The Broadmoor: Five Stars for the Fiftieth Time

Colorado's top-of-the-heap Broadmoor offers off-season values; book now!

It is no surprise at all that The Broadmoor, a pink palace on the southwest edge of Colorado Springs, has been awarded the top Five Star rating from the Mobil / Forbes Travel Guide (formerly Mobil Five-Star Award by Mobil Travel Guide). The Broadmoor always wins the highest honor. What is noteworthy that the resort has achieved this honor for a record 50th consecutive year -- the only property to do so. It also has the distinction in 2010 of becoming a triple Five Star winner, with the Penrose Room receiving the highest restaurant designation and The Spa at Broadmoor similarly recognized. It is the only Colorado property to be so honored so often and for so long.

The Mobil Travel Guide originated the prestigious star rating system in the U.S. Think of it as the equivalent of Michelin's stars in Europe. Michelin wanted to sell tires, and similarly, Mobil wanted to sell gasoline. The original Mobil guide is now the Forbes Travel Guide, but its awards are as prestigious as ever. Since 1958, the Mobil Travel Guide’s rigorous ratings process has been based on more than 750 standardized criteria for hotels that begins with a facility inspection considering every aspect of the property, including its overall cleanliness, condition, and location. To achieve Four and Five Star Status, hotels and resort properties must meet or exceed bar-setting service standards as determined byt an unannounced, undercover service evaluation conducted by the Travel Guide’s expert inspectors.

The Broadmoor, which opened in 1918, is quite a spread. It has 744 rooms and suites including 44 cottage bedrooms; 185,000 square feet of flexible event space; a world-class spa; three championship golf courses; a tennis club; 25 retail shops; 18 on property eateries, restaurants and lounges; a full children's program, and more. The Penrose Room, a classic fine-dining restaurant since 1961, is Colorado’s only Forbes Travel Guide Five Star/AAA Five-Diamond Restaurant, making it the most celebrated restaurant in Colorado history in the most celebrated hotel. The Spa at Broadmoor provides 43,000 square feet of sybaritic luxury: spa, salon and fitness center using cutting-edge products and treatments in a setting old-world charm and European elegance. It's hard not to rave about the The Broadmoor, which is simply the best.

The Best for Less

The Broadmoor opened at the end of World War I but rode out the Great Depression, World War II and changes in the way people travel without ever losing its edge. In light of the current economic downturn, the resort is offering Five Star luxury at affordable prices, starting at $80 per person, per night in a standard hotel room between November 15 and February 28. It includes complimentary access to the resort's own movie theater, a complimentary Serenity shower or tub soak with any spa service, 15% discount on select retail shops and a 10% discount at Charles Court, the award-winning Penrose Room or Tavern. During the holidays, The Broadmoor is decked out in an over-the-top (but exceedingly tasteful) display of lights and decorations.

The Broadmoor is at One Lake Avenue, Colorado Springs; 866-837-9520 or 719-577-5775.

Berlin Wall Sections: A Fragment Here, A Fragment There

November 9, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall

With so much strife on the planet, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall gives hope and celebration. After all, not long before the Wall came down in 1989, it seemed as if it would be there forever. I passed through Checkpoint Charlie on a one-day visit to East Berlin on my first trip to Europe a lifetime ago, and it was one East German guard's later opening of one checkpoint that opened the floodgate and changed modern German history.

As passed through the checkpoint into East Berlin, knowing that I could leave in a few hours, I realized that I had taken the freedom of movement for granted. It was eerie to walk down East Berlin's empty streets, past rubble and weed-choked vacant lots still left from World War II. I have not been to Berlin since, though I hope to visit next year during a planned trip to Germany, and I know that the gleaming, modern creative city bears only the slightest resemblance to the one I wandered around.

Berlin has a lot to celebrate, and celebrate it will. The Festival of Freedom starts this evening at 5:00 p.m., local time at the Brandenburg Gate, and an open air exhibition called "Peaceful Revolution" continues through October 2010.

I have seen segments of the Wall in Rapid City, South Dakota (above), and Portland, Maine (and probably elsewhere as well), but I didn't realize how many portions of the Wall have been erected as memorials. Click here for the list. Interestingly, there are 36 in the Americas (four in New York City alone) but only 13 in Europe -- just two in Germany itself. In Berlin, a line of cobblestones follows the original footprint of the Wall. News footage of the fall of the Wall was telecast over the weekend, and I think Berlin is commemorating the event, but I wonder how many other places with segments have organized something. Do you know?

