Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for international travel
Summer Proms in Warwick
By Linda Tancs
Warwick Castle is celebrating its 1100th year with a birthday party this weekend to rival any queen’s jubilee. On 12 July a spectacular Summer Proms concert will feature popular classics and film themes along with an emotional sequence of music and songs commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings, marked by an aerial display by an original World War II Spitfire. A magnificent fireworks display will end this unforgettable evening. The castle will close to daytime guests at 4:00 p.m.
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A Bar for the Madding Crowd
By Linda Tancs
Thanks to the digital era, humans have an attention span of nine seconds–that’s eight seconds more than a squirrel. Our reliance on technology is not likely to change, so why not embrace it? That’s what the folks at London’s The Thirsty Bear have done. The city’s first total self-service pub, each table comes equipped with iPads for food orders and self-pour beer taps. You can even surf the Net and choose jukebox music. The lack of queues is bound to make the crowd, well, less madding.
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Celebrating Cricket’s Bicentenary
By Linda Tancs
Lord’s, the home of cricket in London, celebrates 200 years of sport, having hosted the first known cricket match in 1814 between MCC and Hertfordshire. To commemorate the bicentenary of this venerated sporting venue, eager fans are awaiting this Saturday’s star-studded lineup in the MCC versus Rest of the World match. Luminaries include Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Brian Lara, Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi. Can’t make the match? Visit the historic grounds and museum for a peek at the largest cricket collection in the world. The site is just a five minutes’ walk from St. John’s Wood tube station.
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Divine Guidance in Siena
By Linda Tancs
The avid horse player is likely to pray at the betting window to break even. In Siena, Italy, divine guidance is a central part of the race during Il Palio, the signature horse race taking place in the city each year on 2 July and 16 August. Today’s event honors Madonna of Provenzano; on 16 August the competition honors the ascension of the Virgin Mary into Heaven.
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Shaw’s Corner of Hertfordshire
By Linda Tancs
The writer Franz Kafka once remarked that writing is utter solitude. All great writers express the need for solitude–and some find it–like George Bernard Shaw. The Irish playwright moved at the height of his fame to an Edwardian villa in Ayot St. Lawrence in Hertfordshire, England known as Shaw’s Corner. In his garden he installed a shed–his writer’s nook–where he wrote Pygmalion, Man and Superman and Major Barbara. He named the little hut (which swivels to catch the sun) “London” so his wife could inform curious callers of his destination and avoid interrupting him. How clever!
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Mountains of Heaven
By Linda Tancs
The Silk Road is one of the oldest and most significant trade routes to link the East with the West. Named for the lucrative business of silk trading that lined the route, it formed both economic and cultural bridges for the many civilizations (nomadic and otherwise) formed along its path. Among the seven countries along the route ancient sites and natural wonders abound. One of those treasures is the Tian Shan (Mountains of Heaven), a mountain range sporting Victory Peak, the range’s highest peak (at over 24,000 feet) spanning China and northern Kyrgyzstan. Nomadic life continues in northern Kyrgyzstan, a place of yurts and flocks. The nomadic monuments of inner Tian Shan feature grave and funeral complexes, rock carvings and epigraphs.
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Britain’s Cleanest Beach
By Linda Tancs
Part of the southernmost group of islands that make up the British Isles, Guernsey sits in the Channel Islands, less than 30 miles from the French coast. This 25-square-mile island is home to some of Europe’s most significant heritage sites, including prehistoric burial sites, World War II gun batteries and ancient forts. You might be surprised to learn that it also sports Britain’s cleanest beach, Vazon Bay. Located on the west coast, Vazon Bay is the island’s largest beach, a hot spot for surfers as well as families. While you’re living the island life, enjoy some potato peel pie. The dish gained notoriety thanks to the historical novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which tells a story set during the German occupation of Guernsey during World War II, a time of scarcity when even potato peels were not wasted.
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Asia’s Largest Transnational Waterfall
By Linda Tancs
Spanning China and Vietnam, Detian is purportedly Asia’s largest transnational waterfall. Surrounded by karst mountain peaks, the three-tiered cascade reaches its most rapid pace in June and July. On the Chinese side, a walking path through tropical foliage lands you great views; just bring lots of mosquito repellent. To get there, go to Nanning and then take the coach at North Passenger Transportation Center to Daxin County. Upon arrival at Daxin, you should transfer to the bus route Daxin – Qilong – Detian.
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To the Manner Born
By Linda Tancs
Britain’s summer social calendar (the “Season”) runs from April to September. Awash in cultural and sporting events, the Season finds great favor among the British elite, but even the hoi polloi enjoy a taste of society life–even if it is laden with rules of etiquette. If you’re a little rusty on the finer points of appropriate behavior, then More Than Good Manners is ready to help you. Founded by British aristocrat Veronica Joly de Lotbinière (a descendant of kings of France and England), the company offers booking services for high-profile events as well as manners and etiquette training for things like that pheasant shoot with a duke. You, too, can be to the manner born.
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In Search of Lynx in Andalucia
By Linda Tancs
The elusive Iberian Lynx is one of many lures in Andalucia’s Doñana National Park. That’s one of only a handful of places you’ll find the world’s most endangered species of cat. Equally endangered is the Spanish Imperial Eagle, down to 15 breeding pairs. You might have better luck glimpsing grey herons, lanner falcons, ring and turtle doves, partridges, oxpeckers, cattle egret, storks and vultures. That’s because the park is one of the largest heronries in the Mediterranean region and a habitat for hundreds of thousands of birds. Springtime is particularly amazing, when wintering waterfowl commingle with summer arrivals migrating between Africa and Europe.
