Travel Blog
The European Grand Tour, Chinese Style
by Eva Holland | 12.30.10 | 2:29 PM ET
The Economist takes note of a new variation on an old theme: a Chinese take on the classic “grand tour” of Europe. From the story:
China’s newly mobile middle classes like to visit established spots like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Venice’s Grand Canal. But the visitors have also marked out a grand tour all of their own, shaped by China’s fast-developing consumer culture and by distinctive quirks of culture, history and politics. The result is jaw-dropping fame, back in China, for a list of places that some Europeans would struggle to pinpoint on a map: places like Trier, Metzingen, Verona, Luxembourg, Lucerne and the Swiss Alp known as Mount Titlis.
(Via @reidontravel)
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Yahoo! Buzz‘Airplane!’ Picked for 2010 National Film Registry
by Michael Yessis | 12.29.10 | 6:27 AM ET
And thus Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s tour de force performance as a knee pad-wearing pilot will be preserved forever by the Library of Congress. “Airplane!” was one of 25 films added to the registry Tuesday. From the press release:
Characterized by a freewheeling style reminiscent of comedies of the 1920s, “Airplane!” introduced a much-needed deflating assessment of the tendency of theatrical film producers to push successful formulaic movie conventions beyond the point of logic. One of the film’s most noteworthy achievements was to cast actors best known for careers in melodrama productions, e.g., Leslie Nielsen, and provide them with opportunities to showcase their comic talents.
It’s been an eventful but sad 30th anniversary for one of the greatest travel movies ever made. Three of the film’s stars passed away in 2010—Leslie Nielsen, Barbara Billingsley and Peter Graves.
Two Travel Movies Land Golden Globe Nominations
by Eva Holland | 12.15.10 | 5:10 PM ET
The nominees for the 2011 Golden Globes were announced yesterday, and two travel movies we’ve kept our eye on this year—127 Hours and The Tourist—were among the honored films.
James Franco was nominated for Best Actor in a Drama for his portrayal of climber Aron Ralston, and “127 Hours” also received a nod for Best Screenplay and Best Original Score. Meanwhile, “The Tourist” received a nomination for Best Picture, Musical or Comedy while its two stars, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, respectively.
R.I.P. Palle Huld, the Real-Life Tintin
by Eva Holland | 12.14.10 | 2:56 PM ET
The Danish man widely believed to be the inspiration for Hergé‘s famous traveling boy detective died last week at 98. The Independent looks into the mystery behind the creation of Tintin:
The young Huld wrote an account of his adventures which was published in several languages including English, in which it appeared in 1929 as A Boy Scout Around The World. It is known that Hergé read Huld’s account. It was perhaps no coincidence that the character of Tintin surfaced for the first time the same year in Le Petit Vingtieme, the children’s section of a Belgian newspaper. Palle Huld was happy to encourage the notion that he was Hergé‘s inspiration for Tintin. But Hergé, who delighted in utterly baffling Tintinologists by using the phrase “Tintin c’est moi,” liked to keep the source of his world-renowned character shrouded in mystery.
(Via The Book Bench)
‘Travel Makes You a Buddhist’
by Michael Yessis | 12.09.10 | 2:59 PM ET
Matt Gross has lost many things on the road: a waxed-cotton newsboy, umbrellas, his security blanket. Here’s what he’s learned from the disappearing objects:
Recently, I wrote about how you sometimes need to be a Zen Buddhist to survive the discomforts of travel. Well, it works the other way, too. Travel makes you a Buddhist, teaching you that attachments are, all too often, only temporary. A scarf left on a Portuguese beach, a new Tunisian friend whose e-mail address proves unreadable—they come and they go.
But of course, they never go completely. We remember them: how gently they caressed our neck—the scarf, I mean—and they survive, like all the really important things that happen to us when we travel, as memories.
New Travel Book: ‘The Minaret of Djam’ by Freya Stark
by Eva Holland | 11.30.10 | 4:26 PM ET
The 1970 hardcover of this Freya Stark classic has been out of print for some time, but a new paperback edition is set to hit bookstores on Dec. 21.
The book recounts Stark’s journey in search of Afghanistan’s Minaret of Jam; the 12th-century relic is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, though at the time Stark visited, it was a recently re-discovered archaeological find. The publisher’s description notes that “Djam is, even today, one of the most inaccessible and remote places in Afghanistan. When Freya Stark traveled there, few people in the world had ever laid eyes on it or managed to reach the desolate valley in which it lies.”
Three of Stark’s books appeared on our list of the 100 most celebrated travel books of all time.
