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
Captivating History in Brittany
By Linda Tancs
Just a couple of hours away from Paris by train, Saint-Malo (named for a Welsh saint who fled to Brittany) is a historic walled city overlooking the English Channel. Its ramparts were built in the 12th century to protect the residents from Vikings, but it’s perhaps more famed for its population of pirates. Sanctioned by the king of France, this special class of pirates built the city’s wealth by pillaging ships passing through the Channel. A popular spa and wellness destination, the locale also experiences some of the highest tides in Europe, making its breakwater defenses an iconic part of the cityscape.
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Bonaire’s Underwater Park
By Linda Tancs
Bonaire National Marine Park is one of the oldest marine reserves in the world. It includes the sea around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire from the high water line to a depth of approximately 200 feet. The area includes Lac Bay, a shallow water lagoon featuring a fringing coral reef, seagrass meadows and the largest mangrove forest in the Dutch Caribbean. Boasting nearly 100 dive sites, the park is a popular diving destination year round, with sites accessible by boat or from the shore.
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Pigs on the Beach
By Linda Tancs
It isn’t everyday that you get to encounter pigs on a beach. For that kind of unique opportunity, you’ll want to head to St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda. You can swim with, pet, feed and cuddle well-tended pigs of all sizes on a secluded picturesque beach. Known as Pigs in Paradise, the tourist attraction is reachable via water taxi from the cruise port.
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An Emblem of Catania
By Linda Tancs
A black basalt statue of an elephant is an emblem of Catania in Sicily. Known as the Elephant Fountain, the pachyderm sits atop a fountain located in the center of Piazza del Duomo. Its most curious feature is the Egyptian-style obelisk set on the marble saddle of the elephant’s back. As far back as the ninth century, the city was known as “the city of the elephant.” In ancient times, it was thought to possess magic powers, including the ability to predict the eruptions of nearby Mount Etna. The mysterious elephant is now featured on various insignia, such as the coat of arms of the city and the university as well as various clubs and organizations.
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The Ghosts of Great Isaac Light
By Linda Tancs
Reputedly haunted, the 152-foot-tall Great Isaac Cay Lighthouse sits on the northern end of the Bahamas’ Bimini archipelago. Built in the 1850s to prevent merchant ships from disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle, it was occupied by two lighthouse keepers until 1969, when it was discovered that they had gone missing. The unexplained disappearances are one theory for the hauntings. Other stories abound, like the ghost of a young boy who was eaten by sharks just offshore. And then there’s the more famous story of “The Grey Lady,” whose son was the only survivor of a shipwreck. Legend has it that on full-moon nights you can hear her moans as she searches for her son. Though the cay’s grounds are open to the public, the bottom few stairs in the tower are missing to discourage climbers to the light, which is now automated. A boat tour from Bimini is the best way to get to the site and requires moderate agility to get ashore.
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Hats and Wicker in Ecuador
By Linda Tancs
Despite their name, Panama hats did not originate in Panama. They are made in Ecuador, the product of a long history in weaving. In fact, UNESCO added the traditional weaving of the Ecuadorian toquilla straw hat to its Intangible Cultural Heritage List. You can shop for hats and wicker (another popular souvenir) at the market in Montecristi near Manta, a port city. Montecristi was formed in the 1500s at the time of the Spanish conquest, originally populated with inhabitants of Manta fleeing from pirates.
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The Birds of Geltsdale
By Linda Tancs
Geltsdale is an upland reserve in northeast Cumbria, one of the last places in Britain where one can see the hen harrier (one of England’s most endangered breeding birds of prey) in its natural habitat. Owned and operated by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, it’s a patchwork of blanket bog, heath, grassland, meadows, woodland and rolling hills that is home to a range of threatened wildlife. Birdwatchers will find black grouse, redshank, nightjar, snipe, whinchat, curlews, ospreys, short-eared owls and lapwings. A bold new restoration project is set to increase wildlife populations and revitalize the moorlands, wetlands, peatlands and woodlands.
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George in Barbados
By Linda Tancs
In 1751, the future U.S. president George Washington embarked on a six-week journey from the Potomac River to Barbados with his half-brother Lawrence. The purpose of his trip was to help his brother Lawrence settle there in an attempt to recover from tuberculosis. The Georgian-style home where he stayed, known as the George Washington House, is the oldest residence in the Garrison Historic Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The home is the access point for the Garrison tunnels, an underground escape system in the event of a successful invasion of the military base, the largest British garrison complex in the West Indies. The house is open year-round.
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Underworld History in Jamaica
By Linda Tancs
Between Ocho Rios and Montego Bay in Jamaica you’ll find Green Grotto Caves, one of the country’s most popular attractions. The show caves present the usual stalactites, stalagmites, overhead ceiling pockets and bats. What’s equally compelling, though, is their history. Fragments of earthenware found in the caves identify the first inhabitants, the Arawak, who arrived in the country around A.D. 600. The caves were also used as a hideout by the Spanish when the English invaded and as a hiding place for rum barrels during World War II. Between the two world wars, they were used by smugglers running arms to Cuba. Open daily, the site is located near Discovery Bay, the alleged locale of Christopher Columbus’s first landing in Jamaica.
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Catacombs of Palermo
By Linda Tancs
The residents of the Capuchin Monastery Catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, have been dying to meet you. That’s where you’ll find thousands of mummified bodies and other corpses dressed in various forms of finery. It was considered a status symbol to be buried there so, not surprisingly, the dead include doctors, lawyers and friars. The oldest corpse is that of Silvestro da Gubbio, a friar who passed in 1599. More than just a macabre tourist attraction, the chamber provides a historical record as well as scientific data for medical study.
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