General Books - Page 13

Western Europe (Multi Country Guide)

Ryan Ver Berkmoes

Amazon Price: $19.13 List Price: $28.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Lonely Planet Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $17.77

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Subjects -> Travel -> Reference & Tips -> Guidebooks

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

this needs to be in your backpack 4 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Complete, detailed information about most places the typical eurail traveller will go. I'm in the middle of a four week trip through Europe and have found it to be valuable. You don't need a book to help you find a party.

Best Preparation You'll Do! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

We have now completed three trips of Europe and Great Britain - all of which were fantastic, mainly because of the knowledge this book brings you. The ability to be able to be able to budget properly, know the good and bad parts of town and the true highlights of a location makes it worth every cent. Nothing really goes out of date either so even after a couple of years, it is still a very useful book to have and one that I would highly recommend taking with you (instead of those three shirts that you'll never wear!). Obviously you have to chose what suits your tastes and budgets but this book gives you the best arrangement of options available in any one location. We haven't been disappointed yet.

Editorial Review:

See where Henry's wives lost their heads at the Tower of London p162. Discover Puglia, the beautiful "heel" of Italy's boot p785. Find the best ski resorts - and where to hit the runs without breaking the bank p51. Visit the world's smallest country p720. Written by an expert team of 20 travellers and award-winning journalists. Inspirational itineraries help you plot your path. Incorporates 1848 of your traveller tips and suggestions.

Rick Steves' Prague and The Czech Republic

Rick Steves, Honza Vihan

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Not yet published By: Avalon Travel Publishing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

great guide book 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I'm preparing to go to Prague, and the first guide book I knew that I would want to have is Rick Steve's guide. He has never let me down when I've gone on a trip. Highly recommended.

Looking forward to Prague 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Reading this book has helped me understand why Prague has become a top tourist destination. Now I, too, want to explore the architecture, music, food, and history of what sounds like an amazing city. With this book I feel comfortable planning a visit, even without knowing a word of the language. Having used other of Rick Steves' books in the past, I trust him to steer me to enjoyable, safe, and affordable experiences.

As in all of his books, Steves states his approach to travel clearly: he doesn't cover everything, just the "best" places, the best according to him, of course. My tastes and orientation align with his (interesting, moderately priced travel, including as much local immersion as is reasonable), so I rely on his books to provide the wonderful backbones of great trips. For visiting places other than his "best" I use a more comprehensive guide book, like Lonely Planet, in addition to (rather than instead of) his.

-Lynn Michelsohn, author of Roswell, Your Travel Guide to the UFO Capital of the World!

Editorial Review:

Who but Rick Steves can tell travelers the best way to see the spires of Prague, castles of Bohemia, and villages of Moravia? With Rick Steves' Prague and the Czech Republic, travelers can experience the best of everything this city has to offer — economically and hassle-free. Completely revised and updated, this guide includes: opinionated coverage of both famous and lesser-known sights, friendly places to eat and sleep, suggested day plans, walking tours and trip itineraries, and clear instructions for smooth travel anywhere by car, train, or foot. America’s #1 authority on travel to Europe, Rick’s time-tested recommendations for safe and enjoyable travel in Europe have been used by millions of Americans in search of their own unique European travel experience.

In Cod We Trust: Living the Norwegian Dream

Eric Dregni Dregni

Amazon Price: $15.61 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Univ Of Minnesota Press Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $14.28

