World’s quirkiest rental home: The Balancing Barn

by Jessica Festa on




For travelers who want to have a rustic experience in the English countryside while also experiencing modern innovations, you may want to look into reserving a stay at The Balancing Barn, a unique rental home in Thorington, Suffolk, in England that defies the laws of nature. Created by Netherlands-based architectural firm MVRDV, half of the barn sits precariously over a descending slope with no ground underneath as the house actually shifts and balances. For an immersive experience in the outdoors, guests have the opportunity to literary soar over nature via a swing hanging from the bottom of the structure, just as if they were hanging from a tree. Moreover, the reflective sheet metal covering the structure responds to nature, causing the optical illusion of changing with the seasons.

For more information on how to book and what’s included, click here. To get a better idea of the project, check out the video above and the gallery below.

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Sunken British warship to be raised, mystery solved

by Chris Owen on

In 1744, a mighty British warship sank off the Channel Islands, killing more than 1,000 sailors and carrying an estimated £500m worth of gold coins. Now, plans are being made to raise the ship and solve one of seafaring’s greatest mysteries.

“HMS Victory was the mightiest vessel of the 18th Century and the eclectic mix of guns we found on the site will prove essential in further refining our understanding of naval weaponry used during the era,” said Greg Stemm, chief executive of Odyssey Marine Exploration the American salvage company that found the ship and has been chosen to carry out the recovery.

The wreck of the 300 ft HMS Victory was a predecessor of Lord Nelson‘s famous 104-gun flagship, now a floating museum, was found near the Channel Islands in 2008, nearly 65 miles from where it was historically believed to have sunk.

Only a cannon, marked with the crest of King George I, has been recovered so far but the remains of the ship’s hull, an iron ballast, two anchors, a copper kettle and rigging have been spotted on the ocean floor where the ship was laid to rest 300 years ago.

The guns and other reclaimed artifacts will be displayed in British museums, however under British laws of salvage, the salvage company is likely to receive the bulk of any treasure found.

No matter, says Lord Lingfield, a relative of Admiral Sir John Balchin, who was onboard the warship when it sank. “We will have the satisfaction of solving a great maritime mystery that has been part of my family history since the 18th Century.”

Flickr photo by david.nikonvscanon


Luxury Travel: Visit England’s Highclere Castle, filming location of Downton Abbey

by McLean Robbins on
Fans of English history will leap at any chance to tour the country’s stately homes – but a private one-on-one with a real-life Earl and Countess might just be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Of course, any such experience comes with a price. For GBP 7,900, guests can step into the shoes of a Downton Abbey cast member with a private day trip to Highclere Castle, the filming location for the Emmy-winning series on PBS Masterpiece Classic.
Begin the day with tea and coffee in the private morning room after being personally greeted by the eighth Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, followed by a tour of the State rooms led by the Lord or Lady of the house. After a lunch with wines chosen from the Earl’s cellar, it’s off in one of the Earl’s private 4x4s to Beacon Hill.
After lunch, be transported in one of the Earl’s private 4×4 off-road vehicles to Beacon Hill. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon (who funded and assisted Howard Carter’s investigations, culminating in the discovery of Tutankhamen’s fabulous tomb in 1922) is buried at the summit and see the remains of an Iron Age fort. If the weather is inclement, enjoy an escorted tour of Highclere’s Egyptogology Exhibition.

The visit ends with the serving of High Tea, at which guests have an opportunity to gain an intimate and informal insight into the working life of the Countess. The package can be booked through Noteworthy Events.

Of course, if you’re simply a lover of the show and looking for a package that’s a bit less expensive – check out this hotel experience in New York that we covered a few weeks ago.

Vagabond Tales: “The Governator is better, yes?”

by Kyle Ellison on

Crossing borders can always be a bit of a hectic experience. There are long lines, scam artists, customs officials, new currencies, people offering to expedite your visa process for a fee, screaming children, rogue livestock, and occasionally people with guns. Dirty and dingy, border crossings are never the favorite part of my trip.

Luckily, however, I was once aided through a particularly tense border moment by of all things, an American politician. As any American traveler who spends copious amounts of time out of the country will tell you, divulging the fact that you are an American frequently involves being buffeted by a hailstorm of opinions/questions/debate over American foreign policy, war, clothing, oil, health care, politics, and lately, Justin Bieber.

This is because–and excuse me as I fabricate completely random statistics to argue a point–it’s becoming apparent to me that about 70% of the globe knows more about American politics than 70% of Americans do.

Evidence? I offer three examples:

-A particularly smelly hitch hiker I once picked up in New Zealand was able to tell me how many seats the state of Hawaii has in the House of Representatives (2).

-The Kathmandu shopkeeper from whom I was purchasing a $1.50 plate of dhal bhat discussed with me the geopolitical ramifications of Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to Burma.

-A mate from Sydney writing me to express his concerns about the upcoming vote in Congress to once again raise the debt ceiling.

The list goes on.

Although flashing the blue cover of an American passport will frequently lead to this uninvited political joust, I would like to thank one American politician for effectively waving me across international lines.Prior to Slovakia being an EU member and part of the Eurail network, the border crossing by train from Slovakia to Austria was not exactly warm and rosy. Perhaps it’s because it was the depths of winter and the whole of central Europe seemed to collectively huddle beneath a fog of frozen breath and post-Communist-era gray, but the passport control was cold in every way.

Instead of having all of the passengers depart the frigid rail car, two chiseled specimens of angry looking police officers toting unnecessarily large automatic weapons boarded the train and checked the passports of each passenger row by row. From the truncated grunts in German and the international sound of pleading it was apparent that for some passengers the proceedings were going less than swimmingly.

Finally, with a stone cold glare and a heavy thudding of boots the two officers made their stop in front of my assigned seat. Brandishing our shiny, navy blue passports my college girlfriend and I handed over our international identity and awaited what the vibe of the car was telling us might be a hard-fought entry stamp.

Scrutinizing the details of my girlfriend’s passport, a thick, monotone voice came from within the border patrolling giant.

“You are from California, yes?” he stiffly questioned.

“Ummm…yes, California” was the meek reply she could muster.

Moment of truth. Friend or foe.

Then, with a smile that could bridge the Iron Curtain, the gun-toting guard slapped his companion on the chest and jubilantly exclaimed, “the Governator is better yes!”

What followed can only be described as the laugh performed by the alien characters in “The Simpson’s” who carry on with a guttural belly laugh for so unbelievably long that after the first 40 seconds have passed it becomes hilarious in its discomfort.

At no point while boarding the train to Austria did I expect the fact that the Austrian-born actor turned California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, would ultimately expedite my passage through the border.

The guffawing agent–obviously pleased with his joke–nonchalantly stamped the passports and flipped them back into our stunned laps. only to unleash a throaty gumbo of syllables on a dreadlocked hippie behind me who, apparently, was not a California resident.

So thank you Arnold for getting me into Austria, and for allowing me to use my passport for more than political banter. Schnitzels on me.

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Want more travel stories? Read the rest of the Vagabond Tales here…

[Photo: Flickr: Toprankonlinemarketing]

Are there lost pyramids in Bosnia? Probably not.

by Sean McLachlan on


For several years now, European archaeologists have been in a furor over a supposed lost civilization in Bosnia that built the biggest pyramids in the world. Scholars have dismissed the claims, made by Bosnian-American businessman Semir Osmanagic, as pseudoscience, yet he’s getting funding from the Bosnian government and was just granted permission to excavate over the objections of the country’s archaeological establishment.

Osmanagic is convinced a large hill overlooking the town of Visoko near the Bosnian capital Sarajevo is a pyramid from an lost civilization dating to about 12,000 years ago, when the region was experiencing the Ice Age. The hill is indeed roughly pyramid-shaped, at least the half that faces the town. The other half is a bit lumpy. In fact, if you look at it with Google Earth, it doesn’t look like a pyramid at all. Geologists say it’s a natural formation and that there are several like it in the region; Osmanagic says many of those hills are pyramids too.

To prove his point Osmanagic set up the “Archaeological Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun” and since 2005 has been fighting for permission to excavate. The permit was granted, but then it was revoked for fear the excavations could damage an existing archaeological site on the top of the hill. This is a medieval fort with Roman foundations built atop a Neolithic settlement. Now permission has been granted again and the work will continue.

A victory for independent science against the narrow vision of academia? Not necessarily.

Looking at the photos on Osmanagic’s website on the pyramids in Bosnia, I don’t see anything indicating there’s a pyramid there. Most of the supposedly worked stone looks like other natural formations I’ve seen, the so-called “secret tunnels” could be from any era, and the few examples of obviously worked stone could just as easily be medieval. In fact, Byzantine records say there was a town here in the Middle Ages and it has not been found. The Bosnian pyramid team may be destroying a real archaeological site in order to create a fake one.Some of Osmanagic’s actions seem a bit fishy too. He claimed to have assembled a team of experts to work on the site and give him advice, including famous Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass, but many of them said they had never agreed to work on the site. Some of them said Osmanagic never even contacted them.

In an angry letter to Archaeology Magazine, Dr. Hawass wrote, “The discoverer of the “pyramid” in Bosnia, Semir Osmanagic, who claims that a hill near the Bosnia River is a man-made structure built before the end of the last Ice Age, is not a specialist on pyramids. His previous claim that the Maya are from the Pleiades and Atlantis should be enough for any educated reader.”

The claim has certainly created a tourist industry in the previously sleepy town, and it’s sparking interest in Bosnia’s past. So where’s the harm?

In an article in Science, Bosnian archaeologists lamented that funding and attention were going to the fanciful pyramid theory while the nation’s real heritage remains underfunded and underprotected. Some have even reported being threatened for speaking out against the project. The Bosnian Pyramids have become a matter of national pride for a nation still feeling the wounds of the bitter war of the 1990s. Osmanagic has made Bosnia the cradle of civilization, or as he terms it, “supercivilization”.

This is the sort of nationalistic chest-thumping that got the Balkans into trouble in the first place. Osmanagic is playing with fire.