The Burlington Arcade is a covered shopping arcade in London that runs behind Bond Street from Piccadilly through to Burlington Gardens. It is one of the precursors of the mid-19th century European shopping gallery and the modern shopping centre. The Burlington Arcade was built “for the sale of jewellery and fancy articles of fashionable demand, for the gratification of the public”. read more…
Cancún is a city in southeastern Mexico, located on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a major world-renowned tourist destination, as well as being the seat of the municipality of Benito Juárez. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, and is one of the easternmost points in Mexico. There are two possible translations of Cancún, based on the Mayan pronunciation. The first translation is “nest of snakes or pot.” The second version and less accepted is “place of the gold snake”. read more…
Huis Doorn (Doorn Manor) is a small manor house that lies outside of Doorn, a small town near Utrecht, in the Netherlands. The 15th-century house was rebuilt in the late 18th century in a conservative manner and, in the mid-19th century, a surrounding park was laid out as an English landscape garden. Baroness Ella van Heemstra (1900–1984), the mother of actress Audrey Hepburn, spent much of her childhood living in the house. The property was purchased in 1919 by Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor, as his residence-in-exile (1920–1941), following his abdication after World War I. During his years in exile, he was allowed to travel freely within a 15 mile radius of his house, but journeys farther than that meant that advance notice had to be given to a local government official. As he disliked having to kowtow to a minor official, he rarely journeyed beyond the ‘free’ limit. The former Emperor regularly exercised by chopping down many of the estate’s trees, splitting the logs into stacks of firewood, thereby denuding the matured landscape as the years progressed. Hence he was called by his enemies ‘The Woodchopper of Doorn’. The Dutch government seized the manor house and its household effects in 1945 and, since then, many new trees have been re-planted and the wooded parkland is returning to its earlier glory. read more…
Bonifacio is a commune at the southern tip of the island of Corsica, in the Corse-du-Sud department of France. Its inhabitants are called Bonifaciens, feminine Bonifaciennes. The commune in this case is identical to the canton and is the largest commune of Corsica. read more…
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn. The site was formerly an outer barrier island of Long Island, but became partially connected to the mainland by land fill. Coney Island is possibly best known as the site of amusement parks and a major resort. The attractions reached their peak during the first half of the 20th century, declining in popularity after World War II and years of neglect. In recent years, the area has seen the opening of MCU Park and has become home to the minor league baseball team the Brooklyn Cyclones. read more…
Sanremo or San Remo is a city with about 57,000 inhabitants on the Mediterranean coast of western Liguria in north-western Italy. Founded in Roman times, the city is best known as a tourist destination on the Italian Riviera. It hosts numerous cultural events, such as the Sanremo Music Festival and the Milan – San Remo cycling classic. The city is widely accepted as the origin of the five-card stud variant telesina. The closest airport to Sanremo is in France, the Côte d’Azur International Airport in Nice, 75 minutes away by car or train. read more…
Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, situated on the Black Sea coast near the border between Georgia and Russia. Greater Sochi sprawls for 145 kilometers (90 mi) along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains. The city has a permanent population of 343,000; up from 329,000 recorded in the 2002, making it Russia’s largest resort city. read more…
Piraeus is a port city in the region of Attica. Piraeus is located within the Athens-Piraeus Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center (municipality of Athens), and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf. read more…
