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.

2010 is upon us, and with its arrival walki-talki.com enters its fourth year of business. We remain one of the surviving pioneers of digital audio walking tours, and we proceed as the company with the deepest device penetration: walki-talki.com is the only company to sell its tours as plain mp3 files for any device and as apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The generic mp3 packages can be purchased from our online store, and you can find our iPhone app collection on The App Store.

We also remain among the best reviewed digital tour companies on the web, and we have plans to expand our catalog to some of the less known but most desirable locales in Europe. And, if another mobile platform becomes as popular as the iPhone OS platform, we may expand our presence to it, as well. It is way too early to pick the next winner, however.

2010 may prove to be the year in which digital tourism finally breaks out of obscurity and becomes a travel mainstay, and the year in which walki-talki becomes one of its major players. Whatever happens, I would simply like to wish everyone a healthy and prosperous 2010, a year in which everyone will have the opportunity, the resources and the freedom to travel to far away places.

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.

Jumbo Hostel, Strange but true, world architecture news, architecture jobs

The global economy isn’t so great. You may want to skimp on your next journey to Sweden and elect to stay at a hostel. Fortunately, you do not have to sacrifice on style by doing so. In fact, you can even forego the train fare to Stockholm and stay at the airport.

The new 747 jumbo jet hostel at the Stockholm airport is so innovative in design that it is being featured in architectural in World Architecture News online magazine.

Swedish architects Thomas Blom and Daniel Monsen partook in a novel design challenge when they were chosen to create the world’s first jumbo jet hostel which opened last month. Undergoing a complete overhall of its interior, the Jumbo Hostel, grounded at Stockholm Arlanda Airport since 2002, now accommodates 85 beds in 25 rooms of approximately 6 sq m. The Boeing 747 plane also contains separate bathrooms, a newly fitted seventies-retro lounge/reception area and retains many original features including business class seats and oxygen masks.

Both guests and visitors can enjoy breakfast and snacks in the onboard cafe, as well as being able to heat up your own in the jumbo’s microwaves! With rooms costing from just £28 the re-fit has turned a scrap-heap bound plane into one of Sweden’s newest landmark tourist attractions.

Soon enough, you will be able to skimp some more by taking the walki-talki.com mp3 walking tour of Stockholm. For now, enjoy the ambiance of this chic jumbo jet.

All images from World Architecture News, where you can find more images.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. In most places where they celebrate it, it is bitter cold. Some view it as the last opportunity to party before the forty days of lent begin. Others insist that it is the age-old tradition of worshiping the Greek and Roman Gods of wine.

Whatever you think are the reasons, you ought to give serious consideration to celebrating theis magnificent party that is known as Carnival, Carenevale, Mardi Gras, Karneval and many other names. In most places, Carnival will begin on February 13 (yes, Friday the thirteenth), 2009, and end, as usual, on Fat Tuesday (i.e., Mardi Gras), February 24. The biggest celebrations fall on Tuesday the 24th, but some of the biggest parties, like Rosenmontag in Cologne, Germany, (by far the biggest celebration in Germany), are on Monday the 23rd of February.

In general, you will find plenty of partying to do at every city where Carnival is celebrated for the entire duration of Carnival: from the 13th through the 24th. In New Orleans, the parades started on Saturday the 7th of February, as a matter of fact, and gradually pick up in size and frequency leading up to Mardi Gras. In Cologne, Germany, (so far, my only and favorite Karneval location) the Fasching festivities start on 10th of February. (Actually, technically, Karneval season in Cologne starts on November eleventh, 11/11 that is, of the previous year.)   In Venice, the Carnevale starts on the 14th of February, and you can find a small introduction to the Carnevale in the walki-talki.com self-guided audio walking tour of Venice.

If you are not going to be anywhere near Venice, New Orleans or Cologne in the next couple of weeks, you need not worry. Follow this Wikipedia article to find the Carnival celebration nearest you. This festival is celebrated from Rio de Janeiro to, oddly enough, India. In Europe alone, Carnival is celebrated in approximately 20 cities in Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain and Poland to name but a few countries. Chances are that there is a party near you. Do attend one and have a great time. The current world situation is not going to provide anyone any solace, not even the smallest quantum of it.

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!

Payam

That time of the year is drawing near. Yes, Carnival season. There are many choice places to enjoy it in Europe: Cologne, Düsseldorf, 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 (Köln), Germany, andinVenice, 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.

Payam