http://rielworld.com ...cultivating a global curiosity Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:35:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Ladakh, India Two monks at a Buddhist gompa near the city of Leh, in the Ladakh region of India. http://rielworld.com/2010/03/12/riel-world-travel-photo-32/ You have the time. You have the money. And you want to do something different: take a trip that will transform your life. Or at least give you the sense that you've had a life-changing adventure. Travel & Leisure and MSNBC recently published a story about what they called midlife ... http://rielworld.com/2010/03/09/transformational-trips/ Ever heard of Cascadia? Or Ecotopia? This is the geographical and cultural region - both real and mythical at the same time, it seems - that stretches from the Pacific Northwest up through British Columbia and includes such cities as Seattle, Portland and Vancouver. The NY Times recently published a ... http://rielworld.com/2010/03/05/dreams-of-cascadia/ So the Winter Olympics are over. After two weeks of marveling at the physical feats of some of the world's best athletes, it's time to say goodbye to the skiers, snowboarders, speedskaters and bobsledders for another four years. Unless, that is, you happen to take in some World Cup or X-Games ... http://rielworld.com/2010/03/02/ways-to-keep-the-olympics-buzz-going/ There is something almost indescribably mysterious and beautiful about islands. Unmoored from any large land mass, they seem to float amidst the seas, many of them with their own unique landscape and identity. Frommer's was on to something recently when it published the book 500 Extraordinary Islands, which profiles some of ... http://rielworld.com/2010/02/26/extraordinary-islands/ Since February is Black History Month, it's an opportune time consider a road trip that takes in sites that are important to black history in the United States. So I created a journey through that runs between Georgia and Kansas and which takes in key locations from the civil rights movement as well as some historic homes of ... http://rielworld.com/2010/02/23/a-road-trip-in-honor-of-black-history-month/ Arthur Rimbaud was a 19th century French poet who famously gave up writing while still a young man and lived most of the final 10 years of his life in Harar, Ethiopia. That makes the town somewhat of an interesting landmark, but Harar is also reputed to be one of the ... http://rielworld.com/2010/02/19/experiencing-the-ethiopia-of-arthur-rimbaud/ Americans love road trips. They love taking them and they often enjoy reading about them, as well. But what are the best U.S. road trip books ever written? Smithsonian magazine took a stab at that question and came up with a list of 11 titles, which are featured in a ... http://rielworld.com/2010/02/16/great-american-road-trip-adventures/ If you enjoy architecture or historic homes, then you'll appreciate this recent feature on HGTV's FrontDoor website about 10 of the most iconic homes in the United States. Sure, the White House is there, but so are homes designed by Thomas Jefferson and Frank Lloyd Wright and such entertainer mansions ... http://rielworld.com/2010/02/12/iconic-american-homes/ Maybe you've seen the movie Julie and Julia, or have even actually tried Mastering the Art of French Cooking. But have you ever considered moving to France in order to learn how to cook French cuisine? Lynda Balslev did just that one day, in search of adventure and on an unexplainable ... http://rielworld.com/2010/02/09/a-love-affair-with-france-and-french-cuisine/