A Ryokan in Santa Fe or Zen and the Art of Road Trip Maintenance

Leave it to dynamic duo and No Crowds reporters, Gary and Lorraine, to find a Japanese-inspired, hot springs mountain hideaway, ten minutes from downtown Santa Fe. I so want to go.

Yes, Gentle Reader, we know.  Santa Fe, in the southwestern high desert of the US, hardly qualifies as a “No Crowds” destination.  After all, it’s been mentioned prominently on “Grace and Frankie”, so clearly the secret’s out.  Not that it is without attractions:  a lively arts and culture scene, great restaurants, the wonderfully weird “Meow Wolf” installation, and the architecturally magnificent open-air opera house, to name a few.  The influence of that most recent famous resident, the American modernist Georgia O’Keeffe, is everywhere.

However, today’s story is about Ten Thousand Waves, an inn and spa built and run in the Japanese Ryokan tradition, high in the hills surrounding the city. In fact, it’s almost a doppelganger for my favorite ryokan in the world, high above the city of Kyoto. (Note:  sadly, Ten Thousand Waves does not have traditional rooms like the one in Kyoto where you sleep on tatami mats on the floor – an oversight that should be corrected).  We managed to snag an evening here thanks to a recent cancellation (everything usually books up weeks in advance.).  

Our evening began with an excellent meal at Izanami, the Japanese/southwestern fusion restaurant, which takes pride in never serving sushi.  The dishes were as creative as you might imagine, from mushrooms we had never heard of, to Wagyu filet mignon that we seared on a hot river rock delivered to our table, to a grilled avocado with a soy reduction sauce. The wine list included sixty odd types of sake, and amazingly, our waiter was knowledgeable enough to tell us about the differences in flavor, production and aging.

As good as the meal was, the high point of the evening came next, at the spa next door. We checked in and were issued our kimonos and ushered to the changing /shower rooms.  Once ablutions were complete, our host led us to the real No Crowds experience - the private Japanese garden I had booked for the two of us.  She introduced us to our huge spa pool, waterfall with cold plunge pool, and sauna, all for our exclusive use, and then left and locked the door behind her.  As the night cooled and the stars came out over our garden, we realized that the zen attitude here was having an impact, and that we really needed a break from the craziness of the news and the world in general.  Not only was every aspect of the operation designed to instill calm, but the management was prescient enough to make sure there was neither wifi nor cell service available in the spa.

If you plan on visiting Ten Thousand Waves, book ahead.  Their website details each of the themed private gardens (as well as public women’s and coed spas) and allows booking of them as well as hotel rooms, massages and treatments, and restaurant reservations.  As latecomers, we were not able to get an outdoor table, but I would highly recommend this, giving you a chance to dine on a deck suspended over the valley below.  As for me, I have acquired a nicely shaped river rock and some grass fed beef tenderloin, to keep us going till we’re able to return.

Hanging Out in Hunt Country

Back in the spring of 2014, No Crowds wrote about college-touring in the US in Bataan Death March? No our baby is going to college.

Recently, we dropped that very same baby off at the University of Virginia and then high-tailed it down to North Carolina to get out of her way. After a lovely visit with The Tribe – my family and friends in the great State – it was time to head back to London. But first, we had to face the always-horrific drive up Interstate 95 to Dulles Airport. How I hate that highway. I used to love it as a child when we would cruise down from New York with my mother, the Mario Andretti of transplanted southerners, eager to get home. With no regard for speed limits or bodily functions - my brother once had to pee in a bottle - it was all great fun. But I digress.

So daunting was the idea of closing up the farm, driving and then flying all in one day, in the interest of our sanity and marital relations, we decided to drive the day before and spend the night somewhere near Dulles. But where?

Here’s where my father, well traveled and a man of few words, piped in, “Go to the Red Fox Inn in Middleburg, Virginia. Great place. Close to the airport.”

And so we went but we didn’t want to tell our daughter that we were heading back her way and wouldn’t be stopping to take her out for a free meal. In our defense, we thought it was disruptive. So very quietly, we made our way north.

Middleburg hasn’t changed much since I was last there in the 1970s for my sister’s graduation from the Foxcroft School. That’s good. Thank you town fathers, city planners and everyone who has kept out teardowns, dreadful add-ons and McDonalds. This horsey village is charming and filled with unique shops selling tasteful horsey stuff. It’s a lovely place to walk around.

And the Red Fox Inn? In a word – wonderful. Dating back to 1728 and still family owned and operated, there are 25 rooms spread over a number of buildings. We stayed in the dead quiet and comfortable Huntland room in the Stray Fox building,  that includes a terrific breakfast. We also had a nice dinner in the atmospheric Tavern.

The next morning we walked around some more and then took a leisurely drive (Middleburg is 23 miles to Dulles) through strikingly beautiful hunt country with a stop in Leesburg for lunch in the back garden of Shoes Cup & Cork that was very relaxing and the perfect antidote to getting on BA’s cattle class A380 to London.

So if you need a place to stay close, but not too close, to Dulles that is full of atmosphere, good service and good food, look no further than the Red Fox Inn in Middleburg.

Baatan Death March? No, our baby is going to college

Meaning no disrespect to the real American and Filipino victims, my husband and I just finished a deadly march of sorts – down the east coast of the US to look at universities with our daughter. We saw 10 in 12 days. That’s a lot of universities and a lot of travel. I can’t tell you which ones or what my daughter thought about them. That’s her story. Our story is about what will be probably our last road trip together. We always knew she would leave but now we’re accompanying her on her shopping trip for the next chapter of her life. At Heathrow airport, she’s excited. We’re a little sad.

