By RICH GRANT It took just 15 minutes of battle in 1759 to end the empire of New France, but it’s taken the 257 ensuing years to create the marvelous concoction that replaced it — the wonderful walled, multi-cultural city of Vieux Quebec. Old Quebec is the most European-looking town in America, a twisting maze of cobblestone streets lined with colorful
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By RICH GRANT … The Great Locomotive Chase was a 120-mile journey from Atlanta to Chattanooga, tracing the Civil War’s greatest adventure…
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By RICH GRANT A lot of people in the travel industry were surprised way back in 2005 when the “Lonely Planet” guidebook selected Croatia as the world’s Number One dream vacation site. Indeed, up until that time, the once war-torn region of the former Yugoslav Republic had gained far more international media attention for its ethnic tensions and wartime atrocities
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By RICH GRANT More than 100 years before the U.S. Civil War, the first underground railroad to freedom for escaped slaves didn’t go from the South to the North – it went the other way, from Georgia and the Carolinas to Florida. And ironically, the escape route often ended in the one place blacks could be free from recapture
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By RI
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By RICH GRANT LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana – There are no hard and fast rules about boudin. People don’t even agree on how to pronounce it. Some people say this tasty, sausage-like, south Louisiana finger food should be called “boo-dan.” Others add a little French flourish on the end and say “boo-dehh.” Either way, it’s usually pork mixed with rice, onion,
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BY RICH GRANT The Italians are many wonderful things – but slow, safe and sane drivers, they are not. Italian highways resemble race tracks more than roads, and cars can be expensive and a hassle in the country’s ancient, pedestrian-oriented cities. The solution is to tour Italy by train. All the grand stops of northern Italy are two to three
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By RICH GRANT and SID WILSON One of the great ironies of recent history is the talk about the need for a “wall” between the United States and Mexico. In 1829, there was a legitimate need for this wall. Not to keep people out of the United States, but to keep them in! That was because, in 1829, Mexico offered
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By RICH GRANT The U.S. Virgin Island of St. John is only three by five miles – the size of Manhattan – but for such a small place, it is ringed with some of the most famous beaches on the planet. A full 60 percent of this green, mountainous paradise is protected from development as part of the Virgin Islands
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