Chris & Rose's Excellent Adventures.

Holiday time again, but we only have a few weeks free now that we have family at home, plus all the chaos going on since September the 11th we felt we needed a close, safe & short stint to Australia to keep the travel bug satiated. We chose two weeks spread over the three cities; Adelaide, Sydney & Melbourne... for a bit of shopping, a bit of relaxation & the sacramental Business Class meals with Laptop DVD's & games flights which we love.

From Adelaide we flew to Melbourne, Victoria. Now this was what we expected in a city, beautiful parks & gardens, grand buildings & plenty of mighty fine restaurants. Here we have Parliament House, note the beautiful lamps in front of the building.

Trafalgar Sq. London

This £50 million building is built of Portland stones. The external facade occupies 25% of the square providing a spectacular lighting background. There is a bamboo garden containing 'grow lamps' in the atrium. The lift, lobbies and general lighting was achieved using compact fluorescent 24w lamps enabling energy saving without causing visual disruption with excessive light fittings for such a vast building.

Hyatt Regency Mccormick Place

The Hyatt Regency McCormick Place is located in the downtown Chicago area. The hotel is located within The McCormick Place Convention Center, connected by the enclosed 'Grand Concourse' pedestrian walkway to all three exposition buildings. The Hyatt is also convenient to Soldier Field, The Shedd Aquarium, Grant Park and other downtown attractions. The Hyatt has an indoor, heated swimming pool and a full service fitness center. A bar and restaurant is on the premises for the guests' convenience. The Hyatt's oversized guest rooms are designed to accommodate today's modern business traveler and well appointed with workstations and high speed Internet connections. These attractive rooms are decorated with modern colors and materials that create a relaxing, residential feel. Video messaging, checkout and account review is available on the guest room television. Room service is available 24 hours. This hotel offers full concierge services and a business center.The Hyatt Regency McCormick is only minutes to many fine dining, shopping and entertainment venues. .

Kunming Hotels

Kunming is the center of whole Yunnan Province, the condition of stopping for the night is very mature, there are various star class guest houses and the hotels, visitors can choose various cabarets depending on the different consumption need. Most of the service levels of upscale guest houses and cabarets and prestiges all are better; a lot of upscale guest houses take top-grade management level and the forerunner's service facilities to provide diversified perfect superior quality service for the visitors to win the visitors' great pries. Regardless you like the Chinese food, a western meal or buffeters, you are all satisfy here. The facilities in the cabaret like KTV, disco, bar, mulberry that take a bath, multi-function conventional center, business center of etc. can let you feel the sweet and comfort every moment. The attendants of the guest houses and cabarets also are all through strict training, will let you like felling spring breeze, feel at home here. Increase the sentimental in the process of your tour. And although the generally small guest houses, small hotels are not luxurious also clean, neat and comfortable. The transportation of each kind of guest house or hotel surroundings is also more convenient, you may choose to stay the place satisfied according to your demand.

An Introduction To Visiting Brussels

Tagged as the capital of Europe ...
A city of stylish architecture, colorful culture and exceptional chocolate, Brussels boasts a number of attractions to lure the most fussy of travellers. From first-class dining, character architecture to a lively nightlife and it’s many landmarks, there’s something to suit everyone who visits Brussels.

Look around the streets of Brussels and you’ll see people from a wide array of backgrounds and culture – a testimony to the cosmopolitan feature of the city. Aside from the numerous ex - pats posted here from around the world, Brussels also plays host to immigrants from Turkey, Greece and North Africa.

The presiding language in Brussels is French, but Flemish is also spoken in distinct pockets of the city as is a unique mix of the two languages called Marollien or Brusselse Sproek.

ou can’t help but be inspired by the extensive assortment of food options open to the Brussels visitor. The national dish is “moules et frites” and is definately worth sampling,what's more, the city further offers an awe-inspiring choice of ethnic foods including Turkish, Chinese, Moroccan, Vietnamese, Tunisian, Italian and more.
It's the very heart of Brussels and should serve as the first port of call for the newly arrived visitor. Countless reckon on it to be among the leading town squares to be found anywhere in the world. Brussels is the EU capital ... and as such, is the location of an evolving number of European Union buildings.

