Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for August, 2017
America’s Oldest Landscaped Gardens
By Linda Tancs
Home to America’s oldest landscaped gardens, Middleton Place is a National Historic Landmark. Located in Charleston, South Carolina, the gardens were planned by Henry Middleton, a planter and public official whose son Arthur became a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Its 65 acres are ablaze year round with blooms: camellias in winter, azaleas in spring and a collection of kalmia, magnolias, crepe myrtles and roses in summer. A trained garden interpreter leads a discussion of the garden design, history and horticulture. Guided tours include the Middleton family home, where original portraits, furniture, silver, china and documents belonging to family members are on display.
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Flying Tomatoes in Spain
By Linda Tancs
Tomatina is a festival that takes place on the last Wednesday of August each year in Buñol, Spain. Revelers parlay pelting tomatoes into prize-fighting furor, complete with chants of “Tomato! Tomato!” The hour-long street battle attracts participants from around the world, who gather around six trucks offloading 160 tons of ripe, red tomatoes. Be sure to wear old clothes and goggles.
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Jazz in Queens
By Linda Tancs
Jazz great Louis Armstrong was born in one of the poorest sections of New Orleans. He was rich and famous enough to live anywhere, yet, true to his roots, chose a modest house for himself and his wife for the remainder of their lives in Corona, Queens. No one else has lived there since. Now a National Historic Landmark and a New York City landmark, the Louis Armstrong House Museum is shown only through guided 40-minute historic house tours that start every hour on the hour. The tour offers glimpses into his life and legacy, including audio clips from Louis’s homemade recordings and snippets of him practicing his trumpet, enjoying a meal or talking with his friends. The museum is located in the northern part of Queens, New York City, close to LaGuardia Airport.
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Queen of the North Sea
By Linda Tancs
Part of Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park, Germany’s island of Sylt is the largest North Frisian island and the fourth largest island in the country. Referred to as the Queen of the North Sea, its popular holiday resorts (Morsum, Keitum, Rantum, Hörnum, Kampen and List) make it an attractive summer destination. Known for its tranquil beaches, a visit would be incomplete without a stop at the aquarium in Westerland, boasting a fabulous collection of North Sea and tropical fish. See more marine life in its natural habitat via a guided boat trip at the Wadden Sea, the largest unbroken area of mudflats in the world. The Hindenburg Causeway joins the island with the mainland.
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An Invitation to the Palace
By Linda Tancs
A longtime papal summer residence, Castel Gandolfo is a scenic, lofty little town overlooking the Alban Hills, roughly 15 miles southeast of Rome, Italy. Because Pope Francis has declined to stay at the pontifical villas there, they are now open to the public. So, too, is the Apostolic Palace, where an audio tour relates 500 years of papal history amidst paintings, relics, liturgical vestments, uniforms and other artifacts, including the sedan chair of Pope Pius IX and the BMW used by Pope John Paul II during his summer stays at Castel Gandolfo. Arrive in style via a special train running on Saturdays only that links the historic Vatican City railway station with the pontifical villas.
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The Pinchot Trail
By Linda Tancs
Gifford Pinchot was a founding father of forest conservation, a childhood interest that netted him an appointment by President Theodore Roosevelt as the first chief of the then-U.S. Division of Forestry. Pennsylvania’s Pinchot State Forest is named in his honor, a vast forest land of over 45,000 acres across Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna and Wayne counties. The Pinchot Trail is the only developed hiking trail on the Thornhurst Tract, the largest tract in the system located on the Pocono Plateau. The 26-mile trail features red and black spruce, tamaracks and bogs.
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A Superior Wilderness Experience
By Linda Tancs
Surrounded by Lake Superior and near the border with Canada, Michigan’s Isle Royale is one of the least visited U.S. national parks. That’s to be expected, considering its remote location. All the better for you. Enjoy a car-free experience where the only approved modes of transportation include hiking, boating, canoeing and kayaking. Known for its wolves and moose populations, Craggy Scoville Point is a great spot for viewing some of the roughly 200 rocky islets that form the Isle Royale archipelago. Accessible by ferry, seaplane or private watercraft, there are two boats that service the island from Michigan—the Ranger III from Houghton and the Isle Royale Queen IV from Copper Harbor. The island closes from November 1 – April 15 annually.
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Total Eclipse in the Park
By Linda Tancs
A total eclipse of the sun will sweep across the United States for three hours today beginning around noon. This is the first total solar eclipse to affect the continental U.S. since 1979, and 20 of Tennessee’s state parks fall in the “path of totality.” One of those is Frozen Head State Park, where you’ll get 34 seconds to view this singular event. Named for a 3,324-foot peak in the Cumberland Mountains (the top of which is often shrouded in ice or snow in the winter months), the park provides 50 miles of backpacking and day-hiking trails with extensive wildlife viewing opportunities. The state park system is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year.
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America’s Oldest Synagogue
By Linda Tancs
In colonial times, Newport, Rhode Island, welcomed its first Jewish residents as early as 1658. A century later, the population had grown substantially with the rise of the mercantile trade, giving rise to the need for a place of worship that was named Congregation Jeshuat Israel (Salvation of Israel). It was later renamed Touro Synagogue after Newport natives Abraham and Judah Touro, who both provided bequests to see to the perpetual care and maintenance of the Congregation’s properties. Designated a National Historic Site in 1946, the synagogue boasts a connection to George Washington, who adopted many of the views on religious liberties and the separation of church and state that were espoused by the congregation’s president during his address to Washington at Newport. In fact, Washington’s written response to the congregation is an annual celebrated event, lauded and commemorated as possibly having the greatest impact on America and American Jewry. The next annual reading of George Washington’s historic letter “To the Hebrew Congregation at Newport” will take place on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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A Ten-Year Wait in Baden
By Linda Tancs
The Swiss spa city of Baden hosts the largest municipal folk festival in the region known as Badenfahrt. It’s held once every 10 years and, judging by the 1 million or so visitors, worth the wait. This year’s festivities take place from Aug. 18–Aug. 27, featuring theater performances, concerts, parades and fireworks over the Stein Castle ruins. Every festival has a motto; this year’s theme is “Versus,” celebrating the many facets of city life embracing the old and the new.
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