Fire Mountain

The volcanic island of Lanzarote in the Canaries is best known as a year round holiday destination.  Boasting a clement climate even in the depths of winter, low rainfall and an abundance of beautiful beaches.

But this small speck of Spain offers much more than just sunshine and sun loungers alone.  As the island is also home to some fascinating visitor attractions, many of which were developed by a highly creative local artist called César Manrique.

The Jameos Del Agua

The Jameos del Agua was Manrique´s first major project on Lanzarote.  Created in the late 1960´s, he was attempting to illustrate to his fellow islanders that it was possible to develop visitor attractions that worked in harmony with the island’s raw volcanic terrain rather than against it.  Providing an alternative model to the water parks and golf courses so popular elsewhere in Spain.

Manrique´s transformation of this huge collapsed lava tunnel into an underground grotto and concert venue proved an instant and massive success.  Putting holidays in Lanzarote firmly on the map for the first time and attracting VIP visitors such as Hollywood legend Rita Heyworth.  Who declared the Jameos; “The Eighth Wonder of the World”.

Plaza de Consitucion Teguise

The Timanfaya National Park

The Timanafaya National Park remains Lanzarote´s undisputed star attraction though.  As nothing else on the island can match the raw majesty of the eerie vistas here.  Created by volcanic eruptions which engulfed Lanzarote during the 1730´s and then again in 1824.

This activity created hundreds of new volcanic peaks and a carpet of lava which covers around done third of the island.  Leaving much of Lanzarote looking like the surface of the moon.

The Valley of 1000 Palms

This green and verdant valley in the north of the island is the ideal antidote to the arid volcanic scenery of the south.  Resembling a huge African oasis, with the crowns of thousands of palm trees swaying gently in the breeze.

Local legend has it that this was all created by local villagers, who used to plant one palm tree for every new born girl and two for a boy.  Creating a breathtaking site on an island otherwise largely devoid of flora.

Palacio Marques in Teguise

Historic Teguise

A visit to Lanzarote´s former capital of Teguise is like stepping back in time.  As this was the first settlement to be established by the Spanish conquistadors in the 15^th century and is still home today to a treasure trove of colonial architecture.  Some of which, such as the Palacio Marques, dates back as far as 1455.

Jardin de Cactus

This is yet another magnificent Manrique creation, which celebrates the plant world’s spikiest species.  The Jardin de Cactus is well known to botanists worldwide as the home of over 1400 different types of cacti – and 10,000 plus individual plants.  Making this one of the most comprehensive collections of its kind in the world.

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Lanzarote is one of the seven Canary Islands.  A Spanish owned archipelago which is Europe’s most popular winter sun destination.  Thanks to their location off the coast of Morocco, on a similar line of latitude to parts of Florida and the Bahamas.  The islands are just starting to open up to American travellers too – with the recent inauguration of direct flights from Miami to Tenerife.

All of the islands have their own unique identity.  Whilst some have been less touched by tourism than others.  Lanzarote is the most easterly link in the chain and still retains much of its original character, despite welcoming over 1.5 million foreign tourists every year.

Lanzarote is best known for its surreal volcanic scenery.  The legacy of a series of huge seismic shocks which rocked the island during the 18^th and 19^th century.  Today, this twisted volcanic terrain is Lanzarote´s greatest asset,  As over 900,000 tourists visit the scene of these eruptions at the Timanfaya National Park every year.

Accommodation

The island has a well established tourist industry, dating back some forty years.

So Lanzarote accommodation standards are high and varied, encompassing everything from studio apartments in the main resorts to luxurious character properties in the countryside.

The bulk of visitors tend to opt for self catering accommodation such as Lanzarote villas and apartments.  Whilst hotels account for around 40% of all tourist beds on the island.

Prices start from around €170 per week for a one bedroom apartment in one of the main resorts such as Puerto del Carmen or Playa Blanca.

Getting Around

Lanzarote only measures 58km by 38km – making it very easy to tour.  Roads are good and car hire and petrol are cheap.  There is a public bus service but this doesn’t run to many of the key attractions.  Bike hire is available in the main resorts – but Lanzarote´s mountainous volcanic terrain can make this arduous.

