Back in 1862 with no room to set up shop a floating flower shop was set up on the southern canal belt of Amsterdam on the Singel between Muntplein and Koningsplein. This took off and today more than 15 stalls now on barges are tied to the canal banks. Here you can find tulips, narcissus and other bulbs and some of the most beautiful cut flowers and even small marijuana plants and seeds which are sort of legal in the Netherlands. The colors and the perfumes of the flowers are amazing and well worth a visit. The markets get very busy in the mornings so to avoid the rush pop in after lunch, they will still have an amazing array of flowers and bulbs. Read the rest of this entry »
Berlin is so rich in history and one part of history that the Berliners are trying to put behind them was the horrible acts of Hitler and the Third Reich. Now there is a very interesting walking tour which traces the history of this terrible time and gives the visitor an insight of what happened and why things happened in the first half of last century. The tour takes about 3 1/2 hours and takes in some pretty chilling moments in history. You will stand above the sight of Hitler’s bunker where he spent his last weeks of life, You will see the Nazi Air Force Headquarters and the Goebbels Propaganda Ministry which was home to the German Press office and then see the SS and Gestapo headquarters before visiting the only remaining piece of the Berlin wall and finally visiting the Soviet Memorial, which celebrates Russia’s liberation of Germany. The tour runs on Tuesday, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1PM visit the website for more information.
We thought we would do a Sweden double header, All is on track to open the Abba museum in Stockholm in June next year. This 6500 square metre will celebrate Sweden’s most loved and popular band of all time. The museum will have an extensive collection of memorabilia, actual costumes, photos and awards from the group and trace their amazing history from Eurovision song contest winners to one of the world’s biggest bands. The museum will feature interactive displays using state of the art multimedia, sound and lighting which will give the expected million visitors a year an amazing and fun insight into Abba. Owned by a private couple Ewa Wigenheim-Westman and Ulf Westman with the permission of the four Abba members Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Reus Visitors are already seeking tickets especially to the huge opening week of celebrations, The Abba museum is just another great reason to visit beautiful Sweden.
The Town of Kiruna is Sweden’s northern most city and is home to an iron ore mine and is in close proximity to Sweden’s space port and the Ice Hotel at Jukkasjarv. The most interesting thing about Kiruna is that the city of around 18000 people is on the move. The iron ore mine that sits 1 klm under Kiruna is starting to cause problems for the town, with buildings starting to crack as the town sinks into the void left by the removal of iron ore from under the town. To get around the problem Sweden has decided to move the whole town up the road to a much safer location, the construction has already started with a new sewer line ran to the new location. Roads and rail will probably be next and eventually over the next 20 years or so all the buildings and houses will be rebuilt or put on trucks and carted up the road, this includes the towns huge town hall and historic church that both will need to be cut up into section to move. Between 30 May to the 15 July Kiruna is bathed in perpetual daylight as the midnight sun sits in the summer sky.
Back in the late 1970’s a little Irish band recorded their 3 first albums at Windmill Lane in Dublin before they became one of the richest, most influential and exciting (and sometimes precious) bands of the last 30 years. Since it’s opening by sound engineer Brian Masterson, Windmill Lane has also been the studio many of Ireland’s best rock acts have chosen for their albums including artists like Van Morrison, Sinead O’Connor and Clanned. The studio is no longer on site but the ledged lives on. There are plans to build Dublin’s biggest tower near by called the U2 tower which will be completed in 2010 which will include apartments and a recording studio all owned by U2 costing in the vicinity of 200 million Euro. The old studios today is covered in graffiti paying homage to the days when U2 were the greatest new band Dublin had ever seen. The old studios are a bit hard to find with no signage, look for Bob Bushills furniture store and then go to the street behind. Read the rest of this entry »
German airline Lufthansa this week opened the world’s most modern animal cargo facility at Frankfurt Airport. Located near Gat 26 the Frankfurt Animal Lounge now houses all the animals which the airline is transporting to and from the airport. This innovative move took 13 months to construct using the latest in European animal welfare rules and strict hygene and veterinary medicine requirements. The carrier transports thousands of animals every year including some 14000 cats and dogs, 1500 horses and tens of thousands of tropical fish. They also transport farm animals and many endangered and rare animals for zoos and wildlife parks. 25 vets and another 60 support staff are on hand to ensure all animals have a comfortable stay while being shipped to and form Frankfurt.
