Happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentine's Day

History of Valentine’s Day

From the site Valentines Day Indianserver I learned:

Lovers around the world can thank a Roman priest for our celebration of love on February 14.

During the mid 200’s Emperor Claudius II of Rome banned marriages or engagements due to the difficulty of enlisting soldiers in the military. Valentine, a Christian priest, secretly married couples despite the emperor’s decree. Eventually, Valentine was imprisoned and put to death on February 14, 270.

As history unfolded and the Christian Church gained more power in Rome, the priests began to eliminate pagan festivals. Lupercalia, an ancient Roman festival celebrating fertility was replaced by honoring St. Valentine’s Day.

According to Wikipedia it was a poem of Chaucer on occasion of the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia (then 13 and 14 years of age) that started the modern days attention:

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese [choose] his make [mate].

BAD: Bed and Breakfast And Design

BAD 01
BAD
BAD BedandbreakfastAndDesign

is the first designer Bed & Breakfast in the heart of Catania. Much more than a simple b&b, it is a unique mix of hospitality and creativity, ideal for both those travelling for pleasure and for business. It unites the fascinating Catanese baroque architecture with contemporary art and design.

BAD 02

At BAD one breathes the creativity of Giulia and Alessandro, the two owners and curators. Professionals in the World of advertising and graphic design, they have expertly created within the ample and comfortable rooms different ambiences, exhibiting psychedelic wallpapers, amazing 19th Century Sicilian artifacts, vintage furniture and works of young aspiring artists.

Every room of the b&b in fact has a different mood, colour and feeling, with two or three beds, private bathroom and naturally all the comforts you would expect.
Because BAD is more than a sleeping experience.

Catana is located on Sicily, on the edge of the glittering Mediterranean and also home to Mount Etna, the highest sometimes active volcano in Europe.

My Question:

What’s in a name?

Travel Blog Carnival Week 3, 4, 5 and 6

Travel Blog Carnival Venetian Logo
Travel Rants’ Travel Blog Carnival Week 3, 4, 5 and 6

I have been away on holiday and when I returned I had a work overload. So I missed some of the fun. Here are the Travel Blog Carnival Weeks 3, 4, 5 and 6 for you. There is a lot to cover, therefore I had to decrease the size of my Travel Blog Carnival logo:-)

Week 3

Darren Cronian dutifully recapped it for us here in his Travel Blog Carnival Week 3 post:

Gudrun Enger’s of Kango Blog Choice:

  • Barbara over at Hole In The Donut compiled a great list for the solo traveler in Traveling Safely. I actually found it to be outstanding for anyone traveling, offering advice on everything from notifying your credit card and bank about your upcoming travels to using your web mail accounts to keep copies of important documents. My favorite tip? While visiting in a country where you don’t speak the language, pick up several business cards from your hotel with the name and address. Just hand it to a local taxi driver when you are ready to return to your hotel and there will be no problem with the language barrier!
  • Over at Cruise Bug Chatter, I was offered tips for a successful trip to Mexico, whether by land or by sea. Some were the usual reminders, cautioning you to avoid tap water, dressing appropriately when visiting churches, and learning a few words of the local language to ease your trip. Also discussed was the best way to bargain so that everyone feels good. Of course, my last trip to Mexico (on a cruise ship no less!) involved a visit to the local WalMart, which I found to be pretty similar to the one at home. I know, that is like eating at McDonald’s in Paris, but sometimes you get homesick!
  • Finally, Fox Nomad’s Flier Etiquette Tips brought to my attention that Delta Airlines is unveiling a training system for their passengers, claiming that airlines have not properly prepared passengers for what is to be expected aboard a plane. Fox Nomad pulled together a list of basics, including using your manners (Please and Thank you go a long way), limiting the amount of chatter with your seat mate (unless you are related or really getting on well) and avoiding overindulging in the little bottles of love the flight attendants bring around. Drunk in the air is quite different than drunk on the ground. All good advice for anyone who flies!
  • And even though it did not fit into my theme of lists, I also want to give a shout out to Family Travel at Away.com for the piece on Nordic Skating. I enjoyed this since I had just finished reading The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden, to my kids. After reading the book, which describes a long distance ice skate adventure from Belgium to Holland during WWII, I was interested in finding out more about doing that here in North America. Family Travel outlined a couple programs in New England and eastern Canada, and I look forward to making the trek with my family one day.

