Historic holiday travel advocated by TV's History Channel

There is no public transportation, and the day after Christmas is another holiday when the Lord of the manor distributed gifts to his staff. But the 27th is when the stores like Harrods and Selfridges have tremendous sales. I had a wonderful time, along with the British crowds buying English bone china at a fraction of the original price.We then went on a historic walk on the Strand down Fleet Street to the famous Old Bailey Courthouse, the locale of many a Dickens novel. After checking our cameras across the road at a knitting shop for all of two pence, we took a seat up in the balcony of the courtroom, presided over by a silver wigged, black robed judge. The barrister also was dressed in a black robe with a silver colored wig on his head. He delivered an impassioned oration in defense of his client.The History Channel tours will celebrate the eight-days of Christmas in Mozart's Musical Imperial cities of Salzburg, Linz, Vienna and Prague. In my travels, I found that there is nothing comparable (with the exception of Hearst's San Simian) to the grandeur of the castles and palaces that the former emperors and royal families spared no expense to build. You can also shop till you drop in the festive Christmas markets throughout the celebrated cities of Imperial Europe. In Salzburg, Mozart's birthplace is on the itinerary with a tour of Mirabell Gardens, the locale of scenes in the movie "The Sound of Music." For the history buff, what could be more meaningful than Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities," which was written as a social commentary of the French Revolution and accurately described the oppression of the lower classes and justifiable unrest and upheaval that unseated the "Bourbon Kings" and changed the natural order of Europe forever. The Bastille on the Left Bank is the landmark where Marie Antoinette paid the ultimate price for her infamous quote, "Let them eat cake," when the starving masses complained of having no bread to eat. The two cities of London and Paris were interconnected paths to revolution.My daughter Jill Wasser joined me on one of our early historic discovery tours to travel across the Channel "the old fashioned way" by packet mail boat from Paris to the white cliffs of Dover to London as described by Dickens in, "A Tale of Two Cities." In Paris, I also recommend a walk through the Marais section, Goldenberg's Kosher Restaurant and what was once the Jewish section and is now gentrified with chic boutique shops. And trips to Versailles, Notre Dame, the Louvre and the path in France exploring the theme and sites associated with Dan Brown's novel "The DaVinci Code" from the Grand Gallery in the Louvre and the Mona Lisa painting, past Chateau Villette, across the Channel to the rolling hills of Kent, to London to continue exploring Westminster Abbey and Temple Church.My late husband and collaborator, Martin, a veteran of World War II, found revisiting as a civilian the sites he had served in as a corporal and war correspondent for Stars and Stripes in the European theater in France, Austria and Belgiumvery meaningful and important to him. We did get to Waterloo, and spent D-Day there in Normandy. He recalled that early on June 6, 1944, 135,000 troops and 20,000 vehicles landed on five beaches in Normandy. The long-awaited-once-in-a-lifetime Allied invasion of France had begun, with the fight for Normandy and other battles from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge (Bastogne). I must admit that this was a great visit to one of the most important events in American history and ensured democracy in the Western World. Highlights not to be missed are the Imperial War Museum in London, D-Day Museum in Portsmouth, Site of Battle of the Bulge (Bastogne), Caen Peace Memorial, Normandy Beaches, General Patton's Grave in Luxembourg) and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin. There are also great American trips with visits to American Revolution and Civil War destinations. You can get additional information on holiday travel by logging onto HistoryTravel.com or by calling 877-238-6877Copyright by Marcia AbramsonEmail:mascrbe@verizon.net