walki-talki.com Travel Blog

This week Walki-Talki unveils its latest audio tour, a self-guided walk through the Swiss paradise of Geneva.  The city is a living postcard full of history and one of the most diverse in Europe.   The city is home to the United Nations. the International Red Cross and many other international bodies – a history of tolerance that dates back to the 17^thcentury when Geneva was a refuge for persecuted Protestants from throughout Europe.

This comprehensive tour encompasses fourteen major sites and follows the Geneva waterfront into the heart the Old Town.  Along the way, you’ll learn how the teachings of John Calvin and John Knox led to Geneva becoming known as the “Protestant Rome”;  find out how the city was once saved by a flying tea kettle; and learn just how the Swiss knife got to be so darn useful.  The tour is capped off with a visit to Geneva’s oldest Cathedral, and it ends in Geneva’s most beautiful park.  This tour is a beautiful walk with plenty of history, characters and interesting facts to keep you entertained from start to finish.

So head for the crossroads of Europe and head to Geneva, Pearl of Switzerland. You have a fabulous guided tour to get you started.

Footsteps: Milan Kundera’s Prague - Trumping the Unbearable Darkness of History | Travel | New York Times

The summer travel season is ushered in every year by a bevy of articles on the top travel destinations. The above cited article in the New York Times is no exception, but it is noteworthy for its style and its subject. It is a beautifully complex essay on one of the most complex cities in Europe. 

Nicholas Kulish uses perhaps the greatest contemporary novel on Prague to put the recently opened museum of communism in Prague in its proper perspective. This great Novel is Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and, according to Kulish, the diminutive size and status of the new Museum of Communism clearly demonstrate how the Czech spirit has triumphed thoroughly. 

Kundera’s brilliant novel paints a beautiful portrait of Bohemian spirits that bend under the crushing weight of the Soviet Union but fail to break. Kundera’s masterpiece imparts to the reader a remarkably deep appreciation of how free spirited people (literally Bohemians in this case) suffered and perished under the Soviet yoke and of how the Czech spirit survived, nevertheless.  

As Kulish recounts, the Czechs have triumphed thoroughly over communism, and they have elected to give communism its proper place in Czech history: a small chapter, an afterthought, an insignificant episode in the 1300-year history of Prague. While other cities like Berlin and Warsaw have erected more significant monuments to this ugly chapter in their histories, the residents of Prague have elected to dedicate a tiny space to their communist chapter to leave no doubt about how much they care about the communist era.

Prague has no shortage of attractions, but if you want to learn of Prague’s communist past, the Museum of Communism is located in the center of the city near the Mustek. The Mustek is stop number four on the walki-talki.com self guided mp3 audio walking tour of Prague. 

You should go to Prague!

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At long last, we are proud to announce the release of the walki-talki.com self-guided, mp3 audio walking tour of historic Prague. This is one of best preserved medieval cities in Europe. It has survived the ravages of history and emerged as one of Europe’s premiere destinations and, indeed, one of her crowning jewels.

From Jan Hus to Dubcek and Havel, from Rabbi Pinkus to Kafka, and from wine to pilsner, Prague has it all. Neither Nazis nor communists managed to subdue this vibrant cultural capital, and just about any time of the year is the perfect time to visit Prague.The walki-talki.com tour will take you step by step through all of Prague’s major historical periods. You will encounter famous writers, musicians, composers, writers and astronomers. Seventeen breathtaking stops are guaranteed to make you fall in love with this most romantic of cities. So, pack your bags, get your walking shoes ready, and head to Prague. 

Payam 

That time of the year is drawing near. Yes, Carnival season. There are many choice places to enjoy it in Europe: Cologne, Duesseldorf, Aachen, Maastricht, Basel, and Venice, to name but a few. Wherever you go, you are assured to have a great time.  

By far the best and biggest celebrations are to be found in Cologne (Koeln), Germany, and in Venice, Italy. The Karneval in Koeln is quite an experience. I had the pleasure of attending this event in 2006. It consists of of an entire week of celebrations that culminates in a gargantuan parade on Rose Monday (Rosenmontag). During this parade, you will see over a million costumed Germans drinking, eating sausages and scrambling to catch carmele (candy) being thrown from the various trains in the endless parade. Upon catching a carmele, a man may present it to a women and demand a bütze (kiss in the Cologne dialect) in return.

