This weekend I will post the first of a series of posts called Tracks Through Australia helping you discover the parts of Australia less travelled by the press and renew my acquaintance with a few more famous tracks. A series for travellers of Australia or travel vicariously with me through each post. Subscribe to the RSS feed so you do not miss an installment.
Three Travel Podcasts to Help Plan your Vacation
Posted on September 4, 2007 ·
Amateur Traveler
Chris Christensen presents the Amateur Traveler podcast mixing travel news, destination guides, interviews and travel know-how. He recently interviewed the Anders family who travelled around the world for a year, an inspiring story for anyone who is putting off travel because of the kids.
Travel with Rick Steves
Rick Steves is our primary guide in Europe through is wonderful guidebooks and television shows but his podcast encompasses travel destinations beyond Europe with the same simply philosophy of thoughtful travel he applies to Europe.
A Year in Europe
Cheryl and Scott spent the last year in Europe and sharing their discoveries through their podcast. While this one may have a limited shelf life as their trip ended in July 2007, their observations and recommendations are worth your time and may inspire you to try a similar journey.
Travel Photographs – Devil’s Marbles, Northern Territory, Australia
Posted on September 2, 2007 ·
Every week I like to share some of my travel photographs and this week we are going to the Devil’s Marbles (Karlu Karlu) in Australia’s Northern Territory:
Songs of Praise in Vernazza
Posted on September 1, 2007 ·
This video presentation combines my photos of Vernazza (Cinque Terre, Italy) with a song sung by the local choir on the eve of the Festival of Santa Margherita di Antiochia (their patron saint):
Hofbrauhaus – The Quintessential Munich Experience?
Posted on August 31, 2007 ·
Open any Munich guidebook and you will be encouraged to visit the Hofbrauhaus to experience the beer hall culture but should it be on your top five things to do list?
We headed into the cavernous beer hall, ears assaulted by the noise generated by the hundreds of customers punctuated infrequently by the oompah band blaring their music into the din. We retreated to the beer garden and found a table in the relative quiet and pondered the menu. Ordering proved painful, a distracted waiter who seemed to understand English and German no better than I speak German and led to a couple of errors with our meal order. He rectified the mistakes without any fuss but it did reduce our enjoyment of the meal.
We enjoyed the food (we love German food) but it did not reach any great culinary heights and I certainly would not recommend the Hofbrauhaus for the food. The beer is plentiful, wonderful and served in pitchers cunningly disguised as a beer mug and this is what most patrons are here to enjoy. For a ruckus night of fun with friends, new or old, the Hofbrauhaus is party central, grab a pretzel, ‘ein mass’ (a litre of beer) and hang-on for a rollicking ride through German inspired fun.
The Hofbrauhaus is famous and like many tourist meccas you meet more tourists than locals there but it certainly lives up to its party hype. For us, we would rather find a less travelled beer hall, meet the locals and save our eardrums. If you do visit, eat elsewhere first and be ready for enjoy your beer and party hard at the Hofbrauhaus. It is a fun experience but I’m not sure it is the quintessential Munich experience.