Think Provence, think Lavender. Well, Provence is much more than that, but Provence is probably the place most associated with Lavender. The chief aim of my trip there June last year was to catch a glimpse of the fabled Lavender fields. The Lavenders only start to bloom from late June, which made me rather anxious, since … [Read more…]
Pena National Palace This is going to be the start of a series of travel articles written in retrospect. I wanted to start with this piece on Sintra, since it is a place well worth travelling to and it was one place where i felt I wasn’t able to extract sufficient information from the internet … [Read more…]
The origins of the name Norway is believed to have come from words that literally mean “north way”, as anyone might have guessed, and Norway certainly lives up to that. If you look at the map, Norway wraps around Sweden and Finland towards the north, as if deliberately denying them access to the northern coast. Naturally then, the northernmost part of continental Europe lies in Norway, at Nordkapp.
If you’ve come into contact with Europeans, you’d probably have a chuckle over what’s written on this plaque, found in a Swiss hotel, which is quite apt in capturing the stereotypical qualities of Europeans. Although, i would think the French are equally good lovers as the Italians and vice versa the Italians are equally good cooks as the French. Maybe there is a connection between being good as lovers and being good cooks.
Greece Parliament building, in front of which is Syntagma square where demonstrations happen
Greeks don’t come across as being lazy people. Quite the opposite, those whom i have met were diligent and enterprising. I wonder what has gotten them into the hot soup they are in now. In fact, i wonder if those people who demonstrated against the austerity measures, recently approved by their parliament in exchange for further bailout, know exactly how those measures, or failure to obtain the bailout, were going to affect them.
Plaque on display at Poschiavo train station showing the UNESCO World Heritage Site status for the Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscape
Getting the UNESCO World Heritage Site status is a sure way of getting an endless stream of profit. The Swiss are quick to capitalize on this, getting their first 3 in 1983 and having a total of 10 as of 2009, which is amazing, given the small area of land that is Switzerland. One of them, which i visited, was the Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscape.
View of Tuscany near San Gimignano
Italy is placed at the 10th spot of the best places to live in the world according to one ranking. I couldn’t have agreed more to what they had to say about Italy:
Hofbräuhaus original and dark beer in 1L glasses
Not to be missed while in Munich – beer, food and music from Hofbräuhaus. Beer is served by the litre, and as much as that seems to be, you will be amazed at how easy it is to down the drink (in voracious gulps). For a moment it would seem as if your bladder had an expanded capacity.
