It was “Rail Force One” – the overnight train that took US President Biden on a diplomatic odyssey from Przemyśl Główny in Poland to Kyiv for his historic visit to Ukraine, just before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country.

The 10-hour overnight journey was a top secret, high security challenge for Ukrzaliznytsia, or Ukrainian Railways – the state-owned operator of Ukraine’s rail network. But it was hardly their first.

With commercial air links into Ukraine canceled, and the skies too dangerous to fly politicians in and out of the country, Ukraine’s rail network has become the country’s diplomatic highway. Over 200 foreign diplomatic missions have arrived in the country by train so far.

World leaders including Canada’s Justin Trudeau, the UK’s Rishi Sunak, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni have all taken the train to Kyiv. In fact, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is the only G7 leader yet to visit the country by train.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is a regular user of the railway network on his diplomatic missions abroad.

But there’s more to the railways than “Rail Force One,” as Biden’s train was dubbed.

The US president’s high profile journey has shone a spotlight on Ukraine’s vast rail network which, at nearly 15,000 miles, is the 12th largest in the world.

Train transporting Biden in Ukraine now dubbed ‘Rail Force One’

03:13

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CNN

Ukrzaliznytsia is the sixth largest rail passenger transporter in the world, and seventh for freight.

First constructed in pre-Soviet times, its network is predominantly a broad gauge railway – different to the standard gauge, which most of Europe uses.

And while Ukraine forces have destroyed the cross-border links to Russia, the rail network still connects with other countries – although the differing gauges mean trains can’t generally cross the border. To deal with this, over the past year they have rebuilt sections of previously defunct lines to neighboring countries including Moldova, Poland and Romania. Infrastructure has been repaired at 11 border crossings.

This isn’t just about making passenger journeys easier. It’s crucial for freight – and for much of the world, which relies on Ukrainian produce, including grain. In 2022, 28.9 million tons of grain were transported via the railways, most of which was exported. In total, just under 60 million tons of goods were exported from Ukraine, according to Ukrzaliznytsia.

And in total, the company transported 17.1 million passengers via long-distance trains during 2022. These are predominantly sleeper services.

“Before the war, we had planes, cars, buses and trains,” Ukrzaliznytsia’s CEO Alexander Kamyshin told CNN Travel. “Now we’ve got trains and cars, no airplanes. And we’re a large country. So to get from Kyiv to west, south or east Ukraine, sleeper trains are the best way to do it. You go to the train in the late evening, travel the whole night, and in the morning you are in the city you need to be. So you don’t waste time.

“It was comfortable before the war, and now it’s comfortable and safe. Trains are very important.”

Of course, most of the pictures we have seen in the past year of Ukrainian Railways are ones of refugees. Ukrzaliznytsia says it helped four million to safety in 2022, a quarter of whom were children.

Some trains were also reconfigured as medical facilities. Around 2,500 civilians were evacuated for medical treatment via rail last year. The network also transported nearly 336,000 tons of humanitarian aid.

It’s an immense responsibility for Kamyshin, who started with the company just six months before Russia invaded. “I joined with the problem to develop the company, green-light new projects, renew the fleet and it was all about building and construction, and procuring new stuff. But a year ago we had to change to war time, and war rails,” he says.

Trains that run on time

Perhaps the most extraordinary part of Biden’s journey to Ukraine was the light that it shed on just how smoothly Ukrzaliznytsia operates.

Kamyshin apologized in a tweet that, because of Biden’s complex journey, “only 90% of our trains ran on time yesterday.”

That caused hollow laughter in Biden’s America, where Amtrak is infamous for its late-running passenger trains.

Amtrak’s latest on-time performance figures, looking at June 2022, show that on average, just over 22% of trains ran on time across the US. Some areas have reversed Ukraine’s statistics, with more than 90% of trains arriving late.

In the UK – which has sent two prime ministers to Ukraine by train – just 67.7% of trains run on time, according to the latest data.

That’s no surprise to Ukrainians. The train services have always been excellent, says Kyiv resident Alla Penalba.

“I’ve always taken the train when traveling around Ukraine,” she says. She’s a particular fan of sleeper services. “It’s convenient – you board in the evening and in the morning you’re on the opposite of the country. Even before 2014 [when Russia invaded Crimea] the journey to Crimea from Kyiv was more convenient by train. It took 20 hours, but you sat down, then went to sleep – it was pretty comfy.”

Penalba says that because low-cost airlines entered Ukraine later than in the rest of Europe, the country retained its network of night trains, with limited domestic flights.

Even when the budget airlines did arrive – she reckons that from 2016 there were more viable options to fly cross-country – she didn’t bite.

“I could fly to Odesa from Kyiv but still I’d think, OK, I need to go to the airport two hours in advance, if you live on the opposite side of Kyiv it can take an hour to get there – so that’s three hours plus the flight. Ultimately it’s more convenient to take the train at 11 p.m., sleep, and arrive at 7 a.m.”

Better than its neighbors

Penalba left Kyiv with her family on the second day of the 2022 invasion, driving to France, where her husband is from. But she returned alone in the summer to take care of personal business, and to see if it felt safe to move back.

On her way into Ukraine, she took a flight to Poland and then a bus to Kyiv: “A terrible experience, I hate long bus journeys.”

On the way back, she took the overnight train to Poland: “It was the best experience out of two days of travel.”

When the family moved back to Kyiv, in August 2022, they again took the train from Poland, getting a second class, four-berth compartment for her, her husband and their two kids. Their only stress? The Polish train was delayed by three hours. Unlike the Ukrainian one.

“I was amazed and pretty proud,” says Penalba.

‘Better than Germany’s railways’

Visitors to the country are equally amazed – starting with Penalba’s husband, who moved from France in 2015.

“He’s always saying that Ukrainian trains are pretty great compared to the ones in France,” she says. “He didn’t use trains there because they were too expensive. Here they are accessible for everyone.”

A cross-border train to Poland costs around 50 euros (about $53) for a lie-flat bed in a four-person, second class berth, and Penalba says that domestic routes are even cheaper – around 15-30 euros. “First class would be around 40 euros,” she says.

Koen Berghuis, editor-in-chief of train specialist travel website, Paliparan, is another fan. Based in Romania, the Dutch national takes around half a dozen long distance or overnight trains per month, and before the war, traveled to Ukraine over 10 times.

For him, if you’re comparing punctuality, Ukraine’s railway system is “better than Germany’s.”

“They’re doing a remarkable job – even now, trains are running more or less on time,” he says.

Astonishingly, Penalba reckons the system has got “more efficient” since the Russian invasion.

In August 2022, Ukrzaliznytsia launched an app, and started taking online bookings. “I can buy tickets in a few clicks now,” she says.

Kamyshin says that the only real change to the service in the past year is that trains run at slightly reduced speeds now. “It’s not much slower, but we slowed them down deliberately to make it safer in case of something [happening].”

Diplomatic requests in the carriages

Of course, politicians don’t travel in third class. Kamyshin won’t reveal details of the service they do get, but he says that “guests of iron diplomacy,” as he calls them, “usually spend more time on the train than in the city.”

“That’s why the way we treat them is really important, he says.”

But it’s not just about treating them right. The trains also convey “the messages that we would like to send them,” he says.

“We are delicate and we’ll always treat all of our guests properly, but these things help them understand what we expect from them – like iris flowers or leopard print clothes.”

A vase of irises was put in the train for the visit of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country agreed to supply an air defense system called Iris-T. For another politician, staff wore leopard print accessories, in a nod to the Leopard-2 tanks Ukraine was requesting from the country in question. Kamyshin won’t say who that was, but Poland and Germany have also donated Leopard-2 tanks, with Germany pledging more on the first anniversary of the invasion.

Rail as a lifeline

Rail travel in Europe has always been popular, of course, and the climate crisis is making it increasingly so. Berghuis thinks that Ukraine can teach other rail networks a thing or two.

“The main difference to other European countries is the sheer scale of Ukraine as a country,” he says.

At the start of last year, he took the Rakhiv-Mariupol sleeper train – Ukraine’s longest passenger train route before Russia’s invasion. At 1,806 kilometers, or 1,118 miles, it took just under 29 hours, crossing 12 “oblasts” (regions).

“It was basically the same as Amsterdam to Lisbon or Athens, or New York to Kansas City,” he says. Except passengers on those type of routes would, of course, usually fly.

Ukraine’s size means that its “huge” rail network has “always been a lifeline to Ukrainians – it’s a very important piece of infrastructure,” he says.

That’s why the Ukrainians are leaping into action if any of the line is damaged during the fighting. When the southern city of Kherson was liberated, the trains were running into the city again just eight days later.

“It’s incredible,” says Berghuis.

