by Amber H. | Oct 27, 2016 | Europe, France, Luxury, Transportation, Travel Advice
Breaking Down 5 Cruise Misconceptions on a European River Cruise We’ve always prided ourselves on the fact that we’ve never been on a cruise. Technically, we can’t even make this claim due to a not so fab two night Yangtze River cruise we took in China back in 2009. But, I don’t think it counts. I mean a real cruise. One with a cruise director, buffet meals, and pre-arranged activities, on a boat with a bunch of other people. I’ve always stuck my nose up a bit at cruise goers, that was until our recent French river cruise experience. Yes, Viking River Cruises hosted us on this experience. And I’m glad they did. I never would have thought of doing this type of river cruise otherwise. We not only had a great experience, but it certainly dispelled some of the misconceptions I had about cruising in general. 1. Cruise Misconceptions: Cruise Ships are Crowded Close your eyes and say the words “cruise ship” and what images pop into your head? For me, it’s always been large cruise ships, the size of a small city, where it’s nearly impossible to find a lounge chair near the pool. Where I would be one of a thousand people clamoring for a server’s attention at dinner. I knew this wouldn’t be our experience on a European river cruise. First, the rivers can’t hold ships that big. There were less than a hundred staterooms on our Viking Buri longship. On our cruise, from Avignon to Lyon, I believe there were about 150 passengers on board. That meant there were always seats available at dinner,...
by Amber H. | Sep 6, 2016 | Europe, France, Podcast
The Culinary Travel Guide How does the daughter of a professional hockey player begin writing about culinary travel? After a solo trip to Paris, where Laura learned about French cooking techniques and took classes at the famous French cooking school Le Cordon Bleu, she became more serious about sharing her food travel tips with others. It’s one of the reasons why she ultimately created The Culinary Travel Guide. During this week’s culinary travel podcast, we talked about some of our shared food travel experiences. We have a lot in common when it comes to our experiences traveling in France for the food, although we were offering her some serious advice about planning her next Italian culinary tourism trip! More recently, she was the dessert and sandwiches judge at a cook off in Canada. That’s living the dream. You can follow Laura by checking out The Culinary Travel Guide, also on Facebook and Pinterest. Mentions in This Week’s Culinary Travel Podcast: Taste Florence Food Tours Viking River Cruises and the Silver Spirits Package Why We Can’t Love France Occupational Hazards of Being a Food Travel Blogger How The Sausage is Made – Mortadella Subscribe on iTunes! Subscribe to the With Husband In Tow podcast on iTunes and listen to a new episode every Tuesday! If you like the podcast, leave a review! You can also check out our podcast on Stitcher here. And, we’re now available on GooglePlay! Check Out This Week’s Episode of the Food Travel Podcast http://traffic.libsyn.com/withhusbandintow/2_Ep_13_The_Culinary_Travel_Guide.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: iTunes | Android |...
by Amber H. | Aug 4, 2016 | Europe, Food, France
I’m the farthest thing from a connoisseur of French food. I know the basics, enough to get me through a few weeks of traveling in France. But, when I walked into a French cooking class, with a group of bloggers, and learned I would be helping to make pâte à choux, my first reaction was “what the heck is that?” What is Pâte à Choux It was a bit chaotic when our group walked into the small demo kitchen just off of Place Bellecour in the heart of Lyon. We were traveling together on our Viking River Cruise. This was the last full day of our trip, and we had gotten to know each other pretty well. Perhaps too well. As we put on our aprons, and all wondered where to put the dozen or so cameras that joined us in our class, our instructor started speaking, very fast. It was all a bit confusing as to what was going to happen. Our instructor handed us a sheet up paper with the ingredients and steps to make pâte à choux. I slunk off to a corner to Google pâte à choux, not wanting to admit that, as the food blogger of the group, I had no idea what we were about to make. The choux part of the name is merely the light and fluffy pastry dough that is used to make loads of different French pastries, like eclairs and profiteroles. Okay, now I started to feel more in my comfort zone. In this case, we learned to make the pastry, the crumbly part on the top, and Chantilly cream for the inside,...
