Nettstedet www.dc.curbed.com i den amerikanske hovedstaden Washington DC har samlet sammen et utvalg årgangsplakater fra reiselivsindustrien og luftfarten, og, her er noen av plakatene, fra turistkontorer, flyselskaper og jernbane, som lokket turister til den amerikanske hovedstaden for noen tiår siden. Plakatene er fra 1920-tallet og utover.
Motivene er, som vi ser, noen av hovedstadens mest kjente og populære landemerker, som Det hvite hus, Capitol, æreskirkegården Arlington, Lincolnmonumentet, og Washingtonmonumentet.
“Hele” verden gjør seg klar til å feire St.Patricks Day 17.mars – med parader og fest i Irlands farger i mange av verdens storbyer. Den største og mest kjente St.Patricks-paraden utenfor Irland er i New York. Men, det er selvsagt Irlands hovedstad Dublin som er selveste St.Patricks-byen, og paradehovedstaden over alle.
Festdagens grønne farge har sitt opphav fra den grønne øya Irland, hvor den Irske nasjonalhelgen St. Patrick levde, og døde på nettopp denne dagen. Feiringen er nettopp for å minnes ham.
St.Patrick var nemlig en av verdens mest populære og kjente helgen, og den som innførte kristendommen i Irland. Et annet symbol for denne nasjonaldagen er trekløveren ? du kommer garantert til å se mye av den på klær, fjes og slips. Og nei, det symboliserer ikke bare lykke.
De lærde har lenge spekulert om hvor kløveren kommer fra, hvor noen hevder at den ble brukt av St. Patrick for å beskrive treenigheten.
I dag er ikke St. Patrick?s Day bare en kristen feiring, men mer som en kulturell begivenhet med masse øl, musikk og latter. Dette blir en storfest du ikke har sett maken til ? så kle deg i det irske flaggets farger og bli med på feiringen! Denne dagen er alle irske.
Kit yourself out in green and go nuts in Dublin on St Patrick’s Day. The entire city will be transformed into one huge party zone with a four-day festival (March 14-17) that will ignite your sense of Irish pride – even if you are not Irish at all!
Don the green jersey and join the good-humoured crowds lining the streets for the famous St Patrick’s Day Parade, a show-stopping pageant the likes of which you’ve never seen before.
Think Rio, only cooler, with giant, colourful puppets, fantastic street entertainers and more marching bands than you could shake a baton at.
The parade starts at noon on Parnell Square, snaking its way up O’Connell Street, down Westmoreland Street, Dame Street, and Lord Edward Street, before passing Christ Church Cathedral and finishing just after St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Yes, yes, Ireland is famous for Guinness, and the Guinness Storehouse is indeed the top visited attraction, but not only that! To top it all off they also throw their very own spectacular festival around St Patrick’s Day. Feel the beat with toe-tapping live music; be in awe of the heel-kicking céilí dancers; delight your taste buds with Guinness-inspired food tastings. Combine this with unrivalled views across the city from the Gravity Bar… what more could you ask for!
The Irish Boat Races will take place on the River Liffey, between rivals University College Dublin (UCD) and Dublin University (Trinity College). The 2km rowing course, will start at 3.30pm on O’Connell Bridge and travel past many of Dublin’s landmarks on its way up the river, finishing at St James’s Gate.
A unique chance to see two universities battle it out in a thrilling series of races.
Don’t leave Dublin without a visit to Croke Park, the hallowed ground for Irish Gaelic games. The All-Ireland Football and Hurling Senior Club Championship are on St Patrick’s Day, and promise a great atmosphere and cracking display of GAA skills. Afterwards, get your adrenaline pumping on aSkyline Tourwhich will see you walking on the roof of Croker, 17 storeys high! Come down to earth afterwards with a visit to the GAA Museum.
If you are feeling particularly Irish at this time of the year it is probably because you are! Dig deep into those Irish roots and research your family tree while in Dublin.
