Honolulu on O’ahu

28 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Honolulu Harbor, outside the Hawaii Prince Hotel © flickr.com - Shawn Rossi/cc-by-2.0

Honolulu Harbor, outside the Hawaii Prince Hotel © flickr.com – Shawn Rossi/cc-by-2.0

Honolulu is the county seat of the City and County of Honolulu. It is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Situated on the island of Oahu, it is known worldwide as a major tourist destination; Honolulu is the main gateway to Hawaii and a major gateway into the United States of America. It is also a major hub for international business, military defense, as well as famously being host to a diverse variety of east-west and Pacific culture, cuisine, and traditions. In the Hawaiian language, Honolulu means “sheltered bay” or “place of shelter”; alternatively, it means “calm port”. The old name is said to be Kou, a district roughly encompassing the area from Nuuanu Avenue to Alakea Street and from Hotel Street to Queen Street which is the heart of the present downtown district. The city has been the capital of the Hawaiian islands since 1845 and gained historical recognition following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor near the city on December 7, 1941.   read more…

Theme Week Queensland – The Great Barrier Reef

26 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Coral Outcrop © Toby Hudson/cc-by-sa-3.0

Coral Outcrop © Toby Hudson/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.   read more…

Bolzano in South Tyrol

26 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Waltherplatz © Mattes

Waltherplatz © Mattes

Bolzano is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. It is one of only five mainly Italian-speaking municipalities in South Tyrol. Bolzano is the seat of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, where lectures and seminars are held in English, German and Italian.   read more…

Port Phillip Bay in Australia

25 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

The memorial at Sorrento marking the site of the first British settlement on Port Phillip Bay in 1803 © Adam Carr

The memorial at Sorrento marking the site of the first British settlement on Port Phillip Bay in 1803 © Adam Carr

Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay), is a large bay in southern Victoria; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers 1,930 square kilometres (480,000 acres) and the shore stretches roughly 264 km (164 mi). Although it is extremely shallow for its size, most of the bay is navigable. The deepest portion is only 24 metres (79 ft), and half the region is shallower than 8 m (26 ft). Its waters and coast are home to seals, whales, dolphins, corals and many kinds of seabirds and migratory waders.   read more…

Knutsford in North West England

24 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

King Street © Maciej Preś/cc-by-sa-3.0

King Street © Maciej Preś/cc-by-sa-3.0

Knutsford is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, in North West England with 13,000 inhabitants. It is about 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Manchester and 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Macclesfield.   read more…

Theme Week Marseille – Château d’If off the coast

23 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  7 minutes

Château d'If © Philippe Alès/cc-by-sa-3.0

Château d’If © Philippe Alès/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Château d’If is a fortress (later a prison) located on the island of If, the smallest island in the Frioul Archipelago situated in the Mediterranean Sea about a mile offshore in the Bay of Marseille in southeastern France. Île d’If measures 3 hectares (0.03 km2) and is located 3.5 kilometers west of the Vieux Port in Marseille. The entire island is heavily fortified; high ramparts with gun platforms surmount the cliffs that rise steeply from the surrounding ocean. Apart from the fortress, or château as it is ironically called, the island is uninhabited.   read more…

Laas in the Vinschgau Valley

22 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Wooden aqueduct © Hegedex

Wooden aqueduct © Hegedex

Laas (Italian: Lasa) is a municipality in the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about 50 km west of the city of Bolzano. It has a population of 4,000 and an area of 110.1 km². The municipality of Laas (Lasa) contains the frazioni (subdivisions, mainly villages and hamlets) Allitz (Alliz), Eyrs (Oris), Tanas, and Tschengls (Cengles).   read more…

Theme Week Andalusia – Roquetas de Mar

19 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Castillo de Santa Ana © Informagico/cc-by-sa-3.0-es

Castillo de Santa Ana © Informagico/cc-by-sa-3.0-es

Roquetas de Mar is a municipality of Almería province, in the autonomous community of Andalucía. The ‘urbanización’ (tourist area with hotels and restaurants and shops) of Roquetas is predominantly a Spanish holiday resort for the majority of the summer months, but it also receives many visitors from the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany.   read more…

Theme Week Jerusalem, Al-Quds and The Holy, many names for one of the oldest cities in the world

19 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  5 minutes

The Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque © Sheepdog85/cc-by-sa-3.0-de

The Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque © Sheepdog85/cc-by-sa-3.0-de

Jerusalem/al-Quds, located on a plateau in the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, is one of the oldest cities in the world. It is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Israelis (Jerusalem Law) and Palestinians both claim Jerusalem as their capital, as Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power; however, neither claim is recognized internationally (United Nations Security Council Resolution 478, International positions on Jerusalem and United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel). De jure, Tel Aviv (were all foreign embassies are located at) remain to be Israel’s capital, even though it is de facto West Jerusalem. The city has 800,000 inhabitants. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent. Today, those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. What is particularly striking about the decades-long “capital dispute” is that Jerusalem before 1920 was a lot, but above all a small settlement without a capital function. In this respect, there can be no “justified claim” be given on the city. It was not until the British Mandate of Palestine that the mandate headquarters was moved to Jerusalem, so that Jerusalem became the capital of British Palestine. Scientifically proven is that the city has been one of several spiritual centers for several thousand years. However, at the beginning there was neither Christianity, Judaism nor Islam.   read more…

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