Travel Books Make the New York Times’ 2010 Notable List
by Eva Holland | 11.29.10 | 12:58 PM ET
The Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2010 list has arrived, and a couple of familiar names appear on it. Peter Hessler’s “Country Driving” and Ian Frazier’s ” Travels in Siberia” both made the non-fiction section of the list, while travel writer and novelist Gary Shteyngart landed on the fiction side for his latest, “Super Sad True Love Story.”
We ran an excerpt from Hessler’s book and interviewed him about road tripping in China earlier this year. (Via The Book Bench)
Mapped: The World’s Biggest Populations, Re-arranged
by Eva Holland | 11.29.10 | 12:06 PM ET
Here’s a fascinating re-imagining of the world map, in which the countries with the world’s largest populations also occupy the spots on the map with the largest territory. So China takes over Russia’s spot, India moves into Canada’s current location, and so on.
Interestingly, only the United States (with both the third largest population and the third largest area) and Brazil (which lands at number five on both lists) remain in place—every other country gets relocated.
R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen
by Michael Yessis | 11.29.10 | 11:13 AM ET
The actor starred as Dr. Rumack in one of the greatest travel movies ever made, “Airplane!” As Russell Brand tweeted, “Shirley, he will be missed.”
The New York Times and The Globe and Mail, among many, remember the native Canadian. The Telegraph picks his top 10 lines from “Airplane!” and beyond. Nielsen was 84.
Travel Headline of the Day: Travelers Opt Out of Opt-Out Day
by Michael Yessis | 11.24.10 | 3:00 PM ET
Or variations on the theme, as seen at The Boston Globe:
R.I.P. Philip Hoffman, Surfing Pioneer
by Eva Holland | 11.23.10 | 1:51 PM ET
Philip Hoffman, a ground-breaking surfer who took his first surf trip to Hawaii in 1952, has died in California. He was 80.
The New York Times’ Matt Higgins writes that Hoffman’s “pioneering big-wave riding in Hawaii in the 1950s charted the way for surfing pilgrimages to Oahu’s North Shore from around the world.”
The Surfer’s Journal publisher Steve Pezman calls him “the first guy on the North Shore.”
Is ‘Sarah Palin’s Alaska’ Worth Watching, ‘Just for the Scenery’?
by Eva Holland | 11.22.10 | 4:21 PM ET
Jaunted checked out the new reality show and came back with an answer: “You betcha.”
The Traveler’s Technology Gift Guide
by Eva Holland | 11.22.10 | 2:50 PM ET
San Francisco Chronicle travel editor and World Hum contributor Spud Hilton offers up his latest: a gift guide for the technologically-inclined traveler in your life, “from the bare-minimum kit to full Gear-Junkie-From-Hell package.” The list is extensive and makes some sensible points, and it’s a fun read.
What We Loved This Week: Echo Mountain, Book Passage and ‘Big Red Son’
by World Hum | 11.19.10 | 5:13 PM ET
Eva Holland
I picked up Consider the Lobster, a collection of David Foster Wallace essays, over the weekend, and each one has been better than the last. I think my favorite so far is “Big Red Son,” a 50-page look back at DFW’s time in Las Vegas at the Annual Adult Video News Awards. It’s probably the oddest combination of intelligence, insight, humor and crude double-entendres I’ve ever encountered.
‘American Traveler Dignity Act’ Introduced in the House
by Eva Holland | 11.19.10 | 2:08 PM ET
The legislation was proposed by Texas Representative Ron Paul, and would strip TSA screeners’ of their immunity from prosecution. From Paul’s speech to the House:
My legislation is simple. It establishes that airport security screeners are not immune from any US law regarding physical contact with another person, making images of another person, or causing physical harm through the use of radiation-emitting machinery on another person. It means they are subject to the same laws as the rest of us.
Moving beyond the current controversy over scanners and pat-downs, Paul also commented more broadly on airline security since 9/11:
I warned at the time of the creation of the TSA that an unaccountable government entity in control of airport security would provide neither security nor defend our basic freedom to travel. Yet the vast majority of both Republicans and Democrats then in Congress willingly voted to create another unaccountable, bullying agency—in a simple-minded and unprincipled attempt to appease public passion in the wake of 9-11. Sadly, as we see with the steady TSA encroachment on our freedom and dignity, my fears in 2001 were justified.
I’m not sure that going after individual screeners with, say, sexual harassment charges really gets to the root of the issue; they aren’t the ones making policy. Still, it’s heartening to see travelers’ concerns being taken up at the highest levels in Washington. (Via Gadling)
