One of the most popular posts ever on newelty has been our list of top iPhone apps, so it’s no surprise that I received a request for the best iPad apps from a friend. Having made it happily from Seattle to Nairobi to Copenhagen back to Seattle again–and having found this travel easier and more pleasant than ever before, thanks to my iPad–I can say authoritatively that it has changed my travel life for the better. Period.

Here are the apps I use to fight jet lag’s confusion, get work done even without a laptop, and stay entertained while the plane pops and rocks with turbulence. I also pan some apps that aren’t worth their salt.

Staying in Touch
No, you aren’t missing anything–Facebook has no iPad app to date, probably because their and Apple’s lawyers haven’t finished some to-the-death cage match yet. In the interim, I use myPad (free). It resolves to the full iPad screen and gets the job done crash-free.

If you’re planning from blogging from the road, I like the simple, almost-email like app for WordPress (also free). A little while ago, I considered starting fresh with Tumblr for newelty, but their iPad app isn’t ready for prime time. WordPress could have more iPad support in terms of templates for how your blog displayed–Onswipe was also buggy for me–but in terms of the ability to quickly publish a post, WordPress is still the winner.

Your Little Travel Helper
My iPad feels like the awesome dashboard/assistant any traveler should have for a trip. I feel affection for it as it keeps me company throughout the journey, letting me know what time it is back home.

To that end, every traveler should have World Clock Pro on their iPad ($1.99). Have you ever done that thing of being jet lagged and trying to subtract hours to figure out the time back home–and realizing you calculated wrong, and it’s AM not PM, or vice versa? Never again. World Clock lets you enter a ton of cities and has a slider that you can move to double check that when you wake up in your morning, it’s still a reasonable time for a call back home. Check out the video above for a demo.

Looking through the scores of weather apps, I settled on Weather+ ($.99). Like World Clock, you can load up a series of cities to see the daily highs and get the general gist. I also love that it stores the info for when you are not online anymore (say, when you’re on a wifi-free plane). It may be a slightly expired data, but better that than the Weather Channel app’s “failed connection” response.

Moleskines are a overplayed, but the Moleskine app is more than a marketing ploy (free). It’s a great Notepad equivalent that displays like a digital version of one of their notebooks.

For more practical note taking, try Evernote (free). To repeat the theme from this whole section, you’ll want to have apps that work when you are both off and on wifi. When you are on, Evernote saves your files–no more emailing notes to yourself for later.

Feeding Your Brain on a 14-Hour Flight

I hate being stuck in the metal tube. Hate. I am a terrible flier who morphs into an insane armrest defender. My iPad has chilled me out, largely because with my high-quality headphones, I can simply pretend all the other people in the tube don’t exist.

My number one tip isn’t an app, but this:

Download tons of movies and TV shows via iTunes. TONS. All those shows you’ve read about but never actually had time to watch? Now you do. Download a couple of each of four or five shows, and you can stock up on additional episodes next time you hit wifi. I did that with “An Idiot Abroad” and was so happy I did. It might be the best travel show ever on television, and it made me laugh out loud while experiencing turbulence flying over the Sahara Desert. (Did I mention I am a crazy-nervous flier?)

Since you may be wifi-free for many hours, the important thing is to pack your iPad as you do your suitcase.

Kindle is the best book app, just because Amazon simply has more, and more obscure, titles than Apple (free, but–duh–you have to buy the books). Apple forced Amazon to remove the ability to one-click a book (cue additional lawyer cage fights), but that’s OK. Load up from Safari before you leave home and you’re fine. Amazon also offers first chapters of books as samples, so employ the same snack bar theory as with iTunes, above.

For magazines, props to Vanity Fair for an inventive app that deconstructs the magazine (free, but you have to buy individual magazines or subscribe). Plus, I just like their content for flights, and enjoy not having to haul the extra paper.

For a whole host of obscure mags, I like Zinio (free, but, again, buy stuff through the app). A long time ago–about two years’ time–I tried to get “Time Out Amsterdam” delivered to my home. It would have cost $100 for an annual subscription. Hello! Instead, I can get them delivered via Zinio, because it has every magazine in the world, as far as I can tell.

Instapaper is a little tricky to use, but is a hidden gem ($4.99). It lets you save web pages to read later, say, on a plane. You enter the URL and save it to your repository. I love this app when I have 20 page PDFs to read and no time to look at them at work.

Using the Hotel WiFi

In general, I use Feedly with my Google RSS Reader to follow blogs (free). The display is minimalist and clean, which I appreciate. It also has some popular blogs like Kottke and swissmiss pre-loaded, if you want to try it without bothering with a Google Reader setup.

