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Embracing every experience. Read more🇦🇺Kensington
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  • BronzeUnited Arab EmiratesTraveler

    The Louvre

    January 14, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    An extraordinarily beautiful building.
    The Louvre Abu Dhabi is an art and civilization museum, located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The museum was inaugurated on 8 November 2017 by French President Emmanuel Macron and United Arab Emirates Vice President Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
    The museum is part of a thirty-year agreement between the city of Abu Dhabi and the French government. The museum is located on the Saadiyat Island Cultural District. It is approximately 24,000 square metres (260,000 sq ft) in size, with 8,000 square metres (86,000 sq ft) of galleries, making it the largest art museum in the Arabian peninsula. The final cost of the construction is expected to be about €600 million. In addition, US$525 million was paid by Abu Dhabi to be associated with the Louvre name, and an additional US$747 million will be paid in exchange for art loans, special exhibitions and management advice.    Read more

  • BronzeUnited Arab EmiratesTraveler

    Abu Dahbi

    January 14, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Some of the pictures of Abu Dhabi en route to the Louvre art gallery.
    Abu Dhabi has a knack of wanting to copy famous locations and landmarks and bring them to the UAE...

  • BronzeUnited Arab EmiratesTraveler

    Abu Dhabi

    January 14, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    We took a quick day trip to Abu Dhabi to see what the city has to offer.
    It is actually like being on the Gold Coast with all of the theme parks congregated in one particular area.
    The Ferrari park seemed to be the highlight of the park and disappointed that we could not spend some more time there. It would actually be easy to spend a day there especially with the five Ferrari rollercoasters that are available including the fastest one in the world.
    It is a massive space with an incredible number of rides and experiences to be had and it generally is becoming renown for the quality of its tourist experience.
    The city is similar to Dubai in many ways and from an infrastructure perspective the wealth gained from oil is very obvious.    Read more

  • BronzeUnited Arab EmiratesTraveler

    Bedouin Bazaar

    January 13, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    This was a special tour Jen organised that included quad bike riding, Sahara four wheel driving, camel riding as well as a Bedouin banquet.
    The evening featured a belly dancer, a fire breather as well as a traditional dancer with a heavy skirt that he rotated very quickly and was able to do all manner of amazing tricks.
    We also had a traditional Arabic meal that featured kebabs as well as tabouleh salad and other dips and Lebanese bread.
    There was also someone who-owned a trained hawk which was allowed to sit on your head and body if he liked you as this one had no leather eye covers quite common with hawks to keep them docile and relaxed.
    Of course there was a fee for the experience with the hawk which was 10 UAE dirham.    Read more

  • BronzeUnited Arab EmiratesTraveler

    Sahara (cont’d)

    January 13, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    The desert comprises much of North Africa, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley in Egypt and Sudan.
    It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south, it is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan Region of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Sahara can be divided into several regions including: the western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Aïr Mountains, the Ténéré desert, and the Libyan Desert.

    For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 20,000 year cycle caused by the precession of the Earth's axis as it rotates around the Sun, which changes the location of the North African Monsoon. The area is next expected to become green in about 15,000 years (17,000 AD).
    The best bit of this trip was the driving around the sand dunes and the precarious angles that the car embraced to successfully go over and up the dunes.
    Jen was sitting in the car and videoing it all and that gives a much better overview.    Read more

  • BronzeUnited Arab EmiratesTraveler

    Sahara Desert

    January 13, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    The Sahara (‘the Greatest Desert') is a desert located on the African continent.
    It is the largest hot desert in the world, and the third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic. Its area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi) is comparable to the area of China or the United States.
    The name 'Sahara' is derived from a dialectal Arabic word for "desert".    Read more

  • BronzeUnited Arab EmiratesTraveler

    Dubai

    January 13, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Located in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula on the coast of the Persian Gulf, Dubai aims to be the business hub of Western Asia.[8] It is also a major global transport hub for passengers and cargo. Oil revenue helped accelerate the development of the city, which was already a major mercantile hub. Today, less than 5% of the emirate's revenue comes from oil. A centre for regional and international trade since the early 20th century, Dubai's economy relies on revenues from trade, tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial services.Read more

  • BronzeBarcelonaTraveler

    The Green Spot

    January 12, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Without doubt the best vegetarian eating experience I have ever had.
    Amazing food, vegan pizzas and deserts to die for in fact we had three.
    Best “old fashioned” I have drunk ever!

  • BronzeBarcelonaTraveler

    Gaudi Tour

    January 12, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    Gaudí's works have a highly individualized, one-of-a-kind style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the church of the Sagrada Família.

    Gaudí's work was influenced by his passions in life: architecture, nature, and religion. He considered every detail of his creations and integrated into his architecture such crafts as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging and carpentry. He also introduced new techniques in the treatment of materials, such as trencadís which used waste ceramic pieces.

    Under the influence of neo-Gothic art and Oriental techniques, Gaudí became part of the Modernista movement which was reaching its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work transcended mainstream Modernisme, culminating in an organic style inspired by natural forms. Gaudí rarely drew detailed plans of his works, instead preferring to create them as three-dimensional scale models and moulding the details as he conceived them.

