Tagged With "Grand Central Station"
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Re: England’s Thames Path: Kew Gardens
My wife Diane and I spent almost an entire day at Kew Gardens. So much natural beauty to see. We arrived from central London at the Kew Station in mid-morning and didn't leave until almost dusk. At one time our son had a possibility of being transferred to London and I recommended getting a place in the Kew Garden area for the beauty and quiet. One of my photos from Kew.
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Re: Trains in Cuba
Great question...and possibly not an easy clear answer. Cuba's trains have generally been in poor shape in recent years as older equipment has run down and spares not available. However, according to Mark Smith (The Man in Seat 61), that's changing with the arrival of a fleet of new Chinese-built locomotives. On his site ( Seat61.com ) he has an extensive update of recent changes in schedules, routes and locations (that's important because Havana's main station is closed for a 3-year...
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Re: Edinburgh, Scotland for 2.5 days....help!
Hi Chickpea, Your hotel is very central as you say. There is a regular bus service to certain attractions. We visited in January and had no problem with entry to attractions, the Castle, National Gallery etc. I would only suggest that you check out the individual attractions websites to obtain tickets in advance if you wish. Hope this helps, Paul.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#288)
Leave the station and you might run into this scarecrow.
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Re: Made in Romania-Beauties from Romania
Yes here is the description: 0:00- 0:04- Apuseni Mountains 0:04-0:14- Dragan Valey 0:14-0:24- Danube Delta 0:24- 0:31- Sighisoara City 0:31- Danube River 0:48- Constantin Brancusi's art- "Coloana Infintitului" 1:05- Sibiu county 1:44- Bran Castle- Brasov County 2:06- Huniazilor Castle- Hunedoara 2:22- Peles Castle 2:30- Brasov County- Central Square, and The Black Church 3:14- Sarmizegetusa- The Capital of antique Dacia 3:24- Bucharest- the capital of Romania I think that's it
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #11
And what possible good is a puzzle without a bit of chicanery - by definition, I should think. I haven't seen the arena at Arles, though it's already on my list for the next visit to France. I have walked past the arena in Verona as it was between the train station and the garden I'd come to photograph. Likely why it came to mind just after the Colosseum.
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #11
PortMoresby put the finger on what made this one hard. It was the ancient-days equivalent of being asked to identify a free-standing Barnes and Noble store, or an Exxon station. Easy to know what it is, not so easy to know where . What's been fun in these is watching people dig out bits and pieces that then fuel other folks' guesses. WorkerBee has done that a number of times; in this case, even though T&N doesn't play as a guesser, the geological analysis of the stones was a stunning...
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Re: Suggestions wanted: Andalusia
Will you have a car? I ask, because if you will, you might consider stopping at one or more of the White Towns between Seville & Granada. I stayed a week in a house just outside Iznajar, a lovely little place, and visited a bigger town, Antequera, worth a stop. For a brief stop I'd recommend the smaller town, one of a number in the area, millions of olive trees everywhere. There is no train there although Antequera has a station, but outside the town. Below the town of Iznajar, beside...
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Re: Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit, Kennedy Space Center
Thanks for an orbit of memory lane! I think for me the most amazing aspect of the whole space program is how we have moved from each launch being a major news event before, during and after to seeing space in the papers only when something goes wrong--and these days, it seems to be mostly plumbing issues on the International Space Station. Looking at the pictures...it's amazing how big some aspects are, and how small the actual shuttle is!
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Re: Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit, Kennedy Space Center
I enjoyed watching todays launch from Virginia. A Ton of supplies to get aboard the Spacestation ! And 10,000 ants ! The folks on the station have to reach out and grab it as it floats around. Just as well its weightless !
