Mark Heers, who entertains us at Travel Wonders, came in close behind Connie with FOUR correct answers.

Now read on, and you can slap yourself on the forehead and say, “I should have known that!”

WHO??
Still sticking with the windows and doors theme — kinda. I was going to tell a little story about each of these places, but instead I decided to torment you. Who do you think lived in each of these places? You could read about all of these people some time in the last 3 years at A Traveler’s Library. (Sorry, I’m fresh out of prizes after that gigantic January Giveaway. It’s all for the glory of competing with other readers.) And just to keep you honest, I’m not letting you see comments with guesses/answers until next Monday.

He lived in exile on an island for a while, too. No, not Napoleon, but you're right that it is in France. A writer who loved Paris, and particularly a cathedral.

When Ken and I spent a week in Paris, we wanted to see all the major sites, of course, but I also had a hankering to visit where some famous writers and artists had lived.  I did not do as many as I had hoped, but was very happy to visit the one-time home of Victor Hugo. The 2nd floor apartment, situated in Place des Voges, which dates back to 1605, is a short distance from the Bastille metro station.  The 19th century living quarters have been restored and turned into a museum. Among the highlights–ornate furniture designed by Hugo himself, a gorgeous Chinese room, and the room where the writer died. (Some of the other rooms are recreations from other homes he lived in.) Read about Victor Hugo.

Yep, that's me in the window, but I"m not the famous person who lived here.

Impressionist Painter Claude Monet derived great satisfaction from his gardens, which he himself planned. And of course his most famous series of paintings, The Water Lilies, was painted right here as he looked at his water lily pond.  The home is in the tiny, picturesque town of Giverney, and nowadays, you can also visit an Impressionist Museum. This place is a photographers dream.  The window I’m peeking out of is Monet’s bedroom. Mara Gorman wrote a guest post here about a children’s book about Monet’s Gardens.

Trick question because although he designed it, he may not have actually ever lived in it. Called a Chateau but looks like a castle to me.

Chateau le Galliard was designed by Richard I of England and Normandy. He earned his nickname of Richard the Lionheart for his ferocious battles during the Crusades.  When we left Giverney, we were heading for Rouen, intending to end the day at Honfleurs, on the coast. But in one of those lovely serendipities that strikes sometimes while traveling, a friend had given us a very old book with a picture of the ruins of Richard the Lionheart’s castle ruins just a bit north of Giverney. The ruins looked very romantic and I had read and written about several books on Richard, so I said, “Let’s just take a look, on our way.” WELL! The ruins are now partially restored so you can see the glorious form of the original castle; the setting is stunning—although it takes a small hike to get to the hilltop location; and we could have spent a whole day there. As it was, we missed Rouen, but were delighted with our out-of-the-way find, and enthusiastically recommend it to travelers.

Same place as the one above. If he DID live there, this would have been the view. A well-known river. The river is the Seine, although you probably think of this Crusader as being English.

Read more about Richard the Lionheart in a book review at A Traveler’s Library.

Architectural hints: Portico and "eyebrow" rescued from older houses in Ohio. Indian god over door indicates his earlier travels and a novel and movie he wrote. I've written about the author/farmer who lived here.

Unless you are a devoted and careful reader of A Traveler’s Library, or attracted to little known fiction of the early 20th century, you probably did not recognize the home of Louis Bromfield, a Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist. I visited his experimental farm, Malabar, in Ohio when I took a press trip to Mansfield. The architecture of the farm house, which he mostly designed himself, blends French (from his years living in France) with preservation of historic Ohio River properties, and a nod to India, where he also lived in an area called Malabar. I wrote a guest post at Attainable Sustainable about Malabar Farm, and a book review here.

If you can identify the flowers, that will help.

I was a bit surprised that more people did not recognize the Texas white house of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Those are Texas’ state flowers, the bluebonnet in the foreground, and of course Lady Bird Johnson was known for her campaign to preserve and plant wildflowers in public places. The house is near Fredericksburg, Texas, which I visited on a press trip. I felt that I understood Johnson a whole lot better after seeing his spread here in Texas hill country overlooking the Pedernales River. Here is a slide show from Lyndon Johnson’s homes.

Most people mispronounce the name of the New England town this house is located in.

Connie was the only reader who named John Adams (his son John Quincy Adams would have counted, too, although this house is before his time) Mark  got the town right–it is Quincy, Massachusetts, near Boston.  The proper pronunciation makes the “c” sound like a “z” rather than hard as in the fruit, quince. John Adams was born here, and he and Abigail lived in a fancier house they built later on the same property.  (which is also open for tours) Adams is one of my favorite figures from American history, so it was a delight to visit his farm in Quincy.  But the biggest delight was the private library built on the property by John Quincy Adams. It gave me a big case of building lust, and made me think I should learn more about book-loving President John Quincy Adams. Here’s a bit about Boston and Adams.

