Globe Corner Blogs

Bruges Canals: Photo by Kate

Bruges is beautiful…  It’s an incredible place to see: a tiny town of canals and swans, weeping willows and ivy, and not a single building that looks like it was built after the year 1500. Brick gingerbread houses with stepped Dutch roofs, tiny cobblestone bridges crossing calm canals, and shady squares with gnarly old trees and tweeting birds. It’s all yours… to share with about 20,000 other tourists! Really, it’s so crowded with tourists there that it’s almost enough to make you lose your appetite for waffles. We found two pretty good ways to avoid the hordes: first, get to the sites you really want to see as early as possible, and second: get a bike! Continue Reading »

North of the border, Down Blue Jay’s Way

Photo by Kate

Some people might think it’s crazy to travel to a foreign country to see your favorite team play a game. Judging by the number of Red Sox jerseys at the Rogers Centre last week in Toronto, I would say that is not the case for the  members of Red Sox Nation. On Monday and Wednesday, I was treated to the sights and sounds of Red Sox fans drowning out the cheers of the home team fans. People were ordering “bee-ah” from the concessions stands and “wickeds” were flying through the air.

Continue Reading »

Lonely Planet recently held a contest to publicize the release of its new Discover series of guidebooks. Booksellers picked five books about a place of their choosing and briefly described why travelers should read their recommendations. And we’re pleased to announce (and brag!) that our very own staffer and blog favorite, Lisa, has won!

Continue Reading »

Yesterday I played “Customer.” It’s similar to playing “House,” only instead of  serving a dinner made of plastic to my stuffed animals I went on an imaginary vacation. I pored over every guide book available for the place, unfolded every map ever drawn, and then stood staring at the shelf perplexed and overwhelmed.

After the initial wave of panic subsided and I’d taken a deep breath–in through the nose, out through the mouth, flapping hand motions–I steadied myself and reached confidently toward the Québec shelf.

Continue Reading »

Photo by Kate

A number of times on our vacation last month in Turks and Caicos, we looked around the beach, and saw no one. Really, no one. Just some crabs, and some birds, but that’s it.

We embarked on this vacation with Thoreauesque goals: not so much transcendentalism or  civil disobedience, but just to get the heck away from people. We hardly had to try; even on the main island of Providenciales, all we had to do was avoid Grace Bay, and we found deserted stretches of white sand and strangely blue waters.

.

We opted not to stay in Grace Bay, the main resort area with some of the most beautiful beaches on the island, but instead followed our solitary path out to Northwest Point, part of Provo known for the diving and the Marine National Park. There are only two resorts at this end of the island: the super-swank Amanyara and the very mellow, laid-back Northwest Point Resort (where we stayed). At either place, the beaches are empty and great for walking or some low-key snorkeling.

Continue Reading »

My first years in Washington, DC, I was skeptical about all the cherry blossom hoopla that swirls around our nation’s capital every spring. We had a cherry tree back home in Ohio, and for the two days its sparse blossoms clung to the knotted limbs, it looked as if a rather pathetic spring had sprung. So why was it such a big deal here?

Though I had avoided the Cherry Blossom Festival initially, frightened off by the rumors of roving hordes of tourists, one year I broke down and traveled to the Tidal Basin in Potomac Park. It was early spring (peak bloom is usually around April 4th), and I was in short sleeves. …And so were the roving hordes of tourists. As I struggled out of the Metro station, carefully tip-toeing around squealing little kids, I began to doubt my choice of Sunday afternoon activities. But as soon as I neared the water my doubt dissolved.

Continue Reading »

Whenever I search for budget accommodations in New York City, I am constantly shocked at the prices. Recently The Pod Hotel in Midtown Manhattan started popping up as a possibility, but I always rejected it. The name kind of scared me and I was just a bit hesitant. For my latest short jaunt to The Big Apple, however, the relative bargain price was just too good to pass up and I booked a single room with a shared bathroom for two nights.

It was great! Highly recommended! What a deal! The Pod Hotel is conveniently located at 230 East 51st Street right next to a wine bar Le Bateau Ivre and is a close walk to the subway. It was easy to find, check-in was a breeze, and most of the elevators worked. When I opened the door to my “pod” I did have a bit of deja-vu as it looked quite a bit like one of the claustrophobic cabins I have shared while traveling by ferries. However this room was bright, spotlessly clean, equipped with a lot of storage space for such a small place, and quiet. Everything that I needed except for a bathroom. Continue Reading »

For the past few weeks, whenever I told a friend that I was heading to Paris for a vacation, inevitably they would ask: “so… what are you going to eat there?” Some vegetarian friends warned with horror stories of growling stomachs, scouring the streets for someplace, anyplace, with even just a salad without a sprinkling of ham. I decided to prep as much as I could for our lacto-ovo diets by making notes of veggie-friendly restaurants on my maps of the city.

As a result, my Michelin Paris par Arrondissements atlas looked like the plan of attack of some crazed general. Scrawls of fine-point red sharpie noting cheese shops overwrote  important tourist locations like Notre-Dame. There was a sub-legend with symbols designating the 1970s sprouts-and-tempeh spots from the foodie restaurants who have a “menu au vert.”  Organic and macrobiotic joints were marked with an OM. Wine bars were heavily asterisked, the decided plan of retreat if it came to that.

Continue Reading »

Stradun - photo by Lisa

Most people don’t realize that while the old town of Dubrovnik is quite small, navigating the pedestrian-only main street, Stradun, can take anywhere from three minutes to seven hours. The street is only about 300 meters long.  If you are on Stradun the diversions are apparent,  yet still, doing the three minute tour is difficult to accomplish.

You have to treat Stradun like ski slope.

The first step is to take a minute at the top of Stradun to survey the situation. The main impediment is the crowds.  (It has become a local pastime to complain about the crowds. Either too many crowds are ruining the ambiance or a lack of crowds is ruining business.)

Continue Reading »

Annunciation (detail), Simone Martini

A trip through the Uffizi in Florence is almost like a crash course in Renaissance Art. I didn’t quite know what I was in for heading into this gallery; it turned out to be one of the highlights of my recent trip to Italy. My boyfriend and I purchased a Friends of the Uffizi pass, as we knew that this is a  blockbuster of a museum. The pass allowed us unlimited entries into the museum, which we used over the course of a few days (pass details here).

…

The museum consists almost entirely of Florentine Renaissance paintings and sculptures. Arranged chronologically, viewers are able to link the progression of Renaissance art from the 13th to the 18th Century in their trip through the museum. The early Renaissance paintings, many of which are altar-like shaped canvases, are astounding in their straightforward approach to storytelling. The life of Christ is depicted in an almost storyboard manner on many of the various panels of the paintings. We loved the brutal simplicity of these works: angels floating on beams painted with gold leaf; halos so bright that they completely block out the background image; the hands of God peeking into picture planes.

…

Continue Reading »