TRAVEL TUESDAY 286 - TREVI FOUNTAIN, ROME

“Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning.” - Giotto di Bondone

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi) is a fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini and several others. Standing 26.3 metres (86 ft) high and 49.15 metres (161.3 ft) wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Pannini.

The backdrop for the fountain is the Palazzo Poli, given a new façade with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that link the two main stories. Taming of the waters is the theme of the gigantic scheme that tumbles forward, mixing water and rockwork, and filling the small square. Tritons guide Oceanus' shell chariot, taming hippocamps. In the centre, a robustly-modelled triumphal arch is superimposed on the palazzo façade.

The centre niche or exedra framing Oceanus has free-standing columns for maximal light and shade. In the niches flanking Oceanus, Abundance spills water from her urn and Salubrity holds a cup from which a snake drinks. Above, bas reliefs illustrate the Roman origin of the aqueducts. The Tritons and horses provide symmetrical balance, with the maximum contrast in their mood and poses.

The fountain has appeared in several notable films, including Roman Holiday (1953), the eponymous Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960), and The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003).

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 285 - NAFPLIO, GREECE

“We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.” - Aristotle Onassis

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Nafplio (Modern Greek: Ναύπλιο) is a seaport town in the Peloponnese in Greece that has expanded up the hillsides near the north end of the Argolic Gulf. The town was an important seaport held under a succession of royal houses in the Middle Ages as part of the lordship of Argos and Nauplia, held initially by the de la Roche following the Fourth Crusade before coming under the Republic of Venice and, lastly, the Ottoman Empire. The town was the capital of the First Hellenic Republic and of the Kingdom of Greece, from the start of the Greek Revolution in 1821 until 1834. Nafplio is now the capital of the regional unit of Argolis.

Tourism emerged slowly in the 1960s, but not to the same degree as some other Greek areas. Nevertheless, Nafplio tends to attract a number of tourists from Germany and the Scandinavian countries in particular. Nafplio enjoys a very sunny and mild climate, even by Greek standards, and as a consequence has become a popular day or weekend road-trip destination for Athenians in wintertime. Nafplio is a port, with fishing and transport ongoing, although the primary source of local employment currently is tourism, with two beaches on the other side of the peninsula from the main body of the town and large numbers of local accommodation options.

The building of the National Bank of Greece is probably the only one in the world to have been built in the Mycenaean Revival architectural style. Acronauplia is the oldest part of the city though a modern hotel has been built on it. Until the thirteenth century, it was a town on its own. The arrival of the Venetians and the Franks transformed it into part of the town fortifications. Other fortifications of the city include the Palamidi and Bourtzi, which is located in the middle of the harbour. 

Nafplio maintains a classic architectural style with many traditional-style colourful buildings and houses, partly influenced by the Venetians, because of the domination of 1338-1540. Also, modern-era neoclassical buildings are also preserved. Around the city can be found several sculptures and statues. They are related mostly with the modern history of Nafplio, such as the statues of Ioannis Kapodistrias, Otto of Greece and Theodoros Kolokotronis.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 284 - CAPE COD, USA

“It takes a small town to keep you humble.” - Bess Streeter Aldrich

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Cape Cod is a geographic cape extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. As defined by the Cape Cod Commission's enabling legislation, Cape Cod is conterminous with Barnstable County, Massachusetts. It extends from Provincetown in the northeast to Woods Hole in the southwest, and is bordered by Plymouth to the northwest.

Since 1914, Cape Cod has been separated from the mainland by the Cape Cod Canal. The canal cuts 28.2 km roughly across the base of the peninsula, though small portions of the Cape Cod towns of Bourne and Sandwich lie on the mainland side of the canal. Two highway bridges cross the Cape Cod Canal: The Sagamore Bridge and the Bourne Bridge. In addition, the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge carries railway freight and limited passenger services onto the Cape. Cape territory is divided into 15 towns with many villages.