The National Archives of Ireland on Bishop Street has a rich store of invaluable records and also provides a free genealogy service to help you trace your ancestors.
This guided walk, held from March 14 – 17, will take you to places that most tourists – and many Dubliners – miss! There are no shortage of other themed walks to enjoy in Dublin, whether it’s culture, art, architecture, gardens, ghosts, pub trails or science safaris.
You just have to have a pint to toast Ireland’s patron saint whilst you are in Dublin! The capital has more than 1,000 pubs to choose from so you won’t go thirsty.
If you fancy sipping a pint while listening to great music try Whelan’s or O’Donoghues. And all that drinking can be hungry work so line the stomach with fine fare at a gastro pub such as The Chop House or The Exchequer. Sláinte!
If you’re in Dublin for St Patrick’s Day, you have to deck yourself out in the most glaring St Patrick’s paraphernalia you can find! Think giant green hats, gross curly wigs and massive shamrocks. Carroll’s Gifts & Souvenirs is a great spot to stock up. You can also pick up quirky and curious items in Dublin’s back streets.
See some famous landmarks like you have never seen them before including The Mansion House, the Guinness Store House, the Convention Centre, the Custom House and many more.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has strongly praised Titanic Belfast, describing the visitor attraction in the capital of Northern Ireland as “absolutely brilliant”, according to www.belfastlive.co.uk
Speaking in the House of Commons Wednesday in response to a question from East Belfast MP Naomi Long, Mr.Cameron encouraged tourists from across the United Kingdom and throughout the world to visit the world-class attraction.
His endorsement comes less than a week after Titanic Belfast beat off competition from the Eiffel Tower and London Eye to win a top European travel award.
The Prime Minister said: “First, let me join the hon. Lady in praising the Titanic exhibition, which I have been to see myself. It is an absolutely brilliant visitor attraction and yet another reason to visit Belfast, and not only for people from across our United Kingdom, but for people from across Europe and around the world.”
Titanic Belfast, which has welcomed over two million visitors since opening in March 2012, was celebrating last week when it was named as Europe’s best visitor attraction for groups at the European Group Travel Awards (EGTA), held last Thursday night in Berlin.
Welcoming the Prime Minister’s remarks, Tim Husbands MBE, CEO of Titanic Belfast, said: ?It’s fantastic to hear the Prime Minister speak in such glowing terms about Titanic Belfast and a real coup for us to have such a strong endorsement.
“Mr Cameron was speaking from personal experience after thoroughly enjoying his visit with us and, as the Prime Minister referenced, Titanic Belfast continues to prove immensely popular with visitors from across the world.”
Titanic Belfast is an iconic six-floor building featuring nine interpretive and interactive galleries that explore the sights, sounds, smells and stories of Titanic, as well as the City and people which made her. It is the world?s largest Titanic exhibition.
The building houses temporary exhibits, a banqueting suite, education and community facilities, catering and retail space, and a basement car park.
Visitors learn about the construction of RMS Titanic and the wide and rich story of Northern Ireland’s industrial and maritime Heritage.
Photo: wikipedia.org
The RMS Titanic was built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff, and was launched on 31 May 1911, and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912.
Singapore Changi Airport er kåret til verdens beste flyplass i 2015, for tredje året på rad. SkyTrax World Airport Awards ble annonsert i Paris i går onsdag, etter at flypassasjerer verden over i en periode på ni måneder har gitt poeng og vurderinger til 100 flyplasser, og nå er altså lista klar.
København-Kastrup ligger på 16.plass (17. i 2014), Helsinki-Vantaa 18.plass (19), Oslo-Gardermoen 49.plass (51), Stockholm-Arlanda 61.plass (65) og Reykjavik-Keflavik på 67.plass (73.plass i 2014).
2014-plasseringen i parantes.
