Whether it’s running of the bulls festival or the tomato festival, Spain always has something or other to be in limelight. Now it has what it claims to be the World’s biggest salad. With 6,700 kilograms (14,740 pounds) of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers and olives as ingredients 20 Spanish cook prepared the salad in about three hours.
No one can question Italy’s plethora of art and cultural sites and there are many architectural treasures that need preservation and restoration. Italy is spending 300 million euros ($420 million) per year for restoration and upkeep of its cultural heritage and private donations from Italian citizens and companies total about 42 million euros ($59 million) but this doesn’t make enough funds needed for restoration of the architectural sites.
I am not sure why but, whenever someone talks about England and the English, I always get the creeps. The name itself is kind of spooky. Added to that, the medieval castles and English moors paint a picture of creepy, scary England in mind’s eye. Also, there are several haunting tales throughout the English country side that’s popular through out the world.
The Muncaster Castle of England, is a superb example of a haunted English castle. Spending a whole night there will turn the gutsiest person into a gutless, sissy. Why? Well, here’s a glimpse. How would you like to hear a weird, bizzare guttural sound coming from one corner of the room while you stand on a carpet that looks disturbingly similar to blood? All this is happening when it’s not even midnight!
None of us likes fights and want peace around. Right? But you’ll be surprised to know that there are people around the world who love to indulge themselves in a fight. Every year a small town of Ivrea is transformed into an unlikely battlefield. People from each district form an army to attack its neighbor with a single deadly weapon. And you’ll be even more surprised to know that weapon used in this battle is the orange!
Rome is as full of traffic as is filled with beauty. It easily gets jammed at almost every major road. But so as to not avoid missing every single glorious moment of your visit in this beautiful city, biking is the ultimate way to travel here.
It’s fast and it’s the only way you are going to make it past every roadblock of this magnificently crowded city.
The city’s antipollution politics has made bike riding more popular and coupled with the swarming cars and vehicles it is the fastest route to any place there as it saves a lot of time and the trouble with parking.
Right from the leafy pathways of the Borghese Gardens, the Roman version of Central Park down the glamorous Via Veneto toward the breathtaking Colosseum it is simply put the best way to see the city.
The view keeps getting better as the wind sweeps across your face as you keep pedaling around the pedestrian square and its Bernini fountain and then touch the Piazza della Rotonda alongside the huge dome of the Pantheon, still intact after 19 centuries.
Out here as much preferred it is to travel on bike one needs to be very alert to avoid the quick snapping of the bikes from right under your nose. Other than that bikes have plenty of advantages over scooters like themetal bars prevent motor vehicles, but not bicycles. In Trastevere, the lively neighborhood west of the river, most alleys are open only to pedestrians and bicyclists.
Rome has been always said to be courteous to cyclists though the only problem one might come across other than keeping your eyes on your ride always is to find a secure place to tie up your bike so as to prey your eyes on the exquisite beauty of Rome.
Even through the major gridlocks one can be sure that a bicyclist has eternal rewards as Rome is after all, a city of contrast, best cherished by means of speedy mobility.
Although the city’s hills, mature cobblestones and solid streets can make biking tricky for some, it’s now easier than ever to enjoy the highlights from the bicycle seat.
The number of bicycle lanes and rental shops and the indulgence of Rome’s otherwise aggressive drivers make biking in Rome fitting.
Some places for Bike rentals:
The headquarters for the Parco Via Appia Antica (Via Appia Antica 42; 39-06-513-5316) is two miles from the Colosseum, outside the Porta San Sebastiano, and offers bike rentals (3 euros an hour for the first three hours, and 10 euros a day).
Bici & Baci (Via del Viminale 5; 39-06-482-8443; www.bicibaci.com), two blocks west of the Stazione Termini.
Danilo Collalti (Via del Pellegrino 80/82; 39-06-6880-1084).
Bici Pincio (Viale della Pineta; 39-06-678-4374) in the Borghese Gardens.
via source: Nytimes
Images: Rome1
Each year in the month of September, a small farming village of St Hilaire du Touvet in the French Alps explodes with the wonderful sights and sounds of hang-gliding and paragliding festival called the Coupe Icare (the Icarus Cup). It’s a spectacular event and the world’s biggest free flight event that attracts over 8000 pilots and 75000 visitors each year.
Swedish archaeologists have dug up a Viking treasure trove in a garden in the Baltic Island of Gotland. A gardener who was tending his vegetable patch stumbled upon the treasure trove containing silver coins from Europe, central Asia, and the Middle East.
The Viking money totalled about 69 coins dating from late 900s and early 1000s. The find contains rare early Viking money and foreign currency from present-day England, Germany, Ireland, Iraq, and Uzbekistan.
Vikings, also called Norsemen or Northmen, refers to a members of the Scandinavian seafaring traders, warriors and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 8th to the 11th century and reached east to Russia and Constantinople. The Anglo-saxon coins that were found in the Swedish garden are likely to be the plunder or protection money known as danegeld, which was paid by regional rulers to keep Vikings from attacking, according to the experts. A similar cache was found earlier in England.
Gotland probably was a Viking trading center earlier and that’s the reason why the archaeologists have discovered about 700 to 800 silver hoards.
Source
The image you see above is the computer generated hand out image that shows a plan of a luxury island to be built in the Black Sea. Scheduled to be completed by 2014, it’s a 350 hectare artificial Russia-shaped island to be built at the Russian Resort city of Sochi near the XXII Olympic Winter Games venue.
Planning the European vacation? Think again! Airfares might be getting affordable but if you get to destinations like Moscow, New York, Venice and London, there is a possibility that you might not get a room to stay. Yes, this is true! Internet booking site Hotels.com conducted a survey recently according to which these cities have the most expensive average hotel prices.
The picture above shows the most bizarre pub in Britain. Popularly known as the Crooked House, it is less a pub and more a tourist attraction. Located on the western rural edge of the Black Country it is one of the most famous pubs in the country.
