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South Africans Michael and Sunette Adendorff went to New Zealand, but had trouble finding the Majestic Hotel, where they had made reservations. They inquired at a chemist’s shop for help, but found there is no hotel at all in the town of Eastborne! Shop assistant Linda Burke looked at their paperwork and realized the hotel they wanted was in the UK -on the other side of the globe!
Ms Burke rang around but discovered all the local bed and breakfast places were full, so she offered them a room for the night in her house.
The couple, who were exploring New Zealand while visiting the country to watch South Africa play in the Rugby World Cup, had mistakenly booked into the hotel in Eastbourne, Sussex, on the internet.
“I booked into the right hotel, just in the wrong country,” Mr Adendorff told the Dominion Post newspaper.
Despite the good-natured ribbing they received, the couple said Eastbourne was very nice and the locals were friendly.
The Adendorffs were unable to get a refund on the hotel due to short notice. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Wikipedia contributor NordNordWest)
Excerpted from the book Food Journeys of a Lifetime, NatGeo Traveler’s new food section brings us a list of the best places in the world to find chocolate -or should that be the places in the world to find the best chocolate? Either way, it’s mouth-watering time. For example, you should know where to get chocolate at 4AM in Madrid.
Few institutions offer better evidence of Madrid’s insomnia than its perennially popular chocolaterías (also known as churrerías), typically abuzz with late-night revelers from 4 a.m. to breakfast time. Their trademark dish is the churro, a long waffle-like stick of savory fried dough, eaten dunked into very thick bittersweet hot chocolate. Stop in at the venerable Chocolatería San Ginés, an 1894 throwback. Expect entertainingly brusque service, bright lights, and a frenzied atmosphere.
Planning: Chocolatería San Ginés is downtown on Pasadizo San Ginés. It’s open all night.
And that’s just number eight on the list. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
(Image credit: Miguel Pereira)
Apparently,the king of Jordan is a huge Star Trek fan so like a true Trekkie, he wants to show his love for the series as much as possible. The only difference -he’s ridiculously rich. So he’s decided to build his own Star Trek theme park in his own country for a cool price of $1.5 billion. He’s already made agreements with CBS, Paramount and Rubicon Group Holding -all companies who have the rights to the series.
Rubicon is said to be developing the “entertainment aspects” of the park, and it appears that it will be partnering with Paramount Recreation and CBS Consumer Products — which owns Star Trek — for creative development on attractions such as a planned “space flight adventure,” which is promises to deliver “a variety of multi-sensory futuristic experiences … that takes real-time immersive entertainment experiences to bold new heights.” The park and resort will also include restaurants, hotels, theaters, and shops. However, the entire resort will not be 100% Star Trek-themed; in an effort to promote tourism to Jordan, there will also be informative elements about Jordan’s history.
Supposedly the park will be open in 2014. Would any of you take a trip to Jordan to see it?
A new sushi restaurant in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan has taken to making some outrageously massive rolls and nigiri. They also serve up some absolutely tiny pieces with each order to absolutely mess with the minds of anyone enjoying their treats. In the picture above, regular sushi has been included to give perspective to the other trays. You can watch a video of it at the link, but be warned the dialogue is in Japanese.
Link Via InventorSpot
BuzzFeed has a great list of cool hotel rooms, and while most of them have stunning interiors, I have to say that this cow-shaped room is the one that really caught my attention. It’s apparently in Belgium, but I couldn’t find much else about it. Anyone care to fill me in?
We’ve all heard of the kitty and puppy cafes sweeping through Japan, but for those of you who like more cold-blooded pets, there’s now a reptile cafe to satisfy the desires of those who live a petless lifestyle but still want periodic cuddling with their favorite critters.
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This video is named Move. It’s part of a trilogy of videos from director Rick Mereki, director/producer Tim White, and actor Andrew Lees. They traveled 38,000 miles to 11 countries in 44 days and produced three videos. The others in the trilogy are Eat and Learn. Click “more” to see them.
