GREENWICH — On Tuesday’s cool morning, a group of women in activewear came up around the bend at Cos Cob Park to wrap up their last MeFit session.

They were chatting, laughing and talking about their FitBit Zips — electronic fitness and health trackers clipped to their clothing — which were made available to them courtesy of the Greenwich Senior Center, on their way to reconvene and celebrate completing the center’s six-week fitness program.

The Fitbits “clock our mileage, our steps,” said Barbara Mould. “It’s great because I had one but never used it, and since this class started, I use it every day.”

Suzanne Testani, the center’s program coordinator, said that the decision to buy the Fitbit Zips is an effort to bring state-of-the-art programming to Greenwich residents. The center bought each teardrop-shaped Zip for $65.

At the end of the step-based program Tuesday, participants were able to purchase the Zips they used for a discounted price, $25, or return them to the center for future program use.

Clad in a bright pink top with matching leggings, Lete Miranda said she didn’t focus too much on the technological aspect of the program. Miranda focused on how she felt energized by being part of the exercise group.

“I have (a Fitbit) at home as well and I sort of know how it works,” Miranda said when she came up the pathway at the front parking lot with Dottie Brower. “But I was always looking forward to coming with the ladies (and Program Coordinator) Suzanne (Testani) — I feel like I’m chillaxing when I go.

“I feel stronger,” she said, “more motivated.”

Motivation came for Kathy Cullen in facing the challenge of healing after injury, without pushing her limits.

“I had to beg my doctor to join this group,” said Cullen, who came up the bend with a baseball cap and sweatshirt. “I had (rotator cuff) surgery in April.”

Peg Hroziencik said keeping active at any age is important. In addition to participating in MeFit, she swims with Mould at the YMCA and YWCA, and walks almost three miles with her church regularly.

“Even a short walk,” Hroziencik said, “keep moving every day. Try to do something.”

The hour-long class, which began at 9:15 each Tuesday morning, was inspired by studies that show group exercise yields positive results, Testani said. MeFit complements other group classes she teaches at the Senior Center.

“It’s nice to get together with a group of women,” Brower said. “We laugh and we talk. We have fun.”

Before Cos Cob Park, the group walked at Bruce Park, around the Havemeyer Park track, and at the Senior Center this summer — with terrains increasing in difficulty as the program progressed.

“We had some guests who brought their (grandchildren),” Testani said reflecting on the program. “We let people walk their own pace ... It’s just another way for Greenwich residents of all ages to enjoy the great outdoors.”

7 Ways to Get On the Water in Traverse City This Summer

It’s never been easier to get on the water in Traverse City. Set sail on a historic schooner, speed into the sunset on a jet ski or test your balance on a paddleboard. See for yourself why this bayside town got voted number one boating town in the nation by BoatU.S.—it also made the top 10 list for best beach towns.

Nauticat

A sunset cruise aboard this catamaran tour boat is by far one of the most memorable ways to experience the bay. The Nauti-Cat offers four cruises daily, or rent the whole boat for you and up to 45 of your closest friends. Cash bar and bathroom on board. 231.947.1730.

Parasailing

Float up to 80 feet above Grand Traverse Bay for a seagull’s view of one of the biggest, cleanest, freshwater bays on earth. Try East Bay Parasail (231.633.3327) or Traverse Bay Parasailing (231.929.7272) for solo and tandem flights.

Powerboat

If you love speed and don’t want to miss an inch of Grand Traverse Bay’s 300 square miles, a powerboat is a must. Sail & Power Boat Rental has ski boats, pontoons and jet skis—plus all the kneeboarding, tubing and waterskiing paraphernalia you’ll need for a perfect afternoon. 231.922.9336.

Sailing

A sailboat is still one of the most nostalgic and romantic ways to experience the water. Great Lakes Sailing Co. has a fleet of more than 20 yachts you can rent— the largest fleet on Lake Michigan. Not a captain? You can hire one there too. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. 231.941.0535.

