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Rundown
for the Week of September 19, 2003
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to the Whole Show
 Slideshow, with travel advice from S. Featherstone
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Honeymoon, Interrupted, in Spain by Steve Featherstone
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in RealAudio
Sometimes the classic, memorable trip is the one that turned out completely different than you had imagined. That's the point of this story. Steve Featherstone was on his honeymoon with his wife, Debbie, in Spain, driving south from Madrid to the coast when they stumbled onto an event that changed the trip in many ways: a car accident, with a man clutching to life in the street. Debbie, an emergency room doctor, used all of her skills that day -- and her and Steve looked at that trip very differently from then on.
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"Blues Highway" Interview with author Richard Knight
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in RealAudio
Ever driven the Blues Highway? You can start in New Orleans and follow Highway 61 all the way up to Davenport, Iowa, then take a right and head up to Chicago. Along the way you can hear the best blues and jazz in the world. In the early 20th century, hundreds of thousands of black Southerners left Louisiana and Mississippi for a better life in the North, in St. Louis and Chicago, and they took their music with them. It was called "The Great Migration." Recently, an Englishman named Richard Knight spent four months traveling in an RV with his girlfriend, retracing The Great Migration. He wrote about the juke-joint music he heard in a new book called "The Blues Highway." Richard and host Diana Nyad talk about his experiences.
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Weather Delays Interview with Sam Halpern of WorldTravelCenter.com
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in RealAudio
Hurricane Isabel pounded the East Coast this past week, leaving many travelers holding tickets for canceled flights. In general, airlines allowed passengers to reschedule their flights without a change fee -- some even offered full refunds. But what if you really had to be somewhere? What if you missed a cruise or tour departure because your flight was grounded by the hurricane? That's where trip interruption and cancellation insurance comes in. Host Diana Nyad talks with Sam Halpern, the executive vice president of World Travel Center.com, about what it is, how and when it's useful and where travelers can buy a policy.
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Music with Bob Duskis, "Verve Remixed 2" and "Arabian Travels 2"
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in RealAudio
Bob Duskis, co-founder of Six Degrees Records in San Francisco, is our world music guide. This week, he joins us with sounds from the second volume of the very successful "Verve Remixed" series, where DJs and electronic artists put their spin on the music of jazz greats, and the second edition of the "Arabian Travels" series, which chronicles the influence that music from the Middle East has had on the world's of electronic dance and ambient music.
Click here for more info. about the artists
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Sound Travels St. Lazarus Day, Brazil
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in RealAudio
Sound travels, the part of our show when we travel with just our ears as our guide, takes us to Salvador de Bahia, in northern Brazil, where this time of year marks the feast of St. Lazarus. It's a festival with Catholic roots that has come to mean so much more. It begins inside a Catholic church, then quickly moves outside. You can hear the ceremony over loudspeakers, but other groups have begun singing to their idea of the saint: the African deity "Omolu." Small groups of worshippers stand in circles, light candles, throw popcorn in the air, clap and chant. Jim Metzner was there and recorded the scene.
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Traveler's Aid Interview with Nuala O'Connor Kelly of the Office of Homeland Security
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in RealAudio
This week, we give you the inside scoop on CAPPS II: a new airport security system, currently being developed by the federal government's Transportation Security Administration, which will use computer records to assign passengers a color code: red, yellow or green. Host Diana Nyad learns the details of CAPPS II from Nuala O'Connor Kelly, chief privacy officer at the Office of Homeland Security. Then, she chats with lawyer and privacy advocate Mark Rotenberg about the civil rights implications of the new system.
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Deal of the Week Europe in the Fall
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in RealAudio
Europe's long, hot spell is over, the crowds have dissipated, and now is a great time to be on the sixth-largest continent. So, how can we get there economically? Good thing our Travel-Expert-in-Residence, Rudy Maxa, calls in from Bergen, Norway, with some amazing bargains to get you to Europe this fall!
DEAL: The summer airfares of $900 to $1,300 between the U.S. and Europe are evaporating. Delta has a ticket sale good for travel through the end of October with round-trip fares like these:
New York to Madrid: $344
Houston to Munich: $476
Chicago to Frankfurt: $475
As usual, these don't include taxes, which add at least $100 to the total, but even so, these fares are about half what they were a month ago.
Of course, Delta's not the only place to turn for good deals. You can expect airlines that fly similar routes to compete, so if you find all the sale tickets on Delta gone for the day you want to fly, shop around. Check with airlines' vacation arms -- like Virgin Vacations, for example, from Virgin Airlines -- which have huge lists of package deals:
Like, a London midweek special that gives you a roundtrip flight to London and 6 nights in a hotel with breakfast. For travel through October, book by Sept. 29th.
FINE PRINT? Book 7 days in advance, stay over a Saturday night, and the cheapest fares are for travel Monday through Thursday. But you don't have to be two people traveling together, and there are no blackout dates. But you must book by next Tuesday, Sept. 23rd!
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