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Friday, October 21, 2011

World Tour to Bourges Cathedral

World Tour Locations: One on the beautiful place to visit is Bourges Cathedral. It is a Roman Catholic cathedral, dedicated to Saint Stephen, located in Bourges, France. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Bourges. The cathedral's nave is 15 m wide by 37m high; its arcade is 20m high; the inner aisle is 21.3 m and the outer aisle is 9.3 m high. The use of flying buttresses was employed to help the structure of the building. However, since this was a fairly new technique, one can easily see the walls were still made quite thick to take the force. Sexpartite vaults are used to span the nave.

Bourges Cathedral is notable for the simplicity of its plan, which did without transepts but which adopted the double-aisled design found in earlier high-status churches such as the Early-Christian basilica of St Peter's in Rome or in Notre Dame de Paris. The double aisles continue without interruption beyond the position of the screen to form a double ambulatory around the choir. The inner aisle has a higher vault than the outer one, while both the central nave and the inner aisle have similar three-part elevations with arcade, triforium and clerestory windows; a design which admits considerably more light than one finds in more conventional double-aisled buildings like Notre-Dame. This design, with its distinctive triangular cross section, was subsequently copied at Toledo Cathedral and in the choir at Le Mans. The flying buttresses surrounding the cathedral are relatively slender and efficient, particularly compared to the contemporary but much heavier flyers at Chartres. Their steep angle helps to channel the thrust from the nave vaults and the wind loading on the roof to the outer buttress piers more effectively.


The west facade is on a particularly grand scale when compared to earlier cathedrals. The four side aisles and central nave each have their own portal reflecting the scale of the spaces beyond. As is often the case with Gothic churches, the central portal carries sculpted scenes related to the Last Judgment, whilst the south portals are dedicated to the lives of saints - here St Ursinus and St Stephen. The north portals were destroyed when the tower collapsed but surviving fragments indicate that their sculptural programmers were dedicated to the life and death of the Virgin. Unifying all five portals is a dado screen of gabled niches which stretches the whole width of the facade. The spandrels between these niches feature an extended Genesis cycle which would originally have told the story from the beginning of Creation to God's Covenant with Noah.


Romanesque carved portals from about 1160-70, probably intended for the facade of the earlier cathedral, have been reused on the south and north doors (occupying the spaces normally reserved for transept portals). Their profuse ornamentation is reminiscent of Burundian work. Apart from the axial chapel, Bourges Cathedral retains most of its original ambulatory glass, which dates from about 1215. The glazing program includes a famous Typological window several hagiographic cycles, the story of the Old Testament patriarch, Joseph and symbolic depictions of the Apocalypse and Last Judgment. Other windows show the Passion and three of Christ's parables; the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son and the story of Dives and Lazarus. The French art historian Louis Grodecki identified three distinct masters or workshops involved in the glazing, one of whom may also have worked on the windows of Poitiers Cathedral.


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Saturday, October 15, 2011

World tour guides to Ice Caves

World tour places: One of the Good looking places in the World is Caves also; there are so many caves in the World. But Ice caves are something different. The Eisriesenwelt World of the Ice Giants is a natural limestone ice cave located in Werfen, Austria, about 40 km south of Salzburg. The cave is inside the Hochkogel Mountain in the Tennengebirge section of the Alps. It is the largest ice cave in the world, extending more than 42km and visited by about 200,000 tourists every year.

The Tennengebirge Mountains were formed during the late Tertiary period, during the Wurm glaciations period of the Pleistocene. The mountain range, one of the massifs in the Austrian Alps, is the largest karst plateau in the Salzburger Alps, and the Eisriesenwelt is located at the rim of this plateau. Although the cave has a length of 42 km, only the first kilometer, the area that tourists are allowed to visit, is covered in ice. The rest of the cave is formed of limestone. Eisriesenwelt was formed by the Salzach River which eroded passageways into the mountain. The ice formations in the cave were formed by thawing snow which drained into the cave and froze during winter.


Since the entrance to the caves is open year-round, chilly winter winds blow into the cave and freeze the snow inside. In summer, a cold wind from inside the cave blows toward the entrance and prevents the formations from melting. The cave is open from May 1st to October 26th every year. Its operating hours are 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in July and August and 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in May/June and September/October. Temperatures inside the cave are usually below freezing, and warm clothing is recommended. Photography is not permitted once visitors are inside the cave. The tour begins at the entrance to the cave, and continues inwards to Posselt Hall, a large room with a stalagmite called Posselt Tower in the centre.