Tall Ship Manitou

This 114-foot-long, 1800s-replica schooner seems to have cruised straight out of a Great Lakes history book. The deck beneath your feet, the sails billowed above: unforgettable. Choose from three daily tours (noon, afternoon Moomer’s sail and the popular evening cruise), each two hours long., or specialty cruises such as the wine tasting and entertainment cruises.

Kayaking and Paddleboarding

Paddling the shoreline of Traverse Bay is a summer classic. Whatever your paddling pleasure, The River (231.883.7890) on Boardman Lake can connect you with rentals by the hour or day—canoes, tubes and rafts also available—for a trip from the lake to the bay. Paddle TC (231.492.0223), located in Clinch Park, offers kayaks and paddle boards and shore-to-shore delivery pretty much anywhere in Northern Michigan. And don’t forget about the crazy popular Paddle for Pints—a brewery pub paddle on Boardman Lake and River and West Grand Traverse Bay with stops at up to six breweries.

Charter Fishing

For the outdoorsmen and women, there are few thrills like chasing game fish on the Great Lakes. Traverse City offers options right at the docks, with the bonus that fishing amid the protection of Grand Traverse Bay offers more assurance of smooth waters. With nearly 300 square miles, a depth of 600 feet, and an abundance of lake trout, brown trout, steelhead and salmon, the bay offers fisherman all the species of desire. Charter fishing need-to-know: All bait and tackle are usually provided, a typical half-day trip runs about four hours and anyone over 17 who plans to fish will need a valid Michigan fishing license (day licenses run about $10). Three charters to try in TC: Big Kahuna, Daydreamer and Reel Fun.

Take the kids to … Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre, Devon

This quirky museum-attraction is filled with working vintage fairground rides, fairground art, try-your-luck stalls and a penny arcade. Board the 1940s ghost train, ride the speedy Edwards’ Golden Gallopers carousel (much faster than modern versions and with original carved wooden horses), spin until you’re queasy in a teacup or bump to your heart’s content on the 80-year-old Super Dodgems.

This is the home of the National Fairground Collection, and all the rides here have history, from the hand-turned Overboats ride (built in the 1870s) to the beautifully painted 1930s Edwards’ Chariot Racer, one of the first white-knuckle rides. The Rodeo Switchback, Supersonic Skid and Chariot Racer are all fast enough to keep older kids and adults amused, and for little ones there’s a Happy Caterpillar and a very sweet 100-year-old roundabout. Classic stalls include darts and cans, hook-a-duck and the popular Plate Smasher. At themed events throughout the summer, kids can learn circus skills or meet characters from the Wizard of Oz.

Fun fact 

The Moon Rocket ride, made in 1938, is the only surviving example of such a ride in the world. The centre spins anti-clockwise and the cars clockwise, creating an illusion of greater speed.

Best thing about it

There’s a charm to these vintage rides that you no longer find in modern fairgrounds. I particularly enjoyed peeking inside the sumptuous living wagon, or Palace on Wheels, of showman Charles Heal, but the Golden Gallopers and Dodgems were my daughter’s favourite by far.

What about lunch?

The Carousel Cafe serves standard fare: burgers, sausages and chips, nachos. The healthiest options were jacket potatoes (£3.50 child, £4.45 adult) or soup (£4.95). The children’s lunch box (£4.95) included half a white bread sandwich, Pom-Bear crisps, a tube of yoghurt, raisins, fruit juice and an apple. There are picnic benches outside for those who bring their own food. A nice selection of homemade scones and cakes starts at £1.95.

Exit through the gift shop?

The small shop is beside the exit, selling vintage-style toys and fairground gifts starting from 99p. There’s a good collection of new and secondhand fairground art books on sale, too.

Getting there

Dingles Heritage Fairground is a mile from the A30 in west Devon, 35 miles west of Exeter, and seven miles east of Launceston. It’s well-signposted and makes an unusual stop en route to Cornwall.

Value for money?

Not bad: tickets are valid for a year with Gift Aid. Saver tickets, including 10 ride tokens, cost £12.60 adult, £10.80 child. A family ticket (two adults and up to four kids) without tokens is £28. Tokens are 50p each if bought separately (most rides require two tokens).

