Last week, the world lost one of the all-time great film critics, when Roger Ebert passed away at age 70. He was mostly known for his love of movies and long career reviewing them at the Chicago Sun-Times, as well as his witty and wide-reaching Twitter feed. Roger was first and foremost a journalist, and he applied his curiosity and ease of language to many things, including travel.

If you can't imagine how a film reviewer can effortlessly evoke a place, start with a piece he wrote in 2010 on a changing London and a particularly Dickensian hotel at 22 Jermyn Street, later published in a shortened form for the Guardian's travel section. He writes of his 25 years of being a guest at the small hotel, many encounters are positively cinematic, such as meeting the hotel's owner, who appears in his guest room proffering a drink and colorful anecdotes about the neighborhood's characters. He worries about what the loss of businesses like the former Eyrie Mansion (established in 1685) will mean for the neighborhood: "Piece by piece, this is how a city dies," and paints a rich study of a place and time.

I am partial to a good donkey photo. Something about their sweet eyes makes them instantly loveable, and their inherent goofiness is charming. Today's Photo of the Day caught my eye partially because of the subject, as well as the gorgeous landscape in Croatia behind him, but also because of the caption: "Staying Home." Flickr user mmusnjak explains the donkey was uninterested in joining a mountain hike, and more into any food the photographer could provide. Staying home looks pretty good with surroundings like that, especially if guests bring gifts!

Meet any friendly animals on your travels? Share them with us in the Gadling Flickr pool, or on Instagram using hashtag #gadling and tagging @gadlingtravel for a future Photo of the Day.

[Photo credit: Marko Musnjak]

Last week, I wrote a lengthy tribute to guidebooks and the sad news that Frommer's guidebooks would cease publication, and many readers here and on Twitter shared in my grief. Well, it's time to remove the black armbands, because Arthur and his trusty guides are back! Don't place your orders just yet; there's still a lot up in the air, but the key news is that Arthur Frommer has reacquired his name brand from Google and confirmed to the Associated Press that he will resume publishing print, e-book and web content under the Frommer's name. Google has retained all of the original Frommer's content for its own Google+ and Zagat products, so Frommer will need to create all new content and find a new publisher for future books. Skift News has speculated on a few possibilities, as well as provided more details on the Frommer's-to-Google migration. Long live Arthur Frommer, we look forward to what's to come next.

Fear not, guidebook lovers; print isn't dead.

[Photo credit: Darien Library on Flickr]

It was with a heavy heart that I read the news last week that Frommer's guidebooks will cease to be printed. The guidebooks were purchased by Google last summer, and as of this year, the entire future list of titles will not be released. With the takeover of digital apps, social media, and user-generated content, we knew this was coming, but it still feels like the end of an era. It's become fashionable for any traveler (especially for writers, including our own bloggers) to be dismissive of the printed guidebook, claiming they get all their tips "from locals on the road" or via social networks, possibly demurring to an occasional read of Lonely Planet. Let's dispense with the tired traveler vs. tourist argument; we can all benefit from practical info for navigating a new place, and no matter how "local" you go, there's nothing wrong with visiting the museums and attractions for which a destination is known. Even as an active member of the "new media," I mourn the death of guidebooks like that of a friend.

The greatest gift of the digital age to the traveler is online trip planning. I'd never want to go back to the days of travel agents and phone reservations. I've spent hours on the Internet booking flights, reading hotel reviews and soliciting advice and recommendations from friends, but guidebooks have always been the heart of my pre-travel ritual. Each year, after we had narrowed down the destinations to a few (often places where American Airlines and Marriott coincided, back in the days where work travel generated a fair amount of status, miles and points for free vacations), my husband and I would spend a few hours at a bookstore, poring over the guidebooks for points of interest, relative costs of travel and local events that might happen during our travel dates. Back when I worked at Conde Nast Traveler magazine, my desk was next to the research department, making me feel like a kid in a candy store. Shelf after shelf of guidebooks, atlases and travelogues gave me a keen eye for what features are the most useful in a printed travel companion.

It's not easy to frame a scene perfectly for a photograph, especially at a popular spot full of tourists. But Flickr user Kumakulanui did it twice for today's Photo of the Day. Taken at Paris' famed Louvre museum, he captures both the larger scene of people and architecture, as well as the close-up his travel companion is shooting on her camera. The result is a very clever double take, giving you two images for the price of one.

Want your travel photography featured here? Add them to the Gadling Flickr pool, and please don't forget to enable downloading!

