Money Money Money

Several prognosticators of travel lately have been saying that Americans and Canadians are getting downright giddy about the stronger dollar vs. the euro and what a difference that will make when they travel to Europe. In April, The New York Times said  save money when you travel to Europe.

That means you’ll save more than $100 on four nights at a hotel that costs 200 euros a night, and a 28 euro train ticket from Rome to Florence will cost $37 instead of $41 — small change in some cases, but the savings add up over a 10-day vacation.( NY Times April 18,2010)

Travel in France

And the scenario has gotten better since April. I have a little gizmo from Windows on my home screen that dynamically shows dollar/Euro rates, and as I write, the euro is worth $1.21. That sure beats the $1.75 we faced when we traveled to Ireland two years ago. (The Canadian dollar has had a surge in strength against the Euro, also.)

However, rather than looking for cheaper destinations, as they might do in economic bad times, American and Canadian travelers are still choosing the tried and true destinations. The Times reports a 20% increase in sales of tickets to Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain.

All of which explains why Fodors.com web site has a useful new front page concentrating on Europe. Not only do they have links to all the useful information on their site–on-line travel guides, forums, and booking engines, but they showcase 60 quickie itineraries recommended by their travel editors. These trips, by rail, boat, or car, cover all the high points region by region. I like the way each trip includes at least one unexpected destination. And of course the site provide endless information about each of the individual places.

You can choose by region, or if you’re more into a particular interest–from drinking beer to sky-diving, choose your type of trip.

But Wait! There’s More!! Fodor’s has joined with A Traveler’s Library to celebrate Bastille Day (July 14) by giving away guidebooks to France. You’ll have to wait until July to find out how to win.

I’m assembling a small library of books on France to give away on Bastille Day (or actually the day BEFORE, since July 14 is a Road Trip day).  So tell me, should one person get the collection of books about France–or should we share the love with one book per person for several winners? You can vote from now until July 1 on which way the contest should go.

Meanwhile, take a look at the To Europe campaign at Fodors.com, which lasts through June.

If you are wondering why I’m spending all this time talking about fodors.com, I do not profit from this discussion. I just happen to like their printed guides, find lots of useful info on their web pages, but am absolutely ADDICTED to their travel forums. If you have never used them, try them out! There’s a world of travel experience just waiting to help you.

The photos are taken by different photographers, both from Flickr, both used through Creative Commons license. Please click on the photos to see more of the photographers’ work.

Now vote.–One book or several?

And thinking about the Fodor’s promotion–do you like “canned” routes. Do you use them exactly or as a starting point, or not at all?

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If you are a caffeine addict, this made aid you in planning a trip.

And if you have not seen YourLifeIsATrip.com, I think you are in for a treat.

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Books in a whirl

We had a lot of fun in May at A Traveler’s Library, as I introduced some new books, shared travel plans and gave away a BUNCH of books.  Actually, although we gave away the contents of that box of books we started with….we have already accumulated ten more brand new books, and more are piling up fast. We’ll be giving away those in a future contest.

Also, watch for a France book giveaway on Bastille Day when I make a July France Trip Planning post.

News Items now have their own page. I urge you to check it out.

In May,

• I added an opportunity for you to put your Twitter handle with your name when you comment
• A Traveler’s Library was listed as one of Top 100 Travel Blogs and as one of Top 45 Travel Blogs.
• Featured in blogs by Connie Ong and by Stephanie Yoder at Andy Hayes’ web site.
• My Three Best Travel Secrets of Greece were part of an e-book project.
• The Lonely Planet Blog Sherpas got their own Squidoo Page, so you can follow all the great travel blogs that Lonely Planet likes.
• And LaLa Corriere’s guest post on a cookbook in the Dordogne is featured in the e-zine, Feast.

MOST POPULAR POSTS

Two new books showed up in the most-viewed posts this month, along with a road trip, slides, an author interview, and of course the May Giveaway.