The entire affair is totally friendly, the trains in the parade are invariably hilarious and edgy (and not for the prurient, see image), the beer (Kölsch, a pilsner) is good, the sausages aretasty, and the entire affair is difficult to forget. Of course, the giant parade on Rosenmontag is almost an afterthought for the informed traveler. It is best to arrive on the Thursday before (see link above) and enjoy the weekend. The entire city (Germany’s gayest city, by the way) is dressed in costumes and drunk for the entire four days. Every bar one enters will be full of costumed people singing traditional German music and dancing to disco. There will be Brazilian drum sections traveling the streets, and classical troupes spreading mirth everywhere in the city. So, arrive early, party early, and leave in one piece. 

The Carnevale in Venice is a decidedly more elegant affair, though equally hectic. The Venice Carnevale is a festival of masks. Elegantly dressed people will parade the city in the most beautiful and elaborate masks that one can imagine. The masks themselves have evolved into remarkable works of art and one of the many crafts for which the city is renowned. You can learn more about the Carnevale from the walki-talki.com mp3 walking tour of Venice. This tour will also get you acquainted with the major attractions should you find time before or after the party. As with Cologne, you are advised to arrive early to enjoy the festivities before the final parade. 

This year (2008) Karneval, Fasching, Mardis Gras, Carnevale (whatever you want to call it) happens on Monday, February 4.  

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Happy Hotelier » Paris: Hotel Everland, The One Room (One Suite) Cube Hotel has arrived.

Happy Hotelier is a superb travel blog with a lot of fantastic tips on unusual places to stay in Paris. This particular article is about perhaps the most unusual hotel anywhere in the world, Hotel Everland. It consists of one room, it offers a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower, and it does not look particularly easy to reach. Read the article linked above to learn more.


Image from Happy Hotelier.

Hotel Everland is not cheap, however. So, you may want to invest in the superb walki-talki.com mp3 audio walking tour of Montmartre to make up the difference. Just take the subway across the river to the Blanch Metro stop, and press play.

Audio Walking Tour of the East Village and Hell’s Kitchen (Manhattan) - New York Times

walki-talki.com brings you the premiere mp3 audio walking tours of the top European destinations. We have designs on the top American destinations, too. Until the top American cities are given the walki-talki.com treatment, you can get two terrific tours of two of New York City’s influential neighborhoods from the New York Times. Follow the link above to find the tours.

The tour of the East Village (the part of Greewich Village that resides on the east side of Manhattan Island) takes you on a tour of the places that influenced modern art, including Claes Oldenburg’s studio and CBGB’s. Neither exists anymore, alas, but you can still make pilgrimage to many sites that had a huge impact on modern art and culture.

The Clinton neighborhood is the erstwhile neighborhood of poor, working-class Irish immigrants, whose misery and ambitions fueled racial strife and thuggery in the form of organized crime, thus earning neighborhood the title “Hell’s Kitchen”. Like the rest of Manhattan, it is now largely gentrified and occupied by decidedly civilized and affluent people of all races. Nevertheless, you can visit the places that inspired countless stories, as well as a few destinations that are still noteworthy.

Of course, neither tour nor the combination of both is enough to see New York City, and that is probably why the are free, but they should be enough to whet your appetite for the rest of the city and the walki-talki.com mp3 walking tour of New York City.

Stay tuned…

Top 10 Edinburgh festival hangouts | Travel | Guardian Unlimited

And, if you need a concise repository of the hippest things to do in Edinburgh, read the above article, or visit the Edinburgh pages of The Guardian’s brand new travel pages. The tips can be especially helpful.

“What’s your favorite city in Europe?”

We get that question a lot.

For some the debate might take hours: Do you go with an obvious jewel like London or Paris? Or perhaps a more discrete gem in the European crown like Heidelberg in Germany or Sintra in Portugal? What about a modern phoenix like Berlin or Barcelona? Not to mention Prague. And don’t even get me started on Italy.

Fortunately for me, however, the answer is simple: The best city in Europe is Edinburgh…in August.

