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
Intrigue at the Palace
By Linda Tancs
Who doesn’t love a good story? The walls of Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, England, are filled with them. At the Great Hall, for example, Edward II was forced to abdicate in 1327 upon rising tensions with his French wife. Centuries later, Robert Dudley (Earl of Leicester) laid out the iconic tower and a formal privy garden in a final attempt to gain the hand of Elizabeth I, who stayed at the castle several times. Those gardens have been reconstructed, along with a staircase leading to Elizabeth’s chambers. One of the best castle ruins in the country, its view across the fields is one of the most famous landscapes painted by English Romantic painter J.M.W. Turner.
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Kale in Macedonia
By Linda Tancs
Kale in Macedonia: no, we’re not talking about today’s trendy vegetable. Turkish for “fortress” (and pronounced “kah-lay”), Kale is a historic fortress located in the old town of Skopje, the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. You can’t miss it, situated on the highest point in the city overlooking the Vardar River, the longest one in the country. Along the river’s eastern bank is the Old Bazaar, another landmark in the country, touted as the largest bazaar in the Balkans outside Istanbul. You can see these and other significant sites on a free walking and sightseeing tour (tips are appreciated).
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The Southernmost Post Office
By Linda Tancs
Move over, icebergs. The star of the show in Antarctica is…a post office? Well, not just any post office—the most southerly in the world. Located at Port Lockroy, it’s a British outpost run by the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust. Each letter sent from there (at least 70,000, at last count) will receive a highly-prized local stamp and postmark. The office, which also hosts a gift shop and museum, is manned for five months during high season, when, as luck would have it, a colony of gentoo penguins swarm the area to mate and raise their young.
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Shopping in Barcelona
By Linda Tancs
As any traveler knows, a walking tour is a great way to learn about a locale, typically strolling through unique neighborhoods offering a glimpse into its architecture and past and present residents. In Barcelona, Spain, you can shop your way through one such tour with the Barcelona Genuine Shops guided walking tour. The three-hour expedition introduces visitors to the city’s culture through its shop windows. That means you’ll get behind-the-scenes access to some shops and a discount card together with the usual historical and architectural commentary. The meeting point is at Plaça Sant Jaume in front of the Tourist Office.
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Free Museums in Italy
By Linda Tancs
Free museum entry on the first Sunday of every month is making a comeback in Italy for state-operated museums, palaces and archaeological sites. That’s good news for tourists visiting renowned venues like the Colosseum in Rome, Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia, Pompeii, the Palace of Caserta, Trieste’s Castello di Miramare and Turin’s Palace of Venaria. A complete list of participating sites is on the Ministry for Culture’s website.
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Christmas Magic in Lausanne
By Linda Tancs
Designers, wineries and food producers convene this time of year in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the annual shopping tradition, Bô Noël. Among the activities you can sample local cheeses and meats and indulge in a fondue ritual. The event is child friendly, too, including a festival of lights (Lausanne Lumières), featuring light sculptures in the streets. This year’s event runs through December 31.
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Eating Well in St. Barth’s
By Linda Tancs
There’s no shortage of Caribbean islands vying for the title “gourmet capital of the Caribbean.” St. Barth’s (Saint Barthélemy), a French island in the West Indies, is no less a contender. Graduates of the best hotel schools in France, many of the chefs on the island are experts at classic French cuisine. No wonder, then, that fine dining is a passion there. So is food shopping. In fact, the locals say that grocery shopping should be treated like a event, not a chore, and there are plenty of grocery shops dotting the island to buy a baguette or two. Most visitors arrive by air, which is an event in itself; the landing runway is 2,170 feet long, and the approach is often plagued by varying degrees of turbulence. As a result, the French aviation authorities require special training for any pilot who intends to land there.
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The Guards of Amalienborg
By Linda Tancs
Amalienborg Palace, the residence of Denmark’s royal family, is a people’s palace; in one of its four royal quadrants, some residents of the family share space with the palace museum. Like any other palace, a changing of the guard delights visitors. Every day they march from the barracks to Amalienborg for the changing of the guard at noon. What you’ll see, however, depends on who’s home on any given day. When the queen is in residence, the Royal Guard provides an extensive display of pageantry; when no family members are home, a Palace Guard suffices. You’ll know who’s coming by the flag flying atop the palace—the Royal Standard, the Flag of the Heir to the Throne, the Flag of the Regent, the Flag of the Royal House or the Swallow-Tailed Flag (which indicates that none of the members of the Royal Family is in residence).
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A Kiwi Christmas
By Linda Tancs
Auckland, New Zealand’s capital, offers adventure in every direction. In the area known locally as East Auckland, the coastline beckons water enthusiasts eager to experience the Hauraki Gulf, an area comprising over 2 million acres of blue waters dotted with emerald islands reachable by water taxis. This time of year, though, it’s the pohutukawa trees (known as the New Zealand Christmas tree for its crimson flowers) that grab the regional spotlight. One of Auckland’s most spectacular driving routes is along the Pohutukawa Coast, named after the iconic tree.
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Contemplating Bruges
By Linda Tancs
The Beguinage in the Belgian city of Bruges is the only preserved beguinage (a complex created to house beguines, lay religious women who lived in community without taking vows or retiring from the world). Dating to the 13th century, it’s one of the city’s best-known landmarks, comprising a collection of white-painted houses, a chapel and various buildings. Now occupied by nuns of the Order of St. Benedict, the park-like ambience (which does include an actual park populated with swans and poplar trees) provides a tranquil resting spot for locals and tourists.