Note: In one way or another I am not able to find the link to this article.

Week 4
Week 4 shows a greater influx according to Darren:

Erica Johansson of Blisful Travel:

Kevin May of Travolution Blog’s Top Three:

Gudrun Enger of Kango Blog made her Choice:

  • Barbara over at Hole in the Donut writes about the dangers of Zimbabwe and her personal trip to this area in 2007. I don’t know if she was a fearless adventurer or just in the right place at the right time, but her experience sounds exciting and diverse. Now that Zimbabwe has been put on the list of dangerous places to visit, Barbara’s account might be the closest we all get to visiting!
  • Claude from Les Explorers showed us the pitfalls of the current hotel search system, and how he managed to find the lowest rate for his upcoming stay for ITB PhocusWright in Berlin. What a nightmare to go through, there is definitely an opportunity for innovation here.
  • Over at Yearn To Travel, Medelise talks about the Stowe Derby, the oldest and most unique ski race in North America. While not a skier myself, I was fascinated by her description of the terrain. Definitely sounds like a “crazy” race!
  • And finally, Brian over at International Listings put together a very detailed list of the top 25 castles in the world. The pictures are outstanding, and based on his descriptions, my favorites would have to be Kolossi Castle in Cyprus and Himeji Castle in Japan. Even our lovely Hearst Castle in California is included!

Carianne of Traveling Cari:

  • Experiencing one of the most dangerous countries from Hole in the Donut really struck a chord with me. As was the case in Tony Wheeler’s Bad Lands (and he’s contemplating a sequel!) the experience that the traveler gets, especially an open minded traveler, is often far removed from the dire warnings and classifications on lists such as the one Forbes published. While I’m not sure I have any interest in Zimbabwe, the photos are beautiful. The author hits the nail on the head when she speaks of the “real Zimbabwe” — the country you see with your eyes, not one you hear on a list.
  • So you’ve decided you’re going to Zimbabwe, or another country that strikes your fancy. How do you figure out how much this is all going to cost? How to create a vacation Budget from FoxNomad provides some great information. It’s not impossible. Using some of the tools provided, it’s not even particularly hard. I’ve never been particularly good at setting budgets, or sticking to them when I have a rough idea, but it is a good idea. This site is also valuable if you’re one of those people forever trying to convince your friends that travel is possible and that it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.
  • So now you’ve set your budget, but you’ve realized you’re really not up for a visit to a place that’s been identified as Dangerous. Something more along the lines of a fairy tale is what you’re interested in. Then the Top 25 Castles in the World from International Listings is a good place to start. It includes some very well known Castles: Windsor, Château de Versailles, Arg-é Bam Castle and Angkor Wat (although I never knew the latter was considered a castle) as well as some I was completely unfamiliar with. I was surprised not to see the Taj Mahal or Neuschwanstein Castle included. Either way, it’s got me itching for another trip!

Barbara of A Hole in the Donut:

  • On the Kango blog, Paige Jackson writes an informational and amusing piece about traveling on west Texas roads.
  • For those looking for a bit more adventure than afforded by a drive through flatlands, try out this article at the Away.com Family Travel Blog, which features the sport of bodyflight (note again an error!). The video of kids and adults flying around in what appears to be a wind chamber is truly amazing. I felt like I was flying just watching it. This is something I definitely want to do!
  • The White Point Manor blog looks at the controversial issue of the WHTI Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the U.S. legislation that will (eventually) eliminate the ability for Canadian Citizens to enter the U.S. by showing only a driver’s license.
  • And finally, perhaps my favorite post of the week is to be found on Highland Business Research’s Tracking Tourism Blog. It’s an hysterical article about a new method for tracking tourism being used by the folks in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and it links to an even funnier article in the Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog that used every “potty mouth” pun it could come up with to describe the town’s state-of-the-art tracking methodology.

