Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for July, 2023
Inspiration in the Alpstein
By Linda Tancs
It’s just a 30-minute walk around Seealpsee, a lake in the Alpstein range in Switzerland. Regarded as one of the most beautiful lakes in the country, it’s credited with inspiring landscape artists and photographers. This time of year it’s also a popular destination for canoe enthusiasts, who can enjoy the panoramic mountain views for around five dollars per half hour.
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Billed as the Great North American Eclipse, a total solar eclipse will cross North America on April 8, 2024, passing over Mexico, the United States and Canada. The path of the eclipse begins in Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario, and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. This will be the last time any solar eclipse will be visible within the United States until 2045.
Be prepared! So long as supplies last, you can purchase eclipse glasses and other accessories, like a phone app and photo filter, from American Paper Optics, a NASA-approved manufacturer. The link in the preceding sentence is an affiliate link, which means that if you click on the link and purchase merchandise from the page, then I may receive a small commission.
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Birth of the NFL
By Linda Tancs
First known as the American Professional Football Association, the National Football League (NFL) was born on September 17, 1920, in Canton, Ohio. The minutes from the NFL’s formation meeting are understandably among the league’s most precious documents, and you’ll find them at Canton’s Pro Football Hall of Fame. As you might expect, the museum chronicles every Super Bowl from the first to the present, and you’ll find a bronze bust of every player enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Early August marks Enshrinement Week in Canton, where football’s greatest legends gather for the annual enshrinement ceremony. Visitors will also experience parades, autograph sessions, tailgating festivities and more.
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Posh Dublin
By Linda Tancs
Founded as a Viking settlement, Dalkey is a posh suburb of Dublin, Ireland. As such, it’s no surprise that famous locals like Bono call it home. For those who can’t afford the fancy address, it also offers one of Dublin’s best walks as one of its most scenic coastal suburbs. One of the trails weaves through the village down to the coast, following the shoreline on Vico Road until you reach the top of Killiney Hill. The view at the top of the hill reminded 19th-century Dubliners of the Bay of Naples, which is why so many of the roads around there have Italian names.
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More Than Prairie
By Linda Tancs
Despite its name, there’s more than prairie at Prairie Garden Trust in New Bloomfield, Missouri. In fact, it’s loaded with woods, ponds, streams, rocky bluffs, rolling fields and all sorts of native plants and animals that change with the seasons. Summer is a great time to see the buckeye butterfly, green heron, hummingbird clearwing or a spangled skimmer. And check out blazing star, the perennial that paints the prairie purple this time of year.
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Old Phones in New Jersey
By Linda Tancs
Boasting eight streets, Vincentown is the archetypal small American town. Located in Burlington County, New Jersey, it features a building that housed the Vincentown-Tabernacle Telephone Company from 1911 until the company was bought out by New Jersey Bell in 1930. The unassuming clapboard structure also served as a millinery shop, a tinsmith’s shop and a plumber’s shop. Now it’s home to the Vincentown-Tabernacle Telephone Company & Museum, where early telephone equipment is on display, like a vintage black candlestick phone and a rotary gem.
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Billed as the Great North American Eclipse, a total solar eclipse will cross North America on April 8, 2024, passing over Mexico, the United States and Canada. The path of the eclipse begins in Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario, and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. This will be the last time any solar eclipse will be visible within the United States until 2045.
Be prepared! So long as supplies last, you can purchase eclipse glasses and other accessories, like a phone app and photo filter, from American Paper Optics, a NASA-approved manufacturer. The link in the preceding sentence is an affiliate link, which means that if you click on the link and purchase merchandise from the page, then I may receive a small commission.
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Diversity in Tanzania
By Linda Tancs
Udzungwa Mountains National Park is part of the Eastern Arc Mountains, a chain of mountains found in Tanzania and Kenya. It’s home to a variety of rare, endemic and endangered species including the endangered Iringa (or Uhehe) Red Colobus monkey and rare gems like the Sanje Crested Mangabey as well as the Udzungwa Forest Partridge. Accessible only on foot, the park might not yield these hidden treasures, but you can observe the 550-foot drop of Sanje Waterfalls, Tanzania’s highest waterfall, and swim in its plunge pool.
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God’s Window
By Linda Tancs
Unique geological features are the highlight of Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The Blyde River Canyon is the third largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon in the United States and the Fish River Canyon in Namibia and is one of the few areas of montane grassland left in Mpumalanga. Its marvels include rounded mountaintops known as the Three Rondavels, river-carved basins called Bourke’s Luck Potholes and the divine spectacle aptly named God’s Window, offering a sweeping vista of cliff walls reaching more than 2,000 feet to the canyon floor. These attractions are part of the Panorama Route, arguably one of the most scenic driving routes in the world.
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Fields of Lavender in Japan
By Linda Tancs
Although there are numerous flower fields of various sizes across Furano, Japan, a major draw are the lavender fields that peak from around mid-July to early August. Once a thriving agricultural product in the region, competing imports have shifted the focus to a booming tourism market. The best place for viewing is Farm Tomita, where the Tokachi mountain range provides a magnificent backdrop for the fields. At the farm’s sister site, Lavender East, you can take the Lavender Bus through the fields. Naturally, you can buy a range of lavender-related products as well.
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New Jersey’s Field of Dreams
By Linda Tancs
Sitting atop a bluff above the Great Falls in Paterson, New Jersey, Hinchcliffe Stadium is one of the last remaining Negro Leagues stadiums in the United States. It’s the first National Historic Landmark honoring baseball and the only sporting venue within the boundary of a national historical park (Great Falls). Completed in 1932, the stadium seats 10,000 and has served as the home park for the New York Black Yankees, New York Cubans and, on occasion, the Newark Eagles. The venue is likely be reinvigorated as the New Jersey Jackals make it their new home park.
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Billed as the Great North American Eclipse, a total solar eclipse will cross North America on April 8, 2024, passing over Mexico, the United States and Canada. The path of the eclipse begins in Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario, and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. This will be the last time any solar eclipse will be visible within the United States until 2045.
Be prepared! So long as supplies last, you can purchase eclipse glasses and other accessories, like a phone app and photo filter, from American Paper Optics, a NASA-approved manufacturer. The link in the preceding sentence is an affiliate link, which means that if you click on the link and purchase merchandise from the page, then I may receive a small commission.
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Steaming Through Britain
By Linda Tancs
Evoking a bygone era of luxury steam travel, Steam Dreams is a rail company in Britain offering both day trips and holidays throughout the country. Depending on the tour, locomotives include 45231 Sherwood Forester, 46100 Royal Scot, 61306 Mayflower, Braunton, Brittania and RPSI. This summer brings a new series of lunchtime trips from Victoria Station to the Kentish countryside. Pullman Style Dining is the most popular class of travel, boasting three-course dining in a 1950s or 1960s era carriage with wood paneling, curtains and comfortable seating.
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