Travel guides

Grant Park, Buckingham Fountain, Chicago

Pete — Sun, 11 May 2008 13:20:34 +0000

Buckingham Fountain is a Chicago landmark located at Columbus Drive and Congress Parkway in Grant Park. The fountain, which was designed by Edward H. Bennett with sculptures by Jacques Lambert and modeled after Latona Fountain at Versailles, was donated to the city by Kate Buckingham in memory of her brother, Clarence Buckingham. She also established the Buckingham Fountain Endowment Fund with an initial investment of $300,000 to pay for maintenance on the fountain. Buckingham Fountain was dedicated on August 26, 1927. The fountain runs from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day from mid-April to mid-October, depending on the weather. During a water display that runs for 20 minutes every hour on the hour, the center jet shoots up to 150 feet in the air. At dusk, a light and music show coincides with the water display. The last show of the night begins at 10:00 p.m. The fountain contains 1.5 million gallons (5.7 million litres) of water. During a display, more than 14,000 gallons per minute (880 l/s) are pushed through its 133 jets. Great city with lots of tourist attractions.
GPS travel coordinates: 41° 52′ 32.85″ N, 87° 37′ 8.2″ W

Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco, California

Ella — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:37:12 +0000

Fisherman’s Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco, California, U.S. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Street east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street. It is best known for being the location of Pier 39, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, the Cannery Shopping Center, Ghirardelli Square, a Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, the Musée Mécanique, the Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf, Forbes Island and restaurants and stands that serve fresh seafood, most notably dungeness crab and clam chowder served in a sourdough bread bowl. Some of the restaurants, like Pompeii’s and Alioto’s #8, go back for three generations of the same family ownership. Nearby Pier 45, there is a chapel in memory of the “Lost Fishermen” of San Francisco and Northern California though it might not always be open everyday. Once a year, the chapel has a service for the lost fishermen.
GPS travel destination: 37° 48′ 30″ N, 122° 24′ 56″ W

Paris Las Vegas, Las Vegas

JohnMS — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:49:17 +0000

Paris Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the famed Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, USA , that is owned and operated by Harrah’s Entertainment. As its name suggests, its theme is the city of Paris in France; it includes a half-scale, 540-foot-tall (164.6 m) replica of the Eiffel Tower, a neon sign in the shape of the Montgolfier balloon, a two-thirds size Arc de Triomphe and a replica of La Fontaine des Mers. The front facade of the building suggests the Paris Opera House and the Louvre. The Paris is linked via a promenade to its sister property, Bally’s Las Vegas. It also is linked to the Las Vegas Monorail. Nice place for travel guides.
GPS tourist destinations: 36° 6′ 45″ N, 115° 10′ 20″ W

Montjuic, Barcelona

Mio — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:39:45 +0000

Montjuic is a hill located in Barcelona, Spain. Montjuic is translated as Hill of the Jews in the medieval Catalan language, or as a corruption of Latin Mons Jovicus (that is, hill of Jupiter). The name is found in several locations in the Catalan Countries: the Catalan cities of Girona and Barcelona have a Montjuic, as does the island of Minorca. When written in a Spanish rather than Catalan context it is generally spelled Montjuich (in the old Catalan spelling before Pompeu Fabra’s orthography). Great place for Barcelona sightseeing tours.
GPS travel destination: 41° 21′ 51″ N, 2° 9′ 29″ E

Clifford’s Tower, York

Tom — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:29:38 +0000

York Castle is a fortification in the city of York, England. The principal remains of the 13th-14th century castle are the keep, which is known as Clifford’s Tower, and some of the curtain wall. From its start in 1068 through the English Civil War, the castle had a particularly noteworthy history. In 1068, during the Norman Conquest of 1066–1069, William I had a basic wood motte-and-bailey castle built at York between the Rivers Ouse and Foss on the site of the present-day York Castle, and placed it under the command of William Malet. The local population soon harassed the castle; to aid in its defense and to strengthen his grip on the north, William had a second castle built in 1069 on what is now Baile Hill on the west bank of the Ouse. Later that year, a Danish fleet sailed up the Humber and attacked the castles and the Norman occupiers with the assistance of Cospatrick and a number of locals. The Normans, as part of their attempt to defend themselves, set fire to the houses around the castles, with the unintended consequence that the castles too were destroyed. Nice for sightseeing tour.
GPS travel destination: 53° 57′ 21″ N, 1° 4′ 48.3″ W

