ThereArePlaces

Strikes In France And Germany

France was hit by a 24-hour rail strike that has influenced system wide capacity, although the strike has not affected international traffic. See this source for more information if you will be travelling by train in France today.

On another front, unionized janitors in Germany have gone on strike for higher wages and airports are one of the targets. See this report for more details.

Hurricane Headed For Los Cabos

Hurricane Rick appears to be headed in the direction of Los Cabos, a popular winter resort area on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Rick may become one of the most powerful Pacific Ocean hurricanes in decades and is currently packing 175 MPH winds, although there is some hope that the hurricane will slow when it hits cooler waters in the next day or so. Whether Rick will actually veer towards Los Cabos is speculation, but the early plots of the hurricane’s trajectory take it over the popular resort.

See this article from the AP/Yahoo for more details.

If you are planning a Los Cabos in the next week, consider delaying your vacation. Check with local sources for more accurate information and keep your eye on the weather. If you are planning a cruise, consider cancelling it, as the seas in the area are high and rough.

New Searchable Google Maps at ThereArePlaces

We have added a search bar to the maps on www.ThereArePlaces.com. As you may know, we overlay these detailed maps from Google with the locations of our recommended best places to visit around the world to help you plan your intinerary when traveling abroad. Recently, Google let us know that they had developed code that would allow us to embed a Google Search Box on our maps.

We thought this might be an interesting idea and played with the code until we got it to work just the way we wanted and were stunned by how useful this feature is for travel. Below is a figure showing the search box at the bottom of our map of Edinburgh, Scotland.

When you enter a search term in the box, the results show up in a list that is linked to symbols showing the location of the results on the map. For example, we decided to see where we could find shops offering kilts in Edinburgh - after all what better memento of Scotland?

We think you will find the map search boxes fascinating. We’ve spent hours looking for patisseries in Paris, chocolates in Brussels, Weinerschnitzel in Munich.

We think you will like this feature, but the best way to find is to try it. The search box is particularly useful for finding stores, bars, cafes, restaurants, hotels and other items of interest - or maybe even just looking for fun stuff to do when you are traveling (or to dream about when you are armchair traveling).