University Challenge

What are No Crowds favourite destinations in America? College towns. Think, Berkeley in California and Chapel Hill/Durham in North Carolina - and there are so many more.


A quick survey on Twitter produced this list of favourites:


Cambridge, Massachusetts
Madison, Wisconsin
Charlottesville, Virginia
Princeton, New Jersey
Ann Arbor Michigan
Santa Cruz, California
Providence, Rhode Island
Hanover, New Hampshire

Without much effort, you could put together an awesome trip across America just visiting towns with colleges and universities. They all share characteristics that make for great travel destinations. And you don’t have to be young or a student to enjoy them.

They are all cosmopolitan. They always have some interesting (non-chain) places to stay. They have lots of restaurants at all price points and tons of bars, cafes, bookstores and art house cinemas that stay open late. The campuses are invariably beautiful and filled with arts and sports venues that are open to the public, all at student prices. There’s even pretty good public transportation. It all boils down to big city amenities without the crowds, the cost or the stress.

Are you sold on the idea yet? Well, we are. So much so that for the next six weeks we will be “embedded” at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University just outside of Boston finishing a degree that was begun 32 years ago. To make the experience more authentic (and because we’re frugal and lazy) we’ll be living in the dorm, something we haven’t done since Jimmy Carter was President, the Red Army Faction was on trial and Apple Computer was incorporated.

OK, it’s been a while but we think it’s very cool that the University is supporting this Ueber-mature student in her late but sincere desire to finish up. This project would also not have been possible without the support of the Editor and family:

“Hey Mom, you’re living in the dorm. Jesus, you’re gonna hate it. Imagine living with 100 people just like me”.

“Hey Sis, don’t you remember that there was always some crazy old lady on campus and you always wondered what she was doing there. Now you ARE the crazy old lady on campus. Have a great time.”

Beam Me Aboard, Mrs Reffle

Stardate 1314.5. As Americans flock into cinemas to see the new Star Wars movie, No Crowds headed for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London to check out the Linley Sambourne House. It’s not exactly the Star Ship Enterprise, but a visit to the perfectly preserved Victorian house at 18 Stafford Terrace is also a voyage of discovery, this time of the 1890s, that is equally loveable. It’s life in London, Jim, but not as we know it.

To visit the family home of the celebrated cartoonist Linley Sambourne, who lived at 18 Stafford Terrace from 1875 to 1919, you need to book a guided tour. Two options exist depending on the day and time. Either you go around the house with a “regular” guide or, on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, you can be a guest of the Sambournes and be taken round the house by a member of the family household. In our case, the guide was the housekeeper, Mrs Reffle, who met us at the door in Victorian dress and all in a tizzy as we were not expected, - even though, as the 21st century website recommended, we booked our tour in advance.

But being a gossipy and cheery soul who clearly enjoyed spilling the beans on the family more than seeing to the housework, Mrs Reffle showed us straight in to dining room and proceeded to regale us with the cost of the house (£2,000) and the wall paper (£70) as compared to her annual salary (£25), plus what went on the other evening at Oscar Wilde’s house and the amount of claret and champagne consumed at the previous night's dinner party. With a raised eye brow, Mrs Reffle pointed out the table upon which Mr Sambourne, who had a penchant for taking ‘artistic’ photographs of naked women, posed his models and the more sedate desk where Mrs Sambourne kept the family accounts.

And so it went as we travelled through the five story house. Thanks to the fact that the Sambourne’s were concerned with presenting a fashionable and artistic home and that virtually nothing has been altered in the place since the 1890s, we spent a perfect hour time travelling through the Victorian universe under the guidance and steady hand of Captain Reffle. The children on our “trip” had a splendid time as did the adults.

London has more than its fair share of excellent time-travelling tourist attractions; Dennis Severs House, the Old Operating Theatre and the Ben Franklin House come immediately to mind, but as good as they are, I have never seen a group of tourists turn themselves over to an experience with quite the same enthusiasm as at Linley Sambourne House. This is tourism with a twist and the combination of the perfectly preserved house and tour guiding theatrics is an absolute winner. Go Saturday and Sunday afternoon and give Mrs Reffle out best.

