Fjærland is a village in the municipality of Sogndal, along the Fjærlandsfjord – the longest fjord in Norway. Known as a book town, it is located about 31 km northwest of the municipal center of Sogndalsfjora. There are book shops situated in old cow sheds and pigpens. Owned by the Orheim family for over a hundred years, the Hotel Mundal is a great choice to rest during your stay in the area. This is an old wooden building in 19th century style still in business as a hotel.

The major attraction in Fjærland is the Norwegian Glacier Museum. Designed by Sverre Fehn who received a Pritzker prize in 1997 as a professor of architecture, the museum is located at the scenic Jostedalsbreen National Park. The angular concrete bunker recalls the stone mountains carved by glaciers. Completed in 1991, the Norwegian Glacier Museum reveals more than you ever wanted to know about the flowing ice and how it has sculpted the landscape, the fjords and the mountains. There is a stunning multi-screen presentation on Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier on the European continent. You can take a safe trip under the “glacier” and experience the sounds, light, water and winds. Photo: Bosc d’Anjou
 

 
Japanese fireworks are without doubt an elaborate and magnificent art and one of the most spectacular in the whole world. The Miyajima Water Fireworks Festival held on August 14 every year in Miyajima, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Attracts over 300,000 visitors and thousands of photo enthusiasts and presents seven spectacular scenes, the festival is one of the most famous in Japan.

Voted by photographers as the number one location in a listing of the top 100 fireworks locations in Japan,  the Miyajima Water Fireworks Festival displays over 200 fire flowers complying with a yearly theme. The fireworks festival is not only eye catching because it is set to match the image of a scene but also because of its incredible location over water next to the traditional Otorii Gate. The world-famed vermillion “Otorii” (Grand Gate) gateway to Itukushima Shrine provides a unique background unmatched anywhere to a spectacular display of fireworks rising from the sea. Manufacturing techniques, power and height have improved tremendously with many new types of colourful bursts and rockets lighting up the sky. You could see 5000 fireworks!!!
 

Photographers, both professionals and amateurs, are eager to take pictures of the vermillion torii gate and shrine buildings fantastically lit up in the night sky. Visitors to Japan are invited to enjoy a splendid evening watching Japanese fireworks displays. 

Located in the northwest of Guilin City, 5 km away from the city’ center, Reed Flute Cave is one of the most popular and most interesting tourist attractions in Guilin, China. According to a legend, the name of the cave is derived from ludi cao (reed grass), which grows in front of the cave and is used to make flutes with melodious sound. It is a natural limestone cave about 240 meters long and it was formed 600,000 years ago. The cave offers a majestic fairyland of karst caves with landscape and rural scenery. It is filled with a large number of stalactites, stalagmites and rock formations in weird and wonderful shapes.

When you enter the Reed Flute Cave, your eyes will be feasted with a magic fairyland of stone formations, such as stalactites, stalagmites, stone pillars, stone flowers, birds, stone mushroom and so forth, all illuminated by coloured lighting. The cave is divided into different parts. Some stone formations are like the human figures, some resemble the animals, some are similar to the famous flowers, and some look like the fruit and vegetables. What is more, pagodas, forest, fish, waterfall, canyon, peanut, carrot are all available here.

The cave served as a war refuge for many people during World War II and was opened to public in 1962. It is highly praised as the “Huge Art Palace of the Nature”. Famed as the Palace of Natural Art , the cave is now equipped with artificial lighting system to emphasize visual effect. More than just a random cave, the Reed Flute Cave is a Guilin top attraction that visitors should discover.  Recommended time for a visit: three hours.

Spain is well served with windmills, both on the mainland, and also on the various islands of the Balearics, and the Canaries. These windmills inspired Miguel de Cervantes to create the famous episode of the battle against the giants in his work “Don Quixote” and became famous in the 16th century (when Don Quixote was first published). Consuegra is a municipality located in a province of Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha. The best examples of restored Spanish windmills can be found in this province.