Week 5

Darren’s Recap

Anil’s of FoxNomad:

Vicky of Highland Business Research:

Week 6

Darren’s Recap

Tracy’s of Travel Betty Choice

Erica Johansson’s Choice

And Finally chosen by Darren himself:

Seeing all these wonderful reviews two questions hit me:

  1. It is a lot of work. There are some doubles. Maybe the weekly frequency is a bit too much and a monthly frequency with say 15 or 20 chosen posts is a better idea ?
  2. Alternatively: Why not chose one reviewer per week? Then you don’t have doubles and you don’t run out of reviewers so easily

and a memo to self:

Oops 1: I have a lot to update on the T-List, but that will have to wait till next month.

Oops 2: I now see a wrong date above this post, but I won’t change it because the date is part of my archive. 5th February is when I started it and today 12th February, 2008 is the date when I finished it. A similar basic mistake I made with my post of our Queens Birthday which, until today I had labeled as “Private” instead of “Published”

Happy Birthday Queen Beatrix!

Queen Beatrix 70
Queen Beatrix by Anton Corbijn

Today is our Queen’s 70th birthday. The official celebration will be 30 April, the date of her mother’s birthday, so declared in deference to Juliana by Beatrix when she was crowned Queen of the Netherlands.

According to Elsevier the official photos for this milestone were commissioned to famous pop photographer Anton Corbijn who recently bought a property around the corner from where I live and now even goes so far as to call himself a citizen of The Hague (Hagenaar).

I watched a TV documentary yesterday and concur with its title: Spoken of by many, but unbespoken: She steered our little country through various difficult periods and situations. I admire her.

Funny though that in the sixteenth century (between 1581 and 1795) part of The Netherlands formed the Dutch Republic of the Seven United Provinces and was a Democratic Republic and now it is a Constitutional Monarchy (since 1830). Dutch like to do things the other way around.

Edition will be the name of the new Schrager/Marriott brand

Marriott and Schrager
Marriott and Schrager, (Boyscouts?)

In a meeting today in Beverly Hills Ian Schrager and J.W. Marriott, Jr. will introduce the name Edition for their earlier announced venture. They will announce signed development deals with the first properties being opened in 2010. They have reached agreements with developers for the first nine of what eventually could be more than 100 Edition hotels in markets around the globe. Under the agreements, Edition hotels are now planned for Paris, Madrid, Costa Rica, Miami, Washington, Chicago and Scottsdale, Ariz. Two hotels are planned for Los Angeles.

They are in advanced discussions involving 20 more hotels with as many as 30 agreements in prime locations expected by the end of 2008.

Six months ago, they anticipated having only five projects announced by the end 2007, essentially half of what has actually been signed.

The hotels will have an average size of 150-200 rooms. Not exactly what I would call a Boutique Hotel Brand.

World-renowned architects and designers will be recruited to create one-of-a-kind buildings spanning the complete range of project types, from new construction, to conversions, to dramatic renovations. Mr. Schrager will be leading the Edition venture on concept, design, marketing, branding and food and beverage. Marriott will be overseeing the development process, and will operate the properties.

Source: E Hotelier.

Added:

Probably E-Hotelier cited from a press release…

Very cleverly Mr. Marriott devoted a post to it on his Marriott on the Move Blog from which I pinched the photo.
Quite funny Mr. Marriott picked this photo where he has his eyes open and Mr Schrager not so much.
There I learned that actually the meeting was on January 29, 2008.