Destination: England
Morning Links: Bowie’s Clown Suit, Cute Penguin Overload and More
by Valerie Conners | 03.10.09 | 8:54 AM ET
- Take a gander at Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes” clown suit, or Jarvis Cocker’s glasses at London’s new British Music Experience, documenting 60 years of Brit pop and rock.
- West Virginia’s governor makes it his mission to save the state’s image, and let you know W.V.‘s got more to offer tourists than the Road Kill Cook-Off.
- Intelligent Travel offers a Q&A with Chris Way, cofounder of Reality Tours and Travel, a company specializing in slum tourism in India.
- One woman is dead and six others are missing after a tourist boat capsizes off Thailand’s Similan Islands.
- Take a listen to Nine Road Trip Songs You Never Heard Before—a catchy mix of Asian travel songs. (via nerdseyeview)
- World Hum blogger Alexander Basek visits Nashville and returns full of excellent tips on where to hear live music and ... Goo-Goo Clusters.
- I’m getting a serious case of cute overload as Andrew Evans reveals the best places to see penguins.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Bulimic Duck
by David Farley | 03.09.09 | 2:00 PM ET
The Fat Duck, located just outside of London, is one of the world’s most renowned restaurants. The chef and owner, Heston Blumenthal, has concocted a menu that revolves around molecular gastronomy. Imagine nitro-scrambled bacon and egg ice cream, Douglas fir puree and oyster passion fruit jelly, and you’ll get the idea.
For the unadventurous eater, those might sound like heave-inducing taste combinations, but that might not be the only reason for a good post-meal puking at the Fat Duck. In the last month, hundreds of eaters have followed their meals at this esteemed eatery with projectile vomiting and diarrhea, which is never a good sign if you’re a chef. As a result, Blumenthal has closed the restaurant until investigators can figure out what’s going on. So far, they haven’t found anything, only one expert has suspected something called “winter vomiting disease,” a reaction similar to the contagion of yawning, but this time its with ... well, vomiting.
This Just In: Britain Doesn’t Have to be Expensive
by Eva Holland | 02.26.09 | 4:27 PM ET
Sure, London can be one of the world’s most expensive cities, and the pound has offered a punishing exchange rate with most other currencies over the past few years. But, having done the “starving student” thing there in my grad school days, I’ve always believed that the U.K. remains a prime destination for travelers on a budget. For every pricey West End stage production there’s a free, world-class museum, and for every swank celebrity-helmed restaurant there’s a tasty meal in a cozy pub. Don’t believe me? Here’s proof: 10 free cultural gems, courtesy of the Guardian, and, from the Independent, the country’s 50 best cheap eats. Both are good lists—the Guardian’s in particular gets bonus points for avoiding the best-known London freebies, like the Tate Modern, in favor of more obscure (and more geographically diverse) cultural institutions.
‘World’s Brainiest Tour Operator’ Now (Sort of) Affordable
by Eva Holland | 02.26.09 | 2:36 PM ET
For all the high culture addicts out there, good news from Arthur Frommer: British tour operator Martin Randall Travel has been spotted advertising in Harper’s, which means, as Frommer writes, “that tours with profound intellectual content will henceforth be marketed to the American public; the ‘dumbing down’ of travel may be significantly slowed through this effort.” The guidebook mogul figures the shifting exchange rate, which has made Britain much more affordable for Americans in recent months, is behind the unprecedented stateside marketing effort. The tours still aren’t for shoestringers—the all-inclusive packages hover around 300 pounds per person per day—but, as Frommer notes, they’re cheaper than comparable college alumni tours, and thanks to the sliding pound they’re within easier reach than ever.
Agatha Christie’s Holiday Home: Now Open for Business
by Eva Holland | 02.26.09 | 11:48 AM ET
Britain’s National Trust will open the novelist’s beloved Devonshire summer holiday home, Greenway, to the public for the first time this weekend. The property was donated to the trust in 2000 and has undergone a 5.4 million pound restoration, with the aim of re-creating the house as it was when Christie spent her summers there in the 1940s and 50s.
Said Christie’s grandson: “What I wish most is that the people who visit it feel some of the magic and sense of place that I felt when my family and I spent so much time there ... If they do then our gift of Greenway will be worthwhile.” (Via The Book Bench)
Morning Links: Venice Cokes Up, an Epic (Paper) Plane Video and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.25.09 | 9:44 AM ET
What We Loved This Week: Walker Evans, Obama Fever and Blame Ringo
by World Hum | 02.20.09 | 5:16 PM ET
Pam Mandel
This is a super short radio documentary, but wow, I could almost smell the smoke. Rabbit Hunters—an audio snapshot in blazing sugar cane fields—is by Michael Ozug and it’s on Sound Portraits.
Sophia Dembling
I just knew Walker Evans and I had something in common. Postcards! I can’t wait to get back to New York to see Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—especially the “bank of postcards that offer plunging views down the middle of scores of American Main Streets, an almost scary tribute to the country’s can-do spirit, can-doing again and again.” For now, I’ll make do with the slideshow.
