What makes a destination complex and thick with curiosity is its history and culture. These interests shape your perception of and experience in a place. On a trip to Baltimore my family took while I was in high school, I succeeded in convincing my parents to take me to Edgar Allan Poe’s grave. Literature often provides a great backdrop to a place; writers describe the ins and outs of a place with beautiful accuracy. And that’s why I think these literary maps made by The Literary Gift Company are so cool. These maps of both England and the U.S.A. have been formed with the names of writers from the two countries. If you love travel and literature, check these out here.
Video Of The Day: Partial Solar Eclipse Shadows
Mark Day is a videographer with an eye for beauty. Instead of lamenting over the fact that he couldn’t stare straight into the partially eclipsed sun during the solar eclipse he saw on May 20, he decided to make a video of the surreal shadows cast from the eclipsed sun. I saw the video first on Laughing Squid. The crescent shapes make hard surfaces look like rippling water, reflecting the sunlight in fragments. Did you see the solar eclipse on May 20? If so, did you see it in full or partially? Let us know what your eclipse experience was like in the comments. Feel free to link to any photos of videos you have.
Get Ready For The Olympics With Andaz’s World Food Marathon
While the Olympic Games are associated with international sports, Andaz Liverpool Street in London will be focusing on international food during the weeks leading up to the big event.
The five-star luxury hotel will be looking to staff members of its four Andaz restaurants – 1901, Catch, Eastway and Miyako – to help create the menu. Pulling from the 40 different nationalities that represent the Andaz Liverpool Street team, 26 unique cultural dishes were created. This number isn’t random, as it embodies the 26 miles in a marathon. The tasty festival will run from July 2 to July 27, the 26 days leading up to the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
Some of the dishes attendees can expect include Korean Spicy Pork, Polish Golabki, Slovakian sheep’s cheese dumplings, Colombian bandeja paisa and South African Bobotie.
“With all eyes on London this year as the 2012 Olympic season gathers momentum, Andaz Liverpool Street wanted to pay tribute to the multicultural base of the city with a variety of dishes from around the world, which celebrate different cultures, allowing our guests to take a journey of the culinary kind through what we have called the World Food Marathon,” says Arnaud de Saint Exupéry, the Andaz Liverpool Street General Manager.
Four UK Museums On Shortlist For Art Fund Prize
Four UK museums have made the shortlist for the Annual Art Fund Prize. The winner will get a hefty £100,000 ($161,000) donation, most welcome in these times of economic austerity.
One of the museums, the Hepworth Wakefield, only opened a year ago and has already smashed attendance expectations by attracting half a million visitors. Located in Yorkshire, it focuses on contemporary art and has an innovative modern building design.
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter is housed in an elaborate Victorian building and has a broad-based collection ranging from local archaeological finds to Egyptian mummies, British watercolors and digital art. There’s also a natural history section with fossils, birds, insects and a rather intimidating tiger.
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh reopened last December after a major renovation and now features free entrance and 60 percent more space to show off all those guys in kilts. The Watts Gallery in Guildford showcases the work of famous painter G.F. Watts as well as a huge collection of Victorian photographs and temporary exhibitions of British art.
The winner will be announced on June 19.
[Top photo of Hepworth Wakefield courtesy Carl Milner]
Eco-Friendly Hotel Amenity: Pedal-To-Power LCD Television
For those interested in keeping vacation weight off while also doing something good for the planet, the Cottage Lodge in Brockenhurst, United Kingdom, is offering a unique amenity. Instead of allowing guests to turn on the television the old-fashioned way, the bed and breakfast features a pedal-to-power LCD television in their Standing Hat room.
The purpose of the unusually active method of television powering is purely environmental. While you’d think some travelers may not be happy about having to work to turn on their TV, the accommodation has actually received positive feedback, especially from cyclists.
“I focused on three things when constructing the room: reducing waste, minimizing pollution and using resources with the lowest impact possible,” the hotel’s owner, Christina Simons, explained to the Telegraph. “I also wanted to show that being green can also be exciting and fun, and guests love cycling on the bike.”
And for those with low stamina, don’t worry, you also have the option to make use of the electric supply generated by photovoltaic cells on the roof, so you’ll still be going green while you travel. In fact, the hotel utilizes many sustainable features, like solar panel heating in the summer, heating via a wood burning stove in the winter, low-impact building materials and furniture created by a local tree surgeon from a single fallen beech tree.