walki-talki.com Travel Blog

Scientists to exhume remains of Danish astronomer – USATODAY.com

Is it good to be a celebrity? It certainly seems that way when they’re alive. They have it all: good times, fame and fortune. Tycho Brahe was no exception to this rule. The brilliant Danish astronomer was man of considerable stature in his time, and he used his intellectual cachet to live an extraordinary life of privilege and accomplishment by making himself the most desired guest to the most power kings who ruled continental Europe.

And, that’s how he ended up in Prague. After falling into disfavor with the king of Denmark, Brahe accepted the invitation of Rudolf II, the king of Bohemia, to move his unrivaled research facilities to Prague. In Prague, Brahe continued to excel as the world’s best astronomer and trained the next great name in astronomy, Johannes Kepler, until his untimely death at the hands of a bladder infection, a demise documented thoroughly by Kepler. (The infection may have resulted from Brahe’s refusal to leave the royal dinner table to relieve himself, from his insistence on “holding it in”, as it were.) Now, some of Brahe’s compatriots from the University of Aarhus wish to verify that it was, in fact, a bladder infection that claimed the life of this most famous of Danes. They suspect that kidney disease or mercury poisoning might have been the culprit, and because Brahe is so famous and they are so curious, they have obtained permission to exhume Brahe’s 409 year-old remains from the Our Lady Before Tyne cathedral in the old city square in Prague in order to investigate this celebrity death.

So, is it good to be a celebrity? Are modern celebrities damned to this same fate? Will we exhume Marilyn Monroe’s body to reexamine her death? Is Elvis Aaron Presley’s corpse guaranteed any sort of restful, eternal sleep? Will Michael Jackson ever rest in peace?

The answer might depend on your perception of celebrity. Some might reduce it to the adage “there is no such thing as bad press”, not even exhumation.

But, what is definitely cool about this particular celebrity death is the location. Prague is an awesome city. The old city square is magnificent and magical, and the mystique that surrounds Tycho Brahe is but a small part–yes, really, a small part–of all the intrigue, mystique and history that are alive in Prague.

And, that’s why you should go to Prague. And, we have you covered. Our Lady Before Tyne cathedral is stop number 8 on the walki-talki tour of Prague. Get it now from our online store, or get it from The App Store for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

This much is for certain. Tycho Brahe’s grave is among the most exciting celebrity graves one could visit.

It’s a done deal. Our fabulous walking tour of the most dazzling, must-see destinations in Edinburgh is on sale on The App Store.

Learn about Braveheart, Castlehill, Sir Walter Scott and the nuances of Scottish cuisine that gave us deep fried Snickers bars, all from a totally self-contained and convenient app on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Follow the route to Grassmarket, visit the gravesite of the most loyal canine in the history of the world, find the best shopping in town and get acquainted with the rich Scottish intellectual history. Scotland’s contributions to economics, physics, chemistry, literature and philosophy are immeasurable, and this fantastic walking tour of the great city that cultivated all this culture will give you a full appreciation of these contributions.

And, if this sounds like an overstated aggrandizement of Scottland and Edinburgh, one only need to look to the last two British Prime Ministers to gain an appreciation of how influential Edinburgh remains as a vibrant world capital: Tony Blair was born in Edinburgh and Gordon Brown graduated from the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh also hosts one of the largest and most prestigious art festivals in the world every August: the Edinburgh International Art Festival and the attached Fringe Festival. And, if you have any doubts at all about the greatness of Scottland.

And, of course, Sean Connery is Scottish.

So, if you’re going to Edinburgh, August is the best time. Taking the walki-talki.com walking tour of Edinburgh can be done anytime. Buy it for iPhone OS  from The App Store, or for any device from our online store.

We are very happy to announce that Rome: The Ancient City has been released for the iPhone and iPod touch. This fascinating walk takes you on a tour the heart of ancient Rome, as was seen 2000 years ago in Julius Ceasar’s time.

Rome: The Ancient City is available in the App Store now for just $9.99.

In addition to adding yet another city to our iPhone catalog, this is the first city to be released with version 1.1 of our player software. The rest of our published iPhone catalog has also been upgraded and submitted to Apple and is pending approval. Version 1.1 has several improvements:

• Addition of a volume slider especially for iPod touch users. Since most our staff are iPhone users, we overlooked the fact that the iPod touch has no volume controls other than what the app puts on the screen. (Sorry!) This oversight has been corrected.
• Zooming support. The map can now be zoomed in and out either by pinching or double tap/two finger double tap, just like the built in maps.
• Better resume support. Several bugs were fixed so that the app now does a far better job of remembering where tracks were if playback is paused for any reason.

