Welcome to the (particularly enormous!) Carnival of Cities blog carnival, where we tour the world in a single post, via submissions from a variety of different blogs, all about any aspect of one, single city or fair-sized town.

The previous Carnival edition was hosted on Sheila’s Guide, and you’ll find the next one (December 14) on Travel with Teens and Tweens.

If you would like to host a future Carnival edition on your blog, please contact me at Sheila “at” sheilascarborough “dot” com. Thanks!

Off we go….

Cities in Europe

Akureyri, Iceland Hjortur Smarason presents Akureyri in the Snow! – Photo Essay posted at Raving Ravens, saying, “This is a post I did about Akureyri, the biggest town of North Iceland with pictures from a heavy snow day ”

Tallinn, Estonia Chris Christensen presents Chocolate Quest in Tallinn, Estonia posted at The Amateur Traveler Podcast – travel for the love of it.

Stockholm, Sweden Anne-Sophie Redisch presents Östermalms Saluhall – Slow Food in Stockholm posted at Sophie’s World, saying, “If you’re a travelling foodie and you happen to be in Stockholm, a stop at Saluhallen Market in the hip Östermalm neighbourhood will be a highlight of your visit.”

London, England AbundantJourneys presents London Calling; A New Holiday Tradition? posted at Life Is Full of Bloom.

Avanos, Turkey jenny presents Avanos, Turkey: Search for the Red Clay Turkish Pottery for Pottery Kebabs posted at Devour The World.

Helsinki, Finland Chris Gray Faust presents Fascinating Finland: Finnish Design in Helsinki posted at Chris Around The World: A Journalist’s Travels on the Road.

Glasgow, Scotland Mike Sowden presents Glasgow: There Hasnae Been a Murder posted at Fevered Mutterings.

Munich, Germany Stuart Wickes presents Whirlwind Munich posted at The Family Adventure Project, saying, “A family oriented whirlwind tour of Munich, Germany.”

Florence, Italy MoTravels presents Florence in the Fall posted at MO TRAVELS, saying, “Fall is the perfect time to enjoy Florence, with the beautiful autumn leaves, cooler climate and fewer crowds.”

Poissy, France Michael Schuermann presents The White House Le Corbusier Built posted at easy hiker.

Copenhagen, Denmark Dian Emery presents Sightseeing on a Winter’s Day in Copenhagen posted at GirlsGetaway, saying, “Tips for winter sightseeing in Europe’s capital of cool, Copenhagen Denmark”

Pamplona, Spain Liz presents pamplona posted at Liz en España.

Budapest, Hungary Alex Berger presents Adventure Travel: Caving Deep Beneath Budapest – My First Brush With Claustrophobia posted at VirtualWayfarer.

London, England David Leonhardt presents Top Style Bars of London posted at Barwhiz Blog, saying, “Style bars in London are similar to the usual bars which serve great drinks with awesome music to entertain the guests. One thing that separates them from regular pubs or bars is their decor, serving style and most prominently, the star-studded guest list.”

Stockholm, Sweden Lola Akinmade Åkerström presents Holiday spirit around Birger Jarlsgatan – Stockholm posted at The Swedish photo blog — blogs.sweden.se, saying, “Christmas markets are now up around Sweden. Decorations adorn storefronts and shelves. Twinkling stars hang in windows, including mine. You can definitely feel the holiday spirit here in Stockholm, even though snow has delayed its arrival.”

Venice, Italy Tui Cameron presents Venice, Italy’s Warped Sense of Scale posted at Mental Mosaic, saying, “A recent visit to Venice, Italy got me thinking about the meaning of scale. Several luxury yachts in the harbor completely dwarfed that beautiful floating city. It looked like a movie set with items in different scales, as you can see from my photos.”

Annecy, France Andrea presents 3 Hours in Annecy posted at Destination Europe.

London, England Simon Falvo presents London’s East End? Multicultural, Fascinating and So Cool posted at Wild About Travel.

