Tag: tribunecontent

The Schilthornbahn: Bringing Life to the Village and the Village to the Alps

Suddenly, a bright modern cable car swooshes by with 30 tourists gawking out the windows. I’m watching the Schilthornbahn mountain lift from the terrace of a hotel in the tiny traffic-free hamlet of Gimmelwald, high in the Swiss Alps just south of Interlaken. My friend Walter, who runs the hotel, joins me with a drink…


Rick Steves’ Europe: The Schilthornbahn: Bringing Life to the Village and the Village to the Alps

Suddenly, a bright modern cable car swooshes by with 30 tourists gawking out the windows. I’m watching the Schilthornbahn mountain lift from the terrace of a hotel in the tiny traffic-free hamlet of Gimmelwald, high in the Swiss Alps just south of Interlaken. My friend Walter, who runs the hotel, joins me with a drink…


Taking the Kids: Slope-Side Lodging for Families, Pooches, Too!

A snow beach or ice bar? S’mores made at a fire pit overlooking river ice floes. Perhaps a sleigh ride dinner. Where would you go for an après ski treat? Definitely for s’mores, said Lauren Ikeman, 10, staying with her family at the ski-in, ski out Grand Hyatt Vail where unlimited s’mores kits are one of…


Wild for Game Meats

More and more of us are getting our game on these days as the popularity and availability of game meats like venison, elk, bison, duck, pheasant, and quail grows. Known today as “field to table” eating, game meat is hardly new, having sustained humans for thousands of years. A healthy, sustainable, and increasingly fashionable choice,…


It’s Maple Syrup Season! How to Tap and Boil Your Own

A sure sign of spring is the sight of maple syrup buckets on the sides of sugar maple trees. Early settlers found that Native Americans slashed trees to collect the sap. The sap was gathered into hollowed-out logs. Freezing temperatures caused ice to form, which was removed as pure water, thus concentrating the sap. Hot…


The Kitchn: These Cupcakes Are Positively Dreamy

Black bottom cupcakes fall somewhere between chocolate cupcakes and cream cheese brownies, which is to say they are positively dreamy. These are cupcakes that eschew frosting. Instead, the tender-crumbed chocolate cake reveals a delicious chocolate chip-studded cream cheese filling when broken apart. They’re a moist, fudgy, and luxuriously rich treat. What are black bottom cupcakes…


Install a Backup Sump Pump

A flooded basement or crawl space because of a power failure is something homeowners dread, but an ounce of prevention like a backup sump pump is the solution. The pump operates on batteries and does not rely on the local electric utility company for power like a pedestal or submersible pump. A backup pump uses…


Ask the Builder: Building a Stone Wall and Arch

My grandfather was a baker in Cincinnati in the very early 1900s. He and my grandmother owned and operated a neighborhood bakery in the Clifton Heights neighborhood, just 400 feet from where I was born. When he retired, he decided to build an eight-unit apartment building just down the street from the bakery. He named…


Rick Steves’ Europe: The Camino de Santiago: A Medieval Pilgrimage in Modern Times

For over a thousand years, the cathedral towering over the main square of Santiago de Compostela in the far northwest corner of Spain has been the ritualistic last stop for pilgrims who’ve hiked here from churches in Paris and all over Europe. And for a thousand years, pilgrims — standing before this towering cathedral —…


Are Sulfites in Wine Bad for Me?

Anytime you come down with a headbanger after a glass or two of wine, it’s easy to blame the much-maligned sulfites in the drink for why you feel beaten down. But this preservative has for the most part been bestowed an undeserved bad rap. First, a little background. Sulfites are chemical compounds, or more precisely,…