Archive for Europe
TravelBlur.com Wins Three Travel Writing Awards
Posted by: | CommentsMy mom taught me not to brag, but I’m going to do it anyway.
As of Saturday, I can now call myself an “award-winning” freelance writer. You read it correctly. Someone actually gave me an award - and not just one, but three. They came from a legitimate journalism organization too.
The folks here at TravelBlur.com (that’s really just me) brought home two first place and one second place writing awards from the Oklahoma Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Seriously, we won.
My lovely wife and I took home a first place award in the Leisure Writing category for Newspaper Division B (circulation 7,000 to 25,000) for a collaborative effort headlined The Splendor and Rich Heritage of Copenhagen which appeared in Edmond Life and Leisure.
In the Newspaper Division C (circulation less than 7,000) Leisure Writing category, this writer captured first place with a story titled Giant Buddha Rules Kamakura and second for a Halloween piece called Prague’s Creepy Gothic Church of All Saints. Both stories published in The Journal Record.
While honors and awards are a welcome validation, the true joy of writing comes not from the accolades, but from a quality turn of phrase. I like writing, I like crafting a narrative and, honestly, I like winning awards too.
Oslo’s Ski Jump – Come Fly With Me
Posted by: | Comments
I really enjoyed watching the Olympic ski jumping competition from Vancouver over the weekend. I’m amazed how these courageous daredevils launch their bodies into the void in pursuit of Olympic gold.
I always wondered what it must be like to look down that long ramp, and I had the chance to find out when I visited the Holmenkollen Ski Jump above Oslo, Norway.
Travel to Nerja: Stay at the Hostal Don Peque
Posted by: | CommentsIf you find yourself needing a place to sleep when you travel to Nerja, along Spain’s Costa del Sol, call on the friendly folks at the Hostal Don Peque.
Very near the old city and just a short walk to the water, the little accommodation is clean and convenient. There’s a handy, but expensive, parking garage nearby and the tourist information office is only a few blocks away. The owner, (I think her name is Clara,) was on hand every day during our visit. The hostal also rents beach towels and chairs.
We ate breakfast on the rooftop terrace one morning during our stay, but found the fare to be a bit simple for the price. I thought 6 € was a tad much for bread, jam, orange juice and tea, but the views of the sea and the rooftops of Nerja were nice.
A great place to soak up some sun, Nerja has plenty of sand, restaurants and clubs to keep any beachcomber happy, and the Don Peque sits right in the middle of it all.
Travel to London: Don’t Miss and Dismiss Day Trips
Posted by: | CommentsDon’t Miss & Dismiss is an occasional series of travel guide posts about the best (Don’t Miss) and worst (Dismiss) tourist sites in cities all over the world.
London day trips is the topic for this installment of Don’t Miss and Dismiss. There are numerous sites huddled around the British capital and below is simply a sampling of a few I’ve visited.
Don’t Miss: Hampton Court Palace
So close to central London it’s a bit of a stretch to call it a day trip, but you could easily spend an entire day at King Henry VIII’s enormous palace. Right on the Thames, the palace is one of my favorites. I especially like the Tudor kitchens and Henry’s apartments.
Dismiss: Leeds Castle
About one hour southeast of London, Leeds Castle has an incredibly beautiful exterior and mostly disappointing interior. Built on two islands in the Len River, the castle’s setting makes for great photos, but the renovated interior is dull and uninspiring. Leeds is 11th century on the outside, 1930’s on the inside.
Don’t Miss: Warwick Castle
If you travel to only one medieval castle outside London, make it Warwick. It’s a little hokey, with Madame Tussauds figures manning the dungeon, but the ancient fortifications and elaborate halls and staterooms help fight off the commercialism. About 2.5 hours from London, day tripping to Warwick makes for a long day, but it’s worth every minute.
Dismiss: Stonehenge
It’s hard for me to call it a dismiss, because I always wanted to see Stonehenge, but it’s really just a grouping of big rocks in the middle of a field. An England icon, I was relieved to see the stones had been restored upright after Clark W. Griswald knocked them over during his family’s European vacation. As I look at my photos, I might have to rethink this dismiss.
Don’t Miss: Blenheim Palace
Just north of the university town of Oxford, a worthy travel trip in its own right, Blenheim Palace is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Built between 1705 and 1722, the stunning palace is the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.
Miep Gies Saved Anne Frank’s Story for the World
Posted by: | CommentsNews outlets are reporting the death of the last surviving member of a brave group that helped Anne Frank and her family hide from the Nazis. For two years, Miep Gies was part of a small group that aided eight Jewish hideaways in the “secret annex” of a warehouse building alongside the Prinsengracht Canal in central Amsterdam.
After the building was raided by the Nazi SS and Dutch police, Gies gathered and saved Anne’s writings, reportedly without ever reading them. Gies returned the diary to Anne’s father, Otto, after learning of Anne’s death at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Anne’s diary is the centerpiece around which Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House Museum is built. A moving tribute to the young writer, visitors enter the secret annex through a cleverly-concealed staircase, just as those in hiding did more than six decades ago. The rooms of the hideout are preserved as they were in August 1944. The photographs and postcards Anne pasted on her bedroom wall can still be seen. Her original diary, since translated into more than 60 languages, is also on display.
A visit to the Anne Frank House brings the book to life, and if not for Miep Gies, the world may never have known this most important of stories.
Theft in Poland Stirs Memories of Travel to Dachau
Posted by: | CommentsThe Associated Press reported in this story that the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) sign above the entrance to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz has been stolen. The story caught my attention because the same slogan appears above the gate at the Dachau concentration camp outside Munich, Germany.
