Туризм. Путешествия. Путеводители

Riverman: An American Odyssey uncovers the story of an extraordinary man and his puzzling disappearance, and paints a picture of the singular spirit of America's riverbank towns.

On his forty-third birthday, Dick Conant, a golden boy who never quite grew up as those around him expected, stepped into a homemade boat to embark on a journey despite a gathering snowstorm. Among his possessions was a Gideon Bible and biographies of Einstein and Bismark. It was the beginning of an all-consuming odyssey by an unconventional man into the watery arteries of America, a journey to the unreported margins of society. He was to spend the next twenty years canoeing thousands of miles of rivers and their innumerable smaller tributaries, from one end of the country to the other. 'I can, and I will!' he said. And then, in 2014, he disappeared.

Not long before Conant's upturned canoe was found in a brackish North Carolina bay, Ben McGrath met Conant by chance as he paddled down the Hudson, headed for Florida. McGrath set out to find the people whose lives, like his own, had been touched by their encounter with the great river wanderer. Along the way he meets eccentrics and ne'er-do-wells drawn straight from the pages of Mark Twain, a vast network of friends and acquaintances who would forever remember this brilliant and charming man even after a single meeting.

Riverman is the story of a restless soul who was as troubled as he was charismatic, a contemporary folk hero who slips the moorings of ordinary civilised life to tap into what Thoreau called 'a yearning toward all wildness.' It is also a riveting portrait of an America we rarely see: a nation of unconventional characters, small river towns, and long forgotten waterways.

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Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articles

Here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, a ladies' brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters' Convention. She writes about the stifling heat, the almost viscous pace of life, the sulfurous light, and the preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through.

And from a different notebook: the "California Notes" that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here, too, is the beginning of her thinking about the West, its landscape, the western women who were heroic for her, and her own lineage.

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Head off to explore the filming location of 12 Monkeys, Michael Jackson's hometown turned ghost town, Berlin's 1936 Olympic Village, deconsecrated churches, forgotten castles, deserted train stations, prisons and mental asylums, a cemetery of rusted locomotives, abandoned steel factories, phantom metro stations, and more.
For 10 years, Sylvain Margaine has traveled the world in search of these forbidden and forgotten places. An exceptional photographic report.

Серия: Michelin Must See Guides

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Take your diving gear along to reach an underwater hotel; stay in a disused US Air Force radar tower in the heart of the equatorial rainforest; slide back the roof of your bedroom to gaze at the stars; sleep in the cabin of a dockside crane that you can rotate, or in chalets hidden in the forest, a survival pod from an oil rig platform, a giant shoe, a coffin, lighthouse, tree, plane, train, chapel, prison, igloo, or even a red cube lost in the countryside...
All these strikingly unusual hotels have grown up around the world in the last decade or so. So that you'll never get bored and spoil your holiday, we've taken great pleasure in tracking down and testing some exceptional places to stay that are really out of the ordinary.
With prices ranging from 20 euros to over 1, 000 euros per night, we've selected 50 hotels in 23 different countries.

Серия: Michelin Must See Guides

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Escaping the mass market to find unusual hotels, bed and breakfast properties as well as holiday lets, this guide lists UK and Ireland properties providing value-for-money memories that will last long after the bill has been paid.
Selected from the award-winning online guide, this selection of properties offers unusual and unique accomodation choices for all budgets, from 25 for singles to suites costing more than 550 a night.
Take your pick from vintage Airstream caravans, a converted naval gunboat, an enchanted manor, water towers, windmills, monuments and lighthouses, peaceful retreats in tipis and Mongolian yurts, as well as prisons, chapels and churches. Try staying at a property where you have to be accompanied by a dog. Enjoy the elegance of a a royal palace in Surrey or rock'n'roll chic in London. Stop the train at with a private railway platform in Snowdonia. Experience living in castles, follies and magnificent monuments, including one dedicated to a pineapple. Take a trip in a horse- drawn caravans in Ireland or aVolkswagen camper van in Bristol. You can even sleep with wildebeest outside your room on safari in Kent.
Criss-crossing the UK and Ireland, from the Napoleonic fortifications and Second World War lookout towers of the Channel Islands, to railway carriages and a laird's treehouse in Scotland, design masterpieces to down-to-earth dwellings, your travels need never be boring again.

Серия: Michelin Must See Guides

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Путеводитель по Галерее искусства стран Европы и Америки ХIХ ХХ веков знакомит читателя с историей этого структурного подразделения ГМИИ им. А.С. Пушкина, а также рассказывает об авторах картин и скульптур, представленных в каждом из залов, и о самих экспонатах.
Издание на английском языке.