“It’s hugely important for them, for keeping the country united, ensuring people can visit families and friends, for freight and for the postal network. They use trains to deliver some pensions.

“It’s also for PR, because everything is PR in a war – they’re showing Russia, ‘Hey, even in these circumstances we manage to run trains. Even if there’s no electricity, it doesn’t matter, we can use diesel or steam locomotives.’ But the rail network is also a lifeline in many more ways than we can imagine.”

And while Europe is going through a sleeper train “renaissance” at the moment, Berghuis says that Ukraine is a great example of how to run a night train network.

There are generally three classes to a sleeper, he says, with each carriage having its own attendant. They’re there to give passengers their bedding, take orders for snacks and tea, and make sure passengers get on and off at the right stations. But they’re also there for security – especially important when you’re sleeping in an open cabin of 50-odd berths.

Yes, 50-odd – that’s what you get in the third class carriages, which are essentially wagons of bunkbeds which double as seats during the daytime part of the trip.

“The attendants keep an eye out for everyone in their wagon – they’re proud of what they do,” says Berghuis. Not that they really need to. He says that third class carriages are “part of the fun, with people happy to share their food, stories, try and talk – even if it’s with hand gestures.”

Second class gets you a space in a four-berth couchette, while first class is fancier.

The stations are also worth visiting, says Berghuis, who singles out Kyiv and Lviv as two of the most beautiful historical stations in Europe, and loves Odesa for its “seaside, holiday vibe.”

‘The world should pay attention’

So what’s the future for Ukrainian Railways? This is a company that hasn’t just kept going during the invasion – it has made improvements, too.

In 2022, the country took possession of 65 new passenger rail carriages, bought two new diesel trains, and even found time to refurbish other trains in the network. They constructed new freight cars, and repaired others.

They launched six new international rail routes, to destinations in Poland and Moldova, and seven domestic routes. The company also electrified more track than they had done in the past decade.

The company even debuted a new onboard menu. Passengers can now enjoy “designer teas” and “natural ground coffee.”

Tragically, 319 railway workers died in 2022, and 703 were injured. The company has launched an “Iron Family” program to support their families.

For 2023, the company predicts a loss of 20.2 billion hryvnia – or $549 million. Yet it is looking to the future. In May 2022, “Children’s Railways” – where kids can learn about locomotives – opened in Kyiv and Rivne. Around 1,300 children are already studying at the two centers.

With the climate crisis intensifying, Kamyshin thinks Ukrainian Railways can teach other countries’ rail networks a few things. “The whole world should pay more attention to overnight sleepers,” he says.

“It’s a really efficient, comfortable way of transportation. And governments should review their relationships to railways. Railways are important, especially in a big crisis.”

In fact, Penalba said she was “shocked” to see people flying than taking the train when she first started traveling around the rest of Europe.

“There’s a lot of talk around ecology, but planes are cheaper and night trains are especially expensive, so it’s cheaper to fly,” she says.

“I’m used to [shorthaul European flights] now, but it’s still shocking. It’d be much more convenient if trains in the rest of Europe were as affordable and easy as in Ukraine.”

The post Ukraine appeared first on Deal Price Travel.

So it’s not surprising that the sight of content creator Jess Stone and her beloved dog Moxie cruising along together usually has onlookers doing double takes.

“Every car that rides up beside us, they [the people inside] take out their phones, almost causing accidents because they’re trying to get the shot,” she tells CNN Travel. “It’s hilarious.”

Stone and Moxie, who weighs around 34 kilograms, are currently 10 months into an epic bike trip that will see them travel across around 90 countries throughout Central America, North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.

The pair have been on the road since last March, when they set off, along with Stone’s husband Greg, who rides behind them.

“I am always in the front,” explains Stone. “I want to go through the obstacles first.”

Riding challenge

Jess Stone and her German shepherd Moxie are riding around the world together.

victorHugoXR

Originally from Canada, Stone first learned to ride a motorbike on the side streets of Liberia, where she and Greg were living at the time, over a decade ago and admits that it was far from an easy process.

“Having your partner teach you how to ride is not the best thing,” she adds. “He wasn’t very patient with me.”

Once she finally felt at ease on a motorbike, the couple, who have been married for eight years, went on an eight-month long motorcycle trip together from North to South America. A few years after they returned, they moved to Guatemala, and Moxie came into their lives.

“She picked me 100%,” Stone says, recounting the moment she first laid eyes on the canine while viewing a litter of German shepherd puppies in one of the neighboring towns.

“She was there at my heels just waiting for me to love her.”

While both Stone and her husband were determined to include Moxie in their travels, she explains that she “didn’t want to have a sidecar or a trailer or something that was going to really change the dynamic of riding,” now that she was finally comfortable on a motorcycle.

They quickly began designing what would later become the K9 Moto Cockpit, a motorcycle dog carrier they manufacture in Guatemala, along with a range of outdoor dog gear, through their company Ruffly.

“Everybody always asks how long it takes to teach your dog how to ride,” says Stone. “Honestly, it took Moxie the weekend.

“It took me a lot longer to feel comfortable having that much weight on the back, because I’d never rode with a passenger.”

“Obviously I wanted to travel the world,” says Stone, who aims to raise $100,000 for Girl Up’s global empowerment projects. “But I also wanted to show people that you can do it with a big dog.”

Being able to take Moxie on this particular trip has made it that much more special for Stone.

Constant companion

The pair, pictured in Guatemala, will ride through around 90 different countries during the extensive trip.

Jess Stone

“It’s like you get to experience the adventure twice,” she explains. “You experience it for yourself. And then you experience it from her perspective, because she’s right behind me.

“I see her [Moxie] in my mirror all the time. Her head is right up against my side. Sometimes she even rests her big snout on my shoulder with her chin up there.

“It makes me feel so happy that she’s really experiencing everything. It’s always new sights, sounds and smells that she’s looking at and experiencing.”

Of course, traveling with a dog has its disadvantages. They are largely limited to dog friendly places and rely on wild camping, and occasional Airbnbs, while on the road so that Moxie can roam free.

“You have to be the type of person who enjoys natural places and outdoors,” adds Stone.

“Because they are the places where we can bring her. If you’re looking to be in the city and go to all these fancy restaurants, traveling with a dog does make it a bit more challenging.”

While they’d originally planned to ride from Guatemala up to the Arctic Ocean, and across to Canada, before flying to Spain and heading to Africa, the significant cost increase due to a number of issues, including rising oil prices and supply shortages, forced them to change their route.

Stone points out that Moxie needs to be shipped in a giant sized crate as unaccompanied cargo due to her size.

This meant that the total cost for her alone would have been around $6,500, including vet fees, cargo shipment and international pet exporter fees from Toronto to Spain, if they’d stuck to their original plan.

The price of shipping their motorcycles had also risen significantly by the time they began the trip.

They ultimately chose to travel “tip to tip and top to bottom,” making their way from Guatemala to Mexico, the US, Canada and on to the Arctic Ocean.

From here, they began riding to the top of North America, before turning around and heading back towards South America.

Challenging route

According to Stone, having Moxie with her has made the trip even more special.

victorHugoXR

Before setting off, Stone booked in some private off-road training lessons to ensure that she had the skills required to navigate some of the trickier sections of the route.

“Obviously, I’ve ridden off road many times, but I never really felt comfortable,” she says. “And I wanted to feel really good about it because I have my Moxie on the back.”

She admits to being particularly anxious about riding along the remote Dempster Highway, a long gravel road in Canada that leads up to the Arctic Ocean.

“I was concerned that I was going to crash and hurt my bike,” she says. “It’s funny, I never really think about hurting myself. My bike is what I’m most concerned with.”

Thankfully they were able to pass through without incident, but Stone says she’s often plagued by thoughts of something going wrong during the journey.

“My biggest fear is not being able to continue the trip and having something happen with the bike on the off road stretches,” she says. “Luckily, nothing like that happened.”

While Stone stresses that her riding skills are developing all the time, that hasn’t stopped her from doubting herself regularly.

“Do I still worry about the dirt roads that come up? Yes. Do I worry that we’re going to go down and I’m going to break my bike? Yes.

“But I can’t stress enough how important it is to practice those skills. It really makes a difference. It makes the experience that much more positive.”

Although things have gone relatively smoothly so far, Stone has occasionally lost her balance while riding, causing her and Moxie to “plop over.”

Having her husband, who she describes as the “gear mule,” behind her has no doubt been a great source of comfort.

“I carry the shepherd, he carries the camping equipment,” she adds, before explaining that they don’t necessarily ride together continuously and sometimes take different routes.

“Sometimes he wants to try a different road or I want to go a different way and then we meet up with each other after that. But I’m self-sufficient the way I am.”