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Re: Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit, Kennedy Space Center
Last launch I watched was from the East Coast of Florida - maybe near Cocoa Beach. The Sky was complete darkness, just a few stars and the moon. We were listening to the launch radio station from about T minus 15 minutes - as NASA described the last minute checks. A few seconds before launch time you could see the ground at Cape Canaveral illuminated like a bright white flare. The steam from the launch pad turned into a white cloud and on "Zero" the rocket was moving slowly into the air. For...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Oct. 13: Brussels' Saucy Statue
He's much smaller than I thought -- and I'm talking about the height of the little guy. Besides chocolate their tinkling mascot, the Belgiums also love beer and comics. I was quite surprised at what a comic book culture they have.
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Re: Christmas in Arizona--what to do?
Arizona is a huge state, EyeWonder. Where exactly were you going to be home-based during your Christmas vacation? It would help to know so that we could better advise you.
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Re: Christmas in Arizona--what to do?
Anywhere around the Phoenix area would be good. Northern Arizona (Grand Canyon) gets winter. Scottsdale is a popular destination with great resorts and there are many budget hotels in the area. I would use Fashion Square Mall as your search area.
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Re: Christmas in Arizona--what to do?
Thanks everyone. I have to ask you more questions! My friends have come up with two more suggestions. One is Sedona, and the other is the Navajo reservation that Tony Hillerman wrote all his books about and that has some big canyons. Is that area too far north for warm weather?
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Re: Christmas in Arizona--what to do?
Originally Posted by EyeWonder: Thanks everyone. I have to ask you more questions! My friends have come up with two more suggestions. One is Sedona, and the other is the Navajo reservation that Tony Hillerman wrote all his books about and that has some big canyons. Is that area too far north for warm weather? Navajo country is too far north and too high up for a warm winter break. But if you bring a warm jacket, it will be magical that time of year. Sedona will be nice, but with cooler days...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec. 17, 2013: Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec
Yes Montreal is great. Wish I could go back more often. The fun thing about these attractions is while they are all near one another, there is also a metro station nearby. Cheaper than the taxi and an experience in itself. This is only the tip of the iceberg...so much more to see and experience.
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
Fascinating read! If I do take this train trip, and it's currently included in the plan, for our hoped for trip to Mynamar later this year, I can't say I wasn't warned. Coming from a country that shakes, rattles, and rolls pretty much every day there were two things about the earthquake that worried me. First, it was big enough to produce screams!! Second, it seems that no-one bothered to check the tracks before the train left the station. And so as I was reading I expected a derailment -...
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Re: Capital of Culture Series: Liverpool
In Europe, I have had good luck finding value accommodations at Booking.com and Europe-Stays. com. Those sites list hostels with their ratings and prices. A quick peek for June shows several promising choices for around $ 21 USD per bed per night. Unless you just want company, you might budget hotels pricing similar to the hostels. They often charge per person, not per room, which is a big help for the solo traveler. Tune Hotels will work for the London part of your trip, but they are not in...
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Re: The Tulou of Fujian Province
HistoryDigger, I'll explain. At the end of the first day of tulou visits, the large tour bus rendezvoused with a small van and it was indicated that I should bring my things and come with a young man. Since no one could explain, I had to simply trust and go along, an interesting sensation. I later realized that I was the only one who had opted for the second day. The young man drove me to a very basic village of mostly new buildings built, I suspect but of course don't know, for...
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Re: Capital of Culture Series: Liverpool
In a way, most of the places in the world worth visiting have some history of being "dirty, industrial" places--that's where people cluster and societies are forged. The ancient cities of the Middle East and Greece, and Rome itself were like that! We recently visited the excavated Roman city under central Barcelona, and were surprised to see how much of the area in the center of the ancient city was given over to commercial laundry, large-scale dye works and industrial-scale wine-making. The...
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Re: Capital of Culture Series: Liverpool
No offense taken...your remark just started me on a train of thought that stopped at a new station!
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Re: Do you Like these Hotel Tipping Tips ?
Garry, I have to disagree with you there...having worked in situations like that. It's certainly true that there are often too many tables to serve (if the owner can get by with three waiters instead of four or five, that's money in his pocket). And it's true that too many tables means poor service, even when you want to do better: You just can't, and that often means lower tips as well. Remember: if the party coming in the door is not on your station, you're not serving them. And if they...