1. Singapore Changi International Airport (1)
2. Incheon International Airport, Seoul, Sør-Korea (2)
3. Munich Airport (Flughafen München Franz Josef Strauss) (3)
4. Hong Kong International Airport (4)
5. Tokyo International Airport Haneda (6)
6. Zurich Airport (8)
7. Central Japan International Airport, Tokoname (12)
Gatefeierne i Jordans hovedstad Amman, velkjente innslag i bybildet i sine oransje kjeledresser, får nå nye arbeidsklær i en annen farge – turkis. Årsaken er at de oransje klræne minner om antrekket og fargen som gislene til IS er iført, har myndighetene i Amman kunngjort.
Også den jordanske jagerpiloten, løytnant Maaz al-Kassasbeh, som ble tatt som gissel av IS i desember i fjor og brent levende inne i et bur tidligere i år, var iført en oransj “jumpsuit” da han ble henrettet.
I Jordan førte henrettelsen til et voldsomt raseri mot IS, og den drepte piloten er erklært som nasjonalhelt og martyr. Jordanske jagerfly har gjennomført en lang rekke bombetokt mot IS-stillinger i Syria.
Foto: kalemanews.com
Nå skal Ammans over 6000 gatefeiere, renovasjonarbeidere og vedlikeholdsarbeidere kles opp i nye, turkise uniformer. Fargevalget ble gjort etter en avstemning på byens nettsider og på sosiale medier. Mange ville ha mørk lilla uniformer, samme farge som pilotene i det jordanske flyvåpenet.
Initiativet til å hedre den drepte piloten på denne måten kommer fra byens innbyggere og pilotens bror, som er svært fornøyd med fargevalget.
-Turkis symboliserer liv og energi, altså det motsatte av hva IS står for, sier Jawad Safi al-Kasasbeh til lokale og internasjonale medier.
De nye uniformene tas i bruk 21.mars, da Jordan feirer morsdag, skriver Amman kommune på sine nettsider.
ABBA reunite as silicon dolls, at the ABBA-museum in Stockholm, see more atwww.abbathemuseum.com
Livaktige og skremmende like originalene. Slik lyder dommen over silikon-utgavene av de fire ABBA-medlemmene. Silikon-utgavene ble nylig avduket på ABBA-museet på Djurgården i Stockholm, skriver VG.
ABBA-medlemmene Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvæus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad og Agnetha Fältskog har selv vært med på å lage figurene av seg selv – ikledd legendariske scenekostymer fra 70-tallet.
-Figurene er penere enn originalene, sier Benny Andersson om resultatet.
Figurene er altså i silikon og alt er laget for hånd. Hundrevis av fotos er brukt for å få med små detaljer som fargen på øyne, hår, øyenbryn og tenner.
Kostymene har ABBA-medlemmene selv valgt ut: supergruppen poserer i scenetøyet fra USA-turneen i 1979.
The solar eclipse on March 20th 2015 is a very exclusive happening that can only be seen on shore at the Faroe Islands and Svalbard in the whole wide world.
Longyearbyen, the main settlement, or “capital” of Svalbard.
The interest for the happening is huge, and it’s a challenge to get accommodation for all that want to visit Svalbard
After a long and dark winter, the first beams of the sun will reach Longyearbyen on March 8th, as every year. But in 2015 the sun will not stay for long, as only 12 days later it will yet again disappear.
But this time luckily only for a few short minutes on the 20th, when the solar eclipse appears.
The interest for the solar eclipse is huge worldwide, and we receive several requests for information on accommodation on a weekly basis.
Regretfully we’re not able to help as much as we would have liked to, as it has been more or less fully booked for several years allready. The best advice we can give is to contact the different hotels and guesthouses directly in case of cansellations.
Or you may advertise your request for private accommodation on Facebook, where this site is popular in Longyearbyen:
For those having a place to stay, the local community is working on the preparations regarding safety and some common arrangements. This means the yearly “sun feast week” around March 8th will be stretched untill the 20th. More information on this will be ready primo 2015.