We start in Boston – America’s ultimate college town containing 50 college and universities with 250,000 students. What a party. And here’s the good news. Logan Airport, the car rental facilities and the drive in to Boston are much improved from our day or even the days of her older brothers. Of course we had trouble finding our hotel off Boston Common because 1) there was a huge Greek Independence Day Parade taking place and 2) it was “off the Common” in an uncommon way so after a stressful time in the car, we unloaded, unpacked and hightailed it to Radio Shack to buy a GPS thinking that would solve our navigational problems. Hahahahahahah.

The Boston Park Plaza Hotel was awful by the way. If you have never been roused at 2:00 in the morning in the same room as your teenage daughter unhappy to be sleeping in the same room as her snoring parents (that should have been a suite with privacy) to race down 9 flights of stairs to find a lobby full of clueless guests and staff and fire department, to go back up and have it all happen again at 3:00 – well, you just haven’t lived.

But the universities were great. Our child, our little Chouchou, was off and running towards her future. After all the discussion, meetings and SAT practice, our very English daughter was getting her first real taste of the American university experience and it looked, as we hoped it would, very appealing. She’s thinking of her favorite films -  Good Will Hunting and the Social Network. We’re thinking of Animal House. Everyone’s happy.

So back in the car and on to Providence. An easy run. No arguments. The Hotel Providence was as wonderful as the Boston Park Plaza was awful and Providence has gone through a rejuvenation that we found inspiring. Go America!

Back in the car. The GPS doesn’t do its thing. An unholy row breaks out in the front seats. In the back, Eloise puts on her headphones and settles in to watch Game of Thrones on her laptop –  less violence and more interesting than what was transpiring up front.

We spent a fun and relaxing night with my brother in Rye, New York where I grew up. I walked by our old house, and by all the houses of my childhood that have quadrupled in size. Progress they say. Monuments to consumption I say. Where are the city planners? But enough whinging. On to the train and into Manhattan.

Manhattan looked great.  Our hotel, The Jade on 13^th between 5^th and 6^th was really nice. Eloise went guitar shopping at Mat Uminov on Bleeker Street with Brian Cullman, world music expert and Uncle. And of course, our London-born child fell hopelessly in love with New York. You go girl but a mother worries. Is she tough enough? She thinks so. Let her go Mama Bear.

Back in the car and on to Philadelphia. Talk about rejuvenation, Philly looks amazing. We stayed with children of friends in a fab house on Lombard Street who are managing careers, babies and renovations with aplomb. Hooray for all the young families who are reclaiming American cities and for the cities that are embracing them.

Back in the car. GPS argument. Out come the headphones. On goes Game of Thrones.

We arrive in Washington, DC without that much nasty traffic and have a great dinner with all our friends and family who live there and who have known Eloise since she was born. Of course everyone is interested in what she has seen, liked and will see in the next few days. They are supportive. Eloise is diplomatic. It’s all good.

Back in the car. Monsoons. GPS argument. North Carolina, more wonderful family and friends. And then we were done. 12 days, 10 schools, 690 miles. Through it all, Eloise was good spirited. We saw so many wonderful universities. We had lots of fun. Last night Eloise flew back to London with her father to get ready for the start of school. I am spending an extra week in NC to see family and friends and check on the farm.

This morning she sent me a Facebook message. “Do you miss me yet?” followed by a weeping emoticon.

She has no idea.

The Windy City

In a rare example of gamekeeper turns poacher, No Crowds' Editor offers some great tips on how to enjoy Chicago in January. 

I was back in Chicago, the birthplace of both my parents, last weekend for an important family event.  I have mixed emotions about the City:  I spent most holidays with my grandparents in the Chicago burbs in my late teens and early twenties.  My parents had left in 1946 to find fame and fortune back East and lived mostly overseas.

First, Chicago is not a city you visit in mid-January, unless you have a good reason:  your niece and nephew’s coming of age celebration or the Bears playoff game.  Chicago is a very American city: brash and smug.  It has everything:  several sports teams, multinational company HQs, a thriving restaurant culture (we tried to get into Rick Bayliss’s place, but it was booked!), world class cultural icons (the Symphony and Art Institute, although my favourite is the Science Museum where you can board a U boat captured in WWII) and lots of interesting places to live and play.   It is also the home of the Efficient Market Theory  - which is a little frayed at the edges these days!

Aside from the family celebrations, my favourite take-aways from this visit were:

A haircut at the Medinah Barber Shop.  The shop is named after the former Shriners HQs on North Michigan Avenue (now Bloomingdales) where it was once located.  I have had my hair cut at Geo F. Trumper (Prince Charles’s barber in London), but this took the biscuit.  The reading material ranged from Playboy to Charles Darwin.  Free drinks are provided as well as TV along with Chicago history (courtesy of Ronald Edwards—The Barber).  Needless to say the haircut was superb.

A deep dish pizza at Pizzeria Uno.  My son, Mac, who is always hungry texted his frat brother as we cabbed in from Midway to ascertain where to get the best pizza.  After checking in at the Marriott, we ambled over (despite the concierge trying to divert us to Giordano’s, a chain which also has a great reputation).  We ordered a medium Spinach pizza (as Mac says:  “I hate spinach but I ‘m told a Spinach deep dish is the best”).  It took 45 minutes to arrive (as advertised).  It was delicious and we could only eat three quarters of it.  All this for $30 bucks!!

If you go to the Windy City, enjoy the culture and sports, but don’t forget to get a haircut and have a deep dish pizza.  The Marriott is in a great location, minutes away on foot from the Art Institute, Uno’s, shopping on the Magnificent Mile and Medinah’s.