So far, their biggest hurdle has been having to replace her bike in May. After experiencing various “oil leak issues,” Stone learned that her 2013 BMW G650GS would require a hugely expensive engine rebuild.

She ended up buying a newer second hand model of the bike for roughly the same price as the rebuild.

“That was an unexpected expense,” she says. “But that [new] bike is going to take me the rest of the way.”

Main attraction

Stone has teamed up with nonprofit Girl Up for the GoRUFFLY Around the World adventure.

Jess Stone

Among the many highlights for her so far has been being able to stop off at Girl Up clubs and sharing stories, along with camping at the Arctic Ocean, where they marveled at the sight of moose crossing the road, and also spotted a grizzly bear.

“Moxie shakes with anticipation when she sees these creatures on the side of the road,” she adds. “She’s just so excited. We did some fishing along the way, which was really, really spectacular.”

Currently in Los Angeles, Stone is preparing for the next stage of the trip, which will involve taking a ferry over to Baja, Mexico, and then riding down to Guatemala, and on to Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama.

From Panama, they plan to fly to Colombia, where they’ll ride to the “tip” of Argentina, and then fly over to South Africa.

Once they reach South Africa, they’ll travel up the east coast of Africa to Egypt and then Greece, before “looping around Europe” and riding through Turkey and Central Asia.

The next leg will see them ride from India to Malaysia, where they’ll ship their bikes, and Moxie, to North America and then head back to their first and final destination Guatemala, which Stone describes as her “adopted home.”

Stone estimates that they’ll be on the road for at least another two and a half years. But for the time being, she’s focused on making it to the next stage of the journey, and constantly building on her riding skills.

Her four-legged companion continues to be a source of inspiration, and Stone never gets tired of seeing the way others react to Moxie, joking that every gas station visit is like “a selfie palooza.”

“People just get out of their cars,” she adds. “And the first thing everyone says is, ‘Oh my God, she’s wearing goggles.'”

“It brings a smile to everyone’s face. And that’s what I love. She just makes everybody have a good day.”

The post Dog’s life appeared first on Deal Price Travel.

But recently locals have been feeling tantalizingly close as they’ve watched a very special plane fly low overhead, taking off from the runway at little Newquay Airport — the 29th biggest airport in the UK — and circling the skies above the coast before touching back down.

This isn’t just any plane. Nor is it a normal Boeing 747, as it appears from the ground. In fact, it’s the “Queen of the Skies” repurposed for the space race, making trial flights before it takes part in the United Kingdom’s first orbital space launch next month. And it’ll be taking off from Spaceport Cornwall, which shares the airport’s 1.7-mile regular runway.

Marc Andrew, from nearby Newquay, traveled to the spaceport after work to see the aircraft land this week.

“It was amazing to watch, and will be a nice bit of history to tell my little boy when he’s older,” he told CNN. He is now preparing to return for the November launch.

Cosmic Girl, as the plane has been named, is the vessel for Virgin Orbit’s bid to launch seven satellites into space.

A former passenger jumbo jet in service with Virgin Atlantic until 2015, it has been modified to carry LauncherOne, a California-made rocket which will go into the Earth’s orbit.

Cosmic Girl, a former Virgin Atlantic 747, will launch from Newquay, U.K.

Virgin Orbit

Next month, Cosmic Girl will take off from Newquay’s clifftop runway with LauncherOne under its wing — and once the 747 hits 34,000 feet, it’ll release the rocket.

Inside will be seven payloads, or satellites, which will start circling the planet in low Earth orbit.

A test flight for locals

Using a 747 for a horizontal launch enables a “broader range of orbits than would be possible from a traditional ground-launched system,” Virgin Orbit wrote in a statement.

The event will be the first orbital space launch for the UK and the first international launch for Virgin Orbit, according to the company. It’ll also be Europe’s first satellite launch, according to Ian Annett, deputy CEO at the UK Space Agency.

LauncherOne completed its first full launch rehearsal in Long Beach, California, on October 2, before being flown to the UK last Friday to meet Cosmic Girl, which arrived in Cornwall on October 11.

Cosmic Girl completed a nearly three-hour test flight around Cornwall and Southwest England on October 14, with Cornwall locals noting it flying low over their gardens.

Rocket LauncherOne has now joined Cosmic Girl at Newquay Spaceport.

Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit’s chief pilot, Matthew Stannard, who will fly the 747 for the launch, said: “It feels amazing to bring Cosmic Girl home to the UK We are weeks away now from the first UK launch at Spaceport Cornwall so it’s all very real.”

Melissa Thorpe, head of Spaceport Cornwall, said: “Seeing the infrastructure in place makes our launch ambitions a reality.”

Hoping to see more Cosmic Girls? Virgin Orbit is planning to bring horizontal launches to Australia, Brazil, Japan, Poland and the Republic of Korea.

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The 190-meter vessel, which can accommodate 298 passengers, is made up of 149 suites with a private terrace, as well as floor to ceiling windows, and features an infinity pool, a wine vault, a Ritz-Carlton Spa, a nightclub and its very own “marina.”

Rates for a one-week stay start at $6,400 per person for Mediterranean voyages, while Caribbean voyages begin at $5,100 per person, with accommodation options ranging from standard cabins, to two-story “loft-style” apartments, and a sprawling 1,091- square-foot “owner’s suite” with a private hot tub.

Hotels at sea

Ritz-Carlton’s superyacht cruise has made its debut, beginning its maiden voyage, a seven-night cruise from Barcelona to Nice.

Christopher Cypert

Those who splash out of these luxury cruises can expect “service at a gold standard” — the yacht claims one of the highest staff and space to guest ratios at sea — as well as fine dining experiences, complimentary water sports, and on-board entertainment.

There’s also a dedicated on-board children’s facility with a jam-packed program for those aged from four to 12.

Evrima, which means discovery in Greek, will sail to a range of destinations throughout the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, as well as Central America and South America, with most cruise durations ranging from seven to 10 nights.

The luxury yacht is to be followed by two others, Ilma and Luminara, currently under construction at Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France.

Ritz-Carlton first announced plans to move into the luxury yachting world back in 2017, describing the venture as “a hybrid between luxury cruising and yachting.”

“The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is revolutionizing the luxury cruising industry, creating an entirely unique category designed for those in search of unmatched getaways, highly curated itineraries, insider access and a level of personalization previously unseen in the space,” Douglas Prothero, chief executive officer for the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection said in a statement.

Future of cruising?

According to Ritz-Carlton, Evrima has one of the highest space ratios in luxury cruising, with 85.2 square feet of space per guest.

Christopher Cypert

“Every element of the luxury yachting experience was considered when designing and creating Evrima, and we are excited to deliver unforgettable journeys for both longtime cruisers and those who are new to the industry.”

All three of the superyachts will be available for private charter. While Ritz-Carlton have not revealed the charter price, it’s safe to assume that those who opt to hire the vessels out will need pretty deep pockets.

“We are thrilled to introduce The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and usher in an exciting new chapter for this beloved brand,” says Chris Gabaldon, senior vice president for luxury brands at Marriott International.

The launch of Evrima has been rescheduled several times due to supply chain issues and the global pandemic.

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Limone sul Garda, a picturesque fishing village set on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy’s northern Lombardy region, is an unusual destination of barely 1,000 residents.

It is the most northern spot in the entire world where lemons are naturally grown and has an exceptionally mild climate, considering its location at the feet of the Alps.

Perhaps this mix of factors is what has led to the village’s claims of a secret “elixir” to a healthy, long life.

Many locals are apparently blessed with great digestive abilities that allow them to stuff themselves with cream-filled cakes and greasy cold cuts without worrying about expanding waistlines or heart problems.

These residents have what they call the “Limone gene,” which contains a special protein that destroys lipids and keeps blood fluid.

Super humans

The ‘super human’ Segala family who carry the gene.

Giuliano Segala

For 40 years, the people of Limone sul Garda have been under scientific observation, with gene-carrying villagers tested as lab rats.

Of the 1,000 residents, half are Limone born and bred; and of those 500, 60 have the gene.

“The gene runs in my family,” says shopkeeper Gianni Segala, who jokes that the villagers are used as “blood bags” for scientists.

“My brothers and I, my mother — who’s 96 and still very bright — and all my children carry it.

“Since the 1980s we’ve been giving away our blood for recurrent tests, we’ve almost been bled out entirely,” he adds wryly.

He recalls the first time the doctors had him swallow a sugary dose of whipped cream every two hours to monitor his bloods.

“They took my blood after each bite, it was so sweet and greasy I felt nauseous, but even though I ate a lot of it my blood instantly destroyed the fats without assimilating them. By nightfall I almost fainted [due to blood loss],” he says.

