Tag: guest post

Europe

Guest Post: Gluten-Free Mrs D in Europe

Erin Smith

The Celiac Awareness Month guest posts continue with the amazing Gluten-Free Mrs. D. Based in the UK, Gluten-Free Mrs D. is usually hopping around Europe on a wonderful gluten-free adventure. Here is a round up of some of her gluten-free tips for traveling around Europe. 

Are you planning a European vacation but worrying about how to eat gluten free while on your travels? Let these gluten free highlights be your guide to gluten free dining while travelling through Europe.

London is celebrating two major events this year with both the Queen’s 60th Jubilee and the 2012 Olympic games. Why not celebrate just being in one of the world’s most exciting cities by treating yourself to that quintessentially English tradition of Afternoon Tea? Forget the stuffy Ritz, take gluten free afternoon tea at glamorous Brown’s Hotel, The Lanesborough or even at the British Museum.

http://www.glutenfreemrsd.com/2011/01/gluten-free-afternoon-tea-at-browns-hotel-london.html

Italy may seem an unlikely place for Celiacs with all the pizza, pasta and Peroni it’s famous for but Italy genuinely is a paradise for those unable to eat gluten. A screening programme for young children has helped create a high level of understanding amongst the general population for Celiac disease and the requirements of a gluten free diet. From gluten free pizza to gluten free gelato cones and even shops which cater specifically for Celiacs, Italy truly has it all. For a selection of posts on the wonders Italy has to offer the Celiac / gluten intolerant, please click here.

http://www.glutenfreemrsd.com/category/gluten-free-travel-international/gluten-free-italy-gluten-free-travel-international

One thing which particularly struck me in Vienna – after admiring the city’s impressive architecture – was just how many coffee shops and cafés the city has. Each corner of this wonderful city seemed to be blessed with a place to indulge in a very sweet treat. With many Viennese cafés able to offer gluten free cakes every bit as good as their gluten containing cousins, you really can have your cake and eat it here.

http://www.glutenfreemrsd.com/2012/04/gluten-free-vienna-cake.html

Sometimes all kids want is to be the same as other kids, Happy Meal and all. In Sweden, you could take your Celiac child to McDonalds and they can be just like anybody else eating out. In several European countries (including Sweden, Norway, Finland and Spain) the Golden Arches caters to Celiac customers with gluten free buns.

http://www.glutenfreemrsd.com/2012/01/sweden-gluten-free-mcdonalds.html

Although eating gluten free in France is often not as easy as it is in other European countries, it is absolutely possible. For example, markets all over France are interesting and colourful places to visit to check out the multitude of naturally gluten free goods on offer, much of it grown in the locality. From beautiful vegetables and fragrant fruits to fabulously stinky and delicious cheeses, every day you can enjoy a naturally gluten free picnic without feeling as though you’re missing out. Here are some tips to help you eat safely in France.

http://www.glutenfreemrsd.com/2011/11/eating-gluten-free-france.html

About Gluten-Free Mrs. D
Adventures of a gluten free globetrekker chronicles the life of a London girl with very itchy feet who never lets her dietary restrictions (Coeliac and almond/hazelnut allergies) prevent her from exploring. Having visited 60 countries all around the world, she’s on a mission to show that in travel, nothing is impossible with advance research and preparation.

“Life is too short to let dietary restrictions hold you back from having exciting travel adventures.”

You can also find Mrs. D on Twitter at  @GlutenFreeMrsD

Pennsylvania, USA

Guest Post: Gluten-Free on the (Rural) Road by Anya

Erin Smith

I met Anya, author of Another Gluten-Free Blog, about a year ago through the NYC Celiac Disease Meetup group. Gluten-free since September 2010, Anya travels a lot for work so I thought her road-tripping tips would be a perfect guest blog post this month. Anya is also a co-owner of Mile End Bakery, specializing in both regular and gluten-free cookies! 

Gluten-Free on the (Rural) Road
by Anya, Another Gluten-Free Blog

I am fortunate to live in New York City where there are plenty of gluten free options.  However, I have to travel to rural Pennsylvania a fair amount for my job.  At first I was nervous about finding gluten free options in very rural areas.  Determined not to starve, and equally determined to find good gluten free food in rural PA, I started doing my research.