Brussels is the EU capital ...
and as such is the location of an increasing number of European Union buildings.

Brussels gave birth to the “art nouveau”...
This architectural movement of the late 1890’s was to stretch to various different countries who embraced the bold new concoction of materials such as stone, iron and captivating tiles. Some examples of well-known landmarks you can visit that are a testimony to the movement are the Hotels Metropole & Solvay, Musee horta and Maison Saint Cyr. The Art Nouveau movement was spearheaded by Belgian architects Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde.

Hradcany Square

This is where you should start your tour of the castle, but before you do so, you should check out some of the grand buildings fronting or close to the square.

The imposing Archbishop's Palace dates back to the mid-15th century, although Bonific Wohlmut's original Renaissance design was later remodeled at the behest of Antonín Bruse of Mohelnice in 1763. Boasting a splendid rococo façade, the palace's interior is equally impressive - a fine set of sumptuous Gobelin tapestries adorn several rooms, with decorative 18th-century furnishings set amidst a large collection of ecclesiastical portraits. Unfortunately, the Archbishop's Palace is not open to the public, but if you look carefully at the heraldic device on the front of the building you can spot different hats according to the rank of the church official. For instance, the archbishop is represented by a green hat with ten tassels, and the bishops are those with green hats and five tassels.

Sharing an entrance with the Archbishop's Palace is the Šternberský palác (Sternberg Palace) from 1698. Named after Franc Josef Sternberg, who founded the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts in Bohemia in 1796, this is now the main building of the National Gallery and home to the collection of European art, including Rubens Holbein, Bruegel, Rubens, van Dyck, El Greco, Goya, Gaugin, van Gogh, Picasso, Braque, and Rembrandt. In 1991 thieves stole US$2.6 million worth of Picassos. Admission is 50/20Kč. Works by Czech artists are housed in St George's Convent.

The most distinctive and largest of the buildings on the cobbled square sweeping into the castle is the Schwarzenberg Palace with its decorated bricks. Built between 1545 -1563, originally for the Lobkowicz family, it passed through several hands before the Schwarzenbergs acquired it in 1719. The building has been home to the Museum of Military History since 1945.

REAL ESTATE at "THE GOTHAM"

The Gotham is an architectural presence reminiscent of the Grand Buildings of New York City in the 1920's, although it has all the amenities and advantages of new construction in the 1990's. The Gotham is situated in one of Manhattan's most desirable Upper East Side location. A true neighborhood life surrounds the Gotham. Everything's within walking distance. Central Park is very accessible and convenient, you are close to shops, cinemas, restaurants and a wide variety of transportation options. A large number of the city's finest schools are nearby.

The Gothams builders and developers have received industry plaudits and worldwide acclaim for their distinguished series of additions to the Manhattan residential scene. Their credits include such celebrated accomplishments as Zeckendorf Towers, 515 Park Avenue, Worldwide Plaza, Central Park Place, Park Belvedere, The Copley, The Belaire and The Alexandria. The Gotham is a fitting addition to this much lauded series of New York City Architectural success stories.

When you enter The Gotham the first thing you will see is a magnificent marble entranceway that leads you to a gracious mahogany paneled.

double-height lobby that's topped by a dramatic domed ceiling. Rich furnishings add to the aura of elegance and quality. A doorman and concierge are on hand to attend to your comings and goings and to meet and direct all visitors. There are also such important extras as optional valet and housekeeping services available.

The rich details of the Condominiums include American pecan-wood floors hand laid in a herringbone pattern, granite floor kitchens with state of the art equipment, marbled bathrooms and large sliding windows that emphasize light and views.

The Gotham has a private health club with the finest state-of-the-art equipment, including an 82 foot swimming pool. There is also a 4000 square foot landscaped terrace that invites you to take a mini vacation whenever you feel like it. There is a spacious child's playroom and an expansive and elegant party room with superb facilities for your own special occasion use

Hotel Grand Chancellor Adelaide

quick overview

class: ****
hotel address: 18 Currie Street, 5000 Adelaide
geographical location: 34° 55' 27" South, 138° 35' 55" East
region: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
number of rooms: 64

hotel description

The Hotel Grand Chancellor Adelaide is a beautiful building at the time neo-Georgian renovated near Rundle Street, just steps from the central business district.

