Mall of the World in Dubai

16 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Dubai, Shopping Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Dubai Holding

© Dubai Holding

Developers Dubai Holding have announced their plans to build the ‘Mall of the World’ a new 48 million square foot (4.46 Millionen m²) tourist district in Dubai that will host the world’s largest mall, a new cultural district, a theme park and 20,000 hotel rooms. What’s more, the district’s 7km street network will be covered by a retractable roof during the summer months, creating the world’s first “temperature controlled city”.   read more…

Arles in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region

16 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, French Riviera, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Town Hall on Place de la République © flickr.com - Wolfgang Staudt

Town Hall on Place de la République © flickr.com – Wolfgang Staudt

Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence. As part of the cultural initiative of the European Union’s European Capital of Culture, Arles is one of the convention and exhibition venues of Marseille-Provence 2013.   read more…

Port Everglades on the Atlantic

15 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Cruise Ships, Miami / South Florida Reading Time:  7 minutes

Port Everglades entrance channel © Jpkolo/cc-by-sa-3.0

Port Everglades entrance channel © Jpkolo/cc-by-sa-3.0

Port Everglades is a seaport in Broward County, Florida. As one of South Florida’s leading economic powerhouses, Port Everglades is the gateway for international trade and cruise vacations. Currently the third busiest cruise port worldwide, Port Everglades is also the busiest container port in Florida and 10th busiest in the United States, moving more than 1 million TEUs in 2013. Port Everglades is South Florida‘s main seaport for receiving petroleum products including gasoline, jet fuel, and alternative fuels. The port serves as the primary storage and distribution seaport for refined petroleum products, distributing fuel to residents of 12 Florida counties. Port Everglades is also recognized as a favorite United States Navy liberty port. With a depth of 43 feet (13 m) (at mean low water), Port Everglades is currently the deepest port south of Norfolk, Virginia on the East Coast of the United States. The Port Everglades Department is a self-supporting Enterprise Fund of Broward County government with operating revenues of approximately $139 million in Fiscal Year 2011 (October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011). It does not rely on local taxes for operations. The total value of economic activity at Port Everglades is nearly $15.3 billion annually. Approximately 160,000 Florida jobs are impacted by the Port, including 11,400 people who work for companies that provide direct services to Port Everglades.   read more…

On the Canal du Midi from Toulouse to the Mediterranean

14 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  10 minutes

Carcasonne © Pinpin

Carcasonne © Pinpin

The Canal du Midi (Occitan: Canal de las Doas Mars, meaning canal of the two seas) is a 240 km (150 mi) long canal in Southern France (French: le Midi). The canal connects the Garonne River to the Étang de Thau on the Mediterranean and along with the Canal de Garonne forms the Canal des Deux Mers joining the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The canal runs from the city of Toulouse down to the Mediterranean port of Sète—which was founded to serve as the eastern terminus of the canal. The Canal du Midi was built by Pierre-Paul Riquet.   read more…

Theme Week Scotland

14 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  4 minutes

Welcome to Scotland sign - A1 road © flickr.com - Amanda Slater/cc-by-sa-2.0

Welcome to Scotland sign – A1 road © flickr.com – Amanda Slater/cc-by-sa-2.0

Scotland is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south-west. In addition to the mainland, Scotland is made up of more than 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides. Edinburgh, the country’s capital and second-largest city, is one of Europe’s largest financial centres. Edinburgh was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, was once one of the world’s leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe’s oil capital.   read more…

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine

13 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  6 minutes

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine © National Park Service Digital Image Archives

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine © National Park Service Digital Image Archives

Fort McHenry, in Baltimore in Maryland, is a coastal star-shaped fort best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in Chesapeake Bay September 13–14, 1814. It was during the bombardment of the fort that Francis Scott Key was inspired to write The Star-Spangled Banner, the poem that would eventually be set to the tune of To Anacreon in Heaven and become the national anthem of the United States.   read more…

Sète, Little Venice of Languedoc

12 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

The Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny Embankment and the Canal of La Peyrade from the Louis Pasteur Embankment © Christian Ferrer/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny Embankment and the Canal of La Peyrade from the Louis Pasteur Embankment
© Christian Ferrer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Sète, known as Cette until 1928, is a commune in the Hérault department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Its inhabitants are called Sétois. Known as the Venice of Languedoc and the singular island (in Paul Valéry’s words), it is a port and a seaside resort on the Mediterranean with its own very strong cultural identity, traditions, cuisine and dialect. It is also the hometown of artists like Paul Valéry, Jean Vilar, Georges Brassens, Gregory Del Piero, Hervé Di Rosa, Manitas de Plata, and Robert Combas.   read more…

Hengelo in the Overijssel province

12 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Steven van der Wal

© Steven van der Wal

Hengelo is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the International Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service. During World War II, the city was often bombed by the Allies because of the presence of the railways and the war industry activities of local factories. Accidentally the heart of the town was bombed out, during the Bombing of Hengelo on 6 and 7 October 1944, killing several hundred people. This has also left the city without much of an historical centre.   read more…

The Aloha State Hawaii

10 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Oahu - U.S. Federal Court © D Ramey Logan

Oahu – U.S. Federal Court © D Ramey Logan

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states (August 21, 1959), and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. Hawaii’s diverse natural scenery, warm tropical climate, abundance of public beaches and oceanic surrounding, and active volcanoes make it a popular destination for tourists, surfers, biologists, and volcanologists alike. Due to its mid-Pacific location, Hawaii has many North American and Asian influences along with its own vibrant native culture. Hawaii has over a million permanent residents along with many visitors and U.S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu.   read more…

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