CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRIA
INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA, is a beautiful city, and it’s particularly charming during Christmastime with its Christkindlmärkte Altstadt. Here’s a photographic essay from my Christmas 2009 visit. What about a White Christmas? … Continue reading
MALAMALA GAME RESERVE
MALAMALA GAME Reserve is in northeastern South Africa, its 33,000 acres sharing an unfenced border with this country’s Kruger National Park. Visiting there in 2002, I learned that MalaMala is … Continue reading
TRAVELERS’ CODE
IN THE early days of telegraph communication, sending a “cable” was priced by word count—and it cost a pretty penny. A ten-word message from New York City to Chicago in … Continue reading
JAPAN’S LITTLE WORLD
I HAD my most moving religious experience in Japan’s Little World. Though it calls itself a theme park, I’d term it an indoor-outdoor cultural museum. Little World is about an … Continue reading
PRINCE ROY, R.I.P.
PADDY ROY Bates passed away at the age of 91 earlier this month. You may not have known him by this name, but how about Prince Roy of Sealand? Roy … Continue reading
BROWN PALACE HOTEL
“AND THEY’LL all want lifts to Brown’s Hotel, ’cause lots o’ them been travelin’ for quite a spell.” Just as Judy Garland sang “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa … Continue reading
BAEDEKER’S HANDBOOKS FOR TRAVELERS
I LOVE Baedeker’s handbooks, especially those published during their glory years of 1900 to the onset of World War I. Pocket sized—provided one’s coat has generous pockets—these little red guidebooks with … Continue reading
PONTCYSYLLTE: A WELSH WONDER
THE NAME Pontcysyllte is Welsh, its nearest English pronunciation “Pońt-ker-suck-tay.” The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is an architecture wonder along the Llangollen Canal. Some more Welsh: Llangollen is, sort of, “Thl’an-gothl’n,” with those … Continue reading
NEW ZEALAND’S SOUTH ISLAND
SEASONS IN the southern hemisphere are opposite of ours, of course. This turns out to be very convenient for those wishing to do winter tire testing in July and August, … Continue reading
COOLSPRING POWER MUSEUM
INTERNAL COMBUSTION engines built before 1900 are celebrated as “centennial engines.” And, among enthusiasts of things mechanical, the Coolspring Power Museum is a real treasure trove of these wonderful devices. … Continue reading