Sightseeing

As well as the awe inspiring volcanic region Lanzarote boasts a host of other natural attractions.  Such as the Green Lagoon at El Golfo – an emerald colour land locked lake created by an interaction between sea water and algae.  Which is so striking that it has been used as a backdrop for a number of sci-fi films such as Krull and One Million Years BC.

The island is also home to over 90 beaches – some of which, such as Famara and Papagayo are amongst the best in the Canaries.

Hail Cesar

Lanzarote boasts a set of unique man made tourist attractions.  Created by the highly creative Canarian artist Cesar Manrique.  Once a contemporary of Andy Warhol’s in New York.

Manrique was opposed to uncontrolled tourist development and wanted to illustrate what could be achieved by working with the island’s volcanic scenery, rather than taking the conventional route of building golf courses and water parks.

As a result visitors can enjoy touring creations such as the Jameos del Agua, where Manrique transformed a huge lava tunnel into a concert venue, nightclub and underground auditorium

Experience the Best Three Family Vermont Tourism Destinations including Apple Fest

Have you toured the Apple Fest? Have your friends chosen where you want to go on your Vermont summer vacation? Don’t worry, you are not the only one, few individuals who have decided what they want to do on vacation. It certainly is a quite time consuming activity to discover that perfect Vermont vacation plan, so check out the choices for your Vermont Tourism. You will discover various alternatives and it may not be a simple decision!

Of course, there is always the Apple Fest. However, if you are thoughtful and take the time to do your vacation planning, it should make your fall Vermont escape easy and one of those family stories that you will treasure forever. The most frequent problem people experience is first selecting a destination. The perfect Vermont vacations start when you first choose what you want to do! Do you want to go camping, surfing on a beach, playing and relaxing at a park, or touring informational or historical attractions? By deciding what you want to do to start with, you are off to the best start of selecting that perfect Vermont family tourism destination!

Vermont is the place to be! Now that you have decided what you want to do – you can sift through the various Vermont tourism destination areas and discover those appealing Vermont attractions that you want to go see or do. By spending a short time planning, you can also select those local destinations that have a variety of attractions that are of interest to both you and your entire family. Online travel guides are available that can help you choose detailed information about attractions that are more detailed than a simple attraction name and address. Once you know what you want to do and where you want to go, a legitimate high quality online Vermont travel guide will provide you a quality article describing each attraction to help you make an informed decision about what you want to do and where you want to go.

Here are 3 Vermont vacation ideas that you may want to consider:

Idea #1: Apple Fest – South Hero, Vermont. At apple harvest time the apple growers of Lake Champlain Islands invite everyone to come and enjoy the bountiful harvest, the wonderful craft shows, antiques, flea market and all of the wonderful things that apples can be used for. Sip the wonderful cider, get sticky on your face with a fabulous caramel apple, try a cider donut or fresh pressed or hot mulled cider. The celebration is held each year over Columbus Day and Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend.

Idea #2: Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home has Plenty to Offer Visitors. Many who visit the picturesque village of Manchester, Vermont come to see Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home. The mansion and the grounds are beautiful, interesting, and full of history, a perfect place for everyone in the family to go.

Idea #3: One of the most fun and entertaining ways to tour some of the most scenic areas of Vermont is on board a Green Mountain Railroad Flyer. Trains Around Vermont offers three regularly scheduled rail excursions, and special train events and seasonal excursions are scheduled throughout the year.

As you have discovered, you have a significant choice of alternatives available to you when it is time to select that perfect Vermont family vacation escape. Enjoy your time to plan carefully what you want to do and where you want to go. Use a professional travel guide to help you on those perfect Vermont Attractions. And you will find that you will experience a wonderful vacation with a lifetime of memories.

If you are looking for a romantic getaway, or just a peaceful weekend for relaxation, nothing beats a stay in a bed and breakfast inn. One could say the contemporary bed and breakfast is a centuries-old tradition, as wayfarers looking for a place to sleep often depended upon the kindness of locals to open their homes and hearths. A few coins might have given a person a warm bed for the night, plus something to tide him over until he reached his destination. Go to st augustine bed and breakfast for more information.

