Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for short reads
An Outpost on the Texas Frontier
By Linda Tancs
Fort Martin Scott in Fredericksburg, Texas, was the first U.S. Army outpost built on the Texas Frontier. Used by the Army from 1848 to 1853, it also served as a camp for the Texas Rangers and as a fort for the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. The historic site contains one original garrison building, one late 1800s old farm shed and three reproduction garrison buildings. Although the buildings are closed to the public, the grounds are open daily from dawn until dusk for self-guided tours.
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Nebraska’s Version of Stonehenge
By Linda Tancs
There’s only one Stonehenge in England. Not so in America, where the love of Britain’s prehistoric, megalithic structure finds expression across the country in media like foam, granite, concrete and other materials. In Alliance, Nebraska, the scale replica takes it up a notch to Carhenge. As you might have guessed, this tribute comprises automobiles (39 of them) arranged in the familiar circular pattern. Some are held upright in pits 5 feet deep, trunk end down, and arches have been formed by welding automobiles atop the supporting models. The site, located at 2151 County Road 59, is open year round from dawn until dusk.
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A Blockbuster in Bend
By Linda Tancs
Bend, Oregon, boasts a budding tourism industry. Part of the credit goes to the last remaining Blockbuster video rental store. Nothing short of a miracle in an era of streaming, the lone franchise is as much a tourist destination for nostalgia seekers as it is a store. It’s even the subject of a documentary. You’ll find it on Revere Avenue.
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Monkey Island
By Linda Tancs
Monkey Island Estate is a luxury hotel on a private island in the River Thames in Bray, England. Once the haunt of monarchs, aristocrats and artists, the estate may have taken its name from the 17th-century fresco that adorns the ceiling of the ground-floor Monkey Room. Another theory is that the name evolved from Monks Eyot (eyot being Old English for island) after the Augustinian monks who settled there in the 12th century. Among its 40 exquisite guest rooms is the Wedgwood Suite (so named and designed after the most recognizable name in British ceramics), which is Grade-1 listed.
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Stones and Water
By Linda Tancs
Guatapé is an Andean resort town in northwest Colombia. Its name means “stones and water” in Quechua. The water includes a lake and nearby waterfalls. The most famous stone is La Piedra del Peñón (or El Peñon de Guatapé), a giant granite monolith that defines the skyline. You can climb the 740 steps to the top for enviable views of the lake, islets and mountains. Medellín–Guatapé buses can drop you off at ‘La Piedra.’
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Art and Architecture in Portland
By Linda Tancs
The McLellan-Sweat Mansion is a historic house museum on High Street in Portland, Maine. It forms the rear component of the Portland Museum of Art complex, the state’s oldest and largest public art institution. The Federal-style, three-story mansion was completed in 1801 for Major Hugh McLellan, a wealthy merchant who owned Maine’s largest shipping fleet. The house was thereafter owned by Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat, a writer and philanthropist who bequeathed the home to a society now known as the Portland Museum of Art. Admission to the museum is free to the public every Friday from 4 to 8 p.m.
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Arts and Crafts in Woodstock
By Linda Tancs
One of the most iconic landmarks in Woodstock, New York, is Byrdcliffe Arts Colony. It was founded in 1902 by Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead and his wife Jane Byrd McCall out of an ideal to form a “brotherhood of artists.” It’s the oldest operating Arts and Crafts colony in America and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The organization continues to be a thriving year-round home to an ever expanding community of artists. Private tours can be booked by appointment. You can also take a self-guided walking tour of the grounds or a guided tour of White Pines, the original home of Byrdcliffe’s founders.
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An Italian Village in South Tyrol
By Linda Tancs
Bruneck (Brunico) is the largest town in the Puster Valley in the Italian province of South Tyrol. It boasts a hilltop castle dating to the 13th century with restored rooms and a museum exploring mountain culture in Asia, Africa, South America and Europe. The museum, MMM Ripa, is one of six mountain museums set up by mountaineer Reinhold Messner and is a permanent exhibition at the castle. The castle is a short walk from the Brunico train station; a museum ticket will grant you access to all six mountain museums within a one-year period from date of issue.
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Peru’s Sacred Valley
By Linda Tancs
Ollantaytambo is a village in the Sacred Valley of south Peru that’s known for an Inca archaeological site. Lauded as an architectural jewel on the way to Machu Picchu, a big draw is the Temple of the Sun. The locale served as a city, a fortress and a site for nobility and is one of the very few places where the Incas held back the invading Spanish. An easy commute from Cusco, be sure to hire a local guide to understand the history there. A tour lasts about two hours.
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A Phone for the Birds
By Linda Tancs
In Takoma Park, Maryland, there’s a phone fit for the birds. Known as The Bird Calls Phone, it’s an old payphone rewired by a local artist to play bird calls. The dial tone is replaced with the sound of a mourning dove, and each number corresponds to the call of a local bird. The phone’s buttons also play facts about the bird species. Instructions on use of the phone are provided in English, Spanish and Amharic (to accommodate Takoma Park’s sizable Ethiopian community).
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