Best of the Web – Roaming Tales: Travel links for 14 September

I’ve had a site outage for most of today so you may have missed this morning’s post on ice cream. I spent quite a bit of time on it, then it was up for just two hours before the site went down. So please take a look and leave a comment for me!

As for this link love post, I was already ready to roll at 10 o’clock this morning. Then, just as I was about to hit publish, my site went down. Fortunately, it was still here waiting for me 12 hours later when my site finally went back up.

My hosting company is usually really reliable – this is my first outage in three years, so I’m not looking to change providers. But it seems that, combined with my other sites, I may have outgrown shared hosting so I’m considering upgrading to a private server. When they looked at my usage just a few weeks ago, I was fine, but evidently now I’m not.

But enough about my technical woes – that’s all very mundane, and this week’s collection of travel links is anything but. Enjoy!

Destinations – Words

Northern California. Weekend Sherpa – San Francisco offers some inspiration for weekend trips out of the city.

San Francisco. The New York Times guide to San Francisco in four hours.

Seattle. Pam Mandel from Nerd’s Eye View presents the visitor’s guide to Seattle – something I hope to be using in the not-too-distant future.

Colombia. Ernest White has a guest post on Ever the Nomad about keeping warm in the Colombian capital of Bogota.

Peru. Ollantaytambo is no longer just a pitstop en route to Machu Picchu, according to Paul Brady in the New York Times.

Yosemite. Jamie Pearson from Travel Savvy Mom on California’s Yosemite National Park without the crowds.

Guatemala. Marina Villatoro delivers a bunch of colourful flowers in this post from Guatemala.

Ireland. Angela Nickerson from The Gypsy’s Guide offers a complete guide to the enchanted isle of Ireland.

Devon. Okay, I love rustic farms in rural Devon but it seems not everyone is a fan. This scathing article on a disastrous farm stay by Matt Rudd, republished in The Australian, is quite funny.

Venice. Peter Popham writes in The Independent about the obsession of literary types with Venice.

TV land. CSI the Experience comes to Vegas while Manhattan offers Mad Men tours, writes Eva Holland on Worldhum.

Berlin. If you’re travelling to the German capital, check out this collection of free podcasts and other resources compiled by Heather Cowper on Europe a la Carte.

Scotland. Also on Europe a la Carte, Karen Bryan writes about a forest in Scotland that will be transformed into an enchanted wood with a spectacular light show for the second half of October. And guest blogger Emily Starbuck Gerson writes about her first time at Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman wall dividing England and Scotland.

Panama. Cate from the Caffeinated Traveller visits a coffee farm in the high lands of Panama.

Mountains. On Matador David DeFranza lists six mountains for the beginning mountaineer, from the US to New Zealand.

Costa Rica. As a child Elizabeth Seward imagined Costa Rica as a kind of tropical Narnia. As an adult, she’s finally got to visit, and has written about it for Intelligent Travel.

Destinations – Pictures

Tibet. A photograph of unforgettable faces in Tibet from Peter West Carey from the Carey Adventures.

Spain. A fabulous photo of a grinning tomatina warrior in Buñol, Spain on Worldhum.

India. A brilliant photo of Hindu priests in barrels of water praying for rain on Worldhum.

Thailand. Quirky photo of shop mannequins in Bangkok, Thailand, from Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick.

Minneapolis. Austin from Travellious captures a lovely shot of a bridge reflected in the water in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Florence. Jillian Leiboff says X-ray machines do affect film, despite signs to the contrary. She recollects having to choose between the Uffizi Gallery in Florence or saving her black-and-white images.

Sea lions. The Carey Adventures hosts Eric Thalmann’s picture of sea lions asleep together on the beach, somwhere on the West Coast of the US.

Cotswolds. Jeanne from Soultravelers3 has posted a gorgeous picture of a church in the picturesque English countryside of the Cotswolds region.

LEGO. The Daily Beast has an incredible photography series from Mike Stimpson, reimagining classic photographs in LEGO. Brilliant! (via Intelligent Travel).

