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BY Nancy Mueller 4 Comments ON February 6, 2014

Beat the Winter Blues at Québec Winter Carnival!

If you can’t beat winter, why not embrace it?

Quebec Winter Carnival

That’s the philosophy behind the Québec Winter Carnival, celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2014.

Host Paule Bergeron with Québec City Tourism explains: “Winter is something we are born with. We forget that we are taking some of you out of your comfort zone, but we hope you leave here with a new vision of what winter can be like.”

Opening Ceremony Quebec Winter Carnival

Here are a few highlights of my visit to this year’s festival:

Bonhomme –  Winter Carnival’s Beloved Roving Ambassador

Bonhomme Images

With his perpetual smile and positive energy, Bonhomme (“Good Man”) embodies joie de vivre (“joy of living”), the heart of the city’s fun festivities. Cheerful and expressive, he frequently tells children around him: “I love you so much!”

Ever the diplomat, he deftly side-steps my question, “You’re cheering for the Seattle Seahawks against the Broncos in the Super Bowl, aren’t you?” He responds gently, “That’s a delicate question.”

A good and wise man it turns out.

Bonhomme

Ice Palace

 

Bonhomme's Ice Palace

As a genial host, Bonhomme warmly welcomes visitors to tour his new home, the Ice Palace, for a glimpse into his private life. He knows that people are curious about what he likes to eat (“Cold things”),

Bonhomme Food

where he sleeps and showers

Bonhomme Shower

and what he does for fun inside the 40 foot tall structure constructed from 300 tons of ice.  Here guests can walk through his living and sleeping areas, including the kitchen and dining room, plus view photos taken with famous celebrities from past Winter Carnivals.

Maple Taffy Sticks

Maple Taffy Stick

What’s not to love about a taffy stick treat made with boiling maple syrup and clean snow? After the syrup is poured onto the snow, we let it cool briefly before pressing the stick in the syrup. Rolling the maple syrup around our sticks, voila!

Maple Taffy Stick Snack

We have a tasty taffy snack to go.

Carnival Streets

Quebec Carnival Lumberjack Ax Throwing

Winter Carnival expands to eight neighborhood streets in addition to the main site on the Plains of Abraham in 2014. Happenings include street performers, lumberjack ax throwing and curling demonstrations that add to the Carnival atmosphere throughout the city.

Winter Carnival Activities

Quebec Winter Festival Snow Sculpture

Whatever winter activities you can imagine, you will find them here at the Québec Winter Carnival. From dog-sledding to carriage and Ferris wheel rides, hockey tournaments to ice fishing, snow sculpture competitions to spa treatments – and don’t forget snow-shoeing, canoe racing, human-size table soccer, winter camping and the world’s largest snowball fight –

World's Largest Snowball Fight

well, you begin to understand why Québec is well on its way to achieving its vision of becoming the “Snow Capital of the World by 2020.”

When You Go

Wondering how you can join the fun? Purchase a Carnival Effigy (small, plastic Bonhomme figure which you can attach to your outerwear) for $15.00 (or $45.00 for a family of four) as your  passport to 17 days of Winter Carnival activities. Such a deal!

For further information,  be sure to check the official Carnaval de Québec website.

Thanks to Bonhomme and sponsors Tourisme Québec and Québec City Tourism for showing me how to have fun and stay warm this winter.

Keep on moving and dancing, Wanderboomers!

Wander on!

Nancy

What’s your favorite Winter Festival, wanderboomers?

 

 

Filed Under: Activities, Baby Boomers and Travel, Destinations, Festivals, Québec Tagged With: Bonhomme, Ice Palace, Quebec City Tourism, Quebec Winter Carnival, Seattle Seahawks, snow sculptures, Tourisme Quebec

BY Nancy Mueller 4 Comments ON April 11, 2013

J is for Jungfraujoch

ViewfromJungfraujochedwin.11flickr (450 x 300)

Photo courtesy of edwin.11 – flickr

Though more of a summer beach kind of wandergal, I’m intrigued by one of  Switzerland’s most popular sights. Billed as the “Top of Europe,” the country’s Jungfraujoch lays claim to the region’s highest railway station at 3,471 meters (11,388 feet). Whether attracted by the journey or the destination, visitors cite the Jungfraujoch rail excursion as an exceptional alpine experience for its stunning surrounding views of snow, ice and rock. This is one trip you want to take in clear weather.

FromJungfraujochedwon.11flickr (450 x 300)

Photo courtesy of edwin.11 – flickr

Passengers board the train from Grindelwald or Interlaken for the full-day round trip. Stops along the way include a train change before tunneling through the inside of the Eiger Mountain for the last leg of the journey to the final destination. From “I think I can . . . I think I can . . .” to “There. We’ve done it,” Swiss engineers celebrated the completion of their railway to the stars in 1912.

SphinxObservatoryJungfraujochKevinPohflickr (450 x 338)

Photo courtesy of Kevin Poh – flickr

Travel highlights of the Jungfraujoch, a UNESCO World Heritage site, include: the Ice Palace, a grotto carved from a glacier featuring ice sculptures; the 23 km (14-mile) long Aletsch Glacier, and the Sphinx Observatory, the highest point in the Jungfraujoch offering spectacular views of the Mönch and Jungfrau peaks.

What about you, wanderboomers? Have you ridden the Jungfraujoch Railway? Would you like to?