I have toured the camp which is now a memorial to the victims who suffered there at the hands of the Nazi regime. Words like sobering, haunting and troubling do not begin to describe the camp and the exhibits of torture and malice. My visit was on a sunny, warm fall day but I vividly remember the chill, real or imagined, that descended when I toured the camp. Hard, cold concrete buildings, the crematorium’s ovens and hard-packed, bare earth stick out in my mind.
Dachau, the Nazi’s model concentration camp, served as a “school of violence” for the Nazi SS. During its 12 years of operation, more than 200,000 prisoners passed through it’s gates, and 41,500 were murdered.
It is important, in my view, that we preserve these terrible monuments of pain and suffering and use them to educate ours and future generations about the evils of hatred.
Travel to Copenhagen: Don’t Miss & Dismiss
Posted by: | CommentsToday’s post is the inaugural installment of Don’t Miss & Dismiss, a series of travel guide posts about the best (Don’t Miss) and worst (Dismiss) tourist sites in cities all over the world.
Of Scandinavia’s capital cities, I think Copenhagen is by far the hippest, especially if you schedule your travel trip during the city’s wonderful jazz festival. Here are my Copenhagen highlights and low lights.
Don’t Miss: The Nyhavn Canal
The city’s coolest hangout, the Nyhavn Canal is Copenhagen at its most picturesque. Traditional wooden boats add authenticity to the old sailors’ quarter, and the brightly painted buildings now house trendy restaurants and clubs instead of bars and brothels.
Dismiss: The Little Mermaid
Okay, I know Hans Christian Andersen and Disney made her famous, but she’s just a tiny statue sitting on a rock.
Don’t Miss: Museum of Danish Resistance
Telling the story of the underground fight against Nazi occupation, this small museum weaves an interesting tale of espionage and sabotage.
Dismiss: Christiania
Copenhagen’s counter-culture hippie haven, Christiania was founded in the early 1970s as an alternative to formal Danish society. The main drag is called Pusher Street. As I wrote in an article published in Edmond Life and Leisure, “While a peace-and-love, flower-power child of the 1960s might see this hippie haven as a trip (pun intended) down memory lane, Christiania was not my bag, baby.”
Don’t Miss: Our Savior’s Church spire
It’s not its height that makes Our Savior’s spire so cool, it’s the way you get to the top. What starts out like any other
church tower climb gets much more interesting as the last 150 stairs twist around the outside of the 350-year-old oak spire.
Galway Gab: House Hotel Highly Heralded
Posted by: | CommentsFriends and fellow travelers Jeff and Lee Lavender recently returned from a travel trip to the Emerald Isle. They raved about a little accommodation, The House Hotel, in Galway, Ireland, and have kindly agreed to share the details of their find. Jeff’s review is below:
The House Hotel in Galway was a breath of fresh air. As soon as we walked through the front door, we were greeted by the concierge who called us by name and made us comfortable as she checked us in. As the concierge visited with Lee about Galway’s tourist highlights, I noticed a whimsical decor and an interesting cat motif. A sign pointing to the room was decorated with a picture of a sleeping cat. The restaurant’s sign had an eating cat and you can only imagine what the cat on the bathroom sign was doing.
Our “mack daddy” suite was large, nicely furnished and included internet access on a large flat screen TV. The suite’s bathroom was fully equipped and very nice.
Although the rooms and common areas were very nice, the true gem of this hotel was the attention to service. The staff were always willing to act as travel guide and help us plan our day, often taking it upon themselves to make our travel arrangements personally. To top it off, they absolutely refused my attempts to slip them some green for their special attention. They would not accept a thing.
Needless to say, we highly recommend the House Hotel and will stay here the next time we travel to Galway.
Frequent voyagers, Jeff and Lee travel to destinations both far and near. Expect to hear from them often.
Veteran’s Day – Remembering My Grandfathers
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s only appropriate that every year on Veteran’s Day our country pauses to remember the sacrifice of the soldiers, sailors and Marines who serve, or have served, in uniform. I personally think of my grandfathers who served our country in WWII and I believe their brave and selfless actions helped save the world.
The ultimate sacrifice is never more evident than when we travel to a somber site like the American Military Cemetery and Memorial in Luxembourg. The final resting place for more than 5,000 American soldiers, many who died in the Battle of the Bulge, the cemetery is one of only 14 WWII US military cemeteries on foreign soil. The burial place of General George S. Patton, the tranquil grounds also hold the graves of more than 100 unknown soldiers whose identities are “known but to God.”
The thousands of white marble headstones serve as a vivid reminder of the costs of war and the true price of freedom.
Today I say thank you to my grandfathers and all the men and women who serve our country.
A Travel Trip to Tangier with Travel Guide Aziz
Posted by: | CommentsThe wife and I typically shun the idea of hiring a tour guide when we travel to a new city, but we made an exception on a recent travel trip to Tangier, Morocco.
Recommended in our Rick Steves book, travel guide Aziz Begdouri was an excellent choice. We spent a fun day traveling Tangier with Aziz and highly recommend his services. Our tour included all the main tourist stops, including the Kasbah, Grand and Petit Soccos, Anglican Church, Medina and markets. Aziz seems to know everyone in town and made our visit enjoyable.
The only negative I can report was an unrequested stop at a carpet store where we sat through a sales pitch. We weren’t interested in buying a carpet, but it was a short stop and more of a nuisance than anything else.
At only 15 Euros per person for a five-hour tour, hiring Aziz was a cheap travel deal.
You can contact Aziz at aziztour@hotmail.com.
It’s easy to reach Tangier from the south of Spain, especially Tarifa. While there’s not really any other reason to go to Tarifa, it’s only about 30 minutes by ferry to Africa so the Spanish city makes a handy departure point. Watch for more on Tarifa restaurants and accommodations in an upcoming post.