Travel and food

Airport food. Jane Engle on the LA Times Daily Deal Blog writes about the opening of Pinkberry frozen yogurt chain in LAX airport.

Airline food. Eva Holland writes in Worldhum about how some airlines are trying to compete on the quality of the food they sell.

Aussie wine. Liz Lewis writes about wine tasting in Sydney, Australia for Perceptive Travel.

Breakfast. Jeannette Kimmel from Intelligent Travel reckons she’s found the best breakfast in Maine.

Crocodile. Anny Chih samples crocodile in far north Queensland – and no, it doesn’t taste like chicken!

Tropical fruit. Sheila Scarborough introduces her son to longan fruit, or dragon eyes, in Hawaii, on Family Travel Guide.

Traveleating. Helen Yuet Ling Pang of World Foodie Guide shares her five-year travel plan of 25 destinations for ‘traveleating’.

Crépes. Crépes were invented in Brittany so a trip to the French province is a perfect excuse to indulge. Krista from Londonelicious reviews Créperie Le Connétable in Dinan, Brittany.

Croatia. Austin’s guide to Croatian food on Travellious. His number-one rule? Eat what’s fresh.

Smoked whale. Jeanne from Soultravelers3 samples smoked whale in Norway with her family.

High pies. Kathy Kapps-King writes for the San Francisco Chronicle about a bakery at Everest Base Camp selling pies. Who knew?

Baked body parts. A bakery in Thailand is selling edible baked goods in the shape of body parts. They are very realistic, writes Kate Sedgwick on Matador. How strange!

Chinese banquet. Sarah Menkedick from Matador on how to survive a Chinese banquet. (It’s never occurred to you that it’s an ordeal to ‘survive’? Me neither. But she’s really telling you how to get the most out of it).

Cloudberries. Marilyn Terrell from Intelligent Travel on berry picking in Sweden – especially the wonderfully named ‘cloudberry’.

Cognac. Marcia Frost on Matador on sampling fine brandies in the Cognac region of France.

Tripoli souq. Bethany from Dirty Kitchen Secrets has some great stories and video from a visit to the old souq in Tripoli, Lebanon.

Coffee. Canadian Anny Chih is having trouble finding drip coffee in Australia (because we usually serve proper espresso).

Japan. Japan is an awesome travel destination for foodies but it can be pricey. Pele Omori shares nine tips for eating cheaply in Japan on Matador. I pity you if you have to resort to number nine though.

Issues & Debates

Dubai. Christine Osborne from Travels with my Hat calls for a tourist boycott of Dubai until the Atlantis resort frees the endangered whale shark in its aquarium.

Single supplements. Darren Cronian of Travel Rants says the travel industry treats solo travellers unfairly. Judging from the recent example in Christopher Elliott’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle, I have to agree.

Hospitality. Christopher Elliott on Elliott.org asks whether the travel industry has forgotten that it’s in the hospitality business and offers suggestions on how it can win back consumers.

Language. Sarah Menkedick courted controversy in this column on speaking English abroad for Matador.

Hawaiian statehood. Sheila Scarborough reflects on the scars behind Hawaii’s admission into the union on Perceptive Travel.

9/11. There were a few strong posts in honour of the 9/11 anniversary.  I particularly enjoyed reading Susie Khalil’s piece on life as an American woman in Saudi Arabia.
Venice. Venice is considering a ban on day-trippers to prevent over-crowding, according to Britain’s Daily Telegraph.

And finally…

Small world. The movements of Australian soap star Kate Ritchie have made news in Ghana. Or so it would seem from this picture snapped by Kim Wildman of Wild About Travel + Writing.

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I compile these link posts partly as a service to my readers and partly to build community within the blogging community. I normally ask people to pay it forward and share links with other bloggers or to show support in other ways such as using StumbleUpon or Digg, or leaving comments. But this week I want to ask for something for myself as well – I would really appreciate your vote in the 2009 Bloggers Choice Awards. Although it’s a bit of a popularity contest and I almost certainly won’t win (apparently some guy with a youth hostel in Buenos Aires wins the travel category every year), I’m honoured to have been nominated and I’d be really pleased if I placed in the top 20.