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
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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Britain’s First Recreated Street
By Linda Tancs
York Castle Museum is a museum located in York, England, on the site of York Castle, which was originally built by William the Conqueror in 1068. The most iconic part of the museum is Kirkgate, a recreated Victorian street. Created by Dr. John Lamplugh Kirk (founder of the museum), it’s one of the oldest recreated indoor streets of its kind in the world and the first to be opened in Britain. Each shop and business on Kirkgate is named after a real business that operated in late Victorian York. Costumed guides can tell you more about each shop when you arrive.
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Lyon’s Natural History Museum
By Linda Tancs
At the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône, Lyon’s Musée des Confluences is a futuristic-styled museum that tells the story of Earth, humanity, history and geography from a variety of scientific, technical and cultural perspectives. Touted as a “landscape building” for its unique merger with nature, it received the designation “Musée de France” from the Ministry of Culture and Communication. The facility boasts nearly 3.5 million objects and specimens in the fields of natural sciences, human sciences, science and technology. You can get there easily via the tram T1, Musée des Confluences stop.
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Matisse’s Final Masterpiece
By Linda Tancs
The Rosary Chapel (also known as the Matisse Chapel) in Vence, France, is the final masterpiece of French artist Henri Matisse. His involvement arose out of a friendship with his private nurse who later became a Dominican nun. The nuns were in need of a true chapel, and Matisse was persuaded to not only decorate but also design the entire chapel. Completed in 1951, he designed features like the candelabras, crucifix, altar and liturgical vestments. The Matisse Museum in Nice has important works linked with the chapel, including several maquettes (models or sketches) for vestments, the chapel, stained glass windows and murals.
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Budapest’s Opera House
By Linda Tancs
Originally known as the Hungarian Royal Opera House, the Hungarian State Opera House is a historic opera house located in central Budapest. From its limestone façade to its stunning parlours, the Neo-Renaissance palace has been open to opera and ballet lovers for more than 130 years. Franz Joseph I and Queen Sissi trod the marble steps of the Royal Staircase that lead up to the salons on the first floor. The upstairs gallery opening from the staircase leads to the magnificent Bertalan Székely Parlour. Besides the rich oak woodwork, the other main ornament in this room is Bertalan Székely’s Rococo-style frieze entitled The Four Seasons. There’s no official dress code to attend a show, but dress to impress.
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