Серия: ZEYTZ. Коллекция "Пушкинский музей"

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The writer and broadcaster Paul Heiney set sail from the east coast of England bound for Iceland, propelled by a desire to breathe the cool, clear air of the high latitudes, and to follow in the wake of generations of sailors who have made this often treacherous journey since the 13th century. In almost every harbour he tripped over maritime history and anecdote, and came face to face with his own past as he sailed north along his childhood coastline of east Yorkshire towards the Arctic Circle.

But there was one major thing missing from this voyage - the sight of puffins. They are remarkable birds, uplifting as a ray of sunshine after a storm. To see them and share their waters was also part of Heiney's ambition. Imagine then his disappointment when, first, no puffins appeared off the Farne Islands, then none to be seen on puffin hotspots like Orkney. When he failed to see puffins on Iceland, Heiney still held out the hope that he would see the 'joker of the seas'.

With inspiring travel writing, social and maritime history, and good-humoured reflections on his sailing journey, Heiney brings us this delightful book a love letter to the puffin, to Iceland and the north, and to the pure pleasure of being at sea.

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Published posthumously in 1930, Stendhal s travel notes on his 1838 journey to southern France contain descriptions of cities such as Bordeaux, Toulouse and Marseilles, peppered with numerous personal digressions, anecdotes and cultural musings.

Both an addition to the Stendhalian canon and a pioneering work of the travel-writing genre, Travels in the South of France provides an illuminating perspective on this popular region and the phenomenon of tourism in general.

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In the summer of 1844, taking a break from novel-writing, the thirty-two-year-old Charles Dickens embarked on a journey to Italy with his wife, his five children and his young sister-in-law. Struck by the scenery and the rapid diorama of monuments and novelties around him, the celebrated author of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol captured his experiences and impressions in vivid detail. The result is a travelogue like no other, written by one of the finest writers of all time.

Abounding in colour and humour, and interspersed with unforgettable set pieces, such as an eyewitness account of the beheading of a robber in Rome and a hilarious description of a tour guide s ruinous tumble down the slope of Mount Vesuvius, Pictures from Italy is further proof of Charles Dickens s genius and versatility.

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Few writers have known Italy better than Stendhal: he was only seventeen when he first rode south across the Alps in the wake of Napoleon s armies, and he continued to travel and to live in Italy until a few months before his death. Some of his visits lasted only a few weeks, others continued for years, and he spent the last decade of his life as French Consul in Civitavecchia yet he was never a tourist in the ordinary sense of the word.

Italy, for Stendhal, was never a mere treasure trove of ruins, museums and galleries: it was the life of the country which fascinated him, its spirit, the inner workings of its heart and mind. This picture or rather this living dream of Italy he created is as fresh and tantalizing today as it was almost two centuries ago.

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The Innocents Abroad is Mark Twain's humorous narrative of his own travels across Europe. It began life as a series of newspaper columns narrating the voyage of the USS Quaker City. The acclaimed travelogue brought worldwide fame to its author and featured his comical depictions of his encounters at the 1867 Paris Exhibition, his experiences along the Mediterranean Coast, and his journey through the Holy Land.

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In 1271 Marco Polo set out on a journey to China to meet the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan. He returned with stories that would take a lifetime to tell.

Featuring exotic creatures, strange customs, extraordinary legends, and political intrigues, The Travels of Marco Polo reveals the fantastical treasures of the East in the words of the legendary medieval explorer.

Conjuring up a forgotten world filled with mystery where wonder lurks around every corner, Marco Polo tells his tale with extraordinary clarity and energy.

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Sometimes you come across a lofty railway viaduct, marooned in the middle of a remote country landscape. Or a crumbling platform from some once-bustling junction buried under the buddleia. If you are lucky you might be able to follow some rusting tracks, or explore an old tunnel leading to well, who knows where? Listen hard. Is that the wind in the undergrowth? Or the spectre of a train from a golden era of the past panting up the embankment?

These are the ghosts of The Trains Now Departed. They are the railway lines, and services that ran on them that have disappeared and gone forever. Our lost legacy includes lines prematurely axed, often with a gripping and colourful tale of their own, as well as marvels of locomotive engineering sent to the scrapyard, and grand termini felled by the wrecker's ball. Then there are the lost delights of train travel, such as haute cuisine in the dining car, the grand expresses with their evocative names, and continental boat trains to romantic far-off places.

The Trains Now Departed tells the stories of some of the most fascinating lost trains of Britain, vividly evoking the glories of a bygone age. In his personal odyssey around Britain Michael Williams tells the tales of the pioneers who built the tracks, the yarns of the men and women who operated them and the colourful trains that ran on them. It is a journey into the soul of our railways, summoning up a magic which, although mired in time, is fortunately not lost for ever.

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An obsessive walks the entire London Underground system overground

The only way to truly discover a city, they say, is on foot. Taking this to extremes, Mark Mason sets out to walk the entire length of the London Underground - overground - passing every station on the way.

