Agatha Christie’s Greenway Estate

15 March 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  8 minutes

Greenway House © MilborneOne/cc-by-sa-3.0

Greenway House © MilborneOne/cc-by-sa-3.0

Greenway is an estate on the River Dart near Galmpton in Devon. It was first mentioned in 1493 as “Greynway”, the crossing point of the Dart to Dittisham. In the late 16th century a Tudor mansion called Greenway Court was built by the Gilbert family. Greenway was the birthplace of Humphrey Gilbert. The present Georgian house was probably built in the late 18th century by Roope Harris Roope and extended by subsequent owners. The gardens may have been remodelled by landscape gardener Humphry Repton.   read more…

Wawel, former seat of the Polish monarchy

8 March 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Wawel from the Vistula river © Sharx/cc-by-sa-2.5

Wawel from the Vistula river © Sharx/cc-by-sa-2.5

Wawel is a fortified architectural complex erected over many centuries atop a limestone outcrop on the left bank of the Vistula river in Kraków at an altitude of 228 metres above sea level. The complex consists of many buildings and fortifications; the largest and best known of these are the Royal Castle and the Wawel Cathedral which is the Basilica of St Stanisław and St Wacław). Some of Wawel’s oldest stone buildings, such as the Rotunda of the Virgin Mary can be dated to 970AD. There are also wooden parts of the complex which date to about the 9th century. The castle itself has been described as “one of the most fascinating of all European castles.” Together with the old town of Kraków, Wawel is an UNESCO world heritage site.   read more…

Governors Island

29 January 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  6 minutes

Governors Island plan © United States Government

Governors Island plan © United States Government

Governors Island is a 172-acre (70 ha) island in Upper New York Bay, approximately one-half mile (1 km) from the southern tip of Manhattan Island and separated from Brooklyn by Buttermilk Channel. It is legally part of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Physically, the island changed greatly during the early 20th century. Using material excavated from the Lexington Avenue subway, the Army Corps of Engineers supervised the deposit of 4,787,000 cubic yards of fill on the south side of Governors Island, adding 103 acres (42 ha) of flat, treeless land by 1912 and bringing the total acreage of the island to 172.   read more…

Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay

17 January 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  6 minutes

Port of Angel Island © picasaweb.google.com - Mirjam Hart/cc-by-sa-3.0

Port of Angel Island © picasaweb.google.com – Mirjam Hart/cc-by-sa-3.0

Angel Island is an island in San Francisco Bay that offers expansive views of the San Francisco skyline, the Marin County Headlands and Mount Tamalpais. The entire island is included within Angel Island State Park and is administered by California State Parks. The island, a California Historical Landmark, has been used for a variety of purposes, including military forts, a US Public Health Service Quarantine Station, and a US Bureau of Immigration inspection and detention facility. The Angel Island Immigration Station on the northeast corner of the island, where officials detained, inspected, and examined approximately one million immigrants, has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Like much of the California coast, Angel Island was subsequently used for cattle ranching. In 1863, during the American Civil War, the U.S. Army established a camp on the island (now known as Camp Reynolds or the West Garrison), and it subsequently became an infantry garrison during the US campaigns against Native American peoples in the West.   read more…

The Old Royal Palace, seat of the Hellenic Parliament

15 January 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  5 minutes

Old Royal Palace © flickr.com - Gerard McGovern/cc-by-2.0

Old Royal Palace © flickr.com – Gerard McGovern/cc-by-2.0

The Old Royal Palace is the former royal palace in Athens. The palace faces onto the Syntagma Square and now houses the Hellenic Parliament.   read more…

Theme Week Singapore – Gardens by the Bay

1 January 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  5 minutes

Supertree Grove © flickr.com - Shiny Things/cc-by-2.0

Supertree Grove © flickr.com – Shiny Things/cc-by-2.0

Gardens by the Bay is a park spanning 101 hectares (1,010,000 m2) of reclaimed land in central Singapore, adjacent to the Marina Reservoir. The park consists of three waterfront gardens: Bay South Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay Central Garden. Gardens by the Bay is an integral part of a strategy by the Singapore government to transform Singapore from a “Garden City” to a “City in a Garden”. The stated aim is to raise the quality of life by enhancing greenery and flora in the city.   read more…

Liberty Island

14 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Statue of Liberty © flickr.com - Koshy Koshy/cc-by-2.0

Statue of Liberty © flickr.com – Koshy Koshy/cc-by-2.0

Liberty Island is a small uninhabited island in New York Harbor in the United States, best known as the location of the Statue of Liberty. Though so called since the start of the 20th century, the name did not become official until 1956. In 1937, by proclamation 2250, President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the Statue of Liberty National Monument to include all of Bedloe’s Island, and in 1956, an act of Congress officially renamed it. It became part of the National Register of Historic Places site Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and Liberty Island in 1966. The island was closed to the public after Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 until reopening on July 4, 2013.   read more…

Salem Castle School

4 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  4 minutes

Schloss Salem © F. Bucher/cc-by-sa-2.0-de

Schloss Salem © F. Bucher/cc-by-sa-2.0-de

Salem Castle School is a boarding school with campuses in Hohenfels, Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg in Southern Germany. It is considered one of the most elite schools in Europe.   read more…

Theme Week Queensland – The Great Barrier Reef

26 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Coral Outcrop © Toby Hudson/cc-by-sa-3.0

Coral Outcrop © Toby Hudson/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.   read more…

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