This is my entry in Travel Photo Thursday.  To see photos from around the world, go to Budget Travelers’ Sandbox.  All photos are my property and I request that you not reuse them without express permission.  Thanks.

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Window View, Venice

In the city of Venice, where so much is hidden behind doors and glimpses at life inside a window seem a stolen pleasure, I caught this woman enjoying her view of  the neighborhood Piazza.

Other photos simply capture the peeling plaster, streaked paint and rusting metal caused by centuries of rising and falling water. Doorways in Venice can be Moorish, modern, Baroque, Renaissance, Victorian or any style man has dreamed up–but somehow they form a coherent whole that is unmistakably Venice.  I end with perhaps the most famous doorway in Venice.

Windows and doors along a Venice canal.

Venice, Ghetto, weather-beaten door

Window in Venice Ghetto

Venice- Graceful Decay

Window in Venice, Canareggio

A little girl watches other children playing outside her building. Venice

Door to San Marcos Cathedral, Venice

These photos are my contribution to Travel Photo Thursday.  To see more travel photos from around the world, go to Budget Traveler’s Sandbox.

Staying with the theme of Italy–if not Sicily–our pictures today were from Venice and our prize represents Tuscany.  D. H. Lawrence’s Etruscan Places: Travels Through Forgotten Italy, was one of my favorites which I reviewed here. Today’s prize goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+ (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Friday, January 27, 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry every day as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete rules here.)

For Christmas, I received a digital slide converter, which means that I have access to many of my photos that previously were hidden in boxes.  Are you tired of windows? Want a change of subject? or do you want some more doors and windows?

All photos are my property. Please respect my copyright and do not copy without express permission.

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Two weeks ago we looked at a variety of windows from the outside.

Here are views from some views from the inside of various lodgings that we particularly enjoyed.

The Dashiell Hammett Room at Union Square Hotel, San Francisco

Budapest Apartment Window with view of St. Stephen's Square

View of Chicago River and lake from Westin Hotel

View from Le Case Hotel, Le Marche region, Italy

Le Torricelle View, Le Marche region, Italy

Steinerhof Pension, Salzburg

Rome hotel street view from room

View from Adobe Grande Villas, Sedona

East Winds apartment view, St. Lucia

Night view from Warwick Hotel, NYC

These photos are this week’s contribution to Travel Photo Thursday.  You can see travel photos from around the world by going to Budget Traveler’s Sandbox. Next week some windows (and maybe some doors) from Venice, Italy.

The Giveaway prize today goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+. It is a copy of Running Away To Home, Jennifer Wilson’s account of her family’s return to her ancestral village in Croatia. I reviewed Running Away to Home here. (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Friday 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete rules here.)

What is the best view you have ever had from a hotel room?  And by the way, I have not yet posted the BEST view I had from a hotel room. That would have been in Greece, hanging right out over the water on the west coast of the Peloponnese, or perhaps in Switzerland looking across Lake Lucerne, or maybe that one that hung on the cliff in Santorini. Oh dear!! I’ll never decide. Are you more decisive than I am??

Disclaimers: Running Away To Home was provided by the publisher for review. All these photos are my property, and I will appreciate your respect for my copyright.

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Windows form an important frame for many travel pictures. As I look at these, I think I can see where the inside and outside of the windows blend to tell us more about the place.  And surely there is some symbolism looking through a window at the beginning of the year. When I started digging through my files, I found so many window pictures, that this Travel Photo Thursday photo essay of windows from the outside is to be continued next week with views looking out from windows.

Acoma Pueblo window, New Mexico

Urbino Italy

Chapel window at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Le Case Hotel, (14th century building) Le Marche region, Italy

Old town cafe, Salzburg, opposite Mozart's childhood apartment

Wupatki Pueblo ruins, Arizona. A door and a window

Mission Window, San Antonio TX

To see more photos from travelers around the world, go to Budget Travelers Sandbox, and click on the names below her photo essay.

Today’s prize to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+ is a copy of  America’s Great Railroad Stations with photographs by Roger Straus III. See the review of the Railroad book here. (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Friday 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. ) Disclaimer: The book America’s Great Railroad Stations  was provided by the publisher for review, without any expectations on their part. The photos in this post are all my property. Please do not copy without express permission. Thank you.

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A desert Christmas bouquet

From another desert garden.

Joy to the World

And a hummingbird adds some sparkle.

Hummingbird dining in Rancho de los Caballeros guest ranch garden

These images are my contribution to Travel Photo Thursday. You can see more contributions at Budget Travelers’ Sandbox. Have a wonderful holiday and I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.

