Europe Euphoria

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Villa Bianca, Tuscany is a luxurious hotel that is perched on a hillside above Sicily’s most stylish resort, Taormina. It provides an excellent standard of accommodation to make your stay memorable and enjoyable.

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The hotel is surrounded by a large green park that has ancient trees as cypresses, pines and lime trees. There are 3 double bedrooms, open plan kitchen, living and dining area in the hotel. With traditional decor, the bedrooms are comfortable and relaxing. Also, there is a children pool, Jacuzzi area and an outdoor bar that remains open 24-hours.

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Just 100 meters away there is the clearest warm water anywhere in the Adriatic, for swimming, sailing, diving and fishing. Throw open your window for a breath of sea air and you’ll glimpse the beach and Mediterranean Sea or the mountains! You can rent the villa for a weekly. The charges start from $690.

Location: Loc. Piazzano C.S. 25, Tuoro sul Trasimeno

Source: Latimes

Known for Montenegro’s best beaches, Budva is the fastest growing tourist destination. Apart from its natural beauty, its bay islands and beaches, Budva is rich in historic monuments, architecture, its cultural heritage and night life.

Nestled in-between several large cliffs, Mogren is the most famous beach of Budva. Among other beaches are Ričardova glava, Pizana, Slovenska (Slav Beach), Guvance.

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Budva is a white-walled jewel that juts into the glass-clear Adriatic Sea, a dramatic entry point to the miles of beaches that stretch south toward the Albanian border.

Church Sv. Trojica, housing the tomb of the exquisite writer Stjepan Mitrov Ljubisa, the Churches of Sv. Ivan, Sv. Bogorodica and Sv. Sava are the famous buildings in Budva. Also, there are important historic and religious monuments such as Monasteries Stanjevici, Podostrog, Rezevici and Gradiste.

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Getting There:

By air: There are flights from New York to Podgorica, in between you’ll have to change planes in Europe. There are regular flights from Vienna. Montenegro Airlines also offers flights from Belgrade and other European cities. You can fly to Dubrovnik, in Croatia, and rent a car.

Stay at:

The Queen of Montenegro (Becici): Double rooms start between 55 euros and 110 euros per person, breakfast included.
Hotel Splendid (Becici): Double rooms start at 97 euros to 137 euros a person, breakfast included.

Hotel Marija: Doubles are 90 euros for two people, breakfast included.

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Eat at:

Konoba Jadran is a family-run local favorite, specializing in seafood.
Dolce Vita offers quiet seaside dining. Dinner with wine costs about 35 euros.
Masa is a fantastic place to grab a drink (3 to 5 euros) or dessert.

Budvu is amongst the most beautiful coasts in the world and its beauty will not leave you indifferent.

Source: The New York Times

It seems that UK is quite desperate to take away the title of the tallest building from Manchester’s Beetham Tower. There are plans to build the tallest commercial space on the waterfronts of Liverpool. Named The King Edward Tower, the £130m skyscraper will have the highest living spaces in the UK. The tower will have 54 stories with 412 apartments, 25,000 sq ft of commercial office space and 7,500 sq ft of retail and leisure space.

There will be penthouses on the 54th floor of the building. Also, there will be 6,000 sq ft rooftop bar/restaurant on the top of the tower. The construction of the tower is anticipated to begin in mid-2008 and it’ll take three years to complete.

Source: LuxuryLaunches

Products that enhance the feel of skin and the smell of the body have been highly valued in every culture. Today women have fragrance wardrobes of at least six different perfumes, rather than a single signature perfume. Do you know Grasse which is known as the perfume capital of the world is the medieval Provincial town associated with billion-dollar perfume industry.

Grasse is an ideal perfume producing place. Though it is very close to the fine sand beaches of Cannes, with their stifling heat in summer yet it enjoys a fresher climate all year round. The plentiful sunshine and mild temperatures make the town and surrounding areas ideal for flower growing, and thus ideal for the production of perfume.

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Molinard, Galimard, Salon des Parfums are the main perfumeries of Grasse. These are open to public all the year round and guided tours are also provided which lets the people watch the process of perfume manufacture, learn the history of Grasse’s importance in the industry and buy products in the on-site shops.

Fragonard is the famous historic centre that offers 35 fragrances. These products can be found in about 20 countries. Guided tours of the Fragonard’s factory floor in the old town are provided.

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There are three notes in which the fragrances are broken down. Bergamot or mandarin is the scent that is first detected and is the top note. Magnolia or jasmine is the heart note. Cedar and sandalwood, which can last up to 24 hours on the skin is the base note

At the end of the tour, visitors can go to the boutique, where the company’s fragrances are on display. Billet Doux, a floral eau de parfum is for about 45 euros. Les Naturelles eau de toilette (100 milliliters) is for 19 euros.

