Blog

Red, red cars with wild stallions – that is what Maranello is known for.  This is town houses Ferrari’s headquarters and sports many Ferrari shops.

You might not be able to get a tour of the factory (unless you own a Ferrari and a dealership organizes it for you, but visit the Galleria Ferrari.

The Galleria Ferrari boasts historic and new Ferrari's - definitely worth the visit.

Foto: Jazzwall Sharad.

Only a few snowflakes is enough to create chaos in New York. When, like the week before Christmas, almost a half meter of snow falls you can guess how that effects the city. The traffic, the subway the airports - nothing works as it should and people have a hard time moving around.

None of the cars are prepared with winter tires so they slip around on the roads, get stuck and hold up all traffic behind. The flights were very delayed and I had more then one tourist emailing me about renting a room for an extra night because they were stuck in the city.

While some people love the snow and rush out the play with it, New Yorkers prefer to stay inside so clubs and parties were almost empty with people that Saturday night.

The tallest waterfall in the world has just undergone a name change.

Previously called Angel Falls, the new name is now Kerepakupai-Merú. The falls are located in a remote region of Venezuela.

The name Angel Falls was given due to an explored named Jimmie Angel, who hiked 11 days with his family to discover the falls in the 1930's. The new name is more traditional, derived from the indigenous Pemon Language, meaning "waterfall of the deepest place."

The falls are almost 1000 metres in height, and are so high in fact that the water turns to mist before it hits the rocks below. The mist can be felt more than a kilometre away. 

The waterfall drops over Auyantepui mountain, located in the Canaima National Park. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site.

While it's one of Venezuela's most popular tourist destinations, travel there can be ardous, due to the remove location of the falls. You in fact have to travel by river, and the river is not deep enough for travel year round.

Rome, a city built upon a city with much to discover for inquisitive visitors.

Sights to visit in Rome:

• The Colosseum
• Roman Forum
• Trevi Fountain
• The Pantheon
• Imperial Forums
• The Vatican & Vatican Gardens
• Hadrian’s Villa
• Catacombs of St. Domitilla
• Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

Roman Forum

Standing in the Roman Forum I could not help but stand in awe of the gigantic structures towering from the earth. The pillars and buildings stand tall, proud and out of place next to a residential apartment building.

Gigantic pillar pieces lie on the grounds (and you can touch them) putting into perspective the craftsmanship and power of the Roman Empire.

Colosseum

No movie or travel program prepared me for the Colosseum. In movies (like The Gladiator) it is white (covered in marble) and in travel programs it is so small. Then, I walked through the gates fit for a giant...
I ran my hands on the ancient walls and over the fallen pillars. Walked up the stairs and gazed upon the most amazing sight of a structure so intricate.

I could imagine the gladiators in the arena and the crowds cheering them on. The Colosseum whole and covered in white marble – what a sight it must’ve been!

PS. Pose for a photo or 2 with the gladiators outside the Collosseum!

Trevi Fountain

A small pavilion surrounds the fountain where visitors can sit down (amidst masses of other visitors) and gaze at this masterpiece.

It was just beautiful. The water thundering and swirling with coins glistening at the bottom of the pool.

The Vatican

It was nothing like I expected. The arena in front of the Pope’s balcony was not as full as I imagined it would always be, it was just a vast open space in front of an impressive building that houses so many treasures.

The Vatican is filled to the brim with irreplaceable works of art. The floors, the walls, the ceilings and display cases make it impossible to not strain yourself while trying to take it all in.

Notes:

• I would highly recommend keeping a bottle of water handy at all times. You won’t want to waste time looking for water while there is so much to see!
• Currently there does not exist an all encompassing Rome Card, but visit http://www.rome.info/museums/cards/ for what is available.

(photos courtesy of harryalverson)

Ever heard of the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival?  Well, it's a remarkable event that takes place each January in northeastern China. 

The highlight each year are the ice sculptures, with many marvelous creations every year. 

The festival begins each year on January 5th, and lasts for one month. The original festival was held in 1963. Harbin is the host city, located in the Northeast of China. It's average winter temperature is a very chilly -16.8 degrees Celsius. (brrrrr!)

The Harbin festival is one of the world's largest ice and snow festivals - others include Canada's Quebec City Winter Carnival, Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, and Norway's Ski Festival. 

