Hội An in Vietnam

8 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  11 minutes

Thu Bồn River at night © Nguyen QuocTrung/cc-by-sa-4.0

Thu Bồn River at night © Nguyen QuocTrung/cc-by-sa-4.0

Hội An, formerly known in the Western world as Faifoo or Faifo, is a city of approximately 120,000 people in Vietnam’s Quảng Nam Province, registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Along with the Cù Lao Cham archipelago, it is part of the Cù Lao Cham-Hội An Biosphere Reserve, designated in 2009. In 2023, Hội An was registered in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network list.   read more…

Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang

7 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hotels Reading Time:  5 minutes

© flickr.com - Laika ac/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Laika ac/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Ryugyong Hotel (sometimes spelled as Ryu-Gyong Hotel), or Yu-Kyung Hotel, is a 330 m (1,080 ft) tall unfinished pyramid-shaped skyscraper in Pyongyang, North Korea. Its name (lit. “capital of willows”) is also one of the historical names for Pyongyang. The building has been planned as a mixed-use development, which would include a hotel.   read more…

Rødgrød, red berry fruit compote

6 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit Reading Time:  6 minutes

© flickr.com - Parzi/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – Parzi/cc-by-2.0

Rødgrød (Danish), rote Grütze (German), or rode Grütt (Low German), meaning “red groats“, is a sweet fruit dish from Denmark and Northern Germany. The name of the dish in Danish features many of the elements that make Danish pronunciation difficult for non-native speakers, so rødgrød med fløde, literally “red porridge with cream”, has been a commonly used shibboleth since the early 1900s.   read more…

Strawberry Fields in New York City

5 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  5 minutes

© RMajouji/cc-by-1.0

© RMajouji/cc-by-1.0

Strawberry Fields is a 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) landscaped section in New York City‘s Central Park, designed by the landscape architect Bruce Kelly, that is dedicated to the memory of former Beatles member John Lennon. It is named after the Beatles’ song “Strawberry Fields Forever“, written by Lennon. The song itself is named for the former Strawberry Field children’s home in Liverpool, England, located near Lennon’s childhood home.   read more…

Lamballe in Brittany

4 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

Maison du Bourreau, the Lamballe Museum © Thesupermat/cc-by-sa-3.0

Maison du Bourreau, the Lamballe Museum © Thesupermat/cc-by-sa-3.0

Lamballe (Breton: Lambal; Gallo: Lanball) is a town and a former commune in the Côtes-d’Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Lamballe-Armor.   read more…

Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip

3 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  9 minutes

Match in Beit Lahia © flickr.com - Heinrich Böll Foundation Palestine & Jordan/cc-by-2.0

Match in Beit Lahia © flickr.com – Heinrich Böll Foundation Palestine & Jordan/cc-by-2.0

Beit Lahia or Beit Lahiya is a city in the Gaza Strip, north of Jabalia, in the North Gaza Governorate of the State of Palestine. It sits next to Beit Hanoun and close to the border with Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 89,838 in 2017.   read more…

Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland

2 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

© flickr.com - Noel Reynolds/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – Noel Reynolds/cc-by-2.0

Lauterbrunnen is a village and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The municipality comprises the other villages of Wengen, Mürren, Gimmelwald, Stechelberg, and Isenfluh, as well as several other hamlets. The population of the village of Lauterbrunnen is less than that of Wengen, but larger than that of the others.   read more…

The Liberty ships

1 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  6 minutes

Liberty Ship Memorial in South Portland, Maine, USA © flickr.com - Paul VanDerWerf/cc-by-2.0

Liberty Ship Memorial in South Portland, Maine, USA © flickr.com – Paul VanDerWerf/cc-by-2.0

Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass-produced on an unprecedented scale, the Liberty ship came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output.   read more…

Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires

1 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month, Opera Houses, Theaters, Libraries Reading Time:  6 minutes

Concert hall and stage © HalloweenHJB/cc-by-sa-3.0

Concert hall and stage © HalloweenHJB/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Teatro Colón (English: Columbus Theatre) is a historic opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acoustics expert Leo Beranek among leading international opera and orchestra directors, the Teatro Colón has the room with the best acoustics for opera and the second best for concerts in the world.   read more…

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