Situated at the foot of the Cerro Calderico hill, Consuegra is the site of an impressive castle equipped with an exceptional keep and some traditional La Mancha windmills. Several mills spike the hill just outside of town, giving us a spectacular view of the 12th century castle and of the town. This ridge is home to twelve of the thirteen windmills that originally stood here. Four of them still conserve their machinery in good working order. The windmills were transmitted from fathers to sons. They usually consisted of two rooms or levels. Millers had to carry sacks of grains that could weigh 60 or 70 kilos to the top floor, they rotated the sails of the windmill as the top part of the windmill or dome was moveable.

Located in eastern Andalusia, in the province of Granada, Spain, the Andasol solar power station is Europe’s first commercial parabolic trough solar thermal power plant. Occupies about 200 hectares of land, it is comprised of three power plants, namely Andasol 1, 2 and 3. The three plants constitute the largest solar power station in the world. Its name is a combination of Andalusia and Sol (sun in Spanish).

Andasol 3 is the third solar thermal power plant to be installed by Solar Millennium. The neighbouring projects Andasol 1 and Andasol 2 are already connected to the grid. The power plants have a collector surface area of over 1.5 million sq m – equal to the surface area of approximately 210 football fields – thus making it the largest solar energy site in Europe. The expected gross energy production for each power plant is 170 gigawatt hours of green energy a year. This represents a saving of approximately 450,000 tones of carbon dioxide as compared to conventional electricity generation. for more detailed information please click here.

The Netherlands is renowned as the land of tulips and there is no better time of year to visit the flower fields than spring, when the bulbs are in full bloom. See the spectacular colors of more than 7 million tulips in bloom. Just a few miles from the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam, the land is carpeted with mile upon mile of fields of gladioli, hyacinths, lilies, narcissi, daffodils, crocuses, irises, dahlias and, of course, the mighty tulip. Hundreds of thousands of tulips in field after field in different colours makes an awesome view. If you love flowers you won’t believe the colourful display of tulips.

The earliest blooms burst into color in January, and the floral show doesn’t slow down until the late-blooming lilies make their exit near the end of May. Late April to early May are the two months each year the fields are alive with colour and should you get an opportunity to visit them you will not be disappointed.

Actually, tulips aren’t even Dutch. They arrived from Turkey in the 1590s and quickly became popular. By 1620, tulip mania had taken hold and growers could not keep up with demand. By 1636, some rare bulbs were sold for their weight in gold. Soon after, though, the floral market bottomed out in the Great Tulip Crash. Bulbs have come down in price a wee bit since then, but the Netherlands remains on of the world’s largest producers of flowers.

Opened in 1936, King George Palace enjoys a privileged position in the center of the Athens‘ golden quarter, between the Parliament, the Constitution, the Stadiou Avenue and the Voucourestiou Street. A proud member of the Leading Hotels of the World, this unique luxury boutique hotel has been ranked among the 100 Top European Hotels in the Conde Nast Traveler 2006 and 2007 Readers’ Choice Awards. Previous guests have included the likes of David Copperfield, Christina Aguilera, Woody Allen and Ennio Morricone.

Near the historical city center blended with the financial, commercial and business districts, the King George Hotel features 78 ultra-luxurious guestrooms. They are individually decorated in several styles including classic French decor and 19th-century English townhouse style. Designed with a rich residential feeling, complemented by the latest technology interfacing with antique furniture and Murano chandeliers, the rooms come with  CD players, laptop safes, mini bars, fast Internet access and Bulgari toiletries. Some rooms have a small balcony as well as a separate shower and a Murano mural in the bath.

Founded in the 11th century, Avila is a medieval city in western Spain, about 70 miles northwest of Madrid. Dates from pre-Roman times this old town has the best preserved medieval walls in Spain. With 82 semicircular towers and nine gates, the walls, surrounding the city, have a total length of 2.5 km and is on average 12 meters high. Ávila also has a magnificently historic cathedral, a number of Extra-Muros Churches, and an authentic medieval atmosphere. For all these reasons, the entire Old Town of Ávila has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The cathedral was built as an integral element of the embattled walls, while the town’s topography of churches, monasteries, and houses extends beyond the ramparts, creating an ensemble of medieval urbanism. Situated at the highest altitude on 1130 m above sea level, this World Heritage city also is the birthplace of St Teresa and the burial place of the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada. Teresa was a 16th-century Carmelite nun who reformed her order, had many ecstatic visions, and wrote several books. She is the female patron saint of Spain and was the first woman to be named a Doctor of the Church.

