Preparations for MardiGras

Mardi Gras also called Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday, in English, refers to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", reflecting the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season.

Dutch royal palace

town hall
The Royal Palace was built in the seventeenth century as the Town Hall of Amsterdam, after a design by Jacob van Campen. It's paintings and sculptures were makde by some of the most distinguished artists of the time and allude to the city's influence and prosperit in the Dutch Golden Age.

Le Puy en Velay

Le Puy-en-Velay's most striking attraction is the Cathédrale Notre-Dame du Puy, dating chiefly from the first half of the 12th century. The façade, striped in courses of white sandstone and black volcanic breccia, is reached by a flight of sixty steps, and consists of three orders, the lowest composed of three high arcades opening into the porch, which extends beneath the first bays of the nave. Above it are three central windows that light the nave, and above them are three gables on the gable-end of the nave, flanked by two openwork screening gables. The south transept doorway is sheltered by a Romanesque porch. Behind the choir rises a separate Romanesque bell-tower in seven storeys.

The iron statue of Notre-Dame de France (The Virgin Mary) overlooking the town was designed by the French sculptor Jean-Marie Bonnassieux, and is made from 213 Russian cannons taken in the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855). It was presented to the town on 12 September 1860 in front of 120,000 people.

Capital of Rioja

Logroño is a city rich in history and traditions which have been preserved since the Middle Ages. The Pilgrim's Route to Santiago de Compostela made this one of the most important towns on the route, leaving an interesting monumental legacy closely linked to the traditional passing of the pilgrims.

The history of Logroño cannot be separated from the Pilgrim's Route to Santiago de Compostela. Such much so that the city did not gain importance until the rise in popularity of the route, beginning in the 11th century.The Codex Calixtinus (12th century), the first guide to the Pilgrim's Route to Santiago de Compostela, makes mention of Logroño in its pages. And it is a fact that the passing of merchants, artists and pilgrims through the cobbled streets of the capital of La Rioja for centuries has made the city a crossroads of considerable cultural importance.

Heineken Backyard

Film is considered to have its own language. James Monaco wrote a classic text on film theory titled "How to Read a Film". Director Ingmar Bergman famously said, "Andrei Tarkovsky for me is the greatest director, the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." Examples of the language are a sequence of back and forth images of one actor's left profile speaking, followed by another actor's right profile speaking, then a repetition of this, which is a language understood by the audience to indicate a conversation. Another example is zooming in on the forehead of an actor with an expression of silent reflection, then changing to a scene of a younger actor who vaguely resembles the first actor, indicating the first actor is having a memory of their own past.

Antwerp: The city is yours

There is no better way to realize how rich and complex the world is than by watching movies that were hits in their home countries but didn't make it on a global scale. A beautiful way to learn more about foreign cultures and discover sometimes inspiring and refreshing narrative techniques

 

 

Camping at the Rhone

Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants (known as campers) leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, a primitive structure, or no shelter at all.
Camping as a recreational activity became popular in the early 20th century. Campers frequent national or state parks, other publicly owned natural areas, and privately owned campgrounds.

Camping is also used as an inexpensive form of accommodation for people attending large open air events such as sporting meetings and music festivals. Organizers often provide a field and other basic amenities

Arte from Barcelona

Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an "art film" using a "...canon of films and those formal qualities that mark them as different from mainstream Hollywood films", which includes, among other elements: a social realism style; an emphasis on the authorial expressiveness of the director; and a focus on the thoughts and dreams of characters, rather than presenting a clear, goal-driven story. Film scholar David Bordwell claims that "art cinema itself is a film genre, with its own distinct conventions.

Oldest Youth hotel in the world

Hostels in popular culture

Motion pictures have portrayed hostels in two ways: as fun places for young people to stay, or alternatively, as dangerous places where unsuspecting Americans face potential horrors in Central Europe.
There are some popular misconceptions that a hostel is a kind of a flophouse, homeless shelter, or halfway house, though this does not reflect the high quality and level of professionalism in many modern hostels.

Perlen des Sauerland

is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine- Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited. For these reasons, it has been chosen as the first place in Germany to reintroduce the Wisent (or European bison)..
Sauerland is a popular tourist area, attracting many visitors from the Ruhr Area and relatively close Netherlands. The forests and picturesque small towns are attractive for hikers and outdoor sports. There are more than 30,000 km of tagged hiking trails in Sauerland region maintained by Sauerland hiking association (SGV). Some of the towns have the title Bad (Spa) because of their good air quality and stimulating climate. Winter sports are popular in the Sauerland.