Provincetown (photo above) is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of just under 3,000, Provincetown has a summer population of as high as 60,000. Often called “P-town” or “P’town”, the town is known for its beaches, harbour, artists, tourist industry, and its status as a vacation destination for the LGBTQ community.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 283 - PANTHEON, PARIS

“The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not given only on stone over their clay but abides everywhere without visible symbol woven into the stuff of other mens lives.” - Pericles

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

The Panthéon (Latin: pantheon, from Greek πάνθειον (ἱερόν) '(temple) to all the gods') is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris, France. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve and to house the reliquary châsse containing her relics but, after many changes, it now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens.

It is an early example of neo-classicism, with a façade modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, surmounted by a dome that owes some of its character to Bramante's Tempietto. Located in the 5th arrondissement on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Panthéon looks out over all of Paris. Designer Jacques-Germain Soufflot had the intention of combining the lightness and brightness of the Gothic cathedral with classical principles, but its role as a mausoleum required the great Gothic windows to be blocked.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 282 - GORDES, FRANCE

“Why not make a daily pleasure out a daily necessity.” ― Peter Mayle

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately. 

Gordes is a commune in the Vaucluse département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeastern France. The residents are known as Gordiens. The nearest big city is Avignon; smaller cities nearby include Cavaillon, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and Apt. The name “Gordes” derives from the Celtic word “Vordense”. Vordense was pronounced Gordenses, then Gordae/Gordone, and finally Gòrda then translated into French “Gordes”.

Standing on the edge of the plateau of Vaucluse, Gordes is one of the “in” villages of Luberon where many movie stars and artists have made their home. Its houses of white and gray stone rise up in a spiral around the rock where the village is set. At the very top is the church and the castle which face out onto the hills of the Luberon. Due to its privileged position, its exceptional charm and its typical architecture, Gordes has been listed as “one of the most beautiful villages of France” Gordes is without a doubt worth seeing. The village has a world wide reputation due to its famous inhabitants, and Peter Mayle’s book “A Year in Provence” certainly helped.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 281 - MOSCOW, RUSSIA

“Lack of originality, everywhere, all over the world, from time immemorial, has always been considered the foremost quality and the recommendation of the active, efficient and practical man.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Moscow (Russian: Москва́) is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 12.5 million residents within the city limits and 17.1 million within the urban area. Moscow is one of Russia's three federal cities. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific centre of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. According to Forbes 2013, Moscow has been ranked as the ninth most expensive city in the world by Mercer and has one of the world's largest urban economies, being ranked as an alpha global city according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and is also one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the world according to the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index.

Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth. It is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe; the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe; and the Moscow International Business Centre. By its territorial expansion on July 1, 2012 southwest into the Moscow Oblast, the area of the capital more than doubled, going from 1,091 to 2,511 square kilometres, and it gained an additional population of 233,000 people. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, making it Europe's most populated inland city.

The city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basil's Cathedral with its brightly coloured domes, from 1555–1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible (see photo above). With over 40 percent of its territory covered by greenery, Moscow is one of the greenest capitals and major cities in Europe and the world, having the largest forest in an urban area within its borders—more than any other major city—even before its expansion in 2012. The city has served as the capital of a progression of states, from the medieval Grand Duchy of Moscow and the subsequent Tsardom of Russia to the Russian Empire to the Soviet Union and the contemporary Russian Federation.

Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, a medieval city-fortress that is today the residence for work of the President of Russia. The Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament (the State Duma and the Federation Council) also sit in the city. Moscow is considered the centre of Russian culture, having served as the home of Russian artists, scientists and sports figures and because of the presence of museums, academic and political institutions and theatres.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 280 - HONFLEUR, FRANCE

“We live in a rainbow of chaos.” – Paul Cézanne

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.
There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Honfleur is a commune in the Calvados department in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie. Its inhabitants are called Honfleurais. It is especially known for its old, beautiful picturesque port, characterised by its houses with slate-covered frontages.

Hornfleur was painted many times by artists, including in particular Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet and Johan Jongkind, forming the école de Honfleur (Honfleur school) which contributed to the appearance of the Impressionist movement. The Sainte-Catherine church, which has a bell tower separate from the principal building, is the largest church made out of wood in France.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 279 - GIBRALTAR

“In time the Rockies may crumble Gibraltar may tumble They're only made of clay, But our love is here to stay.” – Ira Gershwin

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. It has an area of 6.7 km2 and is bordered to the north by Spain. The landscape is dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar at the foot of which is a densely populated city area, home to over 30,000 people, primarily Gibraltarians.

