http://www.post-gazette.com/travel Travel news and features, Travel Editor David Bear's column en-us Copyright 2009, post-gazette.com. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:44:07 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015549-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml "AREN'T you going to check out the terrace?" Madian al-Jazerah said to me. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015550-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml DUSK was descending softly on Athens as the sounds of bass-heavy noise pop drifted across Karitsi Square, a tucked-away cobblestone oasis near the city center. In the outside seating area of Use Bar (Karitsi Square 5; 30-210-323-5993), two tables of artist types were discussing a recent show by the local dark-wave band Phoenix Catscratch. Later, throngs of young men and women sporting skinny jeans and asymmetrical haircuts would fill the square and seep down winding Kolokotroni Street into a slew of new bar Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015551-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml To the Editor: I enjoyed the article "Rare Books Don't Always Live in Glass Cases" (Nov. 1) on lesser-known libraries with extraordinary collections. I was reminded of the detour-worthy art collection housed in the library of my hometown, Charles City, Iowa, population about 7,500. The public library was bequeathed an important collection of works on paper in 1941. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1014871-323.stm?cmpid=travel.xml ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Forget the turkey, the silly Pilgrim hats and the buckles. Forget Plymouth Rock and 1621. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1014877-34.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Robyn Gioia, a fifth-grade teacher at Bolles School, a private school north of St. Augustine, has a mission: Spread the word about the nation's first Thanksgiving. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1014879-28.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Bed-and-breakfasts are starting to man up, doing away with the lace bedspreads and trading high tea for brewskies. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1014881-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml A new guide to Vancouver is just out from Lonely Planet's pocket-sized Encounter series. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015099-358.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Hiking, winter activities, shoots, hunter safety courses, educational programs, volunteer opportunities and more Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015102-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml In what amounts to a redistribution of personnel resources, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will soon initiate a series of field inspections of some active Marcellus shale gas drilling sites. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015103-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml When the unexpected happens, be ready for an unplanned overnight stay in the wild Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015104-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Hardly a summer-only facility, the environmental center on Presque Isle is mostly about the geography and wildlife of Presque Isle, but it's more than that, too. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015105-358.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Estimated number of white-tailed deer killed by hunters in Pennsylvania in 2008-2009 seasons (122,410 antlered 213,440 antlerless). Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015106-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml I have a new favorite bird: the northern saw-whet owl. Until last week, I had never seen one in the wild. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015108-140.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Most serious outdoor emergencies do not occur during wilderness expeditions to remote areas, which are generally well planned. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015151-358.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Among white-tailed deer in Pennsylvania, the rut takes a differential toll on bucks and does. Bucks are on call 24/7 from October through January. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015374-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml A marvelous painting of a gourmand at his table hangs in the Musée Carnavalet in Paris -- a portly, pink-faced figure happily gorging on a regal casserole, with a bottle of wine at one elbow and a luscious-looking soufflé at the other. It is traditionally believed to be a portrait of Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de la Reynière, an aristocrat notorious in Napoleonic France for gratifying his palate with the same abandon as his contemporary the Marquis de Sade showed in indulging ca Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015375-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml "The big empty" is how my seatmate describes the landscape as our plane makes its descent to El Paso. To me it is the opposite: this is a place I've visited and lived in for the last 13 years, and it is a land filled with memories, adventure and possibility. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015376-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml INDIA is modernizing rapidly, sometimes too fast. You have giant malls, but grandmothers afraid to use the escalators. There are villages in the middle of nowhere, with ornate temples soaring into the hot sky. Still, old Rajasthan endures, evoking rulers with giant mustaches, harems of beautiful women in the finest colored silks and some of the most spectacular palaces ever built. They can be found in the state's three biggest cities: Jodhpur, Jaipur and Udaipur. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015377-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml BED-and-breakfasts are starting to man up, doing away with the lace bedspreads and trading high tea for brewskies. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015378-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml A hotel tapas bar located smack in the middle of one of Madrid's busiest tourist hubs? Easy to pass up, perhaps. But then I took a closer look. An artfully stylized pattern of filigree mantilla combs -- the restaurant's logo -- covered the ceiling and swept down the wall. The menu promised the classics, but with more than a whiff of innovation. I was hooked. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1006966-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml VIENNA -- Sachertorte. Magnificent palaces. ... Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1012575-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml CONCORD, N.H. -- The New Hampshire tourism department has started offering special deals to fans of its Facebook page. ... Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014920-455.stm?cmpid=travel.xml A bumpy half-mile missing link on the North Shore Trail will be filled handsomely this winter by a $5 million elevated structure stretching near Millvale. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:13:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015030-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Matanuska Glacier, Alaska -- THE temperature was soaring to 75 degrees, and I was walking on ice. Around me the Matanuska Glacier, about 100 miles from Anchorage, sparkled and shimmered in the afternoon sun. The only sound was an occasional rush of cool wind sweeping down from the towering Chugach Mountains and the crunch of my crampons as I made my way up a crevasse with a group of six other trekkers. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015031-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml SEATTLE-- LIKE a reminder of theater's past, the face of the playwright August Wilson stares out from a gleaming glass door set in a 12-foot steel portal at the top of August Wilson Way here, a sloping side street behind the Seattle Repertory Theater. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1006964-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml TORQUAY, County Devon, England -- She has been called England's most prolific serial killer, having disposed of some 300 victims during the course of a lengthy life of crime, in such a variety of ways -- poisoning, garroting, stabbing, strangling, bludgeoning -- that an FBI profiler would have been flummoxed. ... Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1012574-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN, N.C. -- A mainstay of western North Carolina tourism is making a transition from attraction to a portion of a foundation. ... Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014886-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml Where: Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, 4141 Fifth Ave., for nonstop dancing at the ninth annual PittStop LindyHop How far: 10-15 minutes from Downtown Pittsburgh How much: $20 at door for Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1004266-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml TAMPA, Fla. -- A spotlight on Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood in the October issue of Southern Living magazine reveals a vibrant blend of cultures. ... Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1006962-37.stm?cmpid=travel.xml LYNCH, Ky. -- Joseph Marzelli is glad for the cheerful canary singing in the darkness of an Appalachian coal mine. ... Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1012571-287.stm?cmpid=travel.xml LARAMIE, Wyo. -- The Snowy Range Ski Area is scheduled to open in late November this year. ... Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500