Kategorie: History

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VENEZUELA: Castillo de San Carlos de la Barra

The castle of San Carlos de la Barra is a construction of colonial Spain, located on the San Carlos Peninsula, in the state Zulia. It was built in 1623 with limestone rocks, brought from Toas Island, at the entrance of the Maracaibo bar. The fortress was intended to protect the passage that connects Lake Maracaibo with the Gulf of Venezuela. At the time when Maracaibo was built it had been attacked and sacked several times by pirates and the construction of the castle was intended to have a true defense of the territory that would prevent pirates from entering the mainland.

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FRANCE: Paris – The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel) is a 324-meter-high iron truss tower in Paris. It is located in the 7th arrondissement at the northwestern end of the Champ de Mars, near the banks of the Seine. Built between 1887 and 1889, the building was erected as a monumental entrance portal and observation tower for the World’s Fair to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Named after the builder Gustave Eiffel and at the time of construction still 312 meters high tower was from its construction until the completion of the 1930 Chrysler Building in New York, the tallest structure in the world. With the broadcast of the first public radio program in Europe in 1921 and the first French television program in 1935, the building contributed as a radio tower to the history of radio and television. The television tower is the main transmitter of the metropolitan area of ​​Paris and houses as a tower restaurant, the Michelin-starred restaurant Le Jules Verne.

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URUGUAY: Montevideo City Reportage

At this year’s South America Trip we also had a multi-day stop in the capital of Uruguay – Montevideo. The country is one of the smallest on the South American continent, but it has holiday opportunities fustdick behind the ears. The city is located at the mouth of the Río de la Plata and has about 1.3 million inhabitants. Buenos Aires in Argentina is on the other side of the river, actually only 213 kilometers as the crow flies. You can easily take ferries here, driving through countless boats. Incidentally, Montevideo celebrates the longest carnival in the world BEFORE Brazil and Rio. Maybe the one in Rio is bigger, but the one in Montevideo lasts longer … it goes on for a month …

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GREECE: Thessaloniki – Vibrant city built on cities

It doesn´t matter when you go to Thessaloniki, maybe in winter you won´t go swimming, but this city offers just a wonderful combination of the necessary ingredients to have a desired enjoyable quality of life. I could definitely imagine living there for some month or years. The food is fantastic, the people are cool, sympathetic, social and quite open minded. But still stubborn, of course, they are Greek. But stubborn in a nice meaning. They do it their way. And what I observed I really liked, in a lot of aspects a combination of the old with the new, making something different out of it, but without forgetting anything. Everything stays preserved. In Thessaloniki I could meet interesting people who showed me new innovative ideas in which direction Greek culture can go. We went to amazing and entertaining night clubs, one located in an old Hamam, the other homagely named after the German capital Berlin with a taste of its music. And not to mention, the food is just super awesome.

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JAPAN: Historical Oldtown – Kurashiki

During our tour of Japan we made a stop in the historical-idyllic city of Kurashiki (Japanese 倉 敷 市, -shi). The Edo-era merchant town is located in Okayama prefecture and the former Bitchū province of Honshu, the main island of Japan. Kurashiki means something like „village from warehouses“. There are still dozens of buildings (Kura) preserved, which represent a symbol of the city due to their typical facades. It’s worth a visit. It is best to stay for a few days in the nearby Okayama and make a day trip by train to the cultural site.

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JAPAN: Himeji Castle and Shironoshita

Hundreds of castles, fortifications and fortresses are scattered all over Japan, some in very good condition or restored and made accessible to the public. During a trip to Nippon you can not avoid a visit, better you should not miss such an amazing and unique tour. One of the most famous sites is the castle tower complex in Himeji (Japanese 姫 路 城, Himeji-jō) from the 17th century. The Himeji-jō in Hyōgo prefecture is one of Japan’s national treasures and was also recognized by UNESCO in 1993 as a World Heritage Site. On our trip from Osaka to Hiroshima we made a stop in this castle town Himeji (Japanese 姫 路 市, -shi), looked at the Himeji Castle and walked through the Koko-en Garden, which is considered one of the three most beautiful in Japan, especially during the cherry blossom festival Hanami. We wandered through the Engyō-ji Temple, climbed Mount Seppiko and shot a video with Tomohisa Shiroshita about the new Shironoshita Guesthouse.

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JAPAN: Anago No Nedoko – Onomichi

The few but increasingly growing tourists who travel to Japan first of course visit the major cultural centers or high-tech cities such as Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. But if you have a little more time for your trip to Nippon, you have the opportunity to get to know many other sites in the country. Often the smaller villages are hidden and undervalued delicacies. For example, the fishing town of Onomichi (Japanese: 尾 道 市, -shi) on the southwest coast of Honshū Island.

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JAPAN: Hippie Buddha Monks – Miyajima

Here is a little story from our Japan-trip about the little funny hippie buddha monk figures we found. After we spend some time in the metropolitan tumult of Osaka, we headed south towards Hiroshima. It started getting greener on the countryside and shrine visits started to become the order of the day. An extensive site was located on the island Miyajima (宮島) which means translated „shrine-island“. The island is packed with temple sites and there is as well the famous Itsukushima Shintō-Shrine ( 厳島神社).

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LATVIA: Riga – Cultural Capital, Fantastic Food and Balsam Booze

Have you ever been to the Baltic States? No, not Greece, that’s the Balkans. The Baltic States are located in the northeast of Europe, between the Baltic Sea and Russia, and include the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We were in Riga, the capital of Latvia, last week, looking for local street art and graffiti. The city is definitely worth a visit, whether as a stopover during a Baltic trip or as a short weekend trip.

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