The Linley Sambourne House
18 Stafford Terrace
London
Tel: 0207 602 3316
Email: museums@rbkc.gov.uk

Photo courtesy of the Linley Sambourne House

Vienna: A City of Dreams - Old and New

Vienna, city of dreams. Former capital of a vast empire. One of the best stage sets in Europe. The traumatised birthplace of modernism and the eastern outpost of the western world. A magnificent open air museum of charming manners and irresistible pastries. And once upon a time, I lived there.

It was 1976 but it may as well have been 1889. It was hard to tell the difference. I was holed up in a tiny Biedermeier apartment with no heat but thanks to a fortuitous introduction, was taken in hand by a family of minor aristocrats whose old world eccentricities exceeded all expectations. I was besotted, with them and with the Hapsburgs, Gustav Klimt, Sigmund Freud and The Third Man.

So when the Editor suggested that we head for Vienna for three days, I practically wept. I love no city more than Vienna but how would the reality of Vienna 2009 compare to my memories of Vienna 1976?

And typical of Vienna, the city of dreams, we found it exactly the same and utterly transformed, all at the same time. With the reopening of Eastern Europe, the former capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire got its “backyard” back. The grime of centuries has been blasted off the buildings. The place glistens with purpose and renewed energy. The coffee houses are full of men and women conducting business. Vienna is once again smart and stylish. I never thought I would live to say this: “Vienna is a happening place”.

Hotels

A case in point was the hotel we stayed in on the Herrengasse in the 1st District, close to the Hofburg (the Imperial Palace) where formerly the Hapsburg nobility built their palaces. Today, the SAS Radisson Style is a sassy 72 room boutique hotel with “art nouveau revisited” décor and a popular bar that is well frequented by locals. Sometimes, it may be a bit too happening. On one of the nights when we were there, the whole ground floor was taken over by the Argentine Embassy. These are not folks who like to go to bed early. But it was fun to stay in a place with some attitude and lots of local action and at £86 a night for one of the best addresses in town, plus free wifi and minibar, it represented good value.

Culture

Culturally, things in Vienna have heated up as well. For example and thanks to a tip from one of our twitter buddies @Travelwriticus, we paid a visit to the Karlskirche (St Charles Church) to try out the Panorama Lift. Karlskirche is a magnificent baroque church boasting a spectacular dome covered in frescoes. Following a recent restoration, the scaffolding, elevator and stairs have been left in place so that tourists can zip up by elevator to a platform 32.5 meters/107 feet above the ground and from there, climb more stairs to the top of the dome. Who knew art history could be so terrifying or exhilarating, or that even the most solid looking scaffolding shakes a lot when you walk on it? I loved the sign which said “There may be no more 10 people standing on the platform at one time” although there is no one around to control the number so I spent my air time admiring the magnificent frescoes and counting my fellow viewers. As the actor Christian Bale said after filming Batman on top of the Sears Tower in Chicago, I found it “disturbing but enjoyable”.

Needless to say, there are 1001 cultural things to do in Vienna which we did not get around to but here are two “classic Vienna” things we did do which we really enjoyed:

Belvedere Palace – A spectacular “in-town” palace with lovely gardens and some iconic Austrian art. Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka are there. So are lots of tour groups but they’re widely dispersed.

Kaisergruft – Under the Kapuziner Church lies the Imperial crypt with the remains of 138 Hapsburgs. It’s the best history lesson in town. Most poignant tomb is that of Franz Josef who lies next to his glamorous assassinated wife, Elizabeth, and his son, Crown Prince Rudolf who committed suicide. The most fabulous award goes to the gargantuan “his and her” sarcophagus for Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis 1.

Shopping

As for shopping in 2009 Vienna, there’s good news and bad. The formerly chic Kartnerstrasse has been colonised by cheap, global chain stores. Even the gilded, E Braun & Co building, once a purveyor of linens to the Imperial household is now an H&M but down the street, chandeliers like the ones at the Metropolitan Opera House and the Kremlin are still on sale at J & L Lobmeyer run by the fifth generation of the same family. (If you’re not in the market for a chandelier, you can visit the small but superb glass museum on the first floor.) Loden Plankl, Vienna’s oldest specialty store for traditional clothing on Michaelerplatz still serves up beautifully made, authentic Austrian clothing and the gourmet grocery emporium, Julius Meinl am Graben, is still the place to go for smart foodie gifts, as is the Naschmarkt, a market that has been operating since the 17th century that sells everything from food from around the world to bric-a-brac.

