Category Archives: World Traveler Gnomes

A travel blog about all the places we get to see when Master Alyssa lets us tag along

Stop Whatever You’re Doing and Watch this 3-Minute Gnome Video

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gnomeclinic

Paying for television is for schmucks. And we gnomes are NOT schmucks.

While doing a lil’ flip-a-roo on the ole’ telly last night, I could hardly believe what appeared before my eyes. I caught the tail-end of a mini-segment about a garden gnome clinic for injured gnomes in Germany.

And then with the blink of an eye, it was over! Drat! Double drat!

But like the skillful lil’ researchers we are, we tracked down this magical mini-segment and stalked it like a Dateline NBC special on Friday night.

(You know, the ones that make you feel less like a loser when you’re cradling your bottle of $2.89 Aldi wine on the couch. Because at least you weren’t kidnapped, right? RIGHT?!)

NBC is free too!

Ok but back to the gnome show…

The station is called DW and the show is called Germany Today. The blip about the gnome doctor is only about 3 1/2 minutes long, but it is truly wonderful. Some of us need to schedule an appointment with this gnome doctor and others of us are crafty enough to steal this idea and become gnome doctors ourselves!

Oh wait, that’s what I’m supposed to be doing, isn’t it? Dr. A. Chu, MD at your service!

Well if you didn’t already click on the video link at the top of this rambling post, click on this link and learn about this delightful German woman.

The Garden Gnome Clinic – Germany Today

My favorite part is when they take the biggun’s out for a ride in the car and strap on their seat belts. Safety first, gnomies! Otherwise, to the gnome doc you go!

Be well,
Dr. A. Chu, MD

South Korea Gnomes Headed to England for the Summer!

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We often hear of gnomes getting up to their usual shenanigans in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. So when we caught wind of some gnomish activity brewing in South Korean, our pointy ears immediately perked up!

Year-six students at Seoul’s Dulwich College crafted some gnomes as part of an art project and vowed to send them off to England to join their distant cousins at the Gnome Reserve.

Photo credit: Paul Kerry/The Korea Herald

Photo credit: Paul Kerry/The Korea Herald

You remember the Gnome Reserve, right? It’s that woodland place with thousands of gnomes run by our all-time hero, Ann Atkins! Check out the pic the Gnome Reserve posted of Ann checking in today on the new South Korean arrivals…

annAccording to the Korea Herald, the students explained that they created the gnomes by “pinching out two pots and putting them together to make a hollow body. Then they added the head, beard and the rest before firing their gnomes twice ― but they all agreed that the legs were the hardest part.”

Over time, the South Korean gnomes developed unique personalities – no surprise there. “We are glad that the gnomes have ended their gnomadic existence and that they will have a gnome to go to and not live in gnome-man’s land,” said school headmaster Daryl Orchard, to a mixed response from the students.

Considering that the gnomes will only enjoy a summer vacation in England and return to South Korea in the fall, the students weren’t too sad to see them go. They’re proud of their work – rightfully so – and they want to show it off to the best goshdern gnome museum in the world.

Right on, kiddos!

So what will the 12 brave South Korean gnomes get up to in England? Only time (and perhaps Ann) will tell.

Wishing the lil’ buggas lots of luck and jet lag relief,
ChumbawambaIGetKnockedDown the Gnome

Gnome Bakers: Unusual Bread and Rolls in New York City

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There once was a place in New York City. It served “unusual bread and rolls.” And it was run by gnomes.

gnomebakers

Never mind how “unusual” bread products could really, honestly be. You just never mind that.

According to to Ephemeral New York, this ad was part of a 1973 New York Mets program.

But the story doesn’t stop there. Apparently there was ANOTHER Gnome Bakers location documented 40 years earlier.

According to New York Times photographer, Fred R Conrad, 316 East 59th Street was home to Gnome Bakers. The bakery owners designed the front of the building to look like the sort of place where tiny gnomes would be mixing up baked goods. Although the picture doesn’t do it justice, a giant bearded gnome once rested against the chimney munching on a piece of bread.

20091112_gnomebakers_250x375

Today 316 East 59th Street is home to a chiropractor’s office. Lame.

Curbed corroborated the story and revealed that the giant munching gnome and the Gnome Bakers simply disappeared from the premises after they went bankrupt in the early 1930s.

And they found an awesome photo of the giant gnome perched atop the bakery building!

gnomebakery

But all this research has led me to more questions than answers.

Who WERE the gnome bakers?

Where did they go in the early 30s?

What ever became of the giant munching gnome?