Please note: All of these photos are my property. If you should want to use one, please contact me first.

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My favorite New Orleans hotel stepped up for the third year in a row and offered a 3-night stay in the family-owned, French Quarter Hotel Monteleone for Passports With Purpose. Now, if you hang around Passports With Purpose very much, you know that cupcakes are a recurring theme. The four Seattle travel bloggers who thought up the innovative fund raiser (this year raising money to build two libraries in Zambia) purportedly do all their planning over cupcakes. How appropriate then, that my photos from my last stay at Hotel Monteleone (in 2009) coincided with a celebration that involved cupcakes.

Which cupcake do you want?

The crowd was wowed.

Cupcake Tier at Hotel Monteleone

Always a busy place, the very classy Hotel Monteleone lobby drew plenty of people during the Food and Wine Festival and Royal Street Ramble.

Lobby of Monteleone

If YOU win the 3-night stay at the Hotel Monteleone, I cannot guarantee you cupcakes, but I can guarantee you a stay in an attentive, beautiful, well-located New Orleans Hotel.  If you ask nicely, they might even be able to get you a room with a river view. But don’t worry, if your room doesn’t have the view, the roof-top workout room does.

I can’t say enough good things about this wonderful, friendly hotel.  The rooms are classy and gorgeous. The Carousel Bar, which recently reopened after a face-lift, is one-of-a-kind. The hotel’s concierge can help you find whatever you want in New Orleans. Meet your friends as the clock in the lobby, or take in the roof-top view of the Mississippi, or just relax after antiquing on Royal Street, or bar hopping on nearby Bourbon Street. HUGE THANKS to my friends at Moneteleone for supporting Passports With Purpose three years in a row.

How do you win this fantastic prize, you ask?  Click on this link to Passports With Purpose, and pledge $10 for each chance you want. Couldn’t be simpler. And as a traveler who reads, you can be proud of the fact that all your ten dollar bills are going to build libraries for kids in Zambia. HURRY! Tomorrow is the LAST DAY!

This has been my contribution to Travel Photo Thursday. To see more photos from travel bloggers around the world, go to Budget Travelers Sandbox and click on the names of the contributors.

Disclaimer: I was the guest of Hotel Monteleone in 2009, however I was not required to write nice things about them, nor wheedle prizes out of them.

Photos all are my property. And though they are not of a quality that you’d want to copy, I still request permission in case you do want to reuse them.

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Mona Lisa paparazzi

When we were at the Louvre, I almost skipped going to the room with the Mona Lisa. I had read about how small the painting is and god knows we have seen reproductions aplenty.  But at the last minute, I dashed up the stairs and into the room, while Ken waited outside.  I’m so glad I did.  I laughed out loud at the desperate snapping of digital cameras and cell phones.  Now I know the meaning of that smile–she’s amused by the paparazzi.

Since this picture shows only about 1/4 of the crowd, here’s a wider shot.

Mona Lisa crowd

These photos are the property of Vera Marie Badertscher, all rights reserved.

These photos are my entry into the weekly Travel Photo Thursday sponsored by Budget Traveler’s Sandbox.  Visit that site to see many more travel photos from around the world.

Have you had travel experiences where the crowd reactions were more interesting than the object or site you went to see? Tell us about it.

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Dora in Paris

Here’s Dora in Bantry Ireland. We spotted her beach towel at the weekly market, where you can find a wonderful mixture of gourmet goods, flowers, 2nd hand treasures and even a fortune teller.

Dora the Explorer on a beach towel in Bantry, Ireland (with pal Spider Man)

These photos are my contribution to the weekly Travel Photo Thursday sponsored by Budget Travelers’ Sandbox. Click over there to see a wide variety of  contributions of photos presented by travel writers around the world.

Black Friday is upon us and next Monday is Cyber Monday. So as you shop for the holidays, PLEASE remember that you can help A Traveler’s Library by clicking over to Amazon through one of the links on our pages. If you are reading this in your e-mail or somewhere other than at the web site, please click through to A Traveler’s Library and look for the Amazon ads or book titles. The way it works: Everything you buy within 24 hours of clicking on an Amazon link at A Traveler’s Library, earns some money for the site. You do not spend any more, but A Traveler’s Library makes a few cents on each purchase. Now THAT’s Holiday MAGIC!

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Book: America’s Great Railroad Stations. (NEW Oct. 2011)Photos by Roger Straus III and text by Ed Breslin and Hugh Van Dusen.

North Bennington Vermont,(1880) Photo by Roger Straus III

Toward the end of the year, we can count on some blockbuster books emerging to tempt us as we do holiday shopping.  I already told you about one of my favorites, in the Ten Perfect Gifts for Travelers Who Read post. Here’s another one.

