Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for May, 2025
Cadbury World
By Linda Tancs
Uncover a world of chocolate at Cadbury World, a visitor attraction in Bournville, Birmingham, England, run by the Cadbury Company. Bournville is called a “factory in a garden,” a place where employees lived and worked, a concept unheard of in Victorian times. The factory is not part of the tour, but visitors get a sense of chocolate-making operations through demonstrations at the Chocolate Making Zone. Of course, you’ll get some free chocolate to enjoy as well.
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The Little Museum of Dublin
By Linda Tancs
The Little Museum of Dublin is not your usual museum. In fact, the place is crowdsourced with quirky artifacts from locals. Its contents include an unopened bottle of lemonade from 1918 and a facsimile of author James Joyce’s death mask. You’ll enjoy a 30-minute history lesson delivered by a docent with humor and style. There’s even a room devoted to the iconic Irish rock band, U2. The popular attraction is housed in a Georgian building overlooking Dublin’s Stephen’s Green.
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The Resolute Desk
By Linda Tancs
The Resolute Desk is the desk that the president of the United States uses in the Oval Office. Its timbers hail from the HMS Resolute, a British ship that had been lost at sea in the 1800s. Recovered by an American whaler, it was restored and returned to Britain as a token of goodwill. Queen Victoria then had the timbers fashioned into a desk for U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. You won’t see it on a tour of the White House, but you can experience a faithful reproduction at places like Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in New York.
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Shakespeare Played Here
By Linda Tancs
The Guildhall of St. George is a Grade I-listed building in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England. Founded in 1376 as a religious fellowship, it’s the largest surviving medieval guildhall in the country. It was the site of a theatrical production at least as early as 1445, when a nativity play was produced. Its biggest claim to fame, though, is the contention that even Shakespeare performed there. Recent academic research supports the local tradition that Shakespeare played there with the Earl of Pembroke’s Men in 1593, when London theaters were closed because of plague. Performances at the guildhall became so popular that a new theater was built in the 1700s. Today the guildhall is used as a public space for performances, lectures and entertainment.
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A Little Magic in Scranton
By Linda Tancs
A popular attraction in Scranton, Pennsylvania, is the Houdini Museum, where the magical legacy of the legendary escape artist and illusionist, Harry Houdini, comes to life. The museum tour features artifacts, rare photographs and interactive exhibits that recount Houdini’s extraordinary career. The experience also includes a short film with rare footage of the magician and a live magic show after your tour. Visit the gift shop for magic kits and souvenirs.
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Iron Age Denmark
By Linda Tancs
The Early Iron Age in Denmark covers the period from 500 B.C. until 400 A.D. Arguably one of the most important discoveries of the period was Tollund Man, a mummified corpse left for dead in a Danish bog some 2,400 years ago. So named for the two discoverers who hailed from Tollund (located close to the bog), the reason for his death is unknown to this day although human sacrifice was fairly common during that time. The body is a main feature at Silkeborg Museum in Hovedgården, where you can immerse yourself in the history of the Silkeborg region from ancient times to the present day.
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Astronomy for the Masses
By Linda Tancs
Perkins Observatory in Delaware, Ohio, is reputedly the only observatory in Central Ohio that conducts hundreds of public programs for tens of thousands of people every year. Owned and operated by Ohio Wesleyan University, it primarily serves as an active research and educational facility for faculty and students of the OWU Physics and Astronomy Department. Most Friday evenings the facility is open for regular programs that include activities like telescope viewing, a tour of the observatory or a lecture about the night sky. The observatory also offers programming for telescope owners to increase their skills. The venue’s own telescope, equipped with 69-inch glass, made it the third largest telescope in the world in 1931. That telescope was subsequently moved to Arizona, where it is now a part of the Lowell Observatory and boasts a 72-inch diameter glass.
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Music for the Ages in Pennsylvania
By Linda Tancs
There’s a musical treasure trove in the small city of Franklin, Pennsylvania. It’s where you’ll find DeBence Antique Music World Museum, which houses a collection of more than 200 antique mechanical musical instruments dating from the mid–1800s to the 1950s. The collection is the brainchild of Jake and Elizabeth DeBence, who started amassing their treasures in the 1940s. Among the exhibits are music boxes, band organs, player pianos, nickelodeons, carousel organs and musical toys. A guided tour includes the chance to listen to and play instruments; the basement has quarter machines to watch and listen to music so make sure you bring some spare change.
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An Ear for Liberty in France
By Linda Tancs
French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi is perhaps best known for creating the Statue of Liberty. You’ll find a museum dedicated to his works in the home of his birth in Colmar, France. Among the exhibits is a full-size plaster model of Lady Liberty’s left ear. You’ll also find statues that he created for his hometown, as well as family furniture, personal souvenirs, models, drawings, paintings, engravings and photographs. Give yourself at least an hour for a tour; audio guides are available for a fee.
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Seal Viewing in California
By Linda Tancs
California’s Año Nuevo State Park is prized for its Natural Preserve, a place where up to 10,000 elephant seals return to breed, give birth and molt. April through August is molting season, when elephant seals come ashore to shed their outer layer of skin and fur. This “molting” process takes from four to six weeks per animal as they rest along the beaches. Starting April 1, guided tours are not required to see the seals although a free permit is required. Then you can walk out to the viewing areas on the Año Point Trail. At each of the viewing areas, there is a docent to explain what you’re seeing and answer questions. At other times of the year (the breeding season), a guided walk is required. The farthest viewing area is a 4-mile roundtrip walk from the parking lot, with one tall sand dune to walk over. The park is a quick 21 miles up Highway 1 north of Santa Cruz.
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