The Lighthouse of Saint-Mathieu

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

Abbay and lighthouse of Saint-Mathieu © Pline/cc-by-sa-3.0

Abbay and lighthouse of Saint-Mathieu © Pline/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Saint-Mathieu lighthouse is a lighthouse located on Pointe Saint-Mathieu in Plougonvelin, around Brest in Finistère. The lighthouse is open to the public. Saint-Mathieu was built in 1835 among the ruins of the ancient Abbaye Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre. It is a major lighthouse of the French coast, with a theoretical range of 29 nautical miles (around 55 km). It was classified as a monument historique on 23 May 2011.   read more…

Valletta on Malta

13 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, European Capital of Culture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Grandmaster's Palace © Zairon/cc-by-sa-3.0

Grandmaster’s Palace © Zairon/cc-by-sa-3.0

Valletta is the capital of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt (English: The City) in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta, and the historical city has a population of 6,966. Valletta is the second southernmost capital of the EU member states after Nicosia.   read more…

The Galway Hooker

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

Galway Hooker in Belfast © Ardfern/cc-by-sa-3.0

Galway Hooker in Belfast © Ardfern/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Galway hooker (Irish: húicéir) is a traditional fishing boat used in Galway Bay off the west coast of Ireland. The hooker was developed for the strong seas there. It is identified by its sharp, clean entry, bluff bow, marked tumble-home and raked transom. Its sail plan consists of a single mast with a main sail and two foresails. Traditionally, the boat is black (being coated in pitch) and the sails are a dark red-brown.   read more…

Grosseto in Tuscany

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

Porto Romano dell'Isola di Giannutri © Aldo Ardetti/cc-by-sa-3.0

Porto Romano dell’Isola di Giannutri © Aldo Ardetti/cc-by-sa-3.0

Grosseto is a city and comune in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies 14 kilometres (9 miles) from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river. It is the most populous city in Maremma, with 83,000 inhabitants.   read more…

Koblenz, at the confluence of Rhine and Moselle rivers

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

Panorama Fortress Ehrenbreitstein © Holger Weinandt

Panorama Fortress Ehrenbreitstein © Holger Weinandt

Koblenz is a city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) and its monument (Emperor William I on horseback) are situated. As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the town celebrated its 2000th anniversary in 1992. The name Koblenz is from Latin (ad) confluentes, confluence or “(at the) merging of rivers”. Subsequently it was Covelenz and Cobelenz. In the local dialect the name is Kowelenz. After Mainz and Ludwigshafen am Rhein, it is the third largest city in Rhineland-Palatinate, with a population of c. 106,000 (2006). Koblenz lies in the Rhineland, 92 kilometers (57 miles) southeast of Cologne by rail.   read more…

The Cologne Cathedral

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

© ger1axg/cc-by-sa-3.0

© ger1axg/cc-by-sa-3.0

Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site. It is Germany’s most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day.   read more…

Wallingford in Oxfordshire

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

The Coach & Horses pub © geograph.org.uk - Bill Nicholls/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Coach & Horses pub © geograph.org.uk – Bill Nicholls/cc-by-sa-2.0

Wallingford is a market town and civil parish in the upper Thames Valley in England. Until 1974 it was in Berkshire, but was transferred to Oxfordshire in that year. The town’s royal but mostly ruined Wallingford Castle held high status in the early medieval period as a regular royal residence until the Black Death hit the town badly in 1349. Empress Matilda retreated here for the final time from Oxford Castle in 1141. The castle declined subsequently, much stone being removed to renovate Windsor Castle instead. Nonetheless the town’s Priory produced two of the greatest minds of the age, the mathematician Richard of Wallingford and the chronicler John of Wallingford.   read more…

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…

Big Fish, the green long-range expedition yacht

7 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Superyachts, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  8 minutes

© www.neilrabinowitz.com

© www.neilrabinowitz.com

Superyacht Big Fish is the first in an advanced series of rugged but luxurious long-range world cruisers built for Aquos Yachts by McMullen & Wing Shipyard in New Zealand.This custom design from Gregory C. Marshall Naval Architects is a 45m large volume steel and aluminum explorer motor yacht engineered for remote operation throughout the Pacific. With a 10,000 mile range at 9-10 knots and extensive long term storage onboard she is a unique class of vessel capable of sustaining extended trips for up to three months away from refueling facilities. Fuel efficiency is a key element of her cruising capability. Through extensive water-tank testing her hull shape and plum bow make her super-efficient through the water.   read more…

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