A shot dramatic enough to make even Dan Brown jealous! It convinced me that is possible not to get bored of seeing photos of the Louvre. Ain’t Paris grand?
Great job, G. Wells.
Nearer My God to Thee: Catholic Pilgrims Get Their Own Airline
Does the Pope have to remove his shoes every time he goes through airport security, like the rest of us do? Because that can get old. Especially if you travel a lot, like Catholic pilgrims, who’ve apparently been traveling enough to warrant their own charter airline, “Mistral Air.” (The choice of “mistral” as the airline’s name is an interesting one: although it’s etymologically tied to “magistrate,” its modern definition is “a strong cold dry northerly wind of Southern France.” Puzzling. Let’s hope it means something more Catholic-like in Italian.)
Mistral Air was created solely to transport Catholic pilgrims to holy sites around the world. The company’s motto is “I’m Searching for Your Face, Lord.” I wonder if searching is easier for Benedict and friends at 25,000 feet than it is on terra firma?
[via Fodor’s Travel Wire]
“Look kids, Big Ben!” — Those Crazy Roundabouts
One of the best travel-related scenes in a movie is from European Vacation when Clark and family enter the huge roundabout in London and can’t get out. “Look kids, Big Ben,” he says over and over again each time they round the circle. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here’s the scene on YouTube.)
My family and I found ourself in a similar situation once. We were in Paris; Dad was driving a rental car and we accidentally ended up in the hectic mess of cars that surrounds the Arc de Triomphe. I was pretty young at the time, but old enough to remember plenty of expletives coming from the front seat as I tucked my head between my legs and prayed. What’s worse is the only reason we found ourselves in that mess is because I wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe. Here I was in one of the largest cultural centers in Europe — home to places like the Louvre, the Pantheon, and Chateau de Versailles — and I wanted to see the Hard Rock Cafe. Let’s never speak of this again.
The photo above is of what’s known as the Magic Roundabout — “the world’s ultimate traffic-control system” — in Swindon, Wilshire, England. It was built in 1972, and features five mini roundabouts inside of one larger, parent roundabout. Check out more pictures and video after the jump. Yikes!
Here’s video from the driver’s prospective. Note: wicked techno soundtrack included.
Easy, right?
This scares me.
And yes, we finally made it to the Hard Rock Cafe. I’ve got a shirt to prove it. [via]
Photo of the Day (8/11/07)
I really enjoy this shot of Port de Pêcheurs in Biarritz, France because it’s hard to tell if it was taken in the 1890s, or today. According to Flickr, user orangeduck shot (or maybe just uploaded) the photo on May 20, 2007.
Biarritz is located on the coast of Bay of Biscay in southern France, just a few kilometers from the Spanish border. The town is well known for its surfing, oddly enough, and people travel from all over the world to ride the very waves you see crashing into the shore in the photo above. Thanks for the good shot, orangeduck!
If you’d like to contribute a Photo of the Day shot for consideration, please visit our Gadling Flickr pool and upload your favorites.
Photo of the Day (08/06/07)
Taken in Hendaye Beach in France, this photo makes me remember that the south of France is not just Cannes, Nice and the Cote d’Azur. The Atlantic Coast is so much more serene than the Mediterranean (and so much closer to the great wine region of Bordeaux!)
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Terra.
***If you’d like to contribute a Photo of the Day for consideration, please visit our Gadling Flickr pool and upload your favorites.***