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Theme Week Veneto – Schio

9 July 2013 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Schio is a town and comune in the province of Vicenza situated North of Vicenza and East of the Lake of Garda. It is surrounded by the Little Dolomites (Italian Prealps) and Mount Pasubio. By the 12th century Schio had become an important centre of prosperous wool manufacturing. The city was ruled by the Venetian Maltraversi family until 1311.   read more…

Theme Week Veneto

8 July 2013 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  6 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Veneto is one of the twenty regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fifth in Italy. The region’s capital and largest city is Venice. Besides Venice, other popular tourist towns are the opera city of Verona, the university city of Padua, the Dolomites town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, the municipalities around Lake Garda, the hot springs town of Abano Terme, and the seaside resorts Jesolo and Caorle.   read more…

The London Stone

6 July 2013 | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien | Rubric: General, London Reading Time:  7 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post London Stone is a historic stone that is now set within a Portland stone surround and iron grille on Cannon Street, in the City of London.   read more…

De Koog on the island of Texel

6 July 2013 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Den Koog is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Texel, and lies about 17 km north of Den Helder. It is the main centre of tourism on the island. The small village is surrounded with many hotels and campgrounds. The village is located on the North Sea coast of the island. Only two narrow lines of dunes separate the village from the beach.   read more…

Santiago de Compostela

4 July 2013 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General, European Union, European Capital of Culture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain, with 95,000 inhabitants. Santiago is the site of the University of Santiago de Compostela, established in the early 16th century. The main campus can be seen best from an alcove in the large municipal park in the centre of the city.   read more…

The Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia

3 July 2013 | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Independence National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in Philadelphia that preserves several sites associated with the American Revolution and the nation’s founding history. Administered by the National Park Service, the 55-acre (22 ha) park comprises much of the downtown (or “Center City“) historic district. The park has been nicknamed “America’s most historic square mile” because of its abundance of historic landmarks, and the park sites are located within the Old City and Society Hill neighborhoods of Philadelphia. The centerpiece of the park is Independence Hall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted in the late 18th century. Independence Hall was the principal meetinghouse of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1783 and the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787. Across the street from Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, an iconic symbol of American independence, is displayed in the Liberty Bell Center. The park contains other historic buildings, such as the First Bank of the United States, the first bank chartered by the United States Congress, and the Second Bank of the United States, which had its charter renewal vetoed by President Andrew Jackson as part of the Bank War.

Most of the park’s historic structures are located in the vicinity of the four landscaped blocks between Chestnut, Walnut, 2nd, and 6th streets. The park also contains Franklin Court, the site of a museum dedicated to Benjamin Franklin and the United States Postal Service Museum. An additional three blocks directly north of Independence Hall, collectively known as Independence Mall, contain the Liberty Bell Center, National Constitution Center, Independence Visitor Center, and the former site of the President’s House. Most of Independence National Historical Park’s buildings and land are contained within the broad plaza called Independence Mall, which is bookended by the National Constitution Center on the north, Independence Hall on the south, and Fifth and Sixth Streets on the east and west, respectively. The Mall was created in the 1950s by city planner Ed Bacon, who demolished “blocks of Victorian architecture” to bring an open space to the heart of historic Philadelphia in front of Independence Hall. Most of the buildings that previously occupied the site of Independence Mall were late nineteenth-century buildings that replaced earlier buildings destroyed by fire in 1851 and 1855. Proponents of the mall thought these buildings were eyesores because of their contrast with the historic nature of the area. As plans emerged, retailers on Market Street resisted, arguing that the demolition was out-of-scale with the comparatively small landmark at its southern end.

By 1959, when the bulldozers finished work on Independence Mall, only the Free Quaker Meetinghouse remained. The building had been used as a warehouse for plumbing supplies before its restoration as part of the project. In 1961, the building was moved 38 feet west and 8 feet south to its present location to allow for the widening of Fifth Street. To plan for the celebration of the United States Bicentennial in 1976, the National Park Service relocated the Liberty Bell from Independence Hall to the glass-enclosed Liberty Bell Pavilion, as the Independence Hall could not accommodate the millions expected to visit Philadelphia that year. In 1997, the National Park Service announced a plan to redesign Independence Mall. As part of the plan, several new public buildings were constructed. The Independence Visitors Center was opened in November 2001, the National Constitution Center was opened in July 2003, and the Liberty Bell, which had been housed in a glass pavilion, was moved into the Liberty Bell Center in October 2003. Exhibits include coverage of slavery in US history and its abolition. At the corner of 6th and Market Street, a President’s House memorial outlines the site of the former mansion and commemorates the slaves who worked there. The former building had been demolished in portions starting in 1835, and its remnants were removed during the creation of Independence Mall.

Read more on Independence National Historical Park, Independence Visitor Center and Wikipedia Independence National Historical Park. Photos by Wikipedia Commons.

Meerbusch on the Lower Rhine

2 July 2013 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Meerbusch, a town in Rhein-Kreis Neuss, has been an incorporated city since 1970. Meerbusch is the municipality with the second most income millionaires in North Rhine-Westphalia. Meerbusch is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany. It is located between Krefeld and Düsseldorf near Düsseldorf International Airport and Messe Düsseldorf.   read more…

Theme Week Madrid – The Cuatro Torres Business Area

1 July 2013 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General, House of the Month Reading Time:  5 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Cuatro Torres Business Area (CTBA) (Spanish for Four Towers Business Area) is a business district located in the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, on the former Ciudad Deportiva of Real Madrid. The area contains the tallest skyscrapers in Madrid and Spain. The construction of the buildings finished in 2008. The complex was formerly known as Madrid Arena. Designed by Henry N. Cobb and built by Obrascón Huarte Lain, the 57-storey Torre Espacio (Spanish for Space Tower) is 224.5 metres (736 feet) tall. In November 2006, its height surpassed that of the Gran Hotel Bali, thus making it the tallest building in Spain, although it retained that title only for a short time. The structure was topped out on March 19, 2007 and that evening, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, mayor of Madrid, attended a firework display to commemorate the event.   read more…

The Sherlock Holmes Museum in London

29 June 2013 | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien | Rubric: General, London, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  4 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The Sherlock Holmes Museum is a privately run museum in London, dedicated to the famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. It opened in 1990 and is situated in Baker Street, bearing the number 221B by permission of the City of Westminster, although it lies between numbers 237 and 241, near the north end of Baker Street in central London close to Regent’s Park.   read more…