The Guide to Amsterdam
September 7th, 2008 by admin
During the last decades, Netherlands also known as Holland has become the symbol of freedom due to its legalization of light drugs, euthanasia and marriages between gays and lesbians. Amsterdam, its capital, is the most visited city in the country but besides the access to the above-mentioned liberties visitors have a great chance to see very beautiful city with a lot of cultural attractions.
The government of Amsterdam now is trying to make the city one the world leading business centers and their efforts have a success - now Amsterdam hosts a significant number of international fairs, business meetings and conferences. Many of the influential multinational corporations have their headquarters in Amsterdam.
Netherlands’ capital is a mix of the new and old - ancient houses of the XVII century border with the up-do-date office buildings.
Amsterdam received its name in the honor of the river Amstel crossing the city. It was founded in XII century as a small fishing village. Now Amsterdam status has some paradox - although it’s a capital of the country, the capital of its province is Harlem and the country’s government is situated in Hague.
Amsterdam has rich, glorious history. It reached it highest peak in the XVII century the most of the historical attractions belong to that time. In XVII the famous Amsterdam channel net was created. Due to the huge number of channels Amsterdam has become a city of bridges. Now there are about 1200 bridges of different styles, sizes and beauty. A lot of Amsterdam’s canals were filled in the beginning of the 20th century because of the sanitary reasons.
The city has a numerous amount of the museums, some them are world-famous. The Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and Stedelijk Museum are the most renowned, but the full list counts about 50 names.
The centre and the heart of the city is Dam Square, a place with historical significance, still boasting beautiful buildings, one of which is Royal Palace. Koninklijk Paleis - The Royal Palace dates back to 1648. Another Dam square’s attraction is Nieuwe Kirk dating back to the 15th century.
Although Amsterdam is trying to escape the reputation of the world’s drug capital coffee shops belong to the things Amsterdam is famous for. There are few hundreds of coffee shops in Amsterdam. Popular ones are the commercial and franchised Bulldog and the Grasshopper.
Coffee shops in the country are allowed to sell only small amounts of cannabis. Furthermore, coffee shops must not sell to anyone under 18 and they must not sell more than 5g to any customer. Hard drugs are strictly prohibited.
Another thing Amsterdam is famous for is Red Lights district. It occupies the significant part of the historical centre of Amsterdam.
The whole Holland is known for its love for flowers. Vondelpark is considered to be one of the most beautiful parks in the world. Its style reminds of the best examples of the English style of the XIX century. A lot of lakes, meadows, walking routes present the great opportunity to spend your free time.
For booking a hotel, please, go to Amsterdam hotels page.
Tag: hotelsFinding Places to Stay When Visiting Hong Kong
September 6th, 2008 by admin
Hong Kong is an eclectic mix of Chinese and British influences mixed with a massive amount of adrenaline. Fortunately, you can find places to stay when visiting Hong Kong without much problem.
Finding Places to Stay When Visiting Hong Kong
Hong Kong is both a modern and ancient city. First appearances reveal a modern metropolis teaming with commerce, crowds and traffic you would expect to find in any major city in the world. Walk down an alley, however, and you will find all kinds of oddities and a feel for the underlying currents of the city. Big business is done in Hong Kong, but so is a unique way of life. Whichever you pursue, you will need a good base to survive this hectic city.
Place to stay in Hong Kong come in all types of quality, shapes and prices. There are really cheap youth hostels with lots of “character” and five star luxury hotels that would make an emperor blush. Universally, the accommodations are smaller than you would expect in other parts of the world. You can expect rooms to be smaller than Thailand, but a bit bigger than what you find in Japan for corresponding prices.
Luxury lodgings are primarily located on Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong Island is the central area of Hong Kong, the location you see in pictures of the massive skyline. It is situated on an amazingly thin strip of land between the ocean and mountains. If you are doing business in Hong Kong, this is where you want to stay as most of the major commerce centers are on the island. There are a bevy of five star places offering accommodations. In truth, your choice is limited only by your budget.
If you are looking for cheaper accommodations in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New territories offer a variety of sources. You can even find hostels on Hong Kong Island. Put another way, accommodations are plentiful regardless of where you are. Hong Kong is a major transportation hub for Asia, so it caters to all budgets.
Finding a place to stay in Hong Kong is a piece of cake. Figure out where you want to stay and then shop around to find the best prices.
Rick Chapo is with NomadJournals.com - makers of travel journals. Visit NomadJournalTrips.com to read more Internet travel articles about travel hotel - Hong Kong.
