When Columbus first returned to Spain from the Caribbean, he dazzled King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella with exotic parrots, tropical flowers, and bits of gold. Inspired by the promise of riches, countless seafarers poured out of the Iberian Peninsula and wider Europe in search of spices, treasure, and land. Many returned with strange tales of the New World.

Curiosity began to percolate through Europe as the New World s people, animals, and plants ruptured prior assumptions about the biblical description of creation. The Church, long fearful of challenges to its authority, could no longer suppress the mantra Dare to know

Noblemen began collecting cabinets of curiosities; soon others went from collecting to examining natural objects with fresh eyes. Observation led to experiments; competing conclusions triggered debates. The foundations for the natural sciences were laid as questions became more multifaceted and answers became more complex. Carl Linneaus developed a classification system and sent students around the globe looking for specimens. Museums, botanical gardens, and philosophical societies turned their attention to nature. National governments undertook explorations of the Pacific.

Eminent historian Joyce Appleby vividly recounts the explorers triumphs and mishaps, including Magellan s violent death in the Philippines; the miserable trek of the new Argonauts across the Andes on their mission to determine the true shape of the earth; and how two brilliant scientists, Alexander Humboldt and Charles Darwin, traveled to the Americas for evidence to confirm their hypotheses about the earth and its inhabitants. Drawing on detailed eyewitness accounts, Appleby also tells of the turmoil created in the all societies touched by the explorations.

This sweeping, global story imbues the Age of Discovery with fresh meaning, elegantly charting its stimulation of the natural sciences, which ultimately propelled Western Europe toward modernity."

'This is an epic journey by a man who’s not only obsessed with birds but who has a deep spiritual connection with the planet as he observes the environments and habitats he encounters.' David Lindo, author of How to be an Urban Birder The (Big) Year Flew By is the tale of one avid birder’s epic, record-breaking adventure through 40 countries over 6 continents – in just one year – to see 6,852 bird species, many on the precipice of extinction. When Arjan Dwarshuis first heard of the ‘Big Year’ – the legendary record for birdwatching – he was just twenty years old. It was midnight, and he was sitting on the roof of a truck high up in the Andean Mountains. In that moment, Arjan made a promise to himself that someday, somehow, he would become a world-record-holding birder. Ten years later, he embarked on an incredible, arduous and perilous journey that took him around the globe; over uninhabited islands, through dense unforgiving rainforests, across snowy mountain peaks and unrelenting deserts – in just a single year. Would he survive? Would he be able to break the ‘Big Year’ record, navigating through a world filled with shifting climate and geopolitical challenges? The (Big) Year that Flew By is an unforgettable, personal exploration of the limits of human potential when engaging with the natural world. It is a book about birds and birding and Arjan’s attempts to raise awareness for critically endangered species, but it is also a book about overcoming mental challenges, extreme physical danger and human competition and fully realizing your passions through nature, adventure and conservation.

Cycles of a Traveler - A celebration of humanity in all its wondrous glory and the world in all its devastating beauty. From the streets of The Bronx, Joe Diomede accomplishes his dream and heads out across America on his motorcycle for a once in a lifetime trip with his college buddy. For Joe it doesn't stop there - it turns into his yearly ritual. When a small mishap on one of those journeys puts him on a collision course with his life's path, the bitter reality of the poverty and injustice he confronts leads him to look at his life in a different light. A bicycle soon replaces his trusty motorcycle and we are lead down the backstreets of Japan, maneuver on the muddy roads in the rainforests of Borneo, freewheel throughout the European countryside, and up to a chance meeting with fate high in the Himalayas. While mingling with the people who share our planet we are drawn into a search for meaning at a time before the internet offered instant answers, and mobile phones kept us in constant contact. Explore the world from the saddles of Joe's cycles; adventure becomes accessible to us all, coincidence takes on new meaning and synchronous moments become the norm. We become conscious that, although cultural, linguistic, religious, and social differences seem to separate us all, we're truly on this ride together. Put on your leather jacket, slip on your bike shorts and enjoy these true tales of voyage, discovery and synchronicity.

Originally published in 1921. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This is the tale of an epic three-month adventure through unexplored jungle terrain - and it might even change your life Fuelled by a zest for life and the desire to explore the world around her, Pip Stewart took on a world-first challenge: following Guyana's Essequibo River from source to sea. With the help of guides from the Wai Wai indigenous community, Pip and her teammates journeyed through the rainforest, facing peril every day as they kayaked rapids, traversed waterfalls and hacked their way through the mountainous jungle of the Guiana Shield, before finally reaching the Atlantic Ocean. Survival skills and a flesh-eating parasite weren't the only things Pip took home from the rainforest. From contending with snakes to learning about the value of community, forgiveness and self-belief, in Life Lessons from the Amazon Pip shares many pearls of wisdom that we can all apply to our own lives. Her hard-won insights invite us to embrace the wildness within ourselves and live more every day.