    Gaudí's work enjoys global popularity and continuing admiration and study by architects. His masterpiece, the still-incomplete Sagrada Família, is the most-visited monument in Spain. Between 1984 and 2005, seven of his works were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Gaudí's Roman Catholic faith intensified during his life and religious images appear in many of his works. This earned him the nickname "God's Architect" and led to calls for his beatification.    Read more

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  • BronzeBarcelonaTraveler

    Girona Brass Lion

    January 11, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    Apparently... it is customary to kiss the backside of the brass lion to revive good luck and also guarantee that you will return to Girona.
    We also saw a progressively built cathedral which meant that it had bits of roman, gothic, baroque and some other period of architecture and by looking at the cathedral it was obvious which parts had been added at which time.
    This occurred over a several hundred year period as money and regional stability allowed.
    Some of the little laneways in this town were so beautiful.    Read more

  • BronzeBarcelonaTraveler

    Girona Old City Wall

    January 11, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    In recent years, the missing parts of the city walls on the eastern side of the city have been reconstructed. Called the Passeig de la Muralla it now forms a tourist route around the old city.

  • BronzeBarcelonaTraveler

    Girona (cont’d)

    January 11, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    Girona has undergone twenty-five sieges and been captured seven times. It was besieged by the French royal armies under Charles de Monchy d'Hocquincourt in 1653, under Bernardin Gigault de Bellefonds in 1684, and twice in 1694 under Anne Jules de Noailles. In May 1809, it was besieged by 35,000 French Napoleonic troops under Vergier, Augereau and St. Cyr, and held out obstinately under the leadership of Alvarez until disease and famine compelled it to capitulate on 12 December. Finally, the French conquered the city in 1809, after seven months of siege. Girona was center of the Ter department during the French rule, which lasted from 1809 to 1813. The defensive city walls of the western side were demolished at the end of the 19th century to allow for the expansion of the city, while the walls of the eastern side remained untouched but damaged over time.Read more

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  • BronzeBarcelonaTraveler

    Girona (cont’d)

    January 11, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    The 12th century saw the Jewish community of Girona flourish, having one of the most important Kabbalistic schools in Europe. The Rabbi of Girona, Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi (better known as Nahmanides or Ramban) was appointed Great Rabbi of Catalonia. The presence of the Jewish community of Girona came to an end in 1492, when the Catholic Monarchs outlawed Judaism throughout Spain and Jews were given the choice of conversion or exile.
    Today, the Jewish quarter or Call is one of the best preserved in Europe and is a major tourist attraction. On the north side of the old city is the Montjuïc (or hill of the Jews in medieval Catalan), where the Jewish cemetery was located.

    Some shots from the Game of Thrones show were filmed in front of this cathedral.    Read more

  • BronzeBarcelonaTraveler

    Girona (cont’d)

    January 11, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    Girona is a city in Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell and has an official population of 101,852 in 2019.
    It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès. It is located 99 km (62 mi) northeast of Barcelona. Girona is a major Catalan city.
    The first historical inhabitants in the region were Iberians; Girona is the ancient Gerunda, a city of the Ausetani. Later, the Romans built a citadel there, which was given the name of Gerunda. The Visigoths ruled in Girona until it was conquered by the Moors in 715. Finally, Charlemagne reconquered it in 785 and made it one of the fourteen original counties of Catalonia. It was wrested temporarily from the Moors, who recaptured it in 793. From this time until the Moors were finally driven out in 1015, the city repeatedly changed hands. It was sacked by the Moors in 827, 842, 845, 935, and 982. Wilfred the Hairy incorporated Girona into the County of Barcelona in 878.

    In the 11th century, Alfonso I of Aragon declared Girona a city. The ancient county became a duchy in 1351 when King Peter III of Aragon gave the title of Duke to his first-born son, John. In 1414, King Ferdinand I in turn gave the title of Prince of Girona to his first-born son, Alfonso. The title is currently carried by Princess Leonor of Asturias, the second since the 16th century to do so.
    Girona is quite famous for the remarkable history of the town...    Read more

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  • BronzeBarcelonaTraveler

    Girona

    January 11, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 4 °C

    The red bridge into Girona is famous and designed by the famous architect Eiffel of the Eiffel Tower and interestingly there are some similarities in the steel and bolts and design used.

  • BronzeBarcelonaTraveler

    Costa Brava

    January 11, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Today we embarked on a day tour with Pheron who was our private tour guide for an introduction to the Costa Brava (Wild Coast).
    We walked along a glorious section of coast in beautiful sunshine taking in the history of some of the old fishing villages as well as some of the beautiful homes that have been built along this section.

    Quite some years ago the government decided that the area should be declared a national park and that no more houses were allowed to be built and in some cases homes had to be divided by walking paths to allow access to the local beaches.
    The smaller fishing villas are now no longer used for fishing but rather hired out as beach shacks for the summer months.    Read more

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