Destination: Europe
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.
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Yahoo! BuzzBritish 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.
Travel Movie Watch: ‘Julie and Julia’
by Eva Holland | 07.21.09 | 2:19 PM ET
Here’s a promising one. “Julie and Julia” tells the story of Julia Child’s years as a Parisian expat, when she first tackled French cuisine, alongside the story of New York City blogger Julie Powell, who spent a year attempting every recipe in Child’s classic, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Meryl Streep plays Child—who was recently included in our list of ten inspirational women travelers—while Amy Adams takes on Powell. On top of the promising cast, Nora Ephron wrote and directed—cue the jokes about a recipe for success.
How America Learned to Fear the Roundabout
by Eva Holland | 07.21.09 | 12:02 PM ET
Interesting tidbit from this Slate article calling for American city planners to embrace the roundabout. Turns out, our collective roundabout anxiety can probably be blamed on our European vacations:
Mentioning roundabouts seems to invoke some form of the famous “availability bias,” which leads people make judgments based on the memories that can be brought most easily to mind. And so, the American who may have driven as a tourist in France or Greece a number of years back will shudder with recognition, associating the roundabout with terror and near misses. But motorists with such memories often fail to consider that they were driving as tourists in unfamiliar climes, perhaps only for a few days. Roundabouts, like the language, the signage, the food, and just about everything else, were strange and novel, and so the tourist driver, already probably feeling a bit wigged out—for a roundabout in Italy is filled with Italian drivers—felt a heightened level of stress and thereafter consigned the roundabout to the dustbin of terrible ideas—or things that might be good for Europe (like socialized medicine) but don’t translate.
Famous Underwear Displayed as Fine Art in Belgium
by Alicia Imbody | 07.20.09 | 12:23 PM ET
Belgian artist Jan Bucquoy has just opened the “Musee du Slip,” or underpants museum, a destination sure to appeal to those visitors already flocking to the nearby Brussels landmark Manneken-Pis. Bucquoy told Reuters that the framed underwear, donated mostly by Belgian artists, singers and politicians, represents a utopian longing for an equal society: “If you are scared of someone, just imagine them in their underpants. The hierarchy will fall and you will see that this is a guy like any other. We are all equal, all brothers.”
If you can’t make it to Belgium to see the aforementioned unmentionables, Bucquoy is planning a fall exhibition in Paris where he hopes to showcase underwear from Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni, and perhaps long shots like the Pope or Iranian President Ahmadinejad, articles he’s sure tourists would line up to see.
R.I.P. Frank McCourt
by Eva Holland | 07.20.09 | 10:29 AM ET
The author of “Angela’s Ashes,” the Pulitzer-winning memoir about his impoverished Irish childhood, has died at 78. The Limerick Leader looks back at McCourt’s last visit to his childhood home, when he tagged along on the “Angela’s Ashes” walking tour, while Book Bencher Cressida Leyshon remembers editing the first excerpts of the unpublished manuscript for The New Yorker.
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)
The Plight of the Paris Bouquinistes
by Michael Yessis | 07.15.09 | 3:16 PM ET
Times are tough for the booksellers along the Seine. Mildrade Cherfils writes in GlobalPost:
For centuries, used booksellers, with their unmistakable dark green boxes perched along the banks of the Seine River, have been charming and permanent fixtures of Parisian life.
Or as Christian Nabet put it, “we’re part of the scenery.” And that’s partly a problem, as he sees it.
“Look,” Nabet said, pointing toward a sizeable group of tourists who wandered past his stall with hardly a notice of the classic titles, which he has been selling in the same spot for about a decade. We’re “a little like the animals at the zoo.”
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?
Détente at the Russian Baths
by Peter Wortsman | 07.15.09 | 10:34 AM ET
iStockPhoto Peter Wortsman didn't mind peeling off his clothes at the banya. But he feared the worst when he revealed that he was American.
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.”
Parisians Promise to be Nicer to Tourists ... Again
by Alicia Imbody | 07.14.09 | 10:43 AM ET
As Parisian tourism continues to decline, the city’s tourist board has been addressing its residents’ reputation for being, well, less than welcoming to outsiders—the so-called Paris Syndrome. The plan to encourage travelers to return has nothing to do with the recession, and everything to do with attitude: “There’s nothing as telling as a smile,” Paul Roll, head of the tourist board, told Reuters. Teams of “smile ambassadors” are being strategically positioned at popular destinations to welcome visitors, and locals are implored to be more hospitable, a la Mayor Delenoe’s urgings before the first Paris Tourist Day two years ago.
Six Great Summer Music Festivals in Europe
by Ben Keene | 07.14.09 | 9:37 AM ET
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Headed overseas this summer? Ben Keene surveys music festivals from Budapest to Stockholm.
The Sounds of London
by Michael Yessis | 07.13.09 | 9:40 AM ET
Giles Turnbull carried his audio recorder to 10 spots around London to capture its audio portrait. The Morning News features 10 snippets, including the sound of Waterloo Station and outside Royal Festival Hall.
French Tourists: The Worst in the World?
by Michael Yessis | 07.10.09 | 11:30 AM ET
Oui, according to a survey of hotel owners. Why? The French come across “as bad at foreign languages, tight-fisted and arrogant.”
The best tourists, according to the survey? The Japanese.