Destination: England
Two Buskers Banned After Playing ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Faith’ Over and Over
by Michael Yessis | 08.24.09 | 12:25 PM ET
Apparently an 18-month-long aural assault featuring the massive hits by Oasis and George Michael was enough for the people of Moseley, Birmingham. Said one resident: “It would get to the point where I would be lying in bed and I would have Wonderwall stuck in my head all night. To be fair, they didn’t do a bad rendition of the songs—but after hearing them the first few times it does start to grate on you. Although its not surprising that they can play it well—with the amount of practice they’ve had.”
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Yahoo! Buzz‘Central Perk’ Lands in London
by Eva Holland | 08.21.09 | 9:56 AM ET
OK, let’s see if I’ve got this right: A fake New York City coffee shop—you remember Central Perk, from “Friends,” right?—that never actually existed outside of a Los Angeles soundstage now has its very own functioning replica, in London? I’m guessing this is one tourist attraction they won’t even attempt to bill as “authentic.”
The Travel Bookshop Turns 30
by Eva Holland | 08.10.09 | 9:05 AM ET
The Notting Hill landmark, which has the distinction of being the only travel bookstore—that I know of—to play a role in a Hugh Grant romantic comedy, celebrates its 30th birthday later this summer. Travel Bookshoppers Saara Marchadour and Julian Mash shared their top 10 travel books with the Guardian to mark the occasion. It’s an excellent list—a couple of the authors overlap with our own fifth anniversary list of the top 30 travel books.
A Resuscitated Keats House Reopens
by Eva Holland | 08.06.09 | 3:59 PM ET
The Hampstead house where John Keats wrote “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and spent some of his final, tubercular days has reopened to the public after a two-year, $700,000 restoration. This Wall Street Journal story has some nice details about the house, and about Keats’ own literary pilgrimage to the one-time home of Robbie Burns.
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Albion’ by Pete Doherty
by Michael Yessis | 08.05.09 | 3:48 PM ET
Buckingham Palace: Jazz Landmark?
by Eva Holland | 08.04.09 | 4:25 PM ET
So did you hear the one about Louis Armstrong and King George V? Satchmo shocked the court, in a 1932 gig at the royal residence, by offering His Majesty the following shout-out: “This one’s for you, Rex.” And that’s just one of several bizarre anecdotes in this story from the Telegraph, about the unlikely history of jazz at Buckingham Palace and its resulting nomination to a list of seminal U.K. jazz venues.
I’ve never had much urge to visit the palace when I’ve been in London, but suddenly I’m intrigued.
Harrods: ‘The Ultimate Bespoke Travel Agency’
by Eva Holland | 08.04.09 | 11:54 AM ET
Forget about those discount holiday packages on sale at the grocery checkout counter: Travel-retail fusion has gone upscale. The personal shoppers at Harrods, the venerable London department store, are now offering customized holiday bookings—with a low, low minimum purchase of £2,500. And the maximum? There isn’t one. Over the course of a few phony phone calls, the Times Online’s Mark Rudd took the new travel service for a test drive.
Moon-Gazing Around the Globe
by Alicia Imbody | 08.03.09 | 10:32 AM ET
From Puebla to Paris, 12 photos by moonstruck world travelers
See the full photo slideshow »
Brunel-Spotting in Southern England
by Eva Holland | 07.30.09 | 12:16 PM ET
If you’ve taken a train in London or southwestern England, chances are you’ve passed through or across one of Isembard Kingdom Brunel’s bridges, tunnels or railway stations. The Victorian engineer arguably did more than anyone to shape public transit in Britain, and his creations are hard to avoid.
I’ve been a Brunel fan ever since I accidentally wound up at his 200th birthday party at the foot of Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge in 2006, so I was pleased to come across this excellent slideshow from the Telegraph, mixing paintings and photographs to depict Brunel’s greatest surviving structures. I’ve made it to four of them—how about you?
New Travel Book: ‘Oxford Revisited’
by Eva Holland | 07.29.09 | 10:42 AM ET
Justin Cartwright’s new travel memoir, about returning to his alma mater in an effort to understand how it shaped him, lands in bookstores next week. Bookslut has a mostly positive review.
Chelsey Philpot writes: “As a young man arriving from South Africa, Cartwright recounts how he was romanced by Oxford even as he still felt himself to be an outsider. His winding tour of old haunts and Oxford landmarks is interrupted by his memories as well as philosophical ruminations ... Under a less skilled writer, such leaps would be clunky. However, Cartwright manages to meld both grand themes and small observations by remaining unabashedly cerebral even as he discusses drunken girlfriends or the tourist appeal of J. R. R. Tolkien (one of Oxford’s celebrated professors).”
Here Come the ‘Grown-up Gappers’
by Michael Yessis | 07.28.09 | 12:38 PM ET
Reuters reports that, because of the recession, Britons “aged 30-55 [are] more than twice as likely as 18-24 year-olds to take time out to travel.” Where do they say they’re going? Canada tops the list of destinations.
British Pubs: An Endangered Species?
by Alicia Imbody | 07.23.09 | 10:38 AM ET
The warning signs have been evident for some time. Now, it seems that the iconic British Pub may soon be a thing of legend, as the Times of London reports that pub closures in the UK are accelerating, with 52 going out of business every week and at least 2,400 pubs and bars closed in the last year. The British Beer & Pub Association blames a preference for drinking more cheaply at home, and higher taxes on beer.
Parking Fees Around the World
by Jim Benning | 07.16.09 | 3:22 PM ET
The Economist has a great chart on parking fees around the globe. Among the highlights from its report: “European cities have some of the highest daily parking rates, with Amsterdam and London coming out on top. Tokyo is the most expensive place to leave your car outside Europe.”
Cheap travel tip: You’ll find great rates in Chennai, India. Um, road trip!
(Via the Idea of the Day blog)
How About a ‘Harry Potter’ Holiday?
by Eva Holland | 07.15.09 | 12:06 PM ET
Photo of Alnwick Castle by Eva Holland It’s that time of year again: The sixth installment in the world-dominating series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, hits theaters this week. The Telegraph has compiled a list of the best Harry Potter landmarks for fan pilgrimages, with mixed results. The specifics are fine—Alnwick Castle as Hogwarts, Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross and so on—but the list also includes whole countries merely mentioned, not visited, in the books. Are there really any Potter fans crazy enough to visit Norway just because it’s the natural habitat of the Norwegian Ridgeback dragon?
London’s Trafalgar Square: ‘Completely Uncivilized’
by Eva Holland | 07.14.09 | 1:09 PM ET
Long live the stereotype of the stuffy British academic. The director of Britain’s National Gallery, Dr. Nicholas Penny, isn’t happy with the state of affairs in London’s venerable public square, which the gallery overlooks—and he isn’t afraid to drop some harsh words on the subject. “Levels of civil behaviour are incredibly low,” he told the Times Online. “As I speak, people are riding the lions and climbing up as far as they can on the reliefs of Nelson’s Column.” Penny did, however, acknowledge that the rollerbladers in the square are “incredibly skillful.”