Amsterdam Museums
The Netherlands is affectionately known as ‘the land of museums’ and Amsterdam alone has over 42 museums displaying a vast array of history and artefacts. Visitors interested in art, sex, erotica, hash, torture, maritime transport, diamonds, religion, the holocaust, beverages, flora and fauna, theatre, archaeology, science and technology are all well catered for.
The most touching, true story and personal account is that of Anne Frank’s house located at Prinsengracht opposite 296. Anne Frank was a 14-year-old Jewish girl growing up during the Second World War. The house, now a museum open to the public, is a reminder of what happened to so many Jewish families during the holocaust. Visitors are able to walk through the house and even climb up to the secret annexe where Anne and her family hid for so long from the Nazi’s prior to their capture. During that time Anne kept a diary which a family friend later had published, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. For more information about living in Amsterdam during the years of German occupation, An Interrupted Life by Etty Hillesum is about a young Jewish woman living in Amsterdam prior to her death at Auschwitz. More information about the Jews and their history may be found at the Jewish Museum (Joods Historisch Museum) at Jonas Daniel Meijerplein 2-4.
Other more shocking but on some accounts, humorous, artefacts may be found in the Torture Museum, located near Muntplein on the left bank of the Singel canal. It is a small but confronting documentary of human cruelty displaying instruments used on prisoners throughout the medieval times for crimes we would today regard as petty.
The Tulip Museum also on Prinsengracht (112) just over the bridge from Anne Frank’s house may offer solace after appreciating such terror as that experienced by Jewish families during the holocaust and medieval prisoners. The tulip is the floral symbol of the Netherlands and the museum presents the history of the cultivation of the tulip including the tulip mania of the 17th century.
On a lighter note, the Sex Museum – Temple of Venus is located just in front of Centraal Station on the way to Dam Square consists of a rich collection of art, photography, sculptures, plates and other wares displaying the beauty of human sexuality. Once in the mood, the Erotic Museum in the heart of the Red Light district is sure to provide pleasure if not a good laugh. It displays a series of John Lennon’s lithographs, erotic photography, and an adult version of ‘Snow White and Seven Dwarfs’ is projected in a separate room. There is even a vending machine holding the most unusual condoms for sale for those who wish to purchase in public!
The Hash, Hemp and Marijuana Museum at Oudezijgs Achterburgwal 148, presents convincing displays about the various constructive uses of hemp such as fuel, clothes and paper. According to the museum, one hectare of cannabis plants can make the same amount of paper as four hectares of forest. The hemp seed also produces oil which is good for many things including human health. Once upon a time it was illegal not to grow a plant of cannabis for the government and it is only due to international pressure that it is officially illegal in Amsterdam.
If the controversy proves too much or information overflow builds up a thirst, the Vodka Museum at Damrack 33 in front of Centraal Station features the history of Russian Vodka. There is an amazing collection of old vodka bottles in timeline order in addition to a wide selection of vodka from all around the world for sale in shots on the spot at the elegant Museum bar.
A bigger thirst may send visitors to the Heineken Brewery further out at 78 Stadhouderskade. Brewery tours are held each weekday in the morning for a donation which is given to several different charities. Amsterdam’s brewery was Heineken’s first, opened in 1864, and the tour guides visitors through the whole brewery process including the old brewing facilities and a beer museum. Cold beers are served in a large drinking hall overlooking the city at the end of the tour.
After a short break in the many coffee shops all over Amsterdam, art lovers should never miss the opportunity to view Vincent Van Gogh’s Museum at Paulus Potterstraat 7, which is home to the world’s largest collection of the most important Dutch artist of the 19th century in chronological order. Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art is close by on Paulus Potterstraat 13. Other art museums include Rembrandthuis Museum on Jodenbreestraat 4-6 and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s largest at Stadhouderskade 42.
These are just some of Amsterdam’s museums but of all, the Amsterdam Historisch Museum at 92 Kalverstraat is the best designed. The former orphanage exhibits 700 years of the city’s history with a focus around the Golden Age of Amsterdam in the 17th century. It was during this time that the city flourished as the richest city in the world. Some of the exhibits even included actual traded goods which contributed to its success of the time.
Berlin Travel
Whether traveling by cruise, bus, bike or foot, Berlin, Germany’s largest city, has a multitude of guided tours to satisfy any traveler. From the Berlin Wall to Checkpoint Charlie, guided tours provide travelers the means to see the highlights of the city while providing captivating historical accounts.
