Theme Week Cornwall – Zennor

18 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Zennor from Trewey Hill © Jim Champion/cc-by-sa-3.0

Zennor from Trewey Hill © Jim Champion/cc-by-sa-3.0

Zennor is a village and civil parish. The parish includes the villages of Zennor, Boswednack and Porthmeor and the hamlet of Treen. It is located on the north coast, about 6 miles (10 km) north of Penzance. It lies along the B3306 road which connects St Ives to the A30 road. Alphabetically, the parish is the last in Britain. Its name comes from the Cornish for the local saint, St Senara. Zennor Head is a coastal promontory north of the village. The cliffs rise over 200 feet (60 m) from the sea and the highest point of the headland is 314 feet (96 m) above sea level. The village itself is at a height of around 360 feet (110 m).   read more…

Theme Week Cornwall – Truro

17 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Lower Lemon Street © Simon Lewis - www.westcountryviews.co.uk/cc-by-2.5

Lower Lemon Street © Simon Lewis – www.westcountryviews.co.uk/cc-by-2.5

Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, UK. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population of 19,000 and its surrounding urban area to 23,000 as based on the results of the population of Cornwall in 2010. It is the only city in the county, and the most southern city in Mainland Great Britain. People from Truro are known as Truronians. Truro’s popularity within Cornwall as the number one destination for retail and leisure, and its role as the administrative centre of the county, is unusual compared to other cities in the country given that it is the fourth most populous settlement in Cornwall. The city is surrounded by a number of protected natural areas such as the historic parklands at Pencalenick, and larger areas of ornamental landscape, such as Trelissick Garden and Tregothnan further down the Truro River. An area south-east of the city, around and including Calenick Creek, has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Other protected areas include an Area of Great Landscape Value comprising agricultural land and wooded valleys to the north east, and Daubuz Moors, a Local Nature Reserve located alongside the River Allen close to the city centre.   read more…

Theme Week Cornwall

16 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  7 minutes

Remains of Tintagel Castle, legendary birthplace of mythical King Arthur © Maniple

Remains of Tintagel Castle, legendary birthplace of mythical King Arthur © Maniple

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. Cornwall is a peninsula bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of 536,000 and covers an area of 3,563 km2 (1,376 sq mi). The administrative centre, and only city in Cornwall, is Truro, although the town of St Austell has a larger population.   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…

Rovaniemi, second home of Santa Claus at the Arctic Circle

14 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Santa's Post Office © Cédric Puisney/cc-by-2.5

Santa’s Post Office © Cédric Puisney/cc-by-2.5

Rovaniemi is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland‘s northernmost province, Lapland. It is situated about 5 kilometres (3 miles) south of the Arctic Circle and is between the hills of Ounasvaara and Korkalovaara, at the confluence of the river Kemijoki and its tributary, the Ounasjoki. The city and the surrounding Rovaniemen maalaiskunta (Rural municipality of Rovaniemi) were consolidated into a single entity on January 1, 2006. The new municipality has an area of 8,016.72 square kilometres (3,095.27 sq mi) and an approximate population of 61,000, which makes it the larges city in Europa by space, with only 7.2 inhabitants per squarekilometer.   read more…

Aspen in the Roaring Fork Valley

11 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Downtown Aspen © Matthew Trump/cc-by-sa-3.0

Downtown Aspen © Matthew Trump/cc-by-sa-3.0

Aspen is a city in and the county seat of Pitkin County, Colorado, with 6,700 permanent residents. It is situated in a remote area of the Rocky Mountains’ Sawatch Range and Elk Mountains, along the Roaring Fork River at an elevation just below 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level on the Western Slope, 11 miles (18 km) west of the Continental Divide.   read more…

Heiligendamm is the oldest seaside resort in continental Europe

10 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Seebrücke pier towards Heiligendamm © Gryffindor

Seebrücke pier towards Heiligendamm © Gryffindor

Heiligendamm is the oldest seaside spa and resort in continental Europe and Germany. Heiligendamm is part of the town Bad Doberan in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.   read more…

Oban on the west coast of Scotland

7 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

North Pier Ferry Terminal at night © Emil Goldberg/cc-by-sa-3.0

North Pier Ferry Terminal at night © Emil Goldberg/cc-by-sa-3.0

Oban (Scottish Gaelic meaning The Little Bay) is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. It has a total resident population of 8,000. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William and during the tourist season the town can play host to up to 25,000 people. Oban occupies a beautiful setting in the Firth of Lorn. The bay is a near perfect horseshoe, protected by the island of Kerrera, and beyond Kerrera the Isle of Mull. To the north is the long low island of Lismore, and the mountains of Morvern and Ardgour.   read more…

Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Mouton Rothschild in Pauillac

7 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit Reading Time:  9 minutes

Chateau Lafite © Ken Case

Chateau Lafite © Ken Case

Château Lafite Rothschild

Château Lafite-Rothschild and Château Mouton Rothschild are legendary wine estates located in the village of Pauillac in the Médoc, 50 km (30 mi) north-west of the city of Bordeaux. Their red wines of the same names are regarded as one of the world’s greatest clarets. Château Lafite-Rothschild was the property of Gombaud de Lafite in 1234. In the 17th century, the property of Château Lafite was purchased by the Ségur family, including the 16th century manor house that still stands. Although vines almost certainly already existed on the site, around 1680, Jacques de Ségur planted the majority of the vineyard. The estate is owned by members of the Rothschild family since the 19th century. The name Lafite comes from the Gascon term “la hite” meaning “small hill”.   read more…

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