However, even though people like Segala may never have to fret about clogged veins and blood clots, he says he leads a very normal life and is “no Superman.”

Cesare Sirtori, professor of clinical pharmacology at the Università degli Studi di Milano, leads the team that first identified what Limone locals dub the “elixir” protein, calling it A-1 Milano. He says the people of Limone have exceptionally low HDL cholesterol levels (in a 7-15 range when normally it should be 40-60) which appears to be the result of a genetic mutation within the protein carrier.

“Having low HDL cholesterol — given that it is classed as ‘good’ cholesterol — is bad for you and leads to heart problems such as potential strokes, but in these locals it has an inverse positive effect,” he says.

“And while 99% of protein genetic mutations trigger diseases and pathologies, this one has determined the absence of vascular diseases in carriers.” Sirtori is now studying the Limone gene to see how it could further the fight against atherosclerosis.

He discovered that in Limone it is a dominant gene, found in the DNA of five-year olds, youths and elderly alike.

‘Free to eat whatever I want’

Limone is a tiny fishing village on Lake Garda.

Jorg Greuel/Stone RF/Getty Images

The gene was first identified in the blood of a Limone train driver, an ancestor of Segala, who had been involved in an accident in Milan (hence the protein name A-1 Milano) and was taken to the hospital. Doctors who cured him were baffled by his astounding blood results, and kickstarted a massive screening campaign in the village.

“I was just a kid when my blood was first tested, and the doctors come regularly to monitor how our gene is behaving,” says Giuliano Segala, Gianni’s son.

“The fact that I carry [the gene] gives me a sort of life insurance — I feel more shielded health-wise and confident I won’t have clogged arteries or die of a heart attack when I grow old.”

Even though he does occasionally feel like a guinea pig, Giuliano, who’s slim and fit, admits to happily indulging in greasy cured meats including mortadella, salami and even lard — just like his grandmother, who looks after herself and cooks for the whole family. The younger Segalas inherited the gene from her.

“I never get stomach ache and I eat whatever I feel like. I love cotolette (breaded and fried veal cutlets), fried foods, salamis, and I also love to drink. I sleep like a baby,” says Giuliano. But just because he’s a carrier of this superb gene doesn’t mean he always over-eats. He also exercises regularly, hiking with his father up mountain peaks to enjoy the spectacular views of nearby Lake Garda.

Sirtori is still hoping to analyze what happens if two carriers conceive a child. So far it’s been either the father or mother of a carrier to pass on the gene.

A powerful mix of factors

Limone’s lush location has drawn tourists for centuries.

Jimmy Gerardi

Sirtori says that this genetic mutation, and its associated health benefits, is unique to Limone — and can’t even be found in nearby villages. However, he isn’t interested in digging into why that is.

But others have. Antonio Girardi, a local hotelier who has traced back the entire family tree of the Limone gene transmission to the 18th century, believes the surroundings, climate and natural produce play a key role.

“It can be this warm climate year-round — we never have snow or ice, which is also why lemons have been growing in this northern area here for centuries,” he says.

“Or perhaps it’s thanks to the extraordinary extra virgin olive oil we’re all weaned on, and the fresh lake fish we eat.”

Ever since the Renaissance, wealthy families have flocked to Limone’s shores for vacations, breathing in the sweet Alpine air mixed with citrus fragrances, and benefiting from the climate.

Girardi keeps a phone book with the contacts of all 60-something gene carriers. The other residents are split between those born in Limone and those from from neighboring towns or abroad, lured by the paradisaical setting and sleepy vibe of Limone’s maze of cobbled alleys, and white passageways and dwellings.

In the past villagers were either fishermen or mountain woodcutters who transported logs on donkey to be sold to the ships at the harbor. Today they all work in the tourist sector which draws big money.

Families stroll along the picturesque harbor and tourists visit the fishing museum. The cozy beaches lure sunbathers and sailing amateurs in summer while hikers explore the ragged tall cliffs looming over the lake.

“These mountains act as natural shields protecting us from cold winds and capturing the sun, keeping temperatures constantly warmish,” says Girardi.

“We must thank this very pleasant, extraordinary micro-climate which has gifted our people with such a natural elixir.”

The post The Italian village with the ‘elixir’ of healthy life appeared first on Deal Price Travel.

But scores more sunken vessels remain on the ocean floor, awaiting rediscovery.

Here are some of the world’s most infamously elusive shipwrecks, plus a few you can see for yourself (some without even getting wet).

Santa Maria, Haiti

That’s one theory, anyway. However the Italian explorer’s ship met its fate, excitement bubbled over in May 2014, when archaeologist Barry Clifford claimed he’d chanced upon its long-lost wreck.

The Santa Maria is still down there, somewhere.

Flor de la Mar, Sumatra

A replica of the Flor de la Mar stands in front of the Maritime Museum in Malacca, Malaysia.

Tim Wimborne/Reuters

Perhaps it was only a matter of time before the Flor de la Mar went down, which it did in a heavy storm off Sumatra, Indonesia in 1511.

Most of the crew perished, and its booty — said to include the entire personal fortune of a Portuguese governor, worth a cool $2.6 billion in today’s money — was lost.

SS Waratah, Durban (South Africa)

It may not have its own theme song sung by Celine Dion, but the SS Waratah is known as “Australia’s Titanic” — and for good reason.

A passenger cargo ship built to travel between Europe and Australia with a stopover in Africa, the Waratah disappeared shortly after steaming off from the city of Durban in present-day South Africa in 1909 — just three years before the Titanic tragedy. As for the cause, theories abound.

The entire liner, complete with eight staterooms, music lounge and all 211 passengers and crew, was never found. Ninety years after the Waratah went down, the National Underwater and Marine Agency thought they’d finally found it, but it was a false alarm.

Said the late thriller writer Clive Cussler, who spent much of his life searching for the wreck, “I guess she is going to continue to be elusive a while longer.”

USS Indianapolis, Philippine Sea

Rotten Tomatoes’ “Tomatometer” might rack up a rancid 17% for the 2016 Nicolas Cage movie, “USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage,” but in real life, the ship played a game-ending role in World War II.

The drop-off of the deadly cargo went without a hitch, but on its return journey, the Indianapolis was hit by a Japanese sub, with many crew members perishing from shark attacks and salt poisoning.

Slave ships, North Atlantic Ocean

A man takes a picture of a pulley block, one of several recovered artefacts brought up from sunken São José.

Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty Images

Not just one shipwreck, but an entire ghastly genre of them.

It’s estimated some 1,000 ships now on the bottom of the ocean were complicit in the wicked “triangular trade” across the Atlantic that saw some 12-13 million Africans forced into slavery.

Others, like the Clotilda, were purposefully scuttled by their owners, to cover up evidence of slave trading, long after the 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves.

It’s impossible to retrieve such objects without also dredging up stories of human suffering, although DWP’s goal is to document slavery’s nefarious legacy, using it to educate and enlighten.

Still, such ships are notoriously elusive, and many may never see the light of day again.

Shipwrecks you can visit

Uluburun, Bodrum

Mehmed Çakir was diving for sponges off the coast of Yalıkavak, Turkey in 1982, when he happened upon the remains of a trading ship that had sunk here some 3,000 years previous.

The Vasa, Stockholm

The Vasa is now on display at a museum in Stockholm.

Anders Wiklund/AFP/Getty Images

Eerily intact, the 17th century warship Vasa looks more like a prop from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, than a ship that first (and last) set sail in 1628.

The Swedish behemoth made it about 1,300 meters out of port before it went down, and was only pulled from its silty grave some 333 years later.

Since a dedicated museum opened in Stockholm in 1990, the Vasa has become one of the world’s least elusive shipwrecks, ogled so far by some 25 million visitors.

MV Captayannis, River Clyde

Spied from the banks of the River Clyde at Greenock in Scotland, you might mistake the wreck of the MV Captayannis for a recently demised whale.

The black hull of this Greek sugar-carrying boat, rolled onto its side, is a favorite perch for feathered residents of a nearby bird sanctuary — and has been, since the ship went down in a squall in January 1974.

It’s said no one took responsibility for the so-called “sugar boat,” hence why it’s still wedged into a sandbank — a gauche reminder of the sea’s capriciousness.

Chuuk Lagoon, Micronesia

If scuba diving is what floats your boat, chances are you’ve heard of Chuuk Lagoon.

On this sprinkling of islands 1,000 miles northeast of Papua New Guinea, the Japanese set up their most formidable World War II naval base — that is, until Operation Hailstone was launched in 1944, with Allied forces sending some 60 Japanese ships and aircraft to a watery grave.