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National Geographic Traveler magazine has announced the winners of their 2011 photo contest! First place went to the photo shown here, taken by Ben Canales at Crater Lake National Park. Read the story behind the picture, and see ten other amazing winning photos at NatGeo (do not miss the Viewer’s Choice winner). Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
(Image credit: Ben Canales)
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I think the craziest road I ever drove on was the one lane, ocean-side freeway that hangs over California’s cliffs on the Coast Highway 101. While that got a little intense at parts, it was nothing compared to the terrifying roads seen in this Mental Floss article.
Now here’s a place Homer Simpson could really worship, the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew Temple in Thailand. It’s made from over 1.5 million green Heineken and brown Chang beer bottles.
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Valle de la Luna means Valley of the Moon, an area you’ll find near the village of Mallasa in Bolivia. The towering cliffs and the dark valleys in between them honestly resemble something you might find in a science fiction novel! Read about this unique valley, and see more pictures at For 91 Days. Link -Thanks, Juergen!
If you’re planning a trip based solely on geek culture soon, Oddee’s list of 10 geek bars and restaurants should be a great resource for dining and drinking options. My favorite is The Hajime Restaurant in Bangkok, where robots serve as waiters and entertainers.
Michael Powell and Juergen Horn are continuing their living experiment in moving to a new city every three months, and writing about them on their blog 91 Days. Now in Sucre, Bolivia, they took a train excursion to Potosi, high in the Andes.
The trip takes almost seven hours, but it’s seven hours of the most beautiful landscapes imaginable, particularly if you’re able to snag the front seat next to the driver. Amazingly, this train isn’t a touristic draw. We were the only foreigners on board (and among a minority who wasn’t carrying a bag full of potatoes or chickens).
Tickets were about $3.50 apiece, already worth the price after the first 15 minutes. Vertigo-sufferers may want to take a pass on the trip… the train never feels especially steady, and I felt my stomach jump while looking down over some bridges. But if you’re a fan of mountain scenery, and not on a tight schedule, this trip is definitely something to consider. It’s also a slow, healthy way to ascend to Potosí’s 4000+ meter altitude.
See photographs and video of the trip at For 91 Days. Link -Thanks, Juergen!
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Supposedly these vampire hunting kits were sold to travelers to protect them from our fanged, blood sucking friends. See the full gallery at the link.
Travelers in the 19th century would purchase ‘vampire hunting kits’ in preparation for their travels to Eastern Europe. The kits would contain a wooden stake, Bible, crucifix, pistol with lead bullets, gunpowder, garlic and glass vials that held various concoctions to ward off vampires.
Disney fans rejoice, it’s time for yet another set of Neatorama Facts featuring the Happiest Place on Earth. This time, we’re taking a detailed look at “the wildest ride in the wilderness,” Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
Image via Mastery of Maps [Flickr]
Most of the definitive “Disney” rides seem to have been created specifically for Disneyland long before they were added to Disney World and the other parks, but Big Thunder Mountain started out in exactly the opposite way. This time, the ride was originally conceived as part of a new Magic Kingdom area called the Western River Expedition, a Western-themed area similar to Frontierland. The area would look like a big plateau and contain a number of rides, including a runaway mine train roller coaster. Unfortunately, because the park just opened Pirates of the Caribbean, the area was considered too expensive to install, so Imaginer Tony Baxter proposed building just the coaster as a separate attraction, which would instead be added to Disneyland park first. While that idea was approved, the project way put on hold so the team could focus on Space Mountain.
The delay in the project actually turned out to be a good thing though, as it meant the developers were allowed to use computers to design the coaster, allowing for a smoother ride than one designed by hand. Big Thunder Mountain was actually the first ride to use a computer to design the track, but because it was a brand new technology, the creation process was actually anything but smooth.
While ride designers knew what would look good, the computer wanted the ride to be as simple and smooth as possible. So the imagineers had to submit nine different designs before the computer finally accepted one without automatically making changes that would make it less attractive.
Eventually the design was accepted upon by all parties and construction started. The ride opened first in Disneyland in 1979 and a larger version opened in the Magic Kingdom a year later.