Opening hours

Open daily 10am-5pm, 17 March-29 October, though check the website before visiting.

Verdict

7/10. It’s fun but still a work in progress. More could be made of the transport and living wagons collection, which are tightly packed and cordoned-off in a separate building. It would benefit from a good outdoor play area too.

The City Gate, Exeter: hotel review

Exeter is so close to lovely beaches, Dartmoor, Exmoor, and pretty towns like Totnes and Chagford it’s a wonder many travellers know it mainly for the M5 services. Being a “gateway” to the West Country is almost an invitation to whizz through.

When the 18th-century Royal Clarence Hotel – often described as England’s oldest hotel – was destroyed in a fire last October, the city lost its most characterful lodgings. The City Gate – a Young’s pub with rooms in a listed redbrick former coaching inn, which reopened in May after extensive refurbishment – doesn’t make up for this loss, but it does provide the essentials for a short stopover. Its 14 bedrooms are smallish but smartly decorated, and the locale is of historical interest: the pub abuts the original Roman city walls and looks out on to the Iron Bridge, built in 1834.

My standard twin room had an easy-on-the-eye green and grey colour scheme that’s replicated throughout the building. Exeter used to be a centre for processing and exporting woollen cloth, a heritage celebrated in prints of sheep, a framed abstract worked in wool, bedside lamps made from glass containing balls of wool, and a small, metal sheep’s head sculpture.

A long desk contained a handsome steel floating-arm office lamp, a Krups coffee machine, a kettle with Joe’s teas, and welcome treats in the form of some fudge to nibble and a small decanter of sherry. The minibar had beer, whisky and fresh milk. The bathroom was smallish, but smartly done, with floor to ceiling white tiling, large mirrors, roomy walk-in rainshower and Algotherm toiletries.

The hotel is 10 minutes’ walk from Exeter St Davids station, and five from the city centre. The gothic medieval cathedral is impressive, and if you like your mercy seats and vaulted ceilings it’s worth the £7.50 entry. The Exeter Phoenix is an excellent small arts complex, with day courses and an interesting gigs roster. Exeter’s best attractions, however, are its waterways: a bike ride down the Exe to Topsham or Exmouth, or a paddle along the canal are highly recommended – hire from AS Watersports or Saddles and Paddles.

For a five o’ clock “bridger” try the Fat Pig, a stylishly unkempt gastropub just round the corner, which serves good wines and tasty ales.

The Young’s pub inside the City Gate is also stylish, in a slightly more corporate fashion. It has a long bar – serving local beers and ciders, and Plymouth gin – and a nice snug full of mismatched chairs and antiques. The nicest space, though, is the cosy, cool-looking Cellar Bar, which the landlords are offering to arts groups and open-mic nights free of charge. Once the pub’s wine store, it has original bare stone walls, with dark wooden tables, loungey chairs, and funky artwork on the walls.

The beer garden is vast, with space for perhaps 150-200 people to eat, as well as the 100 or so inside the pub. As the far end was drenched in evening sun, I took a seat outside for dinner.

Devon is a proud food county. Brixham crab on sourdough, and West Country lamb rump drizzled in caper and shallot dressing were delicious and generously proportioned. The wine list was short but good, with reasonably priced old- and new-world wines, and oddities such as Slovenian pinot bianco – though, sadly, none of Devon’s own crisp whites. Tim, the Dutch waiter, was chatty and charming.

The garden is already doing a roaring trade at weekends, when a craft beer stall and burger bar open, in addition to the main kitchen and pub.

Secondary glazing kept the traffic noise out at night, and though I could sense other guests moving around, I slept well through to breakfast – a perfect eggs florentine, with cafetière coffee, fresh fruit and cereals.

Canals, macarons, and Lady Liberty in storybook French village

The Statue of Liberty, resplendent in her flowing robes and pointed crown, proudly holds her torch above the grassy hump of a humdrum traffic circle, welcoming not the tired, poor and huddled masses but rather tourists yearning for the canals and cafes of a medieval French village.

