Just
in case you missed it, and we understand you’re very busy these days, yesterday March 13 gadling was selected as Yahoo’s Pick of the Day. We are honored to be recognized as
such, and we salute the Yahoo folks for having such a keen eye for quality and the refined palate of an Internet
gourmand. In other words…that’s pretty cool. The thing I like the most is they singled out the Gadling podcast, which makes me realize we have to get off our
butts and do more of these. Anyway, thanks Yahoo.
Luxury Train Travel: The Orient Express
Train travel is my favorite kind of travel. I can stretch out my legs, walk around, watch the scenery rush
by, and chat, eat and play cards with my fellow travelers. In fact, when it comes to train travel, the longer the
journey the better the trip.
The most famous of all train journeys is undoubtedly the Orient Express. While other train journeys might be
longer or more scenic, none match the luxury and allure of the Orient Express, according to a nice piece on CNN.com.
There are actually a couple of “Orient Expresses” but only one which truly replicates the days of
upscale, pampered train travel: The Venice Simplon
Orient Express. Passengers travel 1,066 miles from London to Venice in restored vintage trains from the 1920s
and 30s. A staff of 40 caters to their needs during the 31 hour journey, serving breakfast in bed and a sumptuous
dinner in the dining car—an event for which passengers wear dinner suits. In fact, there is actually a dress
code onboard to uphold the dignity and opulence of the luxury train travel experience.
And luxury it is, at $2,440 per person. This is just another one of those trips where the journey is more
important than the destination itself.
Hitchins Bitchins
I have a love/hate relationship with Christopher
Hitchins. Some days I pick up an article of his and laugh myself silly,
savoring his wit and erudition as if it were a vanilla cream-filled chocolate I popped in my mouth. But as we all know,
chocolate boxes are filled with disgusting, mint or cherry-filled candies, too, that can almost bring you close to
vomiting. Such is the case with much of Hitchins writing as well. Sad to say, I just read Hitchins’ rancorous,
frothy attack on Garrison Keillor in Slate, and was forced to grimace
and spit as if I had picked out and bitten into a chocolate-covered turd.
Hitchens excoriates Keillor for
his front-page NYT book review of Bernard-Henri
Lévy’s American Vertigo. I read all the Atlantic dispatches upon which the review was based, and I have to
say I agreed with Keillor. Levy’s writing was simple and hopelessly romantic, as if he aspired to BE the next
Tocqueville.
He (Levy) would draw deep, pseudo-meaningful conclusions from his experiences, many of them
Blink-like first impressions that he blossomed into flowery generalizations about the state of American democracy.
Hitchens says that Keillor’s piece was infused with the kind of anti-French stereotyping that gave rise to
Freedom Fries, but I thought it was not only funny, but much less harsh than this and rather funny. Anyway, judge for
yourself. Read both the essay series and the Hitchens and Keillor pieces, and tell me if you think Hitchens just likes
to bitch.
Science Books – 2006 Aventis Prize
Not only am I a big fan of travel
books, I also read as many science books as I can get my eyes on. And this year was a particularly bountiful one for
science books. The 13 books list of popular science books
vying for the prestigious 2006 Aventis Prize has been announced, and it would behoove anyone who wants to know more
about the natural world, and perhaps the future of mankind, to give them a read.
I’m of the opinion that
travelers are very curious people, and that science can substantially inform travelers as they embark on trips around
the globe. You gain insights through books into cultures and anthropology as well as human nature.
One
great book this year for travelers was Collapse, by Jared
Diamond. What a better book to take with you as you head out to Mexico and the former kingdom of the Maya,
described in great detail in the book. Or to Easter Island, that distant speck of land where a great culture once
reigned, and then nearly vanished, leaving behind a silent army of massive stone heads.
For your reading
and curious pleasure, I post the list of nominees here:
Electric Universe – How
Electricity Switched on the Modern World, by David Bodanis (Little Brown)
Collapse – How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, by Jared Diamond (Penguin Allen
Lane)
The Elements of Murder – A History of Poison, John Emsley
(Oxford University Press)
The Gecko’s Foot – Bio-inspiration –
Engineering New Materials from Nature, by Peter Forbes (Fourth Estate)
The Silicon Eye – How a Silicon Valley Company Aims to Make All Current Computers, Cameras, and Cell
Phones Obsolete, by George Gilder (WW Norton)
Parallel Worlds
– The Science of Alternative Universes and our Future in the Cosmos, by Michio Kaku (Penguin)
Power, Sex, Suicide – Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life, by Nick
Lane (Oxford University Press)
Venomous Earth – How Arsenic Caused the
World’s Worst Mass Poisoning, by Andrew Meharg (Macmillan)
Empire of the Stars – Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes, by
Arthur I. Miller (Little Brown)
Seven Deadly Colours – The Genius of
Nature’s Palette and how it Eluded Darwin, by Andrew Parker (Simon & Schuster)
The Truth About Hormones – What’s Going on when we’re Tetchy, Spotty, Fearful, Tearful or Just
Plain Awful, by Vivienne Parry (Atlantic Books)
Stalking the
Riemann Hypothesis – The Quest to Find the Hidden Law of Prime Numbers, by Dan Rockmore (Jonathan
Cape)
The Fruits of War – How War and Conflict have Driven Science, by
Michael White (Simon & Schuster)
Gadling on AOL Travel
Some of you may have noticed, perhaps because you came
here from there, but we here at Gadling.com have done a couple of helpful travel pieces this week for the good folks at
AOL.com. We worked our brains over how best to satisfy the AOL audience as Spring
approacheth and people are making plans. And we settled on seven ideas for seven days.
write ups on the best secret places to go in Mexico and Hawaii, as well as both East and West Coast Trips (Even through I’m from the West Coast, Neil
lives there now in So Cal, so he handled the West. And since I live in
York
piece by Adrienne on Caribbean Trips. Anyway, if you came
to Gadling.com from these pieces, then welcome! Bookmark us and come back often. If you are a Gadling.com regular or
occasional visitor, go check out these pieces, maybe they’ll give you some inspiration to do some traveling.