Life's Little Adventures

Welcome!

There are hundreds of posts here on a wide variety of subjects, but finding whatever interests you is easy! Just go to the left-hand column and click on the appropriate category. Some of these lead directly to articles, while others open an index with descriptions of the many choices. Older postings are frequently updated. The most popular categories are: Free Daytrips Chapters (taken from my Daytrips series of travel guides), The Avedon Years (about my 10 years of assisting photographer Richard Avedon), and ASA/Military Service (about my experiences in the U.S. Army Security Agency in the 1950s). 

London on Android

My "London's Backyard" travel app for iThingies is now up on Android as well. Check it out here.

It's huge, and it's only $2.99.

Smile little fella, smile! You're off to London to see the Queen!

I've been admiring Veronica Hill's travel app "California Essential," a fine example of just what a travel app can aspire to. Veronica is one of my fellow authors at Sutro Media, and she is indeed setting a new standard for us all. Where most of us provide links to videos produced by others, she has gone the whole nine yards and produced some of her own. CLICK HERE for her introductory video, which is especially good.

So, if you're California bound AND have an iPad, iPhone, or iPodTouch, do yourself a favor and check out her page on Apple's iTunes store.

Free Travel APP

Have an iPad? iPhone? iPodTouch? Like to travel? 

Well, here's a great FREE app to download that can open a new world of travel possibilities and inspiration! Check it out!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sutro-world/id446206531?mt=8

 

Yes, I'm on it a little bit, but so are two hundred other travel writers.

Not only is this the very best source of reliable travel apps anywhere, but soon this little fella's joining in the fun as well.

Paris Day Trips

At long last: My travel app for easy one-day trips to intriguing destinations outside of Paris is available for download to Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPodTouch devices — and soon it will also be ready for Android devices as well.

"...The Île de France has no regional unity, it does not offer any precise boundaries..." This undefined region within easy daytrip range of Paris is truly the heart of France. Its best attractions are fully explored on my Paris Day Trips: A Travel Guide app. 

To view free samples of this you will first need to download the FREE travel app SUTRO WORLD (click), which also allows you to sample pages and illustrations from over 300 of the very best travel apps anywhere. Listings are grouped by region. For mine, touch "Europe" and then scan down to "Paris Day Trips: A Travel Guide." Open that, then touch words in bold face blue to explore further. If you like what you see, click on the low, low price in the upper right corner to begin a quick download to your Apple iDevice. It's that easy.

 

Waltzing Through Vienna, Part II

Hooray! Hooray!  

My first app for iThingies has been greatly improved and is now up on Apple's iTunes for a mere $2.99 under the new name "Vienna & Beyond." Those who have already purchased the first edition get free downloads of all updates, as do all who buy our apps.

The big improvement is the addition of "Diagram Maps" to nearly every file. These were designed for the small screens of iDevices (yes, even the iPhone!) and show users exactly where all the attractions, even the restaurants, are located. They also indicate suggested walking tours with heavy broken lines where appropriate. Here's a sample:

 

Other improvements include loads of new illustrations, updated practical information, and the ability to view the screen in either a "portrait" or "landscape" mode.

CHECK IT OUT HERE.

London's Backyard

"...This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England..." is the most memorable line from Shakespeare's 1595 play Richard III. It neatly sums up the affection Englishmen have for their "sceptered isle."

For many, the very best of that land lies in London's Backyard, in what William Blake called "England's Green and Pleasant Land" in his 1804 poem Milton.

London's Backyard takes you on a series of 25 one-day journeys to nearby towns, villages, and countryside by inexpensive public transportation, or by private car. Suggested walking tours are included, along with everything you need to know for a wonderful outing.

At long last, my new travel guide app for Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPodTouch is ready and raring to go.

 

Ready for some fun? Take a ride on the Bluebell Railway, where the Age of Steam lives on in all its glory. Then relive World War II espionage while experiencing the birth of modern computers at Bletchley Park. Britain's oldest recorded town, Colchester, began in the Bronze Age. Today its ancient castle displays Celtic and Roman antiquities, its quirky local museum delights kids and grownups alike, and its progressive zoo is easily among the best anywhere.

