The Town of Kiruna is Sweden’s northern most city and is home to an iron ore mine and is in close proximity to Sweden’s space port and the Ice Hotel at Jukkasjarv. The most interesting thing about Kiruna is that the city of around 18000 people is on the move. The iron ore mine that sits 1 klm under Kiruna is starting to cause problems for the town, with buildings starting to crack as the town sinks into the void left by the removal of iron ore from under the town. To get around the problem Sweden has decided to move the whole town up the road to a much safer location, the construction has already started with a new sewer line ran to the new location. Roads and rail will probably be next and eventually over the next 20 years or so all the buildings and houses will be rebuilt or put on trucks and carted up the road, this includes the towns huge town hall and historic church that both will need to be cut up into section to move. Between 30 May to the 15 July Kiruna is bathed in perpetual daylight as the midnight sun sits in the summer sky.
Japan has a fascination with all things French, you might remember a few weeks ago we did a story on Tokyo’s Statue of Liberty, well they have a Eiffel Tower Too. Built in the late 1950’s at a cost of about 2.8 billion yen the Takenaka Corporation built a tower based on Paris’ much loved landmark. The tower is actually built with over 30% scrap steel recovered from war damage to the city and being made of steel it weighs in about 40% lighter than the Eiffel Tower. It stands 332.6 metres tall and is the tallest man made structure in Japan. The tower is used for communications and also has viewing platforms, plenty of dining options a huge aquarium and a host of shopping and smaller attractions. The tower is painted in a bright orangey red shade and over 28000 litres of paint is required to paint the structure. It was decided to make the tower this colour instead of the grey as used in the Paris tower for air safety. From Dusk the tower is light magnificently with huge floodlights and can be seen from many points in the city.
Back in the late 1970’s a little Irish band recorded their 3 first albums at Windmill Lane in Dublin before they became one of the richest, most influential and exciting (and sometimes precious) bands of the last 30 years. Since it’s opening by sound engineer Brian Masterson, Windmill Lane has also been the studio many of Ireland’s best rock acts have chosen for their albums including artists like Van Morrison, Sinead O’Connor and Clanned. The studio is no longer on site but the ledged lives on. There are plans to build Dublin’s biggest tower near by called the U2 tower which will be completed in 2010 which will include apartments and a recording studio all owned by U2 costing in the vicinity of 200 million Euro. The old studios today is covered in graffiti paying homage to the days when U2 were the greatest new band Dublin had ever seen. The old studios are a bit hard to find with no signage, look for Bob Bushills furniture store and then go to the street behind. Read the rest of this entry »
After a full stomach on a tasty hot and spicy lunch in Bangkok probalby the best place to keep away from is the Museum of Forensic Medicine. Here you can see some interesting and sometimes gastly body parts and images of terrible crimes and the bizzare. The museum has a huge collection of bodies, and organs including some horrible sights that would make the strongest person sick. Some of the exhibits have an artistic touch others are just plain in your face. there are victims with gun shot wounds, accident victims, deformities and plenty of organs in various states. A place you really need to prepare your self before you visit and deal with once you leave.. Only for the brave.