Travel by bike for a four-hour tour of the Berlin Wall, Hitler’s Bunker, the Brandenburg Gate, and other exciting destinations, including a rest in one of Berlin’s most popular beer gardens. If biking isn’t your travel choice, perhaps a bus tour could showcase all this city has to offer. Transform from tourist to travel guide and choose one of the fifteen different landmarks at which to disembark from the bus and explore at your leisure, or remain on the bus for the full two-hour tour of the city. For a more personalized tour, travel by foot to feel the full impact of the history contained in this beautiful city. Each walking tour can be customized to meet the needs of the tourist, ranging from pub crawls to the historic Berlin walk. Choose from a variety of museums including the Altes, the Pergamon, and the Deutsch Guggenheim. After a long day of walking around the city, relax on a three-hour river cruise under the stars. See the city illuminated at night while enjoying a glass of your favorite German beverage.
Continue relaxing at one of the many hotels of Berlin. Stay at the Grand Hotel Esplanade, a five-star hotel located within a short walk of the Tiergarten Park, the Victory Column, and the Schloss Bellevue Palace. The Swissotel Berlin, another five-star accommodation, sits in the heart of the famed shopping district of the city. The underground car park can accommodate up to 150 cars, ideal for those tourists with rental cars. Enjoy the luxury of The Ritz-Carlton, Berlin, located adjacent to the Sony Center, with check-in 24-hours a day and most attractions within walking distance.
If five-star lodgings would break the budget, perhaps a three-star hotel would fit the bill. Express by Holiday Inn Berlin City Centre is located just a short distance from Potsdamer Platz Square. From Mark Hotel Meineke take a mere 6 minutes to walk to the Kurfürstendamm, Berlin’s famous shopping area, and only 10 minutes to the Zoologischer Garten train station and zoo. Utilizing the city rails, easily navigate to any destination quickly and effortlessly.
Choose a hotel near one of the many top destinations, such as Alexanderplatz, Potsdamer Platz, or Kurfürstendamm. Park Inn Berlin-Alexanderplatz offers a wonderful view of the city from the 39th floor, and is directly in the center of the historic center of Berlin. The Mandala Hotel is located strategically near the new central train station at Potsdamer Platz, and within walking distance of numerous attractions such as the Holocaust Memorial, the Philharmonie, and the Berlin Cathedral. Across from the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church sits Hotel Boulevard Berlin, with a rooftop garden and public transport links at the doorstep. This hotel is conveniently located in the Kurfürstendamm shopping district, and conveniently near the Tegel Airport.
Regardless of the type of tour or accommodations, Berlin is a spectacular destination that should be at the top of anyone’s travel list. Whether business or pleasure, Berlin has the resources to satisfy the needs of each and every visitor.
What do you like to do after your flight to Australia ?
After getting off their flight to Australia, older holidaymakers particularly enjoy getting involved in cultural activities, it has been suggested.
This is according to a new study by Saga Holidays which indicates that people over the age of 50 would rather spend time learning about new cultures than lie on a beach to get a tan.
Some 32 per cent of respondents say they look forward to experiencing new ways of life when going on holiday, while seven per cent are keen to meet new people.
Commenting on the findings, Andrew Goodsell, executive chairman of the Saga Group – which recently found that Minis are particularly popular cars with older people – said that many older tourists are “great adventurers” who enjoy gaining an insight into their holiday destinations.
“It’s no surprise to us that they seek adventure and new cultures. Good food, good company and active sightseeing around the world are great contributors to that healthy and uplifting feeling that is more important than just catching the rays,” he added.
The Myth of Africa’s Economic Miracle
Africa is doing better than ever economically, but many regular people remain desperately poor. Kofi Annan on how Africans are being excluded from their continent’s economic miracle—and how to end the crisis.
People wait outside the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office to seek permission to move to a different camp on August 21, 2009 in Dadaab, Kenya
This is an important year for Africa. The World Cup is putting the continent at the center of global attention. With Africa’s strengths and frailties under greater international scrutiny than ever before, what will the story be?
After major difficulties in the wake of the global financial crisis, African economies are recovering and proving their resilience, in contrast to gloominess elsewhere in the world. The African Development Bank and IMF foresee GDP growth rates of around 5 percent by the end of the year.
Africa’s progress should be measured not just in GDP but by the benefits that economic growth brings to all of Africa’s people.
Trade is growing too, both within Africa and with partners, including the global South. Africa-China trade has multiplied more than tenfold in the last decade. Barely a week goes by without reports of the discovery of more oil, gas, precious minerals, and other resources on the continent.
