Eat, Sleep, Breathe, Travel

Harry Potter studio tour opens near London

Harry Potter fans who are traveling to London will probably be excited about this news. The Warner Bros. studio where they filmed large parts of the Harry Potter movies has just opened its doors for visitors.

I’ve written in the past about Harry Potter sights in London (highlighted, I think, by Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station), but this will probably be even more exciting. Potter fanatics can now take a three-hour tour of the actual sets, props, animatronics and other movie magic that brought the Harry Potter films to life.

I’m actually not a Harry Potter person. I haven’t read or seen any of it. So what I’m about to say makes no sense to me. The studio tour includes a walk through the Great Hall, where Hogwarts students ate and enjoyed the Yule Ball. You also get to see Gryffindor Common Room, Professor Dumbledore's office, the potions classroom, Hagrid's hut, the Weasleys' kitchen and the giant animatronic spider Aragog. Finally, visitors get to walk through a large room housing a huge scale model of Hogwarts Castle, which was used for various establishing shots and overhead angles.

The tour costs about $45, and you have to book tickets in advance. It looks like it’s about a 20-minute train ride from London. For many EF College Break travelers on trips to London, I imagine this will be a great way to spend a free afternoon.

Photo: Craig Grobler via Flickr

Happy Birthday, Bridge

I’d like to wish a very happy birthday to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which turned 80 years old today. The bridge is one of the world’s most famous, certainly one of Sydney's iconic images, right up there with the Opera House. It's the largest steel arch bridge in the world (39,000 tons), and one of the longest. Locals call it “the coathanger.”

Folks in Sydney seem excited about this milestone anniversary. This morning (or maybe it was yesterday morning; to be honest I’m not sure what day it is in Australia right now), the brass section of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performed a special birthday concert atop the bridge. The musicians positioned themselves up on the arch, 440 feet above the harbor, and played some tunes.

In addition to the concert, there have been many other tributes paid in recent days. One woman says her father carried her across the bridge when she was just 13 days old, making her the youngest person on the bridge that day. A local politician took the occasion to announce proposed upgrades to the bridge's tolling equipment. And Google had a special logo illustration on its Australia page.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, bridge. You look good.

Photo: tseyin via Flickr

A new Stonehenge theory: sounds

I like Stonehenge. It’s all mystical and mysterious, and you can’t help but get caught up in the wonder of who put it there and how they managed to do it. And now this guy has an interesting new theory behind the arrangement of the enormous circle of stones. It’s all about sound.

According to researcher Steven Waller, the stones at Stonehenge are organized according to the way sound waves interact. I’ll let you read the article for yourself, but the gist of it is that if you go walk around in a field and two ancient Britons are playing flutes, the interactions of their sound waves make certain spots louder and others quieter. And if you close your eyes, there are certain points where the sound makes you feel like a big object is in front of you. It’s at these positions that the Stonehenge stones stand. Or something like that. It’s kind of complicated.

Of course, there have been all kinds of theories about Stonehenge through the ages. At one point people thought Merlin had the stones put there by a giant. Nowadays, a lot of people think it was the work of Druids. Others think it was aliens.

Stonehenge's mysterious origin is its biggest draw. If you like such mysteries, and if you’re going to be in London with EF College Break, I highly recommend the Stonehenge trip.

Photo: IanL via Flickr (CC)

It’s official: no more “mademoiselle” in France

Anyone going to France this summer? If so, you might find this news interesting. It turns out you should maybe think twice before calling a woman “mademoiselle” while you’re over there.

The French Prime Minister has ordered the removal of the word “mademoiselle” from all official government documents. The term is traditionally used for unmarried women and, as it turns out, it connotes a kind of youthful immaturity.

Interesting. I never knew this. I studied French in high school and college, and lived in Paris for a semester, but I didn’t know that "mademoiselle" had any negative connotations. I always just thought it meant a young woman. Good to know. That’s an interesting thing about speaking foreign languages—even when you think you know the meaning of a word, you can’t know the connotation unless you immerse yourself in the culture for a little while.

The official banning of “mademoiselle” from government documents came after a lot of lobbying from women's rights groups in France. They argued that the word was sexist and that on government forms it unnecessarily pried into a woman’s private life (asking if she’s married or not). Good points all.

Lesson of the day: when in doubt, say "madame."

Photo: Paul Beattie via Flickr (CC)

A couple bright spots in cold Europe

Not sure if you’ve seen the news, but it’s been cold in Europe the past several days. Very cold. It’s actually really no laughing matter at all, as the brutal cold has caused a number of deaths and various other problems throughout the continent.

But I have come across two lighter items resulting from the otherwise bleak situation.

The Mannekin-Pis is having to hold in his pee. You may recall that the Mannekin-Pis in Brussels is one of my favorite statues in the world. Due to the extremely cold temperatures, they've had to turn off his stream to prevent freezing inside the statue's inner workings. Authorities say he will go back to peeing normally when the weather turns.

Farther east, in Ankara, Turkey, one guy is making the most of the unusual snowfall. Check out this video of him snowboarding through the city streets. It’s something you don’t see every day. (I don’t recommend trying this at home. Or in Turkey for that matter.)

Anyway, let's hope for a quick end to the cold snap. We all look forward to warm and sunny summer days in Europe.

Photo: kevsunblush via Flickr (CC)

Madrid just got greener

As a native of Boston, where the Big Dig transformed a large stretch of downtown highway into a pristine green space, I was interested to read about a similar project that recently finished in Madrid, Spain.

