A 2,500-year-old gold cup that has spent the past 60 years in a box under its owner’s bed is expected to fetch up to £100,000 after being rediscovered during a house move.
The cup was given to John Webber by his grandfather, a rag-and-bone man, who acquired it in the 1930s.
Because his grandfather, William Sparks, dealt [...]
Archive for May, 2008
Janus Shows his Two Faces from Under a Bed
Posted in Religion/Mythology, tagged Alexander the Great, archaeology, janus, roman mythology on May 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Tunis: At the Nexus of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East
Posted in Africa, tagged comparative religion, cruise, North Africa, religion, travel, Tunis, Tunisia on May 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
THE night air was cold and damp on the narrow, walled streets of Tunis’s medina, and the markets and stores all dark and locked up tight for the night. But all it took was a single rap of the iron knocker on the wooden door at 5, rue Dar El Jeld and in that instant [...]
Don’t Eat, and Beat Jet-Lag
Posted in travel tips, tagged circadian rhythms, dieting, jet lag, travel, travel tips on May 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Starving yourself before a long flight may help prevent jet lag, according to U.S. researchers.
Normally, the body’s natural circadian clock in the brain dictates when to wake, eat and sleep, all in response to light. But it seems a second clock takes over when food is scarce, and manipulating this clock might help travelers adjust [...]
Pecuniary Matters
Posted in Mediterranean, tagged boom, bust, cruise, economics, Mediterranean, monetary policy, Rome, trade, travel on May 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The BBC News Magazine would like us to remember that times of economic difficulty are cyclical, and helpfully notes some penny-pinching periods of the distant past. It notes England of the 1440s, still recovering from the Black Death; the economic competition and workhouses of the 1830s and ’40s, when an onslaught of imports caught England [...]
The little-known tale of the Byzantine Vikings
Posted in Aegean, Mediterranean, Turkey, tagged byzantine empire, byzantium, constantinople, Istanbul, vikings, warfare on May 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Byzantine Empire is so remote, so strange, and so sunk between the two falls – the fall of the Roman Empire and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 – that it’s really hazy in the memory. For Byzantium, these days, there’s little room in the braincase, excepting an adjective (“byzantine,” synonymous with “annoying archaic [...]
Summer Travel Tips
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged flight delays, travel tips on May 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Hat-tip to National Geographic Traveler’s excellent Intelligent Travel blog for some great links to make your summer travel plans with TDI go even more smoothly. Chief among them are this site that gives you average wait times at U.S. airports and this site that gives you up-to-the-minute flight delay information.
Scandinavian Panoramas, Close to Home
Posted in North America, tagged great lakes, lake superior, midwest, minnesota, North America, travel on May 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Lake Superior’s granite coves and sheer cliffs, backed by deep pine, birch and fern forests, are reminiscent of the coast of Maine, right down to the vast expanse of lead-gray water that disappears into a shoreless horizon — the higher parts of the Michigan coast on the other side can only be glimpsed on clear [...]
Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul
Posted in Mediterranean, Turkey, tagged Istanbul, literature on May 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Guardian’s travel section introduces us to Istanbul via the musings of Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk in his Istanbul: Memories and the City, a memoir of the ’50s and ’60s:
“To savour Istanbul’s back streets, to appreciate the vines and trees that endow its ruins with accidental grace, you must, first and foremost, be a [...]
The Tomes of Timbuktu go Digital
Posted in Africa, tagged Timbuktu, travel on May 20, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The New York Times today reports a very exciting development: the great Arabic texts from the medieval Golden Age of Timbuktu are being digitized and made available online by aluka.org, in a joint project with Northwestern University. At least 300 of these texts are expected to be online by the end of this year.
According to [...]
Sexy.
Posted in Italy, Mediterranean, tagged ancient civilizations, ancient Rome, cruise, erotic art, fresco, Italy, Pompeii, prostitution on May 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Now, lest you think that, as per the last post, TDI voyages are overly eggheady, we wish — with this post — to assure you this is decidedly not the case. We have blood pumping through our veins too. And since we’re all mature adults here, we can let you in on a secret. We [...]