Hitpad keeps track of what’s trending on Twitter, and provides all the background you could need as to why, in video, article, and tweet form (free).

If you do have wifi in your hotel, and it’s strong enough to support a stream, Netflix has a very good app that lets you watch most of their huge video library (free app, monthly fee for streaming). I generally do a combo of this and iTunes downloads, depending on the length of the trip and the amount of time I’ll be spending in various airports.

GoodReader is the most work-focused app here ($4.99). It opens Word docs. Sometimes I need that to happen, and am grateful that I downloaded this app.

When I’m traveling, I seem to be perpetually looking up information, including background on the new places I’ve been. The Wikipedia app is quick and easy (free).

Save Your Time and Money

I love the Daily Show, and miss it while I’m on the road. But the Daily Show app is terrible. Because the shows are for sale on iTunes, it only gives you one clip per episode. Since the segments are generally interlaced with what comes before or after, it’s a glaring omission to only include half of a joke. Save your money or buy the iTunes full episodes instead. Or wait until you get home and watch them for free on their website.

The Weather Channel app is a resource hog because of the satellite maps, and won’t load unless you’re on wifi. Stick with the other weather app recommended above instead.

Flipboard seems cool in theory, but in actuality, I never use it. It pulls in the links that your friends post on Facebook and Twitter, but it winds up feeling redundant, as I’ve mostly already seen those in their Facebook feeds. It’s basically just taking up space at this point, because I can’t bring myself to delete it, but I don’t use it either.

Any good ones I missed? Drop a line in the comments–I love to compare apps!

The word that I think of when I see the photo above is “dapper.” Those bikes look dapper posed against the white stone of the building. (Close newelty readers will also recall when I described this older gentleman as dapper, as well. Similar feel to both.)

And what about this huge fiestsenstalling pictured below? Any idea where all this wonderful bicycleness was captured?

The answer after the jump!

Believe it or not, it was shot in Oxford, in the U.K. Surprise! I had been to Oxford a few years ago, but had no recollection of this kind of mad bicycle energy in the town.

It’s absolutely wonderful to see. The top photo was shot outside of the Asmolean Museum, by the way. More on that museum in a future post.

In the meanwhile, isn’t there something just very high-brow and pleasing about the photo of the bicycles pictured above? The bikes look downright academic to me, whereas the bottom picture could really be interchanged with Delft’s bicycle garage (albeit not quite as immense).

Speaking of dapper cycle chic, I stopped by Seattle’s own Hub & Bespoke shop this weekend. Having dropped crazy cash on various bicycling necessities (read: not necessities), I’d recommend them as lovely little pit stop for anyone who finds the top photo in this blog post as inspiring as I do. Here’s a cute photo of their store from their blog.

I am in love with British Airways. There’s no other way to say it. I’m obsessed (having signed up for a credit card with them to get more miles). I spend time thinking about them, and how to fly them next. It’s like the worst high-school crush ever, and all because of Club World.

Betty has already shared the virtues of flying when there are only four seats across the plane (thanks, Singapore Air!) But I had no idea how lovely flat seats could be when combined with British politeness until last month. And now there’s no going back–Club World has ruined me forever.

See those arrows above? The ones all the way to the left of the photo? They allow you to micro-adjust your seat. See the photo that looks like a flat line? That sends you into heaven. I was obsessed with these buttons, floating up out of sleep to make sure they were still there, and it wasn’t all a dream and I was secretly stuffed into coach.

Full show and tell after the jump!

See the footrest below? Yeah, that. And the pop-out television that you can also stow out of your way? And the lamp on the wall in front, to make the entire experience seem more civilized? And the plastic divider that makes your nearest seatmate seem like a fuzzy memory?

Obsessed. You can stow the footrest, of course. It’s also worth mentioning that British Airways keeps a stiff upper lip, and doesn’t pander with dumb stunts in the way that Virgin does (a.k.a. “in flight sexy texting“).

Combine all these amenities with British stewards coming by asking if you’d like to have your tea “topped up” (answer is always yes, by the way), and you’ll have a sense of why I am planning on flying them again this summer, even on my own dime.

And let’s not forget the lounges. At Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal 5, the Club World lounge was enormous. They had a full meal service as you first entered the lounge, but everywhere are snacks and treats tucked away in quiet oases.

Evidently, they also have free massages, although I arrived too late to take advantage.

Club World, will you marry me and make it official already?

P.S. In honor of the royal wedding extravaganza, I’ll be posting on everything London this week. Tally ho!

As regular newelty readers know, I am obsessed with Dutch bikes, a result of being obsessed with the Dutch in general.

