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DEAR GEMüTLICHKEIT SUBSCRIBER The Travel Letter for Germany, Austria, Switzerland & the New Europe September 27, 1998 A Sense of Style Our house is very near the Hayward campus of the California TRIER ON THE MOSEL State University system. Every This summer, we traced the winding Mosel River to its western origins to find an Sunday morning, back in the 70s ancient Roman city in the midst of yet another transformation. and 80s, there was a pickup soccer the meeting point of major trade game at the school. The players here are some destinations were an interesting blend of Europe- where a guided tour genuinely routes, turning the city into an early ans, Hispanics, Iranians, Afghans, T enhances even the most fre- cultural, religious, political, and Indians, and even a few local Anglo- quent traveler’s understanding of a commercial center. Trier was first Saxons. city. Usually, a less structured wan- established in 16 BC under Emperor dering of a place provides a richer Augustus as Augusta Trevorum, and Every week, when they were and more individually tailored later flourished in the 3rd and 4th kids, our two sons would head for centuries, when it became the seat that soccer field. Amazingly, the experience. In the 2000 By Nikki year-old German city of the Western Roman Empire, a adult players, many of whom spoke Goth Itoi little or no English, would let every- of Trier, however, the domain that at one time reached body play, even 7-year-old Andy two-hour guided walking tour of its from Britain all the way to southern and 14-year-old Bob. The kids were Roman ruins and imperial vestiges is Spain. also always involved in organized absolutely a must. An appreciation of Although the city has never soccer; youth leagues, high school, history is, after all, what this city is since attained the glory it experi- and ultimately college soccer. But really all about. enced during Roman times, it has over the years they continued to Trier is situated along the Mosel continued to thrive on a more play in the pickup games. River in a 20 kilometer-long valley modest scale as the political center One of the Sunday players was a that lies between the Eifel Massif to of Germany’s Rheinland-Pfalz. The bandy-legged little Spaniard named the west and the foothills of the canalization of the Mosel in 1957 Mira, a soccer nut who seldom Hunsrück mountains to the east. helped revitalize the city after years missed any soccer game in Hay- Historically, the valley has served as Continued on page 3… ward. You’d see him at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning at an under-12 game and then again in the after- Beau Rivage Palace noon at the college match — men’s team or women’s team, it didn’t n nearly 13 years of reviewing the land;” the best hotel we have matter, Mira was there. European hotels, we have been ever seen. careful to reserve the highest As they got older, the boys be- I It is an absolutely top-of-the-line praise for those establishments came interested in international European luxury hotel of the rich, which truly warrant it. In that time soccer which was the big topic of famous and talented, of internation- we have inspected literally thou- conversation at the Sunday gather- al diplomats, of dowagers draped in sands of individual guestrooms and ings. The skills and abilities of the poodle dogs and furs, and of royal- hundreds of hotels all over Germany, best players in the world would be ty. Its guests have included Noel Austria and Switzerland, including discussed; names like Glenn Hoddle Coward, the Duke and Duchess of many of the best in each of England, Germany’s Karl Heinz Windsor, Gary Cooper, Mary Pick- By Bob country such as: Ham- Rummenigge, Holland’s Johan Bestor ford, Somerset Maugham, Coco burg’s Vier Jahr- Cruyff and Argentina’s Ossie Chanel, Camille Saint-Saëns, and the eszeiten, Zürich’s Dolder Grand, Ardiles. Emperor Hiro-Hito. (The hotel Brenner’s Park in Baden-Baden, the protects the privacy of its current To define what separates the Sacher and Imperial hotels in clientele, speaking only the names very best from mere excellence is Vienna, Geneva’s Le Richmond and of guests who are now dead.) They not easy. What makes Pavarotti Interlaken’s Victoria Jungfrau. better than Carreras? Montana came no doubt because the Beau better than Unitas? Often what it But now, after three separate Rivage is the quintessence of time- finally comes down to is a sense of stays over a nine-year period, we are less European elegance, and