Nottoway Plantation: 150-Year-Old Louisiana Jewel

Newly restored antebellum mansion is glorious to visit -- for a tour or for the night

In 1859, shortly before the War Between the States, John Hampden Randolph, his wife, Emily Jane Liddell Randolph, and their 11 children moved into the newly completed Nottoway Plantation in the heart of Louisiana's Plantation Country. Unlike many of the great houses built with cotton and sugarcane, Nottoway was not seriously damaged during the war even though both Union and Confederate troops camped on the grounds, and it was fired on and still bears a few bullet scars.

At 53,000 square feet, Nottoway is the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the southern United States. It was built with 64 rooms on three floors, six interior staircases, three "modern" bathrooms with flush toilets and hot and cold running water, gas lights, 22 massive square columns, 165 doors and 200 windows. Construction of this gracious and grandiose mansion is estimated to have cost $80,000.

The plantation house is open for public tours. For years, it was on the regular motorcoach day tour itinerary from New Orleans. Groups -- many on convention spouse programs -- would drive up, tour the mansion, have lunch in a large dedicaed pavilion and leave. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the convention business took a hit -- and so did Nottoway Plantation. Paul Ramsay, an Australian entrepreneur, purchased the property and financed the restoration of the mansion, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. I've tried to find out how much the restoration cost but haven't been successful.

Most of the furniture is not original, but all reflects accuracy to the period.

When you see the 4,200 linear feet of extraordinary plaster friezework and scroll ornaments in the public rooms, it is difficult to envision it as a combination of mud, clay, horsehair and Spanish moss under the confectionary paint.The all-white ballroom is sparsely furnished, because people did have to have room to dance.

I like to see formal dining rooms with all the accoutrements of gracious 19th-century dining, from celery glasses toknife rests.

Each hand-painted plate (from France, I believe) has a different design in the center.

The second-floor veranda overlooks the levee that separates Nottoway from the Mississippi. Rock on!

Below is not a room on the manor-house tour. It was my room for the night that I spent at Nottoway, which now also operates as a bed-and-breakfast inn. My gorgeous antique-filled room in one of the wings, not in the mansion itself, was one of the simpler ones. The home also houses a new fine-dining establishment called The Mansion Restaurant.

I have to say that it was hard to tear myself away the next morning.

Nottoway Historic Inn, as the B&B is now called, has an extraordinary special through November 30: $150 per night for two, including a welcome beverage, tour and a full breakfast. 31025 Louisiana Highway 1 (off The Great River Road), White Castle, LA 70788. Reserve online or by calling 866-LASouth (866-527-6884) or 225-545-2730 (Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Central Time).

San Miguel de Allende'sBotanical Garden

Charco del Ingenio showcases Western Hemisphere cacti in a protected landscape

The roughly 154 acres occupied by the unique botanical garden called Charco del Ingenio outside of San Miguel de Allende is reportedly second most important collection of cacti in Mexico, after Mexico City. That would rank Cacti Mundi that my husband and I visited in San Jose del Cabo several years ago number three or less. The Chacro del Ignenio is a pirvately funded ecological preservation area that began 18 years ago with 60 species now dispays some 550 cacti varieties from native habitats that stretch from Patagonia to Canada, but mostly species that grow in Mexico.

Mario Hernandez is knowledgeable passionate about the plants under his care. He is still awed by cacti's ability to store water and yet transform CO2 into O2 He points out that cacti are edible, and have religious, medicinal and spiritual value as well. And did I mention that they are great to look at too? He didn't bother saying that. I think he realizes that is self-evident.

Below are just a few examples of the varied and wonderful cacti growing at the Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden.

The botanical garden includes flat dry land, a canyon, spring-fed wetlands and even a lake. The section nearest to the entrance is laced with easy paths. The natural area across the canyon is largely wild and includes the ruins of an old hacienda. We didn't have time to go look at that.

Cactus "buds" and cactus flowers.

When the Dalai Lama visited Mexico in 2005, he came to Charco del Ingnio and blessed the Plaza of the Four Winds, a ceremonial and scenic gathering place designed by architect Enrique Pliego and honoring local indigenous groups.Built with inlaid colored stones,wasinspired by the 16th-century Chichimeca-Toltec codex, the plaza is designed with four outer circles that indicate the four cardinal directions and corresponding figures that evoke the four natural resources (earth, water, flora and fauna) in traditional pre-Columbian colors. Reached by a smooth, flat but unpaved trail, it is one of the few places in San Miguel Allende that is wheelchair-accessible.

The Charco del Ingenio is open for self-guided visits, with 2 1/2-hour guided tours presently given on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. The cost is 50 pesos.