Medinah Barber Shop—3 East Huron (hours 7am to 6pm—closed Wednesday & Sunday)

 Tel 312 844 1549

Pizzeria Uno—29 East Ohio (open daily 11 to 11)  Tel 312 321 1000

Marriott Chicago Downtown—540 North Michigan.  Tel 312 836 6139

Photo Credit: www.chicagomag.com

See America Profonde - Just Like Hannah Montana

I was comparing a trip to North Carolina with an English friend recently. She has a son attending Duke University and is a frequent visitor to the Tarheel State. We were both there during the UK October school break. And what did she describe as the highlight of her visit, besides seeing her son? Going to the North Carolina State Fair. The state fair is an annual exposition that has been running in Raleigh, North Carolina since 1853, with only a few time-outs for the Civil and Second World Wars

Wow, I exclaimed. We were there too. Didn’t you just love it! Such crazy food - deep fat fried ice cream. Weren’t the animals beautiful? I loved the goats, and the cows. Did you go to the pig race? And for the next 20 minutes, we recounted more highlights: the Demolition Derby, the Grand Champion turkey and the record-breaking pumpkins. We agreed. It was extraordinary. We loved it.

In listening to my English friend, I realized that the state fair had given her a real glimpse into ‘America Profonde’ – a view that few foreign visitors get to see. Without irony, she embraced the spirit that enjoys crashing cars, eating ridiculous food and racing pigs. But she also appreciated the young farmers who know a lot about farming and take excellent care of their animals, the bee keepers working hard to maintain healthy hives, the church groups serving up ham biscuits in support of good causes and the local dairies making cheeses the old fashioned way. In short, she found going to a state fair to be a great way to experience what makes America, well, America.

And I like the reaction of one of my daughter’s friends from Singapore when Eloise told her she was going to the North Carolina State Fair.

Oh my God, Eloise, you are just like Hannah Montana!

The Secrets of the Panda

On the day after the election-to-end-all-elections, I invite you to forget Washington politics for a moment and contemplate the panda.

The giant pandas are Washington DC’s greatest celebrities. Everyone loves them. On loan from the Chinese government, they feature on the city’s Metro tickets. There are special Panda Hotel Packages. Fedex created a special plane, the fuel efficient Panda Express, to ship their baby back to China in a record 14.5 hours. They are a phenomenon. But that’s the problem. How can you visit the giant pandas at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo without having the experience ruined by the crowds?

By accident, we have the answer. Go during the week (and not during the summer) in really, really bad weather. Watch the sky and if the heavens open like Monsoon Mumbai, my advice is to rush to the Panda House at the National Zoo. We were there recently with Eloise in heavy rain and there was no one there. No one! We did see one other hapless British family wandering around but that was it. When the pandas were brought inside at around 2:30 for some biscuits and bamboo, we (and the keepers) were the only humans in sight. And to think that not so long ago, when the pair’s only baby was in residence, you had to reserve a time slot to see them. I’ve been to the National Zoo many times. I’ve seen the pandas many times but never have I come away so delighted and thrilled by the experience.

And for that matter, the rest of the Zoo was great too. The reptiles were repulsive, the birds pretty and the orangutans convivial. It’s not every day that a soaking wet thirteen-year-old and her parents can have a fine time together in a deserted national institution.

Admission to the National Zoo is free but the parking is expensive. If you want to save money, you can travel by either bus or metro but whatever you do, go in terrible weather.

The photo was taken by Eloise Hedges.

University Challenge

What are No Crowds favourite destinations in America? College towns. Think, Berkeley in California and Chapel Hill/Durham in North Carolina - and there are so many more.


A quick survey on Twitter produced this list of favourites:


Cambridge, Massachusetts
Madison, Wisconsin
Charlottesville, Virginia
Princeton, New Jersey
Ann Arbor Michigan
Santa Cruz, California
Providence, Rhode Island
Hanover, New Hampshire

Without much effort, you could put together an awesome trip across America just visiting towns with colleges and universities. They all share characteristics that make for great travel destinations. And you don’t have to be young or a student to enjoy them.

They are all cosmopolitan. They always have some interesting (non-chain) places to stay. They have lots of restaurants at all price points and tons of bars, cafes, bookstores and art house cinemas that stay open late. The campuses are invariably beautiful and filled with arts and sports venues that are open to the public, all at student prices. There’s even pretty good public transportation. It all boils down to big city amenities without the crowds, the cost or the stress.

Are you sold on the idea yet? Well, we are. So much so that for the next six weeks we will be “embedded” at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University just outside of Boston finishing a degree that was begun 32 years ago. To make the experience more authentic (and because we’re frugal and lazy) we’ll be living in the dorm, something we haven’t done since Jimmy Carter was President, the Red Army Faction was on trial and Apple Computer was incorporated.

OK, it’s been a while but we think it’s very cool that the University is supporting this Ueber-mature student in her late but sincere desire to finish up. This project would also not have been possible without the support of the Editor and family:

“Hey Mom, you’re living in the dorm. Jesus, you’re gonna hate it. Imagine living with 100 people just like me”.

“Hey Sis, don’t you remember that there was always some crazy old lady on campus and you always wondered what she was doing there. Now you ARE the crazy old lady on campus. Have a great time.”

New York at Christmas

We love reading good travel blogs and we particularly enjoy dipping into National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel where we were recently introduced to Frances Coke Page and her website Christmastime in New York City.

After a few minutes on the site, we were poised to reroute our flights and head for the Big Apple: the Bronx Messiah, a Brooklyn Nutcracker, the Charlie Brown Christmas at BB King Blues Club and Grill and best of all, the annual reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” in the Clement Clarke Moore Park, which is where Clement Clarke Moore wrote his famous poem.

Frances Coke Page, we’re homesick for New York City at Christmas and it’s all your fault.

Photo Credit: Kruhme's photo stream on Flickr

The Harvard Museum of Natural History

We have Boston on the brain.

Maybe it was Icelandair. They’re offering flights from London and three night in a Boston three star hotel for £384 and you can throw in an overnight stay in a four star hotel in poor, bankrupt Reykjavik for an extra £15. Maybe it was the thought that Barack Obama went to Harvard, which got us thinking about bumming around Cambridge which has the largest number of bookstores per capita in the world. Or maybe it was the fact that the Director of Communications and Marketing from the Harvard Museum of Natural History, with the memorable first name of ‘Blue’, sent us an email encouraging us to visit the museum on our next visit across the pond.

