Where To Go For Snow

On Sunday night, PBS's Masterpiece debuted the second season of the British costume drama Downton Abbey, earning record-breaking ratings. As fans know, the World War I-era TV series follows the trials of the Crawleys, a family that spins into gloom when the noble Earl and patriarch Robert Crawley loses his male heirs. The film was shot on location at a castle where lords and ladies once threw real-life parties with champagne and pearls. The show may inspire you to travel to England to see the history behind the fiction. As a Londoner, I have already seen the second season of this Emmy-award-winning show (which screened this fall) and can assure you that the TV series has even more heart-stopping dramatic moments this year than it did in its first season. It remains "reality-free" in an enjoyable way. I also had the good fortune to visit the filming location last year, and I recommend it as a fun outing on your next vacation to England. Highclere Castle In Hampshire, this grand 1840s castle plays the role of Downton Abbey. The Edwardian mansion, built in 1842, is within striking distance of London, and is open to visitors. It still inhabited by a real-life Lord and Countess of Carnarvon. As visitors walk around the lavishly furnished three floors of the house, they can see framed family photographs featuring Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, Prince Charles, and other friends of the family. Traipse through its 1,000 manicured Berkshire acres, under cedars and by chocolate-box cottages. Pretend that you are Dowager Countess of Grantham, played on the show by Dame Maggie Smith, and say things like "Do tell!" and "What is a 'weekend'?" In the second season of Downton, the estate opened itself to nurses and beds to tend to wounded soldiers, and that was true in the real Highclere Castle as well, with the lady of the house hiring nurses, “dressed in stylish strawberry-pink uniforms,” to attend to the war wounded, as reported by The New York Times. Surprisingly today, the cellars of the mansion feature an exhibit on ancient Egypt. It turns out that a previous Lord who lived in the mansion was a sponsor of the archaeological investigations that ended in the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. The castle has a tribute to that history, with ancient antiquities on display. The estate is about 70 miles west of London. From London's Paddington Station, hop National Rail and ride an hour to Newbury (from £20, or about $32). Once there, take a cab or bus about 6 miles south to the castle. The mansion is only open on selected days this year: April 2−15, again for a few days in May and June, then, from July 1, it is open on Sundays through Thursdays until September 13. (adult admission, from £16 (up from £9 last year!), or $25, full schedule (opens as a PDF), highclerecastle.co.uk The Carnarvon Arms, in nearby Newbury, is an old coaching inn that used to offer food and drink to visitors and staff to the castle that's been renovated in the past decade. Rooms from £60, bespokehotels.com. The nearby village of Hungerford has countless antique shops where you can put your hands on many furnishings similar to what you might see at the castle, from silver lion salt shakers to wooden butter churns. SEE MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Anthony Bourdain's New Series, The Layover, Debuts Top 10 Beaches From the Movies A Coffee Addict's Guide to the World

A 1,000-year-old Native American settlement that had been dismissed as a tiny encampment turns out to have been a surprising city near present-day St. Louis, Mo. A report in the latest journal of Science reveals that the settlement, called Cahokia by today's archaeologists, stretched for eight miles on either side of the Mississippi River by East St. Louis, and may have had more than 500 rectangular houses and more than 10,000 residents at its peak. The discoveries of a large number of artifacts and ruined buildings were made during the construction of a bridge that will connect St. Louis and southwestern Illinois. If the findings are true, Cahokia would be North America’s first city, the largest of Native American communities north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The town thrived from 1000 to 1500 AD and was distinguished by “massive monumental mounds of dirt and ceremonial plazas,” according to researchers. The area’s settlements are being described as America's one of the Native Americans’ most notable legacies. The Osage Nation is the Native American group believed to have the closest possible ancestral link to Cahokia’s founders. Cahokia is an archeological find that’s been on third base for a long time and just needed to score. While the excavation site remains off limits to visitors, you can get a sense of the scope of the former city by visiting its better known nearby site, the Monks Mound at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site near Collinsville, Il. This 2,000-acre park is a designated National Historic Landmark and a World Heritage Site. Climb 156 steps to the 14-acre plateau and you'll see how the mound was built probably for ceremonies. Take in the view of nearby bluffs, which may shake the spare change out of your pockets with its beauty. Back at ground level, a visitor's center provides a historical context for what once stood on the spot. The idea that Native Americans built a city will challenge the preconceptions of some people, whose ideas were shaped by 1950s Westerns. cahokiamounds.org; no admission fee but a suggested donation of $4 for adults and $2 for children SEE MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL 15 Places Your Kids Should See Before 15 10 Natural Wonders to See Before They Disappear Meet the Moai of Easter Island