In a story packed with historical trivia, personal musings and eavesdropped conversations, Mark learns how to get the best gossip in the City, where to find a pint at 7am, and why the Bank of England won't let you join the M11 northbound at Junction 5. He has an East End cup of tea with the Krays' official biographer, discovers what cabbies mean by 'on the cotton', and meets the Archers star who was the voice of 'Mind the Gap'.

Over the course of several hundred miles, Mark contemplates London's contradictions as well as its charms. He gains insights into our fascination with maps and sees how walking changes our view of the world. Above all, in this love letter to a complicated friend, he celebrates the sights, sounds and soul of the greatest city on earth.

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A love of railways, a love of history, a love of nostalgia.

Get ready to board the slow train to another era, to a time when travel meant more than hurrying from one place to the next. On the Slow Train will reconnect you with that long-missed need for escape, and reminds us to lift our heads from the daily grind and remember that there are still places in Britain where we can take the time to stop and stare.

This book is a paean to another age: before milk churns, train porters and cats on seats were replaced by security announcements and Burger King wrappers. These 12 spectacular journeys will help free us from what Baudelaire denounced as 'the horrible burden of time.'

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Explore the art of mindful travel with Kinfolk, the pioneers in "slow living, " their philosophy of simplicity, authenticity, intentionality and community. With nearly 450, 000 copies in print, the Kinfolk series has applied this philosophy to entertaining (The Kinfolk Table), interior design (The Kinfolk Home), and living with nature (The Kinfolk Garden). Now they have turned their attention to "slow travel, " offering readers a road map for planning trips that foster meaningful connections with local people and authentic experiences of local culture.

Go museum hopping in Tasmania, or birdwatching in London. Explore the burgeoning fashion community in Dakar. Take a bicycle tour through Idaho, or a train trip from Oslo to Bergen. Drawing on the magazine's global community of writers and photographers, Kinfolk Travel takes readers to over 20 location across five continents, with travel tips from locals, stunning images, and thoughtful essays.

Серия: Kinfolk

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Join Kinfolk on a journey off the beaten track, to islands big and small, in this collection of eighteen new travel stories. Whether it's a tour of the otherworldly landscape of Socotra in Yemen or a hike into the old growth of a Japanese forest on Yakushima, each slow travel itinerary invites you to set sail at a pace that allows for true discovery and immersion.

Filled with ideas and inspiration for where to escape, explore and unwind, Kinfolk Islands is full of vibrant photography, practical guidance and thoughtful reflections on why the idea of an island embodies so many of our travel fantasies. There are the charms of urban islands, including Montreal's beloved Mile End neighborhood. Truly unexpected destinations, like Hormuz, off the coast of Iran, with its psychedelic scenery and bohemian spirit. Italy's sun-soaked Ponza, perfect for languid afternoons. And of course some of the world's most beautiful beaches, from jungle-fringed Caribbean sands to rugged and remote Nordic shores.

Believing that travel is as much a state of mind as an action or itinerary, Kinfolk celebrates a way of exploring our world that not only fosters thoughtful perspectives on the places we visit but also deepens our relationship with home once the journey is over.

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At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's rapid death from cancer, her family disbanded and her marriage crumbled. With nothing to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk eleven-hundred miles of the west coast of America - from the Mojave Desert, through California and Oregon, and into Washington state - and to do it alone. She had no experience of long-distance hiking and the journey was nothing more than a line on a map. But it held a promise - a promise of piecing together a life that lay in ruins at her feet.

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Combining insightful and descriptive writing about our countryside with easy-to-follow practical information and clear, detailed OS mapping, Countryfile: Great British Walks will inspire you to explore some of the most striking areas that our nation has to offer. Offering 100 walks spread across varying terrain, this practical guidebook features a range of outings, from gentle strolls through peaceful scenery to more challenging journeys that take you to the very heart of the Great British wilderness.

Covering regions across the country, from the Peak District and Lake District in the Heart of England to the highlands of Scotland and the rolling hills of the South East, this compact walking guide offers the tried-and tested knowledge of the Countryfile team - providing detailed descriptions of routes and levels of difficulty, as well as comprehensive Ordnance Survey mapping plus practical information to help you plan your trip.

Let Countryfile: Great British Walks be your guide to our outstanding countryside.

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Along our shores, towering cliffs from the age of the dinosaurs rise beside wide estuaries teeming with wildlife, while Victorian ports share waterfronts with imposing fortifications.

And the people who have lived, worked and played on this spectacular coast - from Stone Age fishermen to seafarers, chart-makers and surfers - have an incredible tale to tell.

Coast: Our Island Story is an enthralling account, sparkling with geography, history, adventure and eccentric characters, told with Nick Crane's trademark charisma and wit.

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From petticoat duels and lucky cats to the Stiffs Express, Lord Nelson's spare nose, the Piccadilly earthquake and the Great Beer Flood of 1814, A Curious Guide to London takes you on a captivating, wildly entertaining tour of the city you think you know, unearthing the capital's secrets and commemorating its rich, colourful and unusual history.

