Port Orange in Florida

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

Port Orange Causeway © Gamweb/cc-by-sa-3.0

Port Orange Causeway © Gamweb/cc-by-sa-3.0

Port Orange is a city in Volusia County, Florida. The city’s estimated population is at 56,000. The city is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach metropolitan area; the metropolitan area’s population is at 590,000. Port Orange is a principal city in the Fun Coast region. The Daytona Beach International Airport is nearby. Port Orange is located on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.   read more…

Theme Week Turkish Riviera – Antalya

31 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Erencet/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Erencet/cc-by-sa-3.0

Antalya is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. It is Turkey’s biggest international sea resort, located on the Turkish Riviera. In 2011 the city had a population of 964,886 and the metropolitan municipality 1,041,972. The Turkish Riviera is also the home for the internationally known Blue Voyage, which allows participants to enjoy a week-long trip on the locally built gulet type schooners to ancient cities, harbors, tombs, mausolea and intimate beaches in the numerous small coves, lush forests and streams that lace the Turquoise Coast.   read more…

Porto, capital of the north

30 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, European Capital of Culture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Ribeira © Georges Jansoone

Ribeira © Georges Jansoone

Porto, also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits includes a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes. The urbanized area of Porto, which extends beyond the administrative limits of the city, has a population of 1.2 million in an area of 389 km2 (150 sq mi), making it the second-largest urban area in Portugal. The Porto Metropolitan Area includes approximately 1.3 million people, and is recognized as a Gamma-level global city by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Study Group, being one of the four cities in the peninsula with global city status (the others being Madrid, Lisbon and Barcelona).   read more…

Theme Week Cyprus – Paralimni

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

Protaras Beach © AyianapaProtaras/cc-by-sa-3.0

Protaras Beach © AyianapaProtaras/cc-by-sa-3.0

Paralimni is a town situated in the southeast of Cyprus, slightly inland, within the Famagusta District. Since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, it has increased in size and status, due to the migration of many refugees fleeing from the north. Many of the people who work in the tourist industry of Protaras and Ayia Napa live in Paralimni, which is now the temporary administrative centre of the Famagusta District and the biggest municipality of the Greek Cypriot-controlled area of the district.   read more…

Jardins du Trocadéro in Paris

29 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  7 minutes

Panorama from the Eiffel Tower at the sunset © flickr.com - Alexander Kachkaev/cc-by-2.0

Panorama from the Eiffel Tower at the sunset © flickr.com – Alexander Kachkaev/cc-by-2.0

Jardins du Trocadéro (Gardens of the Trocadero) is an open space in Paris, located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, bounded to the northwest by the wings of the Palais de Chaillot and to the southeast by the Seine and the Pont d’Iéna, with the Eiffel Tower on the opposite bank of the Seine.   read more…

Theme Week Vienna – A city with a high quality of life

28 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Donau UNOcity © Omnidoom 999

Donau UNOcity © Omnidoom 999

Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria’s primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million (2.3 million within the metropolitan area, more than 25% of Austria’s population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by population in the European Union. Vienna is host to many major international organizations such as the United Nations and OPEC.   read more…

New Providence, the most populated island of the Bahamas

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

Pirates of Nassau Museum © JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD/cc-by-sa-3.0

Pirates of Nassau Museum © JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD/cc-by-sa-3.0

New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It also houses the national capital city, Nassau. The island was originally under Spanish control following Christopher Columbus‘s discovery of the New World, but the Spanish government showed little interest in developing the island (and the Bahamas as a whole). Nassau, the island’s largest city, was formerly known as Charles-town but was burned to the ground by the Spanish in 1684. It was laid out and renamed Nassau in 1695 by Nicholas Trott, the most successful Lord Proprietor, in honor of the Prince of Orange-Nassau who became William III of England.   read more…

Theme Week Cyprus – Paphos

28 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, European Capital of Culture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Anna Anichkova/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Anna Anichkova/cc-by-sa-3.0

Paphos is a coastal city in the southwest of Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos and New Paphos. The currently inhabited city, New Paphos, lies on the Mediterranean coast, about 50 km (31.07 mi) west of Limassol (the biggest port on the island), which has an A6 highway connection. Paphos International Airport is the country’s second-largest airport. Paphos enjoys a subtropical-Mediterranean climate, with the mildest temperatures on the island. Paphos has been selected as a European Capital of Culture for 2017, along with Aarhus. Near Palaepaphos (Old Paphos) at the seaside of Petra tou Romiou is the modern mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, and the founding myth is interwoven with the goddess at every level, so that Old Paphos became the most famous and important place for worshipping Aphrodite in the ancient world. In Greco-Roman times, Paphos was the island’s capital, and it is well known for the remains of the Roman governor’s palace, where extensive, fine mosaics are a major tourist attraction. Paul the Apostle visited the town during the first century AD. The town of Paphos is included in the official UNESCO list of cultural and natural treasures of the world’s heritage.   read more…

Theme Week Cyprus – Mount Olympos

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

Royal Air Force radar station on Mount Olympus © Alaniaris/cc-by-sa-3.0

Royal Air Force radar station on Mount Olympus © Alaniaris/cc-by-sa-3.0

Olympus, or Chionistra, at 1,952 metres (6,404 ft), is the highest point in Cyprus. It is located in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus. Mount Olympus peak and the “Troodos Square” fall under the territory of Platres in Limassol District. A British long range radar currently operates at Mount Olympus’ peak.   read more…

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