Image via Sally Ann French [Flickr]
Photo: Stephen Alvarez [National Geographic]
If you’re looking for something to do on your next vacation that’s a little different than the usual sightseeing fare, National Geographic has 10 jaw-dropping suggestions that all take place underground. That’s part of the Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky in the picture above. Other suggestions include the Underground City of Montreal, the Cu Chi Tunnels of Vietnam and the Berlin Nuclear Bunker in Germany.
The Surfing Trooper escaped the Empire to surf around the world. Last he was seen in the waves of Bali but what will be his next destinations? For sure he will post a lot of pictures from his journey on his blog. Have you seen him?
Colin Greenhalgh adds monsters and somewhat-poetic captions to vintage postcards to make them much more interesting.
Meanwhile in Adventure Land, an imp lands a hand, scaring all the guests. Onlookers are captivated in fear, as he emerges from the murk, and lets lose a terrifying burp.
See a variety of such nonsense at his blog Monsters Abroad. Link -Thanks, Amy Dix!
Comments Off Love it or hate it, It’s A Small World is undoubtedly a catchy song and an iconic Disney attraction. But did you know the ride was actually made on the fly as a last minute World’s Fair attraction or that it was originally slated to feature a variety of national anthems instead of its title track? Here are some fascinating facts you might not know about one of the park’s most popular rides.
Image via Thomas Hawk [Flickr]
One of Disney’s most iconic attractions actually started out as a last minute attraction to the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The team was already working on a number of exhibits for the fair, including the Magic Skyway, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and The Carousel of Progress, when the program manager for the fair reached out to Disney and asked him to creat a tribute to UNICEF.
Always up to a challenge, Disney agreed and asked Mary Blair, Marc Davis, Alice Davis and Gregory S. Marinello for help. Mary gave the ride its overall feel and whimsy and inspired the general character design. Marc designed the scenes and the specific characters, while his wife, Alice, designed the costumes. Gregory designed the clock face on the exterior. Walt oversaw the design of the doll’s faces, which were all made to be exactly the same in order to promote the concept that all around the world children are all the same deep down.
Image via Andy Castro [Flickr]
The original nickname of the ride was “the happiest cruise that ever sailed” and the ride was intended to showcase the national anthem for each country portrayed. Unfortunately, this ended up sounding like a terrible mess in practice, so he hired the Sherman Brothers, the same gents who wrote the theme song for the Tiki Room, to create a song that would unify the ride’s characters together. It was only after the boys came back with their masterpiece that the ride got its name.
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You can plan a vacation in Europe, or you can dream about one. Either way, you’ll enjoy reading about some lovely relaxing places to have a siesta in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Pictured is the town of Manarola, Italy, “not recommended for those who tend to roll around a lot in their sleep”. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
(Image credit: Paul Hogie/My Shot)
While many towns were built on corruption, greed and scandal, few are as embracing of these embarrassing roots as the residents of Seattle. Of course, it wasn’t always this way, around fifty years ago, most of the city’s residents only knew of the white-washed town history that was (and still is) retold in school history books. Fortunately, when the city threatened to tear down the city’s gorgeous Victorian and Edwardian buildings in the historical Pioneer Square area, residents rushed to save their town’s heritage. To help protect this historical area, one amateur historian and professional journalist, Bill Speidel, set out to uncover the back story of the slum-ridden district. In the end, his findings resulted in the famous Underground Tour and helped establish the neighborhood as a preservation district, ensuring the continued protection of all the historical buildings in the area.
So what is so important about Pioneer Square and why should anyone outside of the city care? Read on, my friends, read on.
In 1851, a troupe of pioneers known as the Denny Party established the first white settlement in the area at Alki Point. The group was led by Arthur A Denny, who soon realized that Alki Point wasn’t a good place for a settlement and then moved his party to a tide flat off of Elliot Bay, which they named Duwamps, after the local Native American tribe.
Within the first few years of settlement, another leader, Doctor David Swinson Maynard moved in from Cleveland. Whereas the members of the Denny Party were dedicated teetotalism Methodists, Doc Maynard was a heavy drinker who believed vice was one of the most effective industries in a frontier town. Maynard convinced the other townspeople to rename the city Seattle after the Duwamps Chief Seattle, who was a friend of his. He did so not only to help honor his friend, but also because he knew Seattle would be a lot easier to promote to people back East than Duwamps, which sounded like a swamp.