If you are serious about looking for art and antiques, head for the Dorotheum Auction House on the Dorotheergasse which began its life as the city’s pawn shop in 1707. Great for jewellery, paintings and furniture, it’s a wonderful place to browse, no one bothers you, and many of the objects can be purchased over the counter on the day.

Restaurants and Coffee Houses

And what about the food and those famous Viennese coffee houses? Being devoted to the classic Austrian dishes of boiled beef, goulash and schnitzels, we made pilgrimages to our old stand-bys which haven’t changed a bit. Here are three solid, authentic and inexpensive restaurants where you can sample the local specialties and atmosphere.

Beim Czaak – on the Postgasse, run by the same family since 1928 and a solid, atmospheric place with good food. Excellent tafelspitz (boiled beef)

J.S Smutny – on the Elisabethstrasse, a small street on the other side of the Ring from the Opera House. The Editor's favourite. Maybe the best beer and nicest staff in town. They invited us to watch the Chelsea/Barcelona football match with them and we had a blast.

Gmoakeller – on the Heumarkt behind the Konzert Haus, Best all around combination of food, atmosphere and service. One of the oldest restaurants in Vienna and once a favoured hang-out for Crown Prince Rudolph and his ill-fated paramour, Mary Vetsera.

For coffee houses, again we stuck with classics:

Café Central – Next door to our hotel and exactly as a grand, old Viennese café should be. A favourite of Trotsky, Schnitzler and Freud. Lots of tourists but who cares – it’s worth it.

Café Landtmann – a favourite of journos, politicians and theatregoers, this is the place to see and be seen. By the way, the food, that 30 years ago I could never afford, was excellent.

And all too soon, it was time to leave this amazing city returned to life by a new geo-political purpose. Being the new portal to eastern Europe has been good for Vienna but much to my relief, this town has lost little of its old magic. We’ll be back.

Photo of Karlskirche Panoramalift courtesy of "Verein der Freunde und Gönner der Wiener Karlskirche"

The No Crowds Churchill Trifecta

Yesterday on Twitter comes this tweet from @Project Britain:

”On this day in 1953, Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II”.

Which got me thinking about Winston Churchill, but also about Project Britain. Who are these guys with all this interesting information about British life and culture? Well I’ll be darned, Project Britain turns out to be a junior (elementary) school in England. Who knew that students aged 7 to 11 (with lots of help from a former teacher) could produce such an awesome website and interesting tweets.

Fired up and inspired by these pint-sized pundits, I decided to do something to celebrate the day that Churchill was knighted and so here goes:

The Churchill Trifecta – No Crowds Top Picks for Celebrating the Life of Winston Churchill

The Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms in London

Winner by a mile is the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms in London. Opened in February 2005, this is the first major museum in the world solely dedicated to the life and achievements of the great statesman. The place if full of interactive exhibits and the latest computer technology which make the huge amount of artefacts, photographs, documents and film really come to life. Young and old audiences alike love this place.

Even more evocative are the underground Cabinet War Rooms which operated round the clock from the start of the war in 1939 to its end in 1945. This is where Churchill, his War Cabinet and members of his inner circle ate and slept during the Blitz and the tour includes Churchill’s bedroom and study, the War Cabinet Room and the Map Room, familiar to anyone who has ever seen an old WWII movie.

Visitor information for the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms can be found here.


Chartwell – The Home of Sir Winston Churchill in Kent

Second off the mark is Chartwell. This was Churchill’s family home from 1922 until his death in 1965. The house and gardens today are much as they were when he lived there, packed with the pictures, books, maps and personal mementoes which give visitors a real “behind the scenes” glimpse into the daily life of the great statesman. The views across the Weald of Kent are glorious.

Visitor information for Chartwell can be found here.

