Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for travel writing
Jingle Rails
By Linda Tancs
An annual holiday tradition, Jingle Rails is a model train display featuring nine G-scale trains traveling through spectacular landscapes and past famous landmarks of Indianapolis and the American West. The scenes are masterfully crafted from natural materials and adorned with festive holiday decorations and twinkling lights. You’ll find this locomotive wonderland at The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana.
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Winter Aglow in Idaho
By Linda Tancs
Looking for a winter wonderland in Boise? Then head for the Idaho Botanical Garden for their Winter aGlow event. As the name implies, there will be a mesmerizing display of lights. The family-friendly fest includes Santa meetups, holiday vendors, a gingerbread house exhibit and a candy cane forest. Parking is free; you can also park and ride from downtown Boise.
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Woodland Wonder in Arkansas
By Linda Tancs
Garvan Woodland Gardens is the botanical garden of the University of Arkansas. A gift from local industrialist and philanthropist Verna Cook Garvan, the site is nestled in the picturesque Ouachita Mountains of southwest Arkansas in Hot Springs. The big draw in December is the Holiday Lights event, a visual extravaganza. Golf cart rentals are available on a daily basis for those unable to walk the path. Purchase your tickets in advance and be sure to leave plenty of time to arrive before the nightly display starts.
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Christmas Market Celebrates 25 Years
By Linda Tancs
Situated in the picturesque World Heritage City of Bath in southwest England, Bath Christmas Market is celebrating its 25th year. The event features nearly 200 chalets showcasing artisan jewelers, cheesemongers, homeware and more. The stalls span a majority of the city’s main shopping areas, including around Bath Abbey, Union Street and Milsom Street. Weekends are quite busy; for a calmer experience, try lunchtime or Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday evenings. This year’s market runs until December 14.
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The House With the Eye
By Linda Tancs
Although it sounds like the title of a mystery novel, The House With the Eye is a red, wooden house-turned-museum in Leadville, Colorado. Built in 1879 by architect Eugene Robitaille, the eye refers to an eye in a stained-glass window tucked under an arched eve. Using the house as a model home, it was later turned into a museum, featuring contents donated by locals. Artifacts include a Studebaker horse-drawn hearse from 1890 and a whiskey still from the Prohibition era. The museum is located on West Fourth Street.
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Britain’s First Public Museum
By Linda Tancs
Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology. Britain’s first public museum, it was erected to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the university in 1677. Their renowned collection ranges from an Egyptian mummy to contemporary art. It includes the Alfred Jewel, a masterpiece of goldsmithing made for King Alfred, the only monarch known as “the Great.” Arguably the most famous painting is The Hunt in the Forest (circa 1470), the last known work of an Italian artist named Paolo Uccello. You can browse more than 300,000 treasures like these online. Admission to the museum is free.
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Alligator Bay
By Linda Tancs
Neither alligators nor crocodiles are naturally found in Europe. Nonetheless, the continent’s largest community of these reptiles is found in France. Just minutes away from Mont-Saint-Michel is Alligator Bay, an animal park boasting more than 700 animals from five continents. You’ll find 150 crocodiles and alligators, including albino alligators, viewable from a raised walkway. In addition, the park exhibits a variety of turtles (featuring a new enclosure for giant tortoises) as well as lizards and snakes. Opening times vary according to the season.
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Italy’s Early Roman Splendor
By Linda Tancs
Located in the northeastern Italian province of Udine, Aquileia was established in 181 B.C. as a Roman military colony along an essential trade route that connected Milan and Rome. One of the largest and wealthiest cities of the Early Roman Empire, much of it lies unexcavated. For this reason, it is considered the greatest archaeological reserve of its kind and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can visit Aquileia as a day trip from Venice or Trieste.
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Avenue of the Giants
By Linda Tancs
Touted as the finest forest drive in the world, Avenue of the Giants is the most scenic drive along California’s Redwood Coast. Lined by those titan redwoods, the 31-mile road parallels Highway 101 and runs through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It offers access to hiking trails, memorial groves and the Eel River, part of the federally-designated Wild and Scenic Rivers System with idyllic swimming, fishing and paddling spots. The area is also characterized by its standing, living drive-through redwoods, a treat for motorists.
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Where Rock Art Reigns
By Linda Tancs
Australia’s biggest national park, Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory has one of the world’s greatest concentrations of rock art sites. Providing a fascinating record of Aboriginal life over thousands of years, some paintings are up to 20,000 years old, which makes the artwork one of the longest historical records of any group of people on Earth. Far from archival, the paintings show objects they still use, animals they still hunt and activities they still do. You can view the works at Nourlangie, Nanguluwurr and Ubirr.
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