Posts from ‘March, 2011’

Last year the Canadian city of Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympic Games and had a pretty impressive Olympic  Cauldron which held the flame. Ten metre high flame was made of steel and glass resembled huge ice pillars. After the games the city decided to put the beautiful sculpture on display in the city for all to see as a legacy of a fine Winter Olympics.    The cauldron has been installed in downtown Vancouver at Jack Poole Plaza not far from the convention centre and international cruise liner terminal, so it is in very easy reach of tourists wanting a photo. Read the rest of this entry »

No aliens have not landed in San Francisco, but someone passing the bayfront along The Embarcadero might think otherwise. Standing at 40 foot the Raygun Gothic Rocketship is a pretty impressive piece of artwork on display in the bay city. 

Some say the Raygun Gothic Rocketship (RGR) is an 80 year old vessel that has a duty of scientific discovery and exploration. Reports say she has crash-landed on the frozen seas of Mars, gathered specimens from every last one of the 400 volcanoes of Io and charted the caves of Mongo. While others might try and diffuse the myth by saying shiny silver retro themed rocket ship is the work of dozens of bay area artists, but we like the earlier.  Hope they brought back some cheese from the moon! Read the rest of this entry »

Portland in Oregon USA has an amazing Saturday market for anyone visiting this great city. It holds the record of the longest continuous running outdoor market in the USA, starting in 1974/ It is jam packed with some great arts and crafts, there’s clothing, jewellery, sculptures painting you name it. The market features plenty of great music and performance art too. The market is located on SW Ankeny St + Naito Parkway and around the Ankeny Plaza. IT. The market runs from the 1st weekend in March til Christmas, on both Saturday and Sunday. Don’t forget to try the food too, there are some very tasty offerings at the food vendors, and look out for the beer tents where you can taste some of Portland’s delicious microbrew beer- it is amazing. We tried the IPA from the Rogue Brewhouse and couldn’t stop at one. Read the rest of this entry »

Most people think Reno in Nevada USA is all one arm bandits and giant buffets, well you are pretty well right but there are some very good attractions in and around this “Biggest Little City in the World”. One fantastic attraction that any car lover should visit is the National Automobile Museum which is located right in the heart of the city.  The museum was originally founded to display the dozens of amazing cars owned by Bill Harrah of the Harrah’s hotel and casino chain.  The museum has some pretty cool stuff, there’s one of Elvis’s tanks, a gold plated DeLorean as seen in the photo, cars from John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and even Al Jolson. But it’s not the celebrity cars which are the most fascinating, it is the breath of the collection. There are over 100 years of history with plenty of cars you just won’t see anywhere else.  The museum also has a great collection of period costumes and artefacts and there is some great memorabilia and artwork. There are four main halls all themed and good gift shop which has a whole range of great products. Read the rest of this entry »

When you think of trams in the beautiful US Pacific city of San Francisco you think of the old cable cars that head up and down the steep streets. Well there is another very unique tram travelling the streets of San Francisco, the Tram or Street Car as they are known. The cars returned to the streets of San Francisco in 1979 and have now grown to quiet a fleet. Many of the street cars have come from cities around the US where they are no longer in use. Some have even come from overseas including Melbourne Australia, Kobe and Hiroshima in Japan and Blackpool in the UK. After painstaking restoration, and painting usually in the original city’s colours the trams have been returned to service. Read the rest of this entry »