The London GreenGround Map: Created Helen Ilus, the London GreenGround Map is a wonderful sort of London transit map analog for the city’s green spaces, mapping connections and routes between public parks and gardens and areas less impacted by urbanization, allowing the user to plan routes that cover parts of the city that are yet to be paved over. “An enthusiastic walker and urban explorer Helen travelled widely, studying and working in UK, before coming up with the idea of connecting parks to tube style network for walkers. Fan of Harry Beck’s London Tube map she wondered what would happen combining the schematic mapping with walking routes. As an intuitive traveler she found the schematic maps more accessible in urban environments, but realized they also trap people in transport networks. This is why her maps give priority to green infrastructure, replacing stations with parks and tube lines with walking routes. She has also experimented with creating a walking map for libraries as well as worked with several commissioned maps.” It’s free to download or use online.

These days I seem to only do long hikes when I’m traveling, but as I’ve aged I have found that every hike results in more aches and pains. So here are Some tips for long walks. “We’re prone to lean forward when we walk. Over long distances, this wreaks havoc on one’s lower back and hips. As such, ‘head over hips’ is something to be conscious of.”

I feel so fortunate to have visited the Louvre more than four decades ago and been able to get up and personal with the art. The last few times that I’ve been to the museum I didn’t even bother to try and see the Mona Lisa. The Louvre wants to put the Mona Lisa in its own room to improve visitor experience. IMHO the museum should ban photography like some other institutions have done.

My ancestors on one branch of the family tree had the good sense to get out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire long before Charles the I succeeded to the throne in 1916, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t care about the old country and its monarchs. Several hundred folks also have a keen interest in the doings of the Habsburg clan. So much so that the went to Plano, Texas and forked over good money to spend a Saturday, listening to three living members of the Habsburg family and a scattering of Carlists talk about what ails the world? It’s clear what the Habsburgs got out of it: the conference, held in Plano and organized by David Ross, a Dallas-area realtor and right-wing Catholic, was in support of the family’s effort to win a sainthood for Emperor Karl I, perhaps the least successful and most tragic Habsburg monarch, who reigned for the last two years of World War I and then died penniless on the Portuguese island of Madeira. The family hoped to keep their memory alive—and maybe sell a few books. What everyone else might get out of it was unclear, at least at first.

I can’t seem to find mine. Do you know where your prayer nuts are at ? gothic boxwood prayer nuts

Prayer nuts or prayer beads are very small, late 15th and early 16th centuryGothic boxwood miniature sculptures, originating in the Low Countries.
Ball-shaped wood carvings that open into halves and hide inside an astonishingly detailed and extremely intricate religious scenes. Handcarvings so miniscule that you can hardly see the smallest detail without magnifying glass. There can be as many as 50 detaily carved figures inside one scene. Probably the smallest and most intricate wood carvings in the world showcase details of clothing, armor, and architecture of their period. You can see the individual folds on their shirts and the feathers lightly decorating their hats. Their scale varies between the size of a walnut and a golf ball. Most are 2–5 cm in diameter and designed so they could be held in the palm of a hand and hung from a belt. The outside shells are decorated with carved openwork, gothic tracery, flower heads, finials, and inscriptions usually related to the narrative waiting for the viewer inside.

I haven’t made it to Patagonia yet, but it’s on my Top 5 to visit list. There are some awesome photos from a gallery of 30 images of this park posted at The Atlantic.