by Amber H. | Aug 2, 2016 | Europe, France, Podcast
Why We Can’t Love Traveling in France “No Matter How Hard We Try” We haven’t spent much time traveling in France. We’ve spent lots of time in Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, but not France. We’ve dipped our toes into the sea that is France in the past, but never dived deep. It was one of the reasons why were were so excited for our French river cruise. To taste French food, drink French wine, and hang out with some French goats. We extended our stay beyond the week long cruise, to spend time in exotic places likes Aix-en-Provence and Lyon. But, no matter how hard we tried to love France, it just didn’t take. Traveling in France is just not as easy as it’s neighboring countries. Part of it was due to language, part of it was due to what was going on in France this summer, and part of it had to do with French food, believe it or not. On this week’s episode of our culinary travel podcast, we apologize to the French as we admit how hard it was to travel in France. Check out our post that debunks 5 Cruise Misconceptions. Subscribe on iTunes! Subscribe to the With Husband In Tow podcast on iTunes and listen to a new episode every Tuesday! If you like the podcast, leave a review! You can also check out our podcast on Stitcher here. And, we’re now available on GooglePlay! Check Out This Week’s Episode of the Food Travel Podcast http://traffic.libsyn.com/withhusbandintow/2_Ep_08_Why_We_Cant_Fall_In_Love_With_France.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: iTunes | Android |...
by Amber H. | Jul 19, 2016 | Europe, France, Podcast
Who is One Modern Couple? Canadian travel blogging duo Macrae and Carolann have been traveling the world and sharing their best travel tips on the destinations they’ve visited. They’ve ridden a scooter through 762 turns, up and down mountains, from Chiang Mai to Pai. They’ve rung in Chinese New Year with new friends in Taiwan, fulfilled lifelong dreams of finding elephants in Thailand, learned to scuba dive, and tried some incredibly strange food they regret eating. In fact, we talk about some of their strange food experiences on this episode of our culinary travel podcast. We consider ourselves pretty adventurous eaters, and have even eaten a full snake dinner in Vietnam. But, Macrae and Carolan’s experiences are equally unique. They certainly are One Modern Couple! And, this was the first podcast episode that we recorded in our very own cabin on a river cruise. In order to find some quiet, the four of us crowded around the bed in our stateroom aboard our Viking River Cruise in France in order to chat about food travel. After hanging with One Modern Couple in both France and Thailand over the last year, we figured we knew them well enough. But after this, we know them even better! Check out our post that debunks 5 Cruise Misconceptions. Check out our video of our French River Cruise experience: Mentions on This Culinary Travel Podcast One Modern Couple’s post on their first Viking River Cruise The Dishes They Regret Eating, including the time they ate horse! You can find One Modern Couple on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and they have a culinary travel Instagram page as...
by Amber H. | Jul 12, 2016 | Europe, Food, France, Podcast
So, Who Exactly is Brian The Viking Scot? Okay, so first off, I have a thing for guys with accents. In fact, when I met Eric I told him he would be a “10” if he only had an accent. And, Brian’s Scottish accent is awesome. He’s from a small town in Scotland called Paisley, yes Paisley. And, Brian was the Hotel Manager on our Viking French river cruise. But, we also fell in love with Brian the Scot just because he is such a great person, so welcoming to guests on board, so energetic. We just knew we had to interview him. And, he has a very interesting background, has been around the world and back again. As a result, Brian the Viking Scot shares with us his favorite places to travel, and some of his favorite foods too! A very entertaining episode of our culinary travel podcast. Check out our post that debunks 5 Cruise Misconceptions. Mentions on This Week’s Culinary Travel Podcast Viking River Cruises – The cruise that we took in France, from Avignon to Lyon A French River Cruise – Food and Wine on the Rhone – All about the food and wine we drank during our Viking River Cruise And, see more about our Viking River Cruise experience in our VIDEO: Subscribe on iTunes! Subscribe to the With Husband In Tow podcast on iTunes and listen to a new episode every Tuesday! If you like the podcast, leave a review! You can also check out our podcast on Stitcher here. And, we’re now available on GooglePlay! Check Out This Week’s Episode of the Food Travel Podcast http://traffic.libsyn.com/withhusbandintow/2_Ep_05_Brian_the_Viking_Scot.mp3Podcast:...