Brimming with tales of London's forgotten past, its strangest traditions and its most eccentric inhabitants, this book celebrates the unique, the unusual and the unknown.

Perfect for tourists, day-trippers, commuters and the millions of people who call London home, this alternative guidebook will make you look at the city in a whole new light.

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Haven't you ever wanted to get out of the rat race, buck the system, escape? Whether for the weekend or for a lifetime, Nick Rosen explores off-grid living combining irreverent travellogue with 'how-to' essentials.

Literally, the word 'off-grid' refers to places or people without mains water, power or phone line. Off-grid locations can range from private islands to yurts and tree-houses; the people living there might be back-packers, right wing survivalists, international business travellers or hippies; they may move around in buses or yachts, houseboats or 4-wheel drives. All are outside or inbetween the criss-crossing lines of power, water and phone that delineate the civilised world. Some are trying to save the planet, some live that way because it is all they can afford, some just want the freedom.
This book is about that physical sense of off-grid. But it is also about taking the off-grid attitude into your local park or your own back garden. It is part travellogue as Nick Rosen, his wife and baby take off in a camper van to visit off-gridders representing every aspect of living off-grid - part-time and fulltime, on land and water, metaphorical and actual, rural and city. And it is also a guide to avoiding the pitfalls and finding the best solutions - and the most appealing gadgetry - for going off-grid yourself.

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It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life a large portion of it quite deadly. In fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else.

Ignoring such dangers and yet curiously obsessed by them Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging: their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water; the food is excellent; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. Life doesn t get much better than this

Серия: Bryson

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The average adult spends about a third of his or her waking time alone.

Yet research suggests we aren't very good at using, never mind enjoying, alone time.

Rising to the challenge, travel writer Stephanie Rosenbloom explores the joys and benefits of being alone in four mouth-watering journeys to the cities of Paris, Istanbul, Florence and New York, in four seasons.

This is a book about the pleasures and benefits of savouring the moment, examining things closely, using all your senses to take in your surroundings, whether travelling to faraway places or walking the streets of your own city. Through on-the-ground observations and anecdotes, and drawing on the thinking of artists, writers and innovators who have cherished solitude, Alone Time illuminates the psychological arguments for alone time and lays bare the magic of going solo.

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PARIS - one of the most visited cities in the world.

BUT do you know ...

Which is the most romantic spot to say 'je't'aime'? And the sexiest?
Where to see fantastic art, away from all the crowds?
Why Parisian men feel compelled to pee in the street?
How to choose a hotel room where you might actually get a good night's sleep?

Stephen Clarke goes behind the scenes to reveal everything Parisians know about their city - but don't want to tell you.

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This celebration of the English countryside does not only focus on the rolling green landscapes and magnificent monuments that set England apart from the rest of the world. Many of the contributors bring their own special touch, presenting a refreshingly eclectic variety of personal icons, from pub signs to seaside piers, from cattle grids to canal boats, and from village cricket to nimbies.

First published as a lavish colour coffeetable book, this new expanded paperback edition has double the original number of contributions from many celebrities including Bill Bryson, Michael Palin, Eric Clapton, Bryan Ferry, Sebastian Faulks, Kate Adie, Kevin Spacey, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Richard Mabey , Simon Jenkins, John Sergeant, Benjamin Zephaniah, Joan Bakewell, Antony Beevor, Libby Purves, Jonathan Dimbleby, and many more: and a new preface by HRH Prince Charles.

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From her first life-changing solo trip to Australia as a young graduate, Rosita Boland was enthralled by travel. In the last thirty years she has visited some of the most remote parts of the globe carrying little more than a battered rucksack and a diary.

Documenting nine journeys from nine different moments in her life, Elsewhere reveals how exploring the world and those we meet along the way can dramatically shape the course of a person s life. From death-defying bus journeys through Pakistan to witnessing the majestic icescapes of Antarctica to putting herself back together in Bali, Rosita experiences moments of profound joy and endures deep personal loss.

In a series of jaw-dropping, illuminating and sometimes heart-breaking essays, Elsewhere is a book that celebrates the life well-travelled in all its messy and wondrous glory.

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The January Man is the story of a year of walks that was inspired by a song, Dave Goulder's 'The January Man'. Month by month, season by season and region by region, Christopher Somerville walks the British Isles, following routes that continually bring his father to mind.

As he travels the country - from the winter floodlands of the River Severn to the lambing pastures of Nidderdale, the towering seabird cliffs on the Shetland Isle of Foula in June and the ancient oaks of Sherwood Forest in autumn - he describes the history, wildlife, landscapes and people he encounters, down back lanes and old paths, in rain and fair weather.

This exquisitely written account of the British countryside not only inspires us to don our boots and explore the 140, 000 miles of footpaths across the British Isles, but also illustrates how, on long-distance walks, we can come to an understanding of ourselves and our fellow walkers.