At first I thought that America’s Great Railroad Stations would appeal to the narrow range of railroad “nuts”–those people who gobble up everything that has to do with choo-choos.  But as I paged through the book, I realized that even though I don’t count myself as one of that crew, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip across America.  My interest lies in the amazing story the railroad architecture tells us about the power of the railroads in the 19th and early 20th century, about the way that the country’s economy and general sense of well-being affected architectural creations, and how these stations tell more about our country’s history–a subject I’m always interested in.

My interest in railroad history was piqued when I read and reviewed Appetite for America, the biography of Fred Harvey who worked with the railroads to “civilize the west”. There I learned the meaning of “union” station. In the early days of railroading, each railroad had its own terminal, so you’d be faced with several in one city. It was more practical for the railroad companies to pool their resources and operate out of a “union” station.

San Antonio Sunset Station (1902) Photo by Roger Straus III, now home of Sunset Station Entertainment complex.

One more thing that sets the wheels of my brain turning in Great Railroad Stations is the story of preservation. In these pages you will see plenty of examples of where it has been done well (D.C. ‘s Union Station) and some very sad examples (New York’s Penn Station) when it failed. I also like the stories of creative measures taken by communities to save their stations.

The writers, however, apply a rather heavy hand in their appeal for preservation. While the photography is magnificent (and tempts me to look up at least one other travel-inspiring book by the photographer, Roger Straus ,

 Houses of the Founding Fathers) I found the writing awkward and over done. The photographs and their captions say nearly everything you need to know.

Garrison Station, New York (1900). Photo by Roger Straus III. Across the river from West Point, now houses a theater.

Although this book necessarily is limited to some of the grander examples of stations, with a few smaller ones of particular interest included (like Garrison Station- above), it made me think of all those small towns across the country that have rescued their stations to turn them into a tourism center or store. But others  (not all in the book) have become art colleges, sprawling restaurants (San Antonio Sunset Station–above), hotels (Nashville Tennessee houses a Wyndham),  or the home of excursion trains. Don’t you love the creativity that emerges when communities pull together? And how many times have the railroad stations served as that magnet that pulled the community together?

NYC Grand Central Terminal (1913) , Photo by Roger Straus III

My earliest imaginary travels included listening to the radio show, Grand Central Station. Part of the fascination of railroad stations are the stories they hint at. Think of all the literary uses of railroad stations– those movies where the chugging of wheels denotes the passage of time and movement through space. OR all the tearful farewells, with one person on the train and the other following them down the walkway getting one last glimpse. Makes me teary just to think of it.

I should mention that my hometown station, the Tucson Southern Pacific is one of the choices in the book. It is still used as an Amtrak station, but has more business as a trendy restaurant, Maynard’s  and a small railroad museum. My personal favorite railroad stations for travelers, both of which are included in America’s Great Railroad Stations, are Union Station in Washington, D.C., where you can still take trains, but also shop and dine; and Cincinnati Union Terminal, now a museum center, which was one of my absolute favorite visits in Cincinnati. The building is sleek Art Deco, the murals inside show midwestern history, and every inch of the vast space is crammed with delights.

Although I avoid traveling by Amtrak in most parts of the country, I was rather surprised when I stated recalling how many railroad stations (or former stations) I had visited in my travels. Of the ones in the book, I’ve visited Grand Central, Washington Union, Tucson, Santa Fe Sunset, Cincinnati, Sacramento, and Chicago Union, plus many others which did not make the book. Which, I guess, makes rail travel still an important part of the American travel experience, even if you’re not on the choo-choo itself.

Have you visited railroad stations in your travels–or former railroad stations? Tell us about your favorite.

Disclaimers: Amazon links included here are for your convenience. Although it costs you no more to use them to get to Amazon, each purchase provides a few cents to help A Traveler’s Library operate.  All photos are supplied by the publisher, who also supplied a review copy of the book. 

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Making Chocolate Candy, The Squirrel's Den, Mansfield, Ohio

Stitching replica of Bayeux Tapestry, at Bayeux Broderie, Bayeux, France

Wood carving on Carousel Animal at Horsin' Around Carving School in Chatanooga Tennesee

LaDonna Secrist, The Squirrel's Den, Mansfield, Ohio

Bayeux needlework artist, Chantal James

Chattanooga wood carver

This post is part of Travel Photo Thursday. You can go the Budget Travelers Sandbox (the sponsor of Travel Photo Thursday) to see a variety of travel writers post a varitey of favorite travel pictures. Jump over there and see what you like.

When you travel, do you seek out local craftspeople?

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