Climate change is drawing attention to the vast potential of its renewable energy supplies, including hydro, thermal, wind, and solar power. Business activity is increasing.
In short, Africa’s stock is rising, as highlighted by the Africa Progress Report 2010 released today, Africa Day. But the report also asks some difficult questions.
Given our continent’s wealth, why are so many people still trapped in poverty?
Why is progress on the Millennium Development Goals so slow and uneven? Why are so many women marginalized and disenfranchised? Why is inequality increasing? And why so much violence and insecurity?
The good news is that access to basic services such as energy, clean water, healthcare, and education has improved in many parts of the continent. But these basics are still denied to hundreds of millions of women, men, and children. Why?
In trying to provide the answers to these difficult questions, one must be wary of generalizations. Africa is not homogenous; it is raucously diverse. But its nations are linked by common challenges hampering human development and equitable growth: weak governance and insufficient investment in public goods and services, including infrastructure, affordable energy, health, education, and agricultural productivity.
Over the last decade, we have learned a great deal about what is needed. Ingredients include determined political leadership to set and drive plans for equitable growth and poverty reduction. Technical, management, and institutional capacity are vital if policies are to be implemented. Good governance, the rule of law, and systems of accountability are essential to ensure that resources are subject to public scrutiny and used effectively and efficiently.
So what is holding back progress? Lack of knowledge and a shortage of plans are not the problem. Good, even visionary agendas have been formulated by African leaders and policy makers in every field, from regional integration to women’s empowerment. Moreover, we have myriad examples of programs and projects that are making a tangible positive difference in peoples’ lives, across every field.
Given the continent’s vast natural and human resources and the ongoing, often illicit, outflow of wealth, lack of funds is not the barrier either, even though more are needed.
It is political will that is the issue, both internationally and in Africa itself.
Internationally, there are concerns that the consensus around development has been eroded by the financial crisis. Many rich countries are keeping their promises on development assistance, but others are falling badly behind. These shortfalls do not result from any decrease in human solidarity and sympathy. Nor, given the relatively modest sums involved, can they be blamed on budgetary constraints alone.
They stem more from the failure to communicate the importance of putting the needs of the least-developed countries at the heart of global policies.
Efforts must be stepped up to explain why fairer trade policies and stemming corruption are not just ethical or altruistic, but practical and in the self-interest of richer countries.
Africa’s leaders have prime responsibility for driving equitable growth and for making the investment needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. They can help by making the case more strongly for development policies and necessary resources.
The continent now has leaders who stand out as champions of development. We need more of them. Sadly, though, their efforts are overshadowed in the international media by the authoritarian and self-enriching behaviour of other leaders. Africa’s progress should be measured not just in GDP but by the benefits that economic growth brings to all of Africa’s people.
Africa is a new economic frontier. The approach and actions of the private sector, and of Africa’s traditional and new international partners, are crucial in helping overcome the continent’s challenges. There is a real opportunity to strengthen the new partnerships to help achieve development goals, with countries such as China and those in the Middle East, South Asia, and Latin America
African leaders need to have more confidence in their bargaining position, and greater legal and negotiating capacities to ensure that they secure deals that bring benefits to their people. Their partners, including those in the private sector and from the global South, should be held to high standards of transparency and integrity.
Political leadership, practical capacities and strong accountability will be the winning elements for Africa. The international community can play a decisive role in ensuring that the continent is playing on a level field. But Africa’s destiny is, first and foremost, in its own hands.
by Kofi Annan
5 Great Summer Literary Festivals
Looking for a smart, bookish destination this summer? Build a trip around these five great literary festivals, from Mexico to Prague to Brooklyn.
When President Bill Clinton called the Hay Literary Festival the “Woodstock of the Mind” in 2001, he was on to something. These days, literary festivals have so eclipsed their rock equivalents as places to hear the big names, to see and be seen, to pitch tents and to eat hamburgers (albeit organic ones), that it’s hard to remember what all that fuss over music was about. Authors are the new artists.
The summer season starts this weekend with two very different kinds of celebration. The Guardian Hay Festival, held in the otherwise sedate village of Hay-on-Wye in Wales, is a 10-day hubbub of discussions and readings, featuring big names and big ideas: Martin Evans and John Sulston on the human genome; Ian McEwan on climate change; Nick Clegg—giving his first public presentation since becoming U.K. Deputy Prime Minister—on the Rule of Law. Meanwhile, the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica, now in its 10th year, offers a more intimate gathering—three days of presentations by a small but select crew of authors, including Colson Whitehead, Russell Banks and Sudeep Sen. Where Hay is an industry unto itself, Calabash has struggled to raise funding. Where the Hay website induces mild panic (think of a schedule akin to SXSW), its Jamaican counterpart features one single list of events, gently spaced out over three days, and a picture of the director having a snooze on a sofa.
