While enjoying my European adventure I saw the renowned Jedi Master Yoda in Madrid’s historic Plaza Mayor. Apparently, Yoda’s fallen on hard times since filming the Star Wars movies and now he’s resorted to begging for money from tourists in Spain.

It was cool seeing my favorite sci-fi hero in the flesh, but I’d rather have a chance to get up close and personal with a hottie like Princess Leia or Queen Amidala. I hear Natalie Portman’s single again, so maybe I can make that happen. I’ll have my people get in touch with her people. As Yoda himself once said “there is no try there is only do.”

Farol Design Hotel is a chic resort in the tiny beach town of Cascais on Portugal’s beautiful Estoril Coast. Farol is perched on a cliff right by the water’s edge making for spectacular views from every part of the hotel. Inside, the hotel is equally stunning. All of the rooms in the hotel are decorated by famous Portugese fashion designers. This year, the Farol got completely redone with a classy black-and-white makeover that accentuates it’s hip appeal.

Unlike so many other design hotels, the Farol isn’t just about trendy modern style. Half of the hotel located in a 118-year-old mansion that was once owned by the Count of Cabral, but the other part of the building is a sleek annex that was added on six years ago. This blend of contemporary cool and old-school elegance makes the Farol truly unique. Read more to see pictures of this extraordinary hotel.

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What up everybody. This cool Lego creation is a model of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport that I spotted when I landed in Europe yesterday morning. Thanks to the folks at Eurail and various tourism ministries, I’m here on a ten day trip through Portugal, Spain, and Amsterdam.

While I’m traveling, in addition to all the regular Gearfuse goodness, expect weekend updates on the hottest street art, design, and high tech goodies from across the pond. It’s going to be awesome.

Everyone has dreamed of traveling to space at one time or another. The problem is, no one wants to spend a fortune forcing themselves into a marriage just so they can get into space. So the finest Japanese minds are collectively collaborating the construction of an elevator into space. This vision has spurred the inspiration of many scientists around the world as well as government organizations such as NASA.

Now, several separate projects have launched and it has become a competition to see who can make the best carriages and tether for the lift. Could it really be possible to build an elevator whose “top floor” is outside of the Earth’s atmosphere? Scientists seem to think so. Until I see results, I’ll remain in the lobby: planet Earth.

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Microsoft claims that come September 9th, you can kiss laser goodbye. Everyone was quite confused as to what Microsoft meant, that is until this picture of the mystery product that would put laser in its place showed up on Amazon’s Germany site.

It’s called the Blue Track and it allegedly uses a blue LED teamed up with a wide-angle lens for better tracking on more surfaces than laser and optical are capable of. Hey, I’m all for improved tracking and getting rid of mouse pads, but why blue?. With the wireless adapter and small size, could this be a more ideal mouse for the traveling laptop user than Microsoft’s Arc? With better tracking, definitely, but the price has yet to come into play.

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What if the time traveling DeLorean broke down just as Marty McFly was about to reach 88 MPH? According to this $19 t-shirt design, he’d have to take the time traveling bus. Or he could settle for a hike through time on that hoverboard of his, though he wouldn’t get far.

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In the future, cars will move very, very fast. It’s a damn shame our puny little minds will never develop the reflexes and reaction time to operate them manually. So instead, we’ll just slap high tech computers to the engines that’ll automatically drive the car at intensely high speeds for us.

This concept design by Iman Maghsoudi is said to be like any other car. The driver will have total control during low speed travels but once you make the jump to high speeds, the computer takes over and you’ll be off talking on your Ferrari phone without any need to mind the road. We already have the strange looking car designs, now who’s going to design the computer that drives them?

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I’m sure hitchhiking is just as cool as everyone says it is. Between the days spent searching for a ride, intervals of crank and black tar heroin and the constant risk of getting murdered, I don’t see why more of today’s youth are hitchhiking. Luckily, some ingenious bastard thought of iHitch, which is a social networking site for hitchhikers.

No, instead of easily installing one of the thousands of similar Facebook applications, you now need to sign up for a site that essentially condones murder. I kid, I kid. It’s more like a carpooling type site, except for one-off trips. You can even access it with your cellphone. Just remember that this is all the idea of one Phil Hart. He still has to create the site at this point.

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Taeyoon Choi is a tourist from South Korea who is tired of the monotony of photography. He asks the question, “Why is there no camera that takes photographs on its own?” So he devised a way to separate the camera from a human operator.  Using French inventor Jacques de Vauncanson’s Mechanical Digesting duck, Choi has turned it into his own “Magical Image Digesting Duck.”

Through a hacked digital camera, the duck is able to snap photographs in response to other camera flashes during its travels to many tourists spots in New York City. It is then able to immediately print it out or post them on the ‘net via WiFi. The duck is currently on display at Eyebeam Studios in the “Tourists and Travelers” exhibit.

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Have you ever gotten the sudden urge to just sprout up living quarters anywhere you see fit? We have too, that’s why the Abilmo Pop-Up Hotel Rooms caught our attention.  It can be difficult finding an affordable room and board while taking a cross country road trip.  Abilmo themselves deliver these pop-up rooms and set them up on site for your convenience.

Don’t doubt that these rooms are stocked better than any Holiday Inn you’ve stayed at before. With bathrooms, showers, a quality hardwood floor as well as heating and air-conditioning and even noise insulation, these hotel rooms come packing. With Abilmo willing to customize your own room to fit your unique sense of style,  you could say these pop-up rooms look and feel nicer than home.

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