PlanetOddity.com » Places

Five Places That You Should’t Miss in Prague

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:24:24 +0000

Prague, which is believed to be one of the most beautiful and picturesque city of Europe is also known as one of the most well-liked holiday destinations in the whole world. The popularity of this place has increased considerably owing to its rich culture and historical background. This captivating city is filled with spectacular medieval churches, castles, art galleries and museums. Those who want to avoid the regular tourist crowd should take a tour of the surrounding areas. This will give them a chance to the get a view of the real Prague. During spring time and fall Prague Tourism is at its peaks since this is the time when natural beauty of Prague is in full bloom. During this period the city is visited by large numbers of tourists from all across the globe.

Prague Castle

The Prague Castle considered to be the biggest medieval castle across the globe, appears as if it includes a small township within its walls.

The magnificent castle is of great historical importance since it is the place where the Holy Roman Emperors, Czech kings as well Czech Republic presidents once had their offices. The Prague Castle encloses the Golden Lane, Prague Castle Gallery, Powder Tower and Toy Museum.

Old Town Square

The Old Town Square is located in the center of the ancient town and is encircled by attractive baroque, rococo Gothic architectural marvel.

The square is one of the liveliest places in the whole city, flooded with locals and international tourists. The town square offers travelers with wide array of restaurants, shops, pubs, entertainment, museums and galleries.

Powder Tower

The Powder Tower also known as Gothic Gate was built in 1475 as the main entrance to the Old Town from the Royal Court Palace, which once proudly stood there. It is among the 13 earliest fortified gateways that lead to the Old Town.

Once King Vladislav II Jagiello left Royal Court Palace and started living in the Prague Castle, the construction of the tower was stopped half way through. At present this gothic tower stands tall, all by itself reminding visitors of the glorious past.

Charles Bridge

The Charles Bridge was constructed in the year 1357 to take the place of the 12th century Judith’s Bridge. Today it is considered to be among the most well-liked sight seeing spots in the city of Prague.

The place remains lively all throughout the day and night, swarming with entertainers and vendors. It offers visitors magnificent views of the surrounding places particularly during early morning and early evening, when a lot of tourists come here to witness the breathtaking view of sunrise and sunset.

Petrin Tower

The Petrin Tower, which looks very similar to the Eiffel Tower, is nearly 60 meter in height, made of steel framework. It was constructed in the year1891 as a transmission and observation tower.

At present it is one of the key tourist attractions. On a clear day, the tower presents the tourists with a spectacular sight of the city skyline.

The Amazing Falkirk Wheel Of Scotland

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:11:22 +0000

How is it possible to transport a huge boat from one water level to another much higher one? Scotland has the answer; a gigantic wheel that lifts boats. We are talking about the famous Falkirk Wheel that is an engineering landmark for Scotland.

It opened in 2002 and is connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It has such an elegant structure which works in a way that the boat is first placed inside on one of the ring gears; then it rotates 180 degrees to lift up the boat. It has two ring gears, so there is always one empty ready to take in new boats.

It has an overall diameter of 35 metres (115 ft) and its design is inspired by a Celtic double-headed axe. It works on the Archimedes principle of displacement which means that the volume of the boat sailing into the ring will be a proportional mass of water so the final combination balances the original total volume, no wonder it’s a great landmark and something Scotland is proud of.

While we are at the landmark topic, here are a great one in Bulgaria – the Belogradchik Rocks.

Detroit – Town That Is Falling Apart

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:36:10 +0000

Detroit has become a ghostly town. Its population has really fell from 1950 till today. It used to live about 2 million people, now it lives only 700 000. No jobs and poverty has driven away families to live outside the city.

When driving through the city you will notice lots and lots of abandoned houses. Some of the houses are torn down by now, but photographer Kevin Bauman did capture a lot of them in the 90′s.

He wanted to create a record for these homes. The style of photographing is straight-on, like it’s supposed to be in a commercial catalog magazine. Here you have a selection of the most beautiful abandoned houses of Detroit.

Some are still going strong while others are really rusty and old. It’s a bit spooky I’ll admit. Other abandoned places is this French town in Cambodia.

The Crannog of Loch Tay

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:42:34 +0000

The definition of a crannog has to be “artificial island, usually built in lakes, rivers and estuarine waters”. They have been variously interpreted as free-standing wooden structures, as at Loch Tay. The word “crannog” is from Old Irish and means young tree.

They were made to protect the more wealthy families of a population. Scotland has now 400 crannogs, but Ireland still holds the record with over a thousand of them. Besides being used by wealthy families, the crannogs have also served as non residential hunting and fishing stations, and holiday homes.

Now they have reconstructed a crannog on Loch Tay in Scotland, and it’s open to visitors everyday day from Easter to October. A team of archaeologists from Edinburgh University has given us a good picture of how the people lived in crannogs, so you can learn a lot by visiting it.

Speaking of floating residents, here you have the floating island of Lake Titicaca where people actually live.

Tataouine – A Desert Town Where Skywalker Was Born

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:51:14 +0000

Have you ever wondered if Luke Skywalker’s home planet is real? Well, the planet is still fictional, but the desert place we see in the movie is real. In the movie it’s called Tatooine, but the real desert town is named Tataouine, so I guess we all know where they got their inspiration from.

