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Europe

Travel through Europe by country:

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San-Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Sweden, United Kingdom, Vatican City

Travel through Europe by popular city:

Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Bern, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Ibiza, Lisbon, Ljubljana, London, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna, Zagreb

Travel through Europe by popular things to do:

Acropolis, Anne Frank House, Eiffel Tower, London Eye, The Louvre

Travel through Europe with our writers:

Across Northern Europe, Balkan Odyssey

Hallelujah! The sun came out today and I am now eager to get out into the hot sun and soak in some rays (the good kind — UV, stay away). And the surf here in Peru is on the rise! Things are looking up, and it appears the travel news is pouring in as well. Have a look at these cool reads.

I always struggle to perservere through long flights. I´ve endured dozens of them, but exactly how remains a mystery. This article unravels that mystery of lengthy flying and gives you some tips for enduring the next one. (via BootsNAll)
Speaking of passing lengthy travel time, how ´bout a good travel read? Here are a few inspiring travel reads, brought to you by London´s The Travel Bookshop. (via Vagablogging)
Nothing can make flying worse than an unhelpful airline cabin crew, and nothing is more hilarious than a healthy rant on a sour flying experience. (via Travel-Rants)
Yay for a poor economy! If you still have money in your wallets, now´s the time to travel. (via Jaunted)
These photos gave me a good chuckle. It´s always a good idea to memorialize your travels with good photos, don´t you think? (via Been-Seen)

‘Til Monday, have a great weekend!

More Gadlinks HERE.

GuideGecko’s travel writing contest

by Brenda Yun on Aug 19, 2009

It was just about four months ago that Gadling reported the launch of a great new travel resource and bookstore, GuideGecko.com. Now, GuideGecko, the innovative publishing platform for travel, lifestyle and entertainment guides, has just announced its first travel writing contest in conjunction with the world’s largest book fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

From now to September 24, authors from all over the world can submit their own travel, lifestyle or entertainment guides, and the winning titles will be showcased at the fair. The top prize is a personal trip to the fair in October 2009.
The contest is open to everybody, from casual writers to bloggers and established authors. Topics can span from anything and everything under the sun, as long as they are travel, lifestyle or entertainment related. With no page limit, the authors have the freedom and flexibility to write their guides the way they want. Submissions can be new titles as well as existing titles previously published on GuideGecko or elsewhere.

Upon submission, the guides will be published instantly and listed on GuideGecko’s front page, where they will receive maximum visibility. Customers and viewers can choose to vote for and even order these guides immediately. Participation in the contest is free and the authors will receive full royalties and retain the copyrights of their guides published on www.guidegecko.com.

The winners of the ‘GuideGecko Writing Contest’ will be decided through online voting, which starts immediately. The first prize is a personal trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair for the winning author. In addition, the top 3 titles will be showcased on the fair. Other prizes include a selection of Lonely Planet travel guides and subscriptions to travel magazines.

Closing date is 24 September 2009 and prize winners will be announced on 25 September 2009. For more information and to enter the contest, visit www.guidegecko.com/writing-contest.

Heathrow unveils driverless personal transport pods

by Katie Hammel on Aug 19, 2009

Buses and shuttles make up a large portion of an airport’s traffic. People need to be shuttled back and forth from parking lots, garages, terminals and rental car lots, and all those vehicles mean congestion and pollution. Heathrow Airport is working on a system that will address both of those issues. The new Personal Transport Pods, or PRTs will run on dedicated tracks and use 50% less energy than the buses they will replace.

Up to four passengers (and their luggage) at a time will enter the futuristic-looking pods and program their destination into a touch-screen. Then the pod does the work, zipping off to the destination at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour. The pods are low-energy, battery powered and produce no emissions.

Right now the pods are in the operational testing stage and will only journey from Terminal 5 to the car park, a trip that will take around 5 minutes. According to airport officials, once the system is fully operational, passengers will board at one of three stations and ride in one of 21 total pods. As long as the £25 million project runs smoothly and more funding can be secured, the airport plans expand the service to other terminals.

Smelly theme park guests told to keep their arms down

by Scott Carmichael on Aug 19, 2009

Smelly guests and warm weather have forced UK Theme park Thorpe Park to introduce a new rule called “say no to B.O.“. The rule has been put in place because too many smelly guests were stinking up their rides on the hottest days.

Any time the temperature reaches 25C (77F) and above, guests must keep their arms down on the rides at all times. Personally, I think that telling guests to take a shower and use deodorant may have been a better (smelling) solution, but obviously not everyone practices basic hygiene.

This is the second time in two weeks that a UK theme park has introduced silly rules – previously, Alton Towers banned Speedos from their premises “to protect the children”.

So, what do you think of this new rule? Ever been stuck behind a screaming rollercoaster rider who spread their stinky pit stench to the rear of the ride?

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Click the pictures to learn about other unusual amusement parks … from R-Rated “Love Land,” to a park with a ride called “Dog Fart Switchback,” to a park twice the size of Disneyland.

Drunk American Airlines pilot blames “strong European beer”

by Scott Carmichael on Aug 16, 2009

The career of distinguished Amercian Airlines pilot Joseph Crites came to a screeching halt last May, when he was removed from his plane at Heathrow airport, a mere 15 minutes before departure, when local police smelled alcohol on his breath.

Staff on his Chicago bound flight had alerted the police, and an initial breathalyzer test showed a 37mg/100ml reading – when the maximum reading for being allowed to fly a plane is 9mg/100ml.

On Friday, Mr. Crites was sentenced in a UK court, and was handed a £1,500 fine, plus £300 in court costs. The normal sentence is jail time, but Mr. Crites had a spotless record, and the court received glowing references from his colleagues.

During the trial, the pilot put the blame on the “unknown European beers” he had consumed, and claimed they must have been “stronger than he normally drinks”.

He had his last drink before arriving back at his hotel at 11:30pm the night before, and it takes quite a decent amount of booze to reach his blood alcohol levels.

It is very sad to see such an impressive career come to an end over a couple of beers, but someone with his experience should have known better.