In 1704, Anglo-Dutch forces captured Gibraltar from Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession on behalf of the Habsburg claim to the Spanish throne. The territory was ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. During World War II it was an important base for the Royal Navy as it controlled the entrance and exit to the Mediterranean Sea, which is only 13 km wide at this naval “choke point”. It remains strategically important to this day, with half the world’s seaborne trade passing through the strait.

Today Gibraltar’s economy is based largely on tourism, online gambling, financial services and cargo ship refuelling. The sovereignty of Gibraltar is a major point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations as Spain asserts a claim to the territory. Gibraltarians overwhelmingly rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty in the 1967 referendum, and the idea of shared sovereignty in 2002. Under the Gibraltar constitution of 2006, Gibraltar governs its own affairs, though some powers, such as defence and foreign relations, remain the responsibility of the British government.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 278 - NEW YORK CITY, USA

“There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.” – Simone de Beauvoir

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately. 

The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the State of New York, the city is the centre of the New York metropolitan area, one of the most densely populated urban agglomerations in the world. A global power city, New York City exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, its fast pace defining the term New York minute.

Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important centre for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbours, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which is a separate county of New York State. The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898.

With a census-estimated 2020 population of 8,5 million distributed over a land area of just 790 km2, New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. The city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States, and as many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. We have visited New York City several times and each time we have enjoyed it, with always something new to see and always meeting interesting people and feeling very welcome.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 277 - EUBOEA, GREECE

“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.” - Nikos Kazantzakis 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately. 

Euboea or Evia (Modern Greek: Εύβοια) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about 180 kilometres long, and varies in breadth from 50 kilometres to 6 kilometres. Its general direction is from northwest to southeast, and it is traversed throughout its length by a mountain range, which forms part of the chain that bounds Thessaly on the east, and is continued south of Euboea in the lofty islands of Andros, Tinos and Mykonos. It forms most of the regional unit of Euboea, which also includes Skyros and a small area of the Greek mainland.

Euboea has wonderful beaches, a pleasant climate, renowned monuments, many thermal springs and tasty food, and is thus a popular and easily accessible destination for the inhabitants of Athens who often holiday here. The cosmopolitan capital city of Chalkis is situated on the Euripus Strait at its narrowest point. The name is preserved from antiquity and is derived from the Greek χαλκός (chalkos - copper, bronze), though there is no trace of any mines in the area. In the late Middle Ages, it was known as Negropont, a name that was applied to the entire island of Euboea as well. Its people are known in English as Chalcidians. Chalkis has a population of about 105,000 people.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 276 - THE DEL, USA

“When you get into a hotel room, you lock the door, and you know there is a secrecy, there is a luxury, there is fantasy. There is comfort. There is reassurance.” - Diane von Furstenberg

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us.

Please use this meme for your creative endeavours onlyDo not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

The Hotel del Coronado (also known as The Del and Hotel Del) is a historic beachfront hotel in the city of Coronado, just across the San Diego Bay from San Diego, California. It is one of the few surviving examples of an American architectural genre: The wooden Victorian beach resort. It is the second largest wooden structure in the United States (after the Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook, Oregon) and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977 and a California Historical Landmark in 1970.

When it opened in 1888, it was the largest resort hotel in the world. It has hosted presidents, royalty, and celebrities through the years. The hotel has been featured in numerous movies and books. The hotel received a Four Diamond rating from the American Automobile Association and was once listed by USA Today as one of the top ten resorts in the world, though it has since been removed from that list.

Notable guests have included Thomas Edison, L. Frank Baum, Charlie Chaplin, King Kalakaua of Hawaii, Vincent Price, Babe Ruth, James Stewart, Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn. More recently, guests have included Kevin Costner, Whoopi Goldberg, Gene Hackman, George Harrison, Brad Pitt, Madonna, Barbra Streisand and Oprah Winfrey. The following presidents have stayed at the hotel: Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 275 - HANGING ROCK, AUSTRALIA

“It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.” - Diane Ackerman

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us.

Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Hanging Rock (also known as Mount Diogenes), in Central Victoria, Australia, is a distinctive geological formation, 718m above sea level (105m above plain level) on the plain between the two small townships of Newham and Hesket, approximately 70 km north-west of Melbourne and a few kilometres north of Mount Macedon, a former volcano.

Best known as the site where a party of schoolgirls disappeared in February 1900 in the fictional story "Picnic at Hanging Rock" written by Joan Lindsay and published in 1967. The novel inspired the film "Picnic at Hanging Rock", made in 1975 and directed by Peter Weir. The success of the film was responsible for a substantial increase in visits to the rock and a renewal of interest in the novel. Yvonne Rousseau wrote a book called The Murders at Hanging Rock, published in 1980, which examined possible explanations for the disappearance of the girls. Hanging Rock is located within the indigenous Wurundjeri nation's territory.

Hanging Rock contains numerous distinctive rock formations, including the 'Hanging Rock' itself (a boulder suspended between other boulders, under which is the main entrance path), the Colonnade, the Eagle and the UFO. The highest point on Hanging Rock is 718 metres above sea level and 105 metres above the plain below.

Hanging Rock is located within the Wurundjeri nation's territory but they exercised a custodial responsibility on behalf of the surrounding tribes in the Kulin nation. It was a site of male initiation and as such entry was forbidden except those young males being taken there for ceremonial initiation. After colonial settlement the Aboriginal people of the area were quickly dispossessed and forced out of the area by 1844.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 274 - IRONBRIDGE, UK

“I learned that a long walk and calm conversation are an incredible combination if you want to build a bridge.” - Seth Godin

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us.

Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Ironbridge is a village on the River Severn, at the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge, in Shropshire, England. It lies in the civil parish of The Gorge, in the borough of Telford and Wrekin. Ironbridge developed beside, and takes its name from, the famous Iron Bridge, a 30-metre cast iron bridge that was built across the river in 1779. The area around Ironbridge is described by those promoting it as a tourist destination as the “Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution”. This description is based on the idea that Abraham Darby perfected the technique of smelting iron with coke, in Coalbrookdale, allowing much cheaper production of iron.

However, the industrial revolution did not “begin” in one place, but in many. Darby’s iron smelting was but one small part of this generalised revolution and was soon superseded by the great iron-smelting areas. However, the bridge – being the first of its kind fabricated from cast iron, and one of the few which have survived to the present day – remains an important symbol representative of the dawn of the industrial age.

The grandson of the first Abraham Darby, Abraham Darby III, built the famous bridge – originally designed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard – to link the two areas. Construction began in 1779 and the bridge opened on New Year's Day 1781. Soon afterwards the ancient Madeley market was relocated to the new purpose-built square and Georgian Butter Cross and the former dispersed settlement of Madeley Wood gained a planned urban focus as Ironbridge, the commercial and administrative centre of the Coalbrookdale coalfield.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 273 - HANNOVER, GERMANY

“You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.” - Donald Rumsfeld

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us.

Please use this meme for your creative endeavours onlyDo not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Hannover on the River Leine, is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg (later described as the Elector of Hannover). At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Electorate was enlarged to become a Kingdom with Hannover as its capital.

From 1868 to 1946 Hannover was the capital of the Prussian Province of Hannover and afterwards of the Hannover administrative region until that was abolished in 2005. It is now the capital of the Land of Lower Saxony. Since 2001 it has been part of the Hannover district (Region Hannover), which is a municipal body made up of the former district (Landkreis Hannover) and city of Hannover. With a population of 518,000, Hannover is a major centre of Northern Germany and the country's thirteenth largest city.

Hannover hosts annual commercial trade fairs such as the Hanover Fair and the CeBIT. Every year Hannover hosts the Schützenfest Hannover, the world's largest marksmen's festival, and the Oktoberfest Hannover, the second largest festival of its kind in Germany. In 2000, Hannover hosted the world fair Expo 2000. The Hannover fairground, due to numerous extensions, especially for the Expo 2000, is the largest in the world. Hannover is of national importance because of its universities and medical school, its international airport and its large zoo. The city is also a major crossing point of railway lines and highways (Autobahnen), connecting European main lines in both the east-west (Berlin–Ruhr area) and north-south (Hamburg–Munich, etc.) directions.

