Quirky Traveller's Tales

Pinterest is a tool for collecting and
organizing things you love.

If you are at all into social media than you will have undoubtedly heard of Pinterest but may not be sure what it is and if it is for you.  This year Pinterest decided to launch the #PinItForwardUK campaign,

“Three years ago, when Pinterest was a much smaller community and team, we had a great opportunity to have bloggers try out pinning. The site looked quite a bit different back then, we didn’t have any mobile apps, but it was a lot of fun and we learned a great deal from folks too. Back in 2010, this collaboration was called “Pin It Forward,” and we thought we’d bring back the idea to get to know our British community and how they use Pinterest.”

For many, Pinterest is simply a way to share beautiful images on every subject imaginable in a simple, easy and fun way.  But it’s also a great platform to showcase your business, service or product.

“Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies. Users can browse other pinboards for images, ‘re-pin’ images to their own pinboards, or ‘like’ photos.”  Wikipedia.

What makes it so powerful is that most pinned images are ‘linked’ back to the website they are pinned from, thus making it an extremely impressive search engine – now the fourth biggest after YouTube, Google and Yahoo.  Here’s a simple explanation for getting started with Pinterest

Quirky Traveller Pinterest Boards

What is a Pin?

A pin starts with an image or video you add to Pinterest. You can add a pin from a website using the PinIt bookmarklet or upload an image from your computer. Any pin on Pinterest can be repinned, and all pins link back to their source.  You create boards with your favourite themes, collecting pins and sharing them. Here’s one of my boards with pins from The Quirky Traveller

What is a Board?

A board is where you organize your pins by topic. You could pin ideas for remodeling your bathroom to your House Projects board, for example. Boards can be secret or public and you can invite other people to pin with you on any of your boards.  I have lots of travel boards but also Social Media, Art, Fav Films & Books, Writing and many more. You can check out all my boards here.

What is a Follow?

When you follow someone, their pins show up in your Pinterest home feed. You can follow all of someone’s boards or just the ones you like best. To manage who you’re following, go to your profile and click Following.

What happens when I Unfollow?

When you unfollow someone, their boards won’t show up in your home feed anymore. You can unfollow all of someone’s boards, or just the ones you’re not that interested in. Nobody will get notified if you unfollow them.

What is a Home Feed?

Pinterest Board – The Quirky Traveller

Your home feed is a collection of pins from pinners and boards you follow. It’s updated every time someone you follow adds a pin. The more people you follow the more varied and interesting your home feed will become.  There’s a search menu for topics if you want more ideas.

What is a Pin It bookmarklet?

The Pin It bookmarklet lets you easily pin things you see on websites and blogs. To get the bookmarklet or learn more, check out the Pinterest Goodies page where you can also get the Pinterest App for your smartphone.

Reasons to use Pinterest for Business

Pinterest will drive traffic to your website or blog.  Pinterest let you create businesses pages aimed at promoting your service, product or site online.^] Your Board can become a “virtual storefront” encouraging visitors to buy from you.  Wikipedia quotes one case study where, on a fashion website, users visiting from Pinterest spent $180 compared with $85 spent from users coming from Facebook. These users spent less time on the company’s website, choosing instead to browse from the company’s pinboard. Brand studies continue to show Pinterest is more effective at driving sales than other forms of social media.

So now you’ve seen the basics for getting started with Pinterest, share in the gloriously colourful #PinItForwardUK craze that’s got everyone talking and START PINNING!

For those of a certain age, St Moritz is synonymous with the über-cool jet-setters of the Swinging Sixties. Erstwhile playboy Gunter Sachs epitomised this hedonistic era when he married French pin-up movie star Brigitte Bardot. Gunter Sachs Lodge and The Dracula Club, overlooking the Olympic Bob Run course, are where the beautiful people still go to see and be seen.

The ‘Olympic Bob Run’ is the oldest in the world, initially created for winter guests from Great Britain who invented the sport of bobsleigh running. In 1897, the St. Moritz Bobsleigh Club was established.  The track served as host to the bobsleigh events for both the 1928 and the 1948 Winter Olympics.   Today it is one of the world’s best known bobsled runs, popular with both amateur and professional sports enthusiasts.