[Photo credit: Peter Forster]

If you are traveling in a big city and want restaurant recommendations, it can be overwhelming to turn to online review sites like Trip Advisor or Yelp that list hundreds of places, many of which are irrelevant to your tastes and preferences. A new website launches today, giving you personalized guides of where to eat and drink, focused on spots you'll like. Eight Spots gives you just that: a list with recommended spots for breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner and drinks. Take the fun 10-question "taste survey" (think: night owl or early bird), and tell them a few of your favorite spots, and it will generate a personalized guide for any of the featured cities. The more spots you review or add to your go-to lists, the more tailored your recommendations become. You can also integrate Facebook to further filter your guides based on friends' recommendations. The current range of cities include Berlin, London, New York, Paris, Perth and Sydney, with plans to expand to 90 cities worldwide.

Get your picks at EightSpots.com

[Photo credit: Eight Spots]

Today's Video of the Day could pass for footage from a futuristic sci-fi movie, but it was taken recently in Dubai by photographer Sebastian Opitz. Opitz's surreal, almost comic book-like images were shot on a rare foggy morning as the sun rises. The time-lapse video was taken over four hours, at the end of which, the clouds seem to melt away, but the landscape still seems like a scene from the not-too-distant future.

Check out more of Sebastian Opitz's gorgeous photography over on My Modern Metropolis.

Seen a video we should feature here? Leave us a link in the comments.

The World Travel and Tourism Council has introduced a fun element to their Facebook page: rather than a timeline of their own milestones, they've designed a timeline highlighting all of the events in the travel industry. Starting in 1400 with the first passport, and ending with the 1,000,000,000 international tourist arrival in December 2012, it puts the whole development of tourism in context. The first airport dates to 1909 in College Park, Maryland, and there are now over 44,000 airfields and airports all over the world. Hilton pioneered the hotel chain concept in 1943, and now has properties in 78 countries on six continents. Expedia has been around for 17 years, and TripAdvisor just celebrated their 13th anniversary.

Check out all the travel industry milestones on WTTC's Timeline, and be sure to click through all the years.

[Photo credit: WTTC Facebook]

Somewhere between pointing at planes at the Air & Space Museum and browsing the day's headlines at the Newseum, my baby fell asleep. We had a small window of time to eat and maybe even have an adult conversation, and a McDonald's inside a food court didn't seem appealing. There are a lot of great Washington, D.C., museums that are free and world-class, but not many great food spots amidst the tourist spots. FourSquare didn't find much, save a hot dog truck, but a Yelp search yielded a "glorified cafeteria" listing for the Mitsitam Cafe. It turned out to be inside the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and specializes in indigenous foods from the Western Hemisphere.

Dishes change seasonally and are arranged by region: Northern Woodlands (think Thanksgiving-y foods like roast turkey and corn bread), South America (spicy ceviches), Northwest Coast (wild salmon and bison), Meso America (lots of yucca and corn) and Great Plains (lots of fried goodness). We chose chicken mole tacos with a wild rice and watercress salad, plus beans and sweet potatoes. I also had a venison mincemeat pie with whole grain mustard, pumpkin and blueberry fritters, and a parsnip puree soup. There was a wide selection of local beer and wine and a large variety of tempting desserts.

The cafeteria itself is large and airy, if crowded (we lucked into an empty table quickly at 2 p.m. on a Saturday). The downside is the prices: entrees can run over $20, and sides around $5 each (you can get a sample of 4 for $14). I blanched handing over my credit card to pay $50 for lunch, especially when I had to carry it myself on a tray. Still, the food was delicious and we left sated and ready to take on the next museum. If you are heading to D.C. this month for the Cherry Blossom Festival, it's a great way to eat locally without leaving the museum district.

For more on good museum cafes, check out our guide to the best food at museums across the country.

[Photo credit: Meg Nesterov]

Today is March 14, also known as Pi Day (in case it's been awhile since you took math, pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, 3.14), a day to celebrate mathematics, or just eat some pie. If you are in Cambridge, Massachusetts, today and can remember a good portion of the many digits of pi, you might get to eat some free pie. Today's Photo of the Day by Flickr user autisticglobetrotting2010 is a bit math-inspired: the cross at the ceiling of Rio de Janeiro's San Sebastian Cathedral hints at a plus sign. The modernist cone-shaped church is highlighted by four enormous stained glass windows that form at the top with a cross. Designed to echo the Mayan pyramids, the distinctive structure is hard to miss in the Rio skyline.

Share your travel photos in the Gadling Flickr pool for a future Photo of the Day, and happy pie-eating!

[Photo credit: Flickr user autisticglobetrotting2010]