Blue makes the case that the Harvard Museum of Natural History is a No Crowds destination par excellence as the museum contains world class collections without world class crowds. Taking a look at the website, we have to agree with Blue.

For starters, we’re smitten with their cool looking zoological collection. They have amazing looking animals, fish and reptiles including dinosaurs and dodos and the world's only mounted Kronosaurus, a 42 foot long prehistoric marine reptile. They have a breathtakingly beautiful collection of more than 3,000 glass flower models (see the photo above) created by a father and son team over the course of five decades. The mineral and gem collection is also impressive with a huge 1,600 pound amethyst from Brazil and lots of meteors from outer space.

Current special exhibitions include “The Language of Color” through September 6, 2009 which looks at the use and meaning of color in animals, “Looking at Leaves” through February 8, 2009 containing black and white photographs by New York photographer, Amanda Means and “Sea Creatures in Glass” through March 1, 2009 by the same father/son team who created the Glass Flowers.

As I combed through the website, I kept asking myself how it was that I had studied in Boston, taken my children there many times and missed this fabulous place. Thanks to Icelandair, I may be fixing the problem shortly. If you are headed to Boston, don’t make the same mistake.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History
26 Oxford Street (just pat Harvard Yard)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Tel: 617 495 3045
hmnh@oeb.harvard.edu

Open 9 am to 5 pm, seven days a week
Except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Day and New Years

General Admission
$9 for adults
$7 for students ( Harvard students are free) and seniors
$6 for children

Admission also gets you into the adjacent Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Photo credit: Hillel Burger via the Harvard Museum of Natural History Flickr pool

The Library of Congress - Politics with No Crowds

"All is Politics in this Capitol"
Thomas Jefferson

As much as we love the Smithsonian museums and the Phillips Collection, we feel visitors to Washington DC would be missing a trick if they came to town and did not pay a visit to the Capitol, a working legislative body and one of the most recognized monuments in the world. Here’s the problem with that idea. Tickets. According to the U.S. Capitol Guide Service website:

“Tickets are distributed each morning beginning at 9:00 AM … Tickets are required for all tours of the Capitol. … personnel distribute the tickets on a first come, first serve basis … Tickets … are for the same day admission only …During the busy months of Spring and Summer, the line for tickets forms quite early in the morning, so please plan accordingly.”

When NoCrowds reads something like that, we run for the hills but we are happy to report that on our last visit to Washington, we did find in the Library of Congress an easier way to get the Capitol Hill experience without a ticket and with far fewer crowds.

The Library of Congress, housed in three buildings directly east of the Capitol, serves as the research arm of Congress. It is America’s oldest cultural institution and with 138 million objects stored on 650 miles of shelves, it is the largest library in the world. Being a research library, most of the books and objects are kept secure in closed stacks but are available to anyone over the age of 18 who wishes to conduct research.

All the action for visitors to the Library can be found in the glitzy, spectacular Jefferson Building which has more gold, marble, mosaics and statues than any government building we’ve ever seen. During our visit, we were able to wander through several exhibitions including “Creating the United States” which looks at the ideas, collaboration and compromise involved in drafting America’s founding documents and “Exploring the Early Americas” about encounters between native Americans and Europeans. There is an inspiring exhibition on Thomas Jefferson and a recreation of the Library he sold to Congress in 1815. Popular culture is well represented in the Bob Hope exhibition on American entertainment. A lot of effort has gone into making these exhibitions interactive, so they are ideal for younger audiences.

Free guided tours lasting about 45 minutes and requiring no advance reservations are offered at 10:30, 11:30, 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 (but no 3:30 tour on Saturdays). If tours aren’t your thing you can take yourself around the building. There is Discovery Guide for children and a gift shop for the “If you behave yourself, I’ll buy you a treat” routine.

So what’s the verdict on the Library of Congress? A visit is an excellent way to get a Washington political fix without getting on a tourist hamster wheel. The pomp and circumstance of the Library speaks volumes about political life in the nation’s capitol. The exhibits do a good job of presenting America’s view of itself and the world. You can pop in or linger as you like. If you are like us, you will leave thinking that regardless of one's view of the US government, it sure does know how to organise a great library.


The Library of Congress
Jefferson Building – The Library of Congress Experience
1st Street SE (between Independence Avenue and East Capitol Street)

http://www.loc.gov/
Tel: 202 707 8000
Email vso@loc.gov

Hours – Monday through Saturday 10 am to 5pm
Closed Sunday and federal holidays

Photography by Carol M. Highsmith from the Library of Congress website

The Phillips Collection: Washington's Other Museum

For visitors to Washington DC, there is an art collection just off Dupont Circle that is miles away from the Smithsonian museum complex in both scale and temperament. In a town of state institutions and memorials, the Phillips Collection is all about a private individual and an intimate space. Reminding NoCrowds of the Wallace Collection in London and the Jacquemart-Andre Museum in Paris, at the heart of the Phillips Collection is a romantic story involving a visionary collector and a grand house. In this case, the visionary collector was Duncan Phillips, the grand house was his Georgian Revival home and the story involves his appreciation of then little known artists who went on to become the masters of 20th century art.

Dashing into the museum between meetings, we were able to view works from the permanent collection, including the iconic Luncheon of the Boating Party by Renoir and lots of wonderful European and American impressionists and post impressionists. We also visited the special exhibition Christo and Jean-Claude: Over the River, a Work in Progress. Ever since these two artists transformed New York’s Central Park with “The Gates” installation, we’ve wondered how they ever got such a project off the ground. The Over the River exhibition provided lots of interesting information about how Christo and Jean-Claude conceive and bring about one of their installations.

