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Visit the top of travel destination in Texas – San Antonio. It is the seventh largest city in the USA. San Antonio will captivate you with different historical, cultural and fun attractions. It is visited over 20 million travelers every year.

San Antonio is famous with its Riverwalk – the most visited attraction in the State of Texas. The existing River Walk houses feature luxurious hotels, shops, galleries, restaurants, exciting theme parks, dance nightclubs, lounges and bars. Enjoy the River Walk from a unique perspective aboard a Rio San Antonio Cruise.
The city is home to the first museum of modern art in Texas – McNay Art Museum. There is the old mission – Alamo which is visited by more than 2.5 million people a year. Admission is free. Also you can take an Alamo Helicopter Tours. Enjoy with a breathtaking view of San Antonio River, The San Antonio Zoo, Sea World, The Botanical Gardens and etc.

 Esch-sur-Sure is a small village set in the mountains, next to the Luxembourg. It is a medieval town which is surrounded by a meandering Sure River. The commune is famous with its open air opera and museums, Flower Parade and eco – tourism, offers 90km of walking paths.
The village is located around a castle built in 927, offer protection against marauding troops of Hungarians. The castle consists of two towers – the lower, built in the 10th century and the upper watchtower which was added in the 16th century. There is a charming view from the valley across the river. The castle is open year round and free admission. Old cloth and candle fabrics have been restored and are again producing typical products of the region. There is a permanent exhibition on the park with cloth-making museum and demonstrations.

A couple of miles from Esch-sur-Sûre are the country’s drinking water reservoir, where a barrage dam makes a fine lake, used for watersports of all sorts. Swimming, fishing, windsurfing, canoeing and sailing are very popular.

 

The Gambia is the fourth most densely populated country in West Africa, with around 1.2 million people population. Banjul is the capital and chief port of The Gambia, which is located where the Gambia River enters the Atlantic Ocean. Also Banjul connected the country with Senegal by a ferry across the river and holds the country’s economic center including the Central Bank of Gambia.

 

Banjul’s principal export is peanut processing but also palm wood and oil, and skins and hides are shipped. The brewing and tourism also are available. The Gambia charms its guests with sunny beaches and natural reserves where they cans watch monkeys, birds, hippos and hyenas in the wild. The major resorts are Bakau, Fajara, Kotu, and Kololi.

 

The attractions in the Banjul are the Albert Market – one numerous bustling market, Banjul Court House, the Gambian National Museum and several major mosques. Albert Market is a great place to start leisurely walking and shopping for exotic local crafts, batiks, silver jewelers clothes, shoes and etc.  The major attraction in Banjul is Arch 22, which is the most impressive building in The Gambia. The Arch was built to commemorate the 22 July 1994 it’s a historical monument that also houses a modest textile museum. Standing high at 35m it affords spectacular views over the city and coastal areas.

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, originally the industrial capital, today is one of Britain’s major tourist places. It’s one of the liveliest and most cosmopolitan destinations in Europe. The city offers the best shopping in the United Kingdom outside London, and the most vibrant and exciting nightlife in Scotland. No matter what brings you to Glasgow – the castles, the history, the architecture – Glasgow’s got it all!

Glasgow is filled with exciting experiences – the ballet, orchestra and restaurants. It’s home to more than twenty museums, boasts world famous art collections, whether your taste is for Mackintosh or Modern Art, Dinosaurs or Dali, Tall Ship or Tearoom. Most galleries and museums are with free admission. To experience Scotland’s beloved tea ritual, there are few places cuter than Miss Cranston’s – a cafe that bakes some of the city’s best crumpets and cakes.

The Glasgow Science Center is another favorite among travelers, and families in particular. The Science Center has four floors of exhibits, as well as an IMAX theatre. The Glasgow International art fair also takes place every April from 2005.

Glasgow Tower is a free-standing tower built in 2001, costing £10 million. It is currently the largest building in Scotland and the largest building in the world which can turn 360 degrees from the ground up.

Ottawa is the capital of Canada and this summer this huge city celebrates its 50th anniversary. The city is spectacular and has enough green spaces, trails and water, which can satisfied the most hyperactive travelers.

This is the Parliament Hill, which is just steps from downtown.

This picture displays the Rideau Canal, which is part of a 125-mile-long waterway that links Ottawa River to Lake Ontario.

 

A show at ByWard Market.

Ottawa is home to a wealth of national museums, offical residences, memorials and heritage structures. As well as is home to major sports such as kayaking, swimming, baseball and hokey during the winter.

