Europe Euphoria

Food is never too far from Italian’s minds and it’s the place where world’s biggest cheese festival is held bi-annually. Popularly known as Bra Cheese Festival (Cheese - Le Forme del Latte), its one big cheesey party where one can see tables lined with cheese after cheese. In fact it’s a plethora of cheese as far as the eye can see. The fest features thousands of artisan varieties.

If you wish to explore the relics of cold war then head straight to Essex, England. Bunkers are the fascinating cold war relics. Some have disappeared but few others have been purchased by civilians and got new shape. One such bunker is the Kelvedon Hatch, the largest cold war bunker.

What’s art if there are no patrons to appreciate it? An amazing collection of paintings depicting the scenes of Roman life and legends sat under dust at the Archaeological Museum in Naples waiting to see the light. At last, they seem to have come out of the storage as they go on public display in Rome for the first time in years.

The stunning paintings, once adorned private and public buildings in Pompeii, Herculaneum and other towns near Naples before they were destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and had to be restored to revive the colors and figures that were faded.

If you’re the one who is interested in buying a piece of history, then go about reading the post. We all know about the Concorde crash, right? Now the news is that the spare parts of this iconic plane and other memorabilia are up for auction at the Hotel des Ventes Saint-Aubin in Toulouse, France. The four day auction got off to a bumpy start Friday.

Some of the world’s ancient cities are nestled in the middle of amazing canyon lands. In the Spanish province of Malaga, the medieval city of Rhonda boastfully tells a tale of the old ages. The city of Rhonda is situated in a mountainous region which is 750m above the mean sea level.

The rocky mesa provides Rhonda with automatic cover from the enemies. History tells us that it was held by the Celts, the Romans as well as the Moors. This was one of the last cities to fall before Granada. I am positive that most of us have heard about the fall of Granada.

Bafflement of the residents of Yorkshire has come to an end as the mystery of sculpted stone heads which were left outside their properties has been solved. CCTV footage in Braithwell helped police solve the riddle. They found the images of an unknown man dropping off the sculptures. The man was caught on CCTV when he was trying to drop three heads outside a village post office.

CCTV shows man carrying suspicious object.

This unknown man has left 13 carved stone heads at different locations in Yorkshire in the dead of night baffling the residents. All the sculptures are slightly different but have one thing in common. Each bears a carved symbol which appears to spell out the word paradox and comes with a note bearing the riddle: Twinkle twinkle like a star does love blaze less from afar?

Source: Daily Mail

Running out of options to visit places? Well, try visiting Stockholm over a long weekend vacation. Mostly popular as the Venice of North, Stockholm is built of 14 islands. You can go on 30 different sightseeing tours, try the regular sports or even take a night walk.

Global citizens chose the finest monuments when they voted for the new Seven Wonders of the World, the results of which were announced on July 7th, 2007. Preparations are on to celebrate and unveil each one of them over a period of two years. India’s Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Brazil’s Statue of Christ Redeemer, Peru’s Machu Picchu, Mexico’s Chichen Itza pyramid, the Colosseum in Rome and Petra of Jordan are the new Seven Wonders of the World.

When faith can move mountains, can it not move the very source it originates from? Of course it can. A 750 year old church in eastern Germany is now being moved out of its town to make way for a coal pit.

The 660-ton church will now travel on wheels and will safely be restored in Borna, a place 12 kilometers away from its origin. Heuersdorf, a village in eastern Germany is sitting on massive coal mine with an estimated 52 million tons of lignite, or brown coal. With economy gaining prominence over faith, the only option was to move the church safely out of the town and restore it.

Of course, moving the church out will not be cheap, costing an estimated €3 million ($4.3 million). The church is wrapped in steel corsets with all cracks plugged, and with the help of hydraulic lifts, it will be transferred on to a multi-wheeled red transport bed. While sensors check the condition of the building as it moves, structural engineers will accompany the church through the holy journey to ensure that the building never tilts more than 2 degrees.

The church is expected to make a grand re-opening Easter Monday 2008 once it is rebuilt. Perfect example of ‘Faith shaken and restored!’

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Spain’s oldest and grandest art museum popularly known as Prado Museum is a place that offers a large and varied feast to art lovers. Good news is that it is undergoing extension giving a 21st century update to this 18th century museum.