James Cameron admired Martha Gellhorn above all other war-reporters 'because she combined a cold eye with a warm heart'. The Chicago Times described her writing as 'wide ranging and provocative, a blend of cool lyricism and fiery emotion, alternately prickly and welcoming, funny and stern'. But make your own judgements, and in the process find yourself plunged straight back into Madrid during the Spanish Civil War, feel the frozen ground of the Finno Russian war, the continent-wide Japanese invasion of China, the massacres in Java, the murderously naive intervention in Vietnam and the USA's dirty little wars in Central America. You will also experience the process of the Second World War by the seat of your pants. It is a tough way to learn history, but also one created in bite-sized chunks, that inspire just as often as they shock.

"It is time to pack your virtual bags and prepare yourself for an intimate and fun-filled adventure. As you read and follow this amazing written and photo journal, you will feel like you are at each and every site; someone who is lucky to be on this global journey with a person who cares enough about you, the land that is being visited and the culture described in past and present form."

Dan Pappas, Humanities Chair Executive Director, Michigan Institute for Educational Management Hall of Fame Award Recipient, Michigan Association of School Administrators

... A delightful book, full of engaging descriptions of some of the World's most fascinating places, while providing the historical and cultural perspectives that bring a deeper understanding of the peoples and cultures who lived and live there now.

Dr. Frank Novakowski Coordinator, Study Abroad Program Associate Dean, Davenport University

Does the way in which buildings are looked at, and made sense of, change over the course of time? How can we find out about this? By looking at a selection of travel writings spanning four centuries, Anne Hultzsch suggests that it is language, the description of architecture, which offers answers to such questions. The words authors use to transcribe what they see for the reader to re-imagine offer glimpses at modes of perception specific to one moment, place and person. Hultzsch constructs an intriguing patchwork of local and often fragmentary narratives discussing texts as diverse as the 17th-century diary of John Evelyn, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and an 1855 art guide by Swiss art historian Jacob Burckhardt. Further authors considered include 17th-century collector John Bargrave, 18th-century novelist Tobias Smollett, poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, critic John Ruskin as well as the 20th-century architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner.

“Not sex please,” sê die monnik en toe hy die verbouereerde uitdrukkings op ons gesigte sien, glimlag hy gerusstellend. “Seven is better . . . OK?”

Tussen misverstande, pogings om die taal en skrif te leer en lokvalle van swendelaars wat daarop uit is om ’n vinnige yuan te maak, is daar die vriendelike vreemdelinge wat soos ’n goue draad deur Elkarien Fourie se ervarings in China loop. Hulle is die “mede”-mense wat uitstaan tussen die gedrang van miljoene in die megastede; wat aanbied om die pad saam te loop eerder as om dit net te verduidelik.

Elkarien het Confucius se voorskrif gevolg en haar hele hart saamgeneem op hierdie avontuur wat haar gekies het eerder as andersom.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - When one of the leading publicists in America, Dr. Albert Shaw of the Review of Reviews, after reading the manuscript of Part I of this volume, characterized the author as "The Robinson Crusoe of the Twentieth Century," he touched the feature of the narrative which is at once most attractive and most dangerous; for the succession of trying and thrilling experiences recorded seems in places too highly colored to be real or, sometimes, even possible in this day and generation. I desire, therefore, to assure the reader at the outset that Dr. Ossendowski is a man of long and diverse experience as a scientist and writer with a training for careful observation which should put the stamp of accuracy and reliability on his chronicle. Only the extraordinary events of these extraordinary times could have thrown one with so many talents back into the surroundings of the "Cave Man" and thus given to us this unusual account of personal adventure, of great human mysteries and of the political and religious motives which are energizing the "Heart of Asia."