Since people who enter through the home page are lumped together, the individual posts do not get credit for drawing them to A Traveler’s Library, so these counts show entry points of visitors. (Also if you look at “Popular Posts” in the sidebar, you’ll see some additional posts listed–those are posts that were created before May, so they do not count for my purposes here.)

1. The Great American Road Trip visit to West Virginia
2. A Slide Show of LBJ homes near Fredericksburg, Texas
3. The New Travel Book, Currency, about Thailand
4. The May Giveaway main page
5. The new book on Indian religions by William Dalrymple
6. Steinway’s California: an author interview by Dr. Jessie Voigts

Frequent Commenters

Usually about here I list the most frequent commenters, however, because of the May contest, the pattern of commenting is not consistent with most months, so I’m skipping that this time. Next month, however, if you keep commenting even when you are not winning a prize, I’ll recognize you!

Traffic

I’m fascinated with the whole subject of blog traffic and how it works. How do links to a blog affect traffic? How can bloggers encourage traffic to their blogs? What kind of links are the most valuable?

It will come as no surprise that Google comes in way at the top. I not only get people coming to my blog from Google in America, but also from Google UK, Canada, Germany, Australia, Italy, India and France and probably other countries as well. (Did you notice the cute little world map in the sidebar? It shows you where in the world visitors are coming from RIGHT THIS MOMENT.)

Right on the heels of Google, comes Stumble Upon, and I do several things to encourage people to Stumble my blog. After those major sources of traffic, come:

• Bloggies (Still am getting traffic from their nomination of A Traveler’s Library as one of the five Best Travel Blogs for 2010.)
• Google Groups (Thanks WSBR and TravSocial–you know who you are!)
• Facebook Facebook traffic has increased since I’ve added that widget showing who is subscribed. You can subscribe by hitting the subscribe button under all those nice pictures over there→
• www.fisheracademy.blogspot.com (This is a home schooling site that mentioned my guest blog by Mara Gorman on the children’s book about Monet’s Garden. For the second month now, it is generating traffic.)
• Blog directories Blogger.com and Travelblogsites help traffic, as does Lonely Planet, where I’m a Blog Sherpa and Wandering Educators, where I write a monthly column.

Would you like to make this list next month? Just mention A Traveler’s Library and link back to my site and see what magic happens.

The pictures are from Flickr, compliments of the Creative Commons license. Click on each image to meet the photographer.

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World Travel Map

1. Indie Travel Podcast has just published my own review of National Geographic Traveler’s new travel guides to Vietnam and Argentina. (Immodest announcement.)
2. Great Site: Private Library, will help you build a library of your own, and tell you all the sources for books and how to get them at rock bottom prices. Here’s a 3-part series on books on railroads that you may love.
3. A President’s Wife goes traveling: New York Times review of new book about Mrs. John Quincy Adams’ journey from St. Petersburg Russia to Paris.
4. Interesting list of 10 unique bookstores. If you are traveling to bookstores, I would add the Singing Wind Bookstore, located on a ranch in a remote area of Southern Arizona. Fascinating owner and great collection of books.
5. Just launched in May. Trip News Wire.  All the news items a world traveler needs.

Don’t you love that map? If you click on it you learn that it shows sites of famous travel adventures around the world. Here’s the caption on Flickr: A poster featuring cartooned representations of worldwide famous stories. Woo Hoo! Let’s Go.

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WW II Re-enactment

On Memorial Day, a museum on Main Street in Fredericksburg, Texas, draws a big crowd as lives lost in war are commemorated. Dignitaries lay 50 wreaths, each honoring a unit or ship that served in World War II.

IT STARTS WITH ADMIRAL NIMITZ

The only national museum dedicated solely to the WWII war in the Pacific, The National Museum of the Pacific War stands on Main Street of the lovely small town of Fredericksburg Texas. If at first it seems to be an odd place for a world-class museum, take a look at their website. You can learn there how it evolved, starting when 5-Star Admiral Chester Nimitz, who grew up in that Texas town, said he would only agree to a museum if it honored EVERYONE who served—not just him.

