(Febuary 4, 2008)

Take off on a liberating nudist flight
LONDON F We’re on our final approach for landing. Please fasten your seat belts and return your tray tables and seats to the upright position. Oh, and put your clothes back on.

An eastern German travel firm, OssiUrlaub, said it will start taking bookings Friday for a nudist day trip from Erfurt, Germany to the popular Baltic Sea resort of Usedom. The trial excursion is planned for July 5.

The plane’s 55 passengers will have to remain clothed until they board and dress before they disembark. The crew and pilots will stay dressed for security reasons.

“We are getting lots of e-mail and calls from customers interested in taking this flight,” said Sandra Kohler, a spokeswoman for OssiUrlaub. When asked about any plans to follow suit on its own flights to Germany, Olivia Cullis, a spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, said the company “likes to keep abreast of the competition but we do not have any plans to start any similar flights.”

Kohler said one has to be a fan of nudism in order to truly understand how liberating it can be to soar above the clouds in the buff.

Germans — even those with corpulent bodies that have long ago succumbed to gravity — have long enjoyed nude sunbathing, which is permitted in many public parks.

Stripping down is a tradition that runs especially deep in the formerly communist eastern part of Germany, where being nude was regarded as a cherished expression of freedom.

There’s even a name for the movement — Free Body Culture.

But the idea of nudist flights begs some questions. Where will people strip down? And, more important, what about the cleanliness of the seats? “People will just take off their clothes when they are in their seat and not at the airport,” Kohler said. “And we will hand out towels with our logo so that people can put them on the seats.”

If the July flight is a success and the idea of nudist flights takes off, imagine the advantages: less luggage, and faster-moving security lines.

Ceramics on display
TORONTO F An exhibition of more than 100 objects from the private ceramics collection of Rosalie and Isadore Sharp — a collection so extensive it occupies nearly every room of their Toronto home — goes on display Feb. 15 at the Gardiner Museum.

The Sharps are better known for their chain of Four Seasons hotels, but their collection of Staffordshire ceramics is one of the best in the world, the museum says.

Staffordshire figures portray icons of 19th-century popular English culture: royalty, sports heroes, actors and characters from everyday life. The elaborately moulded, hand-painted figures were originally made to decorate middle-class homes.

“Covering the period from 1790 to 1830, the Sharp collection is remarkably comprehensive,” says John Sandon of Antiques Roadshow U.K., guest curator for the exhibition.

“By mixing history with humour, Staffordshire figures really bring the past to life,” says Sandon, director of ceramics at Bonham’s auction house in London.

“With a unique charm they tell us so much about the way people lived 200 years ago.”

“Man-Eating Tiger and Other Staffordshire Figures from the Rosalie and Isadore Sharp Collection” runs until April 20.

On the web: www.gardinermuseum.on.ca.

Game meat on menu
BANFF, Alta. F Game meat is not to everyone’s taste, perhaps because many people remember the first time they tried it — thanks to hunters who distributed their take to friends and family.

But the gamy taste of wild meat is very different from game raise on a farm where the feed is controlled, says the new cookbook Simple Treasures, produced by Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts and its executive chef Alistair Barnes.

The resort chain’s O’Connor family founded a ranch in the Alberta foothills in 1996 as a source for game meat for its restaurants. The ranch also distributes meat to wholesalers.

Elk and buffalo have become “huge hits” in the chain’s restaurants “and the demand has now spread throughout the retail sector,” according to the book.

Simple Treasures (Altitude Publishing) is described as “a gastronomical journey through the Rocky Mountains,” highlighting local produce, game meats and fresh fish.

The recipes range from “Bow River trout fillet with citrus herb sauce” to “roast elk tenderloin, squash hash and wild rose game reduction.” And for a game meat condiment, try some blueberry mustard — “great on a sandwich although a rather startling purple colour.” Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts has lodges in Field, B.C., Lake Louise and Banff, Alta., and several restaurants in Calgary.

World’s great train rides
LOUISVILLE, Ky. F The Royal Canadian Pacific, which offers several luxury rail tours, and the Canadian Rockies Steam Express, pulled by a CPR steam engine, are among a list of the world’s top 25 trains as chosen recently by rail fans.

The list was produced by the Society of International Railway Travelers, a Kentucky-based group which celebrates its 25th year in 2008.

Two other Canadian trains made the list — Via Rail’s the Canadian, travelling between Toronto and Vancouver, and the Rocky Mountaineer, with routes including Vancouver-Calgary and Whistler, B.C.-Jasper, Alta.

Two trains in Africa — both in South Africa — were also among the top 25: the Blue Train and Pride of Africa (Rovos Rail).

For the complete list, visit www.irtsociety.com.

CanWest News Service and The Canadian Press