howdy, pilgrim

If you think of Mull as being shaped like a boot – or more appropriately, an Ugg – Fionnphort would be the big toe. It’s here that you catch a quick ferry to the small island of Iona, where almost 1500 years ago St. Columba was sent into exile following a dispute with St. Finnian over a book. (At least it didn’t involve a woman) Columba went on to become one of the leading figures in the renewal of monasticism and it’s not hard to see why: he was deported from Ireland with just a few mates and sent to an uninhabited spit of rock three miles long by one mile wide. What else was there for a holy man to do except look inward? It seems an especially appropriate place to explore today as I publish my 1,000th blog post.

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have kilt, will travel

It should be a week of semi-sporadic postings as I’m off to the island of Mull in the Scottish Hebrides for a week of hiking, haggis, and (hopefully) abundant whiskey tasting. I don’t expect the internet to be terribly reliable; after all, I’m traveling to an island off the coast of an island – where the sheep population far outweighs the human one. Stay tuned and I’ll do my best. First stop: Glasgow.

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feeling far from home

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just tweat it (then eat it)

Tweat.it, NYC’s only real-time food truck map, just launched a free iPhone app pin-dropping the current locations of top slingers like Luke’s Lobster, Wafels & Dinges, and The Frying Dutchmen, all the while posting up-to-the-minute specials and “secret discounts” from each vendor’s Twitter feed. (Hopefully trucks have a better understanding of the term “discount” than they do “secret”.) Download the app via iTunes or visit the live website and never miss Taim’s elusive gluten-free falafel or the addictive BBQ of Korean Taco again.

 

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where i am

On the Kenyan border with Tanzania, at the confluence of the Sand and Kebololet Rivers, I’m in the Masai Mara; a large game reserve in Southwestern Kenya named after the Masai people who have traditionally inhabited the area. It’s almost 600 square miles of wildlife sanctuary, so the game viewing – and the Great Migration, in particular – should be spectacular.

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rick steves: virtual tour guide

For the past few years, Rick Steves’ Audio Walking Tours of Europe have been a big hit on iTunes, racking up more than 4 million downloads. And podcasts of his Travel with Rick Steves radio show have reached an even wider audience online than the one broadcast over the airwaves. Rick Steves’ Audio Europe, a smart new app designed for iPhone, iPad, or Android, organizes all of this free content so you can easily access information that relates to your individual travel plans. Unlike most travel apps on the market, it also works offline. So once you’ve downloaded a selection of files, they’re saved on the device and an internet connection is no longer needed – saving you the cost of pricey European data charges or the hassle of finding a good WiFi connection. Handy PDF maps that complement the app’s audio tours can be also viewed on the device or printed from a computer beforehand.

At the heart of the app is Steves’ series of 25 self-guided audio tours through some of Europe’s most important museums, sights and historic walks, plus 200 tracks of travel tips and cultural insights from his radio shows. The simple and intuitive interface is unique because you can download and play not only audio files but also guided audio tours segmented by chapters with photos. It all sinks in more deeply and fluidly with Rick’s voice keeping your eyes focused on the surrounding sights, too, instead of buried in the crook of a guidebook. Best of all, it comes in the trustworthy voice of everyone’s favorite public television travel geek.  And it’s free.

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le metro mouche

Thinking ahead to next year’s soldes, visitors by then might be able to navigate their way around the City of Light by cruising along the Seine. With the introduction of the cool, new Voguéo water shuttle, transportation publique is expanding to a more fluvial level. Expected to fully operational in the French capital by the summer of 2013, the catamarans, a part of the Paris metro system, will run every 15 to 20 minutes between the city center and the suburbs of Paris. Thirty different stops are planned along the banks of the Seine, from Suresnes, west of the Bois du Boulogne to Vitry-sur-Seine in the south. Each stop will be equipped with a schedule and route maps, including metro transfers. Better still, there’s the added benefit of multiple stops coinciding with key cultural (and shopping) attractions. Fares can be built into the price of a multi-day transit pass or expect to shell out about 7 euro for a one-way ticket.  If that sounds pricey consider the cost of a taxi stuck in traffic as you sail past all the tourists, waving from the prow of your very own bateau.

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i know what you’re thinking

“Houston?!?!?” Well, trust me, I’m as surprised and bemused as you are to suddenly find myself in Texas, a state I’ve pretty much boycotted since Karla Faye Tucker got the lethal needle back in 1998. Yet when I discovered that a good friend of mine would be performing in a play at Houston’s respected Alley Theater, I thought a long weekend jaunt to a place I’ve never had any desire to visit would be a great excuse to continue a tradition begun last month in San Diego – exploring cities I know little to nothing about because friends happen to be there acting in plays. It’s as good a reason as a toss of the I-Ching or a dart thrown at a map, I reckon. Plus, as you can tell from the photos: Houston’s South of the Border bona fides means I won’t go wanting for an honest plate of ceviche (or fish tacos!) anytime soon.  Hale and hearty Houston, seat of Harris County, Texas and fourth largest city in America, I come without a map – or a clue for that matter. I’m unarmed and eager for a weekend’s worth of honest exploration.