Cities in the Americas

Ottawa, Canada Globetrottergirls presents Ottawa UnLOCKed posted at Globetrottergirls, saying, “We recently discovered that the key to conquering Canada’s capital is by starting at the locks.”

Bogota, Colombia 20stravel presents Street Art of Bogota: A Photo Essay posted at Twenty-Something Travel.

Anaheim, California, USA Jennifer Miner presents Disneyland During Winter Holiday Season posted at Los Angeles Consortium of Online Travel, saying, “Plenty to see and do in Disneyland during the Christmas season!”

Rapid City, South Dakota, USA Beth Blair presents South Dakota’s Bear Country U.S.A. posted at The Vacation Gals, saying, “Terrific stop on a family road trip – Bear Country in South Dakota.”

(more…)

It’s not often that I’m able to make a direct connection between Zambia and the small Texas town of Bastrop.

Thanks to this year’s Passports with Purpose – the annual travel bloggers’ fundraiser – I can support both education in Africa and a town near me that is recovering from terrible wildfires.

We’re working to raise US$80,000 through PwP to build two libraries in southern and eastern Zambia.  Wow. That’s the building construction, all the books and educational materials, teacher training and support for three years.

Last year we raised enough money (mostly in US$10 increments) to build an entire village in southern India in partnership with Friends of LAFTI.  This year, PwP is partnering with Room to Read for the libraries.

It works rather like a raffle – in addition to the goodie we’re showcasing below, you can browse through this full list of travel-related prizes and bid for chances to win whichever ones appeal to you.  At the end of the fundraiser – it runs through December 16, 2011 – one winner of each prize will be randomly selected from all of those who have bid for it.  A $10 donation per bid is suggested, but if you don’t want to make a donation, mail one self addressed stamped envelope to: Passports with Purpose, P.O. Box 16102, Seattle WA 98116.  Include the name of the prize you are entering to win.

A huge thank you to Hyatt Hotels, who sponsored the prize featured here on the Perceptive Travel Blog:  a two-night stay at the lovely Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa in Bastrop (near Austin.)

This prize is special to me because I enjoyed a stay at the resort with my family awhile back;  the room was nice and comfy, food was very good, the staff was helpful and friendly and the water park/pool area (complete with a Lazy River) was a huge hit.

We didn’t get around to some of the other recreational offerings on the Colorado River running through the property, or in the adjacent 1,100-acre McKinney Roughs Nature Park, but that simply means we’ll have to return!

More importantly, the unique Lost Pines area where the Resort is located suffered absolutely devastating wildfires this past September. Record high temperatures, particularly severe drought and high winds contributed to the destruction of most of the distinctive loblolly pines, two people were killed and 1600+ homes burned.

It was the most destructive single wildfire in Texas history, and I could smell and see the smoke from it in my front yard more than 30 miles north.

Consequently, even though the quaint Main Street town of Bastrop (a National Trust Distinctive Destination) and the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort are just fine and are open for business, tourism has suffered and the downtown Bastrop businesses are struggling to convince visitors that the whole town didn’t burn down.

Offering this prize is one small way to both support Passports with Purpose and highlight the recovery of a special place.

For a chance to win this prize or one of many others, go here to the PwP Prize List/Donate page and follow the directions.

(Note: our Hyatt Lost Pines prize is for a two-night stay 1/1/2012 – 12/30/2012. It’s good for nights Sunday through Thursday – based on availability – and is not valid during holiday periods or Spring Break.)

Thanks for your support of Passports with Purpose, and I look forward to showing off some photos of the libraries in Zambia in the next year or so.

If you like this post, please consider subscribing to the blog via RSS feed or by email – the email signup link is at the top of the right sidebar near the Search box. Thanks!)

To me, the mark of a great city isn’t the presence of major museums — although you do need those — but the ability to support smaller institutions.

