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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Visitors Out: 298 |
| Total Visitors Out: 298 |
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| The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben |
| 2008-06-27 15:52:30 |
The Houses of Parliament, more widely known as Westminster Palace, is the preeminent symbol of London with its famous clock tower and “Big Ben” bell. Originally erected a thousand years ago, its primary function was as a royal residence. Today, Westminster Palace serves several roles, including acting as the location where the United Kingdom’s House [...]...
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| Oberammergau |
| 2008-06-11 18:14:23 |
Promises to God are notoriously hard to keep. The townspeople of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps have not only kept their renaissance promise, they’ve turned it into euros and cents. Flashback to 1633. Oberammergau was a stop on the market road between Augsburg and Venice. When the plague hit, the town elders swore to heaven: [...]...
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| Americans in Paris: Expat Heaven |
| 2008-06-06 18:03:59 |
Paris in the 1920s was a golden age for financially-challenged American writers, who flocked here for the excellent exchange rate for the dollar and the liberated lifestyle – not to mention the hottest art scene in the world. Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his flamboyant wife Zelda, Ford Madox Ford, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, [...]...
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| Pirates of the Galapagos |
| 2008-05-30 16:00:15 |
They may not have the same wacky wit as Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow, but the pirates of the Galapagos had their share of adventures among the otherwise pristine islands. During the 1500s and 1600s – as Spain was busy collecting the wealth of the Incas and shipping it home – the pirates (or buccaneers, [...]...
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| Yellowstone: The Birth of the Park Model |
| 2008-05-23 15:03:04 |
Every 90 minutes or so, hundreds of onlookers gather to admire the gush of Old Faithful, the world’s most famous geyser – a spectacle that remains as enthralling today as it was back in the summer of 1870, when Cornelius Hedges, a member of the scientific party to study the Upper Geyser Basin, first beheld [...]...
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| Must-sees of Rome |
| 2008-05-16 15:42:09 |
The Terrace at Hotel Eden
Hollywood’s home in Rome is the Hotel Eden in via Ludovisi. Since it’s reopening in 1994, several of Tinsel Town’s “A-list” have stayed in its glorious surrounds. For drinks in the evening, the Terrace offers some best views in the city and, perchance, a star sighting or two....
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| Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church |
| 2008-05-09 17:34:32 |
During World War II, Americans soldiers in occupied Germany got a booklet called the “Pocket Guide to Germany” that explained the ins and outs of occupation. In 1944, it read read: “Don’t forget that you’re ordered into Germany now partly because your fathers forgot so soon what the war was about last time.”The Kaiser Wilhelm [...]...
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| Capri: The Emperor’s Hideaway |
| 2008-05-07 17:04:58 |
Rising like a whale from the ocean, the spectacular island of Capri has held a particular attraction for celebrities trying to “get away from it all” over the centuries. In former times, it lured the writers Goethe, Oscar Wilde and Graham Greene; these days, it attracts American stars like Leonardo di Caprio, Harrison Ford [...]...
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| The Greatest French Invention: Le Restaurant |
| 2008-04-30 14:45:46 |
Everyone who comes to Paris looks forward to its restaurants – famous institutions like Taillevent, Guy Savoy and Faugeron roll off the tongues of world gourmands – and it has remained that way for more than 200 years. Starting in the Middle Ages, aristocrats traditionally ate in their own homes unless they were traveling, [...]...
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| The Evolution of Evolution |
| 2008-04-25 14:44:28 |
If the giant tortoise is the symbol of the Galapagos Islands, then Darwin’s finches must be the symbol of evolution in the Galapagos. The Galapagos Islands’ finches are most famous for their role in this theory of evolution. What may be less well-known is that the finches are still evolving today. ...
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| Yodelfest in Lucerne, the Biggest Hoot of Summer Festivals |
| 2008-04-18 15:46:44 |
In June art festivals of all sorts blossom like spring flowers across Switzerland in almost every one of the 26 Cantons, from Art Basel in the north, a gigantic week-long art market that attracts 50,000 collectors and buyers, to the Montreux Jazz Festival in the south, one of the world’s greatest music venues....
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| Mark Twain’s Heidelberg |
| 2008-04-16 17:49:28 |
“One thinks Heidelberg by day – with its surroundings – is the last possibility of the beautiful; but when he sees Heidelberg by night, a fallen Milky Way, with that glittering railway constellation pinned to the border, he requires time to consider upon the verdict.” Mark Twain wrote this ode to Heidelberg in his humorous [...]...
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| A Short Wine Guide |
| 2008-04-11 16:55:27 |
Historically, Germany’s wine has suffered with an “inferiority complex” fueled by the reputation of wine powerhouses France and Italy. And in modern times, they’ve tacked of “how to compete with a Bordeaux or a Chianti” by improving quality, while keep prices reasonable. Finally, German vintners are starting to reap the rewards. The world famous Riesling [...]...