MS World Discoverer, Solomon Islands

“Open 24 hours” declares Google Maps optimistically about the shipwreck of the MS World Discoverer.

Since the cruise ship MS World Discoverer struck something hard, and half-sank off the shores of Roderick Bay in the Solomon Islands in 2000, it’s become a tourist attraction for passing ships (all passengers, it should be pointed out, were helped to safety).

Gently rusting away, at a 46-degree list, the ship looks like it turned on its side, and went to sleep. If nothing else, it’ll have you counting the lifeboats on your own vessel as you sail by.

The post The hunt for the world’s most elusive shipwrecks appeared first on Deal Price Travel.

Right at the heart of its culinary world, with connections to at least half of its hottest tables, is publicist Geoffrey Wu.

An atypical publicist

Geoffrey Wu is the publicist behind many of Hong Kong’s toughest tables.

Maggie Hiufu Wong/CNN

“I wouldn’t say we’re better at our job than other people. I’d say we’re different,” he tells CNN Travel in The Baker and The Bottleman, a new casual bakery and natural wine bar by celebrity British chef Simon Rogan, where he’s agreed to spill some of the secrets of Hong Kong’s dining scene.

After being expelled from the University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong for “skipping too many classes to play cards at McDonald’s,” Wu joined Amber, the famed French restaurant under the helm of Richard Ekkebus, as operations staff in 2005.

Over the next few years he took on various marketing roles for different companies — but always found himself back in the food and beverage industry. In 2012, he opened his F&B consultancy firm.

Wu isn’t your typical food and beverage publicist. He isn’t congenial. He’s known for occasionally yelling at clients for making a mistake, or members of the media he feels haven’t done their research.

“I am not afraid to speak up — people know that for sure. Sometimes you need a consultant who is straightforward about things that must be fixed. We aren’t here to massage your ego. We are here for the results. We are here to win,” says Wu, sounding more like a football coach than a PR professional.

“If I wanted to please everyone, I’d go sell ice cream. Luckily, most of my clients understand.”

Among these clients is Yenn Wong, founder and chief executive officer of JIA, a restaurant group behind popular award-winning Hong Kong eateries like Mono and Duddell’s.

“The Forks and Spoons understand and personalize the needs of each concept and is always staying very current with the relevant strategies to ensure we as clients get the most publicity to our target audience, which ultimately delivers positive revenue growth,” Wong tells CNN Travel.

‘The most cutthroat F&B market in the world’

Dinner tables at Bluhouse, a new Italian restaurant at Rosewood Hotel, are often booked out two months in advance.

Courtesy Bluhouse

One of the important duties for a F&B publicist is to be physically present at a restaurant, according to Wu. He is either tinkering with menus, sampling new dishes or simply meeting with clients.

It could be anything from translating the restaurant’s a la carte menu from Chinese into English to working with chefs on choosing dishes for a tasting menu, “so you can see what’s happening and let the staff know that you care,” says Wu.

For instance, later that day, he says he’s having a trial lunch at Bluhouse, a new casual Italian dining concept at the Rosewood Hotel in Kowloon.

“At a tasting, we’ll look at everything — taste, presentation and temperature of the food. We also look at furniture, operation flow, pricing, etc.,” he says. “No new restaurant is ever perfect, but let’s try to minimize the error.

“We have only worked with clients in Asia — Hong Kong, Macao, Maldives, etc — but I really believe that Hong Kong is the most cutthroat food and beverage market in the world.”

His claim isn’t baseless.

Getting the opening right is essential in Hong Kong due to its competitiveness.

“It’s such a condensed market,” says Wu.

“People always talk. Hong Kong customers are also very knowledgeable. If you don’t get it right from the get-go, you have to revamp many things. The question is — will the customers give you a second chance? There are so many choices that chances are they’d go somewhere else.

“So to build a successful restaurant, it’s important to make sure the opening is a strong one. With good word of mouth then businesses will come. It’s that simple.”

Case in point: Bluhouse. It opened in June and dinner reservations are full through October and November at the time of the writing.

Chefs have a bigger role than ever

Hong Kong’s F&B industry has evolved rapidly in the last decade, thanks in part to the arrival of Michelin Guide in 2009 as well as the rise of social media and the local food community.

Chefs in Hong Kong have experienced a shift in their roles.

“Some 20 years ago, chefs mostly just cooked and served food,” says Wu.

“Now in 2022, there is also this thing called relationship building. Chefs have to show their faces. They have to touch the tables and to take pictures with guests. The job of a chef is much bigger than before. It all goes back to a need for human connection. Customers, media, influencers, bloggers — everyone wants to have a human connection.”

And it just makes good business sense — guests are more likely to return to a restaurant where they have established a relationship with the chef.

The problem, of course, is that chatting with diners doesn’t come naturally to all chefs. That’s where Wu comes in.

“We just encourage and encourage and encourage them,” he says.

He cites Manav Tuli of modern Indian restaurant Chaat — which is also located at the Rosewood — as a success story. Chaat opened in 2020 and won its first Michelin star two years later.

Chef Manav Tuli of Rosewood Hong Kong restaurant Chaat.

Nora Tam/SCMP/ZUMA Press

Unique dishes like Tuli’s showstopping tandoori lobster — Indian food with a Hong Kong seafood twist — and a team of knowledgeable staff which communicates the stories of the food beautifully are some of the reasons Chaat is one of Hong Kong’s hardest to book restaurants.

Tables are released two months in advance and swept up in minutes.

But the biggest star of Chaat is Tuli, considered one of the city’s most beloved culinary figures right now.

“When he arrived two years ago, he didn’t know the landscape or culture of Hong Kong,” said Wu. “He is a quiet person but we align in a certain way as we both have a drive. For him, moving his family to Hong Kong with him, he wants to make this a success. So we have been working very closely since day one on that,” said Wu.

He encouraged Tuli to meet the guests and fellow chefs, joining him at events and meals as the chef built a name for himself.

Cold-calling isn’t building a relationship

Wu recently organized a collaboration dinner between Chaat and Forum, a Michelin three-star Cantonese restaurant.

Maggie Hiufu Wong/CNN

On his days off, Wu organizes lunches for media, including revered industry critics, and chefs he works with or may work with in the future.

These often take place at venues Wu doesn’t work for, from Hop Sze, a no-frills Cantonese diner that has a six-month wait list, to the Forum Restaurant, a Chinese joint with three Michelin stars.

“I worked til 4 a.m [this morning]. I only joined because Geoffrey Wu arranged this lunch,” one food critic tells CNN Travel as he enters the private dining room inside Forum.

The menu of the day includes all kinds of dishes — from street food-style rice rolls to classic Cantonese sweet and sour pork and the restaurant’s famous braised abalone.

As with most lunches with Wu, there’s also an off-menu surprise.

Adam Wong, the executive chef, and CK Poon, the general manager, come in with a pushcart near the end of the meal.

“We are thinking of adding this to the next menu update,” says Poon as he caramelizes sugar for the candied apple fritter (ba si apple), a Northern Chinese-style dessert, on-site.”It’s the first time we’re doing this — so let us know what you think.”

The five-hour lunch wraps up with industry gossip over bottles of cognac.

But Wu is never not working.

He punctuates gatherings with potential collaboration ideas (Tuli and Wong exchanged ideas that day on a hookup between the two restaurants), and fills in moments of silence with jokes to keep the meal entertaining.

“I always say that I’m the chief entertainment officer,” says Wu. “Building relationships takes time. Cold-calling and sending press releases aren’t building a relationship.”

Flavor is king, but there it’s not everything

Wu recently worked with Yong Fu, an award-winning high-end Ningbo restaurant, to help refine its menu for local tastes.

Maggie Hiufu Wong/CNN

At the end of the day, connections won’t get you far if the food isn’t good or the restaurant refuses to evolve.

“Flavor doesn’t lie,” says Wu. “But everything — restaurants, bars, chefs — has a shelf life. It’s impossible to stay number one forever. You need to keep coming up with new ideas to continue to elevate the restaurant.”

It could be doing more tableside services, educating guests about the dishes, or simply adding a pre-dessert bite that cleanses the palate, he says.

One of Wu’s latest tasks is to edit the menu at one of his new clients, Yong Fu, a Michelin-starred restaurant that specializes in high-end cuisine from China’s east coast Ningbo region.

He’d like to trim down the original one-inch-thick book and has created a tasting menu to offer a more curated ordering experience.

In Hong Kong, Ningbo cuisine is often confused with Shanghai cuisine. Hence, Wu has worked with Yong Fu to create a tasting menu for the local diners.

Yong Fu

In Hong Kong, Ningbo cuisine is often confused with Shanghai cuisine. The tasting menu includes dishes that diners may not know enough about to order — a “sticky” boiled wax gourd and yellow croaker fish in sour broth, for example — that amplify the trinity of Ningbo cuisine’s star flavors: “savory, umami and sticky.”

Yu Qiong, Yong Fu’s manager, is there to offer an in-depth explanation on each of the dishes.

“These are some of the things that will enrich the whole dining experience,” says Wu. He compares marketing restaurants with running: “Keep refining. Keep pushing. My belief is, just don’t stop until you are at the finishing line.”

It’s an apt metaphor. The avid runner wakes up at 5:45 a.m. on most days to fit in exercise.

“I enjoy Hong Kong on quiet mornings when the city hasn’t woken up yet. When you run, you see a lot of things and think about a lot of things,” says Wu.

As for what was on his mind that particular morning?

“I was thinking about our interview. I was thinking about not swearing. I did well — I only swore once.”

Top image: Indian restaurant Chaat’s pork cheek vindaloo. Courtesy of Chaat.

The post Secrets from the world’s toughest dining scene appeared first on Deal Price Travel.

He got his first taste of flying a few years later, when his wife Abhilasha bought him a 30-minute flight experience for his birthday.

Aliseril, who is based in English county Essex, booked in some flying lessons at a local airfield and flew to the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England, during his first session.

“That was quite an eye opener into how it [flying] gives you the freedom to just go places if you have that ability, and access to an aircraft,” he tells CNN Travel. “So that really got me hooked.”

Aliseril got his private pilot’s license in 2019 and soon began hiring planes for short flights.

Amateur build

Engineer Ashok Aliseril, with his daughter Diya, spent 18 months building a four-seater plane during the pandemic.

Courtesy Ashok Thamarakshan

But as his family grew — he and Abhilasha now have two daughters, the two-seater planes typically available for private hire became even less suitable, and he began to mull over the idea of buying his own plane.

Aliseril briefly considered buying an older aircraft, and looked at some that had been built in the 1960s and 1970s.

However, he says he felt uneasy about the prospect of flying his family in an older aircraft that he wasn’t familiar with, and didn’t think it would be a “comfortable journey.”

Aliseril began to look into the possibility of building a plane himself, reasoning that this would allow him to gain a better understanding of the aircraft so that it would be easier to maintain in the long term.

After researching self-assembly aircraft kits, he came across a four-seater plane manufactured by South African company Sling Aircraft that ticked all the right boxes.

“This was pre Covid, where travel was still very easy at the time,” he explains. “I ordered the first kit when I got back. And by the time it arrived, the UK was in full lockdown.”

Aliseril says his colleagues, some of whom had experience with building aircraft, initially offered to help with the build. But the restrictions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, which had spread across the world by this point, meant that this wasn’t possible.

Home assembly

Aliseril’s home improvement experience came in handy while constructing the four-seater Sling TSi aircraft.

Courtesy Ashok Thamarakshan

Amateur-built airplanes in the UK are investigated by the CAA, who will issue a “Permit to Fly” once satisfied that the aircraft is fit to fly.

Although the start of the build was delayed slightly due to the Covid-19 restrictions in place in the UK at the time — the Light Aircraft Authority inspector assigned to the project was required to visit his working space beforehand — Aliseril was able to begin in April 2020.

While he notes that his engineering background helped in some ways, he believes that it was actually his home improvement experience that proved most useful while constructing the aircraft, which has a length of 7.175 meters and a height of 2.45 meters.

“These aircraft kits are designed for any amateur to build, provided you’re a bit hands-on and you’ve got experience working with some specialist tools,” he adds, describing the detailed “Ikea furniture type instructions” with drawings that came with the kit.

“I would say generally, anyone can get involved in these sorts of builds.”

Lockdown project

He built a shed in his garden to complete the build.

Courtesy Ashok Thamarakshan

Aliseril completed the work himself, drafting in Abhilasha to assist with some of the sections that required more than one pair of hands. Their eldest daughter Diya, now seven, was on hand for tasks such as removing the plastic from each of the components.

By the end of summer 2020, Aliseril had built the tail and the wings. He began constructing the fuselage section in October, when the next part of the kit arrived.

Although he’d initially planned to hire a workshop to construct the aircraft, Aliseril feels that creating a workspace at his home was the better choice.

“I could just step into the shed and work on it,” he says. “So having everything just in the back garden really helped, even though space was tight.”

Each stage of the project had to be signed off by an inspector before he could move onto the next task — the Light Aircraft Authority completed around 12 inspections in total.

Once the majority of the components were constructed, and it was time to put the aircraft together, Aliseril moved everything from his home to a hangar near Cambridge for the final assembly and engine fit. The aircraft passed its final inspection a few months later.

It was one of the first Sling TSi homebuilt aircraft constructed in the UK. G-Diya, named after his eldest daughter, was signed off for its first flight in January 2022.

Aliseril recalls waiting on the ground anxiously as a test pilot took the plane he’d spent 18 months building up into the air.

Taking flight

The aircrraft, which has a range of 1,389 kilometers, was issued with a permit to fly back in May.

Courtesy Ashok Thamarakshan

“He took it up for about 20 minutes, and then he came back,” he says. “It was a big relief. I couldn’t lift my head up to see what was happening [during the test flight].”

That first flight was hugely significant in many ways.

“With these build projects, everyone calls it a project until it’s first flown,” he explains. “Once it’s flown, it’s always called an aircraft. You never call it a project anymore. That’s psychologically a big step.”

When it was time to fly the aircraft for the first time himself, Aliseril was accompanied by another experienced test pilot.

While he admits to being decidedly cautious, the test pilot was “throwing the aircraft about as if it was a racing car.”

“I was feeling very nervous, I didn’t want to put any extra stress on it,” Aliseril explains. “But he [the test pilot] was really pushing it to the limits. And it was good to experience that. I know that it [the aircraft] can handle this much.

“Once I landed, he [the test pilot] clapped his hands and said ‘Congratulations, you’ve just landed the plane you built.’ That was a great feeling.”

G-Diya, which has a range of 1,389 kilometers, went through a number of further test flights before it was issued with a permit to fly in May 2022.

The following weekend, Aliseril flew with his wife and daughters Diya and Tara, four, to the Isle of Wight, where they took a short taxi ride from the airfield to the beach.

“The kids were really happy,” he says. “So that sort of freedom. And the fact that we could just do that on a Saturday and still be back by 4 p.m. That was a great feeling.”

In June 2022, he took a one-week trip around northern Europe with a pilot friend, and flew to the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany.

While Aliseril stresses that he’s still a relatively new pilot — he currently has around 125 hours of flying hours under his belt — his confidence is growing with every flight and he’s working towards flying to Europe with his family.

Family trips

“That’s the plan going forward,” he says. “We can take trips within the UK on a weekend, when the weather is good. And in the summer holidays, we can book out a week and then fly into Europe.”

For Aliseril, one of the main benefits of the plane, aside from the freedom it provides him and his family, is the friendships he’s formed with other pilots.

He was always mindful that owning an aircraft could become a financial burden, but has been able to get round this by working out an arrangement to share it with three others.

“To get your private license, it costs quite a bit,” he adds, before noting that many of those who’ve taken on similar projects are either retired, or are people “who have the time and financial status” to fund the process.

“I kind of knew that from the beginning, and thought I’d take that risk and try to do it myself,” he says. “I knew that once it was done, I would easily be able to find people to share that cost. And it’s worked out quite well [for me].”

Now that the aircraft is split equally between four people, “it’s only costing us around the price of an SUV,” adds Aliseril.

“It’s more fuel efficient in the air — it only takes about 20 liters of unleaded fuel per hour of flight,” he says. “So the fuel costs are pretty much equal to driving.”

There’s currently no hangar space at the airfields close to his home, so Aliseril is building a new hangar for the plane, which is still based near Cambridge, at an Essex airfield.

As for the cost of the build, the kit was priced at around £80,000 (about $91,000,) according to Aliseril, while added costs including avionics, as well as the plane’s Rotax engine, propeller and other supplies, brought the total up to around £180,000 (around $203,000).

He hopes that more young people will take on projects like this in the future, and points to shared aircraft ownership as a way to make things more cost efficient, as well as form connections in the aviation world.

“It becomes a communal thing,” he says. “You always have somebody to fly with if your family is not available. Also, having other pilots who are friends — you learn from each other.”

The post This man built a plane for his family in his garden appeared first on Deal Price Travel.

On her first day exploring Benin, Rachel asked a passerby for directions. Two weeks later, Rachel and the stranger were engaged. Within six months, they were married.

Rachel grew up in Ottawa, Canada, the daughter of Haitian parents who’d immigrated to Canada in the late 1960s. As an adult, Rachel relocated to Washington DC for college, later working for a bipartisan tech program associated with the United States congress.

Rachel loved this job, she loved the diversity of Washington and loved working in public service. When her US visa was up for renewal, Rachel, then in her early 40s, figured she’d work remotely for a few months before returning to DC.

But rather than working from Canada, she hatched a plan to set up her desk further afield.

Earlier that year, Rachel had submitted her DNA to an online ancestry site. Rachel had long known she was the descendent of enslaved Africans, but until she got the results, she hadn’t known where her forebears had lived. Now, she had a list of countries where she had roots: Senegal, Ivory Coast, Togo, Ghana and Benin.

Rachel arrived in Benin towards the end of her five month remote working trip. She’d already visited the other countries on her list, and her African trip was shaping up to be an extraordinary journey of self-discovery. Nevertheless, Rachel didn’t know what to expect from Benin.

“Honestly, I don’t know if I could find Benin Republic on a map before this,” she says.

She booked a room in a bed and breakfast in the port city of Cotonou, planning to stay there for two weeks — working from the B&B and exploring the country in her spare time.

Following a couple of days settling in, Rachel ventured out for the first time. She planned to visit Ouidah, once one of the most active slave trading ports in Africa. She expected this would be a moving and thought-provoking experience.

“I’m sure that one of my ancestors passed by there, just because of my DNA test,” says Rachel.

Exiting her room, Rachel searched around for the manager of her bed and breakfast — she was looking for guidance on how best to travel to Ouidah.

“She’s nowhere to be found. And then I look for the security guard, and the security guard is on break.”

Rachel figured her next best bet was asking a passerby outside, so she opened the gates and glanced around.

The first person she spotted was a man about to get on a motorcycle, parked just outside.

Rachel greeted the stranger in French — as a French Canadian, French is her first language and it’s also the official language of Benin — and politely asked him how to get to Ouidah.

“You have to go to a certain intersection downtown, where all the bush taxis are,” explained the stranger. “You find the taxi going to your destination, you pay for your seat, and then you’ll get there.”

He started passing on directions to the intersection, but then, realizing they were a bit complicated, changed his tune.

“If you want. I can bring you there, it’s about 10 minutes away,” he suggested, gesturing to his bike.

It was about 9 a.m. Rachel was wary of trusting someone she didn’t know, but she decided she was unlikely to come to harm in broad daylight. She agreed.

“I take a chance, hop on the back of his motorcycle, no helmet,” she recalls.

Traveling together

Honoré and Rachel explored Benin together.

Woke Enterprises, Inc. Canada

The motorbike-riding stranger was Honoré Orogbo, a single father and business owner in his thirties who’d lived in Cotonou all his life and just happened to be passing by that morning.

When Rachel opened the bed and breakfast door, Honoré had just finished eating some breakfast he’d grabbed from a nearby street kiosk.

From the outside, Rachel’s accommodation wasn’t obviously a B&B. Honoré says he assumed she was the owner of the house. It was only when she asked for directions that Honoré realized Rachel was a visitor.

When Rachel and Honoré arrived at the taxi rank in Cotonou city center, they realized the one heading to Ouidah was pretty empty. Honoré explained it would be some time before it departed — the driver wouldn’t leave until the taxi was full.

Rachel was disheartened. She didn’t have time to wait around — she wanted to spend the whole day in Ouidah without feeling rushed, and to safely return to Cotonou before sundown.

Sensing her disappointment, Honoré came up with a suggestion. He had a friend in Ouidah he’d been hoping to visit — while he hadn’t been planning to go that day, he could, he had a day off.

“I’m like ‘Cool. I’ll pay for gas. Let’s go,'” recalls Rachel.

Just over an hour later, they arrived in Ouidah.

“He shows me how to get back — where the bush taxes are that I can get back that afternoon — and he shows me where the Slave Museum is. And I’m like, ‘Okay, good to go. Thanks, sir,'” recalls Rachel.

But before they were due to go their separate ways, Rachel asked Honoré if he wanted to get brunch. She wanted a bite to eat before she started her tour — and extending the invite to Honoré felt like the polite choice, he’d gone out of his way to help her, after all.

Honoré agreed, touched by the gesture. The two sat down to eat.

Rachel was aware that she was a woman traveling alone, and while Honoré had been nothing but polite and respectful, he was still a stranger, so she told him she was married.

She also didn’t share details of her job, or her life in the US. But she did explain how she was hoping to travel around Benin over the coming days. She asked Honoré if he had any friends or contacts who worked as chauffeurs or tour guides, and who might be interested in escorting her around over the next couple of days. She figured that might be easier than relying on taxis.

Honoré contacted a tour guide friend, but he was fully booked

“So I said, ‘Well, how about you? Can you be my escort? You helped me out this morning, can I just pay you to do that for three days?'” recalls Rachel.

“No, I’m not a I’m not a tour guide,” said Honoré. “I don’t know my country’s history by heart, and that’s not what I do.”

Rachel backtracked. She didn’t really need a tour guide — there would be experts at all the historical sites she planned to visit — she just needed a ride.

After a bit of back and forth, Honoré agreed to drive Rachel.

“When she insisted, I said ‘Why not?'” Honoré recalls today.

He wanted to help Rachel, Honoré says. She seemed like a “good person,” based on the way she’d approached him, the way she’d asked him questions and the way she’d invited him to brunch.

The two agreed Honoré would drive Rachel around for the next few days, starting that day in Ouidah, and Rachel would pay him for his services.

Growing closer

Here’s Rachel at Ganvie Lake Village in Cotonou, Benin.

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For the rest of the week, Honoré took Rachel to Benin’s most important sites.

Touring Benin was a powerful experience for Rachel. She says visiting the slave fort, inside Ouidah’s Museum of History, “is a pilgrimage that every afro-descendant should visit to remind us of the cruelty that our ancestors survived.”

“I didn’t know this before going there in person, but if Las Vegas was taking bets on the survival of enslaved Africans, the odds of my being alive today would have been slim to none,” says Rachel. “I am a walking, talking miracle. I am the ‘one percent.’ I owe it to those who didn’t make it to live my best life.”

While traveling around Benin, Rachel and Honoré talked. While Rachel still didn’t disclose many details about her personal circumstances, but she found herself opening up to Honoré about her thoughts and feelings. Honoré opened up in turn.

“First conversations were about learning about myself, my family, my situation, who I am, who I really am,” he says.

“We were very open and very candid, because we were strangers and we’ll never see each other again,” recalls Rachel.

She remembers being touched when Honoré explained that he didn’t have a new model of motorcycle because he put all his money towards his son’s education.

“He says ‘I’d rather have my kid have those opportunities than drive a fancy motorcycle.’ And I thought, ‘Wow, those are the values of my parents.’ I saw myself in those values,” says Rachel.

In one of their many conversations, Honoré mentioned his brother was a tailor. On their fourth day together, Honoré took Rachel to a market to help her buy fabric that his brother could make into a dress.

Rachel was overwhelmed by the choice — so much so that she asked Honoré to pick his favorites. He opted for two pieces of colorful, bright Ankara fabric. The third option was a white, gray, lace style, called lessi. Rachel loved it, and figured the resulting dress could be “appropriate for a baptism or some kind of special occasion.”

Honoré’s brother made clothing for Rachel and Honoré out of the fabric he picked for her at the market.

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In one of their many conversations driving to Benin landmarks, Honoré mentioned to Rachel that he would usually travel to Lomé, the capital of the neighboring country of Togo, when he and his friends wanted a night out.

Rachel was intrigued.

“I can’t guarantee that I’ll ever come back here. This is a once in a lifetime trip where I’m getting paid while I’m working in a foreign country. I want to take advantage of every opportunity,” she remembers thinking.

“So I said, ‘Well, I have to go back to work this week. But next weekend, if you’re willing, I could get two hotel rooms and we could go to Togo together.”

The following weekend, Honoré took Rachel to a poetry slam night in Lomé, followed by a bar with live music. They stayed out all night.

“We’re dancing. It’s just pure joy,” says Rachel.

It was around this time that Rachel started to feel things shift. She felt comfortable around Honoré in a way she’d never felt before.

“We get along great. He laughs at my jokes,” she recalls thinking. “I had a bit of a meltdown a couple times — which I’m not proud of — where he didn’t freak out, because usually angry Black women scare people. But he took it all in his stride.”

Rachel even briefly met Honoré’s son.

Rachel and Honoré, pictured here on a beach in Cotonou, grew closer and they soon realized they had feelings for each other.

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She described the situation in an email to one of her close friends back in Ottawa.

“I think I think this person should be my husband. But am I crazy? I’ve known this guy for a week. Is that stupid? Tell me if I’m crazy,” she wrote.

