France Vacation
Published September 25, 2009 | 
There are many beautiful places in Fhance must be visited. So, we tried this summer to visit some of them including in our travel plan one of the most beautiful one – Chateau de Villandry, famous The Castle of Villandry. Its rich history started in far 1189 when Philippe II August (“the Conqueror”) who was a brilliant warrior and a master strategist, demanded to meet the king of England, Henri II Plantagenet, after having defeated him at the battle of Azay-le-Rideau earlier that year.
Philippe II August informed him of the terms of the peace treaty that would require him to relinquish part of his land holdings in France. Legend has it that the king of France was so moved by the English sovereign’s poor state of health during their meeting that he offered him a seat, but Henri II refused and kept standing, held up by his guardsmen.
His fragile and already angry condition was no doubt exacerbated by the wrath incurred at the sight of his son, then Count of Poitou (and future Richard Lionhearted), who had fought at the king of France’s side. King Henri II had vowed to avenge this slight in blood, but died 3 days later, damning the son who had betrayed him.
Jean le Breton (“the Briton”) was Minister of Finances under king François I. He had the castle of Villandry built in the early 16th century, on the foundations of a medieval fortress on the left bank of the river Cher. His trade may have been business, but he also had exceptional architectural experience: he had been the construction manager for the castle of Chambord for many years and had also been the French Ambassador to Italy, where he had studied landscape design. Originally, the village and the estate were together known as the “Colombiers” (“Dove Roosts”) but the minister found it too common a name. As he was in the good graces of the royal family, he was allowed to change not only the name of the village and castle, but also his own. Jean le Breton soon became “Monsieur de Villandry”.
This castle, just like the one at Azay-le-Rideau, was a means for its owner to acquire important social standing, so Jean le Breton and his family didn’t hesitate to invest their entire fortune to improve the castle and its park. Whether it was due to his honesty or his cleverness, Jean Le Breton was never dishonored or dispossessed of his belongings as were the owners of Azay-le-Rideau and Chenonceau. In 1619, Jean le Breton’s grandson, Balthazar, was even conferred a title of nobility and became the “Marquis de Villandry”.
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history facts via
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Make Your Travel Greener
Published September 20, 2009 | 
Best Carbon Offset Companies is a very common way to make your travels greener. Actually there are great number of carbon offset companies providing different prices and offering different projects. How to choose the right one?
First of als what is carbon offset? This is an emission reduction credit from another organization’s project that results in less carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than would otherwise occur. Carbon offsets are typically measured in tons of CO2-equivalents (or ‘CO2e’) and are bought and sold through a number of international brokers, online retailers, and trading platforms.
For example, wind energy companies often sell carbon offsets. The wind energy company benefits because the carbon offsets it sells make such projects more economically viable. The buyers of the offsets benefit because they can claim that their purchase resulted in new non-polluting energy, which they can use to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions. The buyers may also save money as it may be less expensive for them to purchase offsets than to eliminate their own emissions.
All of us hear the terms “green travel” or “ecotourism” and picture someone sleeping in a treehouse in the jungles of Borneo or canoeing down the Amazon. But this type of eco-adventure is just one end of the green travel spectrum. You don’t need to sacrifice creature comforts or go off into the middle of nowhere to be a green traveler; you can visit big cities or small villages, and stay in small ecolodges or luxury hotels. All that’s required is an effort to preserve and protect the environment of the place you’re visiting — and it’s easier than you might think.
These companies are both for profit and non profit and based in a range of countries. Checking out websites you can learn more about what sort of carbon offsetting project they do and prices for offsetting your trip.
Best Carbon Offset Companies
Ag Cert / Driving Green (Based in Ireland)
Atmosfair (Based in Germany)
CarbonNeutral Company (Based in UK)
Climate Care (Based in UK)
Climate Friendly (Based in Australia)
Climate Trust (Based in US)
Co2balance (Based in UK)
My Climate (Based in Switzerland)
Native Energy (Based in US)
SustainableTravel (Based in US)
These recommendations for the best carbon offset companies are based on data and recommendations from the Guide to Offset Emissions and from Tufts University Climate Change Initiative.