Arriving on a sunny day in late winter the place is a buzzing hive of testosterone, high-fashion and reflective sunglasses, mirroring the beautiful people at play.  Men in tight-fitting jackets jam protective helmets on their heads whilst photographers jostle for the best position to get the iconic shot.  There’s an air of expensive danger, jovial bonhomie and general excitement.  On the sunlit terraces a sophisticated murmur of polite chat chimes with champagne glasses chinking and beer glasses clinking. Pristine snow glistens in reflected sunshine and it looks like a glossy page from Vogue magazine … So it is with red-faced embarrassment that I recall my ignominious photo-call in these hallowed environs.

I was on a Railbookers train holiday to Switzerland; the day before we had arrived at St Moritz in style on the gloriously luxurious Glacier Express and we had been taken to the prestigious Olympic Club to have a look round. In front of the run was a bobsleigh and we were invited to have our photo taken. I got into the front position, sat back for my shot – and promptly disappeared down into the very nose of the bobsleigh.  And I couldn’t get out … All that was visible were my hands scrabbling to get a purchase on the slippery edge of the frame.

I got so weak laughing I was incapable of leveraging myself up. It was only when everyone had got their photos and finally stopped their hysterics that, with the help of my ‘friends’ and a couple of strapping sportsmen, I was finally hauled out, dusted off and able to pose properly for my photo.

It was fascinating watching the participants setting off on their exhilarating bobsleigh run.  Every few minutes two or three people crammed themselves into a metallic cylinder and were shoved off down the world’s only natural ice run, hurtling along 1722 metres of straights and round 14 named corners at speeds of up to 135 kph, and all over in about 75 seconds.

We left this exciting Swiss playground to walk into St Moritz Town Centre and there, just round the corner, was that other famous sporting venue of the Engadin region, the Cresta Run.  Started in the winter season 1884/85, it’s a men-only ‘skeleton bob’ addictive adrenalin rush spiked with danger and adventure just inches off the frozen track.  (Female Journalist Lisa Grainger did manage to do the run – you can read her death-defying account of it here.)

I stayed in 5-star pampered luxury at the Kempinksi Grand Hotel des Bains, one of St Moritz’ oldest hotels and the site of the St Mauritius Spring, after which the town is named. For over 2000 years people have been drinking from this spring.  In 1553 Paracelsus wrote about its medicinal benefits, recommending its health-giving waters, one of the most healing natural springs in Europe. Now situated in the Grand Hotel des Bains Spa, it is still open to the public.

I’d recommend a glass of its iron-rich water, perfect for revitalising after embarrassing photo-shoots!

‘The Road to Grasmere’ by Joseph Farington

In 1769 Thomas Gray, best known today for his poem Elegy in a Country Churchyard, went on an extensive tour of the Lake District in NW England, writing it up in one of those notebooks.  A few years later watercolourist Joseph Farington RA followed in Gray’s footsteps, painting views of this beautiful landscape as seen through Gray’s eyes.

Fast forward 250 years and you can see the results of that duo’s work, intriguingly updated by publisher John Murray, in conjunction with the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere, Cumbria.  “In 1993 I inherited six small Thomas Gray notebooks, each filled with his tidy handwriting and all housed in an elegant box specially made for them …  Having always been a lover of the Lake District (known as the English Lakes until the beginning of the nineteenth century) … I immediately opened ‘Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire and Yorkshire.”  

So began John Murray’s personal journey of exploration, resulting in the  beautifully illustrated book, A Tour of the English Lakes with Thomas Gray & Joseph Farington RA, and Pen, Paint & Pixels at the The Wordsworth Trust Museum.  John Murray has meticulously researched the scenes and taken a series of superb photographs; Nicholas Crane, presenter of BBC ‘Coast’, said at the opening, “The combination of John’s remarkable modern photographs beside Farington’s watercolours and sketches give you an evocative sense of how the landscape has changed over time.”