Information to visitors from the Governor of Svalbard
The Governor of Svalbard has also issued a general information to all travelers visiting Svalbard these days – which we strongly recommend to read prior to arrival:
Reiser i påskeferien i år øker med 11 prosent i forhold til i fjor, og Las Palmas på Gran Canaria er fortsatt den suverene vinneren . På andreplass ligger i år Bangkok, med London på tredjeplass.
Det viser ferske tall fra reisebyrået Ticket, skriver nettstedet www.travelnews.no
I år øker reisene i påskeferien til Las Palmas med hele 64 prosent.
Også Barcelona øker denne påsken – med 75 prosent, og klatrer tre plasser opp på Tickets toppliste. Et annet reisemål, som ennå ikke er i Tickets topp 10-liste, er Dubai i De forente arabiske emirater.
– Etter at Emirates har kommet seg inn på det norske markedet ser vi kraftige økninger av reiser til Dubai. Folk benytter seg av muligheten for å fly direkte hit. Det er en flott by å feriere i som er perfekt for folk som er på utkikk etter å prøve noe nytt i påskeferien, sier Ellen Wolff Andresen, markedssjef i Ticket, til travelnews.no.
Charterselskapene melder om fulle fly, men er man heldig får man tak i en restplass til for eksempel Gran Canaria eller Lanzarote.
– Et tips for de som ikke finner en charterreise som de ønsker er å bestille fly og hotell. Det er mange fordeler med det, blant annet at man da kan være litt mer fleksibel i forhold til avreise og hjemreise. I tillegg er man også omfattet av pakkereiseloven, forteller Wolff Andresen til travelnews.no
TOPP-10 PÅSKEREISER
1. Las Palmas 2. Bangkok 3. London 4. Amsterdam 5. Tenerife 6. Barcelona 7. Alicante 8. Lisboa 9. Paris 10. Roma
Thousands of tourists will to flock to Torshavn, capital of the Faroe Islands, to experience a total solar eclipse on 20 March.
The sun will be completely obscured for approximately two and a half minutes at precisely 9.41am for approximately two and a half minutes over the Nordic archipelago.
Torshavn
Speaking to www.independent.co.uk Total Solar Eclipse Coordinator at Visit Tórshavn, Torstein Christiansen said that all of the regular tourist accommodation had sold out:
“Hotels, bed and breakfasts and hostels were all fully booked in Tórshavn a while ago”, Mr.Christiansen says.
However, after an appeal by his organisation, residents are providing extra accommodation in spare rooms and summer houses and, at the time of writing, there is still “a lot of capacity”.
Johanna Rasmussen, owner of the Hotel Føroyar in Torshavn said that her hotel had been fully booked for two years and that guests would be arriving from as far as Australia and the US.
Torstein Christiansen said that around 8,000 tourists were expected to visit the islands, which have a population of 50,000, over the period surrounding the event.
He said that this would be a welcome economic boost to the islands, where the tourist season traditionally begins a few months later in May.
Se også vår store blogpost om Færøyene på / see also our extensive blog post about the Faroe Islands at www.minbestereise.blogg.no
According to an old Faroese legend four brothers lived in the village of Sumba at the most southern point of the Faroe Islands.
The were all brave and strong, but they were constantly quarrelling and fighting and sometimes even threathing to take each other’s lives. One day they were out in the mountains tending their sheep when darkness suddenly fell upon them. They were terrified and promised the Lord that if they survived this experience they would change and become better men. Soon after the sun came out again and legend says that they hugged and never fought nor quarreled again for the rest of their lives.
This legend is believed to be a recollection of a total solar eclipse recorded in the Faroe Islands on 30 May 1612 at 11.25 am. On 20 March 2015 a total solar eclipse will once again cover the Faroe Islands in darkness at 9.41 am.