In 2007, a 250 metre long snow sculpture was produced at Harbin. 

Almost 2000 passengers were left stranded in the Channel Tunnel on Friday while traveling on Eurostar trains. The passengers waited for hours in the tunnel before being evacuated.

Passengers who booked tickets for the weekend and 21 December (or until the service re-opens) can get refunds from Eurostar.

Engineers traced the problems back to severe weather conditions. Apparently the trains were sucking in snow and minor modifications would be needed to prevent this from happening in future.

Visit Eurostar's website for more information on when services will resume.

 The largest cruise ship in the world just recently embarked on its maiden voyage - The Royal Caribbean International's MS Oasis of the Seas. 

The ship was built in Finland, and now resides in the U.S. It took two weeks for the ship to travel from Finland to the U.S., at one point having to navigate Great Belt Fixed Linka (a bridge), where less than 1 metre of clearance existed. 

The maiden voyage was December 5th 2009 - it is captained by two Norwegians. 

To give you some perspective on it's size, it has seven neighborhoods, 2,700 cabins, and is more than five times bigger than the Titanic.  Roughly 8,400 passengers can fit onboard, 2,100 of whom are crew members. The ship is so vast it even has a small golf course, 750-seat outdoor amphitheater, and an ice rink. 

The MS Oasis of the Seas will run in a route from the U.S. to the Caribbean.

(photos courtesy of Nick Nobgood)

Copenhagen is the place to be this week for the UN Climate Conference December 7-18. 

This past Saturday, this Travelstart blogger visited Copenhagen for the day to check out the festivities. (I live just 45 minutes away in Malmö) 

Despite frigid temperatures in the Danish capital, the city was packed full of people, who were out exploring the city and various events organized around the conference.  The atmosphere and vibe in the city this week is really electric. 

Saturday a climate march took place, and was attended by upwards of 100,000 people. The weather was really really cold during the march, and it was a very civilized, peaceful demonstration, despite some arrests that occurred later in the day and in a different area of the city. There were so many interesting costumes and displays of creativity amongst the crowd, not to mention lots of laughs and camaraderie.    
While the Climate Conference is held each day in the Bella Center, countless other activities are scattered throughout the city, and are open to the public.  

December is probably not the best time of year to visit Copenhagen, but it really is a lovely city, every day of the year.  

2 weeks of total craziness... First it was a short 16km walk at the Sisters with Blisters event in the scorching sun - and then, I got free tickets to see Cinderella on Ice at Montecasino.

Sisters with Blisters

I learnt that bloggers can walk and not have the energy to blog or twitter about it after the first 4km.

The early starters on the 16km did not expect the heat to be quite so much, but by 8 am it was unbearable. By 10 it was just ridiculously hot.

The route was just 4km x 4 but a real steep hill claimed many victims that barely made it up at a snail's pace.

After our walk we trawled the after event exhibitions and activities - including a 20 minute bootcamp!

Cinderella on Ice

I don't know if I was more in awe of the fact that these skaters could do so much on such a small slab of ice or that ice on a stage in Africa is possible...

The performers played their roles so convincingly - while skating - with no mistakes. Memorable characters included the wicked step mom and sisters, the tailor in red, the prince and of course Cinderella herself.

Cross the street and use the other entrance for downtown.

There are always a few things that makes it easy to separate the locals from the tourists in a city. When it comes to New York, the behaviour on the public transport is one of those things. It's always a bit fun to watch people walking in the wrong direction, not finding the stop button on the bus or not understanding how to open the back door - wait for the green light and then touch the yellow strip on the door.

My first opportunity to make a mistake was because I didn't read the sign at the subway entrance properly. On many stops you have to choose the right entrance in order to get to the train going in the direction you want. Once you've passed with your ticket and realize your mistake you can't pass on the same ticket at the other entrance. Either you have to buy a new one or wait 18 minutes, the reason for this is of course to avoid people cheating and riding several people on the same subway pass.

Other possibilities for confusion are the express trains.In some ways you can read signs that says that the Q is an express while the N and R are not, but exactly what stops they are making is harder to know and sometimes it varies between weekdays and weekends. It's also possible that a train the is express in Manhattan becomes local in Brooklyn.