Following the Equator

Travel Tidbits: Navigating the Louvre

The Louvre in Paris claims to be the world's largest museum. With more than 35,000 works of art and more than 652,000 square feet of exhibition space, it's easy to get lost among the masterpieces.

Globespotters recommends a handy solution to navigating the paintings, the sculptures, the treasures: a new multimedia gadget called the XP-vision.

The device, which was introduced last November and can be rented for six euros, includes a small video screen and headphones. You can choose various tours, or even customize one, through the vast collection. One of the best features is a virtual map, which helps you find your way through the maze of rooms.

Read on for more Travel Tidbits ...

Travel Tidbits: Long walk aborted

I decided to check in on Mark Boyle, whom we wrote about last month. Boyle—who also goes by the name Saoirse—was trying to walk from his hometown in Bristol, England, to Gandhi's birthplace in Porbandar, India, without money. Yes, without money.

Well, he didn't make it.

Apparently, relying on the kindness and generosity of strangers only gets you so far. Apparently, it only gets you as far as Calais, France.

Boyle pulled the plug on his "pilgrimage" after only 300 miles on his expected 9,000-mile journey. Not surprisingly, he cited lack of food, lack of housing and lack of the French language as huge obstacles. It didn't help that the French assumed Boyle to be a freeloading backpacker. You can read all of the excruciating details on Boyle's blog here, here and here.

Click on to read more Travel Tidbits …

Travel Tidbits: Shakespeare marathon

Are you ready for some Shakespeare?

If you're like my father (a high school English teacher and devoted student of Shakespeare), you can't get enough of William Shakespeare. So here's an unprecedented opportunity: The esteemed Royal Shakespeare Company is performing the Bard's entire, eight-play History Cycle in order.

The Histories cover 100 years of English history and nearly 1,400 minutes of viewing time. That's more than 23 hours to you and me. The RSC is performing all eight plays in the order that Shakespeare wrote them (and his audiences would have seen them): Henry VI Parts I, II & III, followed by Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV Parts I & II and finishing with Henry V.

The epic undertaking is believed to be the first time one theater company has staged the entire History Cycle. It has taken more than two-and-a-half years to produce.

There's a lot of good information at the Royal Shakespeare Company site. But  Globespotters has some impressive figures: 34 actors play 264 parts, each part is understudied, which means a total of 528 parts have been rehearsed. The production also includes 210,000 spoken words, 800 costumes, 40 wigs and hairpieces and—get this—more than 15 liters of stage blood.

The Histories are running through Sunday at the RSC's Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and then the performances will run from April 1 to May 25 at The Roundhouse in London.

Travel Tidbits: One long walk

How much does it cost to travel from Bristol, England, to Porbandar, India?

If you're Mark Boyle, the answer (hopefully) is nothing.

The catch is that Boyle is walking—yes, walking—from his British hometown to Gandhi's birthplace without any money.

The 28-year-old former businessman (pictured at left) began the 9,000-mile "pilgrimage" last Wednesday and plans to survive by relying solely on the goodwill of humanity or working for food and a place to rest.

"I've got some sunscreen, a good knife, a spoon, a bandage ... no Visa card, no travellers' cheques, no bank accounts, zero," he told BBC radio. "I won't actually touch money along the way."

Boyle, who also goes by the name Saoirse, estimates he'll cover 15 to 45 miles a day walking through France, Italy, eastern Europe, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He guesses it will take him two and a half years to arrive in Porbandar, Gandhi's birthplace on India's west coast.

You can follow Boyle on his journey by reading his blog. And, if you happen to spot him along the way, be sure to post your sighting.

Read on for this week's installment of Travel Tidbits.

Travel Tidbits: Can you spare $10 million?

Think the U.S. economy is problematic? It's nothing compared to the economic crisis in Zimbabwe.

Inflation is so bad—believed to be 50,000 percent annually—that Zimbabwe's central bank just began issuing notes worth 10,000,000 Zimbabwean dollars. Yes, 10 million bucks. That's the equivalent of 100 of the bills pictured.