We didn’t have lots of time for our visit to the Phillips Collection but it still sticks in our mind. We like the fact that in a town full of huge state-supported institutions, there is also room for a premier private initiative. Being a private institution, there is a somewhat complicated charging system for admission on the weekend and for the special exhibitions, but admission to the permanent collection during the week is free and all the time for under 18s. In any event, we feel the bottom line is that the setting, the house, the art and the story are first class. We enjoyed the scale and lack of crowds. By all means, visit the museums on the Mall but save some time and energy for the Phillips Collection, Washington’s other museum.

The Phillips Collection
1600 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009

Opening Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm
Thursday – until 8:30pm
Sunday – 11am – 6pm

Admission to Christo and Jean Claude: Over the River and to the permanent collection on the weekend is $12

Photo 0f Marjorie and Duncan Phillips by Naomi Savage in front of Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party from the Phillips Collection website

The Best Value Outing in America

NoCrowds received an email recently from a Danish friend on a business trip asking where she should spend a few free hours in Washington D.C.

“I was thinking of taking a tour of the White House”, she wrote.

“Forget it. You need to plan months in advance. Besides, you are nationality-impaired. You’ll never get in,” we wrote back.

We advised her to head instead for the Smithsonian museums on the Mall. The museum complex, the largest in the world, with more than 136 million objects, has something for everyone. All the museums are within walking distance and free. Some of the museums, such as the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian, are crowded. Some, such as the Freer and the Sackler Galleries are virtually empty. The choice is so vast; you can wade in or avoid the scrum according to your mood and interests. For foreigners, it’s a great place to watch Americans and for Americans, it’s a great place to watch yourself.

Following our own advice, we spent a half day on the Mall during a recent visit. As we always do, we popped in to the Freer and Sackler Galleries to see the world’s largest collections of James Whistler's work, as well as the world's largest collection of 19th century Hokusai prints. Having been to mobbed (and expensive) shows for both artists in London and Paris, we love seeing the work in such a tranquil and intimate space – and for free.

Until January 4, 2009, the Sackler also has an exhibition of newly discovered royal paintings of Jodhpur from the 17th to the 19th centuries entitled “Garden and Cosmos” which is worth a visit, especially since this is the first time many of these works have been seen by anyone besides a maharajah!

We headed next for the imposing National Gallery of Art, created by a joint resolution of Congress in 1937, which has one of the largest and finest collections of Western paintings and sculpture in the world. On the day of our visit, the place was packed with vacationing American families in shorts and sneakers taking pictures of themselves next to famous works of art. Outside, financial markets were crashing, just as they had when the museum was founded, but inside, we were all on holiday. Eavesdropping on some of the conversations was as much fun as seeing the art. For example, a man standing in front of a massive Anthony van Dyck portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, from 1633, turns to his wife and remarked, “Honey, you know this photograph over here. I like the frame.” Good for you, we thought, here’s a man that in a middle of a crisis, still knows what he likes.

After an hour's wander through art history’s greatest hits, it was time to head home but not before we sampled a really good barbeque sandwich from a funky bug-like zero-emission kart outside the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

NoCrowds has often wondered why Washington street food, particularly what you can find around the Mall, has always been so bloody awful. Well it seems that a long standing moratorium on vending licenses made the existing hot dog and soft drink sellers complacent. A recent lifting of this moratorium has provided a company called On the Fly with the opportunity to sell more interesting and healthy “grab and go” food from environmentally friendly karts around the city. The company has hired a chef trained at The Inn at Little Washington, one of the nation’s top restaurants, and partnered with such well known local providers as Rockland BBQ and Julia’s Empanadas. The results are impressive. Being from North Carolina, we were sceptical that some boys from DC could pull off a decent barbeque sandwich, but for $6.50, On the Fly produced a succulent sandwich along with some good, not-too-sweet coleslaw.

In 2006, NoCrowds had this to say about the Smithsonian National Museums:

“I know of no other place in the world where you can see and learn about more things with greater ease, for less money, than on the Mall in Washington.”

In 2008, this is still the case, but now we have an even greater need for both the savings and the inspiration that visiting these national treasures can provide. With the addition of good and well priced food from On the Fly, a visit to the Mall in Washington wins the NoCrowds award for the best value outing in America.

Smithsonian – most museums are open every day from 10 to 5:30 except Christmas.

On the Fly karts in front of the Portrait Gallery, Hirshhorn and Natural History Museum. Click here for location and times.

Photo of Queen Henrietta with Sir Jeffrey Hudson, 1633, from the National Gallery collection.

Better on a Bus

"I'd rather go by bus."
Prince Charles


On a recent trip to the United States, NoCrowds needed to travel from New York City to Washington D.C. We considered all the usual options: rent a car, fly or take the train, but each option seemed either a hassle or expensive or both.

We consulted our children who regularly ride the Chinatown bus services (Fung Wah and Lucky Star) operating between the two cities.

Their response. “You guys are past it. It’s cheap but you are way too anal to put up with the chaotic service. Try Vamoose, they’re a bit more expensive but more your style.”

A harsh but accurate assessment of our aging inflexibility prompted a review of the discount bus services that have cropped up along the Boston to Washington route in recent years. In fact, there are lots of companies, such as Vamoose, Megabus and Boltbus, offering cheap, scheduled service on clean, comfortable vehicles. Pricing and amenities vary and we ended up choosing Boltbus which boasts power outlets and free wifi with fares starting as low as $1 each way plus a booking fee. The earlier you book, the cheaper the fare. We paid $15 each. Walk-up fares are $25.

And what was our experience? The bus arrived and left on time. Our driver told lots of bad political jokes. The wifi and power outlets were great. The bus was clean and comfortable. We arrived on schedule (four hours and 15 minutes later) and since we could work on the internet for the entire journey, we hardly noticed the time. For the record, we were the oldest folks on the bus.