And what exactly did make gnome bread SO unusual?

I would have loved to be alive in the 30s, if for nothing else, to visit this amazing-looking bakery. So Gnome Bakers, if you’re out there reading this…come back! I’m sure New York would welcome you with open arms and a fresh bag of flour.

Gnome bread forever.

xoxo,
Ramon LeBeef the Gnome

446 Gnomes Stand Proud at Australia’s Gnomeageddon 2014!

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The Guinness World Record for the number of humans dressed as gnomes in one place is 478. Betcha didn’t know that, did ya?

Well one Australian group celebrating Gnomeageddon 2014 almost broke that record…but not quite. They had 446 gnomes in attendance. Just 33 shy of record breaking!

gnomeageddon

How did this happen YESTERDAY?!

We could have helped!

Well, if Gnomeageddon tickets include round-trip airfare from the U.S., that is.

Anyhoo, this recent gnome activity came about as part of a “Gnome Macca’s in Tecoma” campaign. According to the Herald Sun, No Macca’s in the Dandenong Ranges protesters donned gnome hats, aprons and boots yesterday in attempt to shatter a world record for the number of people dressed as garden gnomes.

Gnomeageddon (1)

This is all part of a plot to thwart the success of an evil McDonald’s restaurant with a wretched 24-hour drive through in Tecoma. According to the gNOme Maccas in Tecoma’s Facebook page:

Tecoma is good habitat for us gnomes, the gardens and forest are lush and green and the residents lovingly protect and conserve these spaces. However, should McDonalds build their junkfood takeaway, our moonlight frolicking will be interrupted by lights and traffic, and our habitat ruined by litter. Where will some of us live if the Tecoma No Maccas community garden gets bulldozed?! There is no gnome habitat amongst the fake turf and plastic décor of a McDonald’s.

We hear you loud and clear guys. Down with McDonald’s! Up with nature!

gnomeageddon2

Now that the dreadful “restaurant” is operating for business, Gnomeageddon will be an annual event until it’s shut down for good. Stay strong, gnomies.

Sorry we missed it, and hope to join in next year!

FIGHT THE POWER,
Pablo the Gnome

Gnomes as Symbols of Polish Anti-Communism Protest!?!

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The Orange Alternative is an underground anarchic movement, which was started in 1981 in Wroclaw, located in southwest Poland. Why are we gnomes interested in Polish politics? Well, they’re associating our likeness with a symbol of Polish opposition against communism. 

Fun!

The group’s purpose was has been to conduct peaceful protest by using absurd and nonsensical elements. By all accounts, these “nonsensical elements” have been described as dwarfs – which we’re fine with because frankly, dwarfs really don’t make any sense.

The Dwarf – the statue of the Orange Alternative symbol at the corner of Świdnicka and Kazimierza Wielkiego streets in Wrocław.

The Dwarf – the statue of the Orange Alternative symbol at the corner of Świdnicka and Kazimierza Wielkiego streets in Wrocław.

But one recent news story caught our attention because the city of Wroclaw began using GNOMES as a promotional symbol. According to Polskie Radio, “The city has been banned from using the (gnome) symbol as any further part of its promotional activities, and it must apologies to 61-year-old ‘Major’ Waldemar Fydrych, founder of the so-called Orange Alternative.”

Apparently, the city used the symbol of a gnome (vaguely resembling a controversial dwarf) on promotional t-shirts, mugs, and even in a campaign film to become the 2016 European City of Culture. Polish gnomes are so sophisticated!

Clearly, these folks are not gnome experts because in actuality, we have very little in common with the common dwarf. Regardless, humans mix us up all the time, and this particular human decided to cause a ruckus.

Waldemar Fydrych in Wroclaw. Photo: PAP/Maciej Kulczynski

Waldemar Fydrych in Wroclaw. Photo: PAP/Maciej Kulczynski

Fydrych’s Orange Alternative was launched back in 1980 and became popular after the Solidarity Movement was banned. If you ask me, it was the protesters dressed as orange dwarfs (a.k.a. gnomes), mocking the regime through absurd humor and slogans like “Dwarf for President! and “Only dwarfs can save the country!”

So as for the most recent usage of orange gnomes, the Orange Alternative wins and the city of Wroclaw loses. “This case drew a lot of attention, because the town hall is after all an institution of public trust,” Fydrych said. “I hope that there will now be a change in the way people think about copyright law, and how it should be respected.”

And that, my friends, is your Polish gnome news update for the day. Consider yourselves enlightened. You’re welcome.

As reported by,
Cowabunga the Gnome