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Re: Doctor List for Traveling
As with many things travel, insurance is a matter of choice. Travel Health Insurance seems to be a lot more expensive in the US than elsewhere. Policies in the US usually include trip cancellation and medical coverage and often run 5-6% the cost of a trip. Given the amount you travel, Mac, the investment of a few hundred dollars a year seems prudent to me. But when I was 30 the thought of insurance never crossed my mind. Not once. A few years ago I did start buying trip cancellation (and...
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Re: Put Stuttgart on Your Travel List
Many European towns have a Central Square where concerts and displays by local groups entertain us. Is Stuttgart like this ? Does it have Art Galleries that survived the war years ? Stuttgart isn't one of the places you associate with tourists in Germany but you've given us a taster. Thanks Rob !
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Re: Put Stuttgart on Your Travel List
Thanks Garry. Stuttgart really is a fun city.The Central Squares in Stuttgart do seem to have a lot going on. I did't get a chance to go to any Art museums there yet . Next trip!
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Mar. 30, 2014: Jean Cocteau on Wine
Well, borders change and Jerez is no longer "on the edge" of anything. Aside from the sherry houses, it seemed a pleasant mid-size city with nice parks and squares, a gorgeous tiled rail station and an Alcazar with an interesting history. The last two are featured in a blog here on TravelGumbo. See https://www.travelgumbo.com/blo...-window-into-history
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Re: Grand Central Terminal, New York (Where Gumbo Was #164)
Looks like you have a great liking for the good old days of the railroad. Loved the reference to the new complex - It was picking up steam in the 80s and 90s. Fascinating slice of architecture hidden away. But better a market hall than a memory.
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Re: Grand Central Terminal, New York (Where Gumbo Was #164)
Love the history and old photos! Nice post!
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Re: Grand Central Terminal, New York (Where Gumbo Was #164)
And thanks to you, DrF, for suggesting it to me as a topic!
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Re: Wolves or Cheese: France must decide
I love wolves. They are beautiful, but they are also smart and efficient predators. An easy food source like sheep is something they'll go back to again and again once tried, especially if they develop a taste for mutton. Much easier than bringing down a deer, for example, or chasing rabbits. Cattle ranchers in the north central US plains and Canada face a similar problem, where wolves can develop a taste for calves. And that is much more costly to ranchers than the loss of a sheep.
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Re: Passport Woes
Almost disaster. We once purchased a new Volvo back in 1991 and a trip to the factory in Goteborg Sweden to pick up the car was included. We picked up our new car and crossed via ferry into Denmark without a hitch. But at the German customs and passport control station, I was denied entry including our vehicle. I had shaved off my beard a few months prior, but my passport photo still showed the beard. The German officials kept saying that it wasn't my passport and to produce my real...
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Re: Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg, Canada. Where Gumbo Was #36
You must be civilised in Canada too - cricket ! The original design for Central Park NY was made here - near Liverpool UK Birkenhead Park. Same guy did both. Just a bit smaller. We're a bit pushed for space over here !
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Re: Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg, Canada. Where Gumbo Was #36
Close but no cigar on Central Park's designer (who also did my backyard, Brooklyn's Prospect Park). Birkenhead was the work of Joseph Paxton, while the other two were done by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Olmsted visited Birkenhead in 1850, three years after it opened, and while he was already thinking about Central Park, which opened in 1858. In his book "Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England, Olmsted wrote about Birkenhead: "five minutes of admiration, and a few more...
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Re: Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg, Canada. Where Gumbo Was #36
In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted won a design competition to improve and expand Central Park with a plan he entitled the Greensward Plan . 8 years AFTER Olmsted visited the Peoples Garden - Birkenhead Park England. He said "that in democratic America there was nothing to be thought of as comparable with this People’s Garden" So he took the plans back to New York. Entered the Central Park competition 8 years later. And won using Paxton plans from the Peoples Garden in England as a guide.