Boltbus
http://www.boltbus.com/
no phone

Vamoose
http://www.vamoosebus.com/
Tel: 877 393 2828

Megabus
http://www.megabus.com/
Tel: 877 462 6342

Fung Wah
http://www.fungwahbus.com/
Tel: 212 925 8889

Luckystar
http://www.luckystarbus.com/
Tel: 888 881 0887

48 Hours in Berkeley or Why I Envy my Son

At last, we arrived in Berkeley. I was beside myself with excitement but filled with questions. America’s epicentre of student radicalism looms large in the imagination of anyone raised in 1960s America. This was the home of the Free Speech Movement and a place where students had put their careers on the line to fight for civil liberties. But what would it be like in post 9/11 America, where would Berkeley now come down on the civil liberties versus national security debate and what would Eloise make of it all.

In every way, Berkeley exceeded expectations. Eloise’s expectations were simple. She just wanted to hang out with her brother and so we did. He proudly gave us a tour of the beautiful University, where Nobel prize winners are so numerous that they have their own parking spaces. He drove us around the lovely Berkeley hills. We watched him play a spirited match of Ultimate Frisbee. Eloise attended a Game Theory class at the Haas School of Business and to the surprise of the other students, launched herself into a discussion of Red Bull marketing. While this was going on, I attended a presentation by Matt Kistler, SVP for Sustainability at Wal-Mart. Although Kistler convinced me that Wal-Mart was paying serious attention to the environment, I still had trouble connecting his remarks to my experience as a Wal-Mart customer. Nevertheless, I valued the fact that Berkeley had organised the debate, that Kistler had agreed to speak and that I was allowed to attend.

As part of Eloise’s sentimental education, we paid a visit to the activists who set up shop daily on the campus’s Sproul Plaza. At the time, Free Tibet was the hot topic. We also had a lengthy discussion with a young woman named “Citizen” who was handling communications for the Memorial Oak Grove Tree Sit, a group that has been living for over a year in trees which the University would like to cut down to build a sports center. Eloise suggested that we throw some food into the trees for the campaigners but Citizen said we should join the Sunday gathering of grandmothers who were resupplying the treesitters. Otherwise, we might get arrested. Of course, there are always two sides to every story and the counter-argument to Citizens position was well articulated in an open letter sent to all students by the UC Berkeley police chief. If you’re interested, you can read the letter here. Eloise and her brother (who supports the University and as a Native American studies major in college, claims that the Indian burial ground argument is rubbish) had lively debates about the issue.

In addition to the treesitters, we also made a point of visiting the Code Pink:Women for Peace (aka the Pink Ladies) campout in front of the Marine Recruiting Office which was also attended by a large contingent of Berkeley police and a group who opposed the Pink Ladies waving American flags. This time, Eloise felt the police presence was out of proportion to the threat posed by the singing women in pink outfits and we had another discussion about civil liberties, free speech and national security. I was really happy that Eloise had a chance to see an American city that was so engaged in debating the big issues of the day. She takes so much flack in Europe for her American heritage. The next time she is accused of coming from a country of apathetic ignoramuses who don’t care about the rest of the world, she can respond, “I have been to Berkeley and I know better.”

But our stay in Berkeley was not all protestors and politics. It was also about the pleasures of an interesting hotel, fabulous food, and the great outdoors. While in Berkeley, we stayed at the historic landmark hotel, the Berkeley City Club which was built by Hearst Castle architect, Julia Morgan, for a woman’s organization dedicated to fostering social, civic and cultural progress. Much of Morgan’s signature style, used to such great effect at Hearst Castle, such as the gorgeous 1930s swimming pools and the flamboyant Moorish Gothic architecture, can also be found in this wonderful club and hotel in Berkeley. The hotel rooms are comfortable, paying tribute to the club’s genteel antecedents and feeling much like a very nice bedroom at your granny’s. Rooms look out over either the San Francisco Bay or the Berkeley hills. Staff is appealingly eccentric. Arriving back late one evening, the desk clerk used us as an impromptu focus group to critique the cover of his new 1980s disco compilation CD. The City Club’s location, a block away from the UC Berkely campus and a few minutes walk from the BART rapid transport system, couldn’t be better. For all of this we paid $125 a night for our room with breakfast included which I felt was good value given that we were staying in a fantastic bit of history in such a great location.

As for food, eating in Berkeley is like dying and going to heaven. Starting with Peets, the cult-like purveyor of coffee and tea on the corner of Walnut and Vine, to the nearby Cheese Board and Pizza Collectives (no boss, no manager, no non-owner worker) which serves some of the best tasting cheese, bread and pizza found anywhere in the United States, to the small restaurant across the street, Chez Panisse, which single headedly created a philosophy of food that changed the way America eats, this is a city which cares passionately about what it eats.

During our stay we ate at a remarkable delicatessen called Saul’s that could give Katz’s Delicatessen in New York a run for its money. The pastrami sandwich brought tears of homesickness to my eyes. Our dinner at the Chez Panisse Café, was everything I hoped it would be. We loved the lively informality of the Café, which looked like more fun than the shrine-like restaurant to “Saint Alice” downstairs. We had asparagus with lemon, ricotta and herbs, halibut with leeks, turnips, potatoes and romesco sauce, duck braised with artichokes and rosemary and polenta and Lee chowed down on a large piece of rib-eye roast with potatoes, spinach and anchovy butter. Prices were fair with starters ranging from $7.50 to $14 and mains from $17 to $28. There was even a 3 course prix fixe for $28 which looked good.

We also had a fabulous pizza lunch with root beer from the Cheeseboard Pizza Collective sitting, in clear defiance of the law on the grass median right in the middle of Shattuck Avenue, just like everyone else.

