The Queen Mary made her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York in May of 1936. Her final summer of service was in 1967.
The days of sailing the seas aboard this majestic ocean liner may have come and gone, but you can still enjoy the elegance of those long-past days of transoceanic travel, dock-side, in Long Beach, where she arrived in December of 1967.
There are times when I wonder if movie director Peter Jackson ever read more than these two books in his entire life: Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, both written by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Jackson’s “Lord” trilogy of films, released from 2001-2003, were a box office bonanza and also dramatically increased tourist travel to New Zealand where the films were shot.
A decade later, he produced another three-part cinematic saga based on The Hobbit.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released in 2012, and was followed the next year by The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
The final chapter will be told in December when The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies opens in theaters. Here’s the trailer.
But Jackson’s latest movie may not be as entertaining a take on the Tolkien stories as another short film.
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In August, I took you on a month-long virtual journey across Europe, stopping at major cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin, London and Prague.
You can experience European urban life in wondrous ways in each of them.
But they are densely populated, and the physical and emotional stimulation of being out and about in them can be intense.
You’re not going to feel that way if you head to the Faroe Islands, northwest of Scotland, halfway between Iceland and Norway.