The 39-foot replica on display just outside Colmar, in the Alsace region, is a reminder that this most patriotic of American symbols was a French idea. Other copies are spread around France, including three in Paris and one in Bordeaux, but this one commemorates a hometown hero, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who designed the original.

On the day of my visit in May, the sun poked out from behind the clouds just as the bus from nearby Strasbourg stopped at the Unterlinden Museum, a former convent with artwork spanning medieval to modern and archeological artifacts from Gallic and Roman times. Signs of spring spilled from window boxes tended with purple, pink and yellow blooms. Finches twittered away in the trees, and elderly ladies leaned on their canes during a late-morning stroll.

Along the short walk over the Lauch canal into the historic core, hints appeared everywhere of a region with feet planted in two different cultures. Wooden signs dangled from curlicued wrought iron on colorful half-timbered buildings. Their hand-painted, decorative facades could have been found in the Black Forest or Swiss Alps, pointing toward the village’s origins during the German-speaking Holy Roman Empire.

The pastry shop windows brimming with baguettes and macarons signaled two centuries of French rule that started with Loius XIV after the Thirty Years War. A laissez-faire ease in the shopkeeper’s manner showed a town that held on to that identity despite two more turns with the Germans, once for nearly 50 years ending at World War I and a second during the Nazi era.

Locals stick to calling themselves Alsatian and try to keep it light. As goes one classic joke, “Alsace is like the toilet of France. It’s always occupied.”

At the Bartholdi Museum, housed in his family home, the plight of the Alsatians is on display as much as the bronze models of the artist’s most famous works, which include a 73-foot sandstone lion and a light-up fountain at the US Capitol. Many of his allegorical representations depict fighters or victims of various wars in a classical, muscular style. Yet there’s one that romanticizes the life of the vintner, portraying a boy gleefully chugging wine.

The museum also conveys a life of privilege for the son of a lawyer and landowner who split his time between Paris and Colmar. The ceiling of the dining room, for instance, is decorated with Japanese and Chinese dishware. “His mother,” according to the English audio guide, “fully supported the artistic career of her cherished angel.”

The top floor is set aside for that statue in New York, actually titled “Liberty Enlightening the World.” Glass cases hold several clay models of early designs, showing that Lady Liberty could have taken a much different pose. In one, the female figure seems relaxed, leaning backward as she rests her weight on one leg. Another’s hair is covered by a cloth, looking more like a nun than the familiar, star-crowned final copy.

The exhibit includes photos of workers in France hammering 300 sheets of copper to the steel frame of the statue, which was shipped off in pieces, as well as a life-size cast of an ear that Bartholdi kept in his personal collection. Gustav Eiffel of Parisian-tower fame gets a nod for taking over as architect long before it was dedicated in 1886.

The museum visit took less than an hour, leaving ample time for me to explore, so I trailed behind a miniature tourist trolley that putt-putted its way into the Tanner’s District. The neighborhood is across the Lauch from the area known as the Little Venice of Alsace, a bit of a misnomer since there’s really only one canal.

It’s alluring just the same, and it’s practically mandatory to sit outside a cafe for at least one glass of light, dry Pinot Gris. I obliged at canal-side Restaurant Au Koïfhus, whose name shows that the Alsatian dialect shares more in common with German than French. As I snacked on a tarte flambée, sort of an Alsatian pizza with onion and bacon, tourists floated by in low-sided wooden boats on a lazy, half-hour canal ride across town, periodically ducking under foot bridges.

On my way out of town, a shopkeeper, Natasha, lured me inside with a free macaron for the road. The heart-shaped treat at Maison Alsacienne de Biscuiterie looked like it would be dry as a butter cookie, but was so flavorful and chewy it was closer to strawberry bubble gum. One clearly wasn’t enough, and as Natasha said, neither was one day in town.

“Colmar represents what it is to be Alsatian,” she said. “It’s a real gem, a pearl.”