On top of all the amazing places to eat in Berkeley, the city also has one of the coolest owner/operator grocery stores in America. If you want to see what Whole Foods was like before it went the way of ‘big organic’, head for the 40,000 square foot Berkeley Bowl, located about one mile south of downtown Berkeley. The produce aisles will blow your mind. There’s an aisle as long as a football field devoted just to citrus, another just for mushrooms. People from all walks of life and income levels were in there shopping up a storm. Prices were fair and the quality and selection was extraordinary. This may sound silly but I found this grocery store very inspiring. Every American deserves to eat better and owner/operated businesses deserve to succeed. I thought the Berkeley Bowl pointed the way to how both those goals could be achieved.

In addition to the incredible food, another thing that blew our minds during our stay was a trip to visit the coastal redwoods in the Muir Woods National Monument. Just 12 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, this is the sole remaining stand of old growth redwoods trees in the Bay Area and one of the last on the planet. It’s a heavily visited place but you can easily get away from the crowds by taking one of the many trails leading out of the valley. And its more than worth the effort. There is something about these awe inspiring, ancient trees, some more than 1,000 years old towering more than 250 feet above your head, that puts your place in the universe into sharper perspective. After communing with the majestic trees, we headed for the Marin Headlands, which, along with Muir Woods, is part of a 75,398 acre Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Seeing so much magnificent (and valuable) land saved from development, stretching for miles along the Pacific Ocean within spitting distance of San Francisco, was also an inspiring experience. As we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, I had the thought that being envious of your own child was unattractive and un-maternal, but in the case of my Bay area son, I couldn’t help myself. This place is just too perfect. Come see for yourself.

Useful Addresses

Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant Avenue
Tel: 510 848 7800
Fax 510 848 5900
http://www.berkeleycityclub.com/

Peets Coffee & Tea
2124 Vine Street
516 841 0564
http://www.peets.com/

The Cheese Board Collective
Bread and cheese: 1504 Shattuck Ave
510 549 3183
Pizza: 1512 Shattuck Ave
510 549 3055
http://www.cheeseboardcollective.coop/

Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café
1517 Shattuck Avenue
Café reservations: 510 548 5049
Restaurant reservations: 510-548 5525
http://www.chezpanisse.com/

Saul’s Restaurant & Delicatessen
1475 Shattuck Avenue
Tel: 510 848 3354
http://www.saulsdeli.com/

Berkeley Bowl Marketplace
2020 Oregon Street
510 843 6929

Muir Woods National Monument
Tel: 415 388 2595
Admission: $3
Open 8am to sunset or 5pm in winter

San Francisco

As we drove north from Carmel, road and hotel weary, we looked forward to getting out of the car and back into a city. At last, we pulled up to a lavender/blue house which clung spectacularly to the side of a steep hill in the Noe Valley section of San Francisco. This was the home of my west coast cousin the Art Diva, and I was keen to see how she had “set up shop” with her family since the days when we had been playmates in New York. Waiting at the window of the welcoming house was Lucy, the Diva’s daughter who was the same age as Eloise.

What if she doesn’t like me?
Eloise, of course, she is going to like you. You’re related. Anyway, I like her mother and she’ll like you. How could she live in such an awesome place and not be nice. Just get out of the car.
Mom, you are so weird.

Weird I may be but I was right about Lucy and San Francisco. The girls hit it off and San Francisco was gorgeous and cool and perfect. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. Here was a city with unique, well-preserved neighbourhoods and with spectacular panoramic views. Here was a city where you were never far from nature, a city with a passion for food, with a comprehensive public transport system and health care access for all. The only thing that wasn’t great, after southern California, was the weather but as I put my fleece jacket back on and ignored the rain, I was reminded of something one of my sons’s once said about London. “Mom, you should be grateful that the weather is crap, otherwise everyone would want to live here.”

During our whirlwind visit to San Francisco, thanks to the Art Diva, we covered a lot of territory in a short amount of time. We saw the outside of the striking and controversial de Young museum in the Golden Gate Park and the inside of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. We drove around the kaleidoscope of neighborhoods. We saw the relics from the Summer of Love in the Haight, the uber-mansions of the rich and famous in Pacific Heights’ and the gayest scene on earth in the Castro.

Best of all, we spent the better part of Saturday wandering around the Ferry Building Marketplace and farmers market, which is a ‘must see’ destination for anyone who loves food. Not only is the beautifully restored Ferry Building an important city landmark but Northern California’s proximity to some of the best farmland in America has created a cornucopia of some of the loveliest, freshest, and most interesting food you’ll find anywhere in the US.

The people who go to the market are pretty colourful too. At one farm stand piled high with extremely beautiful ‘heritage’ beans, a woman stops, and with a strong accent of undeterminable origin, launches into battery of questions, “What are those beans? Do you really cook them? I never cook them. When do you cook them? Why do you cook them? How do you cook them?” The pretty young woman who was selling the beans patiently answered the bean inquisitor’s questions. After all that, the sale was not made. Fascinated by it all, we bought the beans instead.

Speaking of San Francisco and food, thanks to a reservation made several weeks ahead by my well organised son, we also were able to enjoy dinner at one of the city’s best known restaurants, the Zuni Café. Even living in London, I had heard about Judy Rodgers, who had trained with both the Troisgros brothers in France and Alice Waters in Berkeley. I really wanted to try her famous Zuni Roast Chicken and was determined that if it was better than mine, I would buy the cookbook and incorporate the technique. Now I roast a good chicken, but the Zuni chicken was far better, being more flavourful and more succulent. The secret is to salt the bird at least 24 hours in advance, buy a small chicken and cook at a very high temperature. While my son and I enjoyed the chicken, Eloise was wolfing down an order of pasta with wild sausage and rapini. Starters included the gnocchi ricotta with wild nettles (superb) and a rich and earthy lentil soup. The vibe was friendly and informal and while the service was imperfect with a few pacing problems and missed details, we ate lots of great food and had lots of fun. Maybe I’ve lived in London too long, but I also felt that the cost, at $145 for three people, represented good value given the quality of what we were eating.

