Theme Week Champagne – Chaumont

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

Town Hall © Pline/cc-by-sa-3.0

Town Hall © Pline/cc-by-sa-3.0

Chaumont is the capital (or préfecture) of the Haute-Marne department. As of 2013, it has a population of 23,000. The city stands on the Marne River and is situated on the railway linking Paris and Basel, which runs over a 52 m tall and 600 m long viaduct built in 1856.   read more…

The Suez Canal

17 March 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  7 minutes

Port Said - Suez Canal Authority © Daniel Csörföly

Port Said – Suez Canal Authority © Daniel Csörföly

The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows ship transport between Europe and eastern Asia without navigation around Africa. The northern terminus is Port Said and the southern terminus is Port Tawfiq at the city of Suez. Ismailia lies on its west bank, 3 km (1.9 mi) from the half-way point.   read more…

Theme Week Ukraine – Donetsk in eastern Ukraine

15 March 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

The Miner - Symbol of Donetsk © Brücke-Osteuropa

The Miner – Symbol of Donetsk © Brücke-Osteuropa

Donetsk (former names: Yuzovka, Stalino) is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius River. Administratively, it is a centre of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the larger economic and cultural Donets Basin (Donbas) region. The city of Donetsk is adjacent to another major city of Makiivka and along with other surrounding cities forms a major urban sprawl and conurbation in the region. Donetsk is a major economic, industrial and scientific centre of Ukraine with a high concentration of companies and a skilled workforce.   read more…

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…

The island of Karmøy in Norway

13 March 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Høyevarde lighthouse © flickr.com - Michael Spiller/cc-by-sa-2.0

Høyevarde lighthouse © flickr.com – Michael Spiller/cc-by-sa-2.0

Karmøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located southwest of the city of Haugesund in the traditional district of Haugaland. Karmøy was created as a new municipality on 1 January 1965 after the merger of Kopervik (city), Skudeneshavn (city), Skudenes, Stangaland, Torvastad, Åkra, and most of Avaldsnes. The Karmsund strait was also the source of the name of the kingdom, at the time when the first king of the unified Norway, Harald Fairhair, lived on Karmøy. (See History of Norway.)   read more…

Theme Week Washington, D.C. – Library of Congress

12 March 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Opera Houses, Theaters, Libraries Reading Time:  7 minutes

Thomas Jefferson Building © Carol M. Highsmith/cc-by-sa-3.0

Thomas Jefferson Building © Carol M. Highsmith/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, the de facto national library of the United States of America, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in four buildings in Washington, D.C., as well as the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, it is one of the two largest libraries in the world by shelf space and number of books, the other being The British Library. The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress, currently James H. Billington.   read more…

Figueres in Catalonia

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

Teatre-Museu Dalí © Luidger/cc-by-sa-3.0

Teatre-Museu Dalí © Luidger/cc-by-sa-3.0

Figueres is the capital of the comarca of Alt Empordà, in the province of Girona in Catalonia. The Sant Ferran Castle is situated on a hill at the end of Pujada del Castell. It is a large military fortress built in the eighteenth century under the orders of several military engineers, including Peter Martin i Cermeño Juan Martin Cermeño. It is the largest monument of Catalonia.   read more…

Salvador da Bahia

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

Elevador Lacerda © flickr.com - elicrisko/cc-by-2.0

Elevador Lacerda © flickr.com – elicrisko/cc-by-2.0

Salvador (historic name: São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos, in English: “City of the Holy Saviour of the Bay of all Saints”) is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. A particularly notable feature is the escarpment that divides Salvador into the Cidade Alta (“Upper Town” – rest of the city) and the Cidade Baixa (“Lower Town” – northwest region of the city), the former some 85 m (279 ft) above the latter, with the city’s cathedral and most administrative buildings standing on the higher ground. An elevator (the first installed in Brazil), known as Elevador Lacerda, has connected the two sections since 1873, having since undergone several upgrades.   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…

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