Travel | Daydream Tourist

Dec 22

Happy Winter Solstice Newgrange!

Winter solstice sunrise illuminating the main passage at Newgrange (Photo: Alan Betson, Irish Times)

Earlier in my UNESCO World Heritage Site series, I discussed the Neolithic mound tomb Newgrange which is outside Dublin. Around the winter solstice, approximately Dec 18-23, the morning sun enters through an opening over the doorway and illuminates the main stone passageway and the central burial chamber. It’s interesting to think of the religious significance this event – cremated human remains being touched by the sun – must have held.

Diagram of winter solistice sunrise at Newgrange (Newgrange by G, Stout & M. Stout, 2008, Newgrange)

Over the last few days, a handful of lucky lottery winners have huddled inside the chamber to watch what is usually a magnificent spectacle. (It’s actually been a little overcast this week so the effect may have been reduced.)

Dec 19

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French Cathedral Light Shows

Reim Cathedral Light Show (Photo: Reims Cathedral)

As if the Gothic cathedrals of France were not beautiful enough already, several have been illuminated this year in dramatic and vivid colors. These shows will continue for the last few weeks of Dec 2011 if you are fortunate to be in France.

Angel from Reim Cathedral facade colorized and illuminated in a light show (Photo: Reims Cathedral)

The Reims Cathedral celebrated its 800th anniversary this year. It’s light show elegantly chronicles this history illustrating the cathedral as if an illuminated manuscript, a geometric architectural plan, under construction and finally completed with painted facade statues. The cathedral is also illuminated as if one huge stained glass window and then spends several minutes flashing between a range of Monet-esque abstracted palettes. The Reims cathedral light show continues until Dec 31st. A fairly good video of the 25min show is available in two parts online:

The Amiens Cathedral is also illuminated through December in a similar fashion. There is no flashy show but you do have the chance to visualize the originally painted facade of the cathedral. Like Reims, the image projection and matching is incredible, although you can see some of the shadows in the close-up image below.

Amien cathedral light show detail of kings

Amiens Cathedral light show - detail of kings (Photo: Amiens Cathedral)

Dec 14

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Potential Black Sea Cruising

I’m trying to plan out next year’s travel and have become obsessed with the Black Sea. I blame this on indecisiveness. I was thinking about visiting Istanbul, curling along the western Turkish coast and then up through Cappadocia. Then I got thinking about Russia and a grand tour from regal St. Petersburg through the countryside to Moscow. I’ve also been enjoying Curious Cat on the Run‘s travels through Romania, so Eastern Europe seemed like a beautiful and decidedly untouristy destination. So there you have it. A dramatic mix of numerous cultures that can only be achieved, in any practical way, by visiting the Black Sea.

I realized pretty quickly that an organized cruise may be the only way to see it all in a reasonable amount of time. On my own, I would have to cobble together a trip through numerous ferry lines without very efficient routing, like Odessa to Yalta to Odessa to Batumi. (For help, see this Lonely Planet thread). With limited vacation time, I am always looking for the best way to maximize my travel days and back-tracking, not knowing ferry schedules ahead of time, and negotiating travel in three languages over 12 days doesn’t make much sense.

Sadly though, I am not a “cruise” person. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ocean, as long as I am on a passenger ferry. The idea of ginormous buffets, cheesy entertainment, being stuck with 2000 other people on a ship, 4 hour visits to ports and lame pre-packaged shore excursions do not appeal to me.

So now I am looking for “acceptable” companies, meaning smaller ships whose mission and style cater to the discerning nerd traveler, schedules with long port visits and it would be nice if they didn’t cost an arm and a leg. I’m weighing a few that I’ve found so far (and am always looking for experienced advice….). So either I pick one and go to the Black Sea next year, or I scrap it all together and go to Peru!

Dec 8

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Photo of the Week: The Louvre Pyramid Gets New Lights

Newly installed LED lights illuminate the Louvre pyramid (Photo: Christophe Ena/AP Photo)

New external lighting are inaugurated at the Louvre, the worlds most popular art museum, at the Pyramid, the three pyramidions and the Colbert pavilion of the Louvre, with the warm glow of new LED lighting , Tuesday Dec. 6, 2011 in Paris. AP Photo/Christophe Ena. (Text and Image from artdaily.org)

This isn’t the first lighting change the Pyramid went through. Switching to halide lamps in 2005 from 100W halogen lamps changed the glow from orange to white. It looks like this latest lighting change has unified the illumination through the pyramid so that is evenly bright. I think it enhances I. M. Pei’s work and punctuates the Louvre courtyard.

Dec 5

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Cartoon Cities

Decorating with travel photography always looks sharp and certainly inspires trip day-dreaming on a daily basis. While you can get some amazing global images from amateur and professional photographers, I find myself coming back to stylized city illustrations. It’s fun to see a location distilled to its essential elements and I have always loved stylized graphic design. In honor of the Holiday shopping season, here are a few of my favorites from etsy.com with links to their stores below. (If they don’t have your favorite city, it doesn’t hurt to ask if they could do it.)