The first time I visited, the George H. W. Bush Gallery was not yet complete, but I visited the Admiral Nimitz Museum, in the restored Nimitz Hotel on Main Street. It takes about 30 minutes to see the displays of Nimitz’ life from his childhood in Fredericksburg, to his stirring role in the Pacific during World War II.

THE COURTYARD AND GARDENS

Between the Nimitz and the Bush Galleries, you can wander through a Memorial Courtyard (where the Memorial Day wreaths will lie), a Japanese Garden of Peace, and a Plaza of Presidents, that honors all the Presidents involved in some way in World War II.

George H.W. Bush Gallery

A PRESIDENT WAR HERO IN WW II

The second time I visited, the enormous and impressive George H.W. Bush Gallery had been completed, and I shuffled into the entry hall that explains the history of enmity between Japan and the West. An enormous crowd packed the entry hall. As I walked further, the space opened up, the crowd thinned, and it was possible to have private moments to ponder the events and players that interested me most.

I’ll date myself here, but as a very small child, I remember people pouring into the street to celebrate the victory over Japan. I also have some ration books to remind me of the civilian sacrifice during the war. Finally, as I wrote last year on Veteran’s Day, I had three relatives who were Navy Seabees in the Pacific.

I was moved by the letters from sailors, and the photographs and mother’s voice of a family of brothers all killed in the Pacific. I was terrified by the re-enactment of standing on a boat in the harbor when the Japanese attacked Hawaii. But I came close to tears when I came upon a couple looking at a display and remembering how it related to their own life. A woman wheeling her husband in a wheelchair. A couple recalling her veteran father’s stories. People the war had touched.

My feet, my back, and my brain all became overwhelmed after a couple of hours, and I had not seen everything. That is why they sell 48 hour tickets, so people can come back the next day and start fresh. Great idea.

COMBAT ZONE

A major part of the museum that I did not get to visit, The Pacific Combat Zone, occupies about three acres two blocks east of the main campus.  It definitely gives me a good reason to go back to Fredericksburg (besides wonderful art galleries, shopping, restaurants and vineyards, that is).

Tom Vortman, Marketing Director, tells me, “We offer guided one-hour tours (of the Combat Zone) daily.  Some of the major artifacts to see are the PBM Avenger, the last WWII combat PT boat (PT-309), and a MASH-style field hospital in a Quonset hut.  All three of these artifacts are indoors.  Outdoors we have two tanks, a landing craft, several guns and a mock battle field.  We use this in the World War II re-enactments presented seven weekends a year (six 75-minute shows each weekend).” Visitors feel the vibrations as a tank rumbles by, hear the sounds of actual weapons from WW II, and if they get too close, may feel the heat of the only operational flame-thrower in Texas.

A BOOK FOR THE TIME TRAVELER

I particularly like the closing event at today’s Memorial Day Service at the National Museum of the Pacific War. An Author’s Forum on in the afternoon features Bruce Gamble, author of Fortress Rabaul:  The Battle for the Southwest Pacific, January 1942-April 1943.  This is the story of Japan invading the Southwest Pacific island of New Britain the beginning of 1942.  Rabaul, on the northern tip of New Britain Island became a major military complex, the mightiest Japanese base in the Southwest Pacific.

So I leave you with a book and a reminder that A Traveler’s Library has remembered war veterans in previous articles. Naples in World War II, Apocalypse Now and Good Morning Vietnam in Vietnam,the resistance in France.

Just so you know, my second trip to Fredericksburg was hosted by the Fredericksburg Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. The pictures for this article are used with the permission of the National Pacific War Museum.

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(Even though we are still waiting to give away the final daily prizes–see below.) Contest is over.