Over the hills and along the byways, Christopher Somerville examines what moulded the men of his father's generation - so reticent about their wartime experiences, so self-effacing, upright and dutiful - as he searches for 'the man inside the man' that his own father really was.

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From one of our most beloved and bestselling authors, a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the 1950s.

Born in 1951 in the middle of the United States, Des Moines, Iowa, Bill Bryson is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24 carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generation, Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around the house wearing a jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel round his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing evildoers (in his head) as The Thunderbolt Kid.

Using his childhood fantasy life as a springboard, Bill Bryson recreates the life of his family in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality. In a period that saw the inexorable rise of television, the opening of Disneyland, the testing of the atomic bomb, and the explosion of choice in everything from food to cars, Bill Bryson's days followed in reassuringly cosy succession, enlivened by modest triumphs and disasters.

Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, The Rise and Fall of the Thunderbolt Kid is a modern classic, full of Bill Bryson's inimitable, pitch-perfect observations.

Серия: Bryson

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In the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set off to hike the Appalachian Trail, the longest continuous footpath in the world.

Ahead lay almost 2, 200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack.

Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle companion whose profoundest wish was to go to a motel and watch The X-Files, Bryson gamely struggled through the wilderness to achieve a lifetime's ambition - not to die outdoors.

Серия: Bryson

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Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green and kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Island, was taken to the nation s heart and became the bestselling travel book ever, and was also voted in a BBC poll the book that best represents Britain.Now, to mark the twentieth anniversary of that modern classic, Bryson makes a brand-new journey round Britain to see what has changed.

Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, by way of places that many people never get to at all, Bryson sets out to rediscover the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly unique country that he thought he knew but doesn t altogether recognize any more. Yet, despite Britain s occasional failings and more or less eternal bewilderments, Bill Bryson is still pleased to call our rainy island home. And not just because of the cream teas, a noble history, and an extra day off at Christmas.

Once again, with his matchless homing instinct for the funniest and quirkiest, his unerring eye for the idiotic, the endearing, the ridiculous and the scandalous, Bryson gives us an acute and perceptive insight into all that is best and worst about Britain today.

Серия: Bryson

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Completing his edgy Spanish trilogy, Jason Webster unearths the secrets of the Spanish Civil War, and turns it into a personal quest for its dark legacy in today's Spain.

After twelve years in Spain, Jason Webster had developed a deep love for his adopted homeland; his life there seemed complete. But when he and his Spanish wife moved into an idyllic old farmhouse in the mountains north of Valencia, by chance he found an unmarked mass grave from the Spanish Civil War on his doorstep.Spurred to investigate the history of the Civil War, a topic many of his Spanish friends still seemed to treat as taboo, he began to uncover a darker side to the country. Witness to a brutal fist-fight sponsored by remnants of Franco's Falangists, arrested and threatened by the police in the former HQ of the Spanish Foreign Legion, sheltered by a beautiful transvestite, shunned by locals, haunted by ghosts and finally robbed of his identity, Webster encountered a legacy of cruelty and violence that seems to linger on seventy years after the bloody events of that war.

As in Webster's previous books, Duende and Andalus, ?Guerra! reveals the essence of modern Spain, which few outsiders ever manage to see. Fascinating true stories from the Civil War, vividly retold as he travels around the country. Yet the more Webster unveils of the passions that set one countryman against another, the more he is led to wonder: could the dark, primitive currents that ripped the country apartin the 1930s still be stirring under the sophisticated, worldly surface of today's Spain?

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I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to

And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn t hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England, he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14, 000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of trim and sunny place where the films of his youth were set. Instead, his search led him to Anywhere, USA; a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by lookalike people with a penchant for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost; lost to itself because blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a stranger in his own land.

Bryson s acclaimed first success, The Lost Continent is a classic of travel literature hilariously, stomach-achingly, funny, yet tinged with heartache and the book that first staked Bill Bryson s claim as the most beloved writer of his generation.

Серия: Bryson

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How does a sushi bar explain a Japanese poem?
Why do Japanese couples plan matching outfits for their honeymoon?
Why are so many things in Japan the opposite of what we expect?
After thirty-two years in Japan, Pico Iyer knows the country as few others can. In A Beginner's Guide to Japan, he dashes from baseball games to love-hotels and from shopping malls to zen temple gardens to find fresh ways of illuminating his adopted home. Playful and surreptitiously profound, this is a guidebook to a Japan few have ever seen before.

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'It is the paramount wish of every English heart, ever addicted to vagabondizing, to hasten to the Continent '

In 1815 the Battle of Waterloo brought to an end the Napoleonic Wars and the European continent opened up once again to British tourists. The nineteenth century was to be an age driven by steam technology, mass-industrialisation and movement, and, in the footsteps of the Grand Tourists a hundred years earlier, the British middle-classes flocked to Europe to see the sights.

