The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2010: Sweet 16
There were several close contests and an upset in the Best City To Visit Travel Tournament Round of 32. Stockholm was back and forth with Washington DC all week before coming out on top the final day of voting, while David may have riled up the Zermatt fans to victory. Ho Chi Minh City also got past Berlin with a single vote to make it to the Sweet 16 round. Now it’s time to vote for your favorites – London vs. New York City, Istanbul vs. Sydney, Amsterdam vs. Rome – select which cities will make it to next week. Voting ends this Friday March 12th, 12pm US EST.
- Those of you reading through RSS or my daily email will need to click through to the site to vote.
The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2010 - Sweet 16: Paris vs. Stockholm
- Paris, France (Rod) (78%, 102 Votes)
- Stockholm, Sweden (JoAnna) (22%, 29 Votes)
Total Voters: 131
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2010 - Sweet 16: Tokyo vs. Athens
- Athens, Greece (Nisha) (70%, 87 Votes)
- Tokyo, Japan (Sherry) (30%, 37 Votes)
Total Voters: 124
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2010 - Sweet 16: Istanbul vs. Sydney
- Istanbul, Turkey (Deniz) (81%, 104 Votes)
- Sydney, Australia (Mark H) (19%, 24 Votes)
Total Voters: 128
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2010 - Sweet 16: Barcelona vs. Ho Chi Minh City
- Barcelona, Spain (Stephane) (72%, 108 Votes)
- Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Ayngelina) (28%, 41 Votes)
Total Voters: 149
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2010 - Sweet 16: Amsterdam vs. Rome
- Amsterdam, Netherlands (JM Leon) (69%, 90 Votes)
- Rome, Italy (Nellie) (31%, 40 Votes)
Total Voters: 130
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2010 - Sweet 16: San Francisco vs. Venice
- Venice, Italy (Anjuli) (72%, 94 Votes)
- San Francisco, USA (Mimi) (28%, 37 Votes)
Total Voters: 131
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2010 - Sweet 16: Zermatt vs. Bangkok
- Zermatt, Switzerland (Jen) (66%, 84 Votes)
- Bangkok, Thailand (Vamsee) (34%, 44 Votes)
Total Voters: 128
Loading ...The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2010 - Sweet 16: London vs. New York City
- London, England (Jack) (55%, 82 Votes)
- New York City, USA (Michaela) (45%, 66 Votes)
Total Voters: 148
Loading ...You can take a look at the entire bracket so far below (or see the larger version).
The winner will be determined on Friday, April 2nd 2010. Missed this contest? I run a number of large and small contests throughout the year. Take a look at some previous competitions and prizes and find out about my next contest first by signing up to my bi-monthly newsletter.
[photo by: Eva The Weaver (top picture)]
Following The Footsteps Of The Beatles On The Reeperbahn, Hamburg
“I might have been born in Liverpool – but I grew up in Hamburg.”
-John Lennon
The Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany is the bustling nightlife center of the city, home to one of Europe’s largest red light districts, and also where the Beatles began to make their mark on music during the early 1960s. The Beatles primarily played in 4 clubs at the Reeperbahn and you can retrace their footsteps at each one while capturing a feel for the “sinful mile”.
Indra Musikclub
It’s where the Beatles first played in Hamburg and by visiting you’ll get an idea of their humble beginnings. You’re better off showing up before 6pm or so, after which you’ll have to pay a cover to watch one of the bands that are booked for the evening. (The Beatles had to play hard, fast, and entertain the crowd anyway they could here which was difficult at times; fights breaking out during shows was common.) The drinks are cheap in the cramped and loud Indra Musikclub which is a great place to catch a show because even if you’re at the very back of the place, you’re not too far away from the stage (or bar).
Kaiserkeller
This is large concert hall that’s hard to miss on the corner of 36 Große Freiheit; it alternates during the day between club, bar, and concert hall for rock, dance, salsa, and Kelly Clarkson. The interior of the Kaiserkeller is larger than the Indra, but still gives an intimate feel when there’s live music. The Beatles didn’t play very long here (only a few months during 1960) and it’s not a place you’ll hang out long unless you’re watching a concert.
The Star Club
Unfortunately there is nothing of the Star Club left but the plague below. It’s hidden on a side street off 39 Große Freiheit near a Thai dance club and strip bar standing on a wall by itself. The Beatles played at the Star Club for 7 weeks at the end of 1962 and it’s the only one of these Hamburg clubs where Ringo Starr played with the band (having replaced Pete Best). The original building burned down in 1987 but the plaque commemorates other later famous musicians who played there like Little Richard, Ray Charles, Cream, Jerry Lee Louis, and Black Sabbath to name a few.
Below is a live recording of the Beatles with some footage from the Star Club in 1962.
Lots Of New Beatles, Not As Much Old
Beatles fans will appreciate stopping by each of the bars that are still standing, if not only for a few moments to see the atmosphere of the clubs that strongly influenced the band. Some of the other clubs the Beatles played at like The Top Ten (136 Reeperbahn) are also not in existence anymore and there are still many more across the rest of Hamburg. Parts of the Reeperbahn have tried to make more of the Beatles than is actually there – a Beatlemania Museum for example, as well as Beatles hot dog stands and resturants. These places are “Beatles” only by name and you won’t see much outside of the museum on the Reeperbahn.
The real spectacle is the Reeperbahn itself, notorious for it’s wild nightlife, sex shops, and rowdy bars that imprinted themselves on the Fab Four long after they left Hamburg.
[photos by: vgm8383 (Indra Musikclub)]
Danishes In Denmark
March 3, 2010 by Anil P.
Filed under Pictures and Video
True to their name, there are danishes (and Danes) all over Denmark and the capital Copenhagen. There are plenty of bakeries around, in addition to the lunch restaurants that only serve food until about 3pm, then close for the day. I took this picture as I made my way to Christiania, which I’ll be writing more about next week. While some of the locals warned me the area around the autonomous neighborhood wasn’t safe, things seemed perfectly normal inside this bakery just a few blocks away.
To get an idea, you can look through some of my other pictures from Copenhagen.
The Best Comments Of The Month: February 2010
Every month it gets harder and harder to pick out even just some of the best comments of the month. As always, these are just a select few and you can find many wonderful comments in a variety of posts from the past month.
- Ayngelina recommends Thailand or New Zealand (for the more timid) as great places to begin your backpacking adventures.
- It’s amazing what resolution you can get with a point-and-shoot digital camera these days. Kim Kinrade was able to spot several “Dublin clues” in my picture of D’olier Chambers.
- Gemma Ray shares 5 good backpacking tips.
- In case you’re planning a stopover in Iceland, Nomadic Chick has some local music to put you in the mood.
- Earl agrees, while it’s OK to hate some places, it’s hard to hold a grudge for long.
- I thought Amsterdam had a high bike-to-person ratio but according to Birgul, Ula, Turkey beats it out hands down.
- Dublin has endeared itself to more than a few of us giving Susan and others a home-away-from-home homesick feeling.
I really do mean it when I say I appreciate each of you taking the time to leave a comment. You have my many thanks and I hope you will all keep leaving your thoughts and comments from time to time.
-Anil
[photo by: riNux]