Whatever kind of groupie you are, it isn’t too late to join the party—as our list of the top five literary festivals this summer will testify. But before you book, remember: If you’re looking for somewhere to actually read, you’d be more likely to find a quiet corner in Woodstock.
Africa – China ( Cultural Revolution ) part 1
The railroad—known as the Tazara line—was built by China in the early 1970s, at a cost of nearly $500 million, an extraordinary expenditure in the thick of the Cultural Revolution, and a symbol of Beijing’s determination to hold its own with Washington and Moscow in an era when Cold War competition over Africa raged fierce. At the time of its construction, it was the third-largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in Africa, after the Aswan Dam in Egypt and the Volta Dam in Ghana.
Today the Tazara is a talisman of faded hopes and failed economic schemes, an old and unreliable railway with too few working locomotives. Only briefly a thriving commercial artery, it has been diminished by its own decay and by the roads and air routes that have sprung up around it. Maintenance costs have saddled Tanzania and Zambia with debts reportedly as high as $700 million in total, and the line now has only about 300 of the 2,000 wagons it needs to function normally, according to Zambian news reports.
Yet the railway traces a path through a region where hopes have risen again, rekindled by a new sort of development also driven by China—and on an unprecedented scale. All across the continent, Chinese companies are signing deals that dwarf the old railroad project. The most heavily reported involve oil production; since the turn of the millennium, Chinese companies have muscled in on lucrative oil markets in places like Angola, Nigeria, Algeria, and Sudan. But oil is neither the largest nor the fastest-growing part of the story. Chinese firms are striking giant mining deals in places like Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and building what is being touted as the world’s largest iron mine in Gabon. They are prospecting for land on which to build huge agribusinesses. And to get these minerals and crops to market, they are building major new ports and thousands of miles of highway.
In most of Africa’s capital cities and commercial centers, it’s hard to miss China’s new presence and influence. In Dar, one morning before my train trip, I made my way to the roof of my hotel for a bird’s-eye view of the city below. A British construction foreman, there to oversee the hotel’s expansion, pointed out the V-shaped port that the British navy had seized after a brief battle with the Germans early in the First World War. From there, the British-built portion of the city extended primly inland, along a handful of long avenues. For the most part, downtown Dar was built long ago, and its low-slung concrete buildings, long exposed to the moisture of the tropics, have taken on a musty shade of gray.
“Do you see all the tall buildings coming up over there?” the foreman asked, a hint of envy in his voice as his arm described an arc along the waterfront that shimmered in the distance. “That’s the new Dar es Salaam, and most of it is Chinese-built.”
I counted nearly a dozen large cranes looming over construction sites along the beachfront Msasani Peninsula, a sprawl of resorts and restaurants catering mostly to Western tourists. Near them, sheltered coyly behind high walls, lie upscale brothels worked by Chinese prostitutes. In the foreground, to the northwest, sits Kariakoo, a crowded slum where Chinese merchants flog refrigerators, air conditioners, mobile phones, and other cheap gadgets from narrow storefronts. To the south lies Tanzania’s new, state-of-the-art, 60,000-seat national sports stadium, funded by China and opened in February 2009 by President Hu Jintao.
“Statistics are hard to come by, but China is probably the biggest single investor in Africa,” said Martyn Davies, the director of the China Africa Network at the University of Pretoria. “They are the biggest builders of infrastructure. They are the biggest lenders to Africa, and China-Africa trade has just pushed past $100 billion annually.”
Davies calls the Chinese boom “a phenomenal success story for Africa,” and sees it continuing indefinitely. “Africa is the source of at least one-third of the world’s commodities”—commodities China will need, as its manufacturing economy continues to grow—“and once you’ve understood that, you understand China’s determination to build roads, ports, and railroads all over Africa.”
Davies is not alone in his enthusiasm. “No country has made as big an impact on the political, economic and social fabric of Africa as China has since the turn of the millennium,” writes Dambisa Moyo, a London-based economist, in her influential book, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa. Moyo, a 40-year-old Zambian who has worked as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and as a consultant for the World Bank, believes that foreign aid is a curse that has crippled and corrupted Africa—and that China offers a way out of the mess the West has made.