August is Edinburgh is the time when the artistic universe aligns in the form of the Edinburgh Arts Festival. The festival is the largest in the world and is actually comprised of seven different festivals related to music, books, theater and the arts. For four weeks, the entire city is transformed into one giant arts venue where even the back of a taxi cab is liable to be the set of a roving one man show. The creative energy is contagious and you are guaranteed to see something amazing as Edinburgh attracts literally thousands of debuts acts from around the world. It is here the first stones are cast that will cause ripples throughout the art world for the rest of the year.

And the parties aren’t bad either.

Of course what makes the Arts Festival truly special is the setting itself. Edinburgh is a living museum that oozes with medieval architecture where the ghosts of Robert the Bruce, Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and countless others (not all named Robert) seem to roam at every wynd and cranny. The city is built along what’s called a crag and tail volcanic formation with a castle crowning the top of the rock. The main road leading up to the castle, known as the Royal Mile, is home to some of the earliest “high rise” residential buildings, built in the early 1500’s. After the castle and the Royal Mile, many first time visitors head to the area known as the grassmarket. This was once a large outdoor cattle market as well as the place where hangings, beheadings and all other manner of executions were carried out to the public’s satisfaction. Today the area is filled with pubs and restaurants.

Once you’ve had enough of the festival or are just looking for a break near the city, head to The Meadows, a large park near Edinburgh University and home to the worlds first golf course. Also near the city is the hill known as Arthur’s seat. This mini-mountain provides breathtaking views of the city and the Scottish coast.

For information about the main festival visit http://www.eif.co.uk/. For more alternative fare go to http://www.edfringe.com/ for info about the Fringe Festival, now the largest component of the seven-headed beast known as the Edinburgh Arts Festival.

Of course while you’re there, there’s no better way to get to know the city than by walking the walk with Walki-Talki’s Essential Edinburgh Walking Tour: http://walki-talki.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=33

Och-aye! See you there.

La Biennale di Venezia: Cinema. August 29 - September 8, 2007 Director: Marco Müller

The most preeminent film festivals in the world are the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy (linked above). How do you decide which to attend?

Cannes is a beautiful beach town, but the festival has associated with it a media feeding frenzy that is perhaps unbearable to most. Park City offers a spectacular natural setting for a festival, and Robert Redford has transformed the movie industry by creating the Sundance Film Festival as a showcase for independent filmmakers. However, many claim that the festival has lost its “independent edge”, and that, for example, the Toronto Film Festival offers a better variety and quality of films in North America.

This leaves, of course, the Venice Film Festival as the festival of choice because, frankly, few complain about it. And, if the lack of complaints is not incentive enough to visit the Venice Film Festival, consider the following. The Venice Film Festival is part of La Biennale, the biennial (the namesake) art festival in Venice. La Biennale is the biggest art festival in the world. It takes place over several months, and it covers every aspect of art: fine arts, design, architecture, dance, music, and film. Although each genre is fested at a different time, you are assured some overlap (art exhibit is from June 10 through November 21, 2007) and a dreamy setting to cleanse your palate between movies.

And, this year, there is a tribute to The Conformist, Bernardo Bertolucci. You can decide if you like him better for edgy films like The Conformist, the sex-laden movies like The Dreamers or Last Tango in Paris, or sentimental movies like The Last Emperor. It may be fun just contemplating.

And, if all of this is still not enough, then grab the walki-talki.com mp3 walking tour of Venice, and see Venice this year. It is a good time to visit.

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The new Globe Theatre is stop number 8 on the walki-talki.com mp3 walking tour of London. The original Globe was, of course, host to the master works of the best known playwright in the world, William Shakespeare. From the stage of this theater, the Bard transformed British theater so completely that he came to define it. From this stage, he mocked the royalty, the Church and the laity alike with zest and eloquence unseen heretofore or hence. On this day, June 30, in 1613, the Globe burned down to the ground.

It took nearly 400 years, but a replica of the Bard’s stage has now been built, and it is open to the public. Even if you are not a Shakespeare fan, you will find the many activities offered in this venue to be a most welcome break from the mind-numbing array of temptations that London offers. So, if you’re not quite in the mood for anything else, the new Globe is a worthwhile visit.