surely greatness that is hard to put into prepared to term Lausanne’s Beau is one of the world’s finest. Continued on page 2… Rivage Palace Hotel the “fairest in Continued on page 7… September, 1998 Kodiak, Alaska, and Adak in the kids). How about Dallas/Fort Worth DEAR SUBSCRIBER Aleutian Islands; landed and took off or Houston to Rome for as little as Continued from page 1 from aircraft carriers; rode helicop- $364 roundtrip ($273 for kids)? Book words, and especially difficult for ters that whap-whapped away a $419 roundtrip from San Francisco someone whose English isn’t so good. among Switzerland’s highest peaks or Los Angeles to destinations in- and along craggy Alaskan coastlines. cluding London, Paris, Frankfurt, So Mira relied on a succinct I also have flown with my brother Rome, Milan or Barcelona.” Access observation that has become part of Bill in his Beechcraft Bonanza and, of Best Fares at www.bestfares.com. our household lexicon. “E gotta course, many times across the Atlan- style” (translation: “He has a style”) Be sure, too, to check Swissair. tic, including about a dozen trips was reserved for only the very best Remember, even on their lowest recently on Swissair’s comfortable players. To really drive home the winter sale fares, Gemütlichkeit sub- MD-11s. point it was “E gotta style, body,” or, scribers get $50 off per ticket. You “He has a style, buddy.” So now, With apologies to Bill, the times must book directly with Swissair, when we can’t quite express how I’ve felt the safest are with Swissair then phone 800-238-0399 for ticket- really good a musician, an athlete, a on those MD-11s. The only form of ing. That office will verify your restaurant, or a person is, we simply transportation that gives me a more subscriber status and issue the tickets resort to “E gotta style.” secure feeling is a European train. at the lower price. This month, in our attempt to tell The events of the summer — the Vevey Festival Swissair crash and the German ICE you why Beau Rivage Palace Hotel In a recent issue we incorrectly train tragedy — are jolts of reality in Lausanne stands above all the had the Vevey Wine Growers’ that remind us of two important other great hotels we have seen in 13 Festival taking place in 1998. Sub- rules; don’t get too cocky and have years of publishing Gemütlichkeit, scriber Marge Coughlin reminds us fun now. I live by the latter but tend perhaps we should have just left it at this rare event is scheduled for 1999. to forget the former. Also, this just in: “E gotta style, body.” The festival takes place once each Swiss airplanes and German trains Epilogue: About 10 years ago, generation — only five times this are as safe as ever but they are built Mira, who by then must have been in century, the last in 1977. La Fete Des and operated by humans. Don’t his 70s, decided to go back to Spain. Vignerons is scheduled for July 29- There was an impromptu little cer- worry, be happy. August 15, 1999. For ticket info and a emony at the Sunday pickup game Cheap Winter Travel festival brochure write Vevey Touris- and the players chipped in to present The season of cheap and cheaper me, Fete Des Vignerons, CP 27, CH- him with a special soccer ball. But flights to Europe is upon us. Best 1800 Vevey or see their website: maybe it’s true that you can’t “go Fares website on the Internet sent us www.fetedesvignerons.ch. home again,” because just the other the following email on September 25: day I saw Mira, still barely able to see This is Not a Joke over the steering wheel of his beat up “WE HAVE BRAND NEW SALE A press spokesperson at the little car, heading up the hill to the FARES TO EUROPE. These bargains Austrian Tourist Office in New York college. No doubt to a soccer game. cover travel through March of 1999. says newspaper reports in both How about New York or Boston to Austria and the U.S. that have one Things That Go Bump Paris for as little as $264 roundtrip M. Lewinsky, a.k.a. “that woman,” I’ve flown as a passenger on all ($198 for kids)? Fly roundtrip from leading the Vienna Opera Ball’s kinds of aircraft: tiny commuter Detroit or Chicago to London for as grand entrance parade next February airplanes; Navy jet fighters; rickety little as $309 roundtrip ($229 for old Navy transports between are not true. Vol. 12, No. 9 HOTEL RESTAURANT RATING KEY September, 1998 GEMüTLICHKEIT The Travel Letter for Germany, Austria, Switzerland & the New Europe Rating Scale Scale Hotel Rating Criteria Excellent 16 - 20 People/Service 30% Editor & Publisher: Robert H. Bestor, Jr.