Helsingborg in southern Sweden

9 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Dunkers Kulturhus © Jesper Olsson

Dunkers Kulturhus © Jesper Olsson

Helsingborg is a town and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality in Skåne County. It had 97,122 inhabitants in 2010. Helsingborg is the centre of an area in the Øresund region of about 320,000 inhabitants in north-west Scania, and is Sweden’s closest point to Denmark, with the Danish city Helsingør clearly visible on the other side of the Øresund about 4 km to the west.   read more…

Theme Week Dubai – Burj al Arab

6 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Dubai, House of the Month Reading Time:  7 minutes

Burj Al Arab and 360 degree club © Titoni Thomas/cc-by-sa-3.0-en

Burj Al Arab and 360 degree club © Titoni Thomas/cc-by-sa-3.0-en

Burj Al Arab (Tower of the Arabs) is a luxury hotel located in Dubai. At 321 m (1,053 ft), it is the fourth tallest hotel in the world; however, 39% of its total height is made up of non-occupiable space. Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island 280 m (920 ft) from Jumeirah beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. The shape of the structure is designed to mimic the sail of a ship.   read more…

The port city of Geelong

5 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Waterfront © Marcus Wong/cc-by-sa-3.0

Waterfront © Marcus Wong/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Geelong metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of Victoria. Located 75 kilometres (47 mi) south-west of the state capital, Melbourne, the port city is situated around Corio Bay and the Barwon River. The metropolitan area runs from the plains of Lara in the north to the rolling hills of Waurn Ponds to the south, with the bay to the east and hills to the west, an area with an estimated population of 160,891 people. It is the administrative centre for the City of Greater Geelong municipality which covers the urban and surrounding areas and is home to over 181,000 people. An inhabitant of Geelong has been known as a Geelongite, or a Pivotonian, in the past.   read more…

Cape Cod on the Atlantic

5 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Cape Cod © DidiCast/cc-by-sa-3.0

Cape Cod © DidiCast/cc-by-sa-3.0

Cape Cod is a cape jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. In 1914, the Cape Cod Canal was cut through the base or isthmus of the peninsula, turning nearly all of Cape Cod into what would technically be described as an island, though this term is not common in everyday speech.   read more…

Tilburg, in the heart of Brabant

5 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Street view © Michielverbeek

Street view © Michielverbeek

Tilburg is a landlocked municipality and a city in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of Noord-Brabant. Tilburg municipality also includes the villages of Berkel-Enschot and Udenhout. Tilburg University is located in Tilburg, as are Avans University of Applied Sciences and Fontys University of Applied Sciences. Tilburg has nearly 30.000 students at one of these universities.   read more…

Theme Week Belgium – Ypres in West Flanders

4 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Grote Markt, the market square © Tony Grist

Grote Markt, the market square © Tony Grist

Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. Though Ieper is the Dutch and only official name, the city’s French name, Ypres, is most commonly used in English due to its role in World War I when only French was in official use in Belgian documents, including on maps. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote. Together, they are home to some 35,000 inhabitants.   read more…

The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg

3 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Winter Palace at night © Robert Breuer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Winter Palace at night © Robert Breuer/cc-by-sa-3.0

The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items, including the largest collection of paintings in the world. Beside the Louvre and the Prado, Hermitage Museum houses one of the most important collections of classical European art.   read more…

Templin in Uckermark

3 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Town Hall © Oktaeder

Town Hall © Oktaeder

Templin is a small town in the Uckermark district of Brandenburg. Though it has a population of only 17,127, it is with 377.01 km2 (145.56 sq mi) the second largest town in Brandenburg (after Wittstock) and the seventh largest town in Germany by area. The town is located in the south of the rural Uckermark region and its capital Prenzlau, north of the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve. The town was first mentioned in a 1270 deed issued by Henry of Ostheeren, Bishop of Brandenburg. Then a possession of the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, it appeared as a town in 1314 under Margrave Waldemar, who in 1317 concluded the Treaty of Templin here, ending the war against Denmark, Mecklenburg and the Duchy of Pomerania. Heavily devastated by Danish troops in the Thirty Years’ War, Templin from 1816 on belonged to the Prussian province of Brandenburg near the border with Mecklenburg-Strelitz.   read more…

Hoher Dachstein

2 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Hoher Dachstein with Vorderer Gosausee © Einer flog zu Weit/cc-by-sa-3.0

Hoher Dachstein with Vorderer Gosausee © Einer flog zu Weit/cc-by-sa-3.0

Hoher Dachstein is a strongly karstic Austrian mountain, and the second highest mountain in the Northern Limestone Alps. It is situated at the border of Upper Austria and Styria in central Austria, and is the highest point in each of those states. Parts of the massif also lie in the state of Salzburg, leading to the mountain being referred to as the Drei-Länder-Berg (“three-state mountain”). The Dachstein massif covers an area of around 20×30 km with dozens of peaks above 2,500 m, the highest of which are in the southern and south-western areas. Seen from the north, the Dachstein massif is dominated by the glaciers with the rocky summits rising beyond them. By contrast, to the south, the mountain drops almost vertically to the valley floor.   read more…

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