Pen, Paint & Pixels at The Wordsworth Trust

The exhibition is really easy to navigate, showcasing not only Gray’s notebooks alongside Farington’s paintings and engravings, but also a variety of artefacts from their journeys.  I was most intrigued by the ‘Claude Glass’, a notebook-like device that enabled the observer to turn their back on a panoramic scene and see it as a neat view – ideal for artists and lady travellers who might be of a nervous disposition in this area of ‘terrifying beauty’.  Most people enjoy the game of comparing the ‘Past and Present’ views clearly displayed in a brand new addition to this world-class research centre.

Pen, Paint & Pixels display

The Wordsworth Trust Museum, set on the edge of Grasmere, is home to a truly world-class collection of priceless manuscripts, paintings , books and memorabilia celebrating Wordsworth, his life, works and the Romantic Movement that has influenced so very many people ever since he moved into tiny Dove Cottage.  A tour of this historic, quaint little building, which used to be an Inn called the Dove & Olive Branch, gives the visitor a glimpse of the poet’s daily life when he was at his most creative.  It’s next door to the Wordsworth Trust, showing Pen, Paint & Pixels until January 2013.

Dove Cottage, Grasmere

There is an excellent Smartphone App to accompany the book and exhibition which enables visitors to explore the actual sites around the Lake District and take photos to compare with the originals.  Read how I got on trying it out in A Photography Treasure Hunt.

A version of this article originally appeared in the Visit Britain SuperBlog

South America has a rich variety of landscapes and the Amazon region of Peru is one of the most beautiful. American travel writer Julie Falconer shares her impressions of this fascinating area.

Peruvian Amazon rei.com

When most people think of Peru, they imagine themselves climbing the ruins of Machu Picchu or visiting the famous Sacred Valley. But there is more the country than the Inca sites, and the less obvious places are well worth exploring. One such location is the Peruvian Amazon.  Located in the northeast of the country, the Peruvian Amazon is often overlooked in favour of more on-the-beaten-path parts of Peru. But its diversity of plant and animal life, its beautiful natural landscapes, and its variety of adventure travel opportunities make it a perfect place to visit.

I arrived in the region on a flight from Lima to Puerto Maldonado. From there I took a motorized canoe down the Madre de Dios River. An hour later I was settling in to my lodge in Tambopata, the Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica. My cabana was situated right in front of the water and I was able to see wild agoutis and capybaras running to and fro on the riverbank.

Further afield, I went on excursions to lakes and islands where I spotted brown capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys, caimans (Amazonian crocodiles) and egrets. On night hikes I spotted tarantulas, night monkeys, frogs, and crabs, and during a day hike I almost ran smack into a giant wasp nest!  The breadth of animal life in the region was like nothing I had ever seen on my travels, and the ease of spotting so many species was a very pleasant surprise.

It wasn’t just the fauna in the Amazon that I loved, though. The flora and the scenery were beautiful as well.  The abundance of plant life was also an attraction. From tall trees that formed the rainforest canopy to bright flowers and ferns that grew closer to the forest floor, Tambopata was bursting with life.  Every morning I woke up early to go on an excursion, and my reward was a stunning sunrise that turned the sky pink, yellow, purple, and orange. They were breathtaking, and made the early alarm worth it.

After three days of exploring the Peruvian Amazon, it was time for me to move on. Yes, I did visit Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. I went to Lima. I travelled to Cuzco and Puno. But no other place in Peru surprised me like the rainforest did, and I was glad to have deviated from the obvious places for part of my trip. You will too if you decide to visit …

Originally from San Francisco, Julie Falconer is a London-based travel writer and consultant. You can visit her blog for more travel stories and photos and Follow her on Twitter @aladyinlondon

Around the corner of late January and early February every year, Mumbai starts to resonate at a different octave. Performing arts, cinema, music, cultural shows, theatre, literature, workshops, heritage walks, events specially organized for kids & youths, and above all a vibrant street mood engulfs the mind for most of the tourists and residents alike. Since recent years the entire area transforms into a street mela, with entrepreneurs & artists selling their innovation & creations, food stalls to offer great Indian food from across the nation.

