Photo of the Day (1.12.09)

by Karen Walrond on

I’ve always had a thing for images which give a glimpse into the everyday life in a foreign land. This shot, captured by tysonwilliams.com in Brussels, Belgium, is a great example of this — you get the feeling you just missed the person leaving their blankets to air out in the open window, and you wonder what additional chores are being attended to inside. Lovely shot.

If you’ve got some great travel shots you’d love to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day.

Berlin celebrates 20 years of wall’s collapse

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The Berlin Wall was pulled down 20 years ago, giving birth to a new industry: selling pieces of the Berlin Wall. Remember that? Well, all the pieces were probably bought long ago (well, except the “real” one that you picked up last week, of course), but there is still plenty you can do to celebrate. The list of cultural events is long and impressive, like the German translation of a short word in English. So, take a look at what Berlin has to offer.

Long Night of Museums lets you visit 100 museums will be open from 6 PM Saturday until 2 AM on Sunday every weekend from January 31 to August 29.

Take in the 59th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) from February 5 to February 15; more than 400 films will be screened, many of them European premieres.

At the Festival Days at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Wagner’s Lohengrin opera will be staged, and other classical music performances will be available from April 4 to April 12.

Enjoy even more of the cultural stuff at the Extended Opera and Theatre Night on April 25. Half-hour events are available from 7 PM to 10 AM on 60 stages, and buses take visitors from theater to theater.

Other events include:

  • Berlin’s Lesbian and Gay Street Festival, June 20-21, and Christopher Street Day, June 27
  • Fete de la Musique, June 21, free concerts on over 50 open-air stages throughout Berlin
  • Jewish Cultural Days, Aug 29-Sep 6
  • Classic Open Air Berlin, July 2-6; opera, classical music
  • Berlin International Beer Festival, Aug 7-9, when Karl-Marx-Allee turns into the world’s longest beer garden and bar, with 190 breweries offering beer along a mile-long stretch
  • Real Berlin Marathon, Sep 19-20, a 42-km run
  • Festival of Lights, Oct 13-25; fireworks, light shows
  • JazzFest Berlin, Nov 5-8, with big bands and international jazz stars

Noticeably absent from the agenda: David Hasselhoff.
[Via Toronto Sun]

Keep busy with 44 travel ideas

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If the entire world is too much from which to choose, take a look at The 44 Places to Go in 2009 suggested by the New York Times. Some are obvious, such as Reykjavik, which was been on everyone’s mind 2008. Others are easy, including Washington D.C. Our nation’s capital has plenty of hotels (including the funky Hotel Helix, photo at right), great public transportation and access via two major airports. Of course, there are a few destinations that probably wouldn’t occur to you otherwise. Here are some highlights:

  1. Beirut, Lebanon: two hotels are expected to open this year (including a Four Seasons), and dining at Al-Ajami is top-notch
  2. Fjallnas, Sweden: this is home to a luxury resort up by the Arctic Circle; rates start at €325 a night, but deals are available
  3. Copenhagen, Denmark: the city’s architecture is headed into the 21st century, particularly with the new zoo and theater
  4. Kazakhstan: no, I’m not joking; the new opera house is not to be missed, and a ski resort is in the works

Need more choices? Not a problem! There are forty more here, and after that an entire world in which to poke around.

Europe books it more online

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Online travel searches may be down, but online bookings are up (at least in Europe). At the end of 2008, 29 percent of Europe‘s €246 billion travel industry happened in that strange place called the “internet.” Traditional bookings are expected to inch higher by 3 percent, providing just a tad more proof that the action’s on the web. PhoCusWright uncovered this and other travel tidbits in a series of reports it just released.

Spain‘s rail and hotel businesses are starting to shift more transactions to the web, making this country one of the fastest growing for online travel. Seventeen percent in 2007, online bookings are projected to hit 26 percent in 2010. I hope to be part of the solution, as I’ll be booking my hotel in Madrid next month on FastBooking. Italy’s expected to hit 18 percent by 2010.

France is already the second largest online direct booking market in Europe and isn’t slowing down. In 2008, it grew an estimated 16 percent to €7.3 billion, but online travel agencies are growing at an even faster rate. More than 25 percent of all travel is booked online in France, with Germany not far behind at around 20 percent.

Yeah, and there’s a whole lot more. If you’re a stats geek like I am, check out some of the reports that PhoCusWright has available on the travel market. Interesting stuff.

Germany’s ‘Disneyland for Dudes’

by Jeffrey White on

I wonder whether this is what James Brown had in mind when he sang, “It’s a man’s world.”

Wired has a short, funny piece on what it calls “Disneyland for Dudes,” an amusement park on a 17-acre farm outside Kassel, Germany, where men can go to do all the things that men apparently like to do: Ride ATVs and other powerful quads, operate backhoes and front-end loaders, and presumably yell real loud at one another and drink beer.

Well, I don’t know about the last two, but the park is real. It’s called Männerspielplatz — or “man’s playground” — and for about $300 you can spend a day behind a lot of manly, heavy machinery. The park’s slogan is “We fulfill men’s dream’s!” Sadly, there do not appear to be any scantily clad women shooting machine guns there, but other than that…

Writer Andrew Curry catches up briefly with the brain behind the park, a guy named Alexander Bammer (great name!). He tells Curry, “Most men these days don’t work on a construction site; they work at a desk. They dream about experiences like this.”

Bammer opened the park in 2004. Anyone out there know if there is a place like this in the States?

Click the pictures to learn about other unusual amusement parks, from R-Rated “Love Land,” to a park based on the works of Charles Dickens, from a park with a ride called “Dog Fart Switchback,” to a park that’s twice the size of Disneyland.