Which is why I was immediately drawn to Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac, which I picked up at one of my favorite bookstores today. It includes such novelties as a review of Swedish army bicycles, but, really, it was the poems and comics that drew me in.

All in all, without sounding too much like this “Portlandia” video, Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac–not be confused with British Boneshaker–is a complete treat for those of us who are fond of our bikes to the point of absurdity.

Also, I like their fonts. And feel as though they would probably enjoy this video, and forgive its shaky quality for the heartfelt statement of love for Euro-biking that it is.

Marcel Wanders/KLM collaboration, via Design.NL

As a little pick-me-up, I bought a cheerful new MAC lipstick recently, designed by Dutch wonder-designer Marcel Wanders. I liked the look of the lipstick tube itself, which resembles a turned wooden leg of a table.

Which leads me to the pleasing setup above, also from Meneer Wanders–the business-class table setting of KLM. Evidently, this has been a project of his for some time. It’s lovely, with the so-Dutch-seeming scalloped edges that instantly remind you that you’re not on US Airways.

An excerpt from the interview with him:

This type of project has always been an interest for me. People think I just design sofas. But we did biodegradable sets a long time ago — the first for the airline industry. And some time ago, I made the lightest and best stackable cup in the world. It’s this kind of thing no one knows about. It’s invisible work. I don’t even have an image of this cup because it’s just a cup. But these ideas have been near to me all the time.

It’s very difficult. It’s a very technical project. But you have to make it so it doesn’t look technical, so it just feels like, ‘Wow, we’re in a nice restaurant.’ What we designed for them is something which is beautifully calm.

“Beautifully calm.” That is exactly the experience I want out of every flight. Exactly. Like the blissful ignorance that anyone else is staying in the same hotel as you are and extra space before boarding a flight, a beautifully calm flight experience is an unbelievable luxury, and I love that someone’s designing with that in mind.

Also, it’s great that the cutlery and plates themselves are so lightweight and therefore saving on fuel. So practische. (The way the press release is written is just so Dutch–proud of itself for being so efficient and clever, but trying not to seem that way.)

Not that I’ll ever likely wind up using it, since business-class seats are a squinch out of my price range, but I like knowing that it’s there. More of this kind of thing, please, airlines of the world.

Called the Avenue Verte, it already includes views like this in the finished sections:

Here’s how the writer described the French side:

Towards Paris, you travel for a number of miles along the wooded banks of the Seine, long stretches of which look as though they have changed little since Monet and Renoir captured the green-tinged reflections of the water more than a century ago. Then, after a stretch of industrial hinterland, the route follows canal towpaths to within a stone’s throw of its end-point – Notre Dame cathedral.

More on the British side after the jump.

He also calls out his fellow Brits for not rising to the challenge of converting their side:

The French have converted the railways into broad, hard-surfaced tracks, suitable for rollerbladers and wheelchairs as well as cyclists. They have also kept control of vegetation around the path, so that for the most part the surrounding countryside can be seen and enjoyed.

On the British side the paths are so overgrown that they resemble tunnels, providing barely a glimpse of the world outside. Mile after mile, this becomes monotonous.

One of my favorite things about Europe is how their leaders are willing to invest in plans like these. They might seem far-fetched and expensive, but they will benefit generations, never mind tourists.

Check out the videos he took while on the trails, and see what you think. Oh, and you can watch video of my own bike-based daily commute while I was in the Netherlands this summer.

Infrastructure = heaven.

I searched the Google maps nearby towns looking for a B&B, and mapped out my route using Google street view. It looked like the total commute time by bike would be 30 minutes, 45 tops. After my freakout about how it would work and my test drive in Delft, I found out that the Netherlands really makes biking easy, no matter where you are.

Video of my daily ride after the jump.

I’m hoping the cute song makes the bumpiness charming, rather than nauseating.

I live in Seattle, and we have nothing like this. We have someone who seems to be an ineffectual mayor (my skeptical friend nicknamed him Mayor McCheese). He actually complimented my own Dutch bike when I saw him in my neighborhood, which is nice. But what would be nicer is a plan for a real biking infrastructure like the kind in this tiny town in the Netherlands, so small it barely has a wikipedia entry. Does this plan exist already? I don’t think so. And if not, Mayor McGinn, could you create  it? Because the video above shows how fantastically great that was for many reasons.

In case you want to enjoy some much-more-professional videos (sans rockiness and something on the lens), try out these favorites sites that always inspire:

• Cycle Chic
• Amsterdamize
• Let’s Go Ride a Bike

I realized that when you’re being paid to do something, it’s work. Period. It might not be anything as difficult as working in a coal mine, but it still is work. When I was in the Netherlands, rocketing from place to place, I would sit on the train, noticing the neat bicycle lanes that ran out across the flat fields into infinity. Where were people biking to on those paths?

