Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for May, 2011
All the Queen’s Horses
By Linda Tancs
The largest outdoor equestrian Show in the U.K. is the Royal Windsor Horse Show at Windsor Castle, taking place now through 15 May. Over 65 years’ strong, the event features over 3000 horses and ponies taking part in more than 250 jumping, showing, and carriage driving classes. Have you bought your ticket yet? Finally, a reason to horse around.
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Getting Down in the Ozarks
By Linda Tancs
Eureka Springs, Arkansas is home to the hoe-down. The fourth longest running show in the Ozarks, the music theatre is celebrating 30 years! Full of country, gospel and bluegrass music, the show is good clean fun for the whole family. So is the 24th annual Eureka Springs May Festival of the Arts, celebrating local artistry in all its fors during the month of May. There are also the dinosaurs, aviaries of exotic birds, ghosts, a complete model railroad for up-close viewing and an award-winning glass chapel in the woods. Less than an hour from Branson, but hey, with all this to do, who’s rushing?
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The Strawberry Gateway
By Linda Tancs
Strawberry Point, Iowa is home to the world’s largest–what else–strawberry. A gateway to Northeast Iowa, you get the best of two worlds. On the one hand, you’ll see the flat lands to the South and West; scenic rolling hills are to the North and East. Besides the obligatory photo in town beside the World’s Largest Strawberry, there’s plenty else to see in Clayton County. The kids will love Spook Cave, offering 35-minute tours. Nearby is the campground, featuring locally handcrafted Amish log cabins. Looking for something less rustic? Then visit the Franklin Hotel, a slice of quintessential small town charm.
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Secrets of the Silk Road
By Linda Tancs
The formidable Silk Road was a trading route of ancient Chinese civilization. The 7000-mile route stretched from China and India to the Middle East and parts of Africa and southern Europe. Amidst this terrain was the Tarim Basin, the second largest desert in the world. Located at the crossroads of the Silk Road, artifacts recovered from the area, like mummies and masks, suggest the area was active for thousands of years. Exhibits showcasing the diverse languages, lifestyles, religions, and cultures of the remote area are on display through 5 June at the Penn Museum, formally known as the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.
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Morne Brabant
By Linda Tancs
Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean. At the extreme southwestern tip is a peninsula, Le Morne Brabant. Its cultural landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, includes a basaltic rock with a summit of 556 metres above sea level. At this most scenic site is the Dinarobin Hotel Golf & Spa offering, among other things, a private club reserved to guests of Club Suites. The atmosphere is typically British colonial, bearing testimony to Mauritius’ rich colonial past. The circular shape of the tower and thick walls in stone replicate the structures which hark back to the days of the British Empire when several were built as protection against enemies during Napoleonic wars.
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Power in the Pyrenees
By Linda Tancs
The Song of Roland is a historic saga set in the Pyrenees, recounting the epic tale of a heroic knight who died saving Charlemagne (Charles the Great) from an ambush. That’s not the only legendary aspect of this area. Consider Andorra, a country between France and Spain in the Pyrenees Mountains. The sixth smallest nation in Europe with an estimated population of 83,888 in 2009, it tourism industry is estimated at over 10 million visitors annually. Some of them undoubtedly go to El Castell de Ciutat (Castle of the City), a hotel located on a small hill overlooking La Seu d’Urgell, the town of the Prince-Bishops. With the Pyrenees as the backdrop, this hotel is surrounded by Catalonia’s biggest nature reserve. Retreat into luxury.
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Going Green in Bellevue
By Linda Tancs
To say that Bellevue, Washington, is green is an understatement. With nearly 100 parks, the cityscape offers lots of green in between. Even in the heart of town lies a 20-acre oasis featuring a one-half mile promenade, bordered by a double row of shade trees, and a stepped canal leading to the 240-foot wide waterfall that cascades into a reflecting pond. A 10-acre lawn area invites picnickers to dine amidst Bellevue’s skyline with Mount Rainier in the background. Located at 10201 NE Fourth Street, the park is open from dawn to 11 p.m.
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