Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for tourism
Racing Around the Caribbean
By Linda Tancs
Nelson’s Dockyard is the only Georgian dockyard in the world and is the largest tourist attraction on Antigua. In its midst is The Inn at English Harbour, a relaxing location from which competitors in today’s Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Caribbean 600 have been gearing up for the fourth annual yacht race around 11 Caribbean islands. The RORC Caribbean 600 features over 500 hundred competitors from at least 24 different nations taking part in this high-speed yacht race. The list of nations represented includes Australia, Austria, Canada, Cayman Islands, Croatia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the United States. The largest yacht competing this year is Hetairos, the world’s largest carbon composite sailing yacht and the favorite to win.
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Skating Race in Norway
By Linda Tancs
The Norwegian Skating Festival is a long distance skating race on Lake Mjøsa in Moelv, between Lillehammer and Hamar. Taking place on 18 February this year, the competition is open in all classes from 8-80 years over distances of 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 km. For those prefering a more leisurely pace, the festival also offers a celebration of all things ice, including figure skating, curling and ice fishing. Moelv is reachable in approximately 25 minutes by train; the closest airport is Oslo.
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Monaco Ballet Comes to New York
By Linda Tancs
Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the official company of the Principality of Monaco, features 50 dancers and has performed in more than 25 countries around the world. Debuting today at New York City’s Joyce Theatre is the company’s production Altro Canto I, followed by Opus 40. Altro Canto I is an energetic piece that premiered at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco as part of the 2006 Spring Arts Festival; Opus 40 is an ode to youth with beautiful sets and costumes. See it now through 19 February.
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A Palace in Miami
By Linda Tancs
A National Historic Landmark, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida promises visitors the opulence of Buckingham Palace in a subtropical setting. The European-inspired estate was built for industrialist James Deering and features a Main House, ten acres of formal gardens, and a native forest. You’ll enjoy a spectacular view of the Main House from the Italian and French inspired gardens. Inside, royal pomp is conjured by the ornateness of the dining room, Cathay bedroom, library and enclosed loggia. The estate is just one mile from downtown Miami.
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Phoenix Rising in London
By Linda Tancs
The Phoenix Artist Club is a members’ club located in the heart of London’s Theatreland at 1 Phoenix Street, a haven for professionals from the performing arts and media industries. Transformed into a theatre bar in the 70s, the site is located in the original dressing and rehearsal rooms of the Phoenix Theatre where Laurence Olivier made his debut on stage in the 30s in “Private Lives” with Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Although a private club, visitors who retain any theatre stub or museum ticket can obtain a day pass to take in the nostalgia. Membership is required after 8 p.m.
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Tale of a City
By Linda Tancs
Stranahan House Museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is more than just the old homestead of the city’s founding family. Built in 1901 by Frank Stranahan, the oldest surviving structure in Broward County also served as a trading post, post office, and town hall. Named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, the museum located at the New River is the eastern anchor of River Walk downtown. Tours are given daily at 1, 2, and 3 p.m. with an admission price of $12 for adults, $11 for seniors, and $7 for students and children. If these walls could talk, what tales they would tell.
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A Dickens of a Celebration
By Linda Tancs
Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Britain’s beloved author Charles Dickens. To mark the event, a wreath laying ceremony will take place in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, at 11 a.m. Dickens is buried in the South Transept of the Abbey. The ceremony will include readings from his novels and his other writings by actor and director Ralph Fiennes, author Claire Tomalin and two of Dickens’ descendants. Events will take place throughout the year. Don’t miss the re-opening of the Charles Dickens Museum, based at his only surviving London home. The Museum of London is also hosting an exhibition, complete with the desk and chair where Dickens wrote some of his greatest works. The best of times await you.
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Looking Up in Fargo
By Linda Tancs
Education, preservation and restoration are the goals at the Fargo Air Museum in North Dakota. Their flyable aircraft exhibits include the F4-U Corsair, L 39 Jet, TBM Avenger, P 51 Mustang, Bell Helicopter and Duggy DC 3. Plans are underway to build a second wing to house restoration projects complete with rivet stations, audio WWII vignettes, welding and aviation basics. To raise funds for the new wing, the museum is raffling a 1964 Cessna Skylane. Tickets are available for $50 each, and no more than 2,500 tickets will be sold. The winner will be drawn on 30 June 2012. Things will definitely be looking up for one lucky flyer. Buy your ticket today.
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Fabergé Debuts in Palm Beach
By Linda Tancs
The iconic Fabergé egg is the highlight of this year’s fine arts fair in Palm Beach, Florida. Now in its 16th year, the American International Fine Art Fair is the premier art, antique and jewelry fair in the United States, returning to the Palm Beach County Convention Center from 4 to 12 February. Fabergé will present a special exhibition and lecture series – Faberge: The Rebirth of an Icon-by Geza von Habsburg. Paying homage to the legendary Imperial eggs created by Peter Carl Fabergé for the Romanov family, Fabergé has designed a collection of one-of-a-kind egg pendants, Les Fameux de Fabergé. Each design illustrates a traditional Russian proverb. Now if that doesn’t egg you on to attend, nothing will.
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A Celtic Celebration
By Linda Tancs
The Festival of Imbolc is an ancient Celtic tradition celebrated with fire, commemorating the holy day of Brigid, the goddess of fire, healing and fertility. The fire symbolizes the increasing power of the light over the darkened winter months. Other world festivals likewise celebrate the coming of the change in seasons (albeit a bit later), like Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain. It’s a time of purification–so think about that spring cleaning!
