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There are unexpected pleasures and surprises when you travel, that's why it is so much fun. When I stepped onto Southern Palms Beach Club property in Barbados' Platinum Coast, I went back to a genteel, Victorian era — an architectural timeless period piece.

Have you ever looked at antique tintypes of buildings frozen in time? The Southern Palms Beach Club is a traditional Barbadian plantation resort, an interlude between past and present, with guests and staff burned forever into daguerreotype plates.

I first noticed this special appeal at Monday evening Manager's Rum Punch social at Circle Terrace where I met tall, British hotel manager, Britta, dressed in a sort of Victorian era and white lacey evening gown. Later, I found out she races her own thoroughbred, Granite, at Garrison Savannah racetrack, historic British military site (www.barbadosturfclub.com, or call 426-3980). I sipped a special Southern Palms Piña Colada and listened to a sewing company magnate from Canada tell me that he has been staying at Southern Palms each year for decades, staying for months to outwit brutal Canadian winter.

Get Bronzed At The Southern PalmsThe pink property sits on one of largest beaches in Barbados, with over 1,000 feet of its own velvety, coral sand to stick toes in. Young palms are growing in sand in front of resort. The resort is not quite on Caribbean, and it is not quite on rougher Atlantic side, either.

Located in south end of island in an area known as St. Lawrence Gap, resort is close to bistros, nightclubs, and chattel house shopping, but it also has nightly entertainment, barbecues, calypso bands, sporting tournaments, and its own duty-free shop. The entire complex makes it so convenient not to leave, except maybe to watch running of Granite.

Standing in path of a total solar eclipse is a dramatic and awe-inspiring experience. To watch light fade from sky and to see last fiery wisps of sun's disk be engulfed by black moon is a stunning spectacle that stays with you forever. Adding to thrill is fact that path of a total solar eclipse beats a track through Europe very rarely. The last was in 1999 when path of totality passed through Cornwall (SW England); next will be in 2026 when totality touches Northern Spain.

The eclipse begins across Turkey at around 12:45 in afternoon, more than an hour before totality is reached. These early stages of eclipse will go largely unnoticed. It is not until some 25 minutes before totality, when sun's disk is more than half-covered, that it becomes noticeable that light is fading. The ensuing half an hour is then nothing short of magical.