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Grasse is worth a visit if you wish to experience the wonderful fragrances hanging in the air during the summer months. So, next time you spray on some perfume, remember owe the luxury to the pioneering perfumers of Grasse.

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Source: The New York Times

Loud and obnoxious bars, sailors pulling up ropes, and ancient city streets are prominent characteristics of most of the Croatian cities. Although I haven’t heard of a lot of people who have goofed off to Croatia, it is definitely a great place to be checked out.

The period between April and September is ideal for visiting this part of the world. Zagreb is Croatia’s capital city and there are plenty of flights to Zagreb from Most European cities. These are mostly operated by Croatian airlines.

Where is Croatia?

Well, you are probably wondering by now where on earth is Croatia. This is a small country sandwiched between Slovenia and Bosnia as on the map. Also, you can see the weird shape of the country on the map above.
So much for location and how to get to Croatia.

What’s there to see?

Unlike other big countries, Croatia doesn’t really offer much. However, it does offer a few sandy beaches, and a cuisine without much variation. The most appealing thing about this part of the world is the tranquility and the awe inspiring natural beauty.

The tourists can be mostly found at Dubrovnik, Rovinj, and the town of Hvar. Along the Croatian coast are Zlatni Rat, and Vis. This is much different than California coastline. These are some very attractive and exotic names.

In the city of Dubrovnik are some old historic forts. These are very medieval in nature. I think this is a popular tourist destination. Whenever someone talks about Croatia, Dubrovnik comes up first during the conversation. The city offers a majestic palace turned to hotel for the visitors.

Besides these, there are hilltop vacation resorts/hotels where you can chill out with your significant other. Towns like Groznjan and Motovun are there to offer you unforgettable awesome vistas. These hilltop resorts are fully equipped with air conditioners, terraces and kitchens. Some also offer swimming pools and other entertainment facilities. A week in these villas would cost you pound 1,495.

Croatia is littered with diverse landscapes all over. Plitvice national park is kept hush hush. It is not that popular of a tourist destination yet. Awesome rock faces and astounding waterfalls offer great views to the tourists. This is a mecca for wildlife lovers. You can go on a guided tour for 12 pounds per adult.

The country’s tourism was put on hold for a while due to the war in 1990s. With Bosnia right next door, Croatia did suffer some loses from the war. Please be advised that parts of Croatia still have land mines buried under soil. I was quite shocked after I got this information. But, if you are traveling in popular tourist destinations, you shouldn’t have to worry about land mines.

So, after reading all this are you still thinking about visiting Croatia? Well, what’s stopping you. After all the famous literary figure George Bernard shaw rightly called this place a heaven on earth.

Image Credits: Webcarhire, Guardian , Friendlyplanet , Excursiononline

In the past, various religious places like churches, chapels and cathedrals were beautified with stained glass windows, new altars and various decorations. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel or Piero della Francesca’s frescoes in Arezzo are the finest examples. But slowly the decorations of these religious places stopped as, with time, they seize to be the most appropriate settings for the modern art.

With a wave of contemporary art installations that unveiled in these religious places all across Europe, it seems that European artists are returning to these religious places. A Spanish artist Miguel Barcelo and the eclectic German painter Gerhard Richter are among the famous artists of the present era.

Last year, Barcelo completed a ceramic panorama for the St. Pere Chapel in the Gothic cathedral in Palma, Majorca. Gerhard Richter has created a dazzling stained-glass window for the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, which is scheduled to open on August 25.

The Portuguese painter Pedro Calapez is working for the interior of the new church of the Most Holy Trinity in Fatima, Portugal. The Church was designed by the Greek architect Alexandros N. Tombazis and is scheduled to open on Oct. 13.

Reina Sophia Museum in Madrid, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and other major art institutions show the great work of Miguel Barcelo.

Mr. Richter undertook the task of designing the replacement of the stained glass windows that were lost during the bombings at World War II. He made the window for the Cologne Cathedral. The window is made up of 11,500 small hand-blown squares tinted in 72 different colors.

There are many other churches in Britain where there is an abundant amount of art - recently or soon to be installed. Whether these new installations herald a renaissance in religious art or not, these religious places are attracting a new group of people who are now considering these places as a wellspring of innovative contemporary art.

Source: The New York Times

Do you know, what is Tulip Craze? It’s a term that economists and market observers often use. No, doubt there are many tulips in Haarlem at present but there was a time when getting even a single bulb of it was difficult. During the 17th century, the traffic in tulips began as in state bonds and shares.

In the seventeenth-century tulips were popular and expensive item. The flower had been introduced to the region from the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. During the first part of the 17th century, the demand for tulip bulbs in Netherlands reached such a peak that enormous price was charged for a single bulb. The rage for tulips became intense, and every one was caught by the craze, and positively some were driven mad by it.

