Page 14 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2025 THAILAND

104 SWISS YOU WERE HERE

Despite having 400,000 residents, Zurich
feels like a big city in miniature. The airport
is just ten minutes from downtown, most
distances can be covered in about 20 min-
utes by bike, and the streets are spotless.

110 UNEXPECTED PRAGUE

Sometimes our best-made plans are out-
done by unscripted moments, which is one
of the joys of travel. My wife and I were
visiting Prague as part of a Road Scholar
tour, “Independent Prague: Architecture
and the Arts.”

122 When the Irish say “Céad Míle Fáilte” (a hundred
MAGICAL IRELAND

thousand welcomes) it truly reflects their spirit of
hospitality. And when Northern Ireland’s most
famous chef, Noel McMeel invited me to stay in
his countryside home, it felt as though a Lep-
rechaun had gifted me the invitation.

Carl H. Larsen

Carl H. Larsen is a veteran journalist based in San Diego. He now focuses on
travel writing, and issummoned to pull out his notebook whenever there’s the plain-
tive cry of a steam locomotive nearby. In San Diego, he is a college-extension instruc-
tor who has led courses on the Titanic and the popular TV series “Downton Abbey.”

Sharon Whitley Larsen

Sharon Whitley Larsen’s work has appeared in many major publications, in-
cluding Reader’s Digest (and 19 international issues), Chicken Soup for the
Soul books, and Los Angeles Times Magazine. She’s the author of British
Travel Tidbits (2017) and Travel Tidbits (2018), published by Sanbun Pub-
lishers in New Delhi. Sharon also had a two-year travel column “Travel Tid-
bits” in the Union Jack newspaper. Her favorite topic is travel (favorite
destination London).

14 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2025