Her friend wrote back: “Rachel, you are not a stupid person. You have good judgment. You are a good judge of character. If he’s the one, grab him.”

For Honoré, the trip to Togo was a turning point too.

“I think it’s that night that the lightning struck,” he says. “It was not lightning but it was a feeling of love. I think that’s where the feeling of love started.”

Rachel only had one more week in Benin before she was set to return to North America. She decided she had no time to waste.

“I told him that I really wasn’t married. And he was very happy to hear that. And we got together,” she says.

“I was kind of surprised,” says Honoré now. “I thought a woman like that would probably have a husband.”

“Next day I saw her differently,” he adds. “Not like a tourist but my soulmate. That’s how the relationship started. Step by step.”

For the remainder of Rachel’s time in Benin, Rachel and Honoré spent as much time together as they could.

Long distance engagement

Honoré and Rachel often wear clothing made from matching fabric, a Benin tradition.

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On the evening of Rachel’s departure, Honoré recalls sitting with her on a beach. He was enjoying the moment, but also considering Rachel’s impending return to Canada, and what it meant for their burgeoning romance.

“We were facing the ocean. In my head, I was thinking ‘the past two weeks that I’ve spent with you, I have no regrets. We had a great time together. I was really happy to meet you.'”

The two talked about the future, and if and how they could make a long distance relationship work. They realized they were both equally committed, and so they decided to get engaged, and that Honoré would relocate to North America.

It was a big decision. They’d only known one another for a couple of weeks. And for Honoré, emigrating had never been a goal. It would be a big change for his son. But Honoré says he decided to “follow my instincts, to follow my heart.”

Meanwhile, Rachel quit her life in DC, and went back to Canada. Rachel says her friends were shocked, but supportive and happy when she told them about the whirlwind romance. Her parents were more skeptical, she says. But they came round when they met Honoré, and saw how in love he was with their daughter.

Rachel returned to Benin six months later, in January 2019, for her wedding to Honoré. She wore the dress made from the white lace fabric Honoré had picked for her in the market the summer before. It felt like fate.

Here’s the couple at Canadian wedding celebrations.

Two Trees Photography by Timothy J Baklinski

Meanwhile, the couple planned a Canadian wedding celebration for the following year, navigating Honoré and his son’s immigration journey in the meantime.

“I took the time during the separation to start preparing myself mentally and psychologically for a big move,” recalls Honoré. “I had to think about the huge life change that was going to be ahead of me, the cultural differences. I know people who went to the Americas and it wasn’t necessarily easy.”

Honoré also prepared his child for the move.

“I explained to him that, ‘My son, we will go to a different country and we will start over together. With time, you will have new friends, you will have new cousins. You will have everything you wish for. everything that you have here you will have over there, in time.”

Canadian reunion

Today, Honoré and Rachel live in Canada together. Here they are pictured at Niagara Falls.

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Honoré and his son arrived in Canada in the middle of winter.

“It was really really really cold,” he recalls. “I just didn’t understand how cold it could be outside. Because the cold of Africa is a whole different kettle of fish, than the cold in Canada.”

Still, once Honoré was kitted out with Canada-appropriate boots, coat and mittens, he started adapting to life in a new country.

Rachel and Honoré say they were over the moon to be together. The months apart waiting for Honoré’s visa approval had been long.

Honoré’s son settled in very quickly, and Rachel adapted to becoming his stepmother, a role she says she loves.

“I’m embracing the challenge and the joys of motherhood,” she says now.

“It’s not easy when you’ve been single since forever to adjust to having to share your life. But he’s a good kid.”

Today, Honoré and Rachel live in Ottawa. Rachel works as a diversity and inclusion expert, while Honoré is studying.

Here are Honoré, Rachel and their son in Ottawa together.

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The pandemic put a stop to their big Canadian wedding celebration plans, but they enjoyed a small ceremony in summer 2020.

Reflecting on their journey together, Honoré says their story makes him consider that “sometimes you shouldn’t force fate.”

He sees meeting Rachel as “destiny” but considers moving across the world to be with her as proof of the importance of trusting your gut.

“Just follow your heart,” he says. “Follow your heart with reckless abandon.”

As for Rachel, she says their love story is a reminder to her that “it’s never too late.”

“You’re not too old to just travel alone by yourself, in a country that you don’t know, where you don’t know anybody. You’re never too old to find love. You’re never too old to become a mother.

There is no expiration date on opportunity. And grab life by both hands. If I can do it. You can.”

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For over 500 years, Michelangelo’s sculpture of David in Florence has stood unchanged, the marble icon of masculinity, and one of the world’s most famous works of art.

But as Italy emerges from the pandemic, the David has got a whole new look.

A new lighting system has revolutionized how the famous statue looks, with small details visible for the first time in its history.

“A few days ago, I noticed muscles on the body that I’d never seen before,” says Lucia Lazic, a guide who visits the Accademia Gallery most days.

Michelangelo’s David in the Accademia Gallery.

Emilio Fraile/NurPhoto/Getty Images/Guido Cozzi

“I said, ‘What on earth? How have I never seen this?’ The lighting is much better on the David.”

Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Accademia, said in a statement that the lighting has “changed the visual perception of the artworks,” telling CNN that the David’s marble looks “whiter” and that the details are “more visible.”

The lighting – completed in September as part of works that were unveiled this week – aimed to bring the “dynamism of sunlight” into the Tribuna room where the statue is kept under a domed skylight.

LED spotlights were installed in a circle above the statue, allowing them to “completely envelop the David and leave the rest of the space in the background.”

The color of the light changes imperceptibly during the day, while the spotlights are of varying warmth, allowing visitors to get a new perspective with every step around the statue.

‘You can see every chisel mark’

The new-look David is part of a wider revamp of the museum, which was Italy’s second most visited in 2019.

The Galleria dei Prigioni, or “prisoners corridor” – named after Michelangelo’s four semi-finished sculptures of prisoners of war, which share the space with two of his other works – has also had its lighting switched up, with several spotlights pointed on each sculpture.

“It used to be that the prisoners looked yellow, and David was white. Now they’re the same color,” Hollberg told CNN.

“You can now see every chisel mark on them.”

The new lighting system, which “restores the right balance of chiaroscuro and color to the works,” is also energy-efficient. Hollberg says the gallery should use around 80% less electricity than in previous years.

It’s not just the headline works that are looking different. Several of the other rooms of the gallery have had their previously beige walls painted in colors that maximize those in the paintings.

The Sala del Colosso, the gallery’s first room, is now a bright blue, while the 13th and 14th-century rooms are a pale green, chosen to bring out the gold used in most of the paintings.

Sala Colosso in the Accademia Gallery

Guido Cozzi

And the new lighting everywhere has transformed the paintings from things tourists used to rush past en route to David, to unmissable in their own right.

“One regular visitor said, ‘Where was all this detail? We never saw it,’” Hollberg told CNN. “In one painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio you can now see all the gold dots in the [saints’] halos. Before, the beige walls flattened the gold. In another, it feels like you could pluck the pearls from the painting – before you couldn’t see them at all.

“My job is to give value and visibility to all the works. Every single work here is a masterpiece, but works die on a beige background – they need to be lifted and supported by color. I want to give them what they deserve.”

Changing behavior

In the past, the lighting was so bad that some paintings were barely visible – like those beside the David. “Before it was all dark, you couldn’t see them – no one stopped,” said Hollberg. One time she saw a guide shining their phone torch on another painting in a bid to show it to visitors.

Tourists have already changed their behavior, she said.

“Now they stop and look. They’re not all in front of the David like before. I’ve followed groups, and they used to cut through the Sala del Colosso and never stop. Now I see that room full of visitors – it’s redistributing the crowds.”

Lazic, a guide with Elite Italian Experience, agrees: “There are more people stopping in the Sala del Colosso.”

The renovations, which started just before the pandemic and which have been rolled out this year, have finished with the revamp of the Gipsoteca. The plaster cast gallery was another rush-through place. That’s if it was open – with no open windows or air conditioning, it used to close at midday during the summer.

But now with air conditioning, powder blue walls and a new layout for the 414 plaster casts – mostly done by sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini, whose works are found in the Louvre, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art – it’s a place to linger.

Hollberg says that locals are starting to appreciate the museum, too. “Before it was a space for tourists, but Florentines are rediscovering it. We got the last resisters in with a concert series.”

Dario Franceschini, Italy’s minister of culture, called the reopening of the Gipsoteca “an important step… in bringing [the Accademia] into the 21st century.”

He added: “The works across the entire building have allowed significant innovations in the systems, transforming a museum conceived in the late 19th century into a modern venue without distorting it.”

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