In the Star Wars movies Tatooine is a desert planet with two suns, but in reality it’s a small city in Tunisia in North Africa. The sand houses soon reminds you of Mos Espa, also the home of Luke’s father Anakin Skywalker that becomes a cruel Jedi.

In real life the houses are actually “cave dwellings” of the native Berber population, designed for coolness and protection. Today it’s a major tourist and film makers attraction.

A dream place for every Star Wars fan to visit. If you’d like to see a fun part of Star Wars, take a look at Darth Vader on vacation in Hawaii.

The Hills We Wish Were Full Of Chocolate

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:18:18 +0000

The hills of Bohol province in the Philippines has nothing to do with chocolate, but still they are called the Chocolate hills. Disappointing, but true. We know you would all like to visit a chocolate heaven.

These hills got the name because during the summer times, the green grass turns into a chocolate brown color. The largest hill rises almost 400 feet, but they tend to be from 100 to 160 feet high.

Some say that the hills were named after the Hershey confection known as Chocolate Kisses, but the hills have probably been there a lot longer than the confection. There are a lot of myths connected to this place.

One beautiful story says that a giant fell in love with a mortal girl, and the day she died he couldn’t stop crying. When his tears dried the Chocolate Hills were made.

Today the hills are a major tourist attraction. It’s so popular that the national government has chosen the Chocolate Hills as one of its “flagship tourist destinations”. Speaking of beautiful but weird nature, take a look at this white and undiscovered desert in Egypt.

Storseisundet Bridge Of Norway Leads You To The Edge

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:38:13 +0000

They call it the drunk bridge or the bridge to nowhere, but it’s just the Storseisundet Bridge in Norway. It is a part of the “Atlanterhavsveien” which means Atlantic Ocean Road. A lot of tourists actually come here to see this crazy bridge, because it’s really something to see. It’s still a mystery why the bridge is built like that, but you get dizzy just by looking at it.

The Storseisundet Bridge is the longest of eight other bridges in that area, and definitely the weirdest one. It’s construction is supposed to go out horizontally, but that obviously failed. And the fun thing is that it’s different from several angles, which makes it so special.

From one angle it looks like the bridge has no end at all. If you decide to see this wonder you have to be really careful when driving over it, because it can trick you easily, and you don’t want to end up in the water, would you? But it’s better that a bridge is drunk rather than dangerous, like this one.

The Incredible Volga Delta

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:47:05 +0000

You will maybe recognize the river on these photos or maybe you’re not familiar with it. It’s the Volga Delta, the largest river delta in Europe. It drains into the Caspian Sea in Russia’s Astrakhan Oblast. During the past century Volga has grown because of level changes, but it’s still an amazing river delta. It has played a big role in Russian culture, and it still does.

When seeing the pictures you can notice how huge it is, and that is looks like a big network of little rivers, and there are round canes everywhere. As you can see there are no population or anything, maybe you’ll just spot a few fishermen here and there.

The area is so wide that most of it is desolated, just like a lot of other territories in Russia. But it is the only place in Russia where flamingos, pelicans and lotuses may be found.

The Volga Delta has been protected since the 1900s by a Russian nature preserves named “Astrakhan Nature Reserve”. Other beautiful rivers are these two that are actually meeting each other at some point and making a beautiful nature phenomenon.

Photos Via Sergey Dolya.

Concordia Research – The Loneliest Place On Earth

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:15:03 +0000

Have you ever wondered how the end of this planet looks like? Now you guys got the chance. On the Antarctic Plateau in Antarctica there is located the Concordia Research Station which operate every day every year.

The summer temperature tend to be -25C, so just imagining the winter makes you scared. You would maybe think that this research station is run by Russians, but no, the truth is that it’s partly French and partly Italian.

It mostly measures climate and atmosphere but you never know, but the air has hardly pollution so it makes it perfectly fit for research. Just imagine how it was to built this station; they had to do it during the little warmer summers.

It is about 500 kilometers away from humans and it opened in 2005. And when I say humans, I mean people that work on the nearest station, so the Concordia is even further away population, and you can say that it’s the most lonely place on earth.

The workers use a lot of days just to get out there from where their airplane left them 1100 kilometer away.

There are no plants of animals, except for some seabirds called “skua”. Another place that is perfect for research is on the Norwegian island Svalbard.

Via Kuriositas.

Amazing Photos Of Earth Landscapes Taken From The Space

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:47:18 +0000

How weird would it be if you could look down at the planet Earth, just look down at the planet and think: “I actually live there”. It has to be an amazing feeling for all astronauts, and the rest of us can just dream about it. Anyways, here are some amazing photos of the Earth taken by RosCosmos.

There are also some amazing photos of northern and southern lights, as well as the mountains of North America, the Himalayas and Glaciers of Patagonia. You can see the stunning peaks and the beautiful clouds that are covering parts of the landscape. It looks very surreal in a way, and it just makes you wish you were an astronaut. There is actually a whole procedure for taking photos from space if it’s done by the astronauts. They have special cameras, and they need to have real skills to capture beautiful astronomic photos.

It’s from photos like this that you get aware of how the planet Earth is so lovely, and its nature and landscape is just incredible. Speaking of space and astronomy; here is the largest and oldest spaceport in the world.