In Tourists, the voices of these travellers puzzled, shocked, delighted and amazed are brought vividly to life. From the discomfort of the stagecoach to the 'self-contained pleasure palace' of the beach resort, Lucy Lethbridge brilliantly examines two centuries of tourists' experience. Among a range of disparate characters, we meet the commercial titans of Victorian tourism, Albert Smith, Henry Gaze and Thomas Cook, as well as their successor, Vladimir Raitz, the creator of the modern beach holiday.

The growth of popular tourism introduced new markets in guidebooks, souvenirs, cuisine and health cures. It smoothed over class differences but also exacerbated them. It destroyed traditional cultures while at the same time preserving them.

From portable cameras to postcards and suntans, Tourists explores how tourism has reflected changing attitudes to modernity and how, from the grand hotel to the campsite, the foreign holiday exposes deep fears, hopes and even longings for home.

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One of the oldest cities in Europe, Porto is recognised the world over for its wonderful Port wine. Rising from the steep banks of the Douro (the river of gold) with picturesque pracas, churches and houses with colourfully tiled facades. Its ancient name Portucale forms the origin of the country Portugal. Today, Porto is a vibrant commercial and cultural centre that is proud of its historic links to the outside world.

An essential read from one of the world's foremost writers on Portugal, Porto: Gateway to the World uses the beautiful buildings and landmarks across the city to take the reader on a journey through its rich history, from its origins right up to the modern era.

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Cuba with its flamboyant style and rich culture, has provided the inspiration and setting for literature for decades. It has always been one of the most compelling places in the world, though perhaps never more so than now. Following Raul Castro's resignation as President in 2018, the era of Castroism has come to an end, and the US-Cuba rapprochement has opened the country to a generation of Americans whose only previous exposure was through film and literature. The coming years will undoubtedly bring significant changes to a country that has in many ways been frozen in time.

Cuba: A Literary Guide for Travellers takes the literary-minded traveller (either in person or in an armchair) on a vivid and illuminating journey, retracing the footsteps of writers and artists who have lived and worked in, or been inspired by, the history and landscape of Cuba. This literary guide challenges some firmly-held Western assumptions about the country, and shines a light on one of the richest and most deeply embedded literary cultures in the world.

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Alone on a remote mountaintop one dark night, a woman hears a mysterious voice.

Propelled by the memory and after years of dreaming about it, Jini Reddy dares to delve into the 'wanderlands' of Britain, heading off in search of the magical in the landscape.

A London journalist with multicultural roots and a perennial outsider, she determinedly sets off on this unorthodox path. Serendipity and her inner compass guide her around the country in pursuit of the Other and a connection to Britain's captivating natural world. Where might this lead? And if you know what it is to be Othered yourself, how might this colour your experiences? And what if, in invoking the spirit of the land, 'it' decides to make its presence felt?

Whether following a 'cult' map to a hidden well that refuses to reveal itself, attempting to persuade a labyrinth to spill its secrets, embarking on a coast-to-coast pilgrimage or searching for a mystical land temple, Jini depicts a whimsical, natural Britain. Along the way, she tracks down ephemeral wild art, encounters women who worship The Goddess, falls deeper in love with her birth land and struggles - but mostly fails - to get to grips with its lore. Throughout, she rejoices in the wildness we cannot see and celebrates the natural beauty we can, while offering glimpses of her Canadian childhood and her Indian parents' struggles in apartheid-era South Africa.

Wanderland is a book in which the heart leads, all things are possible and the Other, both wild and human, comes in from the cold. It is a paean to the joy of roaming, both figuratively and imaginatively, and to the joy of finding your place in the world.

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Winner of the National Geographic Traveller Award for best travel book
Shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book Of The Year Award

'Monisha Rajesh has chosen one of the best ways of seeing the world. Never too fast, never too slow, her journey does what trains do best. Getting to the heart of things. Prepare for a very fine ride' Michael Palin

From the cloud-skimming heights of Tibet's Qinghai railway to silk-sheeted splendour on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Around the World in 80 Trains is a celebration of the glory of train travel and a witty and irreverent look at the world.

Packing up her rucksack - and her fiance, Jem - Monisha Rajesh embarks on an unforgettable adventure that takes her from London's St Pancras station to the vast expanses of Russia and Mongolia, North Korea, Canada, Kazakhstan, and beyond. The journey is one of constant movement and mayhem, as the pair strike up friendships and swap stories with the hilarious, irksome and ultimately endearing travellers they meet on board, all while taking in some of the earth's most breathtaking views.

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In 1951, the Festival of Britain commissioned a series of short guides they dubbed 'handbooks for the explorer'. Their aim was to encourage readers to venture out beyond the capital and on to 'the roads and the by-roads' to see Britain as a 'living country'. Yet these thirteen guides did more than celebrate the rural splendour of this 'island nation': they also made much of Britain's industrial power and mid-century ambition - her thirst for new technologies, pride in manufacturing and passion for exciting new ways to travel by road, air and sea.