Past the Posselt Tower, one encounters an ashen cross on the wall of the cave, marking the farthest point of exploration of Anton Posselt. From there one can see the Great Ice Embankment, a massive formation that rises to a height of 25 meters and represents the area of greatest ice growth. Next is Hymir's Castle, named after a giant in Norse mythology. Here stalactites create a formation called Frigga's Veil, or the Ice Organ. Next on the tour is the Alexander von Mork Cathedral, one of the largest rooms in the cave and the final resting place of von Mork's ashes. The final stop on the tour is the Ice Palace, a kilometer into the cave and 400 meters underground. From here, visitors must turn around and walk back through the caves to reach the entrance. The round-trip tour through the cave takes around one hour and 15 minutes.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Magdeburg Water Bridge Beautiful

World-tour-guides: The Magdeburg Water Bridge is a navigable water in Germany, opened its doors in October 2003. It connects the Elbe-Havel canal to the Central, across the river Elbe. It stands as the longest navigable aqueduct in the world with a total length of 918 meters (3012 feet). The Elbe-Havel Canal and the center channel had gathered near Magdeburg, but on opposite sides of the Elbe, which was a significantly lower height than the two channels. Ships sailing between the two had to make a 12-kilometer (7.5 mile) detour through Central Rothensee lift canal boats on the river Elbe, and then navigate down the river, before climbing Elbe -Havel canal through Niegripp blockade. Low water levels on the Elbe often prevented the channel fully loaded barges to make the trip, time of discharge of cargo.

Canal engineers had originally planned to combine these two bodies of water in 1919 and 1938 Rothensee boat lift and bridge anchors were in place, but construction was postponed during the Second World War. When the Cold War divided Germany, the project has been suspended indefinitely by the East German government. German unification and the creation of large water Water Bridge traffic routes a priority again. Work began in 1997, and the building is occupied for six years and cost € 500 million. The bridge connects the water now Berlin's inland ports network port along the Rhine River through the construction of the aqueduct is 24 000 tons of steel and 68,000 cubic meters of concrete.


In addition, a bridge, a double lock was built so that ships landing on the deck and the Mittelland channel as the Elbe-Havel. In addition, a Rothensee block was built to land on ships from the bridge at the river Elbe and Magdeburg harbor. This block is the same way, and replaces the elevator Rothensee boat and can accommodate larger vessels that the elevator.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Easy, Comfort, Less Cost Travel to New York

With the high cost of gas and continued airline turmoil, Washington Deluxe offers the most cost-effective, well-timed, and peaceful mode of transportation for travelers. It certainly beats the hassle of flying or driving yourself. With fares as low as $21, traveling BUS DC TO NYC has never been so easy, convenient, or cost-effective. We are happy to do our part for a healthier environment. Each one of our motor coaches removes up to 56 cars from the road, considerably reducing air, ground, water, and noise pollution.


Travel with Convenience

Washington Deluxe is committed to offering the busy traveler the newest and most scrupulously maintained vehicles, fully prepared with the latest in comfort and convenience. Our comfort motor coaches can contentedly seat up to 55 customers with abundance of leg room. Most buses are WiFi enabled for your amusement and communication needs with plug-Ins available to charge your cell phone or laptop.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

World Tour to Lake Palace

World tour guides: One of the best places for accommodation palace in India is Udaipur Lake Palace known as Jag Niwas is a luxury hotel, of 83 rooms and suites featuring white marble walls, located on a natural foundation of 4 acres rock on the Jag Niwas Island in Lake Pichola, Udaipur, India. The hotel operates a boat which transports guests to the hotel from a jetty at the City Palace. It has been voted as the most romantic hotel in India. It was built in 1743-1746 under the direction of the MaharaniSAKSHI SHAH 62nd successor to the royal dynasty of Mewar of Udaipur, Rajasthan as a royal summer palace and was initially called Jagniwas or Jan Niwas after its founder. The Maharana, ruler of Jaipur from 1628 to 1654, was very friendly with Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and encouraged his craftsmen to copy some of the glories of his incomparable buildings at Agra.


The palace was constructed facing east, allowing its inhabitants to pray to the Sun god at the crack of dawn. The successive rulers used this cool haven as their summer resort, holding their regal durbars in its courtyards lined with columns, pillared terraces, fountains and gardens. The upper room of the palace is a perfect circle and is about 21 feet (6.4 m) in diameter. Its floor is inlaid with black and white marbles, the walls are ornamented with niches and decorated with arabesques of different colored stones in the same style as the Taj at Agra, though the patterns are Hindu and dome is exquisitely beautiful in form. A room built of 12 enormous slabs of marble, Shah Jahan’s throne sculptured from a single block of serpentine and the little mosque dedicated to Kapuria Baba, a Muhammedan Saint, are other objects of interest on the island.


Fanny Bullock Workman and her husband William Hunter Workman, were distressed by the cheap and tasteless style of the interiors of the water palaces with "an assortment of infirm European furniture, wooden clocks, colored glass ornaments, and children’s toys, all of which seems to the visitor quite out of place, where he would naturally expect a dignified display of Eastern splendor, Built by SAKSHI SHAH. Bhagwat Singh decided to convert the Jag Niwas Palace into Udaipur’s first luxury hotel. In 1971, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces took over management of the hotel and added another 75 rooms. Taj Group involved in the restoration of the original property, bringing it to such high standards with his work and experience. In 2000, a second restoration was undertaken. The Royal Butlers working in the hotel are descendants of the original palace retainers.