Toulon in southern France

14 August 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, French Riviera Reading Time:  7 minutes

Tall ships in the old port © SiefkinDR

Tall ships in the old port © SiefkinDR

Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence. It is the fourth-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille, Nice and Montpellier. Toulon is an important centre for naval construction, fishing, wine making, and the manufacture of aeronautical equipment, armaments, maps, paper, tobacco, printing, shoes, and electronic equipment. The military port of Toulon is the major naval centre on France’s Mediterranean coast, home of the French Navy aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle and her battle group. The French Mediterranean Fleet is based in Toulon.   read more…

The congress and university city of Innsbruck

13 August 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Chithiraiyan

© Chithiraiyan

Innsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn Valley at the junction with the Wipptal (Sill River), which provides access to the Brenner Pass, some 30 km (18.6 mi) south of Innsbruck.   read more…

The Stolpersteine

11 August 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© stolpersteine.com

© stolpersteine.com

Stolperstein is the German word for “stumbling block”, “obstacle”, or “something in the way”. (The plural form of the word is Stolpersteine.) The artist Gunter Demnig has given this word a new meaning, that of a small, cobblestone-sized memorial for a single victim of Nazism. These memorials commemorate individuals – both those who died and survivors – who were consigned by the Nazis to prisons, euthanasia facilities, sterilization clinics, concentration camps, and extermination camps, as well as those who responded to persecution by emigrating or committing suicide.   read more…

Ibbenbüren in Tecklenburger Land

10 August 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

City Center (Oberer Markt) © J.-H. Janßen

City Center (Oberer Markt) © J.-H. Janßen

Ibbenbüren or Ibbenbueren is a medium-sized town in the district of Steinfurt, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is on position 185 of the largest cities in Germany and the largest city in Tecklenburger Land. Ibbenbüren (Ibbenbueren) is situated on the Ibbenbürener Aa river, at the northwest end of the Teutoburger forest and rather exactly in the center of the two cities Rheine in the west and Osnabrück in the east, both approximately 20 km away. In the years 1219 and/or 1234 it appears as church village. In this transition of the High Middle Ages to the Late Middle Ages the noble gentlemen of Ibbenbüren, that is the abbot of Herford and the counts of Tecklenburg, possessed basic rule in the place. To this time Ibbenbüren belonged to the Diocese of Osnabrück. During this time the castle of Ibbenbüren was built by the noble gentlemen of Ibbenbüren starting from 1150. Last remainder of this castle are the remnants of the heath tower in the proximity of the Aasee.   read more…

Theme Week Belgium – Charleroi in Wallonia

9 August 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  5 minutes

Charles II Square on market day © Jean-Marie Hoornaert

Charles II Square on market day © Jean-Marie Hoornaert

Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut. As of 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 1,462 square kilometres (564 sq mi) and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as the fifth most populous in Belgium after Brussels, Antwerp, Liège and Ghent. The inhabitants are called Carolorégiens or simply Carolos. The municipality contains an industrial area, iron and steel industry, glassworks, chemicals, and electrical engineering. Charleroi is in the center of a coal basin, called Pays noir. Many slag heaps still surround the city. Dupuis is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics, located in Marcinelle.   read more…

Cuneo in Piedmont

7 August 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Piazza Galimberti Panorama © Alessandro Vecchi

Piazza Galimberti Panorama © Alessandro Vecchi

Cuneo is a city and comune in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the third largest of Italy’s provinces by area. It is located at the foot of the Maritime Alps, on the Stura di Demonte river where it emerges from the Valle Stura.   read more…

Rüdesheim on the Rhine

6 August 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Rüdesheim on the Rhine around 1900

Rüdesheim on the Rhine around 1900

Rüdesheim is a winemaking town in the Rhine Gorge and thereby part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. It lies in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis district in the region of Darmstadt in Hesse.   read more…

The German Avenue Road

4 August 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  3 minutes

© ADAC e.V.

© ADAC e.V.

The German Avenue Road is holiday route, around 2,900 kilometres long, that runs through the whole of Germany from the Baltic Sea to Lake Constance. It is thus Germany’s longest holiday route. The project is supported by the “German Avenue Route Association” (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Alleenstraße), whose members are the motoring organisation, ADAC, the German Tourism Association, the German Forest Conservation Society and other institutions. The forestry scientist, Hans Joachim Fröhlich, was its major proponent.   read more…

Starnberg in Five-Lake-Land

3 August 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Lake Starnberg © Ascea

Lake Starnberg © Ascea

The city of Starnberg is in Bavaria, Germany, some 30 km south-west of Munich. It lies at the north end of Lake Starnberg, in the heart of the “Five Lakes Country“, and serves as capital of the district of Starnberg. Recording a disposable per-capita income of € 26,120 in 2007, Starnberg regained its status as the wealthiest town in Germany from the Frankfurt suburb of Hochtaunus.   read more…

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