“Between 1970 and 1998,” she writes, “when aid flows to Africa were at their peak, poverty in Africa rose from 11 percent to a staggering 66 percent.” Subsidized lending, she says, encourages African governments to make sloppy, wasteful decisions. It breeds corruption, by allowing politicians to siphon off poorly monitored funds. And it forestalls national development, which she says begins with the building of a taxation system and the attraction of foreign commercial capital. In Moyo’s view, even the West’s “obsession with democracy” has been harmful. In poor countries, she writes, “democratic regimes find it difficult to push through economically beneficial legislation amid rival parties and jockeying interests.” Sustainable democracy, she feels, is possible only after a strong middle class has emerged.
In its recent approach to Africa, China could not be more different from the West. It has focused on trade and commercially justified investment, rather than aid grants and heavily subsidized loans. It has declined to tell African governments how they should run their countries, or to make its investments contingent on government reform. And it has moved quickly and decisively, especially in comparison to many Western aid establishments. Moyo’s attitude toward the boom in Chinese business in Africa is amply revealed by the name of a chapter in her book: “The Chinese Are Our Friends.” Perhaps what Africa needs, she notes, is a reliable commercial partner, not a high-minded scold. And perhaps Africa should take its lessons from a country that has recently pulled itself out of poverty, not countries that have been rich for generations.
“I would say this is a transformational moment for Africa,” Moyo told me from London last spring. “I see the explosive development of infrastructure. I see people producing more food and having more jobs … And besides, I don’t see how otherwise you are going to get a civil society, except by building up a middle class.”
Even taking the recent global downturn into account, this has been a hopeful time for a historically downtrodden continent. Per capita income for sub-Saharan Africa nearly doubled between 1997 and 2008, driven up by a long boom in commodities, by a decrease in the prevalence of war, and by steady improvements in governance. And while the downturn has brought commodity prices low for the time being, there is a growing sense that the world’s poorest continent has become a likely stage for globalization’s next act. To many, China—cash-rich, resource-hungry, and unfickle in its ardor—now seems the most likely agent for this change.
But of course, Africa has had hopeful moments before, notably in the early 1960s, at the start of the independence era, when many governments opted for large, state-owned economic schemes that quickly foundered, and again in the 1970s, another era of booming commodity prices, when rampant corruption, heavy debt, and armed conflict doomed any hopes of economic takeoff.
China’s burgeoning partnership with Africa raises several momentous questions: Is a hands-off approach to governmental affairs the right one? Can Chinese money and ambition succeed where Western engagement has manifestly failed? Or will China become the latest in a series of colonial and neocolonial powers in Africa, destined like the others to leave its own legacy of bitterness and disappointment? I was heading south on the Tazara—through the past and into the future, to the sites of some of China’s most ambitious efforts on the continent—to try to get some early sense of how the whole grand project was proceeding.
Travel Switzerland
With a population of around 7.5 million Switzerland is a small country surrounded by Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Italy, and France. It is small, mountainous and wealthy that evokes the images of chocolates, cheese, watches, bankers, and snow-capped mountains, Flower-covered meadows and bell-ringing cows. There are many beautiful and fascinating places around the world, but very few are as picturesque and awe-inspiring as Switzerland. It’s one of those places that not only lives up to its image, but exceeds it. It’s a very tourist friendly place with great people, good food and rich history.travel Switzerland with airline tickets that suits you the best as you will not get the chance to visit this gorgeous place every day. So book your airline tickets to Switzerland now and grab this once in a life time opportunity.
The simple and easiest way to experience Switzerland is through airline tickets. Choose any competent travel website and get your airline tickets at most affordable prices. Switzerland is a delight for hikers, train buffs and chocolate freaks, and is a stunning destination for travelers of all stripes. It gives a numerous scope for outdoor activities like Hiking, mountaineering and ski mountaineering, paragliding and hang-gliding, water-skiing, sailing, windsurfing, rafting, and canoeing. As an elegant tourist destination it offers such top ski resorts such as Zermatt, Verbier and celebrity-studded St Moritz, while the white peaks of mountains set against blue skies make a wonderful backdrop for summertime hiking. The famous Alps and the Jura slopes are great places for skiing.