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Eric Dregni’s great-grandfather Ellef fled Norway in 1893 when it was the poorest country in Europe. More than one hundred years later, his great-grandson traveled back to find that—mostly due to oil and natural gas discoveries—it is now the richest. The circumstances of his return were serendipitous, as the notice that Dregni won a Fulbright Fellowship to go there arrived the same week as the knowledge that his wife Katy was pregnant. Braving a birth abroad and benefiting from a remarkably generous health care system, the Dregnis’ family came full circle when their son Eilif was born in Norway. In this cross-cultural memoir, Dregni tells the hair-raising, hilarious, and sometimes poignant stories of his family’s yearlong Norwegian experiment. Among the exploits he details are staying warm in a remote grass-roofed hytte (hut), surviving a dinner of rakfisk (fermented fish) thanks to 80-proof aquavit, and identifying his great-grandfather’s house in the Lusterfjord only to find out it had been crushed by a boulder and then swept away by a river. To subsist on a student stipend, he rides the meat bus to Sweden for cheap salami with a busload of knitting pensioners. A week later, he and his wife travel to the Lofoten Islands and gnaw on klippefisk (dried cod) while cats follow them through the streets. Dregni’s Scandinavian roots do little to prepare him and his family for the year in Trondheim eating herring cakes, obeying the conformist Janteloven (Jante’s law), and enduring the mørketid (dark time). In Cod We Trust is one Minnesota family’s spirited excursion into Scandinavian life. The land of the midnight sun is far stranger than they previously thought, and their encounters show that there is much we can learn from its unique and surprising culture.

Barcelona & Catalonia (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Roger Williams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not up to Eyewitness Guide's usual standards 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I usually like using Eyewitness Guides when I travel because they are very visual and have good images and cut-away drawings. Unfortunately, their guide for Barcelona is sadly lacking. One clue is that the book is literally quite thin compared to all the things there are to see and do in this city.

They provide 6 pages for maps, going from the eastern side of Montjuic to the Born district, and north but not quite north enough to show where Gaudi's Park Guell is located. Many of the small streets in the Barri Gotic and Born districts are not even labelled. The northwest portion of the city is not shown and neither is the eastern third of the city, and there are many sights beyond the range of these maps that may interest visitors, including several Modernista (Art Nouveau) buildings. Methods of transport into and around the city are vague - there is only a mention about the very convenient aerobus that goes from the airport to the centrally located Placa de Catalunya with no specifics about cost, frequency of trips, and stops along the way. The listings for hotels and restaurants could easily have been double what they show. Information about getting to outerlying sights such as the monastery at Montserrat was cursory, and trip times were not accurate.

By comparison, we supplemented our trip using the Time Out guide for Barcelona. It was much more informative, had more detailed maps and a sizable quantity of hotels, restaurants and shops covered. Cafes and restaurants are also conveniently tagged on the maps so it's easy to find a nearby place to rest and have a drink or some tapas after an afternoon of sightseeing. We ended up relying more on that guide while over there.

Unless the Eyewitness Guide is revised and expanded in the future, I do not recommend this as the only guide to use for Barcelona.

Editorial Review:

Days are long in Barcelona, the morning extends until well after midday, with lunch starting around 2pm, and the late opening hours mean the afternoon merges into evening. With all of this time on your hands you want to make the most of it, and the Eyewitness Travel to Barcelona and Catalonia will help you to make the most of your time and your trip. Find out intimate details about each of the cities and what to do and see. Don't miss the new feature called Four Great Days in Barcelona. Each day maps out an itinerary ranging from Gaudi Greats to Family Fun.

Streetwise Amsterdam Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of Amsterdam, Netherlands - Folding pocket size travel map with tram lines, metro lines, water bus

Streetwise Maps

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Subjects -> Travel -> Europe -> Netherlands -> Amsterdam

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Streetwise Amsterdam Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of Amsterdam, Netherlands - Folding pocket size travel map with tram lines, metro lines, water bus

This map covers the following areas:
Main Amsterdam Map 1:14,500
Central Amsterdam Map 1:9,000
Amsterdam Surrounding Area Map 1:80,000

Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful small scale cities in the world. Before or after a journey through the Netherlands, spend some time here and enjoy the atmosphere of a beautiful European city without the jarring intensity of a larger urban environment.

From the winding waterways to its world famous museums, there’s much to see and do in Amsterdam, though finding your way around the canal system can be confusing, so don’t forget your STREETWISE® Amsterdam city map.

The STREETWISE® Amsterdam Map will enable you to visit all the cool and cultural sites. Walk among the 17th and 18th century architecture, join with the fleets of bicycles to tour the city or just meander through leafy Rembrandt Park to experience the funky mix of locals and foreign backpackers. Whether you want to walk or take public transport to the famous Riksmuseum, the STREETWISE® Amsterdam Map will help get you there.