People started the trade of tulip bulb. They began to spend considerable sums in ornamenting their gardens with tulips. This taste for tulips promoted their rapid cultivation; everywhere gardens were laid out, studies promoted, new varieties of the favorite flower sought for.

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Popular interest had shifted from hobbyists and collectors to speculators and gamblers. People from all walks of life liquidated their homes and real estate at incredibly low prices in order to speculate in tulip trading.

To control this tulip craze, notaries and clerks were appointed, public laws were also developed. But people began to liquidate their tulip holdings. After reaching a peak, the tulip trade collapsed, tulip prices began to weaken rapidly. Soon, panic seized the market and tulip prices crashed.

In a short time the fever became general, on every side there swarmed unknown tulips, of strange forms, and wonderful shades or combinations of colors, full of contrasts, caprices, and surprises. The flower remained popular and even became a national symbol. Today Haarlem enjoys the exquisite pleasure of admiring the very purest ideal of tulips in full bloom.

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Source: Telegraph

With the mention of the name of Auschwitz and Birkenau, the Nazi killing camps of World War II, we are tend to think the rain teeming these areas. Dorita Nicz, our guide whose two non-Jewish uncles were sent to Auschwitz for giving water to an escaped prisoner, led us to the otherwise serene and picturesque terrains of this place.

“I was a little girl, but I remember he never smiled,” said Ms. Nicz, a guide provided by Butterfield & Robinson. “He talked only to my grandmother, and he kept always a piece of bread in his pocket.”

Ms. Nicz took us through the concentration camps, recounting the horrors of the ‘killing camps’ where Jews were put inside the gas chambers faster than the Nazis could liquidate them

Butterfield & Robinson had a surprise in store for us when they arranged an interview with 86-year-old Kazimierz Smolen, a Polish partisan and survivor of five years’ imprisonment at Auschwitz.

The Nazi Party’s SS ( short for Schutzstaffel) had kept the inmates, including him, standing in a totally dark cell. Mr. Smolen and the other prisoners were made to do the bear dance by turning around in circles with their arms raised above their heads. When inmates stopped or lowered their arms, the SS beat or shot them.

The food given was marginal and most the inmates were forced to starvation where the food consisted of a quart of herbal tea in the morning and half a pound of bread in the evening and sometimes soup.
When Mr. Smolen was in a position to type, he was entrusted with the job of registering those who were about to be killed.

Image:globaldreamers , dletouzey, wikimedia

Via: The Washington Post

Next month Geneva is celebrating its summer festival, Fetes de Geneve. For ten days the people can enjoy the carnival rides, concerts, food stalls, variety shows and parades on the shores of Lake Geneva.

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It’s Geneva’s biggest festival and largest tourist event in Switzerland which incorporates lakeside parades, pumping techno nights and spectacular firework displays.

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The evenings are capped off with a fireworks show. The streets of the center burst into life with floats, parades and parties, street theater and entertainment with a program of concerts featuring international stars. For children, there is a clown parade and a funfair.

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This year, there will be over 120 live musical performances at the festival, including a famous Elvis Presley concert and a Pink Floyd tribute show. The festival runs from 2nd August to 12th August, 2007.

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Source: Just The Flight

The Isle of Wight is the perfect place to enjoy a relaxing break, at any time of the year. It’s a diamond shaped eye-catching island situated at the far south of Great Britain, sandwiched between France and the UK. With beautiful scenery and a wealth of fascinating attractions it’s a wonderful place that has much more to offer than you could possibly wish for on your break, there is something to interest everyone.

If you prefer to unwind and explore, it’s just the right place with lots to discover. Energetic people can enjoy windsurfing, sailing and paragliding. Also, you can enjoy a stroll in one of the vineyards, or the Botanic Gardens. There are many historical buildings where you can immerse yourself in culture, you can see animated dinosaurs and waxworks, hunt ghosts, visit castles and the rocket site where the rockets were tested that launched Britain’s first space satellite.

With large selection of hotels and bed and breakfast guest houses, the Isle of Wight has plentiful and varied holiday accommodation. Also, there is wide choice for those who seek the freedom of self catering accommodation. There are many top quality camping and touring parks throughout the island and you can bring your accommodation with you. So, whatever holiday accommodations you choose find it here on the Isle of Wight which is England’s favorite holiday destination.

The Isle of Wight is a wonderful place if you like walking in the fresh air. The scenery is magnificent and you can vary your walks as the mood takes you. It is famous for sailing and yachting also. If you plan a jaunt to escape the modern world, enjoy the lovely quiet rivers, or go for adventurous sports, I’m sure you’ll leave the Island having found exactly what you were looking for.

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Source: Telegraph