In 1852, Maynard built his cabin, and contained a store inside of it, establishing the first shop in Seattle. He soon obtained the right to host a post office in his store, meaning everyone had to visit his store to get their mail. Throughout his life, Maynard helped build a number of important establishments in Seattle, building the first pharmacy, hotel, casino, saloon, brothel and hospital in the area.
When plots of land were officially established, Denny’s property stretched north of Pioneer Square, while Maynard’s extended to the south. Because each established their streets according to their piece of shoreline, the streets now have an awkward bend at what is now Yesler Way and that area of town is noticeably jumbled when it comes to driving.
Maynard helped jump start the city’s industry by offering his land at exceptionally cheap prices, provided the buyer started building a business on it immediately. He attracted critical business professionals such as blacksmiths into town, along with purveyors of vice, which helped attract more frontiersmen to the city. Early real estate records show that 90% of the city’s first businesses were built on Maynard’s land or immediately adjacent to his plot.
While Maynard obviously did a lot to help establish the town, he was left out of history books and almost completely forgotten about until Bill Speidel’s research helped bring his contributions to light. So why would such a key figure in the town’s founding be forgotten? Mostly because he was seen to be amoral.
When Maynard left Cleveland in 1850, he was married to a woman named Lydia. She eventually filed for divorce on grounds of desertion, but she never completed the divorce. Before arriving in Seattle, the good doctor circulated amongst several wagon trains, helping to fight cholera. While serving as the leader on a small wagon train that brought him to Puget Sound, he fell in love with a widow, Catherine Troutman Broshears. At first, her brother refused her permission to remarry, but after Maynard made a good deal of money in Seattle, he relented and the couple was married.
Years latter, Maynard’s first wife sold off her share of property and the man who purchased it then went after Maynard, claiming he was owed everything that was Lydia’s since the couple was never officially divorced. Lydia came to Seattle to help defend her husband and Catherine and the doctor became friends with her and let her live in their home. According to Speidel, Doc Maynard was the only resident that was commonly seen with one wife on each arm.
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Slate is doing a series of travel posts with our friends Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras at Atlas Obscura. Part one of the hidden wonders of South America is about The World’s Most Beautiful River. This video is from part two, A Death-Defying Commute. A 60-year-old cable spans a 1,200-foot-deep ravine between two mountains near the village of Guayabetal, Colombia. Dylan took a chance on riding the zipline.
“Your rope appears to be a little frayed,” I pointed out, warily. But Mario, who has been going back and forth on the cable since he was 8 years old, said that he was so confident in his harness, he would happily take one of us across with him. I laughed at the idea. Dylan, in a momentary lapse of judgment, forgot that his fiancee and mother might someday read this and eagerly volunteered.
The couple of dozen cables used for traveling in the area were considered dangerous, but since the gorge is the border between two states, jurisdiction over the ziplines is complicated. Most of them were removed and only four cables remain. Read more about them at Slate. Link
Comments Off Most of you are familiar with American, Canadian and English Christmas customs, which are largely the same, including Santa bringing presents that sit below a lit up tree. But have you ever wondered just how Christmas is celebrated in China, or in Finland? Whether you’re just interested in learning more about other cultures or want to incorporate some new traditions into your holiday celebrations, this article is filled with all you need to know about international Christmases.
Austrian children still get to celebrate the arrival of Ol’ Saint Nick, but they also have to brace themselves for the arrival of his evil counterpart, Krampus. Where Saint Nicholas rewards good behavior with treats and toys on December 6, the demonic Krampus arrives on December 5, looking to punish all the bad children. His weapons of choice are birch switches to beat children with and burlap sacks to kidnap them and throw them into the river.
The worst part is that local men actually dress up like Krampus (just like many men dress up as Santa in America) and terrorize the streets. In some villages, kids are even made to run what is known as a Krampus-gauntlet, in an attempt to outrun the switches.
The Czech version of Saint Nick is known as Svaty Mikulas, who is said to climb down to Earth from the heavens using a golden rope. Mikulas is accompanied by an angel and a devil who help him decide which girls and boys deserve treats and toys, and which ones deserve a swatch.
