Travel Maven blog

Mingling with the mannequins: What the Dickens is Charles of England doing in Ohio

Cambridge, Ohio
As soon as Halloween is over, the Central Ohio town of Cambridge will have a festive Victorian look, not only among its buildings, but also its people, some of whom dress and act like Charles Dickens characters for two months each winter.

Through early January, downtown Cambridge celebrates all things Dickens, from carolers and well-dressed society types to street urchins, Bob Cratchit, and Tiny Tim.

If you stop by, you may also dress the part, borrowing for free some garb at Ye Ole Curiosity Shoppe on Wheeling Avenue and heading outside to mingle with the mannequins, which dot the downtown like extras in a huge performance.

For a sneak peek, here are pictures, taken at a local warehouse, of the many mannequins that soon will be stationed along downtown’s Wheeling Avenue at antique lampposts and benches.

Theroux travel book on my bedside table

"The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road" by Paul Theroux (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; $25).

Paul Theroux celebrates his decades of wandering the globe in his latest book by collecting the best writing about travel from others, whose work shaped him as both a reader and a traveler.
 

He writes of the essence of travel experiences, of places that peoples consider to be "the navel of the earth," odd items that famous travelers carried with them, the fears of legendary travelers, and the best imaginary journeys.

Theroux's essential Tao of travel:

Leave home, go alone, travel light, bring a map, go by land, walk across a national frontier, keep a journal, read a novel that has no relation to the place you're in. If you must bring a cell phone, avoid using it. Make a friend.

I might add, read Paul Theroux.

David Molyneaux is editor of TheTravelMavens.com

 

Actor McCarthy, Afar get top Lowell Thomas honors

Afar magazine, the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle won top honors as the best travel publications in North America in the 2010 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.

Travel Journalist of the Year is Andrew McCarthy, actor, director and now travel writer, who won the gold for his portfolio of articles in some of North America’s best travel magazines.

The awards were announced today in Leipzig at the annual conference of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). As president of the SATW Foundation, which oversees the contest, I have the priviledge of announcing the winners.

Among other winners:

Cruising tricks and tips I learned on a Mediterranean voyage

Research the exchange rate for U.S. dollars

In February, I walked into Egypt for the first time in 25 years.

My ship, the Norwegian Jade, spent two days at port in Alexandria, Egypt, so passengers could plan side trips to Cairo and beyond.

Alexandria is not an intriguing port stop. But it was the home of the original great library of the ancient world -- long ago destroyed by fire, religious intolerance and who knows what -- and now the site of a gigantic modern library, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which was inaugurated in 2002. It is a prime stop on tours of Alexandria.

I had walked halfway to the library from the cruise port -- including 30 minutes watching a group of men hoist a net of fish from the bay as it was done a century ago -- when I realized I had forgotten to research exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and the Egyptian pound.

Books, restaurants, a dog-friendly hotel in Portland

It seems I was the only person in the world who had never been to Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon. Fixed that.

Rummaged around Powell’s downtown store -- as big as a city block -- for more than hour. Got a bit lost in the maze of sections and floors that once held a parking garage. From cars to books, what a great transition.

Baseball, numbers, fantasy, poetry

Like travel, baseball is one of my passions, which I satisfy in my midlife years with shared season tickets to watch the Cleveland Indians -- and a franchise in a cerebral game called Rotisserie.

Ours, I'm sure, is the only Rotisserie baseball league in the country with a Poet Laureate.

Every April, a group of 12 otherwise sane adults -- each with some relationship past or present to the Cleveland newspaper called The Plain Dealer -- gathers the weekend after opening day of the real baseball season to auction off all the players in the American League, as if they were for sale. Each of us begins the day with $260. By the end of the auction, we are out of money, but are owners for a season of a fantasy baseball team.

For the next 25 weeks, we fantasy general managers will begin the morning with an Internet look at how our chosen players performed the day before and where our team lies in the Plain Wheeler Dealer standings.