Other city’ tourist attractions include: the Cathedral of Avila, Basílica de San Vicente, Iglesia de San Pedro, Palacio de Don Diego del Aguila and many museums, universities and history buildings. Avila contains two main shrines honoring St. Teresa, along with a few more sites associated with the saint. The primary shrine is the Convent of St. Teresa, a convent contains her relics, and the second is the Monasterio de la Encarnacion, where St. Teresa lived and where her cell can be visited.

Unlike much of Croatia, Sibenik was not founded until the 7th century by Croats. The town was inevitably tossed around between the country’s many successive invaders: Ottomans, Venetians, Hungarians, French and Austrians. Despite all this, and the heavy bombing during the Second World War, the old part of Sibenik has survived. The city boasts typically urban Croatian architecture – houses of pale stone and red-tiled roofs.

As has the pleasure of wandering along the lanes and alleys which fan out from each other, of stumbling across the time-worn façade of an elegant mansion or the secret garden of a priory, of idling away time in a small café alongside a chapel. In the glimmer of the street lamps, delicate medieval stone carvings are vividly brought to life – a noble coat of arms above a doorway, a drinking trough for dogs beside a channel, a weaver’s measure still marking the wall on a street corner.

Hvar is the longest and sunniest Croatian island – one of the most beautiful islands in the world. Both rustic and worldly, bucolic and chic, Hvar is an island of fields. Inland, it is as rugged as ever – strong-smelling dense maquis, rocky mule tracks, and abrupt cliffs dropping down to the sea. Elsewhere, there are entire fields where fragrant lavender bushes grow, hillsides overrun with wild herbs, slopes covered with carpets of green vines and clear creeks. With its architecture, beautiful nature and mild climate many would describe it as a true fairy-tale city. Not surprisingly, many of a famous writer has been bowled over by Hvar, Croatia.

Back in the Hvar Town, the port and its marina offer plenty of diversion for leisure-seekers: not only is there an abundance of restaurants, trattorias and konobas, but spiritual replenishment can also be found in the form a theater, purportedly Eupore’s first for the people and aristocracy alike, housed on the first level of the Arsenal building. Thanks to the mild climate, the warm winters and pleasant summers Hvar receives many guests, scientists and travellers, who are attracted by the dense Mediterranean nature, rich tradition and architecture, and nightlife.

A slightly different form of spiritual replenishment is found in the Cathedral of St Stephan housing one of Croatia’ oldest icons; the Benedictine monastery where lace is still made from dried agave leaves; and the garden of the old Franciscan monastery with its 200-year-old cypress tree and painting of the Last Supper, in the refectory, undoubtedly influenced by Leonardo da Vinci’s world-famous masterpiece.

At 480 meters, Shanghai World Financial Center is the China’s tallest and the third-tallest in the world. It is a mixed use skyscraper which consists of offices, hotels, conference rooms, observation decks, and shopping malls on the ground floors. Located in Pudong, Shanghai, China, the skyscraper was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

The first two floors are commercial with the third to fifth floors for conference centers. The 7th to 77th floors are house offices. On the 79th to 93rd floors is located the Park Hyatt Shanghai Hotel with 174 rooms and suites (which is the second highest hotel in the world), and the 94th to 100th floors are designed to be an observatory for sightseeing. To protect the building from fierce winds, the Shanghai World Financial Center holds two tuned mass dampers below its observation floors to reduce the building’s sway during windstorms and earthquakes.