The New Town Hall (German: Neues Rathaus) or New City Hall in Hannover, is a city hall and was opened on July 20, 1913, after having been under construction for 12 years. It is a magnificent, castle-like building of the era of Wilhelm II in eclectic style at the southern edge of the inner city (outside of the historic city centre of Hannover). The building is embedded in the 10 hectare Maschpark. The Old Town Hall is no longer used as the main seat of administration, but houses businesses and the registry office.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 272 - SEGOVIA

“In Spain, the dead are more alive than the dead of any other country in the world.” – Federico Garcia Lorca

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Segovia is a city in the autonomous region of Castile and León, Spain. The city is famous for its historical buildings and for three main landmarks: Its magnificent Roman aqueduct, its cathedral, one of the last Gothic temples to be built in Europe, and the castle, which was an influence for Walt Disney’s Cinderella Castle. The city centre of Segovia was declared World Heritage by the Unesco in 1985. It is the capital of the Province of Segovia.

Segovia’s position on trading routes made it an important centre of trade in wool and textiles. The end of the Middle Ages saw something of a golden age for Segovia, with a growing Jewish population and the creation of a foundation for a powerful cloth industry. Several splendid works of Gothic architecture were also completed during this period. Notably, Isabella I was proclaimed queen of Castile in the church of San Miguel de Segovia on December 13, 1474.

The population growth that the city experienced during the nineteenth century accelerated steadily beginning around 1920: 16,013 inhabitants that year, 33,360 in 1960, 53,237 in 1981. Since the 1980s growth has slowed markedly: 55,586 in 2004 and 56,047 in 2007.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 271 - KEW BOATHOUSE, MELBOURNE

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” - Rahm Emanuel

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

COVID-19 is still at large and wreaking havoc with our lives, not least our travel plans. Local travel and tourism is fortunately an option here in Melbourne, with many places in Victoria still offering a wealth of options for local tourists both in the metropolitan area, as well as further afield, daytripping!

An institution in Melbourne is the historic Studley Park Boathouse in Kew (often referred to as the “Kew Boathouse”), which is only 10 minutes from Melbourne’s  city centre. It offers visitors the opportunity to dine in the restaurant, relax over a lighter meal in the indoor/outdoor café, or have a light snack from the kiosk while enjoying sweeping views of the Yarra River and natural bushland.

There are numerous bush walks to take along the Yarra River and adjacent parklands, with something to see whatever the season, whatever the weather. Guests can also hire row boats, canoes and kayaks from the oldest operating boathouse in Australia. Open every day of the year except Christmas Day. Kids love the place as there are activities, animals and wide open spaces to play in.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY 270 - SYRACUSE, SICILY

“Sicilians build things like they will live forever and eat like they will die tomorrow.” – Plato

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Syracuse (Italian: Siracusa; Sicilian: Sarausa/Seragusa; Latin: Syrācūsae; Ancient Greek: Συράκουσαι, Syrakousai) is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the pre-eminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes. This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in ancient times, when it was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world. Syracuse is located in the southeast corner of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Syracuse next to the Ionian Sea.

The city was founded by Ancient Greek Corinthians and Teneans and became a very powerful city-state. Syracuse was allied with Sparta and Corinth and exerted influence over the entirety of Magna Graecia, of which it was the most important city. Described by Cicero as “the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all”, it equalled Athens in size during the fifth century BC. It later became part of the Roman Republic and Byzantine Empire. After this Palermo overtook it in importance, as the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily. Eventually the kingdom would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860.

In the modern day, the city is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site along with the Necropolis of Pantalica. In the central area, the city itself has a population of around 125,000 people. The inhabitants are known as Siracusans. Syracuse is mentioned in the Bible in the Acts of the Apostles book at 28:12 as Paul stayed there. The patron saint of the city is Saint Lucy; she was born in Syracuse and her feast day, Saint Lucy’s Day, is celebrated on 13 December.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter