The Stade Olympique or Montreal Olympic Stadium was built for the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games and still today is the world’s tallest inclined tower measuring 175 metres. The tower is recognised as one of the World Federation of Great Towers which includes some of the world’s most impressive buildings. The structure today is used for special events, concerts and the odd sporting event. The stadium has had a fairly chequered life, with a huge blow out in original cost . It was expected the stadium would cost in the vicinity of $770 million Canadian to pay off but some much needed modifications and repairs took the final cost to nearly 1.5 billion dollars, and took over 30 years to repay. Read the rest of this entry »
The Kehlsteinhaus or “Eagles Nest” as it is commonly known is a small building on top of the German Alps that was originally built as a retreat for Adolf Hiler. Presented to him on his 50th birthday the building sits on a ridge on top of Kehlstein Mountain near Berchtesgarden. The buildings remote location required the construction of an amazing windy 6.5klm road as well as a tunnel and elevator system in the mountain itself. It is said that Hitler rarely visited the building and its this reason the building still stands today, as most of Hitler’s other houses have been torn down since the end of the war to stop them taking on a shrine like use. Today the Kehlsteinhaus is used as a restaurant offering magnificent views of local area as well as tours of the complex. Read the rest of this entry »
If you have ever been to New York you probably would have been to the section of Broadway known as Times Square. Times Square is one of the busiest intersection of New York if not for the several streets that cross over each over but also for the huge amount of tourist’s and New Yorkers that can be found wandering around the area each day. From now until the end of the year getting around the area on foot has become a fair bit easier as traffic has been diverted away from Broadway from between 42nd and 47th streets. The road closure is a trail with the aim of seeing if traffic improves across the whole midtown area. The video above was done by the New York Times, getting the opinion of people in the middle of the street. Read the rest of this entry »
We have been seeing this story around a fair bit for a new US airline dedicated to pets only and we thought we would share it here. The basic story goes instead of shoving your pet in the cargo hold of the plane you can send your pet on Petairways plane where it lives it up in the normal passenger section of a plane and is cared for by a pet attendant. The airline travels across the states from LA to New York stopping at Denver, Chicago and Washington along the way. It sounds like a good idea if your worried about the stress on fluffy in the cargo hold of a plane but we recon the stress of trying to find a pet flight to match up with a human flight and then collecting the pet will stop us ponying up the 149 bucks for fluffy’s flight. We will collect our pets from baggage carousel no 5 thanks. Read the rest of this entry »
Yellow Water in Australia’s remote Kakadu National Park is a huge land-locked billabong and attracts thousands of visitors every year for its unique and beautiful native flora and fauna, with many coming especially to see the salt water crocodile in its natural habitat. The park is also home to millions of migratory birds including jacana, egrets, jabiru, sea eagles, magpie geese to name a few. The best way to see the natural environment is to join one of the many boat cruises up the billabong for a close encounter with nature. Daybreak and sunset are the most spectacular times and best for seeing the wildlife. Yellow Water is close to Jabiru and is about a 3-4 hour drive east of Darwin along the Kakadu Highway. Regular tourist services operate from Darwin to the park. Read the rest of this entry »
There have been more calls for a common border between New Zealand and Australia, this time from discount airline Jetstar. By removing customs and immigration between the two countries the flights will be classed as a domestic and not an international flight, Jetstar see this is an opportunity to fly to cheaper airports like it does at Avalon outside Melbourne. The savings can run up to $60 per flight of costs that can be written off and it’s this that tourism body’s and even Australian Prime Minister Keven Rudd have been counting on to boost tourism between the two countries. There’s probably a few details to sort out before anything happens (both countries have learnt their lessons on quarantine with rabbits and possums) but things are looking promising enough that one day a weekend in Sydney is as easy as a weekend in Auckland. Read the rest of this entry »
Dotonbori is one of Osaka’s most exciting leisure precincts being home to a huge number of restaurants, bars, clubs, theatres and entertainment complexes. The precinct hugs the Dotonbori-gawa Canal which is home to some of the city’s most spectacular neon signage and banks play host to many of the city’s celebrations. The area takes on an amazing atmosphere in the evenings when the neon and video screens come to life. The area is a food lovers paradise with some of the city’s best dining like Kani Doraku with its giant mechanical crab outside, Hariju a beef restaurant dating back to 924 and a Fugu restaurant serving the infamous poisonous fish Zubora-Ya. The streets are also filled with vendors selling delicious okonomiyaki and takoyaki octopus dumplings. Dotonbori is only a five minute walk from the Nambi Station and only moments away from the 600 metre long Shinsaibashi Shopping Arcade which is a must for any serious shopper. Read the rest of this entry »
First there was the movie then there was snakes loose on an Air India plane and now its Qantas turn to have a few snakes escape in their cargo hold. Apparently four non poisonous stimson’s pythons broke fee of their container on the way from Alice Springs to Melbourne, the mishap caused some delays as the plane had to be fumigated and sadly the snakes have now gone to a better place. Tripandom’s tip for transporting your snakes is to make sure the lid is secure on you snake container or just own a kitten instead. Read the full story over at The Age
The people of Iraq have been through a bit of a bad time of late but the government is doing their best to put the troubles of the past behind them and get on with business. One job was to get the national museum in Baghdad reopened that has been closed since looters almost cleaned it out after the US invasion, now the government is looking into where to house a museum dedicated to former dictator Saddam Hussein. Apparently despite all the looting there was still plenty of Saddam paintings, statues and other memorabilia floating around the place (thanks to the average dictators love of seeing themselves across their countries). Now that all those Saddam artifacts are safe under lock and key the plan is to find a suitable home for them, probably in one of his former palaces. Would you go to the Saddam museum? let us know below. Read the rest of this entry »
I hope this is not some kind of April fools joke but the Paris Museum of Air and Space is claiming that Concorde will take to the skies again next June at the Le Bourget Air Show. Previously the Concorde last flew in 2003 and has since been only available to be seen at various museums around the world. The museum claims the have a special certificate for demonstration flights and engineers have been over the plane and checked it to be OK. The report sounds a bit fishy to me considering previous statements about the planes ability to fly again and the date of the announcement. What do you recon? hit up our comment form below. Read the rest of this entry »