If you plan to travel Switzerland for a week, here’s a good introductory schedule for you. It involves a lot of travel, but hits most of Switzerland’s highlights:
Day 1 – Zermatt
Day 2 – extra day in Zermatt
Day 3 – Murren or Wengen
Day 4 – extra day in Murren or Wengen
Day 5 – Lucerne or Luzern
Day 6 – Lugano
Day 7 – Zurich
With easy access to airline tickets to Switzerland & lowest international airfares options available, flying to Switzerland is now as easy business as eating a piece of cake. Airline tickets have made your dream of holidaying in this country a reality. Enjoy your trip to Switzerland by booking cheap airline and get heavy discount on your international flights .you don’t have to spend extra money on your international air line tickets like before as we bring you the newest offers on airline tickets for almost all the major cities in the world.
All the major airlines provide you in and out airline tickets to Switzerland. You may compare and consider the airline that you find the best. However it is smart to look and shop around different airlines to get the lowest possible rates on the tickets. Or you can take the help from travel consolidators which will give the best deals on airline tickets to whichever place that your heart desires.
Switzerland is not only a place for professionals’ hikers or skiers. The very old capital of Berne provides excellent opportunities for sightseeing, shopping and traditional folk entertainment while the largest city, Zürich opens the gate for arts, design and nightlife, from opera and world-class theatre to stylish bars and nightclubs. As Switzerland is bordered with four other exciting places, you might get airline tickets for these places on good discounts if you plan to book your tickets along with Switzerland.
Turkey Ephesus – The Caves Of The 7 Sleepers, The Statue, The House And The Fountain Of Saint Mary
The caves of the 7 sleepers is the place where seven Christian young men hid themselves with their dog when they were fleeing the wrath and punishment of the idolaters. Later, they were found and murdered during the reign of Decius, the Roman emperor, in the middle of the 3rd century. It is said that they were resurrected after 200 years during the reign of Emperor Theodosius II in the 5th century. After that resurrection, many of those who believed in Christ wished to be buried in this place and they were, so that a large graveyard was formed with about a thousand graves, tombs and monasteries. Up to the 6th century it was enlarged continually and became a place of pilgrimage. This continued up to the 12th century. After that century it fell into ruins. The graves are on the slope of Panayir mountain facing Selcuk. The legend told above does not only exist in Christianity, but is also known as “Eshab Ul-Kehf” in the Muslim world.
You can climb up Panaya-Kapulu by a smooth but winding asphalt road, 9 km. in length, from Ephesus. After climbing up the hill 450 m. high above sea-level, you come down again a hundred metres over a slope, until you arrive at a peaceful place, where there are some inhabitants, and buildings that create an air of holiness. To the left side, when you pass through the olive trees, the first significant thing to be seen is the statue of St. Mary on the wall under the trees, which welcomes you with raised arms. Hundreds of people regarded as pilgrims, pass before this statue with reverence on every day of the year, especially at Easter. You can come here on foot from the shore.
The view of St. Mary’s House after restoration is wonderful. The house was discovered through the explorations of Pere Poulin and Young in the year 1892, and formerly its site was predicted by the Bavarian sage, Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), two years before her death. When the house was discovered, the roof was broken down and only the ruins of the walls were left standing. It is said that those were the ruins of a church dedicated to St. Mary in the 9th century.
St. Mary lived her last days drinking the healing water of a fountain (30-35 A.D.). There are so many miracles worked by this water and by the ash in the fireplace of St. Mary’s House, that there is hardly anybody who has not witnessed them; people with cancer, whom doctors said were incurable, cripples brought on a stretcher, and children with disabled bones from birth, have all been cured here.
Figures on Spain’s Tourist Economy
According to the United States Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, in 2005 to 2006, there were about 995,000 travels by US tourists to Spain. Further more, data presented by the National Statistics office of the United Kingdom state that Spain is among the most favorite European places to visit by UK residents. In 2005 alone, there were an estimated 13.8 million UK residents who traveled to Spain for their vacation. It was also detected by analysts that the revenue of Spain from online travel bookings by foreign visitors is showing significant increases over the past years. More and more hotels are now being built in Spain to accommodate the every-growing tourism industry of the country.
The World Tourism Organization (WTO) has its headquarters in the Spanish capital of Madrid. In a WTO report in 2007, there are about 60 million international visitors to Spain every year. Second to France, Spain is known as one of the most favorite world destinations. According to Euromonitor International, not only are UK residents fond of visiting Spain, but also German and French tourists as well, with numbers increasing every year.
As you can see, there are many reasons why Spain should be in your itinerary when you take a holiday with your family. Find out more about the sights and attractions in Spain, and check out the accommodations available.
Paragrapher Free Article 