Dam Square, about five minutes’ walk south of the main station, is the center of town and much more is within walking distance. Leidsplein, with much of the city’s cultural life and nightlife, Rembrandtplein and Musemplein are just a few of the special places that make Amsterdam a joy to explore on foot or bike.

A complete index of hotels, points of interest, cultural sites, and parks, are clearly listed, as well as tram lines and museum boat stops.

Our pocket size map of Amsterdam is laminated for durability and accordion folding for effortless use. The STREETWISE® Amsterdam map is one of many detailed and easy-to-read city street maps designed and published by STREETWISE®. Buy your STREETWISE® Amsterdam map today and you too can navigate Amsterdam, Netherlands like a native. For a larger selection of our detailed travel maps simply type STREETWISE MAPS into the Amazon search bar.

Budapest (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)

DK Publishing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Excellent 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Like all the Eyewitness Travel Guides this one is excellent.
Filled with maps,glorious pictures,practical information,historical background, and great tips as to what-to-do and what-to see; it is a complete guide to the fascinating and beautiul cities of Buda and Pest. I would never travel to new cities without taking along one of these well researched and well written/edited guides.

A great complement to Top 10 Budapest! 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great organization, eye-catching photography, well written narrative and superb cartography! DK Eyewitness Travel guides have got it all but, for me, it's the photography that really separates them from the competition. And "Budapest" covers it all - restaurants, music, beer halls, walks, art galleries, museums, spas, architecture, palaces, hotels, cafés, theatres and churches. And all of the information is organized by neighbourhood in the city so I can make the most effective use of my time once I'm in a certain area.

Here's my "best practices" strategy. Read "Top 10 Budapest" first. Make some basic choices, get your mind wrapped around Budapest's geography and begin to localize your choices to certain areas. Fine tune your choice and plan your attack day by day by reading "Budapest". Familiarize yourself with some of the local customes by reading the basic country information in the back of the larger "Budapest" guide - currency, communications, etiquette, food, beer and wine, local transportation and specialized hints like local tipping practices.

Why not five stars? Frankly, with the internet now providing so much current information, I can't see the value in attempting to include lengthy (and probably outdated) lists of hotels and restaurants in densely packed small print index lists at the back of a book like this.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

Editorial Review:

A travel guide to Budapest offering every significant sight, location, building, museum and gallery, as well as major shops, hotels and restaurants. Mapping, currency guides, tickets and communication systems add to this practical directory which is organised district by district and is designed to help you know what to look out for and how to make the most of your time.

Apples Are from Kazakhstan: The Land that Disappeared

Christopher Robbins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A funny and revealing travelogue of Kazakhstan, a country rich with wild tulips, oil, nomads who hunt with golden eagles, and a disappearing landlocked sea.

Closed to foreigners under Tsar and Soviet rule, Kazakhstan has remained largely hidden from the world, a remarkable feat for a country the size of Western Europe. Few would guess that Kazakhstan—a blank in Westerners' collective geography—turns out to be diverse, tolerant, and surprisingly modern, the country that gave the world apples, trousers, and even, perhaps, King Arthur.

Christopher Robbins enjoyed unprecedented access to the Kazakh president while crafting this travelogue, and he relates a story by turns hilarious and grim. He finds Eminem-worship by a shrinking Aral Sea, hears the Kazakh John Lennon play in a dusty desert town, joins nomads hunting eagles, eats boiled sheep's head (a delicacy), and explores some of the most beautiful, unspoiled places on earth. Observant and culturally attuned, Robbins is a master stylist in the tradition of travel writing as literature, a companion to V. S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux.

The foundations of early modern Europe, 1460-1559 (Norton history of modern Europe)

Eugene F Rice

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Succinct yet insightful, scholarly yet readable. A classic. 5 out of 5 stars.
30 of 31 people found this review helpful.

