For the last two decades, many pundits and self-appointed experts have predicted the imminent demise of printed books. Travel guidebooks were voted most likely to disappear. While there’s no doubt that the travel genre has been impacted by digital books, the internet, and smartphone apps, the travel book market, and travel guidebooks in particular, continue to be popular with savvy travelers.
Veteran travelers and professional travel writers continue to value and use print travel guidebooks. As an erstwhile author of travel literature, I have a longstanding bias towards print guidebooks. Of course I’m not a complete Luddite; I travel with phone and iPad full of travel apps, and I always consult Google maps when I’m on the road. But when it comes to well-curated travel information, I turn to tried and true books written by professional travelers, not travel blogging dilettantes on their first passport.
I am also a life-long devotee of train travel. For me, rail travel will always be the most agreeable, convenient, and pleasurable way to go. And the best, most comprehensive and informative source on European train travel is Europe By Rail: The Definitive Guide. For more than 20 years, this has been the go-to guidebook for smart travelers. For many years, it was published by the venerable, if a bit stodgy, Thomas Cook Publishing, but since 2013 it has been put out by Berlin-based hidden europe publications. The recent editions have all been penned by the Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries.
The new 15th edition of Europe By Rail builds on the strengths of the previous publications and brings many welcome changes too. The new edition has added and improved route maps, additional coverage for Eastern Europe, the Baltic region, and the Balkans, updated timetables, detailed information on 50 key rail routes, sections dedicated to rail passes, and edifying guidance for train travel and tourism for 48 countries.
Over the years, it has been my good fortune to travel many of the routes covered in Europe By Rail. I will always remember my first views of Venice as the Semmerling train rolled across the Venetian lagoon after an all- night trip from Vienna. Or more recently, the lightning fast trip on Spain’s speedy AVE train from Barcelona to Madrid in only two and a half hours.
Gardner and Kries have packed this new edition with invaluable information on European train travel. But they have also managed to capture the joy, excitement, and even romance of train travel in what could have been an otherwise dry reference guide. It’s rare to find both comprehensive painstakingly researched travel information alongside well-written, entertaining guidance for both the novice and experienced European traveler.
If you are thinking about a European trip, or just an armchair traveler with a bucket list, do yourself a favor and get a copy of Europe By Rail: The Definitive Guide before you make any commitments and be sure to check the companion website www.EuropebyRail.eu for updates.
If you are not a fan of Black Mirror, these wonderfully retro illustrations won’t mean much to you. But if you can’t get enough of the show, Brazilian artist and illustrator Butcher Billy’s project Tales of the Unexpected Black Mirrors is just the ticket. Recalling the aesthetics of vintage American pulp horror magazines and comics, the illustrations capture the grim universe of Black Mirror. You can find more of the project and other work from the mad Brazilian on his blog.
A design team from ad agency Suprematika recently won an open competition to come up with an entirely new brand identity for Russia’s tourism board. They created a dynamic abstract design featuring bold geometric shapes and colors. The central graphic for the new brand is a highly stylized map of Russia, with geometric shapes representing geographic regions of the nation. Along with the clever flexible design, the ad campaign also created the tagline “the whole world within Russia”.
Serious fans can now stay in an official Game of Thrones ice hotel. Located beyond the wall and above the Arctic Circle in Kittilä, Finland, the chill accommodations are the result of a collaboration between HBO Nordic and the Laplands Hotels Snow Village. Designed by a team of professional ice sculptors, the hotel features a spooky Braavosi Hall of Faces, a dragon-shaped ice slide, an ice throne, and 24 frozen guest rooms. The hotel will be operational until April 8, 2018, and rooms start at €165. For more information, check out the hotel website.
For those of us who know and love Paris as visitors, the 18th arrondissement conjures images of the atmospheric, hilly streets of Montmartre or the grandeur of the Basilica of Sare-Coeur. The reality of the district is far from our tourist notions of the French capital. For the past year, librarians and staff at the local library have been tormented by young men on a daily basis. The library employees have been assaulted in and around the facility, they’ve been robbed, books and video games have been stolen, trashed, and even set on fire. After months of requests for assistance from the municipal government, the library staff have gone on strike and locked the building.
This story brought to mind some of the challenges that urban libraries are facing here in the U.S.. Locally, in Philadelphia, many of the city’s libraries have become frontline outposts in the opioid crisis. Some branches were experiencing so many overdoses that librarians have been trained in first aid and have been equipped with overdose reversing medications. In many other American cities, libraries have become defacto day-time homeless shelters for thousands of people with nowhere safe to be during the day.
An endonym is the name of a country, region, or geographic area as it’s known by the people who live there. These names may legally designated by a government or just commonly used terms. The clever endonym map of the world above is labeled in the script of the primary official language of the individual nation. If you click here, you will find an easily zoomable version of the map. Or, check-out the website to discover more about endonyms.
Starfield COEX Mall is one of Asia’s largest underground malls. Located near the Samsung Metro station in Seoul and adjacent to the COEX Convention and Exhibition Center, it also features an amazing two-story library. With forty -foot tall bookshelves and packed with 50,000+ books, the library offers more than 600 international magazines and periodicals.
The library, which welcomes tourists and locals alike, provides reading spaces, daily free cultural events, and a cafe. Open daily from 10am to 10pm, it’s a great place to take a break from sightseeing and to meet locals.
Travel Between The Pages 