The beautiful Saint Basil’s Cathedral is located in the south east end of Moscow’s Red Square which is also home to the Kremlin. Under the onion domes lay 9 chapels and are beautifully painted in medieval style in bright swirling colours. Built between 1555 and 1561 and commissioned by Ivan IV better know as Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of Khante of Kazan the cathedral is one of the most known and photographed buildings in Russia. St Basil is very lucky to be still standing with many wars and troubles harming much of the splendor of the Russian Capital, legend had it that Napoleon was so impressed with the structure he wanted to dismantle it and move it back to Paris, and then in the 1930’s some of Stalin’s team thought it would be good to knock it down to make more space for their military parades. Stalin came close a few years later but a culture buff called Baranovsky kicked up a bit of a stink by telling Starlin he would cut his own throat on the steps instead of tear it down. Stalin decided to keep in and chucked poor old Baranovsky in goal for five years. Read the rest of this entry »
There are two kinds of World Expos, the International Expo which is held every five years, this is the one which was held last in Nagoya in 2005, and will be held in Shanghai in 2010. Other famous ones are the 1964 New York Fair, 1889 Paris Exposition where the Eiffel Tower was unveiled and the 1988 Brisbane Expo. The other world expo is the International Expositions, this year we have one of those, they are on a smaller scale and open for 3 months instead of the normal 6 but still have some cutting edge innovations, designs and attract millions of people. Zaragoza in Spain is the host for what is to be themed Water and Sustainable Development. A huge 25 hectare site has been created to house this expo and over 40,000 people from all over the world have signed up to be volunteers at the event. Starting on the 15 of June on the banks of the Ebro river the event will be massive. About 100 countries and several large multinational companies are taking part. Highlights of the expo will include a massive 76 metere high water tower and a huge aquarium featuring the world’s great river systems with animals from the Nile, Mekong, Amazon, Murray Darling, Ebro and many of the worlds oceans. Already season tickets have sold out and day passes are selling like hot cakes. Read the rest of this entry »
We are probably being a bit harsh by our title, but the Hotel Celica was not the place you would have wanted to spend the night a few years back when it was the notorious Ljubljana Prison. Today it is one of Slovenia’s hippest places to stay and has been turned into a artistically renovated 20 room or cell hostel for travelers. Opening in 2003 the Hotel Celica has one of the highest occupancy rates in the country and with prices starting around 20 Euro it is no wonder why. The hotel has won many special awards including the golden award or Sejalec from the Slovenian Tourist Board and in 2006 the popular Lonely Planet publication voted it the Hippest Hostel in the World. The Celica has all the things you need for a hostel stay including kitchen, TV rooms, laundry, tourist desk and internet to send your photos and stories back home. – If you have any good ones- we would love to see them.
If you are a regular reader to Tripandom, you will probably know we love a Disney story, and we haven’t done one for a while so Today is Disneyland Day – Paris Style. The Disneyland Paris Space Mountain is an amazing indoor rollercoaster ride and is one of the parks premier attractions. Featuring a Jules Verne themed adventure based on his From the Earth to the Moon book the coaster consists of a 1.5 g uphill launch at just under 70 km per hour and a sidewinder and corkscrew. All set to a synchronized on board audio theme composed by Steven Bramson the five vehicles can take 25 people each on a 2 minute ride. The Coaster rises over 45 metres and travels 1000 in the breath taking adventure. The building itself is a masterpiece of Disney design, being over 61 metres in diameter and 43 metres high it dominates the Tommorowland section of the park. The ride has recently gone under a huge makeover and has been renamed Space Mountain Mission 2.
