The port of New York

28 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  7 minutes

South Street Seaport © flickr.com - ian reid/cc-by-2.0

South Street Seaport © flickr.com – ian reid/cc-by-2.0

New York Harbor, part of the Port of New York and New Jersey, is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the United States Board on Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental, commercial, and ecological usages.   read more…

Nazaré on the Atlantic coast

2 May 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Joaomartinho63/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Joaomartinho63/cc-by-sa-3.0

Nazaré is a town in Nazaré Municipality in Portugal with a total area of 82.4 km² and a total population of 15,158 inhabitants. It is in the Oeste subregion. The town consists of three sections: Praia (along the beach), Sítio (an old village, on top of a cliff) and Pederneira (another old village, on a hilltop). The Praia and the Sítio areas are linked by the Nazaré Funicular, a funicular railway. The first church in O Sítio, was built over the grotto to commemorate a miraculous intervention (1182) by the Virgin Mary in saving the life of the 12th century Portuguese knight Dom Fuas Roupinho, possibly a templar, while he was hunting deer one foggy early morning. This episode is usually referred to as the Legend of Nazaré. In memory of the miracle he had a chapel (Capela da Memória) built over the small grotto, where the miraculous statue had been left by King Roderic after the monk’s death. Beside the chapel, on a protuberant rock 110 meters above the Atlantic, one can still see the mark made in the rock by one of the hooves of Dom Fuas’ horse.   read more…

The Bahamas

11 November 2011 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

The Abaco Islands - Hope Town Lighthouse © bahamas.com

The Abaco Islands – Hope Town Lighthouse © bahamas.com

The Bahamas officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets (rocks). It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States (nearest to the state of Florida). Its land area is 13,939 km2 (5,382 sq mi), with an estimated population of 330,000. Its capital is Nassau. Geographically, The Bahamas lie in the same island chain as Cuba, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the designation of Bahamas refers normally to the Commonwealth and not the geographic chain.   read more…

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