Günzburg in Swabia

16 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Legoland Germany © Stefan Scheer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Legoland Germany © Stefan Scheer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Günzburg (Swabian: Genzburg) is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is a Große Kreisstadt and the capital of the Swabian district Günzburg. This district was constituted in 1972 by combining the city of Günzburg – which had not previously been assigned to a Kreis (district) – with the district of Günzburg and the district of Krumbach. Günzburg lies where the river Günz enters the Danube, and has a population of about 20,350. Legoland Germany is located in Günzburg. Günzburg has flourished, boasting a thriving downtown shopping area and scenic views of the nearby historic castle.   read more…

Theme Week Hungary – Visegrád

21 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  11 minutes

Danube and Visegrad Castle © Civertan Grafikai Studio/cc-by-3.0

Danube and Visegrad Castle © Civertan Grafikai Studio/cc-by-3.0

Visegrád is a small castle town in Pest County, Hungary. It is north of Budapest on the right bank of the Danube in the Danube Bend. It had a population of 1,864 in 2010. Visegrád is famous for the remains of the Early Renaissance summer palace of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and the medieval citadel. In 1991, the leading politicians of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland met here to form a periodical forum, the Visegrád Group, with an intentional allusion to the meeting centuries earlier in 1335. Visegrád was granted town privileges again in 2000.   read more…

Theme Week Hungary

20 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  12 minutes

View from Gellert Hill to the Danube in Budapest © flickr.com - Visions of Domino/cc-by-2.0

View from Gellert Hill to the Danube in Budapest © flickr.com – Visions of Domino/cc-by-2.0

Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west. Hungary is a landlocked country. Hungary has a population of 10 million, mostly ethnic Hungarians and a significant Romani minority. Hungarian, the official language, is the world’s most widely spoken Uralic language, and among the few non-Indo-European languages widely spoken in Europe. Budapest is the country’s capital and largest city; other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs, and Győr.   read more…

Bratislava on the Danube

2 January 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

View from Petrzalka to the Old City Part © Ondrejk

View from Petrzalka to the Old City Part © Ondrejk

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 460,000, also the country’s largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River and on the left bank of Morava river. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries. Bratislava is the political, cultural, and economic centre of Slovakia. It is the seat of the Slovak president, the parliament, and the Slovak government. It is home to several universities, museums, theatres, galleries and other important cultural and educational institutions. Many of Slovakia’s large businesses and financial institutions also have headquarters there.   read more…

The Benedictine abbey Stift Melk in Lower Austria

2 March 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  4 minutes

Park © Veleius

Park © Veleius

Melk Abbey is an Austrian Benedictine abbey, and one of the world’s most famous monastic sites. It is located above the town of Melk on a rocky outcrop overlooking the river Danube in Lower Austria, adjoining the Wachau valley.   read more…

Ulm on the Danube

27 June 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Cholo Aleman

© Cholo Aleman

Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 (2006), forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and traditions as a former Free Imperial City (German: freie Reichsstadt). Today, it is an economic centre due to its varied industries, and it is the seat of a university (University of Ulm, founded in 1967). Internationally, Ulm is primarily known for having the church with the tallest steeple in the world, the Gothic minster (Ulm Minster) and as the birthplace of Albert Einstein.   read more…

Linz in Upper Austria

16 June 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, European Capital of Culture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

© www.vr-photos.com - Johann Steininger

© www.vr-photos.com – Johann Steininger

Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria. It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately 30 km (19 mi) south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is 189,367, and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about 271,000.   read more…

The Rhine

7 October 2011 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Distance marks along the Rhine indicate distances from this bridge in the City of Constance © Achim Lehle

Distance marks along the Rhine indicate distances from this bridge in the City of Constance © Achim Lehle

The Rhine flows from Grisons in the eastern Swiss Alps to the North Sea coast in the Netherlands and is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at about 1,233 km (766 mi), with an average discharge of more than 2,000 m3/s (71,000 cu ft/s).   read more…

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