Traveling with the Stars: Martin Brodeur
— -- Three-time Stanley Cup winner and 16-year veteran of the New Jersey Devils Martin Brodeur became the NHL's all-time leader in wins by a goaltender last month. Brodeur shares his travel tips and highlights with USA TODAY.
Q: Where have you been recently that you liked or were surprised by?
A: During the season, my favorite city to visit for road games is Chicago. I love Chicago, from the restaurants and places to hang out to the whole makeup of the city. Rush Street has tons of little pubs and restaurants to check out during any time of the year. The team always stays in the best hotels and The Ritz-Carlton is no different. It's right in downtown Chicago and a pretty neat spot.
Q: What's the best place you've ever visited?
A: I loved our vacation in the Turks and Caicos in 2003 the most. We had just won the Stanley Cup and I left a couple of days after the parade. My then girlfriend and now wife, Genevieve, and I stayed at the Point Grace. It was a small hotel — all suites — and it varied from our place right on the beach with a walkout ramp to the sand, to the top floor that went for something like $20,000 a day. It was just a really classy place, but it was also fun and very romantic. We had a chef we could call and say, "Listen, we want to eat some fish." They'd ask what kind we wanted, went out and caught it in the ocean, and brought it to our room. We had a kitchen with a butler. It was great.
I spent time with Dallas Mavericks' forward Dirk Nowitzki. I met him there for the first time. I saw this seven-foot-tall guy coming into the lobby and later I got a voicemail that said, 'Dirk Nowitzki invites you to go to his birthday party.' We went deep sea fishing, scuba diving and tried all kinds of Caribbean water sports. It was a lot of fun.
Q: What's the most surprising/unexpected place you're ever visited?
A: Warsaw. I played a game there during a hockey tour in 2004, and I didn't expect anything of it. But the food, the people, everything was really nice. We stayed in Warsaw for a day and a half, not that long. I didn't expect Poland to be a special stop for us. We went to Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic. I visited 10 countries in 17 days during that tour. The people just appreciated us.
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