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 Airbus A380
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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300 Metre long crocodile found in Australian Outback
About two and a half hours drive east of Darwin in the heart of the World Heritage Listed Kakadu National Park you will find one of the worlds most unique hotels. A huge crocodile shaped hotel. This luxury hotel is at Jaburu in the heart of Kakadu. The hotel, created by a Darwin architect working with the local Aboriginal people, measuring over 250 metres long the head holds the foyer, reception, gift shop and restaurants. While the body is home to the 110 luxury rooms. The legs are the stairs to the rooms while the tummy of the beast is home to the pool and gardens. The whole reptile is covered in a green scale like metal cladding. Tourist coaches pull up in the jaws of the crocodile to offload and pick up the hotel guests.
Mindil Beach Markets Darwin
During Darwin’s Dry Season from May to October the Mindil Beach Market is one of the most popular attractions. Operating on Thursday and Sunday evenings along the beautiful foreshore of Mindil Beach the markets attract thousands to the huge range of art and craft and one of the best selections of multicultural food you could find anywhere. There is food from over 20 countries, Greek, Italian, Thia, Indonesian, Timorise just to name a few and of course the good old Australian tucker, including some of the more unusual treats, like camel, crocodile, possum, kangaroo and the Territory’s favorite fish barramundi. There is also a great selection of the freshest of tropical fruit. Many of the stalls sell magnificent Aboriginal artworks including paintings, carvings and other handycrafts. There market also features some fantastic entertainment including local bands, comics, buskers and roaming entertainment- fun for all ages.
Visit a modern day ghost town
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.
The Olympic Birdsnest
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.
Giant factory for giants of the sky
40km north of Seattle on America’s west coast is the Boeing Factory where their enormous aircraft are assembled. The complex is open to the public and offers an amazing insight into the design and construction of the worlds most popular commercial planes. The assembly building is the largest building by volume in the world and has a perimeter of 3.5km. The company offers a fantastic tour which starts off with the Future of Flight Aviation Centre which is an amazing interactive display with flight simulators, computerised attractions and quite a few full size displays of various parts of the planes. Then its off to the Boeing Everett Factory on a one our guided bus tour where you can see the planes being constructed. Once inside the factory you can see various types of planes in different stages of construction.
Friedrichshafen Zeppelin Museum
Situated on the beautiful Lake Constance with and surrounded by the Alps Fridrichshafen is one of the more senic harbour towns in Germany. It is also home to the Zeppelin Museum which has over 43,000 sq feet of exhibition space and is quite worthy of a visit. The lovely art deco building was once the Harbour Railway Station and now houses a huge array of artifacts, artwork and memrobilia of these magnificent giant flying machines. There is a very faithful reproduction of a 33 metre section of the LZ 129 Hindenburg which is open for exloration. The museum features a very comprehensive history of the airships for both military and civilan use. The centre has a very good archive section, library, speical exhibition space and of course a giftshop where you can buy a multitude of Zepplin souvenirs including publications, models, toys and the like. Friedrichshafen is in easy reach of Stuttgart and Munich being only a few hours drive from both centres and also easily accessble from Zurich or Innsbruck in Austria.
Madame Tussauds Amsterdam
Situated in Dam Square in the centre of Amsterdam Madame Tussaurds Wax Works is one of the city’s most popular attractions. The exhibition is quite large and is spread over four floors including an entire floor dedicated to Dutch History. There are plenty of famous faces on display including all your favorite Hollywood Movie Stars and pop starts. Plenty of politicians, sport stars and other famous people in history. Although the Amsterdam centre only opened in 1971 Madame Tussaurd’s dates back 200 years and now has several places around the world including London, Las Vegas, New York, Hong Kong and Changhai. The company also has interests in Lego land, several sea parks and other tourist parks around the world.
Shanghai’s space aged Oriental Pearl Tower
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.