 

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city’s other names were Petrograd and Leningrad. Founded by Emperor Peter the Great on May 27, 1703, it was the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years. Saint Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 after the Russian Revolution of 1917. It is Russia’s second largest and Europe’s fourth largest city (by city limit) after Moscow, London and Paris. 4.6 million people live in the city, and over 6 million people live in the city’s vicinity. Saint Petersburg is a major European cultural center, and important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is often described as the most Western European styled city of Russia.

Its geopolitical, intellectual, economical, cultural and historical advantages are unique. St. Petersburg is the symbol of the European part of Russia and one of the most venerable capitals of the world. St. Petersburg, a cultural center of the global significance, has accumulated and enormous cultural potential over the period of three centuries. For all this time the city has been a true pearl of world culture. Artists and architects made a permanent mark in the cultural history of Russia with their world-renowned architectural ensembles of St. Petersburg. There are over 250 museums, 18 literature museums, 44 art museums, 5 national museum-preserves, 39 history museums, 24 local history and ethnographic museums.

These are the Peter-and-Paul Fortress Complex, the Alexander Nevsky Lavra Monastery, the Smolny, the Spit of Vasilievsky Island with the buildings of Birzha and the Twelve Collegiums, the Dvortsovaya Square with the Winter Palace, the Arc of the General Headquarters and the Alexander Column, the Dekabristove Square and the Bronze Horseman, the St. Isaac Cathedral, and many more monuments and buildings.
Probably the most familiar symbol of Saint Petersburg is the equestrian statue of Peter the Great, known as the Bronze Horseman and installed in 1782 on the Senate Square.
Among the city’s more than fifty theaters is the world-famous Mariinsky Theater (also known as the Kirov Theater in the USSR ), home to the Mariinsky Ballet company and opera.

Saint Petersburg has a longstanding and world famous tradition in literature. Dostoyevsky called it “The most abstract and intentional city in the world” emphasizing its artificiality, but it was also a symbol of modern disorder in a changing Russia.

The biggest coin in the world “Canadian Maple Leaf”, made of gold with incredible purity of 99.999% can now be seen in Vienna‘ museum devoted to history of art. It is granted to the museum for an indefinite period of time by the firm Auer von welsbach.

The precious gold piece of art has the face of Queen Elizabeth II on one side and on the other a maple leaf can be found. It’s weight is 100 kg, thickness is 3 cm, and the diameter – approximately have a meter. The coin will be preserved in a special display protected against thievery and breakage, because the current price for the coin is stated to be 2 mil € and it is insured for 3 mil €. The unique coin is created by the Canadian Monetary Agency for it’s hundredth anniversary.

Today five such coins can be found. At first eleven should have been created but later the count went down to six. Unfortunately one of the original six was written off because it was two grams lighter. In the neighboring display the world smallest gold antique coin can be found. Its weight is just about 0.24 gr. It was most probably issued during 2nd century B.C in a downworth Austrian Celtic Village. It would fit its “greater” sisters volume exactly 400 000 times.

The newest neighborhood, located south of Market Street in San Francisco offers an easy access to Union Square and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Union Square is the centre of many shops, hotels, museums and theatres in San Francisco. The district is also home of the largest collection of department stores, swank boutiques, tourist trinket shops and salons in the Western United States.

Union Square is a popular shopping destination. It boasts six major department stores: Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Barneys New York, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus. Union Square is also home to several famous upscale boutiques like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dior, Chanel, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Marc Jacobs, and Hermes.

San Francisco has the world’s last permanently operational cable-car system. Union Square is served by two cable cars and by numerous trolley and bus lines and the F Market heritage streetcar. The Muni Metro and BART subway systems both serve the area at nearby Powell Street Station on Market Street. But one of the central gathering spot is Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and many stylish restaurants and hotels. Grand hotels and small inns, also contribute to the area’s dynamic, 24-hour character.

The Do & Co Hotel is situated in the very heart of Vienna overlooking St. Stephan’s Cathedral. The hotel is design by architect Hans Hollein, one of true pioners of post modernism. Do & Co is housed in the popular Haas-Hans building which itself is one of Vienna’s cultural landmarks.

In the very beginning the structure was four floors, but nowadays has been transformed into 43 unique and cone-shaped guestrooms. Each one is decorated using solid high quality material such as stone and teak wood. All of them are fully-furnishing and modern equipped.

Visitors will also have the chance to dine in the chic 7th floor Do & Co restaurant, which serves Asian and Austrian cuisine. If you go downstairs just under the restaurant, you’ll find Onyx Bar, where they can sip a drink in one of Vienna’s hotspots and listen to lounge music.

