Traveling is one of my favorite things in life, but I can’t help but imagine what it would have been like back when traveling was an art, not just a way of getting from Point A to Point B, all while being smushed in with hundreds of other passengers with your knees under your chin…you don’t even get the doll-sized bag of peanuts or pretzels anymore.

My grandmother used to be a stewardess (not a flight attendant) on PanAm in the ’40s when the airline used fine china and real silver to serve its travelers meals actually cooked on board the aircraft. She served on international flights to China, Europe, and the occasional trip to Alaska. She tells amazing stories of the places she went, the people she met and the sights she saw.

When I saw a picture of this book online, I immediately wanted to pore over it. I read a review for it by Brad Hooper who wrote the author lets you “pretend you are high society of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries” and guides you “to the hotels in Europe where you would stay, the transportation you would enjoy (luxurious trains in addition to the elegant queens of the ocean), and how to partake of the social season in Paris or London or St. Petersburg…what a pleasure it is to fantasize being part of that gilded crowd as they made their way from Berlin to Athens to Cairo.”

Doesn’t that sound fun? How I would love to fantasize that I am part of that crowd!