Posts under ‘Youtube of the week’

The Eurostar is the famous train that takes passengers from Waterloo Station in London to Paris’ Gare du Nord as well as to Brussels South. Travel time between London and Paris has been around 2 hours 35 mins in the past but recently by using a new high speed track in the UK a new record has been broken at 2 hours and 3 min. Previously once the train hit the UK the trains had to slow down to use the British rail network along side other trains. Now the new high speed track brings the trains to a new terminal at St Pancras at the same speed as the French side, proving the British can be as good as the French! If you need to get from London to Paris go the train instead of the plane, its the quickest way to get from the centre of one city to the centre of another. Read the rest of this entry »

With Oktoberfest starting in Germany in only a couple of days we thought we would start the festivities a bit earlier here at Tripandom. We found this great sausage restaurant in Nurnberg in a city which is known for the world’s biggest Christmas market and remembered it’s nasty past where it was the birthplace of the Third Reich- but probably its biggest call to fame is the home of the Bratwurst sausage. There’s probably no better place to try one of these tasty morcels than at the Bratwursthausle. The restaurant cooks their bratwursts in three different ways- you need to try all three – they have roasted ones called the Brat and poached ones in a hot vinegary wine sauce with onions which they call saure zipfel they aslo do a rauch which is a tasty smoked variety all covered with Nürnberg senf which is a delicious mustard then wash them all down with a  couple of litres of Nurberg’s best beer and have you got a great dinner on your hands. Read the rest of this entry »

Check out this video of the Absolut Ice Bar at the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarv Sweden. The whole complex is made out of ice like a giant igloo. Located at one of the northern most points of Sweden it not too far from the south pole (and possibly Santa’s house) you can stay at the hotel for about 200 euro a night where you sleep in a ultra warm sleeping bag on top an ice bed. With temperatures around -6 deg C there is no need for a mini bar in these rooms besides you will want to warm yourself up with a drop of vodka from their Ice Bar. Also note the glasses sitting on top of the bar, if they look a bit odd to you, it’s because they are made of ice. Read the rest of this entry »

Singapore Airlines have announced that the world’s first Airbus A380 route will be a daily flight between London -Singapore and Sydney starting on October 28th this year. The Airbus promises to revolutionize air travel with this huge double decker aircraft dwarfing all other aircraft. The Singapore Airlines configuration will seat 471 people with 399 seats available in economy class as well as business and first class seating. Tickets for first flight between Singapore and Australia were recently auctioned on the eBay website with thousands raised for charity. Singapore Airlines has so far committed to buy 19 of these huge aircraft and are the first company to receive the plane. So far Airbus has over 170 orders for the plane with Emirates having orders for 55, Qantas having orders for 20 and Singapore having ordered 19.
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When the Chernobyl reactor disaster occurred in 1986 a 30 klm area was set up as the Zone of Alienation and everyone that lived in that area was evacuated leaving everything behind, this included the 50000 residents of the town of Pripyat around 5 klm from the reactor and the 14000 residents of the town of Chernobyl around 14 Klm from the Reactor. Today these towns are modern day ghost towns that are slowly falling into ruin and they give us a good glimpse of what 1980s Soviet Russia was like.
Day trips from Kiev in the Ukraine (about 130 klm’s away) can be organized to visit the area, it’s claimed to be fairly safe for short visits and the guide is armed with a Geiger counter so you know where not to stand. If the idea of copping a bit of radiation turns you off visiting the area check out these videos instead, they are mostly of Pripyat, the town closest to the reactor. The town of Chernobyl has got a few plant workers and scientist living in it and what is left is looked after, unlike Pripyat. 

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This time next year the 2008 Olympic Games will be a memory. The Olympic flame will burn brightly over the Beijing National Stadium with its amazing bird nest like architecture. Designed by Herzog & De Meuron from Switzerland the stadium is 330 metres long and 220 metres wide. The structure’s 69 metre high walls house over 36km of steel. The stadium will hold about 100000 people during each session of the Olympics including the main track and field, opening and closing ceremonies. This weeks You Tube of the week shows some fantastic computer animations of the stadium.

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Located in Shanghai the Oriental Pearl Tower is a TV tower that is the 3rd tallest tower in the world and at 468m it’s the tallest in Asia. Looking like a building from the Jetsons the buildings observation decks, shopping mall and hotel are given names like Space Module, Space City and Space Hotel. The building itself has become a symbol of Shanghai and modern China, it’s one of the most photographed buildings in Shanghai, especially at night when the light show takes over. The building attracts around 3 million visitors a year so if you ever in shanghai make sure you check out it out, there are 3 observation decks, shops, bars and a revolving restaurant located in the building as well as a small hotel.

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The Airbus A380 made a rare low flyover across Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour yesterday. The sight of a passenger jet flying this low over the city was reminiscent of the days when Kai Tak Airport was operating almost 10 years ago, so the event drew a big crowd. Airbus is wooing Chinese airlines with the A380 and is hoping the planes seating capacity of between 525 to 853 people will be just the ticket to win over the Chinese with their booming population and economy. Singapore Airlines is expect to receive the first A380 in October with other Airlines receiving 13 planes throughout 2008. When first shown to the public Airbus touted features like gym’s bars and shopping malls to be optional equipment in the planes, so far no airline has ordered these options instead packing the panes with seating.

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In some countries driving can be a bit more hectic than others. Check out this video of an intersection in St Petersburg, Russia as cars play chicken and then get tossed around like skittles on the icy roads. If you want our tip, make sure you take the insurance option when renting a car in Russia. Read the rest of this entry »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skPo_FIcMvY

Pleasure Beach is an amusement park in the popular holiday town of Blackpool UK, it is most well known for its huge rollercoaster the Pepsi Max Big One. The imaginatively named “Big One” was opened in 1994 and at the time it was the tallest in the world but has since lost the title to two other coasters in Rust, Germany and Fujiyama, Japan. The coaster was featured in the TV series “engineering at the cutting edge”. Sitting on the edge of the beach it takes a bit of foundations to get the thing to stay where it is, reportedly costing as much as the coaster itself. Along with Pleasure Beach, there are many tourist attractions and amusements in Blackpool which is well known as a popular UK holiday destination. Read the rest of this entry »