Favorite souvenirs?
 

My favorites include a ceramic bowl and traditional fan from Seville, a bottle of Creme de Catalana from Madrid, a pearl necklace from Majorca and an onyx chess set from Greece.

I love to hear what other people have brought home from their travels, so what are some of your favorite souvenirs?

One of my favorite souvenirs that I use frequently are dish towels I bought in Bavaria. I have other things I love, of course, too but these towels are super handy, just the right size and very absorbent and they've lasted many years.

In 1958, in Toledo. Spain, I bought a small replica of of a
Toledo sword to be used as a letter opener. It hasnt missed a step and is still going strong. In 2001 I bought a # of "santons" ftrom Santons Fouque in Aix en Provence.

E. Dehillerin was my fav find in Paris. I always look and make sure I buy things that are made in that country. Sure a cute magnet is a fun reminder on the frig but for my friends it has to be from that country and not China. I had about given up until I walked into E. Dehillerin. I think the clerk thought I was crazy but I bought every Eiffel tower cookie cutter he had. They all were marked "made in France"
In Germany I always go to this same woodworker near Ettal and buy his bowls and nutcrackers. In Ireland I use to buy crystal but now hunt out hardware stores for quirky little items I can't find in the states. I have mind your step signs above a door that steps down. I came back from Italy in May with very little. I pack light and waited till duty free for last min food items. I did pick up some beautiful note cards that were made there. I do try and fine a print to hang on the wall. It has to be light and get through security as carry on.

LSky, I know those towels!! I look for towels that say made in Portugal. Very nice. I always bought my mom those and she recently passed so brought them home with me. They last forever.

My favorite item discovered on my first trip to Europe and UK I still enjoy thanks to streaming on Netflix - it's <i>Top Gear</i> :-)

flpab, these aren't terry cloth, they are a good woven cotton. Amazing towels, if I ever find more I'm buying 10. (and not the whole lot in case you come in next :)

A small salad bowl bought in La Bisbal, Catalonia, in 1969. My first holiday with friends rather than with my parents. I walked up and down the main street, then only a thinnish strip of asphalt with pottery for sale along the length of sand on either side. I knew exactly what I wanted and took ages to find it. The blue and white glaze is now a bit worn on the rim, but it was the very first bit of pottery that I bought for myself on holiday - now part of a collection of pieces from all over the world that are used every day and that bring back so many memories.

Can't pick one--or even one type!

If I could only have one "souvenir" type, it would be photos. But if I get to buy something--

Tea tidies (those little usually ceramic saucers usually shaped like a teapot) for holding tea strainers/tea bags--DH and I use 2 different ones every morning and as Grindeldoo says they bring back so many memories. They range from a couple cheap plastic ones through some souvenir-y ones (e. g., Tower of London, Mont St. Michel) through a couple that aren't really tea tidies (like a small local made saucer from Tarragona) to some nice china ones like from a York tea shop and several Portmeirion ones from Harrods at LHR (mostly those are DH's presents from travels without me). They are usually relatively inexpensive and small for easy transport.

And I can't seem to resist mugs, because I know I will use a different one every morning! But I curtailed buying as many on latest trip to the UK and France.

Our nicest include local-made small pieces of pottery--we don't have many, but a couple vases from Wales, candlesticks from Tarragona, garden decorations from Trier, and several bembels from Frankfurt are favorites.

DH said--cuckoo clocks (we have 3) but we can't afford any more he said! Each of them has a story to go with it, so they are special.

Wooden sailing ship - Penang
Jewellery - Greece, Turkey, Spain, Egypt
Handpainted plate - Greece
Papyrus painting - handmade from Egypt
Clothes!

Refrigerator magnets - quality ones made in the country I'm visiting, not from China.
They take up so little room in transit or at home.

One of the souvenirs that gives me the most pleasure is a shopping/tote bag that I picked up at the Viktualienmarkt in Munich. On one side, it has a playful, colorful rendering of Munich, topped by a banner with the word “Viktualienmarkt" under a garland of fruits and vegetables.

It was only 2 euros. I use it for trips to the farmers’ market and library.

I heard about it hear on Fodors!

About eight years ago I arrived in Paris on Saturday. Now you have to know I pack everything conceivable I could possibly need when away from home. On Sunday I realized I had forgotten to bring a comb. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten such a much needed item but could have easily cured every sick person in Paris with my arsenal of drugs.

Since it was a Sunday, nothing was open but I did find a pharmacy on Ave. Bouquet. Found a beautiful tortoise comb but the cheapest one was about $22 dollars. Was furious I spent so much on that comb but I needed it and didn't want to wait until Monday.

After all these years, I love that comb, use it every day and it brings back all the memories of buying it. Now, I never take that comb when I travel since it would break my heart to lose it.

I like to buy things that I will actually use on an everyday basis but are inexpensive and easy to carry. Right now there is a tablecloth from Provence on my kitchen table that i love. When it gets dirty I replace it with one from Italy. As someone else mentioned above, I also have several dishtowels from different places. So even when I'm doing the dishes i have happy memories. And all of my scarves are from my travels. So whenever someone says, "I like your scarf," I can say, something like, "thank you, I picked it up in Athens."

I don't like to shop, so I have more regrets than souvenirs. In Pompeii, I really wanted a tile or rug or something imprinted with the famous mosaic, "Cave canem," which has a picture of a dog barking. I didn't buy anything, and I wish I had.

Another time I saw some things with images by Alphonse Mucha in a window in Prague--a compact, for one thing. But I didn't want to stop and shop. Another regret.

I don't usually buy souvenirs nowadays. In the past I sometimes bought prints, which of course are small and light, so that they don't add to the weight of my suitcase. But nowadays I mostly try to get rid of stuff rather than add to it.

I bought two sweet little prints just outside the Alcazar in Sevilla. The thing I remember most about this experience is that when she heard me speak, the artist asked if I was from Texas. Since I'm 2200 miles away from Texas, I assured her that she was off by an entire continent--well, maybe not a continent, but pretty much as far off as you can get and still be in the States.

The prints are hanging in my downstairs bathroom.

Oh, I did buy a little shopping bag in Leipzig which has the images of the "ampelmänner," the distinctive stop and go figures on traffic lights in east Germany.

Real paella recipe.

Dish towels from Paris, gloves from Florence, my husband has a great collection of neck ties from Italy, two small water colours from an artist at the Place du Tertre, small ceramic bowls from Sorrento, a beautiful lightweight scarf from Paris. My gym bag is a canvas bag that I bought at Galerie Lafayette.

I can't think of anything else just now.

Dish towels - We stretched and framed (with a linen liner added as well) two towels with local scenes to hang in the dining room & kitchen wkhich contain pottery/dishes from the same area. Everyone is always amazed that they're actual tea towels. We also use tea towels from the areas we've visited rather than save them.

Aprons-I love to cook and it makes me feel so happy to decide which apron I "feel like" that day.

Cooking products not found elsewhere - especially spices, salts, condiments

Magnets-practical and something you will see and enjoy every day as you open the fridge.

Local cook books

My favorite "thing" is actually a very tall, cylindrical glass container 6 or 8 inches in diameter that sits in a nook of my desk; I pop little memorabilia from special moments into it as I collect them...bottle tops, wine corks, various colored & shaped stirrers, a chestnut collected from the Dordogne, a sprig of dried rosemary from Provence, cards and/or keys from memorable hotel trysts...only limited by how much I can stack in there.


I'm sure this would drive a neat-freak crazy, but it brings me great pleasure and brings back each moment like it was today.

Ceramic garlic jar from Cortona,old goat bells from Crete along with donkey bells from western China, tied together with a leather string, hanging on our outdoor patio wall.