Mega Mao Joins Other Gigantic Sculptures

The chairman joins four US presidents and one very nobel Native American leader

Sulptor Gutzon Borglum (who is always referred to as "Borglum") and his helpers carved these four gigantic heads of four important presidents out of South Dakota granite. Mt.Rushmore is now a National Monument, administered by the US Park Service.Nearly 2.5 million visitors a year come to gaze at Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. Teddy Roosevert and Abraham Lindoln. Borglum, whose father was an immigrant from Denmark, began working on the South Dakota project in 1927 and remained involved until he died in 1941 at the age of 74.

Just seven years after Borglum's death, sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski (who is always referred to as "Korczak") began sculpting a nearby mountain into what will someday be a statue of Crazy Horse, the great Lakota chief to honor Native Americans. When completed, it will be world's largest sculpture. Born in Boston into a Polish-American family, Korczak worked virtually alone until his death in 1982, like Borglum also at the age of 74. His last words to his wife, Ruth, were, "You must work on the mountain-but go slowly so you do it right." Ruth and eight of their 10 children operate Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation board of directors and guide Crazy Horse toward eventual completion.

Meanwhile, in Mao Zedong's home province of Hunan, a gigantic head is being constructed -- not carved out of a mountain, but built on a concrete frame. China has the biggest defense wall (the Great Wall of China), the biggest dam (the Three Gorges Dam) and one of the tallest skyscrapers (the 101-story World Financial Center in Shanghai, the second tallest skyscraper on the planet -- at least until the completion of Burj Dubai).

By the Sea, By the Santa Barbara Sea

I recently attended a conference at the Four Seasons Resort, The Biltmore. A handful of people seemed to squeeze in a run or a walk on the beach, but all I had was the occasional ocean view when dashing across the beautifully landscaped property between my room and the conference rooms. I thought a few of the images I grabbed were worth posting. I hope you agree.

'Oasis of the Seas' Now at Sea

Enormous floating city, the 'Oasis of the Seas,' heading for Florida

The 'Oasis of the Seas' should be called the 'Behemoth of the Seas': 1,187 feet long, 208 feet wide 213 feet (that's more than 20 stories!) high from the water line, 16 passenger decks, 5,400 passengers (double occupancy; 6,296 guests total if a body is crammed into every sleeping space) and 2,165 crew from over 71 countries. One of the two dozen elevators is equipped with a bar. The center of the ship is something like a landscaped atrium called Central Park. I guess that way they can book more "balcony cabins." The $1.6 billion ship's own website features click-on video that reminds me of an infomercial. First comes the captain, telling viewers that the crew is "wowed" by the ship. Then we see individual crew members saying, "WOW!" individual and then in unison.

I can't say. "Wow!" If it weren't too late, I'd say "Woah! Hold on!" But it's too late, for she is sailing to start service with her first regular passengers boarding in early December. A ship that at peak capacity holds nearly 8,500 passengers and crew overwhelms everything it encounters. On the winter itinerary, the eastern and western itineraries are very similar. In and out of Fort Lauderdale, then to three ports. Labadee is Royal Caribbean's private island for those who prefer activities to any interaction with any real  Caribbean residents. Falmouth on Jamaica's north coast is a new port for Royal Caribbean, which operates a fleet of cruise ships whos last name is "...of the Seas." Falmouth is a heritage site, currently under restoration. I haven't been there, but it sounds like the Williamsburg of Jamaica. Cozumel, Mexico is an island where my husband and I dived many years ago, when cruise ships -- all a fraction of the "Oasis'" size -- anchored in the local harbor and passengers were tendered ashore. Now, an out-of-town pier with built-in shopping opportunities is passengers' first (and often only) port of call there.The "Oasis of the Seas" therefore qualifies as the world's largest floating cocoon.

Passengers enter the cocoon from a new $75 million, 240,000-square-foot terminal built specificallyto be the home port for new the Oasis ships, both the "Oasis of the Seas" and the even newer "Allure of the Seas," scheduled to debut late next year). Between them, these ships are expected to bring more than 500,000 cruise passengers through Port Everglades every year. That's half-a-million people.

I do not need to post the remarkable specs and all of the facilities and activities of the "Oasis of the Seas" here. It certainly is a marvel of maritime engineering (even the stacks retract so it can pass under certain large but not-high-enough bridges). But I question the entire concept of bigger-is-better and glitzier-is-ritzier cruising. It seems like a bad idea environmental, sociologically and even socially. Segmenting this enormous ship into "neighborhoods" doesn't make it any smaller or less intimate.

Sure, it's a wow! but a Wow! that comes with a price. Like Rome, this gigantic cruise ship was not built in a day. I wonder whether Royal Caribbean would embark on such a project in today's economy and with today's sensibilities.