walki-talki.com Travel Blog

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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…

Clint Bagwell Consulting: Subway for iPhone

We told you earlier about subway maps for your iPod. It is not surprising at all that a similar service is now available for the iPhone. Why should this iPhone service be better than the iPod service? The iPhone offers more visualization features than the iPod. (Although the new iPod Touch matches many of the iPhone’s features.) Along with the bigger screen, the new visualization features of the iPhone and iPod Touch make it possible for you to use the device to follow the pdf map for each tour, as well as examine the additional media that we supply with each track.

This is awfully convenient from walki-talki.com’s point of view, of course, because the iPhone and the iPod Touch can each serve as a single comprehensive solution for deploying our walking tours. You can play our tours, view the pdf map, and decide which subway route to take to your next stop.

King James Bible + Proverbs + Psalms for your iPod

In my own travels as of late, I have noticed that fewer and fewer hotels store a copy of the Bible in the desk drawer. This development never bothered me, but there were at times a sense of unease. Nothing bad ever happened, of course, but it felt as if I was being cared for perhaps a bit less than in times past. If you have ever had this feeling, or if you ever feel it is necessary to have a copy of the Bible with you on your travels, follow the link above to take a copy of the King James Bible with you on your iPod along with our mp3 walking tours of Europe.

For a slightly higher price, you can order the Old Testament, too.

None of this should be construed as endorsements of any kind. Rather, these are merely links to satisfy any curiosities you may have had.

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