Using the Gluten Free Travel Site (glutenfreetravelsite.com) and regular Google searches, I was able to compile a list of over 30 restaurants with gluten free menus in the many areas of Pennsylvania I travel.  Having all these restaurants to eat at not only makes me feel better about being gluten free on the road, but it also makes the trips more fun.  Being on the road for many days at a time with only one meeting a day, I find myself able to try many of these restaurants and booking hotels based solely on their proximity to restaurants I want to try.  I’ve had a lot of great meals in Pennsylvania over the last year!

However, I have also found myself in areas without any gluten free options.  For these times, I highly recommend you have snacks with you.  Sometimes snacks don’t cut it, though, and you need a real meal.  For this reason, I recommend you not only research gluten free restaurants, but restaurants in general.  Too many times have I found myself on stretches of highways with only fast food options available.  I’m sure there were restaurants a few miles off the highway that could have made me a safe salad, or plain proteins and veggies, but if you don’t know where they are, they can’t help you.

When you are really in a fix, many gas stations these days offer surprisingly healthy and naturally gluten free options: yogurt, packaged veggies and dip, fruit cups, cheese, etc.  If worst comes to worst, create a meal out of these options.

I haven’t let Celiac Disease keep me confined home and I hope you don’t either.  To read more about my gluten free adventures please visit my blog at anothergfblog.blogspot.com

general, USA

Guest Post: Gluten-Free Travel by Diana

Erin Smith

In honor of Celiac Awareness Month, I asked my readers to contribute their gluten-free travel stories. I love all of the comments and entries I am getting from my dear readers. Although faced with challenges of being gluten-free, you are still traveling and that is what is most important. You, dear readers, have not let Celiac and the gluten-free lifestyle keep you down. You are jetsetting more than ever! Here is my first reader-submitted travel post. Thanks Diana!

GF Travel
by Diana S. from Chicago

These have been ups and downs to say the least. I’ve had some great travels, some that were miserable. All of my travel has been in the US. But next year I’m looking to start some international travel, so it should be interesting!

I always pack a ton of food when I travel, nuts, pretzels, cookies, larabars. I panic each time that I will get stranded.

I was spending a week in LA with friends. In the “agenda” of our trip I added a tab of GF restuarants I found on Urban Spoon, Gluten Free Travel Site, and reviews of LA. I also packed several packets of Tamari Soy Sauce and my multi languge travel cards and any travel size snacks I could keep in my purse. We also mapped out Drug Stores in case we need to get some Milk of magnesium (Helps reduce my pain when glutened) that luckily we never needed! (We all have smart phones, but felt much better having this written down and in hand)

Starting with the miserable…

I had a layover for 3 hours in St. Louis… I had pretzels, cookies, and nuts in my luggage… That was really my only option there. They had so few options it was unreal, everything was pre-made, breaded and fried. I could at least get something to drink, but i was starving when I got home!

Tawas, Michigan – went up for a week stay at a friend’s cottage. They stared at me like I was crazy, that I packed GF pasta, pancake mix, cookies, pretzels, brownie mix, and a few other items. Being such a small town there were VERY few options for eating out, and we ended up making a lot more food than expected. The grocery store had some mixes, but not much more… On the up side we did have some fun with the “non-cookers” trying their hand in the kitchen to make some interesting naturally GF meals. This years trip is centered around What can we learn to make.

Mackinaw City was a pretty similar situation… But we did find a place to eat that understood my situation, and made a very lovely salad! The drive home was pretty dismal until we found a Ruby Tuesdays for their squash pasta.

On to the good…

Grand Rapids, Michigan – We went to visit some friends, found TONS of places to eat on Urban Spoon. There is a GF section, it was fabulous.Everyone we talked to when dinning was so nice about it. I felt very welcomed and ate well. We tried some unique foods and have to go back again.

Southwest Airlines – Flying for work I was on a 3 hour flight with Southwest. They were passing out cookies and nuts. I told the stewardess I couldn’t eat the cookies, but the nuts were ok, she gave me handfuls of the packets of nuts. My boss is also really good if we are meeting with a client who insists on taking us to lunch or dinner, he’ll tell them up front, it has to over a GF menu, give me the name and Diana will contact them, and we’ll let you know. I’ve never met a client who was rude about it, it always starts an interesting meal conversation.

On a return flight from LA on American Airlines, I had brought back BabyCakes cupcakes for the family in Chicago. The flight was packed and we did not have room for the box with the cupcakes to lay flat. I talked to the stewardess who was a sweetheart, totally understood my situation and put them up in First class where there was room. As we were de-boarding she made sure to flag me down and make sure I got my cupcakes.