After several days of imposing on the Art Diva’s generosity, it was time to return the uncool red Chevy Impala and Garmon Girl to Avis, hopped on BART rapid transport and head across the bay to Berkeley, the world’s most famous counter-culture playpen and temporary home to my oldest son who was studying at the University.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park
De Young in Golden Gate Park
Tel: 1-800-777-9996
http://www.famsf.org/
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.


Ferry Building Marketplace
One Ferry Building
Tel: 415 693 0996
info@ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

Marketplace hours:
10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday – Friday,
9 a.m. on Saturday
11 a.m. – 5 pm on Sunday

The Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market Hours:
10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tuesday
8:00 a.m. – 2 pm Saturday
Tel: 415 291 3276
http://www.cuesa.org/

Zuni Café
1658 Market Street
Tel: 415 552 2522
www.zunicafe.com

Three Emails = One Good Hotel

The countdown to Thanksgiving has started. The fact that 34 hungry pilgrims are coming for dinner on Thursday has distracted NoCrowds from the business or researching and writing. Instead of scouring the countryside for the undervalued and overlooked, it’s time to check the chairs, cutlery and glasses and corner the London market in sweet potatoes and pecan pies. With so little time, imagine our delight to open Outlook this morning to find three emails that did the job for us.

Let’s begin with the email from Sandy.

“The dollar’s unstoppable decline will make our premise - Europeans want to wander through the ‘real America’ - more compelling and actionable every day.

Here’s my precise prediction of what happens next:

1. The Saudi's will finally realize it's silly to recycle petro dollars--$20 Billion per shot--into the U.S. economy, via Chelsea Clinton's Hedge Fund. They'll get a better return by digging a hole in the ground than investing in S&P 500 and Russell 2000 equities.

2. The market, reacting sharply to this betrayal, will fall, quickly, by 10-15%...a few 1,000+ point daily drops.

3. Like the Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who reportedly refused to accept payment for her services in dollars, the Saudi's might just do the same, prompting a grave dollar crises.

4. At this point, Michael Bloomberg, who's been lately silent about his Presidential ambitions, will step forward, propose a turnaround plan and figuratively AND literally buy the Presidency. Like Abraham Lincoln before him, Bloomberg will assemble a all-star coalition government, and hopefully attract the best and brightest minds from both sides of the aisle.

5. By 2010, the dollar will begin to turn around. The Saudi's will resume their petro-dollar recycling. The market will stabilize and also turn around.

6. In summary, we've a three year window to get the nocrowdsamerica blog off the ground!”

He’s right, we thought. We need more content about America!

We then opened the email from Jeff about the Carolina Inn which stated:

The Carolina Inn and Carolina Crossroads Restaurant Earn AAA Four Diamond Ratings

11-15-2007 CHAPEL HILL, N.C.

The Carolina Inn, one of the state’s most renowned hotel properties, continued that elite status with recognition as a 2008 AAA Four Diamond Hotel Rating. Meanwhile, its signature Carolina Crossroads Restaurant also was given an esteemed 2008 AAA Four Diamond Restaurant Rating.

Befitting the good news, The Carolina Inn will open its doors for five weeks of holiday activities during its 10th Annual “Twelve Days of Christmas Celebration” from Dec. 2-Jan. 6. A 10-ton sand sculpture depicting the final verse of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” carol, Breakfast with Santa, Teddy Bear Tea Parties and three community fundraisers highlight some two dozen events.

Long recognized as one of America’s “cultural resources worthy of preservation,” The Carolina Inn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and recently broadened that lofty stature with the announcement that it was among the Historic Hotels of America members joining the Preferred Hotel Group Brand.

He's right, we thought, the Carolina Inn is a perfect place to feature in NoCrowds America.

Then we opened the email from Gary where he suggested:

Some interesting things you can do when pointing out new destinations to people. You can include a “Google Earth” type map which has photos pinned to it from people who have been to the area and have posted them. Here are a couple of examples—note that the little blue markers are pictures that people have taken and posted online.

The cinqueterre:
http://loc.alize.us/#/tag:cinqueterre/geo:44.070814,9.481201,10,h/

Corvara:
http://loc.alize.us/#/tag:corvara/geo:46.551793,11.871055,15,h/

Kew Gardens Henry Moore sculptures:
http://loc.alize.us/#/tag:henrymoore/geo:51.480635,-0.298090,15,h/


The catacombs of Paris:
http://loc.alize.us/#/tag:catacombs/geo:48.856558,2.350966,13,h/

Gators in Myakka River State Park in Sarasota:
http://loc.alize.us/#/tag:gator/geo:27.272864,-82.293520,14,h/


Basically, you can see these places through the eyes of ordinary visitors before you, rather than tour book authors. It’s kind of cool. That means that as you post new no crowds destinations, you can create a link like this to allow readers to explore on their own.

Well, at least this geek likes it.

He’s right, we thought. What a cool tool and so here is the link for Chapel Hill:

http://loc.alize.us/#/tag:chapelhill/geo:35.907519,-79.054707,15,h/

And here’s why we think the Carolina Inn is worth a visit from Europeans in search of the “real” America. The Inn is old fashioned, in the best sense of the word, reeks of southern hospitality and gracious living and the food is absolutely superb. For much of the year this hotel is informed by the energy and enthusiasm of alumni who return again and again to the university town to relive the glory of their youth. While all of this luxury and ambience comes at a price, with an exchange rate of 1 US$/ 1.46 €, the Carolina Inn start to look pretty reasonable. Tonight, for example, you could have a large room for as little as €81.05. Not bad for a top rated hotel in a really fun town. With American Airlines offering direct daily non-stop service from London to Raleigh Durham, Chapel Hill is closer than you think.

The Carolina Inn
211 Pittsboro Street
Chapel Hill North Carolia 27516
Tel: 919 933 2001
Fax: 919 962 3400

For information on Chapel Hill, click here and for more information on travel in North Carolina click here.

Photo of the interior of the Carolina Inn courtesy of the hotel’s website.