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Travel Cultures Language

Travel Inspiration from Pencil Lead Art

by Meredith Mullins on August 31, 2015

Pencil lead art of the Eiffel Tower by Salivat Fidai providing travel inspiration for world landmarks. (Image © Salivat Fidai.)

The Eiffel Tower rises majestically . . . on the tip of a pencil.
© Salavat Fidai

Russian Artist’s Tiny Carvings Get Right to the Point

Good travelers seek out adventures and stories—as well as classic world landmarks.

France’s Eiffel Tower. England’s Big Ben. Italy’s Colosseum.

These are not just icons of their countries. These structures offer travel inspiration, whether we are standing in front of one for the first time, passing by one for the hundredth time and seeing it in a new way, or studying a photograph or painting on a virtual journey.

A Traveler’s Oasis: Toluca’s Cosmovitral

by Eva Boynton on August 10, 2015

Plant set against the stained-glass walls of the Cosmovitral, a botanical garden and traveler's oasis in Toluca, Mexico. (Image © Dia Glez)

At Toluca’s Cosmovitral—cultivating the cosmos and an entire botanical garden
© Dia Glez

A Botanical Garden Grows Under Glass

As I walked a stone path enveloped by plants from around the world, the light winked a blue-purple and then a red-orange. Plants dangled in the air. Behind supple foliage emerged hard lines of steel supports. Contrasting sounds hit me—bird song and human murmuring; water trickling and car engines rumbling.

What was this ethereal place of such contrasts?

I had stumbled into an unlikely oasis within the city of Toluca, Mexico. Here was both the largest art installation of stained glass in the world and a botanical garden with hundreds of plant species from around the world—the Cosmovitral.

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