Wolfsburg is located on the River Aller northeast of Braunschweig (Brunswick), and is mainly notable as the headquarters of Volkswagen AG. Wolfsburg is bordered by the districts of Gifhorn and Helmstedt. Wolfsburg was founded on 1 July 1938 as the Nazis’ Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben (English: City of the KdF Car at Fallersleben), a planned town around the village of Fallersleben in order to house the workers of the newly opened Volkswagen factories, which were built to assemble the Volkswagen Beetle “people’s car” and remain there today, although Beetle production finished there in 1978, when it was transferred to Mexico for the final 25 years. read more…
Block Island is part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean about 13 miles (21 km) south of the coast of Rhode Island, 14 miles (23 km) east of Montauk Point on Long Island, and is separated from the Rhode Island mainland by Block Island Sound. The island is part of the Outer Lands region, a coastal archipelago. The Nature Conservancy added Block Island to its list of “The Last Great Places”; the list consists of twelve sites in the Western Hemisphere. About 40 percent of the island is set aside for conservation. read more…
Mâcon is a small city in east-central France. It is the prefecture of the department of Saône-et-Loire, located in Burgundy. Mâcon is home to over 35,000 residents, who are referred to in French as Mâconnais. The area west and north of Mâcon produces well-known wines from the Chardonnay grape. The best known appellation of the Mâconnais is Pouilly-Fuissé. The city lies on the western bank of the Saône river, between Bresse in the east and the Beaujolais hills in the south. Mâcon is the southernmost city in the region of Burgundy. It is located 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of Lyon and 400 kilometres (249 miles) from Paris. read more…
Whilst not fitting the term “Luxury real estate,” in the traditional sense of the word, i.e. on land, the current crop of giga-yachts or mega-yachts certainly fall under my definition of the word. Massive, spectacularly-outfitted floating mansions in fact. Conspicuous over consumption? Absolutely. Insanely expensive? Oh yes. Most of the final prices are carefully kept secret. Either that, or no one actually knows how much they cost. Introducing “A” – the most recent member of the giga-yacht club, and to put things in perspective, the fuel tank is 757,000 liters. Diesel fuel costs around €1.40 per liter currently, so it would cost just over €1 million to fill the fuel tank. $1.4 million US just to fill the tank. That amount of fuel will last 15.5 days at cruising speed. So the cost of building the ship becomes a little academic when the running costs are taken into consideration. I am exaggerating slightly as I have no doubt they are not paying retail for the fuel, but you get the idea. Seeing as the owner also owns one of the largest coal companies in the world, I very much doubt the cost of fuel is an issue. read more…
Tel Aviv or Tel Aviv-Yafo is the most populous city in Israel and its capital, ahead of West Jerusalem, with a population of 414,600. It is located in central-west Israel, within the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area, Israel’s largest metropolitan area, containing 42% of Israel’s population. It is also the largest and most populous in Gush Dan, which is collectively home to 3,464,100 residents. Residents of Tel Aviv are referred to as Tel Avivim (singular: Tel Avivi). Tel Aviv is Israel’s de jure capital, de facto it is West Jerusalem, which, however, is only tolerated by the international community, but isn’t recognized as such. read more…
Sullivan’s Island is an American town and island in Charleston County, South Carolina, at the entrance to Charleston Harbor, with a population was 1,900. The town has a total area of 3.3 square miles (8.5 km2), of which 2.4 square miles (6.2 km2) is land and 0.9 square miles (2.3 km2) (27.11%) is water. The Ben Sawyer Bridge connects Sullivan’s Island to Mount Pleasant. A bridge spanning Breach Inlet connects it to Isle of Palms. Sullivan’s Island is part of the Sea Islands. read more…