Filed Under: Activities, Baby Boomers and Travel, Switzerland, Travel Experiences Tagged With: Aletsch Glacier, alpine, Eiger Mountains, Europe, Grindelwald, Ice Palace, Interlaken, Jungfraujoch, Monch, railway, Sphinx Observatory, stairway to the stars, Switzerland, train

BY Nancy Mueller 8 Comments ON February 14, 2012

Shot on Location: 7 Movie Destinations for Valentine’s Day

Romantic Movies on Location

Travelers at heart can visit any one of several romantic destinations on Valentine’s Day in the click of an eye through the magic of movies. Cuddle up with or without your sweetie and pass the popcorn and kleenex . . .

An Affair to Remember

An Affair to Remember

An ocean liner headed for New York City sets the stage for this Hollywood classic starring Deborah Kerr (Terry McKay) and Cary Grant (Nicky Ferrante), with Fate and Destiny in key supporting roles. As an added bonus, you can enjoy gorgeous views from the villa on the French Riviera where Nicky’s wise and loving grandmother resides. Most famous line: “If you can paint, I can walk!”

Casablanca

Casablanca

Former lovers meet unexpectedly in French Morocco during World War II when “of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world,” Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) has to walk into his, Rick’s (Humphrey Bogart). The drama includes flashback scenes to happier times when they fell in love in Paris, together with a rousing rendition of the national anthem of France, “La Marseillaise.”

Dr. Zhivago

Omar Sharif (Yuri) and Julie Christie (Lara) are star-crossed lovers in this film set in Russia (though filmed in Canada, Finland and Spain) during the Bolshevik Revolution. Any movie that can romanticize an Ice Palace in the Russian countryside in the middle of winter is worth a viewing.

Lady and the Tramp

In case you think that only we humans hold the monopoly on romance, our canine counterparts will convince you otherwise in this Disney classic. Has there ever been a more heartwarming animated scene than when our main characters discover love at the end of a shared strand of spaghetti at Tony’s (Italian) Restaurant?

Roman Holiday

Audrey Hepburn won an oscar for her performance as Princess Anne who rebels against her royal duties by going undercover as a commoner in Rome for a day. After a memorable chance encounter, reporter Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) soon realizes he has the scoop of the decade – and the love of a lifetime. Location shots include the Spanish Steps, Palazza Colonna, and Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth).

Notorious

Notorious

Rio de Janeiro takes center stage in Hitchcock’s brilliant tale of espionage, romance and betrayal. Cary Grant stars as Devlin, an American agent, who enlists the aid of Alicia (Ingrid Bergman) to track the Nazi ring operating in Rio after her father is convicted of treason. Love intervenes only to be pushed aside by the dutiful Devlin who throws her into marriage with Alex (Claude Rains), leader of the local Nazis group. Will Devlin find a way to save Alicia and himself by movie’s end? You’ll just have to watch the film to find out.

Sound of Music

“The hills are alive with the sound of music” while romance blooms between Maria, a young postulant at Austria’s Nonnberg Abbey, and Baron von Trapp, a widower engaged to be married. Cupid strikes when their eyes meet as the Baron leads Maria in a dance. Be still my heart . . .

Added Bonus!

I can’t help myself. I have to include one more travel film here:

The English Patient

The English Patient

Though this World War II drama is set in Tuscany and Egypt, several scenes were shot on location in Tunisia for a more realistic portrait of 1940’s Cairo. Viewing Ralph Fiennes in his role as Count Laszlo de Almasy carrying his beloved, white shrouded Katherine (Kristin Scott Thomas) across the windswept desert landscape leaves me mesmerized every time. When he recognizes that she’s wearing the thimble (You have to see the movie), her reply, “Of course, you idiot. I always wear it. I’ve always worn it. I’ve always loved you,” says it all. Sigh . . .

What about you, Wanderboomers? What travel movies would you add to my list for Valentine’s Day?

Filed Under: Activities, Africa, Baby Boomers and Travel, Brazil, Entertainment, Italy, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Russia Tagged With: An Affair to Remember, Audrey Hepburn, Austria, Baron von Trapp, Bocca della Verita, Bolshevik Revolution, Cairo, Canada, Cary Grant, Casablanca, Claude Rains, Count Laszlo de Almasy, Deborah Kerr, desert, Dr. Zhivago, Egypt, espionage, films, Finland, French Morocco, French Riviera, Gregory Peck, Hitchcock, Humphrey Bogart, Ice Palace, Ingrid Bergman, Italian, Joe Bradley, Julie Christie, Kristin Scott Thomas, La Marseillaise, Lady and the Tramp, love, Morocco, Mouth of Truth, movies, Nazi, Nazis, New York, Nicky Ferrante, Nonnberg Abbey, Notorious, ocean liner, Omar Sharif, Palazza Colonna, Paria, Princess Anne, Ralph Fiennes, restaurant, Rio de Janeiro, Roman Holiday, romance, Rome, spaghetti, Spain, Spanish Steps, St. Valentine's Day, Terry McKay, The English patient, The Sound of Music, Tony's, travel, Tunisia, Tuscany, villa

Hello fellow wanderboomers! I’m a Seattle-based travel journalist, specializing in fun travel adventures for the young at heart. My articles have been featured in Hemispheres, AAA Highroads Magazine and Northwest Travel & Life Magazine where I'm a frequent contributor. When this Wanderboomer isn’t traveling, I help global executives polish their personal and professional brand for long-term results.
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