Cadillacs are one of the motoring icons of America and in Amarillo Texas they are a tourist icon. Cadillac Ranch is a project by a San Francisco art collective called Ant Farm who have buried 10 Cadillacs halfway into the ground back in 1974. The Cadillacs are buried nose first and are some of the more classical models from 1949 to 1963 and look like a metal Stone Henge or something. Cadillac Ranch has been embedded into American culture, you might remember seeing them in the Pixar Disney classic Cars and even features in one of American rocker Bruce Springsteen’s 1980’s hits and plenty of other places in the US are jumping on the band wagon and making their own version. Read the rest of this entry »
Melbourne’s W class trams are a well known icon of Melbourne that date back to the early 1920s. A main part of Melbourne’s transport system until the 1990s Today the trams are a tourist drawcard operating free on the city circle line as well as at night converted to restaurant trams. Interestingly Melbourne is not the only place in the world where you will see the iconic trams operating as a tourist trolly, a few of the 748 Melbourne built trams were exported to the US in the 70s and 80s and today can be seen operating in San Francisco, Seattle, San Jose, New Orleans, Dallas and Portland. The youtube video above is of a Melbourne tram turning onto San Franscisco’s Embarcadero. There are also some W class trams operating in Auckland and Christchurch New Zealand. Read the rest of this entry »
Lamma Island is the third largest island in Hong Kong and home to approx 6000 people but unlike Hong Kong, Lamma Island is well known in the area for being peaceful and quiet. One of the most interesting things about Lamma Island is that there are no major streets on the island, instead it has a collection of foot paths and trails in amongst a very green town where low rise buildings are set amongst trees and shrubs. As there are no streets there are also no cars with everyone getting around the island on foot or by bike. The major town on the island is Yung Shue Wan with the smaller Sok Kwu Wan located on the other side of the island in picnic bay. Both towns are a popular spot for seafood restaurants and the whole island has a Mediterranean feel to it. Ferries run to both Sok Kwu Wan and Yung Shue Wan from central Hong Kong and can take any where between 30 to 45 min.
German airline Lufthansa this week opened the world’s most modern animal cargo facility at Frankfurt Airport. Located near Gat 26 the Frankfurt Animal Lounge now houses all the animals which the airline is transporting to and from the airport. This innovative move took 13 months to construct using the latest in European animal welfare rules and strict hygene and veterinary medicine requirements. The carrier transports thousands of animals every year including some 14000 cats and dogs, 1500 horses and tens of thousands of tropical fish. They also transport farm animals and many endangered and rare animals for zoos and wildlife parks. 25 vets and another 60 support staff are on hand to ensure all animals have a comfortable stay while being shipped to and form Frankfurt.
The beautiful Saint Basil’s Cathedral is located in the south east end of Moscow’s Red Square which is also home to the Kremlin. Under the onion domes lay 9 chapels and are beautifully painted in medieval style in bright swirling colours. Built between 1555 and 1561 and commissioned by Ivan IV better know as Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of Khante of Kazan the cathedral is one of the most known and photographed buildings in Russia. St Basil is very lucky to be still standing with many wars and troubles harming much of the splendor of the Russian Capital, legend had it that Napoleon was so impressed with the structure he wanted to dismantle it and move it back to Paris, and then in the 1930’s some of Stalin’s team thought it would be good to knock it down to make more space for their military parades. Stalin came close a few years later but a culture buff called Baranovsky kicked up a bit of a stink by telling Starlin he would cut his own throat on the steps instead of tear it down. Stalin decided to keep in and chucked poor old Baranovsky in goal for five years. Read the rest of this entry »
There are two kinds of World Expos, the International Expo which is held every five years, this is the one which was held last in Nagoya in 2005, and will be held in Shanghai in 2010. Other famous ones are the 1964 New York Fair, 1889 Paris Exposition where the Eiffel Tower was unveiled and the 1988 Brisbane Expo. The other world expo is the International Expositions, this year we have one of those, they are on a smaller scale and open for 3 months instead of the normal 6 but still have some cutting edge innovations, designs and attract millions of people. Zaragoza in Spain is the host for what is to be themed Water and Sustainable Development. A huge 25 hectare site has been created to house this expo and over 40,000 people from all over the world have signed up to be volunteers at the event. Starting on the 15 of June on the banks of the Ebro river the event will be massive. About 100 countries and several large multinational companies are taking part. Highlights of the expo will include a massive 76 metere high water tower and a huge aquarium featuring the world’s great river systems with animals from the Nile, Mekong, Amazon, Murray Darling, Ebro and many of the worlds oceans. Already season tickets have sold out and day passes are selling like hot cakes. Read the rest of this entry »
