Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for August, 2018
Bath of the Gods
By Linda Tancs
One of the oldest public bath houses in Japan is Dōgo Onsen Honkan, built in 1894 during the Meiji Period. Two public baths are available to visitors, the Bath of the Gods on the main floor and the Bath of the Spirits on the second floor. Different tour packages provide access to one or both baths and relaxation rooms. A tour of the emperor’s bathing facilities is also available. The facility is a four- minute walk from Dogo Onsen Station, the terminus of three tram lines. Just in front of the station in Hōjōen plaza is the Botchan Karakuri Clock. Built in honor of the baths’ centennial in 1994, it comes to life for several hours daily with mechanical figures featuring characters from the famed novel, Botchan. Get to the baths before January when planned renovations will close parts of the facility for several years.
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From Radio to Radar
By Linda Tancs
The history of electronics in the United States, from radio to radar, is on display at the National Electronics Museum in Linthicum, Maryland. Located within minutes of Baltimore’s airport and rail station, the museum offers a wide variety of both static and interactive displays as well as a research library that is open to the general public. Galleries include exhibits on early radar, Cold War radar, modern radar, communications, underwater sound transmission, countermeasures, electro-optics and space sensors. You can even operate K3NEM, the ham station at the museum, provided that you show your operator’s license and are accompanied by a member of the museum’s radio club.
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Canoeing in Indiana
By Linda Tancs
Sugar Creek is one of Indiana’s most popular canoe streams. It runs right through Turkey Run State Park, Indiana’s second state park. The first parcel of the park’s 2,382 acres was purchased during the state’s centennial in 1916 when the state park system was first established. Historic accounts suggest that large numbers of wild turkeys congregated in the canyon bottoms (runs) to avoid cold weather, lending the park its name. You’ll find some of the state’s best hiking (especially moderate to rugged) among the canyons.
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One Hundred Years of Water
By Linda Tancs
One hundred years of water. That’s how much ice mass you’ll find at the Jostedalsbreen glacier in Norway at Jostedalsbreen National Park. Almost half of the park is covered by the glacier, which is the largest in mainland Europe at 188 square miles. In some places the ice layers are over 1,600 feet thick. The park is easiest to access in Jostedalen (Luster) and Fjærland (Sogndal), where you can participate in glacier hikes and visit glacier museums.
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Inspiration in Saratoga Springs
By Linda Tancs
Yaddo was the country estate of financier Spencer Trask and his wife Katrina, a writer. Located in Saratoga Springs, New York, the 400-acre estate boasts tranquil rose and rock gardens and a Queen Anne Revival mansion. A haven of inspiration for artists, Yaddo offers residencies to about 200 professional artists each year in categories such as choreography, film, literature, musical composition, painting, performance art, photography, printmaking, sculpture and video. Notable visitors have included James Baldwin, Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, Aaron Copland, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Katherine Anne Porter, Amy Sillman, Clyfford Still and David Foster Wallace. Admission to the gardens is free year round, and guided tours are available (for a nominal fee) during the summer months. The roses are peaking again, and the rock garden remains in bloom until September.
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Rodeo Capital of the World
By Linda Tancs
Cody, Wyoming, is an archetypal Western town founded by Buffalo Bill Cody. Rodeo is a way of life, which is why it’s widely recognized as the Rodeo Capital of the World. It hosts the Cody Nite Rodeo, an amateur rodeo taking place every night from the beginning of June until the end of August, and the Buffalo Bill Cody Stampede. Beyond the ropin,’ racin,’ and bull ridin,’ the town is home to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a complex of five museums and a research library featuring art and artifacts of the American West.
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The Spirit of Things in Pennsylvania
By Linda Tancs
Ephrata began in 1732 as a monastic settlement in Pennsylvania labeled a cloister, a retreat from worldly distractions where devoted members followed a disciplined life designed to prepare them for a heavenly existence. Their labors included farming, papermaking, carpentry, milling and textile production. The site became known for the development of the German calligraphic art of Frakturscriften (considered the first of this folk art produced in America), hundreds of compositions of a cappella music and the translation and publication of the 1,500-page Martyrs Mirror for the Mennonites, the largest book printed in colonial America. It also served as a hospital for nearly 260 American soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Administered today by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Historic Ephrata Cloister boasts historic buildings, collections and programming exhibiting the community’s spiritual, creative and intellectual accomplishments.
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Celebrating Plums in France
By Linda Tancs
You’ll go plum crazy in Metz, France, during the annual Mirabelle Plum Festival. Rounding out the summer program of festivities in the Lorraine region in August, the event promotes the iconic fruit of the region. The highlight is the election of the Plum Queen, but you won’t want to miss the parade, fireworks, local arts and crafts or les montgolfiades (hot air balloons) in the town center by the lake.
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A Unique Regatta in Australia
By Linda Tancs
The annual regatta at Henley-on-Todd in Australia is nothing like its cousin Henley in Oxfordshire, England. That’s because the Australian version is a desert boat race, the single longest running event in the Northern Territory. Various competitions require participants to race on foot carrying facsimile boats provided by the event organizers—or you can build your own. The signature event is the Battle of the Boats, a competition involving motorized land boats that fire cannons filled with flour and water at each other. The races are held on the third Saturday of August each year.
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A Nod to Nutrition in Switzerland
By Linda Tancs
There’s a museum for everything. Why should diet and nutrition be any different? Alimentarium is billed as the first museum in the world dedicated entirely to the subject of nutrition. Located in Vevey, Switzerland (home to Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company), the facility’s exhibitions examine all aspects of the human diet and nutrition throughout the centuries, including eating habits, science, art and culture. There’s also an educational vegetable garden to quench your appetite for knowledge.
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