Imagine yourself at the Tour de France?

If you're like me, you're bleary eyed and wondering what to do with yourself first thing in the morning. What, no Tour de France to watch at 5am? It's been a great 3 weeks in the couch peleton.

Moi at the TDF in 2009 (story)

If your thoughts include dreams of witnessing a Tour de France stage in person, I can only say JUST DO IT! There is nothing like being part of the crowd (even though I stood for hours in the rain when le tour went through Barcelona).

It's easy enough to coordinate your travel plans to be in the start city or Paris ~ or just to be in France in July ~ and it costs you nothing extra to stake out a piece of the sidewalk. Start and finish dates are available now, and the full race route is released in October.

If you want a more packaged affair, with hotels, grandstand seating, VIP access, transfers, breakfasts, bike storage and daily bike rides, there are a range of options available from the official VIP access provider. This is the full meal deal.

Grand Depart Brussels 2019 weekend packages (in Eddy Merckx's hometown!) include:
• Thursday, July 4, 2019: Team presentation in Brussels
• Friday, July 5, 2019: Team training day in Brussels
• Saturday, July 6, 2019: Stage 1, Brussels
• Sunday, July 7, 2019: Stage 2, Brussels - Team Time Trial
• Monday, July 8, 2019: Stage 3, Brussels to TBA

Weekend packages for the Tour de France's conclusion on the Champs Elysees in Paris on Sunday, July 29, 2019, range from basic to full Tour de France Triomphe Packages with VIP access, grandstand seating and, yes, champagne.

Tempted? Please contact me if you'd like more information on official Tour de France travel packages, or assistance in making your own independent plans.

Death by Selfie: is social media worth it?

Shannon Falls, British Columbia

The tragic death of three young people at Shannon Falls, near Vancouver, BC, Canada, while out for a day fun with friends, has saddened many.

The group of friends were hiking near the falls, when one, a young woman, fell in. Two young men, one her boyfriend, fell or jumped in while attempting to rescue her. All three died.

News of the positive yet daring adventures of one of the deceased - a vlogger* - made me think of this death-by-selfie piece I wrote a few years ago. For me, the connection is the drive to share life experiences in social media. I'm not suggesting the friends were doing anything foolish when the accident happened; it just seems timely to share.

*Vlogging is a form of blogging based on videos (the vlog category is popular on YouTube).

DEATH BY SELFIE

- by Roberta Westwood

Think that selfie is fun? Harmless?

Aside of the downsides of "missing" the experience of where you are, because you're so busy capturing your selfie, you may be surprised to to learn that taking selfies is actually dangerous.

What starts as playful fun can cross the line when selfies become an obsession, in which you become less aware of your surroundings and take ever-increasing risks.

Especially for men. The truth is that while women take more selfies than men, 75% of selfie death victims are MEN.

Selfie deaths?!? Really? You bet.

Selfie-takers have been killed by:

• Falling off cliffs while taking selfies (many)
• Falling over viewpoint barriers
• Falling over a cliff when leaning on a gate that gave way
• Sitting on boulders forming a safety barrier over a gorge, which gave way
• Falling into a volcano crater
• Falling down stairs
• Falling down stairs while taking a selfie at the Taj Majal
• Falling off bridges (many)
• Falling off dams (several)
• Falling into a pond
• Falling into a spring
• Falling in irrigation canals
• Falling into water reservoirs
• Falling into a quarry filled with rainwater
• Falling into a well, while leaning over it to take a selfie showing the depth
• Taking selfies in a melt hole (cave) at the front edge of a receding glacier, when the roof gave way
• Taking selfies with waterfalls (several)
• Standing in rivers while taking selfies
• Waves, when standing on the beach (several)
• Waves, while standing in the surf, in a storm, taking selfies
• Taking selfies with trains (several)
• Falling off moving trains while taking selfies
• Climbing on top of moving trains
• Climbing on top of stationary trains mistakenly believed not in service (many by electrocution)
• Crashing cars while taking selfies or uploading selfies while driving
• Being hit by cars
• Being hit by a car while taking selfies with airplanes
• Standing in a boat to take selfies (drownings)
• Climbing on a fountain to take selfies
• Climbing onto a glass dome to take selfies, and falling through
• Climbing on girders in a construction site to take selfies
• Preparing to take a selfie by hanging from a rope from a high-rise
• Leaping to take a "flying selfie" (at Machu Picchu)
• Falling into a geyser while taking a selfie
• Posing with guns (many!)
• Posing with grenades
• Posing with a rattlesnake
• Posing with tigers at the zoo (several)
• Taking selfies with a walrus at the zoo
• Posing with a bison in a national park (gored)
• Posing with an elephant near their tent on a safari
• Getting out of a vehicle to take selfies with a herd of elephants blocking a road

Places where selfies have banned, due to deaths:

• In Pamplona, Spain, during the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona
• At New York State zoos (tigers)
• Anywhere in Mumbai (India has very high selfie deaths)
• In Japan, selfies and selfie-sticks on train station platforms are banned

Places where selfie bans have been proposed, due to high selfie deaths:

• In Paris, at the Eiffel Tower
• In Rome, at Trevi Fountain
• In Rome, on the Spanish Steps

Do you believe me now?