Take a stroll along the Thames near Cookham, wallowing in scenes that made some major painters famous, while the Keeper of the Royal Swans carried out the Queen's bidding and an author was inspired to write an immortal children's book. Another walk, which  can be either short or long, takes you into the 18th century at the preserved canal village of Stoke Bruerne.

These are just five of the 25 one-day adventures that await you in London's Backyard, backed up by 225 separate entries just packed with information, hundreds of photos, maps covering everything, and links galore to restaurant menus, museum website, and much, much more.

For the time being, downloads to your iPhone, iPad, or iPodTouch cost only U.S.$2.99, less than a cup of coffee — and that includes free future updates!

Everything included on this app is fully embedded and does not require WiFi or cell connections to function.

CHECK IT OUT HERE:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/londons-backyard/id440430871?mt=8#

 

ALSO, on this blog, check out:

Future of Travel Guides   and   Waltzing Through Vienna

First e-Guide review is in

Here's the first online review of my e-Guide Waltzing Through Vienna:

http://www.148apps.com/tag/earl-steinbicker/

It was posted on March 18, 2011 by 148 apps, the leading reviewer of iPhone apps.

Future of Travel Guides

Printed guidebooks are made from dead trees, but APPS — they are really Alive! Just touch the screen of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and you have opened an interconnected, internet-driven, living guide bursting with more up-to-date information about your destination than even a complete bookshelf could hold. And it all fits in your pocket and costs so little!

In a sense, apps are like a cloud of ideas, where everything links to everything else, cross-pollinating thoughts much as the human brain works; or a Google search engine.

 
The Future of Travel Guides Has Arrived!

You will soon see fewer and fewer printed guidebooks; in fact this is already happening. Electronic guides, read on such devices as the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Kindle, and a host of others, have it all over their paper predecessors.

Just a few of the advantages:

• Up-To-Date Information. There’s no guarantee of this, but the potential is there for very frequent updates, not just once a year or worse.
• Vastly more information on file. iDevices can hold far more, many times more, than any book you could lift. And it’s easily accessible since everything is interactive, with links from everything to everything else.
• Information is easy to find using interactive indexing or search features; no more thumbing through pages.
• Links! Any good application (or “app” as they are called) has dozens or even hundreds of internet links to outside sources, such as museums, train schedules, restaurant menus, and so on, available through Wi-Fi or cellular networks.
• Maps. Interactive Google maps right on the screen let you easily orient yourself in strange places.
• Color imaging. Most i-devices have full color screens, so photos, charts, and maps really pop.
• Lightweight. Most i-devices are much smaller, and weigh a lot less, than printed books. The iPhone and iPod Touch slip into a shirt pocket with hardly a bulge.
• Cost. Downloads of electronic guides usually cost considerably less than half that of printed books. Mine, for example, cost only $2.99 for more information than any book could handle.

 So help save the Earth by reducing the use of printed books, get a much better product, and save lots of money as well. If you don’t already have one, run out and get your hands on an electronic reader. Preferably an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch from Apple — so you can download my guides and all the others from the gang at Sutro Media! 

Here’s for starters: My name is Earl Steinbicker and my very first app, Waltzing Through Vienna, is now on Apple's iTunes store for $2.99. Click here to read about it, or here. It covers far more than just Vienna, with fully-described one-day outings to Grinzing, Wienerwald, the Kahlenberg Heights, Baden, Schneeberg, Dürnstein, Eisenstadt, Mariazell, Wachau Valley, St. Pölten, Linz, and more. 

Now Online: Innsbruck and the Alps, covering the city and much of the Alps in Austria and Germany. Learn more about it by clicking HERE. And there's more in the works.

 

June 2011. My new London's Backyard travel guide for the iPhone, iPad, and iPodTouch is now available for download at a very low price. Check it out Here.

 

 

 

July 10 2011. INNSBRUCK & THE ALPS has been greatly improved with the addition of many more Diagram Maps making everything even easier to find. The new version 1.1 is now available on Apple's iTunes store. Updates for previous owners are, as always, free. CHECK IT OUT HERE.