2 Trav 2 Green
Published August 12, 2009 | What does green travel mean? The main goal is your travel must be ecologically concerned whether away for business or pleasure, from green hotels and public transportation to local food and eco-tours. The main goal is “less waste”. Waste less water, paper, gas and so on. Take as minimum as you might need but no more. You can save the environment with reusable water bottles, carbon offsets, reducing the amount of water for bathing or showering, using the hotel van instead of renting a car, walking tours and public transportation, with purchasing electronic-tickets for airline travel whenever possible, take only the necessary and letting hotel management know, that you want them to conserve and that you want to participate.
There is “Green” Hotels Association which is encouraging all travelers to green up their travel. Patricia Griffin, the President of Hotels Association, suggests “encourage businesses to think as you do by choosing where to spend your travel dollars. Spend your dollars with travel businesses that are interested in protecting the beautiful destinations we all love to visit”.
And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and aluminum can and the cellophane wrapper and the paper plate, and this was good because Man could then take his automobile and buy all his food in one place and He could save that which was good to eat in the refrigerator and throw away that which had no further use. And soon the earth was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans and paper plates and disposable bottles and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, and Man shook his head and cried: “Look at this Godawful mess.” ~Art Buchwald, 1970
2 Trav 2 Estonia
Published June 28, 2009 | What might be better than 2 travel 2 Estonia to take part in one of the most exciting European annual musical events as a Song and Dance Celebration. I dream about then plan my July vacations with this wonderful festival of Estonian traditional singing. Tickets available yeat!
The Song Celebration tradition started in the middle of the 19th century and it has survived all of the twists and turns in Estonia’ s history.
It has defied the hardest of times like a frail plant that pushes its way through concrete with its inner strength and then bursts into bloom. Preceded by some local Song Celebrations, the first nationwide Song Celebration was held in Tartu in 1869.
At the time this was seen as the first attempt at national self-determination, manifested before the Baltic-German rulers: See, we can do something too! Fifty choirs and musical ensembles from all over Estonia performed before an audience of thousands, who experienced a blissful sense of belonging, enhanced by the beauty of the music and the songs.
This celebration evolved into a tradition that still flourishes today. The small nation which started the tradition has had to prove to foreign authorities, even in the 20th century, that they are a fully fledged nation with its own rights and resolves.
Song and Dance Celebrations were not just big festivals of singing and music but a way to demonstrate the national spirit and to strengthen the sense of belonging.
The age of foreign rulers is past but Song and Dance Celebrations are still alive – both local and nationwide.
And this proves how deep and strong is the core, spirit and meaning of Song and Dance Celebrations. It is definitely not only the spirit of protest and resistance that brings hundreds of thousands of Estonians – and an increasing number of guests from around the world – every five years to Tallinn. The total number of performers in the last Song and Dance Celebration in 2004 was 34 000 and they performed before an audience of 200 000.
Rather, it is the unique combination of the sublimity of music and human warmth that a rather distrustful northern nation dares to show during Song Celebrations, much to the surprise of others and its self..
Song and Dance Celebration – this is a joy. Because Song Festivals are irreplacable and unique, they can only be experienced on site.
Many thanks to all who have contributed to this Celebration!
Do not be sad, the next Youth Celebration of Song and Dance is in 2007 and nationwide Song and Dance Celebration in 2009!
Estonian Song and Dance Celebration Foundation
July 2-5, 2009
Programme
2 July, Thursday
at 15 – Folk Music Celebration on Town Hall Square
3 July, Friday
at 19 – First Concert of Dance Celebration – on Kalev Stadium
4 July, Saturday
at 11 – Second Concert of Dance Celebration – on Kalev Stadium
at 14 Festive Parade of Song and Dance Celebration
at 19 – First Concert of Song Celebration – on Song Celebration Grounds
5 July, Sunday
at 11 – Third Concert of Dance Celebration – on Kalev Stadium
at 14 – Second Concert of Song Celebration – on Song Celebration Grounds
Tickets available: www.piletilevi.ee/
Gay Tourism in Israel
Published June 25, 2009 | Gay tour director Russell Lord, who has traveled extensively in the Middle East, to Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and the Gulf regions, says Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is a different world. The closest semi-progressive city, still far away in attitude, would be Beirut. In March 2005, Russell and his partner were married on a trip to Toronto, and upon returning to Tel Aviv they went to get the status on their official identification cards changed from “single” to “married” and were denied. With four other couples they went to court and won, so in December 2006, Russell was the first citizen of Israel to receive official identification labeling him as married to a partner of the same sex. It was a Supreme Court case of such importance that it was ruled on by seven judges as opposed to the traditional three (another case requiring seven judges was the decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip). The five couples won 6-to-1 in a decision handed down to a packed courthouse. “Every faggot in Israel wanted to be there,” quips Lord, “It was the place to be seen.” Since then there has been no backlash at all, not one crank call. “Some of the most religious people I met told me ‘Mazel Tov.’” Lord’s work with inbound international gay tourists has given him plenty of perspective on what GLBT tourists look for, and what they can find in Tel Aviv.