There are a lot of fortune-telling traditions that are associated with Christmas as well. One involves a family member cutting a branch from a cherry tree and putting it inside in water. If it blooms in time for Christmas it is good luck. It also may represent that the winter will be short, or if a single woman picked the branch, it could mean she will get married in the next year.
On Christmas Eve, single woman also try to see if they will get married in the next year by standing outside with their back to their front door, removing one of their shoes and throwing it over their shoulder. If the shoe lands with the toe facing the door, then she will marry in the next year. If not, she will have to wait at least another 12 months.
Image via tomu [Flickr]
Jen made little pizzas that resemble the flags of some of the countries she’s visited. Not only do they look like flags, they are topped with foods representative of that nation’s cuisine. She shows us how she created a few of them at Tiny Urban Kitchen. Link -via Everlasting Blort
Bringing much needed levity to the stressed out airplane passenger is this website, Fun with TSA. The website suggests a few things that you, the downtrodden traveler, can do to stick it to the man and have a bit of fun. For example:
Be the person on your flight to suddenly shout out “Marco!” during that last hour when others are looking for things to do. It might take a few tries, but eventually someone somewhere on the plane will respond with a “Polo!” if for no other reason than to shut you up. Entertainment achieved.
But if you get into trouble, we don’t know each other, mmmkay? Link
If a relaxing week at the beach is boring after all these years, there are ways to have the trip that takes the idea of “vacation” to an extreme you’ll never forget! How about a naked vacation? Or one centered around ghosts, or mermaids, or even a vacation in a war zone? They can be arranged, as travel agencies cater to those with an offbeat sense of adventure. There are even vacations to the moon!
Space Adventures provides the opportunity for you to blast off in a Soyuz spacecraft for a circumlunar mission. During the seven-day space flight, which reaches top speeds of 17,000 mph, you’ll see stars, the illuminated far side of the moon, and the Earth from 250,000 miles away. Candidates must train for four months alongside Russian cosmonauts at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. Two seats are available for $100 million each.
Now that’s a way to fund a space program! Link
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Here’s a roundup of sixteen animals and how you can see them in their natural habitats. Some of these expeditions involve a lot of travel, depending on where you are already. Want to see a booby? Head to the Galapagos Islands!
A little more than 500 miles west of Ecuador lie the Galápagos Islands, a veritable treasure-trove of endemic wildlife. One of the islands’ most famous residents is the blue-footed booby, a seabird with distinctive turquoise-blue feet. While those colorful toes certainly catch the eyes of human fans, the birds are more concerned with impressing each other: Male blue-footed boobies show off their blue feet while “dancing” during courtship.
Link -Thanks, Jenny!
During the Jim Crow era in the United States, it was neither easy nor safe for African-Americans to travel from town to town. For three decades, The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide was an indispensable resource for finding a place to stay, eat, or buy gas in towns across America. Not necessarily the best places, but any place that would provide accommodations at all if you weren’t white.
A Harlem postal employee and civic leader named Victor H. Green conceived the guide in response to one too many accounts of humiliation or violence where discrimination continued to hold strong. These were facts of life not only in the Jim Crow South, but in all parts of the country, where black travelers never knew where they would be welcome. Over time its full title — “The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide” — became abbreviated, simply, as the “Green Book.” Those who needed to know about it knew about it. To much of the rest of America it was invisible, and by 1964, when the last edition was published, it slipped through the cracks into history.
The Green Book has been revived in a way, as a new play and a children’s book about the travel guide and those who used it are set to debut. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Erik S. Lesser/The New York Times)
On the Isle of Wight a man plays a happy tune using the slats on a fence.
– via frequency
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Gearhead Gal.
Imagine a tree, 3500 years old, and the history and knowledge it must possess. The Senator is a species of Bald Cypress situated at Big Tree Park in Longwood, Florida. For year, travelers flocked to the tree, jumping log to log in the swamps, to catch a glimpse of this world wonder.
The Senator Bald Cypress tree measures close 18 feet in diameter and stands 118 feet high. The Senator’s age is estimated between 3,400-3,500 years old, the 5th oldest tree in the world.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by lannaxe96.
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