Welcome to mid-April, when Mother Nature reminds those of us who live in New England that winter ain’t over yet. That gorgeous spring-like weather we had a couple of weeks ago?  Just a tease.  I don’t feel as sorry for myself, though, as I do for all the trees that have started budding and leafing and the flock of geese I heard flying north yesterday. At least I can stay indoors with my heat cranked.

Just a heads up, next weekend, I will be taking a week off from my Shiny Travel Objects column to spend the time celebrating my oldest niece’s 21st birthday.  We will be drinking and gambling and having a great old time.  There’s nothing quite like corrupting youth.  Now, without further ado, this week’s recommendations:

Pam Mendel of NerdsEyeView is taking the month of April off, but still has a lot of great content daily, thanks to a series of posts by guest bloggers.  I particularly enjoyed this story by Lia Hadley of Yum Yum Cafe, called Why I Love the Deutsche Bundesbahn. It’s a perfect example of the extraordinary kindness you can expect from strangers during your travels.  Regardless of what we may sometimes think as we’re watching the evening news, the world really is mostly full of good people.

There’s a lot of talk in the travelsphere these days about voluntourism–volunteering for a local organization during your travels–but this article presented me with a great idea that I hadn’t thought of before:  How to Volunteer at an Animal Shelter Abroad by Laura-Claire Carson at BootsnAll.  I had no idea animal shelters would accept volunteers who are just traveling through, but that would be the volunteer role I would enjoy the most, I think.  I love animals.

Keith Savage of Traveling Savage comes through again with a gorgeous piece of writing.  In The Sessioners, he once again paints a setting (Portree, Isle of Skye, Scotland) with words.  If you’re not following Keith’s blog yet, you should be.

Understanding Iran: the Photos of Inge Morath by Allison Stein Wellner at Perceptive Travel tells the story of a young Austrian photographer’s journey to Iran to capture the life of the people there in still images.  The article is punctuated with some of Morath’s never-before-published black-and-white photos, which have recently been digitally restored. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for a woman traveling to Iran, much of the time alone, in 1956.  It boggles my mind.

Simon Falvo poses the question Landmarks: Are They Really a Must See? at Wild About Travel.  I could really relate to this article. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the evolution of my own travel style. Years ago, I was all about checking off museums and landmarks when I traveled, and I will probably always do that to some degree.  But lately, I’ve been feeling like “You’ve seen one museum, you’ve seen them all.”  Blasphemy, I know, but. . . .I think it bears some thought.  Now, I seek more balance between visiting landmarks and museums and enjoying the living, breathing pulse of a place.

In another entry from Bootsnall, JoAnna Haugen explores Cultural Tourism: Does it Help or Exploit Local Communities? I will leave you to ponder that question after reading her article.

Photo credit:  Side view by coda