Armed with these About Britain guides, historian Tim Cole takes to the roads to find out what has changed and what has remained the same over the 70 years since they were first published. From Oban to Torquay, Caernarvon to Cambridge, he explores the visible changes to our landscape, and the more subtle social and cultural shifts that lie beneath.

In a starkly different era where travel has been transformed by the pandemic and many are journeying closer to home, About Britain is a warm and timely meditation on our changing relationship with the landscape, industry and transport. As he looks out on vineyards and apple orchards, power stations and slate mines, vast greenhouses and fulfilment centres for online goods, Cole provides an enchanting glimpse of twentieth and early twenty-first century Britain as seen from the driver's seat.

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Growing up in his small hometown, Mark Vanhoenacker spun the illuminated globe in his bedroom and dreamt of elsewhere - of distant, real cities, and a perfect metropolis that existed only in his imagination. These places were sources of endless fascination and escape: streets unspooled, towers shone, and anonymous crowds bustled in cities where Mark could be anyone - perhaps even himself.

Now, as a commercial airline pilot, Mark has spent nearly two decades crossing the skies of our planet, touching down in the cities he imagined as a child. He experiences these metropolises in short layover visits that repeat month after month and year after year, giving him a unique perspective on the places that form our urban world.

Interweaving travelogue with memoir, Mark celebrates the cities he has come to know and love through the lens of the hometown his heart has never left. Exploring the emblematic facets of each city's identity - the sweeping roads of Los Angeles, the old gates of Jeddah, the intricate, dream-inspired plan of Brasilia - he shows us with warmth and fresh eyes the extraordinary places that billions of us call home.

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Handy little full colour Collins map of central Glasgow with a high level of detail. Clear mapping from the park of Glasgow Green to the bustling West End. Map at a scale of 1:8200 (7.5 inches to 1 mile).

Clear, detailed, full colour Collins mapping is presented in a handy format ideal for the pocket or handbag. It is excellent value and covers the most visited area of central Glasgow. It is an essential buy for tourists and residents alike.

This map includes:
* Detailed central area map
* Around Glasgow map extending to airport, Pollok Park and Strathclyde Park
* Tourist locations
* Train and bus stations
* Listing of major places to visit
* Detailed street index

Серия: Collins Maps

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Fully updated essential guide to exploring Britain by train, Railway Day Trips is ideal for anyone planning or looking for inspiration for a rail journey. From bestselling railway author Julian Holland.

This pocket companion is perfect for both casual and seasoned rail travellers. Plan adventures, follow the changing landscape through the train window and discover fascinating destinations.

Each journey incorporates a location map, route diagram and descriptive text on its history and geography, plus some of the highlights awaiting you at each destination. High-quality photographs illustrate every route throughout the book.

Based on his extensive knowledge of British rail travel, the author reveals appealing quirks of the various routes and provides practical tips on how to make the most of your journey.

160 day trips from all over the country are featured, departing from major towns and cities and culminating at a variety of interesting destinations.

This 2nd edition includes 10 new routes:
Cambridge to Ipswich
Hereford to Newport
Cardiff to Ebbw Vale
Carmarthen to Fishguard
Manchester to Southport
Sheffield to Lincoln
Middlesbrough to Newcastle
Glasgow to Perth
Edinburgh to Tweedbank
Inverness to Wick

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The Lake District contains some of the most spectacular landscapes in Britain with superb walking areas. These can be explored with these 20 walks, all of which are 5 miles or under in length and can easily be completed in less than 3 hours.

This guide, produced in co-operation with the Ramblers and featuring Ordnance Survey mapping, is the perfect way to really appreciate the landscapes of the Lake District.

INCLUDES:
20 easy to follow walks which can be completed in 3 hours and under.

Each walk has a detailed 1:25 000 Ordnance Survey map with the route clearly marked plus a detailed description of the route.
The walks have been chosen with issues like parking and refreshments in mind to make life easy for families.
Packed with colour photographs of scenes you will see along the walk.
The perfect guide for afternoon walks near to Keswick, Windermere, Coniston, Grasmere and Ambleside.

Серия: Collins Maps

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For all users of the inland waterways. This established, popular and practical guide covers the canals and waterways in the north west of England around Merseyside and Manchester.

Covered in this guide are: Aire & Calder Navigation, Bridgewater Canal, Calder & Hebble Navigation, Huddersfield Narrow Canal, Huddersfield Broad Canal, Lancaster Canal, Leeds & Liverpool Canal, Macclesfield Canal, Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal, Peak Forest and Ashton Canals, Rochdale Canal, Sankey Canal and Trent & Mersey Canal.