Casten Holler is visual spectacle of watching people sliding and ‘inner spectacle’ experienced by the sliders themselves, the state of simultaneous delight and anxity that you enter as you descend. Höller has installed six smaller slides in other galleries and museums, but the cavernous space of the Turbine Hall offers a unique setting in which to extend his vision.

Turbine Hall is a hall in Tate Modern museum located in London. Turbine Hall was created in the year 2000 to display the national collection of international modern art. This forms part which is the national collection of British art since 1500 and international modern art. Tate Modern is dedicated museum of modern art.

Carsten Höller is a slide is a sculpture that you can travel inside. The slides are one of the building’s means of transporting people, equivalent to the escalators, elevators or stairs. Slides deliver people quickly, safely and elegantly to their destinations, they’re inexpensive to construct and energy-efficient. They’re also a device for experiencing an emotional state.

A city set on seven hills, as the legend tells, Lisbon is the kind of place where you can sit at street cafes and watch the world go by. But for the eager there are also plenty of cultural activities. In addition to architectural masterpieces at Belem, Lisbon has over 50 museums to visit – some of which are Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, National Museum of Contemporary Art, National Coach Museum, and Carmo Archaeological Museum. The city of Lisbon is rich in architecture – Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Baroque, Traditional Portuguese, Modern and Post-Modern constructions can be found all over the city. But, Lisbon isn’t all culture and history, Bairro Alto is the center of nightlife with various restaurants and bars where melancholic traditional Portuguese music, Fado, can also be listened.

It’s a shame that tourists have no access to Belem Palace, but even from outside this is still something you shouldn’t miss. This is the official residence of the President and was built in 1559 by the noble D. Manuel de Portugal and is located in an area that you will definitively, surely not want to miss. In the 18th century this palace was called ‘palace of the lions’ and its badge seems to be the lion – solar symbol that combines Wisdom and Power – that can be seen in several locations around the palace.
The entrance to this Palace is watched over by two guards. The guards use a magnificent uniform, a curious helmet with a white tail and a sword that is hung on their belt… It makes you think you’ve gone back in time. Belém Tower was built in the Age of the Discoveries in tribute to the patron saint of the city, Saint Vicente. The Belem Tower is to Lisbon what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris or Big Ben is to London. In 1983 UNESCO classified it as a World Heritage Site.
It is the city’s most photographed landmark, which along with the marvelous Jeronimos Monastery should top your list of must-see monuments. The Jeronimos Monastery is the most impressive symbol of Portugal’s power and wealth during the Age of Discovery. King Manuel I built it in 1502 on the site of a hermitage founded by Prince Henry the Navigator, where Vasco da Gama and his crew spent their last night in Portugal in prayer before leaving for India. It was built to commemorate Vasco Da Gama’s voyage and to give thanks to the Virgin Mary for its success.

The Águas Livres Aqueduct (“Aqueduct of Free Waters”) is an historic aqueduct in the city of Lisbon. It is one of the most remarkable examples of 18th-century Portuguese engineering. The main course of the aqueduct covers 18 km, but the whole network of canals extends through nearly 58 km. Construction started in 1731 under the direction of Italian architect Antonio Canevari, replaced in 1732 by a group of Portuguese architects and engineers, including Manuel da Maia, Azevedo Fortes and José da Silva Pais. In 1748, although the project was still unfinished, the aqueduct finally started to bring water to the city of Lisbon, a fact celebrated in a commemorative arch built in the Amoreiras neighbourhood. From this period on, construction was overseen by other architects, including Carlos Mardel of Hungary and others. During the reigns of José I and Maria I, the network of canals and fountains was greatly enlarged.Bairro Alto is an area of central Lisbon. It functions as a residential, shopping and entertainment district. Today, the Bairro Alto is the heart of Lisbon’s youth and of the Portuguese capital’s nightlife. Lisbon’s Punk, Gay, Metal, Goth, Hip Hop and Reggae scenes, all have the Bairro as their home, due to the number of clubs and bars dedicated to each of them. The fado, Portugal’s national song, still survives in the new Lisbon’s nightlife. The crowd is a mix of local and tourist, straight and gay, and almost anything else imagined.

Rising from the river and reached by a footbridge is one of the world’s largest aquariums, designed by American architect Peter Chermeyeff. It is the closest thing visitors get to deep-sea diving without any of the risks, with about 25,000 fish, seabirds, and mammals in an enormous central tank, the size of four Olympic-sized swimming pools. Visitors can look into it from different levels for close-ups of the various creatures, including different species of sharks. It is the first aquarium ever to incorporate world ocean habitats within a single environment, with impressive recreations of various ocean ecosystems — the Antarctic tank containing penguins, and the Pacific tank with otters playing in rock pools.
To be continued….