Grand Prize Number One: The DuPonts: Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine Valley: Connie Ong

Grand Prize Number Two: Inge Morath’s Iran: Kerry Dexter

Grand Prize Number Three: Coast to Coast: Mark Heers (He lives in Australia but met the requirements of the contest by having a U.S. Address.)

Grand Prize Number Four, the beautiful A La Carte Map of your choice will be drawn on Tuesday morning. Comments and subscriptions and tweets through midnight (MST) Monday are eligible.

The 7th Prize: Two fiction history books by Norah Lofts: Mark Heers (Remember winners from this round are eligible for grand prize.

The 8th Prize: Two Edgar-nominated mysterys: Carl Hoffman, author of Lunatic Express

The 9th Prize: Two children’s travel activity books: (Winner responded but still need address.)

10th Prize:  A children’s activity book:  Zoe Zolbrod, author of the Thailand travel book, Currency

There are two books left: (Contest is now over)

Each goes to the first person to ask for it in a comment or Tweet (mentioning @pen4hire). (No fair asking for both books).

The two books let you choose between taking a virtual summer trip in Greece or plan a trip to Cambodia. Which will it be? Who will it be? Back to you soon.

Cafe Tempest, Adventures on a Small Greek Island OR

Culture Smart’s Guide to Cambodia

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NASA's View of the World

I’m a World Travel Blogger.

First you read about the world.
Then you plan a trip.
You have become a world traveler.

At A Traveler’s Library, we define travel books as those that define a place or a culture and make us want to go there. And we define world travel as ANYWHERE in the world–from a few blocks away from home (36 Hours in Tucson), to a  South Pacific Island.

If a road trip around America does not sound like world travel to you, keep in mind that Europeans and Asians and South Americans come to the U.S. for road trips all the time. And a Greek writer set a thriller on America’s roads. That’s world travel too.

All of the above explains why I am so proud that A Traveler’s Library was chosen as one of the Lonely Planet Blog Sherpas, and why I am so pleased to meet so many other bloggers talking about travel. You can find my posts scattered among the pages of the Lonely Planet web site.

Once Lonely Planet put these bloggers all in the same room, so to speak, by creating a list serve, a strange and wonderful thing happened–they became a world-wide family. Little by little, like a baby exploring its fingers and toes, they realized that they could increase their reach by banding together.

Lots of ideas are rolling around on that list serve of LP Sherpas, but one of the best was the creation of this world travel Squidoo page. Any time your travel lust needs a little tickle, take a look at this list of bloggers talking travel.

Note: You will not find all of these bloggers on my favorites page for various technical reason.  Just bookmark that Squidoo page and you will have your own window into world travel, with links to their latest posts.

Please tell me: Where do you go when you need to get information on travel? When you just want to learn about a place you didn’t know about before? What are your best Internet resources for travel? Let’s pool our resources.

And remember, if you subscribe by e-mail you DOUBLE your chances of winning in the May Travel Book Giveaway. Not to mention that you double your reading fun by getting these posts in your mail box when they are fresh out of the oven.

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A radio show with some big name travel writers discussing travel writing.

100 Travel Novels

In case you don’t have enough books to read, check out this list of 100 travel novels that let you travel the world courtesy of the On-Line Degrees site.

Favorites Page

I’ve added a couple of sites to my favorites page lately. That’s a very good place to go when you are looking for some good reading, because I am very, very picky. All picks are listed alphabetically, and then by category, so you should be able to pick what you want pretty easily.

Let me tell you about one site: Feast. This is a quarterly newsletter that brings you news about books, art and travel  all rolled into one. Great read, and highly recommended.

And then there is Literary Journeys with the Traveling Rat. A librarian posts book reviews, many having the same sort of criteria we use here. The posts are not frequent, but browsing past posts will get you some great reads.

Short post today. Happy Mother’s Day Weekend.

Don’t forget the Great Big Travel Literature Giveaway II. Comments today count toward a drawing at midnight tonight (Friday). Comments on Saturday and Sunday count toward the drawing Monday night.