Kala Ghoda (a hindi phrase for ‘black horse’), a small precinct in South Mumbai, is popular for its annual art festival in the beginning of every year. More importantly, it is gaining prominence among freelancers and professional startups within India and across the globe.

Being a Saturday, I just picked up my D70 and decided to experience the vibrancy of the maximum city - Mumbai. The thought of being among the crowd, cheering and shouting and clapping brings an adrenaline rush and goose bumps to the photographer in me. Besides offering a great photo-op, the festival makes me more philosophical to look beyond the focal length and the pixels.

Sitting there made me realize that art is such a leveler; the taxi wala and those ladies who just got down from the sedan were jostling equally for some foot-hold or rather, butt-hold on the beautiful Asiatic Library stairs. The scantily dressed and the burqa clads enjoying the same ragas and traveling as co-sailors on the same musical wave (though not the same wavelength).  A festival like this gives an opportunity to the common man to experience legendary performers and also the unknown talented groups who put on their best for those few minutes of spot light, all completely free.

That evening Hindustani classical music was applauded with the same hysteria as was that for the next performance that followed. It was interesting to see how a pure western dance form had mesmerized the eastern population.  I never knew what Paul Taylor stood for till that morning when my friend Googled it for me. I am sure most of the audience did not have a clue as well, but the magic of the performers with sculpted bodies and lightening agility bowled over everyone. No wonder the movement of art is immaterial of per capita income or, for that matter, the GDP of any nation. Yes, I agree with the gentlemen who said ‘the world is flat’.

Refuelling my beer belly for precisely 20 minutes after watching dance troop Adonis look alikes, I decided to move on to the theatre street. The colorful artists and painters literally paint the town red; the positivity made me smile. Fully enlightened once again, I decided to gulp that huge sizzler at a traditional old Mumbai joint. Who cares about flat abs, especially after a pint of beer?

Going back relaxed and thoughtful I wondered; do I really need to go to a guru when fundamental joy is right here in my back yard?  A good question to ponder…

Ankur Shrivastava is a corporate citizen who works with one of the largest business houses of India. Being a technocrat, he enjoys experimenting with new gadgets. He is passionate about photography and traveling. As a freelancer and free-willed photographer he currently contributes mostlyto charitable causes and all that his heart desires and lens permit.

Follow him on Twitter @AnkurHums and get connected with him on LinkedIn http://in.linkedin.com/pub/ankur-shrivastava/0/644/850

This weekend has been a really awful one for Cumbria and other places in the north of UK.  Following torrential rain for many days, rivers finally burst their banks and suddenly Cumbria was plunged into chaos. Cockermouth and Workington suffered the worst, but many other people and places were badly affected.  The death of PC Bill Barker was a dreadful shock to all and made everyone realise the seriousness of the situation.

This picture was taken by Linda Mellor , a local photographer who was out taking photos before things got really dangerous. This shows the road along Ullswater to Pooley Bridge, just before it was closed. For more shots of the flooding visit LindaMellorPhotos

There are awful things happening all over the world at this very moment, yet we are most affected by what happens on our doorstep.  I have a friend in Cockermouth and so a big concern was that she was OK.  She’s fine.  And just being so connected to Cumbria and the NW makes it all so much more real …

And that is the thing for me about this disaster. It is definitely not be the worst thing to happen in the world, but it is something that is close to home … and so I care more and want to do more to help.  One simple way to do that was to use Twitter to let others know what was happening and hope that by getting the word far and wide, more can be done.  (Some of us even got coverage in The Times on Saturday!)

If you would like to help the people of Cumbria whose lives are currently being turned upsidedown, visit the Cumbria Flood Community Fund to donate.  Alternatively you can send a cheque made out to Cumbria Community Foundation to: Cumbria Community Foundation, Dovenby Hall, Cockermouth CA13 0PN. Please write on the back ‘Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund.