Seasonal Awards ~~ a Short List ~~

Everyone is giving out awards this time of year or making lists. Here’s a sampling of what you see when you walk past the magazines:

208 places to visit in 2008 – 15 tax tricks your advisor won’t advise – 10 quick meals for granny – 3 poems you wish you had memorized. You get it.

Luckily for you, dear Reader, I’ve misplaced my full list. I was assiduously recording various impressions during the year getting ready for this very moment.

Alas, I think the list is on the back of a hotel bill that I submitted as an expense a few weeks ago. Imagine! My own cherished tally now filed away in an accountant’s office.

I do remember a few – nothing comprehensive here - so let’s get them recorded for posterity:

In the area of travel I’m a contrarian but hats off to the airlines. That’s what you just read. Kudos airlineos. The Clermont Blogger flew 32 flight segments between September and December and with only one delay (Brussels to Madrid, fog over Iberia). Zero lost or delayed bags. No disrespectful flight attendants or rude gate agents.

I know I’m pressing my luck here but a zillion people fly each week and most get to their destination on time. Stop fussing everyone and get over it. And thank you NW, KL and CO.

For the foodies out there - on the fly - try the Oysters Baton Rouge with a glass of white wine at Pappadeaux inside of Houston’s George Bush International Airport. It’s the one place I’d welcome a long delay.

Best hotel meal - the Bavarian plate at the Movenpick Airport Hotel, Munich. On Saturday evenings it’s the roast pork, white sausages, potato dumplings and heaps of sauerkraut. I didn’t say healthiest.

Most un-agreeable breakfast choice- herring in pickle sauce or was it pickles in herring sauce? at 6:35 a.m. in drizzly Antwerp.

Oddest menu translation – dimmed sea bass ... dimmed? – Hotel Principe Felipe, Madrid. Did they mean trimmed? slimmed? damned? Very tasty, though and I assume healthy, too.

Later this week, a few destinations I’d vote for if anyone asked me to make up a list.