The observatory on the 100th floor at 474 meters above ground is the tallest of its kind in the world. Opened with a view from 3 levels – its lowest observation deck is 423 m, on the 94th floor, the second is 439 m high, on the 97th floor and the highest view is at 474 m above ground level on the 100th floor. On 14 September 2007 the skyscraper was topped out at 492.0 meters and became the second tallest building in the world. The 101-story has been lauded for its design and was named by architects as the best skyscraper completed in 2008.

Situated in the city of Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum or Museu de Arte Contemporanea de Niteroi – MAC is one of the city’s main landmarks. More than a simple museum, it is a cultural space. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer (one of the most famous architects on earth), the architectural complex might be better known for its fascinating building, which looks more like a UFO than a museum at first glance.

Located in a wonderful place with a view to Guanabara Bay, this museum looks almost like a spaceship The MAC-Niteroi is 16 meters high and its cupola has a diameter of 50 meters with three floors. The four-storey-structure with 16 meters high and 50 feet in diameter rises from the floor in a single cylindrical base and is inscribed in a square of 2,500 m².

The various exhibits are situated on three different levels but the complex of MAC has an auditorium, movie theater for art-films and film exhibitions, and a mix of other technical facilities. There is also restaurant, bar, and places for workshops of craft and art. Opening Hours: From Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm. Entrance fee: R$ 5,00

The Altstadt is the old quarter of the city. This old electoral capital is a town of wide streets crowded with traffic and lined by elegant shops, with a ring of parks and gardens. With many historical sights, boutiques, museums and tourist attractions, it is a great place to begin your sightseeing. Here fine architecture lines much of the Rhine River. With more than 260 cosy pubs and restaurants, Altstadt is well known as “the longest bar in the world”. Dusseldorf’s attractive riverside promenade runs alongside the old quarter to the Media Harbour, which world-class architects such as Frank Gehry have transformed into an architectural showcase.

Dusseldorf’s elegant side is typified by the upmarket Konigsallee shopping street, while the Gehry buildings in Media Harbour represent modern Dusseldorf. The city is also home to the largest Japanese population in Europe and boasts a number of excellent Japanese restaurants and shops and a striking Buddhist temple. Be it something modern of world standing, opera, theatre, literature or music: Dusseldorf is always good for new aspects of culture.

Shine like a star at W Hollywood Hotel, where you take center stage. Indulge in fabulous Los Angeles dining at Delphine, then take the lift upstairs and splash around in our rooftop pool, WET. Soak up the celebrity scene at Drai’s Hollywood and then wind down in the comfort of our wow-worthy rooms featuring the Wonderful Room or Cool Corner Suite. This chic boutique is under the shadow of the icon Hollywood sign. Sip, mix and mingle at W Hollywood – the newest destination sensation. The place brings glamour and excitement back to the neighborhood that invented celebrity.

Whether you’re stretching out in the modern lounge chair or perched on the ottoman, relax in your room with the state-of-the-art entertainment system, featuring an LG 42″ flat screen TV, LG CD/DVD player, Sonoro iPod docking station and Oscar-worthy media library available. Like surprise endings? Begin with delectable delights from the fabulous Munchie Box and pair it with something refreshing from the white tufted mini bar under a glowing globe pendant. If you feel the need to network, the glossy white lacquered desk has all the trimmings-High Speed Internet Access and cordless phone with voicemail. For gourmet lovers Delphine Eatery & Bar is located at W Hollywood and open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including weekend brunch. Delphine serves classic and modern interpretations of California Bistro Fare- everything from bistro-inspired entrees, sandwiches and an extensive raw bar, to Steak Frites and Hollywood’s Best Burger.

Most of you know, that, Hollywood is located in downtown Los Angeles, and is coined as the entertainment capital of the world. W Hollywood sits center stage at the historic intersection of Hollywood and Vine, directly on the star studded Hollywood Walk of Fame. W Hollywood hotel shares a street with the legendary Pantages Theater and the classic Kodak Theater, home to the Oscars. Nearby, you’ll enjoy the spectacular landmarks, including the fully restored El Capitan, known as “The Greek”, and the world-famous Grauman’s Chinese and Egyptian Theatres. W Hollywood is located at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood, California 90028….