Today, the bed and breakfast inn symbolizes comfort and serenity, romance and intimacy. Such inns are found lined together in historic neighborhoods along shady avenues, or tucked in remote area overlooking breathtaking mountain ranges. Other inns may be found in more urban areas, housed in renovated buildings during a city renaissance. Wherever you decide to travel this year, why not consider spending your downtime at a bed and breakfast instead of a regular hotel? You will find the amenities are quite pleasing.

That said, there are a number of factors travelers should consider before reserving a room at a B&B. The Internet offers not only a wealth of information on individual inns, but there exist a good number of directories with regional and local information. Do your research first to ensure a fun vacation.

General Information: How long has the B&B been in business? Are they registered with any official hospitality associations? Do they have a website with detailed information and a photo gallery of the rooms? Are there testimonials provided by former guests? Is the establishment completely non-smoking? Are pets and children allowed?

If you are looking for a quiet weekend away from the bustle of the city, you will want to stay where no distractions are certain to follow. Be sure to find out. Refer to bed and breakfast st augustine for more in formation.

Location: Where is the bed and breakfast located? Is it convenient to shops and areas of interest? If in the country, is it within a reasonable distance from hiking and biking trails? Are the directions easy to follow? Depending on what you have planned for your trip, you want to be sure you don’t have to spend all day in a car to do what you want.

Amenities: What is offered with a B&B stay besides the bed and the breakfast? Do all rooms come with private bath? Is there a garden, porch, or balcony available for reading? Is wireless Internet available? Some B&B inns also offer evening libations and snacks, which is a nice bonus after a day of sightseeing. If you cannot find corresponding information on an inn’s website, call and ask.

Cost: Are the rooms reasonably priced for the season and area? Don’t forget to shop and compare. Does the inn offer discounts for AARP or AAA membership? Are there special packages for honeymoons, or to coincide with local festivals? Some B&B inns may work in conjunction with area restaurants and attractions, offering coupons and package deals. Look around and see what is available to you.

If you know what to look for in a bed and breakfast, you are certain to enjoy a wonderful, comfortable stay. Do your research now and plan to make many fond memories. Visit bed and breakfasts in florida for further information.

Today I am not going to write from a position of a Vancouver BC real estate agent, but simply from a position of a Vancouver’s citizen. If you asked citizens from from just about any country what the greatest city there is, many of them would probably answer “Vancouver”. Even the 2009 Mercer Quality of Living global city rankings showed Vancouver as the greatest city in America. And still it is getting negative international press attention by The Economics and The Independent. What is the reason for this?

While Vancouver has 2.7 mil residents, there have been 45 gunfire incidents from January to March 2009. 17 people died in these. That’s 6.3 violent deaths per 1 mil citizens. Compared to Toronto (5.1 mil citizens), there was 11 murders in the same period, which works out at 2.2 violent deaths per 1 mil citizens – almost three times less!

Two battles: gangs vs. gangs and gangs vs. the police

Compared to the present situation, the number of gangs operating in Vancouver some 10 years ago was 10 times smaller. Speaking in specific figures, it is more than 100 gangs active in Vancouver these days! And as if that wasn’t enough, these numbers are topped up with three factors worsening the overall state of affairs: the gangs 1) being poorly organized, 2) having too comfortable access to weapons and 3) being comprised of mostly very young recruits.

Nowadays there are two battles going on at the streets of Vancouver. The first of them of course occurs among the gangs. The gangs are at each other’s throats since the cost of cocaine from Mexico has grown. Lately, there has been a powerful effort coming from the Mexican government, aimed at the drug cartel business, which has pushed the cocaine price from $23,300/kg to almost $39,000/kg.

There is a natural question occurring – why is Vancouver such a drug capital? Well, the configuration of the city’s easy-going attitude, geographical area and vast back country make the excellent configuration for enhanced drug crime. Also no other place in Canada combines these characteristics to such an extent. And yet the city of Vancouver has fewer policemen per head of population than any other large Canadian city. On the top of that the regional government plans on cutting the police and court annual expenses by $20 million by 2012. The other fight going on between the gangs and the police would be much more favorable to the latter, if the police had enough resources, both financial and personal.

What to do now?