Reproduced ieith permission from Arcktw Mas PALACIO DEL MARQUES DE DOS AQUAS, VALENCIA FROM THE PYRENEES TO PORTUGAL BY ROSE MACAULAY HAMISH HAMILTON LONDON First published in Great Britain, April 1949 by Hamish Hamilton Ltd. Second Impression, May ip p Third Impression, October 1949 Printed in Great Britain by Butler Tanner Ltd, , Frome and London The curved gulfs, the promontories, the shore stretching along the sea, the hills standing close above it, the high towns lapped by the waves . . . the sea walls guarding the ports, the way the marshes and the lakes lie, and the high wild mountains rise. . . . RUFUS FESTUS AVIENUS late 4th century II faut visiter les pays dans leur saison violente, 1 Espagne en etd, la Russie en hiver. THEOPHILE GAUTIER 1845 Being entered Spaine, he must take heed o Posting in that hot Country in the Summer time, for it may stirre the masse of bloud too much. JAMES HOWELL 1642 The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean. SAMUEL JOHNSON 1776 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I SHOULD like very gratefully to thank Dr. J. M. Batista i Roca, of Barcelona and Cambridge, for Hs kindness in looking through and making suggestions for the bettering of some of the Cata-Ionian section of this book, and also for giving me introductions in Barcelona. I am grateful to Mr. Bernard Bevan, lately Infor mation Officer of the British Consulate-General in Barcelona, for much information, kindness and help to Miss Massey, of the same department, for valuable assistance in Barcelona to Mr. W. C. E. F. Leverkus, British Vice-Consul at Cartagena, for his information and advice to the Patronato Nacional del Turismo at Madrid and the Secretariado Nacional da Informacao atLisbon for very kindly supplying me with photographs to Senor Antonio Marquet of Barcelona, and the Instituto Espanol in London, for also helping me with these to Mr. R. B. Neumegen, of Messrs. Offley, Forrester Co., for information about sherry at Jerez to Professor Edgar Prestage for lending me the most recent researches of Portuguese scholars into Prince Henry the Navi gators towns on Capes Sagres and St. Vincent, and to Professor Rhys Carpenter, of Bryn Mawr, for sending me his delightful study, The Greeks in Spain. ROSE MACAULAY CONTENTS Page Introductory I CATALONIAN SHORE 9 VALENCIAN SHORE So MURCIAN SHORE 114 ANDALUCIAN SHORE 123 ALGARVE SHORE 184 Index 199 ILLUSTRATIONS PAIACIO DEL MARQUES DE Dos AGUAS, VALENCIA Frontispiece Facing page SAN PERE DE RODA 12 AMPURIAS 13 GERONA 28 ESCALERA DE SANTO DOMINGO, GERONA 29 CALELLA, COSTA BRAVA 34 COSTA BRAVA 35 TOSSA DE MAR 42 UNFINISHED CHURCH OF THE SAGRADA FAMILIA, BARCELONA 43 SANTA MARIA, TARRASA 60 CATHEDRAL, TARRAGONA 61 SAGUNTO, CASTLE AND AMPHITHEATRE 86 PE ISCOLA 87 DENIA, PORT AND CASTLE 104 PE ON DE IFACH, CALPE 105 ALICANTE HARBOUR 108 MOJACAR 109 ORIHUELA 112 CASA SE ORIAL, LORCA 113 CAVE DWELLINGS, GUADIX 126 GRANADA 127 SACRISTIA OF THE CARTUJA, GRANADA 132 TOCADOR DE LA REINA, ALHAMBRA, GRANADA 133 ARCO ROMANO, RONDA 144 TARIFA 145

This is the story of ordinary life in an extraordinary place. The beautiful city of Venice has been a fantasy land for people from around the globe for centuries, but what is it like to live there? To move house by boat, to get a child with a broken leg to hospital or set off for school one morning only to find that the streets have become rivers and the playground is a lake full of sewage? When Polly Coles and her family left England for Venice, they discovered a city caught between modern and ancient life - where the locals still go on an annual pilgrimage to give thanks for the end of the Black Death; where schools are housed in renaissance palaces and your new washing machine can only be delivered on foot. This is a city perilously under siege from tourism, but its people refuse to give it up - indeed, they love it with a passion. The Politics of Washing is a fascinating window into the world of ordinary Venetians and the strange and unique place they call home.

Presently in Yellowstone there are almost 200 active research permits that involve over 500 investigators, but only a small fraction of this scientific work is reported in the popular press. Furthermore, the results are mixed and frequently confusing to the general public. The intent of this book is to explain both the general issues associated with the region and how science is done to understand those issues, from wolf and grizzly bear research to thermal activity. It further describes how science informs policy in the Greater Yellowstone Region, how scientists from an array of disciplines do their work, and finally, how the nature of that work enables or limits future plans for managing the park and surrounding lands.

