gardens travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

The annual “Holiday Train Show,’’ in New York City makes you feel a little like an alien visitor just coming ashore; everything familiar is skewed and strange in the fragrant, humid air.

A train passing by The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

This train is made from willow, canella berries, pine bark and walnut shells. The train  runs under the Washington Arch.

Foreground, from left: Saks Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, including the G.E. Building, Radio City Music Hall and the Flatiron Building.

Father and daughter,  from Pennsylvania, watched a train on the Brooklyn Bridge. The Manhattan Bridge was made of oak, hickory and elm, with willow branches, while the Brooklyn Bridge, whose neo-Gothic arches are lined with sugar-pine-cone scales.

Old New York townhouses.

Visitors watched a train on the Manhattan Bridge. While looking at this exhibition you will understand that trains became objects of play, subjects for romance. That may be why they seem so comfortable weaving around this show’s botanical urban world.

The Hotel Cipriani is one oasis of luxury in Venice, Italy, located on the island Giudecca, which is famous with its wines. This five-star and ultra-rich hotel and its excellent service, charming furnishings, all-marble bathrooms, three restaurants, bars, spa, tennis courts and Olympic-size swimming pool, is one great European destination.

The Hotel Cipriani’s 105 rooms are decorated in traditional Venetian style and offer amazing views of the delightful walled Casanova gardens and St Mark’s Square. The hotel’s interior is a combination of pastel colored walls, murals, frescoes and gilded ceilings.

The hotel offers a full-service spa. The menu of Casanova Spa (as it’s called) including jet-lag eliminator, facial and body treatments with exclusive La Prairie products, Scen Tao and hot stone massage, and a special “Dreaming, Floating, Energizing”category, in which the client “floats” in a water-filled plastic blanket for only $129.

The hotel’s Fortuny restaurant has a terrace, which is set in a garden with a beautiful antique water fountain. That is opportunity for one romantic candlelight dinner. Cipriani-style food is prepared by award winning chef of cuisine. With his special dishes like “Zuppa rustica di carciofi e patate” (Cipriani’s artichoke and potato soup) or “Pasta e fagioli alla Veneta” (Red bean soup with pasta) you can enjoy the finest authentic Venetian cuisine.

Hotel prices from £1,325 per person

Manila is by far the largest metropolitan area in the Philippines, and the second largest in Southeast Asia after Jakarta, Indonesia. It is the commercial, administrative, cultural center and chief seaport of the Philippines. About 12 percent of the population of the Philippines is concentrated in the Manila metropolitan area. Manila is also the major destination for tourists who visit the Philippines. Coconut trees, giant kaleidoscopic lamp posts, and various cafes line the Baywalk, the perfect location for tourists to view the afternoon sunset. Numerous points of interest in the city attract about 1 million visitors annually from all over the world. Many of Manila’s tourist sites are found in the old downtown area and along Roxas Boulevard, which parallels Manila Bay. In old sections of Manila like Intramuros, the old walled city and Chinatown, clip-clopping horse-drawn carriages pick their way through traffic. Glass and concrete towers rise side-by-side with Spanish colonial houses and neo- classical government buildings. Dragon arches, gold-domed mosques and elaborately-styled mansions define the enclaves of the Chinese, the Moslems, the rich and famous. Rizal Park is the main recreation center in the city, housing Chinese and Japanese gardens, as well as museums and fountains. Here Fine Art, Western and Eastern music and dance meet in the likes of the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, Ballet Philippines, and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.