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.
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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.
A new Museum of French Monuments offering a walk through 800 years of history in architecture (from medieval churches to futuristic apartments) opened in Paris on Monday. It’s a $111 million project inaugurated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Making a baby can get you a car. Yes, you’ve read it right! 12th of September can be lucky for some couples in Russia. Family Contact Day dubbed Conception Day is celebrated every year to boost the birthrate in an area where the population has been declining for more than a decade.
Like most developed countries, Russia is facing a demographic crisis. The abortion rate in Russia has increased to great extent which is the main reason of flagging birth rate. The population is shrinking at an ever-increasing rate and is now falling by almost half a percent each year. Demographic experts expect the decline to accelerate, estimating that Russia’s population could fall below 100 million by 2050. Boosting the birthrate is the reason why Russia celebrates Conception Day.
What is Conception Day?
Conception day is a special day started by the governor of Ulyanovsk province, Sergei Morozov three years ago for encouraging procreation. 12th September is declared as a Day of Conception and is giving couples time off from work to procreate. Couples who give birth nine months later on Russia’s national day June 12 receive money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes.
Everyone who has a baby in an Ulyanovsk hospital on Russia Day gets some kind of prize. But the grand prize winners are couples judged to be the fittest parents by a committee that deliberates for two weeks over the selection. Federal program is a broad effort to boost Russia’s birthrate. Under this program women who give birth to a second or subsequent child are to receive certificates worth $10,000, which can be used to pay for education or to improve the family’s living conditions.
Source: Gadling
If you are fervent traveler and your list of travel destinations continue to grow everyday then get ready to add a new destination to your list. Full of strange rock formations, beautiful landscapes and underground cities, the Cappadocia area is one of the most interesting places in the world.
Imagine yourself on a beach where the sand is pink in color. Sounds amazing, right! Situated between Rimini and Riccione on the Adriatic coast lies a romantic beach (Pink Beach) made up of fine-grained sand in a glorious shell-pink.
If you are into bags, then I’ll suggest you a visit Tassenmuseum Hendrikje. It’s a unique museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam which has a great collection ranging 17th century pouches and alms purses, 18th century thigh bags, wallets and framed bags, 19th century reticules and stocking purses and classical, special models from the 20th and the 21st century.
