The Louvre, As Inspired by The Da Vinci Code

by Neil Woodburn on

Okay, in another day or two I’m going to get really sick of all the press I’m seeing these days about the new Da Vinci Code movie–including here on Gadling where I’ve been guilty myself of posting a few too many items about this blockbuster.

The truth is, however, that the book/movie is bursting with the very historical gems that make us want to travel in the first place.  That’s why today, for example, I couldn’t resist the urge to post yet again on the most recent Da Vinci Code article I’ve come across.  And, quite frankly, I’ve done so because it is one of the best I’ve encountered so far.

The LA Times has a whole section about “Unlocking the Secrets of the Louvre.”  The museum, as you may recall, plays an important role in the book’s plot.  Although the article by Susan Spano doesn’t really “unlock” any mysteries, it is rather a nice summation of the history and holdings of the world’s greatest art museum.  Spano also tosses in some helpful travel tips as well for those hoping to visit the museum in the near future.

The truly cool part of this article is the interactive online elements.  A decent flash animation map displays where to go in the museum and a Mystery Quest takes you on a fun little treasure hunt where you must solve anagrams and other little puzzles.  The online elements aren’t top-of-the-line, but they are well-done and exactly the type of content newspapers need to start incorporating more of if they want to compete in today’s digital world. 

Actually, the more time I spent bouncing around this site, the more I realize that almost none of it refers back to the Da Vinci Code.  Perhaps that is why I like it so much. 

One for the Road: Es Cuba

by Erik Olsen on

We’ve posted a few times here about Cuba. Especially Neil, who has a real fondness for the place. Myself, I’ev always wanted to take something of a photo safari there, to chronicle it for myself before the inevitable changes take place there that make the island like so many other tropical torist locales.

A new book by Lea Aschkenas called Es Cuba: Life and Love on an Illegal Island, has the author signing up for a one-month language school in Cuba with a San Francisco company called Global Exchange. There, she finds herself a Cuban man, and discovers how much travel to a place like Cuba can change one’s American outlook on things.

Hearst Castle Evening Tours

by Neil Woodburn on

Hearst Castle is perhaps the most famous landmark along California’s Pacific Coast Highway.  Built by William Randolph Hearst in the 1930s, and later emulated in Citizen Kane, this 90,000-square-foot estate is the closest the West Coast comes to royalty. 

The castle is an obligatory stop for anyone driving north and is well worth a visit.  For the many that have already seen it, however, an LA Times article gives good reason to come back: evening tours.

Evening tours are rare.  They only run Fridays and Saturdays from March through May 20 and then again from September to December.  Journalist Rosemary McClure writes that such tours reveal the castle in an entirely different light, one that is enhanced by docents dressed up in period costumes who provide an air of authenticity that takes guests back to the glory days of the castle when Douglas Fairbanks and other Hollywood royalty caroused about the grounds. 

One for the Road: Code Green

by Erik Olsen on

Travel, when done correctly, is all about discovery. You learn more about the world itself, its peoples and cultures, but also you learn about yourself. The committed vagabond throws himself into the world and seeks new experiences, tries to find fulfillment through travel. Of course, finding fulfillment can be tough. And so now the folks at Lonely Planet want to help. A new book called Code Green is out and is filled with excellent ideas to help you figure out what to do when you travel and how to help it enrich your life. Despite a cover that will scare the bejesus out of your parents, this seems like a very promising volume. The ideas are of a decidedly progressive bent, but all offer the opportunity to find greater fulfillment through travel. Here are a few of the suggestions:

  • Get up-close-and-personal with gorillas in Rwanda, lemurs in Madagascar and sea lions in the Galapagos.
  • Explore some of the world’s most magnificent wilderness, and see it through the eyes of the Dogon people of Mali, the Masai of Kenya or the Maori of New Zealand.
  • Tag turtles on the Great Barrier Reef, count macaws in Peru or learn to be a ranger in an Indian tiger sanctuary.

I’m bullish on this book and have added it to my personal travel library.

Tattoo Mistakes

by Erik Olsen on

Years ago when traveling in Thailand, I came upon an American guy who had just got a new tattoo of which he was very proud. He was one of those white-boy dreadlocked hippie travelers who had recently discovered Buddhism and found it an appealing belief system whose humanism contrasted nicely with what he saw as the raw and mean culture of selfishness of his own country. The tattoo, he told me, said something like peace and love. Sadly, after he left, one of the Thai folks at the bungalow where I was staying explained to me that the tattoo actually said chicken fried rice or some such thing. I laughed a hearty laugh at the travelers expense. There was a very amusing irony there, I thought.

Well, seems he was not alone, and other folks like this lost soul have now been heading to tattoo removal parlors en masse to get rid of tats they once deemed cool, but now find awful little mementos of their reckless youth. This story over at Fox News examines the trend and cites some other fine examples of tats gone awry, including some whereby folks who thought they’d gotten tattoos for Chinese characters for attractive concepts like “power” and “love” discovered they actually read “General Tso’s Chicken special” or “gullible white boy.” That is just too damn funny. The article goes on the describe other Chinese tats where the symbols were upside down or one he thought said “spirit” actually said “gas”. Poor fellow.