Europe ::

Following the River Avon (more or less)

18/02/2014 10:47

In Welsh language Avon means river. So rivers named River there are more than one in southwest Britain. In one of them, known as Upper Avon or Warwickshire Avon is Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace where grew up the most famous of the British bards, William Shakespeare. Another Avon,...

Αθήνα, Athens!

04/02/2014 11:12

Oh Solon, Solon! You the Greeks are always children, there is no a Greek old man. These words were said by an old priest of the city of Sais, in the Nile delta, to one of the Greece Seven Sages six centuries before Christ. Twenty six centuries later, in the maelstrom of modern Greek capital, almost...

Proust's Way

21/11/2013 10:49

A century ago it was published for the first time the start of the journey of Marcel Proust through their own memories. Although André Gidé, a good friend, rejected De Coté de Chez Swann, Swann’s Way, the first volume of À la Recherche du Temps Perdu, In Search of Lost Time, was released in...

Bruges: Blood, Sweets and Terraces

20/09/2013 10:13

In Markt, the large market square and epicentre of the city, opposite the bell tower, French fries stalls are traditionally parked. They say they are the best in the world. Just beyond, at any of the restaurants around the square may be mixed with mussels, making the combination one of the...

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

22/07/2013 17:06

Was mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana, was quoted in the Antonine Itinerary, have been called Coriovallinse settlement, Coriallum or Coriallo, Carusburg and Carisburg. The medieval poet Wace named her Chieresburg in his Roman de Rou. But nobody never had sung or had sheltered from the rain as...

Hopscotch in Paris

05/07/2013 10:50

93 I lifted up my head, as trying to avoid being seen. I slowly slid gaze to the mouth of the bridge, Pont des Arts, in the rue de Seine with the bow facing Quai de Conti confluence angle, with the manifest intention to verify that they were not there. Neither Lucy nor Morelli. 115 It had...

Amsterdam Tulips and other Herbs

12/01/2013 20:09

In its years of glory Ajoblanco countercultural magazine published at the beginning of summer a special issue, a travel guide. It talked about from the legendary Magic Bus, a DKW linking Paris and Kathmandu via Kabul and Tehran, to the freak capitals of Europe (the meaning was not the same as...

Cadiz Up with La Pepa

05/12/2012 17:04

Fernando VII, por la Gracia de Dios y la Constitución de la Monarquía española, Rey de las Españas, y en su ausencia y cautividad la Regencia del Reyno nombrada por las Cortes generales y extraordinarias, á todos los que las presentes vieren y entendieren, sabed: Que las mismas Cortes han decretado...

Venice or the Theory of the Labyrinth

04/12/2012 20:20

Λαβύρινθος, Labýrinzos: in ancient Greek means something like the place of the double blade axe. In times of the Minoan civilization Labros axe symbolized the city of Knossos and by extension Pasiphae son’s myth, the Minotaur, the famous dweller of the Cretan palace maze. And etymological origin...

Two days (and nights) in San Francisco

27/11/2012 19:44

It’s Parisian. Very Parisian. The square is so much that could be unabashedly compared with place du Marche de Sante Catherine in the heart of the Marais or the Latin Quarter Contrescarpe of the French capital. Arguments not lacking. At one of its side rises the Hotel de Francia y Paris, that's the...

Berlin A Wall’s Piece

27/11/2012 17:35

Before November 9, 1989, the day that the border between the German Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic opened, no one would have ever believed that the Berlin Wall would be offered for sale. Thirty years have gone since nearly ninety-seven miles of concrete barrier that split the...

2,500,000 Rivets

23/11/2012 11:02

Two and a half million cast iron metal clinches solidly join 18,038 different pieces of the same material up to a high of 1062 feet above ground level, counting antennas. 109 feet should be added to match the height above the sea level. All these parts are equivalent to a weight of 10,100 tons, of...