Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for travel
300 Years of Freemasonry
By Linda Tancs
Freemasonry began in medieval Europe as a guild for stonemasons who built the great castles and cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Today it is one of the largest fraternal and charitable organizations in the world. The United Grand Lodge of England at Great Queen Street in London is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year. Their facilities include The Library and Museum of Freemasonry. Open to the public, it’s located on the first floor of Freemasons’ Hall, where guided tours of the Grand Temple and ceremonial areas are provided when the hall is not in use. The free museum displays one of the world’s largest collections associated with Freemasonry, including pottery and porcelain, glassware, silver, furniture, clocks, jewels, regalia and items belonging to famous Freemasons like Winston Churchill and King George IV (the first Royal Grand Master). The closest tube stations are Holborn, Covent Garden and Leicester Square.
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City of Dragons
By Linda Tancs
Bavaria’s Furth im Wald is the site of the Drachenstich (Slaying of the Dragon), the oldest traditional folk festival in Germany. Dating back 500 years, the spectacle includes a re-enactment of the slaying of a mythical dragon that threatened the town in the Middle Ages. And what a dragon it is. The four-legged walking robot measuring nearly 50 feet is the biggest in the world (recorded in the Guinness Book of Records), spewing fire and ambling amongst costumed locals, horses and medieval knights. The festival begins tomorrow and ends on August 20.
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Candlelight in Bournemouth
By Linda Tancs
When Princess Eugenie of France visited Bournemouth in 1896, the Lower Gardens were lit with candles in her honor. That event sparked a tradition in this Victorian spa town on England’s south coast that continues to this day. Tonight is the annual Candlelight Procession, a candle-lit walk in the dusk from the Lower Gardens to Pier Approach. The lighting of thousands of candles in colored jars brings a magical touch to a garden adorned with floral displays that feature a range of colors, textures and scents.
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Monuments to the Horse
By Linda Tancs
Two Clydesdales served as real life models for The Kelpies, a pair of steel behemoth equines honoring horses and their contribution to society. Presiding next to a new extension to the Forth and Clyde Canal in Falkirk, Scotland, the world’s largest equine sculptures represent an impressive feat of engineering completed in just 90 days in 2013. Nearly 100 feet high, each horse weighs 360 tons and is adorned with 928 unique stainless steel skin-plates. The best way to experience The Kelpies is by a 30-minute guided tour that takes you inside a structure. The site is accessible via road, bus, rail or boat with easy rail/bus transits from Edinburgh or Glasgow to Falkirk High.
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The Washingtons of Fredericksburg
By Linda Tancs
The land registry of Fredericksburg, Virginia, is brimming with history about George Washington and his family. For instance, there’s the first president’s boyhood home at Ferry Farm, so named because people crossed the Rappahannock River on a ferry from the farm into town. Later, George Washington purchased a home in town for his mother Mary, a white frame house on the corner of Charles and Lewis streets. It’s within walking distance to Kenmore, a Georgian-style mansion that was the home of Mary’s daughter Betty Washington Lewis. Betty’s husband Fielding Lewis once owned land upon which St. James’ House was built, one of the few 18th century frame houses still standing in Fredericksburg. It was owned by James Mercer, a lawyer for Mary Washington. And then there’s the frame home built by George Washington’s youngest brother Charles around 1760. Now known as the Rising Sun Tavern, it became a tavern in 1792 when it was purchased by the Wallace family and operated for 35 years as a stopover for travelers.
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Antiguan Festival Celebrates Milestone
By Linda Tancs
Regarded by some as the best summer Caribbean festival, Antigua’s Carnival 2017 is celebrating its 60th birthday this year. The annual event is a celebration of the emancipation of slavery in the country held annually from the end of July to the beginning of August. Amid a flow of colorful costumes and festive music, the party includes competitions like the Party Monarch and Calypso Monarch competitions of Calypsonians, the Panorama steel band competition and the parade of bands to the Miss Antigua Pageant and the Caribbean Queen’s Competition. This year’s carnival begins tomorrow and ends on August 8.
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Cuddy’s Corse
By Linda Tancs
Cuddy’s Corse is one of two heritage trails in Chester-le-Street, a historic market town in County Durham, England. The 7.5 mile walking trail starting at St. Mary’s and St. Cuthbert’s church follows in the footsteps of St. Cuthbert’s community on their final journey from Chester-le-Street to Durham Cathedral, carrying the uncorrupted body (corse) of Cuthbert (the patron saint of the North) and his book, the Lindisfarne Gospels. It was at the parish church that the gospels were first translated into Saxon English, and one of only three facsimiles of them can be viewed there. The ancient town also traces its roots to a Roman fort; catch a glimpse of the site behind the parish center.
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Norway’s Atlantis
By Linda Tancs
Lygnstøylsvatnet is an over 100-year-old flooded Norwegian farm area in Norangsdalen by Ørsta via County Road 655. The ruins of an entire town lie just beneath Lake Lygnstøylsvatnet, a place divers call “Norway’s Atlantis.” The old homestead at the bottom of the lake includes farm houses, rock fences, barren trees and paths built for horsedrawn carriages. This underwater wonder occurred as a result of a rockslide in 1908 that blocked the river there and flooded the town, forcing its residents to flee. The well-preserved time capsule is shallow enough for novice divers to explore.
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Gateway to Galapagos
By Linda Tancs
Guayaquil is a port city in Ecuador, known as a gateway to the Galapagos Islands. More than a transit stop, this commercial city stretching along the Guayas River is enlivened by a riverfront promenade, Malecón 2000, featuring historic monuments (like La Rotonda, a statue depicting a famous meeting of South America’s two most prominent liberators), modern sculptures, museums, botanical gardens, fountains, bridges, children’s play areas, shopping outlets and restaurants. The northern end connects with Las Peñas, the oldest neighborhood in Guayaquil, boasting the largest concentration of colonial architecture and picturesque wooden houses. The founding of the city is celebrated with a festival tomorrow, preceded by today’s national celebration of the birthday of liberator Simón Bolívar.
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Dressed Up in Faversham
By Linda Tancs
Just over an hour from London, Faversham was one of Kent’s leading ports. In the 17th century more wool was exported from Faversham than from any other British port, and when London began to expand in the same century, it was the main source of its crucial supplies of wheat and, later, bricks and cement. Nowadays the bustling market town celebrates its nautical heritage with the annual Faversham Nautical Festival. Taking place on July 22 and 23, traditional vessels will be moored in the upper regions of Faversham Creek, including Thames sailing barges, Dutch barges, tugs, smacks, gaffers and many other boats “dressed overall” (the stringing of maritime signal flags on a ship from stemhead to masthead, from masthead to masthead if the vessel has more than one mast and then down to the taffrail). Visitors shouldn’t miss the chance for a walk about this pre-Roman town boasting nearly 500 listed sites.
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