Tags: accomodations, asia, China, hong kong, hong kong island, hostels, hotels, kowloon, new territoriesThe Discovery of a Well in the Tower of the Pulci in Florence
September 5th, 2008 by admin
It is in fact this horse-shoe shaped palace, whose two wings stretch from Palazzo Vecchio to the Arno, that actually creates the square itself; the porticoes on the western side open off into Via Lambertesca, a narrow street that leads right into the heart of the oldest part of the city, the mediaeval area that Vasari partly demolished to make room for his new creation.
It was here that the mafia car-bomb exploded on the night of May 27th 1993, on the corner between Via Lambertesca and Via dei Georgofili, killing five people and causing damage to the artistic heritage of Florence. The explosion seriously damaged the upper rooms of the Uffizi and disembowelled the ancient house and tower of the Pulci family beneath it, from 1932 the seat of the historic Academy of the Georgofili, specialized in agricultural studies and the conservation of the territory since 1753. The tremendous sight is still a vivid memory for all the rescuers who first arrived on the scene after the explosion: this time the small palace of the Georgofili, which had survived so many wars and floods, seemed really to have suffered its death blow. One half of its facade (200 square metres) had been completely destroyed, shattered in the explosion, a huge pit, about ten metres deep, had opened up in the interior, while the whole of the south wall, which faced onto the Courtyard of the Caldaie, was in danger of collapsing, because it had been shifted 10 centimetres by the impact. The attic-flat that had been created at the top of the tower in the early 20th century had crashed to the ground, covering the bodies of the four people who lived in it with rubble: the caretaker of the Academy, her husband and their two little daughters, one aged nine and the other only two months. The fifth victim was a student who lived in the house opposite, which was also directly hit by the explosion.
Florence has always replied to barbaric acts such as this by immediately getting on with mending her wounds and rebuilding everything that has been damaged “as it was and where it was”. Once the huge patrimony of books belonging to the Academy (50.000 volumes plus 4.000 essays from the archives of the Georgofili) had been carried away to safety and all the rubble removed, the walls that were still standing were reinforced and the ones that had been destroyed were reconstructed. Traditional techniques were combined with advanced technological solutions: the roof and bent tiles were made by hand, the corbels and capitals carved by Florentine craftsmen but use was also made of mortar injections, chains, steel plates and bolts. Great care was taken during restoration to keep to certain basic rules which were to ensure that the newly reconstructed areas of the building could in some way be recognized from the original. Therefore a zig-zagging fracture line divides the floor of the huge Assembly Hall on the first floor, to delimit the area that fell to the ground, and another line on the facade, a vertical one this time, divides the ancient decorated walls from the new. Two large canvases by the painter Bartolomeo Bimbi were unfortunately irreparably damaged and could be replaced. This catastrophe, however, led to some unexpected and extraordinary results, like the discovery of seven small rooms, which were once part of the State Archives, later walled up and forgotten and now available for the use of Academy of the Georgofili once more. Above all it revealed the existence of a well and staircase system that leads up from the cellars to the upper floors and which probably is the last trace of the house that the Florentine land register of 1427 noted as being the property of Jacopo di Francesco de’ Pulci and father of Luigi, a friend of Lorenzo Il Magnifico and author of the poem “Morgante”. The house and tower still bear the name of the Pulci family even today, in spite of the fact that the building appears to have passed to the Gherardini family after 1433.
The well and the staircase that winds around it and reaches the top floor of the Uffizi Gallery are now free of the walls and plaster that once hid them; the grey stone archivolt and steps have been restored in order to form a single and harmonious unit with the various rooms of the Academy. Apart from being an unexpected reward for all those who worked on restoring the building, this discovery is yet another demonstration of Giorgio Vasari’s skill in construction, as he managed to incorporate the ancient tower of the Pulci family into the revolutionary architecture of the Uffizi without destroying it.
In fact the original project included plans to expropriate and demolish at least 43 houses and towers in order to build the new palace of the “Uffici” or offices, but Cosimo de’ Medici decided that this would be far too expensive in the long run and therefore the most of the buildings were spared though they were eventually incorporated into the new construction. The Tower of the Pulci and the results of this extraordinary restoration work can be visited daily during the hours in which the Academy of the Georgofili is open to the public and that is from Mondays to Fridays, from 3.00pm to 6.30pm.
Alberto Scarsi is Chief Editor at http://www.florencedirecthotels.com : Your source for accommodations in Florence, Italy.
Tags: Accommodations in Florence, Florence hotels, hotels in Florence, lodgings in Florence