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| Vatican Museums |
| 2008-04-09 13:36:01 |
In the early 1500s, Rome was full of neglected ruins from the days of the ancient Empire, which still contained artworks buried amongst the rubble. The Renaissance had seen a sudden growth of interest in all things classical, and the popes – cultivated men who were in touch with the intellectual currents of the [...]...
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| Notre Dame: Saved by the Hunchback |
| 2008-04-04 17:05:57 |
Europe’s most famous cathedral, whose twin Gothic towers loom above France’s most beloved river, the Seine, actually owes a lot of its international success to the author Victor Hugo. Back in 1831, when Hugo wrote his classic novel about a hunchbacked bell-ringer at Notre Dame who falls in love with a beautiful gypsy, the [...]...
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| Must-sees of Venice |
| 2008-04-02 15:25:45 |
Harry’s Bar
Pop into Harry’s Bar near Piazza San Marco, one of Hemingway’s favorite haunts, and you’ll see where the novelist created his signature cocktail made of 15 parts gin to 1 part vermouth. If you decide to try one, make sure you know the way back to your hotel.
Squero di San Trovaso
If you’d like to [...]...
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| Reception at The Doge’s Palace |
| 2008-03-28 16:50:36 |
The interior of the Doge’s Palace is lavish even by Venice’s excessive standards. As chief magistrate and leader of the Republic, the Doge was the symbolic embodiment of its power and prestige, and his residence was filled with its most ornate, wood-paneled offices, with sun-filled porticoes commanding the best views of the Lagoon where [...]...
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| Changing of the Guard (origins of the ceremony) |
| 2008-03-26 17:28:27 |
Changing the Guard dates to Henry VII (reigned 1485-1509) and was designed to show military discipline as well as ceremony. The tall bearskin hats were introduced in the 18th century to make the soldiers look taller and thus more frightening, and they were adopted for ceremonial use in 1832. The ceremony we know today started [...]...
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| Riddle Me This: The Chinese Lantern Festival |
| 2008-03-21 10:49:52 |
Originally a religious ritual born nearly 2,000 years ago, The Lantern Festival – or Yuanxiao Jie – began when Buddhist leaders lit lanterns on the 15th day of the first lunar month, on the last day of the Chinese New Year, to show respect to their spiritual founder. Shortly after this religious observance developed, the [...]...
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| Cologne Cathedral |
| 2008-03-19 10:14:44 |
When a resident of Cologne returns after even a short stay outside the city, it just isn’t home until they’ve seen the black towers of the “Dom” against the sky. Germany’s largest gothic cathedral can’t be described with the usual words – monumental, awe-inspiring, beautiful, majestic. It’s more than that. It’s been known to perplex [...]...
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| The Aussie Wine Industry |
| 2008-03-14 14:45:03 |
It’s hard to believe today, when Australia’s wines are world famous and fine vintages are readily available in every pub and café from Wagga to Oodnadatta, but it was not until the 1970s that Aussies really began to appreciate the virtues of the grape. Thanks to the post-war waves of immigrants from Italy and [...]...
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| Must-Sees of Florence |
| 2008-03-12 17:49:54 |
Da Vinci’s birthplace
About a half-hour’s drive from Florence down a small country road is an old farmhouse in the town of Anchiano. Here it is believed that Leonardo da Vinci was born in April of 1452. Farther down the road in the town of Vinci is the chapel where he was christened.
La Casalinga
For comfort food [...]...
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| It’s Lonely at the Top |
| 2008-03-07 15:43:22 |
The Galapagos Islands are home to some of the rarest animals in the world. No animal is more synonymous with the Galapagos Islands than the giant tortoise. Indeed, the saddle-back shape of the shell in many of the tortoise races reminded the early Spaniards of a type of riding saddle called “galapago,” and this term [...]...
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| The Great Barrier Reef |
| 2008-03-03 11:31:55 |
For nature-lovers, a visit to the Great Barrier Reef is a quasi-religious experience. The 1600 mile long organism, which can even be identified from space, is actually a web of 2,900 self-contained reefs that lie between 40 and 100 miles off Australia’s north-east coast. From a plane, the Reef looks like a giant [...]...
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| Sorrento: The Hamptons of Antiquity |
| 2008-02-24 16:55:11 |
Italian movie stars and pop idols are still snapping up real estate around the seaside town of Sorrento – Siren’s Point – unaware that 2,000 years ago it was also the very heart of the ancient Romans’ favorite holiday destination. In fact, the entire sun-drenched coastline from the Bay of Naples south to the [...]...
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