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Re: Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg, Canada. Where Gumbo Was #36
Apr 13, 2013 The boss of New York’s Central Park hailed his first visit to Birkenhead Park which inspired its design as “a dream come true” Doug Blonsky, president and chief executive of the New York Central Park said: “You drive around Birkenhead Park and there is no question that the physical similarities between here and Central Park are there" “To come here and take a look at it is a dream come true for me."
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #37
Looking closer...no sign of a bell, so not a church steeple. When you look closer, too many people (tourists?) for a firewatch station. Long walkway...must connect to some building? Otherwise, why so high off the ground. Can't be a pedestrian bridge; no way down from the walkway level. I'm stumped!
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo (#38)
Well, I suspect it is England, given the overflowing litter bin and no parking yellow lines (oh joy!). It looks probably to be a minor town station from the Victorian era. And now I'm clutching at straws!!
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo (#38)
Perhaps clutching at straws would not be a bad idea...since proverbially you can't make a brick (station) without straw! No, you're definitely on the track, and so is the station...but which one?
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo (#38)
Here's a view of the other side of the station...economizers once wanted to remove these beautiful fixtures, but after protests, they were restored instead. When the railroad first opened in this town, half the population were on "poor relief;" the railroad enabled its goods to sell over a wider area and made the town prosperous.
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo (#38)
Well, folks...if you look closely at Garry's second picture, you can see the station sign for Kettering (Northamptonshire)...and that's the answer! Full details tomorrow, and a new puzzle on Wednesday morning...be sure to get in on it! And congrats to Garry! (Care to share with the readers how you did it?)
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Re: Kettering, Northamptonshire: Where Gumbo Was (#38)
Thanks! Been fun for me, too...I enjoy when people keep poking at it, and it was learning for me, too! All I knew before was that I liked the station, and had passed through it on the way to Corby...
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Re: Kettering, Northamptonshire: Where Gumbo Was (#38)
When I was researching the history of the land my house is built on I opened up so much information. During WW1 the land was used for a temporary Army Camp. Many new soldiers were from Wales - 20 miles away - who spoke no English ! But on the 8th June 1917 Capt. (later General) Patton arrived in the Port of Liverpool England on his way to France. He took a train to Litherland Railway Station and stayed here in my garden until he left to catch a Train from Liverpool to London. I often find...
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? (#71)
Jonathan L's e-mail to suggestions@travelgumbo.com yesterday correctly identified the scene as being along the Petite Ceinture, a former commuter and freight rail line circling Paris. Last chance for added glory: Can anyone identify the specific station?
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? (#71)
There are a lot of similarities between this station and Atlanta's Brookwood Amtrak Station at 1688 Peachtree St NW, as viewed from the south, including tracks too close together, narrow platforms, long steep stairs, iron fence, the pitch of the roof (which at one time was red spanish clay tile), the brackets supporting the roof, the windows overlooking the track, the weeds, the general condition, the congested neighborhood, and of course the lack of parking.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Nov. 16, 2014: American Golden Plover
Yes, Arctic birds are common in southern USA, Central and South America and further north during migration. But to see them in their beautiful breeding colours, you need to go to the Arctic in spring or early summer. This plover had already changed to grey by mid-August.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#59)
It kind of reminds me a train station....Maybe one of the Paris stations.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#59)
I knew I'd seen this so went through all my photos. at first I also thought train station in Europe but your most recent clues helped. It's the Harold Washington Library in Chicago?
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Re: Finding Your Hike in Prospect Park
Garry, it’s right in Central Brooklyn, surrounded by residential neighborhoods that range from quite poor to distressingly wealthy. Unlike Brooklyn Bridge Park, born in an age when it somehow seems acceptable to people to make condos part of a park, there would be huge opposition to messing with Prospect Park; in fact, even small changes can generate lots of discussion. But let’s not think parks are always safe; a few years ago, the Yankees were allowed to swap park land parcels for their...