Good luck everybody. And happy weekend.

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My pick for first, Jo Nesbo’s Nemesis did not make it. (What do I know? But I still am a great fan!)

I will be reviewing the novel chosen as Best Mystery Novel of 2010,

John Hart‘s The Last Child, on June 2 when the Great American Road Trip goes to North Carolina.

Now read on to take the mystery out of food and travel in the Dordogne.…..

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Mystery writers quite frequently can beat travel books in providing the best atmospheric descriptions of a destination. “…one of the best ways to get a glimpse of another culture is through the lens of crime fiction, the literature of the streets and dark alleys and underclass,” says the blog International Noir.

I have read two of these completely and read parts of the others. I have presented my choices here (remembering that there are two more) Oh dear! And which will win the Edgars?? Another mystery.

The Odds, book cover

#4The Odds by Kathleen George (Pittsburgh)

The Odds carries you into the minds of a group of pre-teens and teens thrown into a precarious situation. Kathleen George has a natural sense of drama, since she is a theater professor. This is an easy read, and in fact would be a good book for the young adult reader

John Hart, thriller writer

#2 (tie)The Last Child by John Hart (North Carolina)

Hart’s previous book Down River won an Edgar Award for Best Novel. He lives in North Carolina, and sets his books there. I  will be reviewing this on the Great American Road Trip (Announcing that is a spoiler of sorts).

#2 (tie)A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn (South Africa)

A film maker turned mystery writer, she was born in Swaziland and lives in Australia. See Malla Nunn on YouTube talking about her book. Or see her home page at Simon & Schuster. She beautifully recreates both a time (post WWII and a place–apartheid South Africa.) An engrossing book with fascinating, complex characters.

My First Choice: Nemesis by Jø Nesbo

Nemesis Book Cover

This police procedural novel teeters on the edge of literary fiction. It delves deeply into the human pysche and motivations. First published in Norway (2002) it took a while to be translated into English (2008) and finally made it’s way to America in 2009.

Now I must try to express my enthusiasm without resorting to spoilers. Regardless of the British translation with some slang unfamiliar to Americans, the skill of this writer just pulls you through the pages. The third in a series about Detective Harry Hole, ensures he will join other icons of mystery writing as an interesting character. (books one and two are not in English yet, but #5 was published first according to International Noir ) Harry occasionally slips back into alcoholism, but it does not stop him from juggling three unrelated cases with some common themes.

You learn a lot about the weather and the daily life of various Norwegians as Harry runs about the city. You can follow his movements on the handy map in the front, and then travel to Oslo and follow in his footsteps.

A Nesbø description:

The rain showers petered out later in the day. The sun peeped out in between all the leaden grey, and then the clouds parted like curtains opening on the final act.  It would turn out to be the last hours of a blue sky before the city of Oslo pulled the grey winter duvet over its head.

Harry’s partner has the handy (for a police officer) “malady” known as fusiform gyrus. Although Harry at first thinks that means a Mac program, he learns it is the ability to remember faces. Nesbø scatters such humorous references to modern life and also to popular music through the book.

This book teaches you early on to pay attention–don’t miss anything because you may be either led down a blind alley if you are not attentive, or be given a helpful clue if you are reading carefully.

Harper published the English edition of the fourth Harry Hole book in January 2010 .  You can darn betcha that I’m getting my hands on The Devil’s Star as soon as possible. And that’s not a spoiler.

Because I am talking about so many books here, I did not link them all to Amazon, but if you are going to buy, and want the convenience, I appreciate your clicking any Amazon link on the site and buying there. Thanks!

We talked about another Scandinavian detective and two books by Finnish Tove Janssen but this is my first Norwegian book.

Do you have a favorite mystery writer who does a super job with describing a place? (Tomorrow the Great American Road Trip goes to D.C. and I talk about my favorite thriller guide to the capitol city.) Tell me your finds in mystery writers who love locale.

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