Grand Place

ounds like Grand Palace, but it is the name of the square (previously market place) in the heart of the city. It is surrounded by historical buildings (guild houses, the city's Town Hall and the Bread House). City's Town Hall was built in Gothic style, but other guild houses around the square are in Baroque style. Especially this square could be the highlight of the Brussels for its beautiful buildings and medieval look.

The Grand Concourse -- The Champs Elysee of the Bronx

The Grand Concourse was constructed to be the premier thoroughfare in the Bronx. According to Lloyd Ultan, Bronx Historian, it was designed and constructed in the late 1800's to provide access from the densely populated sections of New York in Manhattan to the parkland in the northern Bronx. The 1967 "AIA Guide to New York City" (American Institute of Architects, MacMillan, 1967) describes its history in the following way:

The Grand Concourse, one of the grand boulevards of New York, was designed in 1892 by Louis Risse as the "Speedway Concourse," to provide access from Manhattan to the large parks of the Bronx. The original design provided separate paths for horse-drawn vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians, and for grade separation through bridges at all major intersections.

The Concourse soon began to become lined with fashionable apartment buildings designed to accomodate members of the middle class who were leaving the crowded tenements in Manhattan on the way up the ladder of material success. The "New York City Guide" (Works Progress Administration, Random House, 1939) says

The Grand Boulevard and Concourse (commonly called the Grand Concourse) runs about four and a half miles through the center of the West Bronx from Mott Avenue and 138th Street northe to Mosholu Parkway near Van Cortlande Park. The Grand Concourse is the Park Avenue of middle-class Bronx residents, and a lease to an apartment in one of its many large buildings is considered evidence fo at least moderate business success. The thoroughfare, 180 feet wide, is the principal parade street of the borough, as well as a through motor route. Along the center the American Legion has planted maple trees in memory of Bronx men who died in the World War.

Of the maple trees, no evidence remains today. The Concourse, like much of the rest of the Bronx, experienced decay and decline during the 1970s and the 1980s. However, the decline of the neighborhood may have had one salutary effect: almost no buildings were razed to make way for "progress". (Contrast the Grand Concourse to Park Avenue north of Grand Central, which is a ghetto of glass and steel boxes which might as well be located along the freeway in any American city!) Therefore, the Concourse remains lined with many signature Art Deco apartment buildings.

Today, accompanying the fledgling revitalization of the Bronx is a growing awareness that the Grand Concourse is an architectural treasure, and could someday fulfill its original vision: a boulevard of grand apartment buildings lining a tree-lined park.

Because I enjoy exploring cities, and am always interested in discovering lost and forgotten beauty, this spring I took a car-load of friends through the Bronx for a photo trip of the Grand Concourse: the Champs-Elysees of the Bronx.

We started at the top of the Concourse near the Mosholu Parkway IRT station, and slowly traveled southward looking for cool Art Deco buildings. At 206th street, we took a detour east because we saw the lefthand building on a sidestreet. As I was positioning the camera to take the photo, a man walked out of the building and noticed me taking pictures. "It's a shithole!", he shouted to me from across the street. "No, it's beautiful!", I replied, whereupon he shook his head in disagreement and walked away.

The building on the right is not an Art Deco style building. Instead, the style is referred to as "Moorish Style", since it incorporates decorations and adornments designed to evoke the spirit of Moorish architecture in Spain. This building style is also very common in New York, as well as in Westchester County.

The building on the left is near the corner of Concourse and 197th. The horizontal stripes on the window lines and vertical bands are distinctly Deco, as are the castle-like crenelations along the roofline of the building. Pictured on the right is a smaller building on the corner of Concourse and 182nd. Like the building on the left, it has strong vertical lines formed by brickwork, as well as a castle-like roofline.

The vertical lines on the lefthand building break horizontally below the roofline. There is also interesting detailing around the front window area. Notice the windows set into the building's corners. Corner windows are a innovation of the Art Deco period.

The front facade on the right-hand building is staggered to conform to the curvature of the street -- also an Art Deco innovation. The windows are again set into corners.