quote [ With their exquisite facades in pastel shades, replete with balconies, pointed gables and elaborate monograms, the Vohrawad mansions are a wonder to behold. One could easily be forgiven for assuming these grand dames stand somewhere in Europe, but today, we?re taking you to Sidhpur, in the Indian state of Gujarat. ]

quote [ Back when the Icelanders called a part of Canada the ?land of grapes.? ]

quote [ The environments have a likeness to illustrated science fiction book sleeves in their fanciful scale, shapes and colours. [?] Frank Herbert, another Pacific Northwest-based science fiction writer, had a similar experience flying over the state?s sand mounds, located directly south of Yachats, which inspired him to write Dune (1965). The drifting sand dunes along the coast were a problem for the state of Oregon through the 19th and 20th centuries, burying train rails and fertile soil while cutting further and further inland through a powerful, relentless coastal throw of wind and water. It was a natural force threatening to ?swallow whole cities, lakes, rivers, highways?, Herbert wrote in a letter to his agent. ]

quote [ What put Southern Indiana on our radar? Mysterious utopian experiments and end-of-the-world 19th century religious cults of course! The beautiful historic town called New Harmony was once home to a esoteric doomsday group of German pioneers called the Harmonists, who had a taste for quirky architecture and kooky modern ideas like equal rights and free education. ]

quote [ Gatsby?s mansion has nothing on Chateau Laurens. Perched majestically on a river bend on the outskirts of Agde, a former Ancient Greek colony in the south of France, this exceptional place lost in time has spawned countless stories and speculation about what went on behind its mysterious walls. Some say that the lavish villa was the site of endless extravagant parties hosted by its wealthy owner, while there?s another theory that it was a hub for a burgeoning religious sect. ]

quote [ A condition has been written in the computer code to disable the ability to run a train if it spends at least 10 days in one of these workshops. ]

quote [ Signs and symbols on the sides of ships tell stories about an industry few outsiders understand. ]

quote [ Photographer Arkadiusz Podniesi?ski was given an unprecedented tour of the ruins of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. ]

quote [ alas, Amtrak did not pick me, and I was forced to finish that book at a residency in the Hamptons, like a peasant. Two years later, I applied once again, but the Amtrak Residency for Writers, that hope of insolvent rail barons and writers everywhere, had already disappeared without a trace. ]