Even if you are not killed, just imagine the extent of serious injuries any of the above could cause.

Seriously, have fun out there, but don't let it cost you your life (or limbs!)


Related resources
List of selfie-related injuries and deaths - Wikipedia
40% Selfie Deaths from India, Selfie Obsession kills over 60 people Worldwide - Phone Radar
Mumbai sets no-selfie zones as deaths linked to selfies rise - Associated Press
No Selfies Allowed: Social Media Bans at Landmarks - Conde Nast Traveler
Selfie deaths: six people who died while taking a selfie - The Week
In Goa, red flags go up on beaches after tourist deaths: Selfies can be dangerous - The Indian Express
Selfies can be deadly - and India leads the way - Economic Times
Two young women struck by lightning while taking selfies - Economic Times
Death by Selfie - Martin Parr

Venice: Murano on a shoestring

Perhaps you have heard that Venice is expensive. It is... and it isn't... More on that in another post, but here's a good example of what you can do on the cheap in Venice and still have an amazing experience: a self-guided Murano glassmaking tour.

Setting out to Murano is as easy as jumping on the vaparetto - and if you are in Venice for a few days then you probably already have a vaparetto pass; if not, tickets are cheap and you'll be using a few everyday anyways. So I consider the transportation segment "free".
Once on the island, you can find a glassmaking demonstration for as little as 5E. As I was getting off my vaparetto (at the first stop on Murano), there was a guy pointing the way to demos, less than 5 minutes walk away - I listened and paid attention to the details so that I could come back after lunch. But to the experience itself. I walked in, paid my 5E, they waited a few minutes longer for others to arrive and then the demonstration started. Exciting to be there, right in the workshop, next to the truly red hot furnace. There were only two other people there so I was able to get very close. Here are the glassmakers getting started...

Just before they got started, they noticed that one of the stones in their oven broken. The solution? Weld it together with a blob of hot glass!

Now, here is our blob of hot glass...

I had my camera on the glass-end of the process, but they guy would have been blowing down the tube you see while he rolled the rod around and the blog began to change shape...

He would put the glass back in the oven every few minutes before continuing on. At this point, there was another guy with another blob of glass in a different colour holding his stick next to the main guy. Here you see the main guy using tools to manipulate the second piece of liquid glass as it was twisted around the original piece...

Shaping the glass with scissors, hard to tell what is happening, but very interesting... They did have an audio recording playing during the demo, in English, explaining the overall process, the heat of the ovens, etc.

I literally gasped out loud as I recognized the horse that he was making...

Creating the legs...

And the finished product!!! Took all of 5-10 minutes to create. We had a quick minute to take pictures then this horsie was heading to a cool-down furnace for 24 hours.

They shepard you into the glass shop after the demo - with incredible stuff costing hundreds and even thousands of dollars - but all I bought was 2 little pieces of glass (a paper weight and a butter knife) for 10E each.. They didn't make their millions on me, obviously! Walking back to the vaparetto I spotted this gate at another glassmaking establishment and snapped a couple pics...

Another closeup of the gate....

Now, for a few other pics from my time on Murano... This is one of the glass places:

And another... this sign was made out of little chips of coloured glass:

This canal was the other way from the glassmaking demo and it's where I went first for a bit to eat and to soak in the ambience....

Oh, on the way to Murano, the first stop you come to is this one. Don't get off here, unless you have a hankering for seeing some crypts and graves...

These were some pilons that had seen better days that I spotted on the journey... I think they were just for directional purposes (once you get out on the water to/from Murano you can clearly see that they have "lanes" for the waterways)...

While I was at lunch, I observed this activity taking place on the canal across from me. The boat had a big winch (from which the operator made a point to look cool and grin once he spotted me taking pics, lol) and they were lifting heavy stuff out... Once they get these materials out of the boat, they will put them on top of that rickety old wheel barrow and all they guys would help push it along to a nearby building. It was rather hilarious as I was wondering if they wheel barrow would survive...

My pizza and beer. Pretty cheap, for Venice, totalling 21E for a whole pizza and two beers. And veeery good!

Found this guy fishing for lunch near the glassmaking demo place...

So, that was my budget tour. You don't need a tour company for this little jaunt. It was easy to do, very pleasant and for 5E who can complain?

This story was originally published on my personal blog while travelling.

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