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Telegraph Travel is a year older, and a year wiser. Here are 50 nuggets of fact we discovered in 2019
1. The Dutch aren’t as friendly as we thought. In fact, they can be downright rude.
2. There’s an amorous South Pacific island with a penchant for violent cricket.
3. The Faroese have 37 words for fog, from mjorkabelti (long, thin bank of it) and toppamjorki (mist on mountain tops) to kavamjorki (snow fog). Our favourite is pollamjorki, a low-lying mist on the sea that wreathes into bays and valleys while the weather above is clear, producing the mystical effect of land floating on air.
4. Victorian London possessed a street filled with pornography.
5. Maria Island, a dreamy speck of land just off Tasmania’s east coast, was once home to the British Empire’s most riotous, debauched and inept penitentiary. When they were not escaping, inmates spent their time brewing beer with Mrs Brownell, the wife of the island magistrate, or enjoying gay love affairs.
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6. More things are named after Alexander von Humboldt than any other person in history.
7. Instagram-obsessed tourists in Thailand are paying people to scare off pigeons so they can get the perfect photo.
8. Despite all the social media flight-shaming, only one country is actually flying less because of environmental concerns.
9. There are 124 great cities you can reach by train from London in a single day. So start exploring Europe by rail.
10. European summits of yesteryear involved royal wrestling.
11. New Zealand is still your favourite country. It’s like Britain – just that little bit better.
12. Take a look at the circle on the map below. More people live inside it than outside it.
13. On average, each of the world’s 3,237 airports is linked to 19.21 others, while the average number of flights needed to get from A to B is 4.05. And the world’s most arduous plane journey? To reach Peawanuck (in Canada) from Thargomindah (in Australia), you’ll need to board a remarkable 12 separate flights.
14. Naypyidaw is probably the world’s weirdest capital city.
15. Greece has an unheralded island filled with good food, empty villages and otherworldly landscapes. You’ll thank us after you’ve been there.
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16. The world’s biggest lion lives in Berkshire.
17. Fortnum & Mason invented the Scotch egg.
18. There’s more to the Japanese bow than meets the eye. There are kneeling bows (known as zarei) and standing bows (ritsurei), and within the latter category there’s a whole range of sub-categories, like the eshaku, which involves a modest 15-degree inclination of the upper body, and the deeply respectful saikeirei, which involves a pretty intense body drop of between 45 to 70 degrees.
19. General Franco is the reason why Spanish people eat so late.
20. Tuscany has a few corners that haven’t been discovered by mass tourism, like The Maremma, The Pratomagno and The Garfagnana. Discover at least one of them in 2020.
21. London has 54 Great Trees. Find your nearest one.
22. Sharks kill just 7-10 humans each year. Humans? They kill at least 63 million sharks.
23. A century ago it took more than 40 days to reach parts of Africa (what is now Chad, Niger and Central African Republic), the depths of the Amazon, the more remote parts of Patagonia, the furthest reaches of the Arctic Circle, Mongolia, Tibet, and Australia’s Red Centre.
24. There’s a lost Versailles in an overlooked corner of East London.
25. You can ski in Iran, drink tea grown in Turkey, and go birdwatching in Kuwait.
26. Delhi is almost the most polluted city on Earth, but not quite.
27. Japan is the world’s fastest growing major travel destination.
28. Britain is more dangerous than Romania, Rwanda and Azerbaijan, apparently.
29. A new Norwegian route means you can now fly by low-cost airline from pole to pole.
30. Take a look at the beautiful Balinese temple, pictured below. It’s not what it seems.
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31. 100,000 bottles of champagne will be quaffed next year on the world’s longest ever cruise.
32. There’s a surprising slice of Mexico in the French Alps…
33. …and a little bit of the Home Counties not far from the French Pyrenees.
34. You must be between 4’8” and 5’2” to play Mickey Mouse at Disney World. No taller, no shorter.
35. It’s possible to sneak into business class and get away with it. But please don’t.
36. Kent gave birth to the first Western samurai – and Pocahontas is buried there.
37. The amount of money collected by Ryanair for optional extras, such as baggage charges and seat selection fees, exceeds the GDPs of 30 different countries.
38. Alsace might just be France’s most scandalously underrated region.
39. America’s newest national park is more biodiverse than Hawaii and has a truly brilliant name.
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40. There are now 1,121 World Heritage Sites, including a giant dish just outside Macclesfield.
41. There’s a Rio most people don’t see – and it’s a world of tragic ghosts and tropical fjords.
42. Stalin’s favourite spa resort is now an unlikely venue for weddings.
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43. Modern luxury cruise ships feature their own helicopters and submarines.
44. It is possible to conquer the world’s most unwalkable city on foot.
45. After a lifetime exploring Africa, Brian Jackman has found the perfect safari.
46. Do you want to know how the llama got its name? Bolivians say that when the Spanish pushed into the heartland of the Inca Empire (today’s western Bolivia) in the 1530s they were impressed by the strange beasts of burden – strong, resilient and covered by a fleece that produced a uniquely warm wool. What do you call them, the Conquistadors asked: “Como se llama?” “Llama,” repeated the Incas, confused.
47. Bears are back in British woods. Kind of.
48. Macau is the most densely populated place on the planet.
49. Victoria Falls in running out of water.
50. Planes have horns.
