Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

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Cafe Culture of Vienna

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Vienna is an incredibly beautiful and historic city, and it is also the largest, by far, of the city’s in Austria. It’s population alone, throughout the major metropolitan area, accounts for over twenty five percent of the country’s residential choice. The performance and visual arts play an essential role in the cultural atmosphere of the city, and its performance establishments are extremely respected and popularly supported. In addition, food plays an important role in the lives of the city’s residents, and this goes for beyond its essential aspect of life. The city is full of great restaurants and this is one of the favorite aspects for the tourists who are staying in a Vienna hotel .

Cafes also play an important role in the cultural climate and daily lives of residents. And these too are extremely popular with tourists. The cafe culture is part of the city’s traditional heritage and their place in the city dates back for centuries in history. Coffee is a cherished obsession for many people and the addiction to it also dates back centuries. One of the great claims attributed to the Viennese the invention of filtering coffee. There are some incredible stories that relate to the incorporation of coffee into the culture and they can serve as interesting conversation topics for tourists while enjoying a cup. The pastry at the cafes is also incredible and goes very well with an afternoon latte. These beautiful sidewalk cafes exist throughout the city and are sometimes a part of one Zurich’s luxury accommodations or an elegant hotel .

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Delicious Cactus in Seattle

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Madison Park is one of Seattle’s most distinguished neighborhoods and is where Cactus is located. Cactus is a busy Mexican cantina that stands out from all the other restaurants in the area. If you’re a visitor to Seattle, Cactus is worth a try and don’t worry if the wait is long, you’ll receive a beeper so you can stroll the streets and if you wish, have a drink elsewhere, check out the Seattle hotel scene, then once you’re beeped, just head on back and let the party begin.

Your wait will be rewarded with salsa and guacamole so fabulously fresh you’ll swear each bowl was made to order. Cactus’s tapas bar offers delectable little dishes such as the grilled portabella mushrooms and green chili soup. The sauces are a complexity of beguiling tastes, the meats and seafood are cooked to perfection and the scent of cumin spiced black beans and fluffy Spanish rice will satisfy any steaming impatient thoughts about just how long you had to wait. Bliss will be your next state-of-mind if you order the smooth flan dessert or the nutty brownie topped with cinnamon ice cream swimming in a decadent puddle of Mexican chocolate and caramel. If you’re still not satisfied, try the Ripe Bananas in Meyer’s Rum, which is a nice saucy end to a great meal.

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Red Skies in Sydney

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

The reasons for traveling to Sydney are way too numerous to elaborate on in any depth, but the ocean is usually good enough for most folks. There’s also the splendid urban lifestyles, with a fairly regular dose of cosmopolitan flash mixed with local charm. The weather is also particularly lovely. The proximity to the ocean keeps it fairly cool all winter, and warm all summer. The seasons, by the way, are reversed down here.

There aren’t very many moments where there are extremes, with snowfall being very rare. The summer can occasionally see a pretty deep amount of red in the thermometer, because it is close to the deserts that take a lot of heat. That’s still fairly uncommon, and this makes Sydney lovely to visit any time.

Last September, there was a very unusual phenomenon, however, and most travelers are probably better off having missed it. If a huge dust storm that turns the entire city orange is interesting enough to be attractive, then fans of dust will have to wait for a long time, apparently. The skies of Sydney did turn orange , and it lasted for a very long time. It was caused, apparently, by a lot dust gathering and being blown about in the inland desert. Usually it dies out before it reaches the coast, but not this time. It’s very unlikely to happen again, but if the city suddenly looks like Mars , it’s probably just Sydney.

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Finding Treasure in Boston

Monday, July 19th, 2010

There is no better way to see a city than to be forced to explore it on your own, and that is what Cashunt does. This is not a tour, but more of a scavenger hunt in which you are asked to go out and a certain number of items throughout the city. Usually you will have to have it set up for you of course, but if you really wanted to you could easily have a local friend set it up, or set it up for a group of other friends and let them take a go at it.

Usually people meet up at another location after making their way from their luxury hotels. Boston is full of surprises so they are given a certain number of items that they have to buy or find around town. From there they are split into teams, given their tasks, which may not actually be the same, and told to head out into the city to find them. These days cell phones and GPS are encouraged to help people find their items. It can be a lot of fun if you do it right. At the end of the time limit you are brought back together and who ever has the most items wins.

