discuss related topics with other travelers--not to surrepticiously flirt with people all around the globe under the guise of travel and tourism. Just because I'm single doesn't mean I'm on VT to find a guy, so please don't send me emails out of the blue inferring anything of the sort, ok? Thanks. :)
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| Platform "9 3/4" at Kings Cross, London |
The Best of Tara's Travels!
Best "Old" Architecture: London
Best "New" Architecture: Chicago
Best Ancient Architecture: Rome
Most Charming Architecture: Paris
Best Restaurants: Le Sept, Edinburgh; Tilley's Bistro, Bath; La Cambusa, Positano, Italy
Best Food Cafe: Cafe Lalo, New York City
Best French Patisserie: Angelina's in Paris
Best Italian Bakeries: Bova's Bakery and Napoli Pastry--North End, Boston
Best Espresso: Caffe Sant' Eustachio--Rome, Italy
Best Cannoli: Veniero's, New York City
Best Gelato: Gellateria della Palma--Rome, Italy
Best Indian Food: Bombay Club, Washington, D.C.
Best Frozen Banana: Dad's on Balboa Island, California
Best Beach: Race Point--Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Best Urban Beach: North Avenue Beach, Chicago
Best Rock Formations: Bryce Canyon, Utah
Best Mountains: Colorado Rockies
Prettiest Lake: Lake Como, Italy
Most Serene Countryside: East Sussex and the Cotswolds, England
Best Public Transportation: London
Best Lakefront Scenery: Chicago
Best Museum: The Met, New York City; The Art Institute, Chicago
Best History: Rome, Italy
Best Drive: Coast Road from Sorrento to Positano, Italy
Best Footpath: The Cotswold Way, north end
Best Clothes Shopping: London and New York
Best Skyline: Chicago
Most Impressive Monument: Statue of Liberty, New York
Best Fall Colors: Door County, Wisconsin
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| With my sister & Rupert Jee of the Hello Deli NYC |
A wee bit about me Everyone wants to know the person behind the tips, right? I think the focus on VT should be the tips themselves rather than the authors, but here's the short version of me: I'm 29, native to Chicagoland, and a physical therapist. Besides travel, my main interests are Bible study, music (playing violin and piano), classic literature and cooking!
My Favorites: Food -- Italian, Indian, Mexican, and dessert (yes, it is a food group in my book) Music -- Classical, Latino (Tommy Torres, Fonseca, Reik, etc.), Celtic, Paul McCartney, the Beatles, classic rock, U2, Sting, Eros Ramazotti, the Corrs Authors -- Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, JK Rowling, JR Tolkein Sports Teams -- New York Yankees (GO YANKS!!), Detroit Pistons (lifelong fan), Scotland Rugby, Liverpool football Websites: The Hunger Site Pictures of England Rick Steves |
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 Comments for londonlover | | | | |
jo104 Tue May 19, 2009 13:13 UTC
I sneak toilet tips all over Krakow was interesting using a triangle for identifying whose loo is whose I mean how would you know?? :-) pity you can't come would have been fun to meet u. | paul0511 Thu Jan 15, 2009 14:08 UTC
Hey , nice photos :-) | 88Starflite Mon Dec 8, 2008 05:00 UTC
Now that's a coincidence, I've Celtic Women on the TV, you ever play their music? | WorldMeet2008 Wed Jul 23, 2008 19:48 UTC
Your next trip? Make it really unique! It's not too late to attend WM08 - Jerusalem, Tel Aviv & Dead- Sea on 25- 28th Sept (+Petra 29-30th). We want to double the num of attendees to 100! Click to learn where, when, what, how, how much! Avi [FruitLover]. |
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