And The World’s Most Expensive Starbucks Is…

by Megan Fernandez on

Coffee addicts bound for Scandinavia might want to consider a dip in an icy fjord as an alternative morning pick-me-up. The Wall Street Journal has calculated that a grande latte in Oslo will run Americans a jolting $9.83.

Helsinki and Stockholm are also cities offering the top five most expensive Starbucks lattes once the dollar is converted into the local currency.

The paper did the math on 25 major cities around the world (including Beijing at $4.81) to illustrate an economic principle called “purchasing-power parity,” or “a crude way to compare the relative strength of currencies.” Of course, avid travelers don’t need this Starbucks-green bar graph to know that the peso is a lot friendlier to gringo wallets than the euro is, but that conventional wisdom doesn’t always translate in the language of Starbucks economics. Otherwise, how would one explain that a grande latte in London is cheaper than one in Atlanta, despite the dollar’s weakness in the U.K.?

According to the WSJ, most foreign Starbucks are significantly pricier than the U.S. outlets it also includes, but hey, maybe that’s what average Joes deserve for patronizing an American company overseas instead of opting for a local purveyor.

How much is too much to nurse your Starbucks addiction abroad?

[Photo Credit: The Nomad Within via Flickr]

Pyramids Discovered In Egypt And Sudan

by Sean McLachlan on


You’d think archaeologists would have found all the pyramids of Africa by now, but two recent discoveries show there’s a lot more discovering to be done.

A team of archaeologists working in Luxor, Egypt, have just announced they’ve discovered the pyramid of Khay, a powerful vizier of the Pharaoh Ramses II (ruled 1279-1212 B.C.). The pyramid was made of mudbrick and originally stood 49 feet high.

In the seventh and eighth century A.D. it was dismantled and turned into a Coptic Christian hermitage. Hieroglyphic writing on the surviving bricks told the archaeologists to whom the pyramid belonged.

Earlier this month, archaeologists announced they had found the bases of at least 35 broken pyramids at the site of Sedeinga in Sudan. They’re about 2,000 years old and belong to the kingdom of Kush, which lasted from c.1000 B.C. to 350 A.D. before finally being conquered by the Empire of Axum in Ethiopia. For almost a hundred years from 747-656 B.C., the Kushites ruled Egypt as the 25th dynasty.

The Sedeinga pyramids really just pyramid-shaped tombs. The largest measures 22 feet to a side, while the smallest is only 30 inches to a side. Others in Sudan, such as those at Meroë, are much more grandiose. Those at the pyramid field at Nuri, shown here courtesy Vít Hassan, are up to 150 feet tall.

Last year, a satellite survey conducted by Dr. Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama found 17 suspected pyramids.

So how could these pyramids go missing? Well, most pyramids were much smaller than the famous ones at Giza and Saqqara that we always see pictures of. Shifting sands and erosion helped hide them. In the case of the Sedeinga tombs, later people took stones from them to build other structures.

Even some sizable pyramids have all but disappeared because they were made of inferior materials. Some of the last pyramids of Egypt are barely visible today because of shoddy workmanship or having been made with mudbrick instead of stone.

The World’s Prettiest Destination Tunnels

by Megan Fernandez on

Size matters – with tunnels, anyway. Most lists of the world’s most spectacular designs pant over the longest passageways, like Norway’s Laedral Tunnel, currently the record-holder at 15.25 miles.

But beauty before distance, I say. Give me the arched canopy of tart pink cherry trees in Bonn, Germany, over a cold engineering marvel anytime. Or Shanghai’s psychedelic light show inside the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel (pictured above). Or a simple rock cutaway in South Dakota with a million-dollar view. To that end – short trip though it may be – here’s a photo tour of the most striking destination tunnels.

Cherry Blossoms in Bonn, Germany
There’s something poetic about the very existence of tree tunnels, formed by nature instead of built to conquer it.


[Photo credit: K.A.I. via Flickr]

Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho in Porto Alegre, Brazil
This high-reaching green carpet in the middle of the city, formed by more than 100 tipuana trees pressing up against tall buildings for several blocks, was at risk of being uprooted to make way for more development before residents won a fight to preserve it. Now the tree tunnel is a protected heritage and environmental site.


[Photo credit: Ander Vaz via Flickr] For more leafy canopies, see World Geography’s photo gallery of tree tunnels.

Custer State Park in South Dakota
Three tunnels on the Iron Mountain Road scenic drive frame a view of Mt. Rushmore in the distance, like a spyglass. They are also cut out just wide enough for a motor coach to squeeze through.


[Photo credit: Devin Westhause via Flickr]

Bund Sightseeing Tunnel in Shanghai
A light show flashes along video walls that line the entire length of this tunnel connecting two major sights, and kids love it.


[Photo credit: Thewamphyri1 via Flickr]

Traboules in Lyon, France
These ancient passageways in the old quarter and the Croix-Rousse stretch the definition of “tunnel,” but we can make room for such graceful architectural details, and history – the French used them to elude the German occupation during World War II.


[Photo credit: Emmrichard via Flickr]

Have you visited any of these beauties, or others that belong on the list?

[Top photo credit: Synchroni via Flickr]

Mammoth Cave Surpasses 400 Miles In Length

by Kraig Becker on

The National Park Service has announced that the official length of Mammoth Cave now surpasses 400 miles as ten miles of newly mapped chambers and passageways were recently added to the cave complex. Park officials say that these additional miles were the result of a series of smaller, more incremental finds, and were not the result of a single major discovery. Exploration and mapping of these new areas were conducted in partnership with the Cave Research Foundation.

Carved out of the central Kentucky limestone, Mammoth Cave was already the longest cave system in the world prior to the addition of these new discoveries. In fact, it is so large that it is more than twice the size of the next longest cave. Mammoth’s massive underground complex attracts thousands of visitors on a yearly basis ranging from curious travelers to full-fledged explorers and spelunkers. Some of its more famous locations even have names, such as the massive Grand Avenue and the aptly named Fat Man’s Misery.

The Park Service conducts daily tours of Mammoth lasting anywhere from one to six hours in length. Some of those tours are along relatively easy-guided paths while others venture far into the darkness to decidedly more challenging and cramped places. The popular Grand Avenue tour for instance is a 4-mile, four-hour trek that is physically demanding, while the hike to the beautiful Frozen Niagara is a much easier quarter-mile walk that is safe enough for both children and older visitors. Both provide fantastic views of the interior of the cave that simply must be seen to be believed.

If you’re looking for a destination for an upcoming trip to a national park this summer, Mammoth Cave National Park is one of those places that will delight and amaze the entire family.

[Photo Credit: The National Park Service]

Photo Of The Day: Cidomo – Gili Trawangan

by Chris Owen on

This Photo of the Day, titled “Cidomo – Gili Trawangan,” comes from Gadling Flickr pool member Terra_Tripper and features a cidomo, a small horse-drawn carriage commonly found on the Islands of Lombok and the Gili Islands of Indonesia.

Part of his Bali/Lombok set on Flickr, Richard captions the image:

“By local ordinance, no motorized vehicles are allowed on Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno or Gili Air. Walking, pedal bikes and cidomos are the only transportation. All goods, building materials, food etc is transported by cidomos or humans. Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia.”

Upload your best shots to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. Several times a week we choose our favorite images from the pool as a Photo of the Day. Now, you can also submit photos through Instagram; just mention @GadlingTravel and use the hashtag #gadling when posting your images.

[Photo Credit- Flickr user Terra_Tripper]