I always felt, for instance, that the presence of Rubin Museum of Art, which focuses on the art of Himalayas, was a great mark of pride for New York City, and, when I visited Warsaw, I imagined that if I lived there I’d feel the same about the Muzeum Karykatury, a tiny museum devoted to  caricature and cartoons.

It’s easy for visitors to miss these quiet places, and so when I travel, I’ve made it sort of a side project not to.

And so, in Toronto, I visited  The Museum of Inuit Art, which describes itself as “the only public museum south of the Arctic solely devoted to the display of art made by Inuit living in Canada.”  I thought I’d given the cab driver the wrong address when I arrived, since it’s located in a downtown shopping mall on Queens Quay — a fact not made entirely clear by the lovely photographs on the museum’s website.

The museum itself is as far removed from a shopping mall as you could possibly get though — beautifully designed, it provides an education through time and by artistic theme on a subject that most of us know very little about: the art created by native communities living in Canada’s arctic region. This display, for example, shows how a master carver is teaching his son his art through apprenticeship and example:

This was another stop on my Toronto itinerary, and therefore part of the all-expenses paid trip which you can enter to win. See previous stories on this trip, including this one on a romance with a hat.  More details here.

A golden opportunity awaits those heading toward the Coromandel Peninsula on State Highway Two. The Karangahake Gorge, between the townships of Paeroa and Waihi, features walkways offering a glimpse of goldmining history amidst dramatic scenery.

Gold was discovered here in 1875, sparking off the Coromandel’s first gold rush. Within weeks, thousands of miners, armed with pick and sluice pan, converged on the gorge, but their dreams of fame and fortune soon soured – traditional mining techniques of the independent miner were of little use on gold deeply imbedded in quartz rock.

Independent miners were replaced by large mining companies. Huge crushing and extraction batteries were built alongside the Ohinemuri River. Powered by steam or kauri wheels, they extracted gold and silver from quartz rock mined from the steep cliffs overlooking the river.

By the turn of the century, the Karangahake Gorge was an important Coromandel mining area. Three townships – Mackeytown, Karangahake, and Waikino – grew from the need to feed, shelter, and support the thousands of mining workers and their families.

Today it’s hard to believe that the gorge was such a hive of activity. The towns of Karangahake and Mackeytown have all but disappeared. At Waikino, all that remains are some old buildings lining the terrace overlooking the newly refurbished Waikino Visitors Centre.

The centre houses an extensive display of photographs and artifacts relating to Karangahake Gorge’s goldmining past, as well as information on current facilities and attractions in the area. The Centre also provides carparking facilities for those interested in doing any of the Department of Conservation walkways.

The walks are pleasant leg stretchers for those seeking a break in their travels up the Coromandel Peninsula. And it is along these walkways that the most interesting goldmining relics lie.

Following signposted walkways, visitors will come across a variety of rusted mining relics hidden among regrown native bush and visible beneath the clear waters of the Ohinemuri River.

Enormous foundation ruins of the gold extracting batteries sit alongside the walkways, serving as a spectacular reminder of the wealth of the Karangahake gold fields. During their short working life, these batteries extracted over half a billion dollars worth of gold from within the Karangahake mountains.

The shortest of the three walkways traces the old Paeroa-Waihi railway line (once used to transport coal and machinery) alongside the Ohinemuri River to the Owharoa Falls.

A slightly longer variation of this walk starts at the ruins of the Crown battery. Passing through the orginial bricklined railway tunnel, the walkway crosses the Ohinemuri River and State Highway Two via a railway bridge and then follows the river to the Owharoa Falls.

The third walkway, estimated at 45 minutes, is commonly called the Karangahake Loop. Beginning and ending at the old Karangahake town site, this walkway passes through the Woodstock and Talisman battery foundations.

An additional attraction to the area is the Goldfields Steam Train, which operates between Waihi and the Waikino Visitors Centre. The return trip, from either Waihi or Waikino, takes an hour and a half.

(photo credits by Rosino and Robin van Mourik via Flickr)