Now that 1.1 is out the door, we are beginning to plan for the next release. We would love to hear any feedback or suggestions that people might have.

On a Munich Tour, Confronting a Dark Past  |  washingtonpost.com

The above cited Washington Post article describes the popularity of Nazi history tours in Munich. World War II, Nazi Germany and the Third Reich remain obsessions for too many Americans, in the view of Europeans. After all, Germany’s history is incredibly long, and its contributions to modern thought and culture are incalculable.

The obsession is perhaps understandable given that the persistent and constant celebration of the major WWII events (attack on Pearl Harbor, D-Day, VE-Day, VJ-Day, etc.) since 1945 have firmly established this global convulsion as the singular defining event of the modern American identity as global superpower. It is also understandable because anyone curious about human nature ought to study the singular greatest human catastrophe that arose out of, arguably, the most advanced intellectual culture in the world at the time in order to prevent its repetition. (Genocides in Africa have, unfortunately, proved us incompetent in that regard.)

All of which is the reason why the walki-talki.com walking tour of Munich is positively the ideal walking tour of Munich. We the major sites at which Hitler and the Nazi party rose to the establishment in Munich, but the rest of the history of Munich is also included. After all, Munich was major kingdom for nearly a thousand years before Nazi founder was even born. From its role as an independent kingdom that grew rich from trade, to its significant place in the Holy Roman Empire, and its rise to the center of modern thought and philosophy, you get it all in our tour. Naturally, we tell you why this is such an important place in the history of beer and brewing.

So, don’t limit yourself to the historical singularity. Get the whole picture when you visit Munich with the walki-talki.com audio walking tour of Munich, which is available for any mp3 player from our store, and for the iPhone and iPod Touch from The App Store.

36 Hours in Berlin  |  NYTimes.com

The New York Times recently published a fairly detailed itinerary for the hurried traveler in Berlin. Berlin is a rapidly changing city. Consequently, it’s hard for me to vouch for every one of the stops mentioned here, but based on the stops that I know, this is an excellent plan for you if you find yourself with fewer than 2 days to see Berlin.

Of course, an entire year is probably not enough to see everything that Berlin has to offer. Visiting the hundreds–yes, hundreds–of museums alone will take at least two years.

Fortunately, however, you have a nice list from the New York Times on all the current hip places to see, and you have the walki-talki.com walking tour of Berlin to blast through the city’s illustrious and unmatched history. The tour is available as an app for your iPhone or iPod Touch through The App Store, and as a combination of mp3 files and PDF map for any device.

If you’re in a hurry to see Berlin, this is your itinerary.

The Plan for Amsterdam

I came upon a fabulous post by Nick Zeleznack by following our web traffic data. Nick has a truly fabulous plan for those who want to get a good taste of Amsterdam, and I am quite flattered that he decided that our tour of the red light district is good enough to be part of his excellent tour of Amsterdam.

The tips he includes are excellent, and having lived in Amsterdam for five months myself, I can vouch for his choices of neighborhoods and shops to visit. They are all excellent.

So, grab our tour, read Nick’s plan, and have a blast in Amsterdam.

walki-talki.com is proud to announce that its self guided mp3 audio walking tour of Berlin is now available as an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch (OS 3.0 or higher required) through The App Store.

Checkpoint Charlie on the iPhone walking tour App of Berlin

This wonderful walking tour of Berlin introduces you to the key historical sites of Berlin, from the origins of the city, to the remarkable history of culture, suppression, repression and rebirth recounted in sites like the Bundestag/Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and Gendermenmarkt. Best of all, with this new app package for the iPhone and iPod Touch (OS 3.0 or higher required) there is no hassle of printing a paper map to take along. (That option is, of course, always available.) Our self-contained app has an interactive map that shows you the path to follow, to skip tracks if you so desire, and to see a picture of the landmark at each site so that you can be certain of your whereabouts. All of this is on your device with no need to connect to any network for information.

This app is pure walking bliss, and our Berlin tour happens to be the longest tour that we offer in terms of time. You walk a great distance to visit a great many sites and to learn history unrivaled in its complexity and importance. It is a lot to take in, and you can do it all now from the comfort of your iPhone or iPod Touch, at your own leisurely pace. Take two hours to do the tour, or take six hours. Just make sure your battery doesn’t run out.

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 …