Why not? After all, no-one had ever done it before. It would be one of the longest of all overland journeys-half-way round the world, from the English Channel to Singapore. They knew that several expeditions had already tried it. Some had got as far as the deserts of Persia; a few had even reached the plains of India. But no-one had managed to go on from there: over the jungle-clad mountains of Assam and across northern Burma to Thailand and Malaya. Over the last 3,000 miles it seemed there were "just too many rivers and too few roads". But no-one really knew...In fact, their problems began much earlier than that. As mere undergraduates, they had no money, no cars, no nothing. But with a cool audacity, which was to become characteristic, they set to work-wheedling and cajoling. First, they coaxed the BBC to come up with some film for a possible TV series. Then they gently "persuaded" Rover to lend them two factory-fresh Land Rovers. A publisher was even sweet-talked into giving them an advance on a book. By the time they were ready to go, their sponsors (more than 80 of them) ranged from whiskey distillers to the makers of collapsible buckets. In late 1955, they set off.Seven months and 12,000 miles later, two very weary Land Rovers, escorted by police outriders, rolled into Singapore-to flash-bulbs and champagne. Now, fifty years on, their bestselling book, First Overland, is republished-with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough. After all, it was he who gave them that film.

."a sophisticated and very well researched study that] makes a significant contribution to the growing corpus of studies of fascist culture and of the often subtle and varied ways in which the regime's goals and messages were transmitted to the general public. It is well organized and well written and is intelligently structured." - Christopher Duggan, University of Reading During the twenty years of Mussolini's rule a huge number of travel texts were written of journeys made during the interwar period to the sacred sites of Fascist Italy, Mussolini's newly conquered African empire, Spain during the Civil War, Nazi Germany, Communist Russia and the America of the New Deal. Examining these observations by writers and journalists, the author throws new light on the evolving ideology of Fascism, how it was experienced and propagated by prominent figures of the time; how the regime created a utopian vision of the Roman past and the imperial future; and how it interpreted the attractions and dangers of other totalitarian cultures. The book helps gain a better understanding of the evolving concepts of imperialism, which were at the heart of Italian Fascism, and thus shows that travel writing can offer an important contribution to historical analysis. Charles Burdett, Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies, specializes on Italian culture under Fascism. He is the author of Vincenzo Cardarelli and his Contemporaries (Oxford University Press, 1999). He is the editor with Claire Gorrara and Helmut Peitsch of European Memories of the Second World War (Berghahn Books, 1999) and with Derek Duncan, of Cultural Encounters: European Travel Writing of the 1930s (Berghahn Books, 2002). Other Berghahn Titles by Charles Burdett: European Memories of the Second World War Cultural Encounters

After twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine, chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain decided to tell all - and he meant all.

From his first oyster in the Gironde as a child, to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown; from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Center to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable, as shocking as they are funny.

Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water and your belly ache with laughter and leave you wanting more.

"Amerikafahrt" by Wolfgang Koeppen is a masterpiece of observation, analysis, and writing, based on his 1958 trip to the United States. A major twentieth-century German writer, Koeppen presents a vivid and fascinating portrait of the US in the late 1950s: its major cities, its literary culture, its troubled race relations, its multi-culturalism and its vast loneliness, a motif drawn, in part, from Kafka's "Amerika." A modernist travelogue, the text employs symbol, myth, and image, as if Koeppen sought to answer de Tocqueville's questions in the manner of Joyce and Kafka. "Journey through America" is also a meditation on America, intended for a German audience and mindful of the destiny of postwar Europe under many Americanizing influences.

A collection of memorable voyages, from 17 celebrated women writers, including a 1700-mile trek across the Australian outback, through the splendour of Darwin's Galapogos, up to the startling heights of Pakistan's Indus Gorge and into the day-long darkness of a north Finland winter.

Richard Hakluyt and Travel Writing in Early Modern Europe is an interdisciplinary collection of 24 essays which brings together leading international scholarship on Hakluyt and his work. Best known as editor of The Principal Navigations (1589; expanded 1598-1600), Hakluyt was a key figure in promoting English colonial and commercial expansion in the early modern period. He also translated major European travel texts, championed English settlement in North America, and promoted global trade and exploration via a Northeast and Northwest Passage. His work spanned every area of English activity and aspiration, from Muscovy to America, from Africa to the Near East, and India to China and Japan, providing up-to-date information and establishing an ideological framework for English rivalries with Spain, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands. This volume resituates Hakluyt in the political, economic, and intellectual context of his time. The genre of the travel collection to which he contributed emerged from Continental humanist literary culture. Hakluyt adapted this tradition for nationalistic purposes by locating a purported history of 'English' enterprise that stretched as far back as he could go in recovering antiquarian records. The essays in this collection advance the study of Hakluyt's literary and historical resources, his international connections, and his rhetorical and editorial practice. The volume is divided into 5 sections: 'Hakluyt's Contexts'; 'Early Modern Travel Writing Collections'; 'Editorial Practice'; 'Allegiances and Ideologies: Politics, Religion, Nation'; and 'Hakluyt: Rhetoric and Writing'. The volume concludes with an account of the formation and ethos of the Hakluyt Society, founded in 1846, which has continued his project to edit travel accounts of trade, exploration, and adventure.