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Columbia Center Make’s Seattle’s Space Needle Superfluous

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

You can see it from any of the luxury hotels Seattle has, or from any other place you happen to be at the moment, the Columbia Center is one of Seattle’s tallest buildings; taller than the Space Needle by almost 100 meters and is less expensive to visit too!

Located at 701 Fifth Avenue, between S. Airport Way and Cherry Street, Columbia Center ‘s Observation Deck , open on weekdays offers the best view of Seattle. This 941 foot building is the 2nd tallest building west of the Mississippi. The Observation deck wraps around the East, South and West sides of the building, so all you’re missing in your view of Seattle is Capitol Hill. You’ll have a view of the Cascades, the Olympic mountain ranges, a panoramic view of Harborview Hospital, the 520 floating bridge, the I-90 floating bridges, Beacon Hill, I-5, the ferry docks, the shipyards, all of West Seattle, Queen Anne, Puget Sound and of course, downtown Seattle.

The tour of Columbia Center only costs $5.00 and you’ll be taking 2 elevators, one to the 40th floor and the other to the 73rd floor, then on up to the observation deck. If the season’s right, you’ll also get to peer into a falcon’s nest on the North ledge of the building. Come to Columbia Center first, before visiting the Space Needle you may just find that a visit to the Space Needle isn’t necessary.

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Sting and Trudie in London

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

The famous pop star Sting, and actress and producer, Trudie Styler, share a lot more than just a happy marriage. It’s true, certainly, that they’ve been setting a kind of record for longevity in romance, where after all these years, there’s still no sign that the passion has even considered dwindling. It’s a refreshing thing to see, when the spotlight often dims the brightest dreams of happy couples, unable to cope with the pressures of being in love in public.

They do still live in London, both having deep roots here, maintaining strong connections to the city that gave them their sparks for music, movies, and also love. They live in two flats, actually, in London, but the couple is famous for liking to keep things lively and varied. They also have places in New York, Malibu, Tuscany, and the famous farm in Wiltshire that they’ve opened up for celebrity hounds for an evening at supper.

The couple have certainly come under public scrutiny, which is apparently a necessary evil of the trade. They’ve often been judged unfairly, or shown in unflattering lights, but again, that’s also part of the lifestyle. They seem to be taking it all in stride, focusing on their lives together, but also may have found a secret to a long marriage. It’s got nothing to do with the usual spices, but instead involves devoting part of their time to important causes in the world. While the truth about the disappearing rainforest was being bantered about by scientists for decades, it’s largely thanks to efforts by Sting and Trudie Styler that the world knows about the issue.

The city that embraces them again and again is always a great place for star-gazing. Travelers looking for adventure in an urban setting can book a hotel London ‘s offering, and see what the view on the street might be. Chances are slim of seeing Sting, but there are many other stars that call it home, and people watching is one of the great past times in this lively city.

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A Day at a Lisle Museum

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Lisle Illinois is a small town out side of Chicago that has been around since 1832. It started the most of America started with agriculture as its main industry. It also evolved in the same way that many towns in America evolved through the railroad industry. The town became quite the stop for travelers and cargo making their way to some distant city. Today the town has some really interesting museums that reflect its growth as well as growth from other areas of life like nature.  

If you find  yourself looking for something to do on an open day near Lisle you could check out the Lisle Station Museum . It is run by the area parks and recreation and is actually free which is an added bonus. It was put together by a cooperation of the Village of Lisle, the Lisle Heritage Society and with the park district to save and celebrate the local heritage. Find out how the community developed from the 19th century to today. See photographs, artifacts and read stories about events that turned this little farming down into Lisle Station. Take a walk through the historical train depot that has been preserved since 1978. There are many different programs offered with the museum and it may just interest the whole family. Along with the museum the park is offering up some interesting classes. They have one for learning how to blacksmith. During winter holidays, the museum and depot hare all lit up to celebrate the joyous seasons.  

The near by Benedictine University has a small nature museum as well. Much of the exhibits are collections of natures creatures and habitats that have been acquired by the students studies. They are open to the general public as well as the local schools and other groups who are interested in their collection. Five star Lisle hotels have the information to send you in the right direction.

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Great Southern Food in Atlanta

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

If you’re going to visit Atlanta, Georgia you should plan on a few things. The first one is that you’re going to have an incredible time and see some fascinating sights. Changes are also likely that you will enjoy some great entertainment options and experience the quality night clubs found throughout the city. And while the second sentence referred to some likely encounters you will experience during your stay at one of the hotels Atlanta USA , the second thing you are guaranteed to do is experience some of the great southern food that is available in the city.