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Mio — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:59:31 +0000

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or Rijksmuseum (English: State Museum) is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history. It has a large collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and a substantial collection of Asian art. The museum was founded in 1800 in The Hague to exhibit the collections of the Dutch stadtholders. It was inspired by French example. By then it was known as the National Art Gallery (Dutch: Nationale Kunst-Gallerij). In 1808 the museum moved to Amsterdam on the orders of king Louis Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. The paintings owned by that city, such as The Night Watch by Rembrandt, became part of the collection. Amsterdam has lots of travel attractions for all interests.
GPS tourist destination: 52° 21′ 36″ N, 4° 53′ 7″ E

Casa Batllo, Barcelona

JohnMS — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:27:19 +0000

Casa Batllo is a building restored by Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol, built in the year 1877 and remodelled in the years 1905–1907; located at 43, Passeig de Gràcia (passeig is Catalan for promenade or avenue), part of the Illa de la Discòrdia in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia. The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), and indeed it does have a visceral, skeletal organic quality. It was originally designed for a middle-class family and situated in a prosperous district of Barcelona. The building looks very remarkable — like everything Gaudí designed, only identifiable as Modernisme or Art Nouveau in the broadest sense. The ground floor, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work. It seems that the goal of the designer was to avoid straight lines completely. Much of the façade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles (trencadís) that starts in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur. A common theory about the building is that the rounded feature to the left of centre, terminating at the top in a turret and cross, represents the sword of Saint George (patron saint of Catalonia), which has been plunged into the back of the dragon. Must tourist spot for any Barcelona sightseeing tours.
GPS travel coordinates: 41° 23′ 30″ N, 2° 9′ 54″ E

La Madeleine, Paris

Mio — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:22:43 +0000

L’église de la Madeleine (La Madeleine), is a church occupying a commanding position in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleon’s army. The site of this edifice, centered at the end of rue Royale, a line-of-sight between Gabriel’s twin hôtels in the Place de la Concorde, required a suitably monumental end from the time the square was established in 1755, as Place Louis XV. The settlement round the site was called Ville l’Évêque, for it had belonged to the bishop of Paris since the time of Philip II of France, when Bishop Maurice de Sully seized the synagogue that stood on the site from the Jews of Paris in 1182, and duly consecrated it a Church dedicated to Mary Magdalene. The site in the suburban faubourg had been annexed to the city of Paris since 1722. Add this spot to yours travel guides.
GPS tourist coordinates: 48° 52′ 12″ N, 2° 19′ 27″ E

Place de la Concorde, Paris

Pete — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:03:31 +0000

The Place de la Concorde is one of the major squares in Paris, France. It is located in the city’s eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. The Place was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1755 as a moat-skirted octagon between the Champs-Élysées to the west and the Tuileries Gardens to the east. Filled with statues and fountains, the area was named Place Louis XV to honor the then king. The Place was showcasing an equestrian statue of the king, which had been commissioned in 1748 by the city of Paris, sculpted mostly by Edmé Bouchardon, and completed by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle after the death of the former. At the north end, two magnificent identical stone buildings were constructed. Separated by the rue Royale, these structures remain among the best examples of that period’s architecture. Initially they served as government offices, and the eastern one is the French Naval Ministry. Shortly after its construction, the western building was made into the luxurious Hôtel de Crillon (still operating today) where Marie Antoinette soon spent afternoons relaxing and taking piano lessons. The hotel served as the headquarters of the occupying German army during World War II. Paris is great city to visit with lots of travel attractions.
GPS tourist coordinates: 48° 51′ 56″ N, 2° 19′ 16″ E

Palatine Hill, Rome

Ella — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:58:38 +0000

The Palatine Hill (Collis Palatium or Mons Palatinus) is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city. It stands 40 metres[1] above the Forum Romanum, looking down upon it on one side, and upon the Circus Maximus on the other. It is the etymological origin of the word “palace” and its cognates in other languages (Italian “Palazzo”, French “Palais” etc). Rome is perfect, best travel destination for honeymoon vacations.
GPS tourist coordinates: 41° 53′ 18″ N, 12° 29′ 13″ E