Happy 4th of July weekend, and congratulations on making it through the heatwave. It broke in stupendous fashion last night, with thunder that rocked the house.
As many of you readers know, I fell madly in love with Seoul. It’s in the top-tier list of cities one can easily spend a week or two in—pigging out, shopping, and sightseeing. So I thought I’d share the review I just did for National Geographic on my favorite hotel by far (I stayed in eight) in the megacity. It’s free to read!
I had no idea there was a new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in the works, or that it was being designed by Snøhetta. Well, it just opened outside of Medora, and it looks incredible.
I’ve written before about the long-standing feeling that there has been little to no major innovation in travel for at least a half-century, but the FAA’s new push to legalize civilian supersonic flights over the continental U.S. could be. My brain is a non-science brain, but the best I understand is that whereas supersonic flights once generated such a dangerous “boom” that it could damage buildings on the ground below, scientists and engineers have figured out how to bend that sound back up into the atmosphere. While this should come with all the caveats about it only reducing flight time by like, 15-30%, and fuel costs being a huge limiting factor, it’s pretty dang cool.
A childhood visit to York, Maine, retains a dream-like quality in my memory, mainly because there seemed to be an ice cream shop on every corner. It’s such an essential part of any hot-weather experience, especially in New England. But I learned as I got older that so much of the rest of the country, indeed, the world, doesn’t have this?? It’s not just D.C. that has a paucity of ice cream shops. I’ve long felt a chain of ice cream shops could make a killing in Europe as the only competition is gelato—and Amarino at that!—which is absolutely wonderful, but it isn’t as cold! And there’s something about the childlike state we’re all returned to when racing to lick the scoops piled onto a cone that is a world apart from elegantly spooning it as most do with gelato.
Add this to the pile of ever-growing news stories that make one feel like we can’t do public infrastructure. The LAX people mover’s opening has been pushed back again, and now there’s no final date being given. KCRW has a great explainer on how this has become such a mess.
The way this country treated Louis Sullivan before historic preservation is an architectural tragedy almost without peer. The latest indignity? Local sleuths have discovered the fate of his 1889 Walker Warehouse (destroyed in 1953). It turns out that chunks of those exquisitely carved stones were taken to South Chicago and dumped in the water to create shore-protecting riprap. You can still see them today!
This article titled “European hotels test cool ideas so travelers can weather the summer heatwave” is unintentionally the funniest thing I’ve read in a while.
The World Cup bump that wasn’t continues. Tucked in the monthly job report was the fact that the leisure and hospitality industry lost 61,000 jobs in June after a big staffing up in May. It was the largest drop for the industry since the pandemic.
I’ve moved houses twice, which is a humbling experience because that is when you truly learn how much unnecessary stuff you’ve bought. However, I have objects that I treasure and wish I’d bought more of (looking at you, Agra workshops). Also, I hate checking a bag. That combination makes me very deliberate about what I buy when abroad, so I really can’t relate to “tacky souvenir” collectors, though I don’t judge them. I just know they’ll end up in a closet somewhere.
When it wants to be, Washingtonian is an excellent magazine. “The Rats Are Taking Over D.C.” remains one of my favorite contemporary magazine stories. Now the magazine is out with another banger, this time on organized crime running illegal food trucks on the National Mall!!!!!
A really lovely interactive from the New York Times on the Statue of Liberty as the most iconic American artwork.
So much of this piece by Cailey Rizzo on Anthony Bourdain and his legacy rang true for me. I, too, admired him and his work. And like so many, when I first started traveling extensively, I took him as a model for the “right way” to do it. The final few paragraphs really resonated, so I’ll quote them in full:
“In certain travel journalism circles, there’s this thing known as the “Bourdain Effect.” It’s what happens when a restaurant featured in his show becomes overrun with tourists, losing the very essence that once drew Bourdain to it. This kept happening to such a large extent that, towards the end of his life, Bourdain was sincerely grappling with the ethics of what he was doing.
He had become agoraphobic. He began to visualize his ideal episode of Parts Unknown: he wouldn’t be in it, it would just be “his point of view, a camera moving through space.”
As I approached five years on the job, I also began grappling with the ethics of travel writing. I was beginning to see cities change. And quickly. The streets were more crowded. Residents were being pushed out for Airbnbs. Delis had become souvenir shops.
But I couldn’t forget what I had seen as a broke 19-year-old backpacker. People used to actually live in Venice. Machu Picchu wasn’t always ticketed. The Eiffel Tower was a maligned structure before it became a symbol.”
This BBC piece on hiking up to the view that inspired “America the Beautiful.”
Sam Dalrymple, again making me want to return to India, his latest being on “The Crumbling Estates of Aligarh”
I love a seasonal dish, especially a seasonal dessert. I’ve been downing black raspberry ice cream every day since I’ve been in Newport. (I know it’s become a year-round thing, now, but whatever.) So now I want to go to Poland in the summer to try jagodianzki, which are these delightful-looking bilberry buns!
TRAVEL INDUSTRY NEWS
Shark sightings prompted beach closures at Rockaway
American Airlines to begin Chicago-Tokyo service in March
Salzburg bans tourists from driving into historic centre over summer
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