Morning Links: Haka, ‘Travel as Rehabilitation,’ Taxi Gourmet and More
by Jim Benning | 02.19.09 | 11:20 AM ET
- The Washington Post profiles Layne Mosler, the food pilgrim at taxigourmet.com.
- Oh, no he didn’t: An angry pilot at a London airport security checkpoint dropped his pants and asked, Do you want to search this?
- Can’t get enough morning links? BootsnAll has launched BootsnAll Today.
- The Christian Science Monitor profiles the creator of www.accessible.travel, the “first online booking engine for disabled travelers.” Says its founder, “I truly believe that travel is rehabilitation.”
- Coastal Living explains how to go from 0 to 200—degrees—with sauna-loving Finns at Thunder Bay, Ontario.
- The Millions on a topic we love: literature as tour guide.
- Finally, why the sour face? Oh, must be because it’s time for the haka championships.
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Leave Home Without It
by Tom Swick | 02.19.09 | 10:07 AM ET
Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel
Britney Spears: Back in Wax
by Eva Holland | 02.17.09 | 1:35 PM ET
Well, now the troubled pop star’s well-publicized comeback is truly complete. The London outpost of Madame Tussaud’s has unveiled a new statue that shows Spears clutching one of the MTV awards she grabbed (along with some restored dignity) last fall. “We are delighted to be featuring Britney at Madame Tussauds London for the second time,” a spokeswoman told the Telegraph. “Her original figure ... was extremely popular. However, she’s undergone a huge transformation since then and we wanted to reflect her as she is now.”
Morning Links: Holidays in Banda Aceh, ‘Slavery Theme Park’ and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.17.09 | 9:15 AM ET
- Passengers can no longer kiss at England’s Warrington Bank Quay Station.
- Is Marlon Jackson supporting a “slavery theme park” in Nigeria?
- The Mumbai attacks have apparently “put the brakes” on tourism in India.
- State and local governments to travel booking sites: Pay up!
- Daisann McLane: “Until I learn a place with my feet, I never really feel like I know it.”
- John Aglionby says Banda Aceh “has arguably become one of south-east Asia’s hidden holiday destinations.”
- Spud Hilton sifts through language-study options for travelers.
- In typo news: There’s one on the Manhattan Supreme Courthouse. It only took 82 years to discover it. Hooray!
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What We Loved This Week: London, New Jersey, ‘Heima’ and More
by World Hum | 02.13.09 | 4:11 PM ET
Photo by Rob Verger. World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Rob Verger
I love my new Canon G10 camera. Hello, 14.7 megapixels. It gave me an excuse to roam around my neighborhood over the weekend, taking pictures. Here’s the 125th Street subway stop in New York City:
London A-Z: Britain’s Most Stolen Book
by Eva Holland | 02.12.09 | 12:47 PM ET
Think of it as a glimpse into the literary tastes of the light-fingered. The Times of London has compiled a list of Britain’s most stolen books—and, as it turns out, thieves really have a thing for maps. The venerable London street atlas, London A-Z, won top honors. Said one independent bookstore owner: “I’ve been in bookselling for 20 years and the London A-Z is the most stolen book in the world ... A-Zs were like porn—you had to keep them under the till.” The “A-Z” wasn’t the only hot travel item on the most-wanted list, either. Ordnance maps and surveys landed in the no. 2 slot, Lonely Planet guides were the fifth-most-stolen books in Britain last year, and squeaking in at no. 10 was the Official Highway Code. (Via The Book Bench)
Morning Links: John Lloyd Stephens, the Bob Marley Suitcase and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.12.09 | 10:04 AM ET
- Is slave history being “whitewashed” at some Southern plantations and museums?
- The Virginia Quarterly Review has opened its archives from 1975 through 2003. Among the stories unearthed: Richard O’Mara’s profile of “American Traveller” John Lloyd Stephens. (via Kottke)
- Here’s the story behind the shrinking of the Norman Foster-designed Harmon hotel in Las Vegas.
- Compared: Commuting in London, Delhi, Tokyo and Homer, Alaska.
- World Hum contributor Tom Bissell talks video games with Heather Chaplin.
- Several airlines are trying to take control of an upcoming emissions pact.
- Jossip is planning a cross-country tour of Bernie Madoff victims using the Madoff Map. Worst road trip ever?
- Can you imagine trying to clear customs with the Bob Marley suitcase?
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Remove Cute English Hanging Baskets, Save the Planet?
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.11.09 | 12:00 PM ET
The politicians of Harrow, a borough of Northwest London, say banning the (to some) quintessentially English flower baskets in the town center as well as replacing seasonal flower beds with less water-needy shrubs will help save water, land and money, The Evening Standard reports. If Harrow’s flower-basket-removal plans go through, will they catch on in the rest of England? And will the English and hanging-basket-loving Anglophiles around the world see the move as environmentally responsible or culturally obscene?
Via TreeHugger