Following the Equator

Friday Fun Fact: 2009 anniversaries

Happy New Year!

The year 2009 includes several major anniversaries, including the 10th anniversary of the euro, the 250th anniversary of Kew Gardens in London and the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII taking the throne as King of England.

Most notably, though, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Germany is planning events throughout the year, but the main celebration will be the "Festival of Freedom" at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on November 7-9, culminating with a multimedia re-creation of the wall crashing down.

For other major events around the world this year, check out this roundup from the Times Online.

Photo: gavinandrewstewart via Flickr

Group Leader Spotlight: Jeremy George

A few years ago, Jeremy George, a high school history teacher from Springfield, Missouri, had never traveled abroad. Then he found EF.

Since taking his first group abroad, Jeremy has traveled everywhere from Austria to Australia with EF Educational Tours. Next year, he will travel on tours to Amsterdam and Paris and France and Spain, and he is already planning a tour to England, Ireland and Wales in 2010.

Jeremy—pictured above with students in Australia (he's in the black-and-blue jacket to the right of the guy in the cool hat)—talked with us about the "irreplaceable experience" of travel, establishing a reputation for taking students on tour and his own dream tour of Italy:

Group Leader Spotlight: Joyce Schaller

EF Group Leader Joyce Schaller, a high school English teacher from Nokesville, Virginia, knows there is nothing quite as exciting as learning about literature by experiencing it firsthand. That's why she takes her students on educational tours with EF.

Joyce—pictured above with her students at Hadrian's Wall in Scotland—took the time to tell us more about why travel is so important for her students, connecting her curriculum to her tours and where she wants to go next:

Friday Fun Fact: Drake's circumnavigation

Today is the 428th anniversary of
Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the globe.

On September 26, 1580, Drake and a crew of fewer than 60 men returned to Plymouth Harbor aboard the Golden Hind after a journey around the world that lasted 2 years, 9 months and 14 days. On this journey, Drake and his crew observed the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica, although they did not pass through it.

A statue of Sir Francis Drake (above) stands at Plymouth Hoe in England to commemorate his historic feat.

Around and around

All of a sudden, roundabouts are seemingly appearing everywhere. We wrote last Friday about roundabouts in France after a Time article about the expanding popularity of roundabouts in the United States.

Now, we just came across this zaniness. Inspired by this blog post, Gadling this morning wrote about "the world's most headturning roundabout"—the famous Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England. It consists of five small roundabouts inside one large roundabout, and it looks absolutely crazy.

OK, that's enough roundabout talk to leave us all dizzy.

Looking at London from above

There are some absolutely amazing photos of London—at night, from above, no less—on The Big Picture, the phenomenal photo blog of The Boston Globe and Boston.com.

The photos come from London aeriel photographer Jason Hawkes, who shoots the city from a helicopter. In particular, check out his aerial shots of the financial district (photo No. 1), Big Ben (No. 2), the London Eye (No. 11), the River Thames (No. 15) and Piccadilly Circus (No. 18). Simply stunning stuff!

Literary London

Where are the best literary destinations in the world? You'll find them in Great Britain, at least according to one list.

World Hum tipped us off to a list of the world's best literary destinations, according to editors at the travel website TripAdvisor.

London—home to Dickens, Chaucer and Keats—edged out Shakespeare's Stratford for the top spot. Edinburgh, Scotland—home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and J.K. Rowling—placed third.

Three U.S. cities made the list: New York, Concord (Massachusetts) and San Francisco.

Friday Fun Fact: Future Olympics

When the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics concludes Sunday, the world's attention will turn from Beijing to London four years hence.

London will host the 2012 Summer Olympics, becoming the first city to host the Games three times (also 1948 and 1908). The 2012 London Olympics will run from July 27 through August 12, 2012.

The site of the 2016 Summer Olympics will be chosen October 2, 2009. The four finalists are Chicago, United States; Madrid, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Tokyo, Japan.

Meanwhile, the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver, Canada, and the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia.

Maple Leaf Monopoly

Montreal is the new Boardwalk.

Monopoly finally revealed the winning cities in its new World Edition this week, and the Canadian city earned the global game's most prestigious position, as we predicted in February.

In fact, Canada monopolizes the new Monopoly board. In addition to Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto also earned spots. The other dominant country is China, which placed Beijing and Shanghai, plus Hong Kong, on the board. Only one U.S. city (New York) made the game.

More than 5.6 million votes were cast to select the 22 cities in the new edition, which goes on sale next week in 50 countries.

Wimbledon warmup

Wimbledon—the world's most prestigious, tradition-laden tennis tournament—serves up a fortnight of net action starting Monday.

Wimbledon is as well-known for its all-white dress code as its grass surface. Budget Travel earlier this year wrote "A Witty Guide to Wimbledon Etiquette" and also posted a primer on attending the grand dame of the Grand Slams. But you better plan ahead. Tickets for this year's tournament are sold out—unless you're willing to "queue" overnight for 1,500 show-court tickets that go on sale every morning.

And, if you do go, don't forget the strawberries and cream.

For more Wimbledon information, check out the official site and this devoted fans' site.

Photo: yvettemn via Flickr