Blenheim – Birthplace of Winston Churchill in Oxfordshire

A solid third is Blenheim, built for Churchill's legendary ancestor, the first Duke of Marlborough. A world heritage site, Blenheim describes itself as Britain’s greatest palace and for once, the marketing hype might be right. Fans of the wartime leader will enjoy the Churchill Exhibition which has extensive correspondence, the most touching being Winston begging his father to come visit him at school – which his father never did. As part of the tour, you get to visit the room where Winston was born and gaze upon a lock of his hair.

Visitor information for Blenheim Palace can be found here.

The Writer's House

Rudyard Kipling. We grew up with his stories. We memorized his poems. We watched the movies based on his writing. Who can forget Mowgli, Baloo or Gunga Din? In his day, Kipling was as big as J.K. Rowling and the most famous writer in the English-speaking world. You know him well, but have you ever been to his house?

Well, you can and you should and here’s why. Bateman’s, Kiplings family home and refuge for more than 30 years, and now a National Trust property, has just reopened for the season and of all the literary sites you can visit in the UK, Bateman’s may be the best. First, because Kipling’s life is a gripping story full of contradictions and filled with professional triumphs and personal tragedies, and second, because the house exists today just as it was when Kipling lived there. His Rolls Royce is in the garage. His books and papers are in the study. His Nobel Prize sits proudly on the table.

One of the first things you see as you enter the house is the little window in the entry hall where his American wife, Carrie, who he once described as the ‘Ways and Means Committee’, would screen his visitors. The clues to this man’s life are everywhere, just as he left them. For this, we can thank the ‘Ways and Means Committee’, who bequeathed the estate to the National Trust as a memorial to her husband in 1939.

Wandering around the house it’s easy to see the world through Kipling’s eyes. His fascination with the Indian subcontinent, his need for privacy, the garden he designed and built from the proceeds of his Nobel Prize, his love of children and the tragic loss of his own. As far as drilling down to the details is concerned, the place is staffed with endearing cult-like volunteers with encyclopaedic knowledge of Kipling and nothing pleases them more than when you ask them a question. In addition to the house, there are extensive grounds and gardens with a working mill that was used by Kipling to generate electricity and a tea room that, on the day we were there, was packed with picturesque pensioners enjoying a spring outing.

To reach Bateman’s near Burwash in East Sussex from London, you can either take a train from Charing Cross Rail Station to Etchingham and then by bus or taxi to Burwash or you can drive. Either way takes about two hours. There is an excellent Journey Planner on the Bateman’s website with all the details. If you have a car, Sissinghurst Castle and Garden, another site with rich literary associations, is nearby as is Bodiam Castle, one of the best preserved moated castles in Britain.

The house is open from March 14 to November 1 every day except Thursday and Friday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. The gardens and tea room open throughout the year. Opening times can be found here.

Contact Details

Tel: 01435 882302
Fax: 01435 882811
Email: Batemans@nationaltrust.org.uk

Photo courtesy of the National Trust, Geoffrey Frosch

How to Avoid the Crowds at the Rodin Museum? Skip the Museum

Here’s the brief. It’s a glorious spring day in Paris. Too beautiful to be indoors. You’ve shopped, you’ve eaten, you’ve wandered … Its time to feed the mind but your appetite for culture is tempered by the all too perfect weather. Maybe you have a child in tow who needs a romp. And you want to avoid the crowds. So where should you go?

No Crowds favourite Paris destination for moments like this is the garden of the Rodin Museum on rue de Varenne in the 7th Arrondisement. In 1908, the writer Rainer Maria Rilke had this to say about the garden in a letter to Rodin. “You should, dear great friend, see this beautiful building and the room I live in … Its three bay windows fantastically overlook an abandoned garden, where from time to time one sees little rabbits jumping over the trellises, like something out of an old tapestry…” Rodin became so smitten with the place that he ended up renting rooms on the ground floor, coming nearly every day to meet with models and clients. By inhabiting the Hotel Biron until his death and with the donation of his works, his archives, and his collection, the establishment of a Rodin museum was secured.