We do a lot of roadtrips and my Boyfriend and Brother are both really good at looking up our travel routes and telling me what cities we’ll pass thru, to see if I know of any places, or just looking up, “Hey there is xyz along the way, we’ll stop then..” I only travel with people who understand my situation, because it makes it so much more comfortable.

Send me your travel stories and I will post them on my blog throughout the month of May. Email me at gfglobetrotter @ gmail.com 

general

Happy 1st Blogiversary Gluten-Free Globetrotter!

Erin Smith
Gluten-Free Globetrotter circles the globe!
Gluten-Free Globetrotter circles the globe!

Today is the one year anniversary of launching this gluten-free travel blog. After writing my Gluten-Free Fun blog for more than 4 years, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up with writing a second blog. As with so many parts of my life, I dove right in and accepted the self-imposed challenge of writing another blog. I am proud of myself for being here one year later and not abandoning this blog along the way.

This blog is a labor of love and still very much a work in progress. I hope for some big changes for Gluten-Free Globetrotter over the next year. This blog is a perfect outlet for me to write about two of my favorite passions in life: travel and being gluten-free.

As I celebrate my one year “blogiversary” I realize it’s been quite a year! Here are some of my Gluten-Free Globetrotter highlights from the past year:

Thank you for all of your support and comments over the past year. I have really big ideas for the year to come. Stay tuned!

Amsterdam, Europe

Guest Post: Wine with Kristen Travels Without Gluten

Erin Smith

My colleague, fellow Celiac, and dear friend Kristen Siebecker, of the blog Wine with Kristen, recently came back from an exciting trip to Amsterdam and Spain. I have been living vicariously through her blog posts and gorgeous pictures of Spanish wine country since she got back. Kristen was kind enough to share some of her gluten-free adventures with Gluten-Free Globetrotter.

Wine with Kristen Travels Without Gluten
by Kristen Siebecker 

Erin knows how to travel Gluten Free, so as I planned my trip to Amsterdam and Spain. I asked for her help. She gave me a fantastic list of Gluten Free restaurants, groceries, and the like so that I didn’t have that pit in my stomach (not related to ingesting gluten) before even getting on the plane.

First up Amsterdamned.

We hit the grocery stores first, and I was pleasantly surprised with all the gluten free packaging they had (wheat with a negogatory bracket) so it was very easy to feel safe and sound.

My favorite restaurant meal was a great rice, veggie and chicken meal at a chain place called Wagamama and they were convenient. The only bust was the Bakkerij Visser Stoepje Bakery, I stopped in and asked to see the gluten free products and they did have frozen gluten free bread. But only by the loaf, which wasn’t exactly tourist friendly. Ah well.

Now onto Spain! We hit Castellon which is a town about an hour north of Valencia. The great thing about this area is that is paella based, naturally gluten free, so I felt pretty comfy. Actually I printed out my gluten free travel cards in Spanish, and I never really had to use them, every place we went knew what I meant when I said, “Sin Gluten.” Even the grocery store had very well marked GF signage, see the Turkey below!

Now the best for Gluten Free travel was Barcelona by far. I found what, to me, is the best gluten free sandwich bread I have ever had. The place: Fast Vinic.

The whole place was green. Everything in the restaurant was recycled or re-purposed, including the tables, chairs etc. Everything you eat on and with was recyclable. They had an enotech machine to get over 20 local wines by the glass. And they had gluten free bread. Let the picture speak for itself:

That is a good lookin’ sandwich. Big thanks and shout out to Erin for helping me with my Gluten free travels…it was easy and delicious!

About Kristen Siebecker

Kristen Siebecker has been a great fan of viticulture and vinification since her first illicit sip of Boone’s Farm wine beverage many years ago.

More recently, she became a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers, completed the Advanced Certification program from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust with distinction and is certified in Advanced Blind Tasting by the American Sommelier Association. Kristen continued to hone her skills for several years in the wine retail industry, advising customers and assisting in the “Sommelier for an Evening” program.

Kristen is available for all things wine related! She is the currently the Events Director for Swirl Events providing private and corporate wine tastings in the NYC area. In addition, she is a wine consultant and occasional on-site sommelier for Good Commons, a retreat center in Vermont, as well as the NYC Celiac Meet-Up group.

Kristen’s current favorite wine is Cava! Sparkling wine all the time.

Feel free to contact Kristen about wine pairing, shopping for wine, sourcing appropriate wines for your next special event, or putting together your own tasting!

Web: www.WineWithKristen.com
Twitter: WineWithKristen
E-mail: WineWithKristen at gmail.com