Rice's work is a superb short survey of the technology and ideas that created our modern world. Despite the high level of scholarship, the text is eminently readable with a graceful, lucid style that successfully walks the tightrope of summarizing without oversimplifying. The chapter on the impact of the invention of printing is alone worth the price of the book. Excellent illustrations and maps throughout, and the typeface is exquisite. I read this book twenty years ago for a college history course and recently reread it in the second edition. An unparalleled account of the early modern period and undoubtedly on its way to becoming a modern classic.

Excellent in Scope and understaning: Great Indroduction 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Eugene Rice has summed up the age of reformation very well in this book. It is very readable and quite scholarly considering the broad scope of time and place the author covers in this work. This work provides a great introduction to the subject in a couple hundred pages of relatively easy reading. Before reading deep into Luther or Charles V, begin to read primary sources of the age, or even read fiction like Dan Brown's "Davinci Code", it makes sense to get some introductory material. This book covers that subject well.

Taking the period from all angles, Rice describes lifestyles of all economic strata while also explaining the cultural shifts of Humanism and the rise of the early modern state. He also explains in great clarity the factors that brought reformation about. I appreciate the fact that he also discusses other protestants and why they did not stick tightly to Luther's views. Further, Rice organizes this book in a way that makes it very accessible to someone who doesn't want to read the work from cover to cover.

Overall this is really an excellent work that I recommend highly to all students and to anyone who wants to learn about our past. The books provides a great read without oversimplifying issues like William Manchester's "A World Lit Only B Fire". I think after reading you will agree this book opens the door and sheds light on the early modern era nicely.

-- Ted Murena

Editorial Review:

Was the shift from old to new in this period a transition from medieval to modern? Professor Rice, assisted in this edition by Professor Tony Grafton continues to argue, as in the first edition, that this century represents a shift from medieval to "early" modern.

The Innocents Abroad or the New Pilgrims' Progress

Mark Twain

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1867, young Mark Twain set out for Europe and the Holy Land on the paddle-steamer Quaker City. His enduring, no-nonsense guide for the first-time traveler also served as an antidote to the insufferably romantic travel books of the period.

The Innocents Abroad began as a series of travel letters written mainly for the Alta California, a San Francisco newspaper that sponsored Mark Twain's participation in the trip to Europe and the Holy Land in 1867 aboard the steamship Quaker City. On the excursion from New York to Palestine they traveled a distance of over twenty thousand miles by sea and land through France, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Russia, Turkey and Egypt. Through his humorous writings he describes countries, nations, incidents, adventures and some of the people he encountered along they way. Elisha Bliss, published these letters as "Innocents" a subscription book in 1869, and then suggested to Twain that he revise the letters into this book.

With over 234 illustrations more than 70,000 copies of this book sold over the first year. This success helped Twain's success prompting the American Publishing Company to request more of his books for publication. This description refers to the Digital Scanning title.

Fodor's Around Paris with Kids, 3rd Edition: 68 Great Things to Do Together (Around the City with Kids)

Fodor's

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Greattttttttttttttt and then some. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book has all the details necessary to make an enjoyable trip with your kids to Paris. Just fabuous. My daughter and I visited Paris and found this guide most helpful. All the good stuff with not all the fluff. There are sections that cover food, playgrounds, and other fun outdoor activities. All in all, I had a wonderful time with my daughter where this guide definately helped with all its ideas. Fudor's is the best, and I hope to see other in the series for trips I may have in the future. So this book is both action and info packed, totally awesome with tons of useful information that I could not remcoment any higher---as in greattttttttttttttttttt.

Editorial Review:

Vacationing abroad with children is a unique experience and Around Paris with Kids helps to make it unforgettable. Local author Emily Emerson LeMoing has handpicked 68 fun and fabulous things to do around Paris with kids in tow. You’ll look at old favorites in a new light, from………

•Terrific ideas for family days, from museums to puppet shows
•Kid-friendly snack spots and restaurant suggestions included with each activity
•Themed directories let parents plan their days with kids’ special interests in mind
•Insider tips help parents make the best use of their time while saving money and stress
•Paris-specific flip art, trivia, and a chapter of games keep kids entertained en route and in line
•All attractions include addresses, phone numbers, Web sites, admission prices, and age-appropriateness