A handful of destinations in the world are so iconic as to be instantly identifiable by a single, simple image—say, the looming triangle of an Egyptian pyramid, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, the Space Needle (or perhaps the Starbucks logo) of Seattle. In his new book Paris Versus New York: A Tally of Two Cities, out next month from Penguin Books, Paris–based graphic designer Vahram Muratyan delivers more than 100 diptychs representing elements of the two title cities, a compilation of side–by–side symbols created during a stint in New York City and published over the course of about a year on Muratyan's blog. Between its covers, you'll find an outline of a baguette (avec beurre demi-sel) staring down a bagel (with cream cheese); renderings of the steel–and–glass dome of the Grand Palais and the constellation–strewn ceiling of Grand Central station; and a battle royale between a stack of macarons and a sprinkles–topped cupcake. The duos go way beyond comparing apples to apples (Big or otherwise); there's also a hefty dose of cultural commentary in the mix. Paris's winter page (hiver) is subtitled: "Cinc centimeters et c'est le panique." (Roughly: Two inches of snow and it's chaos.) New York's "Go" page, which depicts a cluster of joggers (all sporting Apple–white earbuds), counterbalances Paris's "Pause," wherein a trio of ladies stand obscured by a cloud of their own cigarette smoke. Architecture, fashion icons, modes of transportation, snack foods, tourist traps, singers, artists, neighborhoods, cocktails, and coffees all get their due. Even vermin appear—although New York has the dubious distinction of claiming both rats ("pigeons without wings") and pigeons ("flying rats"). And of course, it wouldn't be an icon smackdown without these two: The Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, both of which were designed by Frenchmen. (Do we detect a bias here?) The whole project has me inspired to rethink my own travel journals—to find ways to say more with less, to observe more sharply, and to always remember the small details that make the big picture. It's also inspired me to peruse the Paris Versus New York page on the Society6 online art shop, where 25 of Muryatan's pairings are available as frame–ready prints or stretched canvases (prices start at $24 for an 8" x 10"). Unfortunately, the book itself doesn't hit store shelves until the end of January, but you can pre–order it now on Amazon. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL 25 Greatest Travel Books of All Time World's Weirdest Hotels 2011 Top Budget Travel Destinations for 2012

Last week, fast-food chain Wendy's, known for its cheap staples of meat bombs, unveiled the Foie Gras Rossini Burger at its new restaurant in Tokyo. The price is 1280 yen, or nearly $17 at today's exchange rates. Other surprises in the new "Japan Premium" line-up of burgers include the Avocado Wasabi Burger, the Chili Burger, and the Truffle and Porcini Grilled Chicken Sandwich. No other Wendy's in the world has foie gras, which is made from the liver of a specially fattened goose or duck. The burgers bulge and glisten with oil like sumo wrestlers. The fancy burgers are sold at a gleaming new store in the Ometsando district of Japan's capital, famed for its fashion shops. The location is a bit away from the main drag though; find it on a map, here. The store is Wendy's first of 100 planned locations for the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. The fast-food empire bowed out of Japan a couple of years ago due to falling profits, reports AFP. The new menu items can be seen on the Japanese website for Wendy's. There's no Baconator Double on it, sadly. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL: PHOTOS: 8 Foreign Fast-Food Chains You Need to Know 15 Insects You Won't Believe Are Edible A Coffee Addict's Guide to the World