Destination: Europe
The Audacity of David
by Christopher Seneca | 12.04.09 | 10:28 AM ET
Christopher Seneca was losing faith in the world. Then he went to see Michelangelo's masterpiece.
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Yahoo! BuzzVideo You Must See: Scuba Diving in a Flooded Meadow
by Eva Holland | 12.04.09 | 10:12 AM ET
At El Bulli, the Customer Comes Second
by Eva Holland | 12.03.09 | 5:04 PM ET
A Harvard Business School professor takes a look at “the best restaurant in the world” and why its chef, Ferran Adria, refuses to function according to business and marketing norms. (Via Kottke)
World Travel Watch: Kidnapping in Mauritania, Border Hassles in Mexico and More
by Larry Habegger | 12.03.09 | 11:35 AM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
Travel Movie Watch: ‘Leap Year’
by Eva Holland | 12.01.09 | 10:27 AM ET
See, I told you Hollywood never gets tired of this story. “Leap Year” stars Amy Adams as uptight Anna, who decides to take advantage of an old Irish tradition and fly to Dublin on “Leap Day” to propose to her boyfriend. Of course, she gets sidetracked by a series of comic mishaps and a handsome European stranger—the trailer tells you the rest:
It hits theaters in January, alongside When in Rome, making it a good month for fans of the romance-in-Europe flick.
Finding the Zagat of the Napoleonic Era
by Eva Holland | 11.23.09 | 11:37 AM ET
World Hum contributor Tony Perrottet has a great read in this week’s New York Times Travel section—he heads to Paris on the trail of Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de la Reynière, a legendary gourmand who financed his immersion in early 19th-century Parisian dining by writing a series of proto-guidebooks, the “Almanachs des Gourmands.” It’s exactly the kind of historical tidbit I love stumbling across, though it’s not recommended for readers on an empty stomach.
Jan Morris Reveals her Favorite Cities
by Michael Yessis | 11.19.09 | 3:41 PM ET
She fields this question in the Guardian: What is her favorite of them all?
Dear God, what a question! To my mind cities are distillations of human life itself, in all its nuances, with all its contradictions and anomalies, changing from one year to another, changing with the weather, changing with history, changing with the state of the world, changing above all in one’s own personal responses. How can I have a favourite? Sometimes I prefer one city, sometimes another. Inconstancy governs my responses to cities—fidelity in personal matters, promiscuity in civic affairs.
Morris does have a ready answer, though, when asked about her least favorite city: Indianapolis. (Via @ben_coop)
World Travel Watch: Demonstrations in Venezuela, Clashes in Namibia and More
by Larry Habegger | 11.19.09 | 2:10 PM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
Astara: ‘The Tijuana of the Caspian’
by Eva Holland | 11.19.09 | 10:55 AM ET
The Atlantic’s Peter Savodnik has a fascinating, brief dispatch from the Azerbaijan-Iran border, where a small Azerbaijani town has become a sort of Sin City for Iranians looking to escape the strictures of the Islamic Republic for awhile. He writes:
Books, DVDs, fashions, and—most important—ideas that are inaccessible in Iran are ubiquitous in Azerbaijan. Iranians line up daily to cross the Astara River to buy and sell jeans, chickens, bras, laptops—and often sex and schnapps and heroin. This commerce, combined with cultural curiosity and shared Azeri bloodlines, has transformed Astara into the Tijuana of the Caspian.
Remaining Venetians Stage Mock Funeral for the City
by Eva Holland | 11.16.09 | 3:04 PM ET
Frustrated residents carried an empty coffin to the mayor’s office this weekend, in a mock funeral procession designed to highlight the city’s dwindling full-time population. Venetian officials responded by calling the funeral stunt “premature”—not the most forceful rebuttal I’ve ever heard, and none too comforting for those of us who’d like to see the city live for a long time yet.
In Defense of British Food, Redux
by Eva Holland | 11.16.09 | 10:41 AM ET
I went there a few months back. Now, Matador Nights has joined the cause, with an excellent starter guide for anyone we’ve convinced to give British food a fair shot.
The Death of the Idyll
by Frank Bures | 11.13.09 | 10:54 AM ET
Frank Bures on "The Wisdom of Tuscany" and the last, dying gasp of a travel book genre
Looking East: 20 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall
by Rick Steves | 11.11.09 | 5:08 PM ET
On the delights of the former Eastern Bloc
Video You Must See: The Northern Lights in Time Lapse
by Eva Holland | 11.11.09 | 3:44 PM ET
Photo You Must See: ‘Between the Crosses, Row on Row’
by World Hum | 11.11.09 | 2:32 PM ET
REUTERS/Luke MacGregor A Union Jack is seen among the crosses and poppies of Westminster Abbey’s Field of Remembrance. Remembrance Day services were held at the Abbey this past Sunday.