Destination: Europe
‘It’s a Kind of Magic Place. You Go in One Door, You Go Out Another.’
by Michael Yessis | 07.06.10 | 11:56 AM ET
Those are the words of 11-year-old Adrien Venturi, an aficionado of the Paris Metro. He’s one of the sources for NPR’s lovely look at the system. “To ride it,” says Jacki Lyden, “is a visual carnival, a living history, an urban love story about the chemin de fer.”
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzGuggenheim Bilbao: ‘The Greatest Building of our Time’
by Jim Benning | 07.01.10 | 3:12 PM ET
Philip Johnson declared that of Frank Gehry’s iconic Guggenheim museum in 1998, and 52 experts polled by Vanity Fair just agreed.
Paris: Pedestrianizing the Seine?
by Eva Holland | 07.01.10 | 1:43 PM ET
Good news for fans of dreamy riverside strolls: Paris city councilors will vote next month on a vehicle ban along the Left Bank. The ban would apply to a mile-plus stretch of riverside real estate, from roughly the Musee d’Orsay to the Eiffel Tower, and according to This Just in, “[p]ermanent foot and cycle paths ... 35 acres of new cafés, parks, sports facilities, and floating islands” would also be part of the package.
World Travel Watch: Striptease at Uluru, Ongoing Strikes in Greece and More
by Larry Habegger | 06.30.10 | 12:11 PM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
Koolhaas on Museums and Their Impact on Cities
by Michael Yessis | 06.25.10 | 2:02 PM ET
Rem Koolhaas sat for an intriguing interview with Artforum that touches on museums’ influence on their communities. Here he is talking about the current state of Amsterdam and its big museums:
But Amsterdam is now a really interesting case, because it’s kind of a reverse Bilbao. They’ve closed two of Amsterdam’s major museums for eight years—the Stedelijk and the Rijksmuseum—both to be enlarged and “prepared for the twenty-first century.” The Van Gogh Museum has remained open, and recently the Hermitage opened a very successful satellite, but the effects of those two closures on the city are devastating. It’s lost its mission and its culture, and the absence really made the entire city suffer. The whole artists’ “scene” withered, because there were no major outlets you could hope to show in, nor outlets for systematic inspiration or interaction with significant art. In fact, it’s a very serious political issue: Simply the closure of two museums has diminished the status of the city internationally in a way that has many people dismayed and pessimistic about whether it might ever recover. So in some cases, you wonder whether “Bilbao” might actually be a necessity. It’s certainly legitimate for cities that aren’t “major” and have no “major” histories to try to use architecture to enhance their reputation, but when it’s being applied to the self-image of major cities like Rome and Moscow, it becomes counterproductive. It’s as if these cities are losing their confidence and self-respect.
(Via Coudal)
Surfing Iceland’s Cold Frontiers
by Nathan Myers | 06.24.10 | 9:51 AM ET
Photo by Nathan Myers Full-body wetsuits. Icy mountain roads. Uncharted surf. Nathan Myers is a long way from California.
Swells and Snow: Surfing Iceland’s Cold Frontiers
by Nathan Myers | 06.24.10 | 9:44 AM ET
Photo by Nathan Myers Nathan Myers captures the frozen isolation of Iceland's uncharted surf scene
See the full photo slideshow »
Can Greece Count on Tourism to Rescue it From its Economic Hole?
by Michael Yessis | 06.22.10 | 4:59 PM ET
It’s sure trying. World Hum contributor Joanna Kakissis reports for NPR on Greece’s efforts to lure visitors and fight the perception that rioters plague the country. One key target market: Germans.
German politicians are not popular in Greece. Greeks see them as the instigators of austerity measures that will mean years of recession ahead. The German media has also played up the rift between the two countries.
And that seems to be reflected in the number of Germans avoiding holidays here.
Germans usually make up about 15 percent of visitors to Greece. But the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises estimates that 300,000 of them—or about 12 percent of the Germans who come to Greece annually—will stay away this year. About 16 million travelers visit Greece each year.
So Greece’s tourism ministry is trying to restore the country’s image in Germany and beyond.
Greece’s government has also “offered to compensate tourists stranded by labour unrest ahead of a new travel strike,” according to AFP.
Tips for Solo Travel
by Rick Steves | 06.22.10 | 11:26 AM ET
With the right approach, traveling solo can lead to self-discovery and new friends -- even a likeable congressman
World Travel Watch: Violence Returns to Medellin, G20 Restrictions in Toronto and More
by Larry Habegger | 06.16.10 | 11:32 AM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
It’s Bloomsday. Do You Know Where Your Nearest ‘Ulysses’ Reading Is?
by Jim Benning | 06.16.10 | 10:50 AM ET
Happy Bloomsday, the day (June 16) that James Joyce immortalized in his epic novel, “Ulysses.”
If you have the evening free and are in the mood, this might be a good time to seek out a local “Ulysses” reading or related pub crawl. The L.A. Times offers up a short list of gatherings around the U.S. For more on the annual rite, check out this New York Times story.
And look at that: Even Twitter is lighting up with posts about Bloomsday.
Dingle, Ireland: In Praise of a Humble Town
by Rick Steves | 06.14.10 | 12:41 PM ET
On one of Ireland's national parks of traditional culture
London Mayor: ‘Harry Potter is Not American’
by Eva Holland | 06.11.10 | 12:01 PM ET
Universal Orlando’s latest theme park creation, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, opens next week—and London Mayor Boris Johnson will definitely not be attending any ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Strong words from the Mayor:
I deeply and bitterly resent that Orlando is about to become the official place of pilgrimage for every Harry Potter fan on earth… Because the fact is that Harry Potter is not American. He is British. Where is Diagon Alley, where they buy wands and stuff? It is in London, and if you want to get into the Ministry of Magic you disappear down a London telephone box. The train for Hogwarts goes from King’s Cross, not Grand Central Station.
Don’t worry, London. I’m sure there are still plenty of Potter fans that will want to visit the, er, not-quite-real thing. (Via The Book Bench)
Where in the World Are You, Lynne Friedmann?
by World Hum | 06.10.10 | 5:46 PM ET
The subject of our latest up-to-the-minute interview with a traveler somewhere in the world: World Hum contributor Lynne Friedmann. Among other things, she wrote the essay All the Flowers in Amsterdam and contributed to our Top 40 Travel Songs of All Time.
Where in the world are you?
Naked, With a Passport
by Alison Stein Wellner | 06.10.10 | 11:57 AM ET
iStockPhoto Alison Stein Wellner considers her willingness to strip down overseas at appropriate moments as her "real traveler" badge of honor. But what's "appropriate"?