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
A Titanic Cruise Fare
By Linda Tancs
Following the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in April next year, Horizon & Co. will mark the occasion with a series of space-limited excursions to her final resting place. In July and August, the company will offer three opportunities to visit the wreck site and dive down in a deep sea submersible unit to explore the vessel close up on the ocean floor. For an experience like that, expect to pay a titanic sum–that is, from $66,257 for submarine divers or $12,498 for non-submarine divers. If those numbers give you pause, consider the effects of inflation. In 1912, a first class suite on Titanic was around $4300; that’s $50,000 or so in today’s money.
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Extreme Driving in London
By Linda Tancs
London’s International Horse Show at Olympia hardly sounds like the venue to be associated with extreme driving. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening for the first time at this year’s event. Extreme driving is a high speed indoor driving competition featuring the world’s top three drivers. A new equestrian disicpline, the action will take place on the evening of 15 December and the afternoon of 16 December. Sure gives new meaning to the expression, hold your horses.
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A Whirlwind Event in Turkey
By Linda Tancs
A whirling dervish is to Turkey what baseball is to America, a symbol of national pride and part of its custom, history and culture. Celebrated each year in Konya during the weeklong Mevlana Festival, the dancers commemorate the life and death of Sufi master and poet Rumi, founder of the dervishes. The event takes place at the sports stadium from 10 to 17 December.
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New Space at Tel Aviv Museum
By Linda Tancs
A new complex was recently unveiled at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. At 20,000 square meters, the Herta and Paul Amir Building is a study in contemporary building technologies, combining 430 polished cement panels into a mix of linear and multi-layered dimensions that ultimately unite to form a striking orientation for the visitor. Resembling a giant paper airplane, the space puts a fresh spin on the phrase “a new angle.”
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King of Wines and Wine of Kings
By Linda Tancs
In the Eger-Tokaj region, a quiet, unassuming wine region less than three hours from Budapest, the world renowned Hungarian wine, the Tokaji Aszú, ages in the cellars as it has done for centuries. Louis XIV called the sweet white wine produced here the wine of kings. During the first-ever Hungarian Wine Festival in America, you too can experience “the king of wines and the wine of kings.” On 3 and 4 December, Kossuth House in downtown Miami will host the seminal event featuring wine tastings and techniques designed to show you that Magyar culture is more than paprika and goulash.
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A Centenary of Tourism
By Linda Tancs
Australia’s Rottnest Island, directly off the Perth coast, has a rich military, marine and cultural history that’s been engaging tourists these past 100 years. With the start of World War I the Department of Defence commandeered the Island for use as an internment and prisoner of war camp from 1914 to the end of 1915. In preparation for World War II a defense program became known as the Rottnest Island Fortress, consisting of the Oliver Hill fort, Bickley Point fort with two six-inch guns and quarters at Bickley and Army barracks at Kingstown that serve as an environmental education center today. The island also offers four heritage trails to highlight its cultural and marine history: Bickley Battery Heritage Trail, Rottnest Ship Wrecks Heritage Trail – Land and Water, Vincent Way Heritage Trail and a self-guided Historic Buildings Trail. Only 25 minutes away by ferry, you’ll have no excuse to miss the annual Swim Thru Rottnest in the crystal clear waters off Rotto on 3 December.
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Cunard Will Tie the Knot
By Linda Tancs
Cunard recently announced that, for the first time in its 171-year-history, it will begin performing marriages aboard its fleet when it changes its ships’ registry from England to Bermuda. Unlike Bermuda, English law requires that weddings be performed in public venues on land. Wedding packages for spring 2012 will be sold beginning next month.
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71 Laps in Brazil
By Linda Tancs
Seventy-one laps and over 4 km to a racing champ this weekend in Sao Paolo as the engines get ready to rev for Brazil’s Formula 1 Grand Prix. One of the toughest tracks on the circuit, Interlagos is just a few miles from downtown Sao Paolo, and its configuration offers spectators amazing views at over half the course. Don’t miss the driver’s parade on Sunday at 12; gates open at 7 a.m.
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Lady Marmalade
By Linda Tancs
Dundee, Scotland is known for science. Science themes are explored at Dundee’s Sensation science center with some 60 hands-on exhibits, and Mills Observatory is the only full time public observatory and planetarium in the UK. Lesser known may be the science of marmalade production. Dundee has a long association with marmalade, reportedly beginning in the 1700s. The tale goes that a local grocer bought a ship’s cargo of oranges when the vessel docked in Dundee harbor during a storm. He passed the oranges on to his wife who used them to make a fruit preserve that proved vastly popular. True or not, Dundee and marmalade go together like peanut butter and jelly–uh, make that marmalade.
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South Africa’s City of Roses
By Linda Tancs
Except for its annual festival of roses, you might think that South Africa’s “City of Roses” Bloemfontein (“fountain of flowers” in Dutch) is just a waypoint for oenophiles headed to Stellenbosch or art buffs on their way to Jo’burg. Not so! This city, the judicial capital of South Africa, has year-round delights. For instance, Franklin Game Reserve on Naval Hill is currently the only nature reserve in the world to be located in the middle of a city. There’s also Oliewenhuis Art Museum, a neo-Dutch style mansion, formerly a residence for the Governor General of the Union of South Africa and now one of the youngest art museums in the country. You’ll also enjoy a landscape of 70 hectares of grass and woodlands at the Botanical Gardens, or take a gander at the Big Five within the sanctuary of the Zoo. Whatever you do, you’re sure to find a reason to stay awhile.
Travelrific® Travel Journal 