Category Archives: Travel

Walking Tour: Caux Palace – Switzerland (4K Video)

The Caux Palace Hotel is a former palace hotel located in Caux, above Montreux in the Vaud canton, in Switzerland. Built on the Caux Mount by the Swiss architect Eugène Jost, it was inaugurated on 7 July 1902. The building rests on a 400-meter long terrace and is decorated with an abundance of towers and turrets with coloured tiles, which make it a remarkable feature of the Montreux landscape, visible from the whole Montreux Riviera region. It soon became an international venue first in the early 20th century as a luxury hotel, then from 1946 on as an international conference centre dedicated to the rebuilding of Europe under the leadership of the Swiss Initiatives of Change team. It is now also the seat of the Swiss Hotel Management School (SHMS) which uses the premises during the school semesters while Initiatives of Change keeps organising summer conferences there each year. The Caux-Palace Hotel is listed as a cultural property of national significance in Switzerland.

Walking Tour: Vrsar – Republic Of Croatia (4K)

Vrsar is a small seaside town and a municipality in Istria, Croatia located 9 kilometers south of Poreč. The historical center is located on top of a hill, including the St. Martin parish church and the 40-meter high bell tower. In the 20th century, the town expanded down the hill, into the surrounding area. 

Biking Tour: St. Peter’s Square, Villa Pamphilii & Trastevere – Rome, Italy

A biking tour in 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗲, from 𝗦𝘁.𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗦𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗲, to 𝗩𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮 𝗣𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸, then to 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲, Tiber Island, and ending on Circus Maximus on a chilling weekend evening.

Video timeline: 0:00 – [Brief intro] 3:00 – [Biking tour begins / Castel Sant’Angelo] 5:50 – [Via della Conciliazione] 9:00 – [St.Peter’s Square] 13:40 – [Piazza del Sant’Uffizio] 16:00 – [Viale delle Mura Aurelie] 22:11 – [Piazza Aurelio] 23:00 – [Villa Pamphilii Park – entrance] 29:20 – [Pamphilii’s Chapel] 31:30 – [Casino del Bel Respiro] 32:26 – [Cricket Park] 36:00 – [Fountain of “mascherone” and Giardino dei Cedrati] 38:50 – […biking…] 45:28 – [Exiting from southern exit] 46:00 – [Via Vitellia] 48:45 – [Re-entering Villa Pamphilii Park] 49:30 – [Crossing to the western part of the park] 1:00:00 – [small lake] 1:01:10 – […biking…] 1:06:13 – [Crossing back to Eastern Part] 1:12:00 – [Belvedere Lake] 1:14:00 – […biking toward exit…] 1:16:00 – [Via Vitellia – heading to Trastevere neighborhood…] 1:19:30 – [Via Algardi] 1:23:15 – [Entering Trastevere / Via Garibaldi] 1:24:14 – [Via della Scala] 1:24:43 – [Piazza della Scala] 1:27:10 – [Via dei Panieri] 1:29:00 – [Via della Scala] 1:30:00 – [Piazza di Sant’Egidio] 1:30:50 – [Largo Fumasoni Biondi] 1:31:30 – [Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere] 1:32:50 – [Piazza di San Callisto] 1:34:00 – [Via di S.Francesco a Ripa] 1:35:00 – [Viale di Trastevere] 1:38:44 – [Via della Lungeretta] 1:39:40 – [Piazza Giuditta Tavani Arquati] 1:40:18 – [Lungotevere degli Anguillara] 1:42:00 – [Tiber Island] 1:46:54 – [Via Luigi Petroselli] 1:47:35 – [Piazza della Bocca della Verità] 1:48:00 – [Via di S.Giovanni Decollato] 1:51:40 – [Circus Maximus]

Village Walks: Frigiliana – Andalusia, Spain (4K)

Frigiliana is a town in southern Spain. It’s known for its Moorish old quarter and narrow streets decorated with ceramic mosaics. El Ingenio is a 16th-century Renaissance palace now housing a sugar cane factory. Exhibits at the Archaeological Museum include Neolithic bones, Phoenician pottery and a 16th-century dagger. Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama Natural Park shelters Spanish ibex and peregrine falcons. 

Aerial Views: Island Of Ibiza, Spain (4K Video)

Ibiza is one of the Balearic islands, an archipelago of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. It’s well known for the lively nightlife in Ibiza Town and Sant Antoni, where major European nightclubs have summer outposts. It’s also home to quiet villages, yoga retreats and beaches, from Platja d’en Bossa, lined with hotels, bars and shops, to quieter sandy coves backed by pine-clad hills found all around the coast. 

Walking Tour: Nice – On The French Riviera (4K)

Nice, capital of the Alpes-Maritimes department on the French Riviera, sits on the pebbly shores of the Baie des Anges. Founded by the Greeks and later a retreat for 19th-century European elite, the city has also long attracted artists. Former resident Henri Matisse is honored with a career-spanning collection of paintings at Musée Matisse. Musée Marc Chagall features some of its namesake’s major religious works. 

Town Views: Saarburg In Western Germany (Video)

Saarburg is a city of the Trier-Saarburg district in the Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany, on the banks of the river Saar. Now known as a tourist attraction, the river Leuk flows into the town center and makes a spectacular drop of some 60 feet before joining the larger Saar that bisects the town. The waterfall is the result of a 13th-century project to redirect the Leuk through the city center.

Ecology: Scientists Breed Plants With Fast-Growing Roots To Revitalize Land

Humanity faces major challenges. Could roots hold the answers? It’s possible: Research shows that roots have the potential to provide food for the world’s population, stop climate change and help extract resources in an environmentally friendly way. Plants must withstand periods of drought and heat, as well as flooding, and they use their roots to do this. Roots also help them actively search for nutrients in the soil, while warding off dangers such as pathogens and toxins.

Now, scientists at the research institute Forschungszentrum Jülich are investigating root growth using high-tech methods. The goal is to breed stress-resistant seeds for plants with robust roots. They are not alone: In Sweden, Professor Linda Maria Mårtensson is conducting research on a perennial wheat variety that will ensure higher yields while protecting the soil. Along the world’s coasts, too, roots are a lifesaver.

Coastal ecologist Professor Tjeerd Bouma has discovered that if special grasses are planted in front of dikes, they create a salt marsh that acts as a natural breakwater. Meanwhile, geochemist Dr. Oliver Wiche of the Technical University of Freiberg is researching something known as “phytomining.” He wants to know which plants are best suited for mining metals from the soil. Could this root research give rise to a new, environmentally friendly branch of industry?

Views: Sally Lightfoot Crabs Face Eels & Octopus Off Coast Of Brazil (BBC)

In their search for food, these crabs must leap from rock to rock, dodging the predators that lie in wait.

Sally Lightfoot crabs are brightly-coloured coastal scavengers, found in the Galapagos Islands and across the western coast of South and Central America.