Theme Week Chateaux of the Loire Valley – Château de Chenonceau

20 January 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Aerial view © Lieven Smits

Aerial view © Lieven Smits

The Château de Chenonceau is a manor house near the small village of Chenonceaux, in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France. It was built on the site of an old mill on the River Cher, sometime before its first mention in writing in the 11th century. The current manor was designed by the French Renaissance architect Philibert Delorme.   read more…

České Budějovice in Southern Bohemia

12 January 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Market Square © Erwin1990

Market Square © Erwin1990

České Budějovice (German and English: Budweis) is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the largest city in the South Bohemian Region and is the political and commercial capital of the region and centre of the Roman Catholic Diocese of České Budějovice and of the University of South Bohemia and the Academy of Sciences. The town is not to be confused with Moravské Budějovice in Moravia.   read more…

Valletta on Malta

13 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, European Capital of Culture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Grandmaster's Palace © Zairon/cc-by-sa-3.0

Grandmaster’s Palace © Zairon/cc-by-sa-3.0

Valletta is the capital of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt (English: The City) in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta, and the historical city has a population of 6,966. Valletta is the second southernmost capital of the EU member states after Nicosia.   read more…

Koblenz, at the confluence of Rhine and Moselle rivers

11 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Panorama Fortress Ehrenbreitstein © Holger Weinandt

Panorama Fortress Ehrenbreitstein © Holger Weinandt

Koblenz is a city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) and its monument (Emperor William I on horseback) are situated. As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the town celebrated its 2000th anniversary in 1992. The name Koblenz is from Latin (ad) confluentes, confluence or “(at the) merging of rivers”. Subsequently it was Covelenz and Cobelenz. In the local dialect the name is Kowelenz. After Mainz and Ludwigshafen am Rhein, it is the third largest city in Rhineland-Palatinate, with a population of c. 106,000 (2006). Koblenz lies in the Rhineland, 92 kilometers (57 miles) southeast of Cologne by rail.   read more…

The Cologne Cathedral

10 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

© ger1axg/cc-by-sa-3.0

© ger1axg/cc-by-sa-3.0

Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site. It is Germany’s most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day.   read more…

Theme Week Belgium – Ypres in West Flanders

4 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Grote Markt, the market square © Tony Grist

Grote Markt, the market square © Tony Grist

Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. Though Ieper is the Dutch and only official name, the city’s French name, Ypres, is most commonly used in English due to its role in World War I when only French was in official use in Belgian documents, including on maps. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote. Together, they are home to some 35,000 inhabitants.   read more…

The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg

3 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Winter Palace at night © Robert Breuer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Winter Palace at night © Robert Breuer/cc-by-sa-3.0

The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items, including the largest collection of paintings in the world. Beside the Louvre and the Prado, Hermitage Museum houses one of the most important collections of classical European art.   read more…

Hoher Dachstein

2 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Hoher Dachstein with Vorderer Gosausee © Einer flog zu Weit/cc-by-sa-3.0

Hoher Dachstein with Vorderer Gosausee © Einer flog zu Weit/cc-by-sa-3.0

Hoher Dachstein is a strongly karstic Austrian mountain, and the second highest mountain in the Northern Limestone Alps. It is situated at the border of Upper Austria and Styria in central Austria, and is the highest point in each of those states. Parts of the massif also lie in the state of Salzburg, leading to the mountain being referred to as the Drei-Länder-Berg (“three-state mountain”). The Dachstein massif covers an area of around 20×30 km with dozens of peaks above 2,500 m, the highest of which are in the southern and south-western areas. Seen from the north, the Dachstein massif is dominated by the glaciers with the rocky summits rising beyond them. By contrast, to the south, the mountain drops almost vertically to the valley floor.   read more…

Theme Week Lombardy – Desenzano del Garda

29 November 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Old port of Desenzano © RicciSpeziari/cc-by-sa-3.0

Old port of Desenzano © RicciSpeziari/cc-by-sa-3.0

Desenzano del Garda is a town and comune in the province of Brescia, on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda. It borders the communes of Castiglione delle Stiviere, Lonato, Padenghe sul Garda and Sirmione. Sometime in the first century, the area around lake Garda, including what is now Desenzano del Garda, became a favourite vacation spot for the Veronese élite, Verona being one of the largest Roman cities in northeastern Italy.   read more…

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