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let us now praise great men

There was a time when most of the known world fell under the influence of the crowns of Spain and Portugal.  From the early 15th century through to the 17th, these two countries engaged in a rivalrous exploration, establishing contact with Africa, Asia, and the Americas, while mapping the globe. It was the Age of Discovery, also know as the Age of Exploration; a bridge from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, fueled by great men performing feats of derring-do. To prevent a conflict  the two countries entered into a formal treaty that essentially divided the world in half, giving each exclusive rights to their newly discovered lands. When Columbus sailed west towards the New World, Vasco da Gama headed east, rounding the Cape of Good Hope and finding a route to India, the Spice Islands, and ultimately China.  Spheres of influence overlapped once Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the globe, however, and suddenly the English, French, and Dutch woke up to the fact there was a lot of money to be made on the road – to use an old theatrical phrase.  But that takes nothing away from Portugal, whose sailors went beyond the limits of human imagination at a time when the sea was dominated by little more than myths and mystery.  It’s with that in mind that the Monument to the Discoveries was erected along the Tagus River for the Portuguese World’s Fair in 1940.  A 170-foot high slab of concrete carved in the shape of a ship’s prow, at the tip is Henry the Navigator – sponsor of Bartolomeu Dias’ 1460 exploration of sub-Saharan Africa – flanked by 33 other explorers, cartographers, and scientists of the time. (It’s not nearly as Soviet as it sounds.) An enormous world map mosaic occupies the front plaza and outlines the routes of various Portuguese explorers. Oh and yes, you can go to the top of the monument and take in the view, too.

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cascais by night

By the time I left Cabo da Roca the light was fading fast, so it was no surprise when the bus dropped me off in Cascais in total darkness.  My guidebook, alas, neglected to highlight this little seaside town, so I was in the swim without a map, so to speak.  I had heard that Cascais was practically a suburb of Lisbon; a charming Hampton-esque escape for the moneyed classes.  But in the dark – without a map or a clue – the charms of town were difficult to pin down.  After a few minutes walk, I stumbled across the train station and yippie: a large map was posted on a billboard outside.  Thanks to the trusty iPhone I was able to snap a picture and use it to navigate my way towards the seafront and the pedestrianized part of town.  There I had the fresh fish dinner I’d been craving:  a whole snapper baked in salt, along with two bottles of amazingly cheap – and delicious – wine.  Belly sated, my curiosity for Cascais, however, wasn’t exactly satisfied. One day I’ll have to return and see it with the lights on.

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the privilege to pee

Introducing Best Bathroom: an interactive app of bathrooms in the Big Apple.  Step by step directions to the nearest – and nicest – public jax. No internet necessary; cheaper than a latte. Sounds like $1.99 even George Costanza would spring for.

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happy to be home

And not in Ireland for the holidays!  The University of Dundee’s satellite receiving station captured this image of how the heavy snow of the past week has affected the UK and Ireland.  The picture shows almost the entire country covered by a blanket of snow. (Image courtesy of BBC News.)

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the root of canals

Amsterdam’s canals are a major part of the city’s charm – and the canal belt area has even been nominated for a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Beginning Tuesday, visitors to the city will have another way to discover the city’s iconic canals:  the Rijksmuseum is opening an exhibition of paintings, prints and drawings which show the spectacular expansion of 17th-century Amsterdam. Amsterdam’s Canal Belt: The Expansion of Amsterdam in the Golden Age includes a  number of maps from the Rijksmuseum’s own collection which chart the concentric expansion. However, central to the exhibition are six views by Gerrit Berckheyde depicting the changes along the Gouden Bocht (or Golden Bend) of the Herengracht Canal – the richest part of the new city.

Amsterdam had long been a city like any other, but trade at the end of the 16th century was growing in a spectacular fashion and more and more people wanted to live in the city. By around 1672 Amsterdam had a population of more than 200,000. There was also constant demand for space to accommodate the docks and countless warehouses. The city had already expanded for a few years starting in 1585, but between 1610 and 1620 Amsterdam doubled in size. The final city expansion was  formally codified in 1662, when the three existing canals were extended, giving Amsterdam’s canal belt its famous half-moon shape.

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new perspectives

I’d love to say I just discovered a new favorite website, but Science Images is in fact a loosey-goosey assemblage of around 29 photographic postings over the course of April 2009.  What’s really impressive however is the quality of the photography, captured by such curiosities as the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite, the Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper, and the addictive hi-res mapping site GeoEye.

Talk about creating altered states of perspective! The flattening of 3-dimensional landscapes into 2-dimensional slides of line drawings, geometry and color fields is an art unto itself.  I’m surprised someone hasn’t already experimented with a kind of mash-up, eschewing traditional photo journalism in favor of artfully cropped and manipulated satellite pix. Plus, is it me or does photo #4 look like a Chuck Close up-close?  (For the record, it’s a square of Kansas crop circles)  Photo #2 isn’t Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty by the way – it’s the Burj al Arab Hotel in Dubai.

Double click on the images for larger hi-res versions.  They deserve to breathe.

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