Ten million dollars is believed to be the largest denomination of any currency in the world, but don't get too excited. At the current rate, it could be worthless in a few weeks. According to the BBC, one $10 million note (or bearer cheque, as its called) is worth less than $4 U.S. on the black market. That means the $100,000 cheque pictured is worth less than 4 U.S. pennies.

Gadling pointed us to a blog that describes Zimbabwe's rampant hyperinflation. The writer reports that the new $10,000,000 bill is the same color, layout and design as an old $20 bill (which expired in July). Fifteen months ago, that $20 bill was worth $0.025 USD; that same bill is now worth $0.00000005 USD. Hence, the $10 million note.

To illustrate what that means in daily life, here's how much it cost to buy a beer back in December.

Now, on to more Travel Tidbits …

Travel Tidbits: A conquering hero

One of the 20th century's greatest explorers, Sir Edmund Hillary, died January 10. He and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first known people to reach the top of Mount Everest.

Hillary and Norgay literally stood on top of the world on May 29, 1953, when they reached the summit of Mount Everest, 29,035 feet above sea level, the highest point on Earth. Of reaching the pinnacle moment, Hillary wrote:

"Another few weary steps and there was nothing above us but the sky. There was no false cornice, no final pinnacle. We were standing together on the summit. There was enough space for about six people. We had conquered Everest. … Awe, wonder, humility, pride, exaltation—these surely ought to be the confused emotions of the first men to stand on the highest peak on Earth, after so many others had failed."

Since then, more than 3,000 people have ascended Mount Everest, but Hillary—like Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole in 1911, Charles Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic in 1927 and Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon in 1969—was the first. He devoted much of the rest of his life to assisting the mountain people of Nepal.

World Hum and Gadling both paid tribute to the man whom New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark called "a colossus." You also can read obituaries from the Associated Press and The New York Times. The New Zealand native was 88.

It's been awhile, so we have several other Travel Tidbits to catch up on:

Travel Tidbits

There's a lot to catch up on in the world of travel after a couple of weeks preoccupied by other work and the Thanksgiving holiday. So let's clean out the notebook …

• Oh, say, can you see … Spain is frantically working to put new lyrics to the music of its national anthem. According to Gadling, Spain is one of the few countries with a wordless anthem. The Spanish Olympic Committee pitched the lyric-writing competition because Madrid is competing to host the 2016 Summer Olympics (against Chicago; Prague; Tokyo; Rio de Janeiro; Doha, Qatar; and Baku, Azerbaijan). The SOC jury reviewed about 100 finalists (whittled down from about 7,000 entries) earlier this month and will announce the winner December 19. Stay tuned!

Travel Tidbits

Check out a few of our favorite travel-related items from the past week ...

Travel Tidbits

We've come across some interesting travel items over the past week. Let's share:

• Supersize Dubai: National Geographic Traveler's blog about authentic and sustainable travel, Intelligent Travel, writes about the effects of gargantuan tourism projects, symbolized by Burj Dubai, the world's new tallest building.

• If you're more interested in rugby than football, then check out Lonely Planet's Travel Blog for the best places in the world that you could have watched the Rugby World Cup.

• Lonely Planet's Travel Blog also asks simply: Why do we travel?

• The future of air travel has been a hot topic lately. The Freakonomics authors take a look at U.S. air travel in 10 years on their New York Times blog, while Elisabeth Eaves offers a provocative look ahead to 2017 on Forbes.com. Interesting takes, but Eaves couldn't be further off base about the rise of virtual travel. Nothing could ever replace just going.

• The Los Angeles Times has the details on the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger plane, which is due to make its first commercial flight Thursday. Most of the tickets on the Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Sydney were auctioned off. The cost for a normal round-trip ticket from Singapore to Sydney? About $7,000. … LAT also wrote about the amenities aboard.

• The New York Times, has a piece on the extravaganza that Bangkok is planning for the 80th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

• And, finally, it's always worth checking out the World Hum Travel Zeitgeist, a tour of the week's most interesting travel tidbits on one of our favorite travel blogs.