The Faroe Islands will be one of only two places in the world where this eclipse can be observed from land. Seeing a total eclipse is perhaps one of the most spectacular astronomical and natural phenomena that you will ever see. Being on the right spot is essential, and on 20 March 2015 the obvious spot to view the total eclipse will be in the Faroe Islands.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun and blocks out the direct light of the sun. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon blocks out the sun completely, forming a shadow on the earth. For this to occur, the sun, the earth and the moon come in a straight line in their orbits and it will seem like the moon has covered the sun.
In a total solar eclipse you will be able to see “The Bailey Beeds”, which is where light from the sun breaks through the uneven surface of the moon. The diamond ring effect marks the beginning and end of totality as a bright flash of light and is one of the most amazing features of the eclipse.
As the shadow of the moon starts to move across the sun, it will look like a small bite which gradually increases in size. Watch for Baily?s Beads where the sun shines through the rugged surface of the moon creating points of light on the edge of the moon?s disc. These can only be seen for a few seconds. Just before the sun disapears, The Diamond Ring effect is seen as the single bead of light which looks like an enormous sparkling diamond on a shiny ring.
When the shadow of the moon covers the sun entirely, the sun’s atmosphere (corona) can been seen as a faint halo. This phase is known as totality. As the moon moves away from the sun, Baily?s Beads may be seen again before the sun fully emerges.
WHERE TO SEE THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE
The Faroe Islands and Svalbard are the only places in the world where you can experience the total solar eclipse. The Faroe Islands are preparing for some major celebration following the eclipse.
Looking for a different way to cool off in the Caribbean? If you’re in St. Thomas, consider taking a stroll through Magic Ice.
It’s located on the United States Virgin Islands capital of Charlotte Amalie’s waterfront, and is the world’s largest permanent ice gallery, housed in an 8,000-foot space chilled to a frigid 23 degrees Fahrenheit.
Brainchild of the Norwegian owner of an ice-carving school in Lithuania, Kirsten Holmen, the exhibit features around 20 sculptures, which are changed four times a year by a visiting team of Lithuanian carvers.
You’ll don a hooded cape, gloves and leg warmers (we also recommend wearing closed-toe shoes) before entering the artfully lit cold room, where sculptures depict everything from marine life to mythical creatures, and there’s an ice slide for playful visitors in search of an unusual photo opp.
It only takes about 20 minutes to see all the pieces but the included swig of Cruzan rum at the bar – also made entirely of ice – may tempt you to linger longer.
And if one shot isn’t enough, there are plenty of other varieties of the St. Croix-made flavored rum you can pay to sample as you sit astride a fur-covered ice throne – a cool proposition indeed.
Magic Ice is open seven days a week. Admission is $22, and includes a shot of Cruzan rum and a souvenir glass.
Owner and general manager Kirsten Holmen, running the Magic Ice gallery consept for 15 years, opened Magic Ice in Charlotte Amalie in January 2012, and also running Magic North in Svolvaer (opened in 2004), “capital” of the spectacular Lofoten Archipelago in Northern Norway, and, in April 2014 she opened Magic Ice in downtown Oslo, capital city of Norway – and with a focus on the art of Edvard Munch.
One of her main mentors and door-openers have been Gerhard Heiberg, prominent Norwegian businessman and sports administrator, and member of the International Olympic Committee. He was the guest of honour at the opening of Magic North in Svolvaer, while Oslo mayor Fabian Stang cut the ribbon at the Ice Magic opening ceremony in the capital last year.
The number of visitors at the Oslo Magic Ice is expected to reach between 40,000 and 50,000 in 2014, while several hundred thousands have visited the Magic North in Svolvaer, according to the Avisa Nordland newspaper in Norway.
Magic Ice has a long-standing business relationship with the cruise industry, and large numbers of the visitors at the three venues are cruise passangers.
Last year Kirsten Holmen told www.an.no that she was in dialogue with one of the worlds biggest cruise line companies regarding opening a fourth Magic Ice on a private island, but would not go into details.