It’s the new Madrid Rio park. Anyone going to Madrid this year? You should check it out.

The park is a sprawling new green space where a highway once stood. It is six miles long, built on top of a network of underground tunnels (the new home for the highway). The park has 8,000 newly planted pine trees, a wading pool for toddlers, a plaza big enough to fit a few hundred thousand people, and a slew of paved paths and fountains. All in all, it sounds like a nice place to be. You can get all kinds of details here.

Madrid is a very green city. It has more trees and green space per resident than any other city in Europe, and its main train station has a plant nursery filled with around 500 species of plants, goldfish and turtles. They also have a street paved with special high-tech asphalt that removes pollution, and they’re laying down other streets made from recycled tires to cut down on noise pollution. It’s all very clever.

Good job, Madrid.

Photo: La Citta Vita via Flickr (CC)

Turning the Eiffel Tower into a giant tree

Well here’s an interesting idea. An urban planning consulting company has proposed permanently covering the Eiffel Tower with plantlife. They want to drape the entire 1000-foot tower with 600,000 plants, turning it into a living breathing thing.

Like any radical new idea for transforming an iconic landmark, this one takes some pondering. My first thought is that it’s crazy. You can’t cover the Eiffel Tower in plants.

But the more I think about it, the more I kind of like the idea. There’s something futuristic about it. The philosophy behind it, according to the company, is to symbolize a reconciliation of nature and humankind as our urban areas continue to grow around the world. That’s a nice concept.

Of course at the moment there is nothing official about this at all. The proposal was just reported in the French newspaper Le Figaro. Paris City Hall and the company that runs the Eiffel Tower haven’t endorsed the plan in any way. They say it's not happening.

But it's still fun to think about. If it does somehow get the green light, work on the project would start next year. Plants would be added gradually throughout 2012. That means anyone on any Paris trips next summer would see the transformation in progress. It would add an exciting wrinkle to the experience of seeing such an iconic landmark in person.

That’s it, I like it. Bring on the plants.

Photo: danorbit via Flickr (CC)

Final ruling: no nude hiking in the Swiss Alps

Well, it’s official: if you’re planning to go hiking in the Swiss Alps, be sure to put some pants on. The country’s highest court has ruled to allow a ban on nude hiking.

I’ve actually written about this before in the blog. In recent years, more and more people in Switzerland have taken up the hobby of hiking without any clothes on, and the controversy has been growing.

A lot of it has centered around the legal case of one particular nudist hiker. He was fined about $100 after walking past a family on a picnic in the very conservative region of Appenzell. The man appealed, it went through months of legal action, and last week Switzerland’s highest court said the fine was valid. The court decided that hiking in the nude violated the country’s indecency laws.

Personally, I’m on the fence on this one. I generally like the idea of letting people do what they want. On the other hand, I can understand how the sight of a nudist hiker could ruin a family picnic.

By the way, if you’re taking a trip to Europe and you really feel the need to hike in the nude, you could try Germany. Not only is naked hiking legal in Germany, they’ve even created special trails for it.

Photo: redswept via Flickr (CC)

Surfing the biggest wave of all time in Portugal

There’s big news out of the surfing world. Last week Garrett McNamara, a famous big wave surfer, surfed what may be the biggest wave ever surfed. It was in Nazaré, Portugal.

When I think of surfing spots around the world, I usually think of Hawaii, Australia, California, South Africa. I don’t usually think of Portugal. (Note: I’m not a surfer.)

But apparently there’s good surfing there, and nowhere are the waves as crazy big as in Nazaré. Here, a huge undersea offshore canyon creates consistently massive waves, and the one that Garrett McNamara rode last week was estimated at 90 feet high. That’s a big wave.

Watch this video of it.

I want to go look at these waves. It’s always nice to go watch amazing natural forces in action. Huge waves definitely fit the bill. No EF College Break trip itinerary goes to Portugal right now, but you could definitely tack a few days onto an EFCB trip and go explore Portugal on your own. I really want to see these Nazaré waves in person. From the shore. Not from a surfboard.

Photo: Pedro Moura Pinheiro via Flickr (CC)

New discovery in an 800-year-old Italian fresco

A popular stop on the road between Florence and Rome is the small hilltop town of Assisi. It’s a picturesque place, and it’s famous as the birthplace of St. Francis of Assisi. A few EF College Break trips make a stop in the town, with a chance to visit its most famous sight: the St. Francis Basilica. The basilica is well-known for its wall frescoes painted by a 13th-century artist named Giotto di Bondone. And that’s where the breaking news comes in.

It turns out that Giotto left a little hidden surprise in one of the frescoes: He painted a devil’s face.

I guess that’s kind of boring news now that I think about it, but I do like the idea of this 13th-century painter leaving a little hidden surprise in his fresco, never imagining that on November 7, 2011, word would be spreading all over the world on the internet.

They say no one has noticed the devil’s face until now because Giotto hid it so expertly within the folds of some clouds. Millions of people have come through the basilica since the frescoes were painted, so it’s pretty amazing it’s taken this long for anyone to see it. They say it’s hard to see it from the floor, and it was only discovered during some restoration work.

Anyway, this article shows close-ups of the devil’s face. I think it’s kind of cool, this little joke from the distant past. If you make a stop in Assisi, be sure to look for it.

Photo: jameschipmunk via Flickr (CC)