Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Batty in Austin
By Linda Tancs
From late March through autumn, Austin, Texas, hosts North America’s largest urban bat population, a community that swells to 1.5 million by summer’s end. Their habitat is in the crevices of the Congress Avenue Bridge, where onlookers congregate before sunset to witness the spectacle of their flight to catch dinner. Be sure to face east on the bridge or catch the view from the lake below on a boat cruise.
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World’s Tallest Timber Building
By Linda Tancs
Are you tired of looking at steel skyscrapers? Then head to Norway, where the world’s tallest timber building (as declared by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) has been completed. Nearly 279 feet high, the 18-story building, Mjøstårnet, is the third tallest in the country. It’s located on the bank of Mjøsa, Norway’s biggest lake, in an area known for–what else–forestry and wood processing.
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Falling Water in Namibia
By Linda Tancs
In the Herero language, “Epupa” means “falling water.” That might be a bit of an understatement for Epupa Falls, a Namibian waterfall with a drop of about 130 or so feet near the village of Epupa. You can thank the Kunene River for this spectacle, one of the country’s five perennial rivers. Nonetheless, April and May are reportedly the best times to view the falls.
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The Original Lord Mayor’s House
By Linda Tancs
Predating London’s 18th century Mansion House (the official residence of the City’s Lord Mayor), York Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of York since 1732 and is the oldest Lord Mayor residence still in existence. Located right in the heart of York, England, the Grade I Georgian building has undergone extensive refurbishment and is now open to the public for the first time in centuries. The manor’s collection includes furniture, ceramics, glassware, paintings, photographs and an array of York gold and silver, including the first silver chamber pot and a gold cup bought for the City of York with monies bequeathed by Marmaduke Rawdon in 1672. Drop in for a self-guided tour or book a special guided tour.
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The House Above the Falls
By Linda Tancs
In the 1930s wealthy department store owner Edgar Kaufmann commissioned renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright to build him a house in the woods in southwestern Pennsylvania. Not just any house, mind you. Positioned right over a waterfall in the Laurel Highlands in Mill Run, its cantilevered tiers assure that the man-made structure melds with its natural surroundings, which include a mature forest, sandstone boulders, a stream, a variety of plants and flowers and, of course, that waterfall. Appropriately named Fallingwater, the structure is a National Historic Landmark. Be sure to capture the trademark view from the clearing called, what else, The View.
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The Town that Fooled the British
By Linda Tancs
St. Michaels, Maryland, is a tony waterfront town on the Eastern Shore. Perhaps better known for its quaint inns, crab shacks and boutiques, it’s also, as legend goes, the town that fooled the British. That part of the story dates to the War of 1812. When residents were warned of an oncoming attack by the British, they dimmed the lights and hoisted lanterns into the trees above the city, creating blackout conditions that fooled the British into overshooting the town’s houses and shipyards. The ruse was largely successful, resulting in a single cannonball shot to the Federal-style home built for shipbuilder William Merchant. That house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, one of many stops on the town’s historical walking tour.
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An Antique Planetarium
By Linda Tancs
Nowadays it’s not unusual to find a model solar system hanging from the walls of a classroom. But it certainly would’ve been a spectacle in the 1700s to build an accurate model right in one’s living room. That’s what amateur astronomer Eise Eisinga did in the northern Netherlands. Built between 1774 and 1781 in a Franeker canal house, the working model represents the oldest operating planetarium in the world. His home, now known as the Eise Eisinga Planetarium, also offers a beautiful collection of astronomical instruments and a contemporary exhibition about our solar system and the universe.
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Czech Functionalism
By Linda Tancs
In the functionalism tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright stands Villa Tugendhat in Brno, the Czech Republic’s second-largest city. It’s the only UNESCO-designated example of modern architecture in the country, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1930 for Greta and Fritz Tugendhat. Due to heavy interest in tours, you’d best book several months in advance. Brno is a two-hour, high-speed train ride from Prague.
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The James Bond Experience
By Linda Tancs
The latest James Bond Museum is evocative of an action scene from the film franchise, considering that it’s carved into a snowy mountain summit in Austria and reachable only by gondola from Sölden. The locale is a fitting tribute to Ian Fleming, the spy novelist who inspired the film series. He moved from England to Austria to study languages, a move that inspired his literary career. The museum site also played host to the 2015 film Spectre, starring Daniel Craig as Bond. In addition to a screening room, the facility has nine themed galleries featuring aspects of filmmaking, such as title sequences, music, special effects, stunts, spy gadgets and cars.
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France’s Fire Art Capital
By Linda Tancs
The international reputation of Limoges as a porcelain capital dates to 1768, when kaolin (a clay mineral) was discovered near this French city. Since then, the city has thrived as the top producer of excellent hard-paste porcelain (china) in France. You can learn more about the evolution of the city’s porcelain empire by visiting the Casseaux Museum, home to the Casseaux porcelain kiln built in 1904. You might also like the Adrien Dubouché National Museum, located in the heart of the city, where the history of art and civilization is examined through the prism of porcelain.
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