America's wackiest mini-golf courses

Courtesy Ripley's Old MacDonald's Farm Mini-Golf

Play 54 barnyard-themed holes at Ripley's Old MacDonald's Farm Mini-Golf in Sevierville, Tenn.

By Margie Goldsmith, Travel + Leisure

When you’re about to putt, the last thing you expect is to be rushed by a lifelike animatronic gorilla. But at least at Virginia’s 18-course Perils of the Lost Jungle, you can’t say you weren’t warned.

It’s the kind of goofy, cheap thrill you can expect from the wackiest of America’s 1,600 mini-golf courses. Computer technology developed by Disney (known as animatronics) has helped to make miniature golf more popular—and more challenging. Ripley’s Old MacDonald’s Farm Mini Golf in Sevierville, Tenn., features talking animated barnyard animals that cheer, jeer, and even call out “Nice putt” to certain players.

Many indoor mini-golf courses are glow-in-the-dark or black-lit, such as Glowing Greens in Portland, Ore, a 10,000-square-foot tropical island/pirate adventure with optional 3-D viewing. Some courses are even quirkier, such as Ahlgrim Acres in the basement of an actual funeral parlor in Palatine, Ill., or Lake George, N.Y.’s Around the World in 18 Holes, where each hole represents a country through its famous landmarks (and a few stereotypes).

Miniature golf has its own national day, September 21, and turns up in pop culture: Homer and Marge of "The Simpsons" conceived Bart in the windmill of a mini-golf course; Adam Sandler refined his short game at a miniature-golf course in "Happy Gilmore"; and in "Jackass 2003," they demolished a mini course with golf carts.

It’s a far cry from the early days of mini-golf, which began in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1868 because women were not allowed to complete a full back swing; with an 18-hole mini-course, women wouldn’t have to drive the ball. In 1927, a Chattanooga, Tenn., hotel owner built a mini-golf course on Overlook Mountain, hoping to draw traffic to his property, and three years later, it hosted the National Tom Thumb Open, America’s first mini-golf competition. (These days, Myrtle Beach, S.C., attracts serious mini-golfers to an annual championship.)

By the ’50s and ’60s, the local putt-putt was a family destination and a fine place to bring a first date. As DVDs and video games have families increasingly glued to their digital screens, miniature-golf course owners have adapted to the new technology by replacing windmills and clown mouths with interactive challenges and animatronic characters.

So go ahead. Get goofy, bring the family and test your swing at one of America’s wackiest mini-golf courses.


Source: http://todaytravel.today.com

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Italians pack Speedos as Dolomites lake hit by soaring temperatures

Glacial lake is usually icy cold even in summer, and efforts to halt Alpine glaciers melting considered to too little and too late.

A Dolomites trail is tackled by trekkers. With 30C temperatures this summer, Italy is getting a taste of climate change, say meteorologists. Photograph: Maremagnum/ Getty Images

Mountain trekkers, packing essentials before heading for the glaciers in the Italian Dolomite mountains, are taking an extra piece of kit – swimming trunks.

As Italy sweats through a hot summer, climbers reaching 2,500 metres have been stripping off and plunging into the glacial lake at Antermoia, which is usually icy cold in August and frozen in the winter.

"The water is normally really cold and people just put their toe in, so it is amazing so many people up there this year are swimming," said Andrea Weiss, a tourism chief in the Val de Fassa area where the lake is situated.

With temperatures of 30C in the mountain resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy is getting a taste of climate change, said Luca Mercalli, the president of the Italian Meteorological Society. "This will probably be the second hottest summer after 2003, which was the hottest in 200 years. And we expect this to be the norm within 50 years."

Visitors to the Dolomites were this year dressing for the beach, said Andrea Selva, a reporter at local newspaper Il Trentino. "Tourists have been donning their bathing costumes to sunbathe by the side of lake Fedaia, when you usually need a windcheater at the end of August."

The melting Alpine permafrost is also triggering rockslides that are changing the face of the Alps. "Visitors witnessed a large rockslide at the Pala Group range in the Dolomites on Saturday which was so loud they thought the noise was an aircraft's sonic boom," said Selva.

Efforts are being made to stop glaciers melting by unrolling 70-metre long by five-metre wide strips of white plastic over the ice to reflect the sun. Local civil protection chief Alberto Trenti was quoted by the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Thursday a saying that 70,000 sq metres (17.3 acres) of the Presena glacier was now covered during the summer.

But Mercalli said covering glaciers was too little, too late: "There are 2,000 sq km of ice cover in the Alps, so gestures like this may slow things, but won't stop them.

"The worst case scenario is that by the end of the century, ten percent will be left, the glaciers will be gone and mountains like Mont Blanc will have little snow caps like Mount Kilimanjaro.

"If we adopt a green economy, 20-30% could be left, but after 200 years of industry there is no turning back."

Further south this summer, soaring temperatures have triggered forest fires. In the latest blaze, guests fled from a hotel on the hills overlooking Florence on Wednesday as flames destroyed centuries old cypresses and olive groves.

But Mercalli warned that Italy was yet to face up to the threat of climate change.

"Germany, Scandinavia and the UK have understood the dangers and the potential of the green economy, but in southern Europe the dangers are still considered minimal," he said.


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk

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