Puerto Rico in the Caribbean

17 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Coast Guard Barque Eagle in front of the 16th century Fort San Felipe de Morro in San Juan © United States Coast Guard

Coast Guard Barque Eagle in front of the 16th century Fort San Felipe de Morro in San Juan © United States Coast Guard

Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, literally the “Free Associated State of Puerto Rico”), is a United States territory located in the northeastern Caribbean. Puerto Rico is an archipelago that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, Mona, Desecheo, and Caja de Muertos. Of these last five, only Culebra and Vieques are inhabited year-round. Culebra, which is only 18 miles away from the mainland, is home to Flamenco Beach, one of the top ten beaches in the world. Mona is uninhabited most of the year except for employees of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources. There are also many other smaller islands, including Monito and “La Isleta de San Juan,” which includes Old San Juan and Puerta de Tierra, and is connected to the main island by bridges. The capital and largest city is San Juan. Its official languages are Spanish, which is predominant, and English. Puerto Ricans “were collectively made U.S. citizens” in 1917 as a result of the Jones-Shafroth Act. U.S. citizens residing in Puerto Rico cannot vote for the U.S. president, though both major parties, Republican and Democrat, run primary elections in Puerto Rico to send delegates to vote on a presidential candidate. Since Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory and not a U.S. state, the United States Constitution does not fully enfranchise US citizens residing in Puerto Rico (“Voting rights in Puerto Rico“).   read more…

Île Sainte-Marie off the east coast of Madagascar

17 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Beach of La Crique © M worm

Beach of La Crique © M worm

Île Sainte-Marie, known (more formally) as Nosy Boraha, is an island off the east coast of Madagascar. The main town is Ambodifotatra. The city covers an area of 222 km2, and has a population estimated at 16,000. The island is organized as The City of Île Sainte-Marie in Analanjirofo Region. The tourist destination is 60 km long and less than 10 km wide.   read more…

Bitterfeld-Wolfen in the southeast of Saxony-Anhalt

16 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Villa Bernstein and Bernsteinsee (Lake Amber) © Katrin Perl

Villa Bernstein and Bernsteinsee (Lake Amber) © Katrin Perl

Bitterfeld-Wolfen is a town in the district Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt. It is situated in south-eastern Saxony-Anhalt, west of the river Mulde, in an area that is dominated by heavy industry and lignite mining. The town was formed by merger of the towns Bitterfeld and Wolfen and the municipalities Greppin, Holzweißig and Thalheim on 1 July 2007.   read more…

The pilgrimage Rocamadour

15 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

© François Darras

© François Darras

Rocamadour is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France. It lies in the former province of Quercy. Rocamadour has attracted visitors for its setting in a gorge above a tributary of the River Dordogne, and especially for its historical monuments and its sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which for centuries has attracted pilgrims from every country, among them kings, bishops, and nobles. The town below the complex of monastic buildings and pilgrimage churches, traditionally dependent on the pilgrimage site and now on the tourist trade, lies near the river on the lowest slopes; it gives its name to Rocamadour, a small goat’s milk cheese that was awarded AOC status in 1996.   read more…

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

15 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

BIS 'Tower' building © --Wladyslaw Disk./cc-by-sa-3.0

BIS ‘Tower’ building © –Wladyslaw Disk./cc-by-sa-3.0

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international organization of central banks which “fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks”. The BIS carries out its work through subcommittees, the secretariats it hosts and through an annual general meeting of all member banks. It also provides banking services, but only to central banks and other international organizations. It is based in Basel, Switzerland, with representative offices in Hong Kong and Mexico City.   read more…

Annecy, between mountains and lakes

14 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Palais de l'Isle © Edwin Lee

Palais de l’Isle © Edwin Lee

Annecy is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy (Lac d’Annecy), 35 kilometres south of Geneva. Annecy and Savoy-Mont Blanc are the French candidate to host the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.   read more…

Fisher Island off Miami

14 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Miami / South Florida Reading Time:  7 minutes

Fisher Island © Alexf/cc-by-sa-3.0

Fisher Island © Alexf/cc-by-sa-3.0

Fisher Island is a census-designated place of metropolitan Miami, located on a barrier island of the same name. As of the 2010 census, Fisher Island had the highest per capita income of any place in the United States. The island has only 218 households and a total population of 467 persons. A relatively small part of the northern part of the island is incorporated as a part of the city of Miami Beach.   read more…

Pembroke in Wales

13 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Entrance to Pembroke Castle © geograph.org.uk - Robin Drayton/cc-by-sa-2.0

Entrance to Pembroke Castle © geograph.org.uk – Robin Drayton/cc-by-sa-2.0

Pembroke (Welsh: Penfro) is an historic settlement and former county town of Pembrokeshire in West Wales. The town features a number of historic buildings and complexes and is one of the major population centres in the county. It was the birthplace of Henry Tudor, later Henry VII of England, founder of the Tudor dynasty.   read more…

Cordoba and Al-Andalus – multiculturalism in the Middle Ages

12 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Gardens of the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos © Jebulon

Gardens of the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos © Jebulon

Córdoba is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. An Iberian and Roman city in ancient times, in the Middle Ages it became the capital of the Islamic caliphate al-Andalus. The old town contains numerous architectural reminders of when Corduba was the capital of Hispania Ulterior during the Roman Republic and capital of Hispania Baetica during the Roman Empire; and when Qurṭuba was the capital of the Islamic Caliphate of Córdoba, including most of the Iberian peninsula.   read more…

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