German Opera Berlin

30 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Berlin, Opera Houses, Theaters, Libraries Reading Time:  10 minutes

© Andreas Praefcke/cc-by-3.0

© Andreas Praefcke/cc-by-3.0

The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country’s second largest opera house and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004 the Deutsche Oper Berlin, like the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin State Opera), the Komische Oper Berlin, the Berlin State Ballet, and the Bühnenservice Berlin (Stage and Costume Design), has been a member of the Berlin Opera Foundation.   read more…

Mammoth Lakes in California

28 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Mammoth statue © panoramio.com - Annette Teng/cc-by-3.0

Mammoth statue © panoramio.com – Annette Teng/cc-by-3.0

Mammoth Lakes is a town in Mono County in California (Sierra Nevada), the county’s only incorporated community. It is located 9 miles (14 km) northwest of Mount Morrison, at an elevation of 7,880 feet (2,400 m). The population is at about 8,000. Mammoth Lakes lies on the edge of the Long Valley Caldera. The area around the town is geologically active, with hot springs and rhyolite domes that are less than 1000 years old. Visitors can take State Route 203 from the town of Mammoth Lakes to the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, over Minaret Summit, then down to Devils Postpile National Monument, with access to the Ansel Adams Wilderness. In 2004, the Mammoth Ski Museum opened in town. The museum featured many vintage artifacts, photographs, and posters. A movie documenting the life of the founder of the ski resort (Dave McCoy) and those of early famous skiers in the area is shown. In 2010, photographs taken by Dave McCoy were featured in an exhibit at the museum.   read more…

Theme Week Venezuela – Caracas

26 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Caracas East © Schiskin

Caracas East © Schiskin

Caracas, officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital, the center of the Greater Caracas Area, and the largest city of Venezuela. Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range (Cordillera de la Costa). The valley is close to the Caribbean Sea, separated from the coast by a steep 2,200-metre-high (7,200 ft) mountain range, Cerro El Ávila; to the south there are more hills and mountains.   read more…

Theme Week Venezuela – Margarita Island

25 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Juan Griego Pier © The Photographer

Juan Griego Pier © The Photographer

Margarita Island (Isla de Margarita) is the largest island in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the northeastern coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. The capital city of Nueva Esparta, La Asunción, is located on the island. Primary industries are tourism, fishing and construction. Christopher Columbus was the first European to arrive on Margarita Island in 1498. The local natives were the Guaiqueries people. The coast of the island was abundant in pearls, which represented almost a third of all New World tribute to the Spanish Crown. Margarita Island was fortified against the increasing threat of pirate attacks, and some fortifications remain today. It was the center of Spanish colonial Margarita Province, established in 1525.   read more…

Eureka Springs in Arkansas

25 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  11 minutes

At the corner of Spring and Center Streets © flickr.com - doug_wertman/cc-by-2.0

At the corner of Spring and Center Streets © flickr.com – doug_wertman/cc-by-2.0

Eureka Springs is a city in Carroll County in Arkansas, and one of two county seats for the county. It is located in the Ozarks of northwest Arkansas. The city’s population is at 2,100. The entire city is on the National Register of Historic Places as the Eureka Springs Historic District. Eureka Springs has been selected as one of America’s Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Eureka Springs was originally called “The Magic City” and later the “Stairstep Town” because of its mountainous terrain and the winding, up-and-down paths of its streets and walkways.   read more…

Theme Week Venezuela – Maracaibo

24 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Calle Carabobo © The Photographer

Calle Carabobo © The Photographer

Maracaibo is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the second-largest city in the country (after the national capital Caracas) and the capital of the state of Zulia. The population of the city is approximately 2.7 million with the metropolitan area estimated at 3.9 million. Maracaibo is nicknamed La Tierra del Sol Amada (“The Beloved Land of the Sun”). Zulia´s main income comes by the oil extract and refinery, Agriculture: Coffee, rice, maize, cassava, cocoa, sugar cane. Production livestock and Mining: Clay, limestone, coal and sand   read more…

Theme Week Venezuela – Barquisimeto

23 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Flor de Venezuela © Miguel Ahiezer Salcedo/cc-by-sa-3.0

Flor de Venezuela © Miguel Ahiezer Salcedo/cc-by-sa-3.0

Barquisimeto is the capital of the state of Lara and head of Iribarren Municipality. It is an important urban, industrial, commercial and transportation center of the country, recognized as the fourth-largest city by population and area in Venezuela after Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia. It is known as the Dusk City due to its beautiful sunsets.   read more…

Portrait: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics

23 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  16 minutes

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German mechanical engineer and physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achievement that earned him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. In honour of his accomplishments, in 2004 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named element 111, roentgenium, a radioactive element with multiple unstable isotopes, after him.   read more…

Theme Week Venezuela – Cumaná

22 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Mochima National Park - Playa Blanca © flickr.com - Luigino Bracci/cc-by-2.0

Mochima National Park – Playa Blanca © flickr.com – Luigino Bracci/cc-by-2.0

Cumaná is the capital of Venezuela’s Sucre State. It is located 402 kilometres (250 mi) east of Caracas. Cumaná was one of the first settlements founded by Europeans in mainland America and is the oldest continuously-inhabited, European-established settlement in the continent. Attacks by indigenous peoples meant it had to be refounded several times. The municipality of Sucre, which includes Cumaná, has a population of 420,000. The city, located at the mouth of the Manzanares River on the Caribbean coast in the Northeast coast of Venezuela, is home to one of five campuses of the Universidad de Oriente and a busy maritime port, home of one of the largest tuna fleets in Venezuela. The city is close to Mochima National Park a popular tourist beaches destination amongst Venezuelans.   read more…

Return to TopReturn to Top