I finally got to find out. The red bike below is mine. This photo is from the top of a dike, with the sea at my back:

It’s incredibly satisfying to finally know where people are heading on those mysterious bike paths, heading out seemingly to infinity, because of the flat Dutch sky.

In this case, they’re biking out of the city centers, into the wide-open spaces of the Dutch countryside. This scene below is about five miles from central Amsterdam:

The town is named Durgerdam, and as you can see from this very brief wikipedia entry, it’s not a destination. But a lovely harbor town is a special thing wherever you are–and even more so incredibly when it’s just in the backyard of Amsterdam’s Red Light District.

These houses, with their nautical touches, embody so much of what I love about Dutch design:

Look for more on the off-the-beaten-track Netherlands soon, as well as an entry on why the heck everything is in orange in that country.

And in case you’d like to see where this other Amsterdam lies, point A below is the approximate location of the first photo above:

This one is a favorite, of two people catching a quick smooch, probably at a stop light:

I’m also fond of this photo, which shows a dad clearly gleeful about taking his kiddo for a ride in his bakfiets:

Just booked my final hotel for my upcoming trip to the Netherlands, and the hotel website lets visitors pre-book bikes. How great is that?

Check out the whole series.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll still have to drive my car tomorrow. But for this weekend, to visit a traditional Japanese inn, or ryokan, I wanted to do as much as possible under my own steam. The journey still involved a diesel-powered ferry, but for a trip to Kyoto without an airline ticket, it seemed like a fair trade.

I’m not going to say it was easy–door to door, from my home in Seattle to the front step of the Fuurin-Oka Japanese inn on Bainbridge Island–was easily 18 miles over two days, with many hills in-between. But the novelty factor was high, and getting out of the car felt good, if only for a couple of days. It’s better than nothing.

The first new experience of the trip: Biking on to a ferry. I’d been on ferries dozens of times, but from within the safe hard shell of a car.

This was totally different. It involved biking to the front of the line of cars, and because it was kind of last minute, hustling to get on the boat before the huge swell of cars took over the lanes. I won’t likely forget the ferry guy shouting, “GO, BIKES, GO!”

It was totally worth it, and the long, sweaty ride (which involved lots of walking the bike up steep hills, hoping each was the last) was made better by knowing that a traditional Japanese bath was waiting on the other side.

My trip to Dutch Princess School is in a few weeks. I’ve finalized hotel reservations . But one of my favorite things to do even before one trip is finished is to start thinking about the next one.  I love trip planning, and having the next destination on the horizon eases the sting for that inevitable downer day when I’m back at the office, trip finished, sitting next to my coworker (who has a laugh like a jackhammer). It’s good to have the next trip in mind.

For me, the next destination is–I hope–Japan, and Kyoto, specifically. I’ve wanted to go ever since I read Kate Walbert’s The Gardens of Kyoto. I’ve never been to Japan, so when I remembered this ryokan that I’ve wanted to try–just a 30-minute ferry ride from Seattle–it seemed like a plan.

Ann, the owner, greeted us. She was so warm and welcoming, but gave us our space, too. She seems like a genuine and joyful person, and she deserves a place as beautiful as Fuurin-Oka–which is saying a lot.

The building is essentially one tatami-matted room with traditional futons on the floor, the sitting area you see above, a small kitchen, and the bathing area, which consists of the traditional outer chamber, WC for the toilet, and a separate bathing/showering area.

While I was there, I finished At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman’s Journey of Discovery by Rebecca Otowa. I’ll admit that I was initially drawn to the incredible picture of her on her wedding day, wearing what looked like a Victorian beekeepers’ bonnet (you can see a photo on the NYTimes review page).

But I was drawn in by her frankness at the challenge of being a gaijin running a 350-year-old farmhouse. My favorite passage might be where she describes the house from its own perspective:

“I am one of the lucky ones. All around me, houses my age or even younger are suffering the pain and indignity of being reduced to a heap of gray wood, splinters of bamboo, plaster dust, and broken tiles. Even the stones which once proudly held up the pillars are dug out of the earth and taken away. In place of the previous old house, the occupants, who are usually the Original Families (people who belong here, who don’t come from outside), put up some kind of new structure–I would hesitate to call it a house–with no verandas, no tatami, no beams, no roof tiles. The wood struts are woefully puny and insubstantial. I know these neighborhood upstarts won’t last, not as I have lasted. I miss the old houses. They were my neighbors, my fellows, my friends.”

As Seattle heats up for the summer, and seems even more clanging, booming, and aggressive than normal, I was grateful for the elegance and respite I found this weekend.