In 2009, you could hardly call the garden of the Rodin Museum abandoned but it’s certainly not crowded. A visit to the atmospheric garden allows you to stroll around, eat an ice cream, contemplate some of the greatest masterpieces in the history of art and avoid the throngs who instinctively head indoors to see the collection. All for price of a euro which is what it costs for garden only access. And guess what? On a glorious day, its perfectly OK to skip the hot and crowded, although lovely, Hotel Biron because as a master of monumental sculpture, Rodin’s greatest works such as the Thinker, the Gates of Hell and the Burghers of Calais are all outside anyway. Use the money you saved on the entry ticket to rent an audio guide for a fantastic half hour or so of narrative and anecdotes on the life and work of this passionate artist all enjoyed au plein air.

Unfortunately, the museum does not have a separate line or entrance just for the gardens and the wait to purchase your ticket can take 15 to 20 minutes, although last Sunday, we waited for only five. Holders of the Paris Museum Pass, which we highly recommend, get in free and go straight to the head of the line, as you do at roughly 60 other museums in Paris.

Sometimes, carving out a piece of a great experience is the best way to enjoy it. On a perfect day in Paris, perhaps the best way to enjoy Rodin is to skip his museum and go straight for the garden.

Rodin Museum
79 rue de Varenne
75007 Paris
Tel 33 (0)1 44 18 61 10
http://www.musee-rodin.fr/

Opening times from Tuesday to Sunday
11 October to 31 March, from 9:30 am to 4:45 (park closes at 5:00 but ticket desk closes at 4:15)
1 April to 30 September from 9:30 am to 5:45 pm,(park closes at 6:45 but ticket desk closes at 5:15)

Photo from Mike Gadd's photostream on Flickr

Fontainebleau - The Other Royal Palace

Love the kings. Hate the crowds. That’s my problem with Versailles and here’s the solution: the Palace of Fontainebleau.

Located 35 miles outside of Paris and home to kings and queens of France since the 12th century, Fontainebleau shares several characteristics with Versailles. It is filled with history, enlivened by splendid art and architecture and is surrounded by immense forests, parks and formal gardens.

What Fontainebleau does not share with Versailles is the overwhelming crush of visitors. We were there on a Thursday during the Easter holidays with no lines and no tour groups. Without the modern day mob scene, it was easy to imagine the daily lives of a homesick Catherine de Medici, a renaissance-besotted Francis the First, an imprisoned Pope Pius VII and an emotional Napoleon en route to Elba. Aided by an absorbing English language audio guide, even our 11 year old daughter happily spent 1 ½ hours wandering through this monument to French art, architecture and history. If you are looking for a great day out of Paris, Fontainebleau is hard to beat.

If there is a downside to Fontainebleau, it would have to be the fact that it is not the easiest place to reach. We arrived by car which was an easy 45 minute journey on the A6 motorway out of Paris but a torturous 1 ½ hour journey back in the early evening. Travelling by car allowed us to take a quick side trip to the artists’ village of Barbizon, drive through the INSEAD business school campus, and consume a grand lunch in the forest near the town of Larchant followed by a walk and some rock climbing. If you don’t mind navigating and driving in and around Paris, renting a car for the day would open up your options in this wonderful part of France.

If driving is not for you, here is advice on how to reach Fontainebleau by public transportation gleaned from various blogs and websites:

Take a train from Paris – Gare de Lyon to Fontainebleau-Avon station. Here is a link to a journey planner with schedules and fares in English. The trip should take about 50 minutes.

From the Fontainebleau-Avon station, take Bus #A or Bus #B to the Palace. The trip should take about 15 minutes. Taxis from the station are also available.

SNCF sells a combination train/bus/palace ticket (including guide book) at the Gare de Lyon which cost €26 as of July 2008.

The palace is open every day except Tuesday.
From October 1 to May 31 - 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
From June 1 to September 30 – 9:30 am to 6:00 pm

Our restaurant in the forest can be found near the town of Larchant
La Dame Jouanne
Route de la Dame Jouanne (Chalet Jobert)
Tel: 01 64 28 1623
Open Thursday through Sunday for lunch and dinner

Photo of the Palace of Fontainebleau courtesy of Wikimedia