Personal safety is a concern for many, and Russell is quick to calm fears. “There’s never been a real problem with hate crimes,” he assures, the worst crime against a gay man he has heard of in years was a tourist having his pocket picked. The city’s acceptance of everyone is his favorite quality about which to boast, “You have to remember, Dana International [trans star and Israel’s most visible Eurovision entrant, winning the international contest in 1998] was sent on a promotion tour by the government to many countries to represent Israel. Who else can say a transsexual was the spokesperson for an entire country?” Tel Aviv’s openness makes it gayer than people believe until they arrive. Lord says the incoming gay tourists he books are about 85% gay males, but he loves all the “great groups organized by lesbian rabbis.” Mostly he loves being able to be himself anywhere in the city along with his partner, Avi. Being out and active as a gay man and as part of a committed couple is a priority he takes very seriously.
via Passport Magazine
The top 10 places 2 trav 2 America
Published June 7, 2009 | 1. Las Vegas
2. Iowa State Fair
3. Times Square
4. Cedar Point Amusement Park
image Cedar Point Amusement Park
5. Cape Cod
6. River tubing Texas
7. Audubon Zoo New Orleans
8. Disneyland
9. National Air and Space Museum
10. Telluride, Colo.
Famous 2 Travel 2 Quotation
Published June 7, 2009 | “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller
“Traveling is almost like talking with men of other centuries.” — René Descartes
“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” –- Miriam Beard
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” –- Henry Miller
“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” –- John Steinbeck
“In America, there are two classes of travel: First class, and with children.” — Robert Benchley
‘But why, oh why, do the wrong people travel, when the right people stay at home?” — Noel Coward
“Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones.” — Anne Sophie Swetchine
“Most of my treasured memories of travel are recollections of sitting.” –- Robert Thomas Allen
“Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversations.” — Elizabeth Drew
“If you look like your passport photo, you’re too ill to travel.” — Will Kommen
“Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.” — Samuel Johnson
“Long voyages, great lies.” – Italian proverb
“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” — Susan Heller
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” — Lao Tzu
“Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings.” –- Hodding Carter
“He who would travel happily must travel light.” — Antoine de St. Exupery
“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” — James Michener
“Let your memory be your travel bag.” — Alexander Solzhenitsyn
“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” — Fitzhugh Mullan
“No matter where you go, there you are.” – unknown
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will lead you there.” — unknown
“Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.” — Frank Herbert
“He travels fastest who travels alone.” — proverb
“Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.” — Izaak Walton
“The journey not the arrival matters.” — T. S. Eliot
“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” — Lin Yutang
St. Augustine
The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.
St. Augustine
…travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.
Miriam Beard
Keep things on your trip in perspective, and you’ll be amazed at the perspective you gain on things back home while you’re away…One’s little world is put into perspective by the bigger world out there.
Gail Rubin Bereny
The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes “sight seeing”.
Daniel J. Boorstin
There is no happiness for the person who does not travel. For Indra is the friend of the traveler, therefore wander!
Brähmann
I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost eveything.
To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.
Bill Bryson
One of the gladdest moments of human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy.
Sir Richard Burton
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.
Martin Buber
I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, and of the bitter effects of staying at home with all the narrow prejudices of an Islander, that I think there should be a law amongst us to set our young men abroad for a term among the few allies our wars have left us.
Lord Byron
Embrace the detours.
Kevin Charbonneau
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.
The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
The earth belongs to anyone who stops for a moment, gazes and goes on his way.
Colette
The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.
Colette, Paris From My Window, 1944
Travellers never think that they are the foreigners.
Mason Cooley
But why, oh why, do the wrong people travel, when the right people stay at home?
Noel Coward
Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.
Benjamin Disraeli
The journey not the arrival matters.
T. S. Eliot
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.
Clifton Fadiman
If an ass goes traveling, he’ll not come home a horse.
Thomas Fuller
All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.