The detailed Ordnance Survey maps clearly show the location of essential features such as locks, towpaths and boating facilities, as well as pubs, shops and restaurants in the area. There are comprehensive navigational notes and descriptive text on the history of each canal, and on local services and places of interest, for which postcodes are included - ideal for use with sat-navs. Scale: 2 inches = 1 mile, 3 cm = 1 km.

This practical A5 guide features 'lie flat' spiral binding and 'book mark' back cover flap for ease of reference.

In print for 50 years, the Collins/Nicholson guides to the waterways have always been a vital part of journeys along Britain's canals and rivers. These bestselling guides are designed for anyone and everyone with an interest in Britain's inland waterways - from experienced boaters to those planning their first boat trip, as well as walkers, cyclists and visitors.

Серия: Collins Nicholson Waterways Guides

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A beautifully presented gift for anyone with an intrigue for geographical curiosities.
This beautifully designed book presents unusual borders, enclaves and exclaves, divided or non-existent cities and islands.

Numerous conflicts have left countries divided and often shattered. Remnants of countries can by design or accident be left behind as a legal anomaly in this complex world.

Most people believe that a country s borders are clearly defined: just lines that separate countries. Everything on one side of the line belongs to one country and everything on the other side belongs to another country. This might be the case most of the time, but there are unusual exceptions to this unwritten rule.

Examples include:
Campione d Italia where Italian residents have to travel 15km through Switzerland to reach the nearest available Italian territory
Tomb of Suleyman Shah which is a tiny Turkish enclave within Syria which was moved closer to Turkey when Lake Assad was created but still stayed in Syria
Pheasant Island which for half a year belongs to the Spanish city of Irun, and the remaining half, to its French twin-town, Hendaye
Canadian Stanstead and American Beebe Plain where the boundary line runs along the centre of the main street, so that the houses on one side of the street are in Canada and on the other in the United States

These and many more instances are captured in this fascinating book full of strange geographical intrigue.

International Cartographic conference 2021 overall winner of the atlas category and shortlisted for the 2020 Edward Stanford Travel Writing.

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Foreword by Levison Wood, presenter of Walking the Americas. A comprehensive, fascinating and inspiring gallery of the great adventures that changed our world.

Throughout history there have been brave men and women who dared to go where few had gone before. They broke new ground by drawing on incredible reserves of courage, fortitude and intelligence in the face of terrible adversity. Their endeavours changed the world and inspired generations.

Spanning several centuries and united by the common theme of the resilience of the human spirit, this is the ultimate collection of the stories of the intrepid explorers who forged new frontiers across land, sea, skies and space.

50 incredible journeys including;
- Tenzing and Hillary's conquest of Everest
- Neil Armstrong's giant leap
- Christopher Columbus' new world
- Amelia Earhart flying the Atlantic
- gold fever in the Yukon
- the hunt for a man-eating leopard in India

Great Expeditions includes not only some of the most famous journeys in history but also introduces many more that ought to be more widely recognised and celebrated.

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Handy little full colour map of central London with a high level of detail.
Clear mapping from Regent's Park in the north to Kennington in the south, and Kensington Gardens in the west to Tower Bridge in the east at a scale of 1:12, 500 (5 inches to 1 mile). Maps of West End shopping and theatres are also included.

Mapping is presented in a handy format ideal for the pocket or handbag. It is excellent value and covers the most visited area of central London. It is an essential buy for tourists and residents alike.

Includes

Detailed central area map
Map of theatres and cinemas
Shopping map
Underground map
The latest congestion zone boundary

Серия: Collins Maps

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The bestselling guides to Britain's canals and rivers for 50 years.

The map companion to the Collins Nicholson Waterways Guides, covering the entire network of canal and river navigations in England, Scotland and Wales, including newly restored/opened canals and rivers.

The map identifies:
- narrow and broad canals;
- navigable rivers;
- tidal river navigations;
- waterways under construction.

Also:
- contact telephone numbers and dimensions for each waterway
- internet links

Clear insets of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, Scottish inland waterways, the Norfolk Broads and the London area.

Серия: Collins Nicholson Waterways Guides

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Discover new places with handy road atlases from Collins.

Explore Ireland with this handy format route-planning atlas in full colour, complete with information on places of tourist interest including famous film locations. There are also fully indexed town centre plans of Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Derry/Londonderry.
This atlas, at A5 size, contains mapping of the whole of Ireland at 9 miles to 1 inch (1:570, 240). The mapping is beautifully designed with colour classified roads and subtle layered height tinting.

The atlas is ideal for residents, visitors and tourists alike.

Key features of the atlas include:
All Ireland route planning maps
Town centre plans
Places of interest including TV and film locations such as Game of Thrones, Star Wars and Harry Potter
Blue Flag and Green Coast beaches map
List of tourist information centres
Full index to place names and places of interest
Information on airports, ferries and radio stations
Mileage chart

Серия: Collins Maps

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