The staff of the great hotels in the city will also be able to guide you to some of the top restaurant choices. Some of them will even feature great southern food restaurants right on the property. However, to fully experience any city, it is always a great idea to imbibe on some of the local food. The South City Kitchen is one of the midtown area staple restaurants. It has been in business for over fifteen years and in addition to offer traditional and contemporary southern faire it has added a bit of sophistication to the genre and is a hip contemporary venue. The food has won awards and the buttermilk fried chicken is a standard favorite.

Mary Mac’s Tea Room has been one of the most prominent southern food establishment in Atlanta for over sixty years. Dining here has become a tradition for many people, and it is frequently referred to as the choice place for first timers to encounter some of the city’s great southern food. It is open for lunch and dinner and the pork chops and ribs are extremely popular. Chazz Southern Cooking is one of the city’s prime places for inexpensive but good southern food. The friendly atmosphere of the privately owned establishment is one of the inviting features.

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arteamericas Fair in Miami

Monday, June 14th, 2010

It’s now in its 8th year, and already plans are well underway for the 9th edition of arteamericas, the Art Fair of the Americas next Spring. This event makes Miami continue to be the most interesting city to see art, and is a wonderful thing for the local economy. It’s also great for tourists and travelers wondering where the best place to see new work might be, or which city has the best 5 star hotel. Miami shines in so many respects, and it’s proving itself to be a very powerful force in the 21st century.

This fair is focused on Latin America, which is sort of like focusing on the light when looking at the sun. There are so many cultures and countries folded into the word that it seems enormously unwieldy. And it actually is unwieldy, and fantastically so. This year, the fair also opened up to Germany, Haiti, and Spain, so that the definitions could get broader and broader, and for the strange times we live in, this seems like a very appropriate move.

It’s difficult to see the names of the artists featured here and not wonder why people are talking about Latin American art being a rising trend. Because it seems apparent that it’s always been a major contributor, inheritor, and influence on the art of the rest of the world for some time. When we see works by Salvador Dali and Wifredo Lam in the same space, it starts to help connect the dots in many wonderful ways.

There are plenty of new faces here, as the bulk of the work demonstrates the wide and wild styles of the artists working on capturing a moment right now. But the previous generation’s works do come into a kind of clearer context when seen in relation. Dali’s surrealism came out of a movement that was considered to be essentially European, borrowing images from other cultures and continents (and particularly Africa).

Yet when we see Lam, it starts to seem odd that his works are so brilliantly in line with European culture, but came from a spiritual source that was and is enormously local (and also very African). It starts to seem that these things are connected, and that the movements of the 20th century were much more globally conceived, with no one in the position of claiming paternity or maternity, but there are geographies and patterns of migration that need to be written into the history.

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The Peak Tram in Hong Kong

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

One thousand eight hundred and ten feet above sea level stands the Victoria Peak or, more simply, The Peak , arguably one of Hong Kong’s greatest sites. It is the highest mountain on the island and served as a natural place in which to signal cargo ships in the eighteen hundreds. In the summer, it was the place to go for residents of the city to escape the heat; today, seven million visitors a year make it their destination, usually using one of Hong Kong’s most enduring symbols of its past, the Peak Tram.

The Peak Tram was developed by Scotland’s Highland Railway in 1881, connecting the south of Murray Barracks to Victoria Gap on the Peak. Quickly, the Peak became known for its views of the city and harbor, and the Peak Tram itself, over decades, has been seen in a variety of films and television programs. Among other films, the tram was seen in a Clark Cable movie called the Soldier of Fortune in the 1950s, and also in an episode of the 1970s American television program titled The Love Boat.

Originally built in 1888, the Peak Tram was the first cable funicular in all of Asia, and the length of the ride was 1,350 metres or 4,430 feet, and connected with five stations. In that time, the carriages were made of timber with open rows of seats at the front and rear, with a compartment in the middle; the tram’s capacity carried thirty passengers at a time, with first class passengers reserved for the center compartment. Operated with coal-fired steam boilers, the Peak Tram was of use to 600 passengers on its first day, and to around 150,000 people in its first year.

From any Hong Kong hotel , it’s easy to find a way to the tram, where guests will rise out of the busy city to the heights of Victoria Peak and experience not only an amazing view, but a piece of history as well.

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