This Week in the World: Week 15

It’s a very happy Sunday here in London, because it is finally our last day of lockdown! Tomorrow, restaurants can reopen for outdoor dining, shops are finally allowed to open their doors and so much I’ve missed about London will return at long last. My calendar is slowly filling up with dinner dates to see my friends, tennis lessons to sharpen my skills, my WSET certification courses and even a few trips scheduled for the weeks and months ahead! It feels so wonderful to have normalcy breathing into life again, even if it’s in small doses to start.

If you’re new here, ‘This Week in the World’ is a weekly recap of content ranging from around the globe. My hope is that each week, no matter where you are in the world, you’ll be able to feel more connected to it: through news, travel, food & wine… really, anything that appeals to the culturally curious. Let’s dive into the content I sourced for week 14.

TRAVEL NEWS, UPDATES + INSPIRATION

• 4 Things to Consider As You Start Traveling Again, According to Rick Steves

• Croatia Joins This List of Countries That You Can Visit Once Vaccinated

• Conde Nast Traveler: New York Debuts Nation's First Vaccine Passport

• I loved this inspiring read of “The women explorers who changed the travel world”

AROUND THE WORLD

• London shops and restaurants (outdoor dining) finally reopen tomorrow! Here’s where to eat outdoors in London (and where to eat outdoors when it’s raining).

• UK is in ‘national mourning’ for Prince Philip – what does that mean?

• Winemakers from Bordeaux to Burgundy have lit candles and even launched helicopters to help protect the young 2021 vintage from plunging temperatures, but there have been early reports of severe damage to some vineyards.

• Notre Dame’s Rector Says It Will Take “15 or 20 Years” to Restore Cathedral

• Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle to Reopen to Visitors This Summer (and visitors will also get to explore the garden at Buckingham Palace on a self-guided tour for the first time ever!)

WEEKLY FAVORITES:

• FAVORITE LISTEN: I really enjoyed this episode of Women Who Travel on “What we wish we had known before we moved abroad.”

• FAVORITE WINES: I started my WSET Level 2 Award in Wines certification this last week (which was so fun!) and tasted five different wines during class. There were two (very different but both delicious!) wines I loved that are worth searching for online to order yourself:

  • Domaine Bruno Sorg Gewürztraminer 2018 (Slightly sweet but such an incredible bouquet of melon, ripe peaches and indisputable notes of lychee that are absolutely outstanding).

  • Pio Cesare Barolo 2014 (A quintessential Barolo: pronounced oak, vanilla, blackcurrants and earthiness. High acid. High tannin. High alcohol… this clearly packs a punch! It has a long finish and would be great with a rich truffle pasta).

• FAVORITE EDUCATIONAL READ: I enjoyed this read from AP News that explores the U.S. Mexico border situation. Spin and semantics aside, migration to the U.S. from Mexico is increasing in a major way for the third time in seven years under Republican and Democratic presidents — and for similar reasons.

• FAVORITE INSPIRATIONAL READ: My neighbor is a big cyclist and yesterday got me excited about the idea of a group of us biking to Amsterdam for the weekend (it’s 136 kilometers from London to Harwich, where you then take an overnight ferry to The Hague, then bike another 64 kilometers). While that’s a journey I’ll likely spend some time working up to, it was fun to dream about. So when I stumbled upon this article titled “A cyclist on the English landscape”, a recap of travel photographer who spent the year pedaling the roads around the UK and snapping photos, it was a feast for the eyes and added to my inspiration for making that journey happen!

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That’s all for today. Happy reading and hope to see you back again next week!

xx

Whitney