walki-talki.com Travel Blog

It took some time, but we’re happy to announce that the walki-talki.com self guided, mp3 audio walking tour of the Red Light District of Amsterdam is now available for sale through the App Store.

The red light district is, of course, best known as the unabashed showcase for prostitution and soft drugs, but it is, in fact, the oldest and most historic district of Amsterdam with many landmarks dating back over 1000 years. In this walking tour, you will get an excellent introduction to this history of Amsterdam, you will learn about the subtle differences in Dutch architecture, and, you will be introduced to old and modern Dutch culture, and you will be guided through the illustrious history of  Dutch trade which had made Amsterdam the center of global trade in the 1600s.

And, yes, the tour does include a rather comprehensive section on the trades in flesh and drugs that are invariably conjured by the words “red light district.”

This walking tour is distributed as a self-contained app for the iPhone and iPod Touch (OS 3.0 or higher required). It requires no internet connection to operate. All you do is run the app, and follow the route traced on the interactive map. Press the play button whenever you want your guide to speak, and press the right arrow in the point of interest pop-up button to see a picture related to that particular stop.

This tour comes with a 17+ rating in The App Store, but do not be alarmed by this rating. The tour contains no profanity or foul language. Prostitution and drug use are described with cheeky humor in about three tracks.

You had better hurry, though. The red light district might be closing soon. If that happens, our jokes won’t be as funny.

And, if you don’t have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you need not worry. You can always take our standard mp3 walking tour of Amsterdam. This tour plays on any device that can play mp3 files.

Welcome to Berlin’s squat scene | The Guardian

As the Guardian article points out, squatting is not quite the write word for it, but it persists because the phenomenon of the Volkskueche (“People’s Kitchens” or “folks’ kitchens”), or Vokue for short, is rooted in the practice of squatting in abandoned buildings, of which far too many could be found in the former East Berlin soon after the wall came down. The sense of camaraderie that suffuses this piece is palpably present in every trip to the hippest neighborhoods of the former East Berlin. Prenzlauer-Berg was the first eastern neighborhood to go through a remarkable resurrection to become an amazingly active social and cultural district. Now, it isFriedrichshain’s turn. (In fact, a young doctor who had grown up in the former East Berlin told me on a train ride to Berlin that she was among the first wave of youngsters who brought Prenzlauer-Berg back to life and who subsequently moved to Friedrichschain once PB became too hip and, consequently, too expensive.)

Tacheles Volkskueche, from The Guardian

Squatting happens to be a big feature of many European cities, Amsterdam in particular, but it is a practice that seems to be on the wane these days as globalization opens the floodgates of capital to the world’s most storied cities and brings in foreigners eager to partake in the hallowed histories. One ought to partake in these fantastic social experiments, therefore, while one still can. Our walki-talki self-guided mp3 walking tour of Berlin (soon available as an iPhone App, like our Paris and London tours) will provide you with an excellent historical background on Berlin and give you a great appreciation of what’s going on in the former East Berlin. To get to Prenzlauer-Berg after the tour, continue walking east to Alexanderplatz and take the north bound (to Pankow) U5 subway train. To get to Friedrichschain, take the south bound U5 subway train from the Alexanderplatz station.

This really is your ticket to cheap and fantastic food and entertainment in Berlin.

Our walking tour of Amsterdam, however, offers entertainment of an entirely different variety.

The Walki-Talki.com self guided mp3 audio walking tour of Paris’ Montmartre neighborhood is now available as an iPhone app

I’m happy to announce that our Paris: Montmartre tour is now available on the App Store. Just like the London tour, the map is included in the app so that you don’t need to print a map or even have a network connection to walk this walk.

We are hard at work preparing even more walks for the iPhone, so stay tuned for the next release!

The walki-talki.com self guided mp3 audio walking tour of London is now available as an iPhone app

I’m happy to report that our London tour is now available as an iPhone app. The app version of the tour features a dynamic map, so no more printing maps! In fact, locals just might ask you, the tourist, for directions.

We designed the app with a self contained map. Therefore no network connection is needed while you are walking, so there won’t be any unpleasant surprises when you come home and get your phone bill.

London is available now in the App Store. Our other destinations will be available in the App Store soon. We are very excited about the possibilities that the iPhone opens for our tours. Stay tuned for more updates …