I am far from pretending that this problem we are facing can be resolved by some quick & easy peace recipes. However, it seems apparent to me that the police would need to increase its staff count and budget, not cut it back! Safety and security must become the city’s important characteristics again. One, but not the only reason being the Olympic games in 2010, but mostly because the people of Vancouver deserve it. Recently, the PM Stephen Harper suggested a new harsh law which would judge gang killings as first-degree murders with at least 25 years in prison. This is of course a right thing to do, but in order to improve the situation in Vancouver, it is not sufficient.

No way everyone knows there are no elephants in South America!  Well just watch this movie clip because it has proof that there is at least one elephant in  South America.

There actually were elephants in South America check it out at this link.

Taking lots of pictures is one of the most important things to do while on vacation.  I wish I had taken more pictures of my vacations back in the day.  The pictures I did take are old and it is difficult to get them to my friends and families.  Now days it is easy to get a nice camera that loads easily to your computer and then to the internet.  A family blog is a great way to load up your travel shots and let everyone see them.  I like it because there is no postage or mail to deal with, so I save money.  A blog is also free.

So imagine going on a great vacation and when you got back you tried to share your photos with your friends and family.  You have a hard time because they get the pile of pictures and start looking through them and you can’t explain each picture fast enough.  No longer with your own blog, you upload the pictures or videos and explain each one right next to the picture.  Blogs even let others put comments on your post.  That way you can really tell what friends or family really care about your trip.

I had lots of photos but they were all old school and hard to organize.  I still have some piled in a chest.  About a year ago I found that I could scan my old photos to the computer and then burn them to disk.  Then I figured out how to get them straight to my blog and now I do not even have piles of CD’s laying around.  Life is just getting better and better along this regard.

So take lots of pictures and get them onto your blog!

Lord out.

Why not spend a weekend in Austria, renting appartmenti a Viennain the city that best represents it with its imperial and anachronistic elegance? Let’s start talking about how to get there: flying is, without a shadow of a doubt, is the fastest way of getting to Vienna from Italy. Vienna’s airport is Flughafen Wien and is located only 25 minutes from the city. You can get to Vienna from the airport with the city’s metro S7 (Schnellbahn) which arrives in the city centre from Landstrasse/Wien-Mitte and North Vienna. Another option are the trains, which leave every half hour and are well-known by everyone as being the cleanest and most efficient in Europe.

Otherwise, in my opinion, the best option is to take the car from the North: take the A8 (Autostrada dei Laghi) and then take the A4 towards Tangenziale est E66 Brescia-Venice-Milan Viale Zara, which then becomes Autostrada della Serennissima; staying on the left hand side, take the A23 Autostrada Alpe-Adria towards Udine-Tarvisio-Villach crossing Austria. Keeping to the right take the A2 towards Favoriten-Flughafen, take the Knoten Wien-Inzersdorf Sud towards Wien-Altmannsdorf-Inzersdorf, go into it via the B17 Wiener Neustradter Bundesstrasse towards Zentrum-Gurtel. I know, all these names seem like tongue-twisters, but all you have to do is follow the directions and you’ll get there without any problems. The best thing to do to enjoy the options the city offers to the full, is to book the rental of an appartamenti a Vienna, maybe in the central area of the city, so you’ve got the full run of the handy public transport available to tourists.

I would first advise you to visit the Viennese squares: the most central ones are Maria Theresien Platz and Helden Platz: the Art History and Natural History museums stand out from the first one, which places the sovereign monument of the same name in the centre, while the second one – the Victorious Heroes’ Over The Turks Square looks out over the magnificent Hofburg complex’s new fortress (Neue Burg).
As well as being one of the most lively meeting and shopping places, the Am Of Square is surrounded by Baroque palaces and offers the “Virgin’s Column” to the centre, while the Baroque church of the Jesuits stands out on the right hand side.

Other Baroque palaces surrounded the lively Graben Square which places “The Plague Column” in the centre, which was built at the end of the 17th century after the epidemic which hit the city. These are:

Karlsplatz

Which deserves to be visited not only because of the Saint Charles Borromeo’s Church (Karlskirche), which is a valued Baroque building, but also because of the metro’s refined pavillions, made by Otto Wagner in marble and gold.
Rathaus Platz
The area in front of the Town Hall (Rathaus), surrounded by gardens, is home, in December, to the wooden benches and the big tree lit up by the famous and very busy Christmas market.