Washington in flowers

More than one million visitors will go to Washington to admire the cherry trees in flowers.
For Jake Kwon, spring starts when the cherry trees are in flowers and that they embellish the reflections of Tidal Basin of their splendid pink and white petals.

However, Kwon thinks of fleeing the cherry trees this year. The stoppers of circulation, mud and the tourists in search of a perfect photograph aggravate it.

“It seems that it does not matter where one goes, there is crowd”, said Kwon, a resident of McLean, in Virginia, which works as consultant.

A festival feeric and very run
More than one million tourists are awaited the National Cherry Blossom Festival which takes place in Washington during 16 days and which finishes on April 13. But those which, like Kwon, prefer calms it, do not have anything to fear. They can avoid crowd the morning, thanks to a small course of jogging under the cherry trees, at the end of the evening or benefitting from an escapade on the Potomac river.

Since 1935, the festival is the tourist event par excellence of Washington. Diana Mayhew, director general of the festival, indicates that for better managing the multitude, it is possible that the period of visit is prolonged. In addition, the organizers incite people to go on the other side of the basin to admire the cherry trees.

To know some more:

Cherry Blossom Festival

This year, several activities underlining the gift of 3 000 cherry trees of the mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki in the United States, are organized.

The team of the national park set up an activity entitled Cherry Chit-Cat. Before the arrival of the horde of tourists, the guide Rebbecca Steketee accompanies the runners on a course by jogging by 5,5 km. The race begins with the Washington Monument, passes by Jefferson Memorial and finishes around Tidal Basin.

Throughout course, Steketee shares its knowledge in connection with the period of flowering. The first trees offered by Japan, for example, in fact arrived in 1910, says it. Unfortunately, they were filled of insects and so patients that the Service of the agriculture of the United States required that they be burned. On the other hand, certain trees survived and one can see them well in life on a golf course near.

The runners can also see single “the indicating tree” close to Jefferson Memorial. It thus is named since it flowers always approximately a week before the other cherry trees. “One does not know why it buds before the others, known as Steketee. It is a mystery.”

Cruisings and observation of night
Although the majority of the tourists are attroupés around the cherry trees during the day, it is rather remarkable to be able to admire these splendid trees with laying down sun. During eight evenings, the guides of the park accompany the tourists in excursion with the lantern around the basin.

In Japan, one calls the fact of contemplating flowering the night, will yozakura, says Nobumitsu Kamio, assistant secretary of the Japanese embassy. The tradition has festive airs while the guests hang lanterns with the trees, eat, drink saké and sing with the shelter of the trees.

The visitors can also avoid crowd while choosing one strolls in boat. The contemplation of the cherry trees since a boat is so popular that a company of Washington now offers some two hours cruisings on the river. Tea, sandwiches and scones are also been useful. The tickets are often sold a long time in advance.

“the point of view is very different, known as Doug Gerry of the company Capital Yacht Charters. One sees trees which one cannot see differently “.

Although Tidal Basin is one of the panoramic places par excellence, it is not the only place where one can see cherry trees, the organizers of the festival affirm. Hundreds of cherry trees are located on Hains Point, with the confluence of the rivers Potomac and Anacostia. One can also see lines of these trees in the Anacostia park in the south-eastern part of Washington.

Kwon envisages all the same to come to throw an eye with the cherry trees, in spite of its scorn of crowd. His wife will see the cherry trees in flower for the very first time this year and it would like to accompany there.

“If you never saw such phenomenon, it is necessary to return to you there”, says it.

Posted: April 28th, 2008 under Travel in general.
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Washington and its many monuments

Washington is much more than the political capital of the country. The establishment of Smithsonian Institution in did one of the arts centres most important of America. Its many museums and its splendid galleries will be able to allure most curious. The White House, privileged site, accomodate each year of the million visitors. Quite as popular, the National Air and Space Museum makes dream impassioned planes and spacecraft. Another characteristic specific to Washington: the number impressing of monuments and commemorative places. Immense Washington Monument, homage to the first President, dominates the line of the roofs. The memorials dedicated to the soldiers died in the combat are poignant.
Capitol Hill
Some time after the entry into force of the Constitution in 1788, the seat of the political power of the United States is established in Capitol Hill. This site was chosen, in 1791, among the ten arpents of ground yielded by the State of Maryland. Pierre the Child decided to establish Capitole, centers new city, on a hill located at the east of this ground.

In a little more than two centuries, Capitol Hill became one of the most animated centers of modern America. The signs of an intense cultural activity are omnipresent: federal buildings in the shopping centres, while passing by the shops, restaurants or residential districts with the very varied population.

It is a district attended as well by influential personalities as by ordinary citizens come to present here requests at their deputies or, quite simply, to pose with them on the steps of Capitole.

Mall
On the original levels that the Child had drawn for the capital of the United States, Mall was conceived like a grand boulevard bordered of diplomatic residences of Art schools style. Its plans never were entirely carried out, but it is a splendid spectacle which this great extent bordered on both sides by the museums of Smithsonian Institution, and finishing, at its Eastern end, by Capitole, and on the Western side, by Washington Monument. This spectacular provision of Mall was adopted only after the second world war. Hitherto, space had been used for various installations active of the zoo at the station of railroads, while passing by an underwood. Mall is in the heart of the history of the United States. Very many demonstrations left Washington Monument to go towards Capitole. The pope said the mass there, Afro-American Marian Anderson sang there at the request of the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and it is here that Martin Luther King made his famous speech I cuts has dream. Each year, July 4 (Day Independence), it is there that one commemorates the birth of the United States, ceremony enclosed by splendid fireworks. The evenings of summer, of the teams of federal employees play the softball on these lawns.

Old Downtown
Delimited in the east by Capitole and the west by the White House, Old Downtown was a long time the heart of the city. F Street, first paved street of the city, resembled a hive, with its shops, its Press Offices, its bars, its churches and the constant procession of the attachments. Downtown was also a residential district where the easy classes had elegant residences, while the tradesmen lived above their stores. But, since 1950, the suburbs attracted the inhabitants of the downtown areas with for consequences, in the years 1980, to make of Downtown a forsaken district. Fortunately, the rehabilitation began in the years 1990 with, in particular, the establishment of the MCI Center and many stores and restaurants.

The White House and Foggy Bottom
The White House, residence official of the President of the United States and inhabited for the first time in 1800, is one of the most known monuments of Washington. The majority of the buildings are of time in spite of the fire which has occurred during the war of 1812 against the English. Not far, other buildings deserve a visit: Daughters of the American Revolution Building and Corcoran Gallery of Art. The district of Foggy Bottom, in the east, was built on marshes. Its most famous buildings are the Kennedy Center, the State Department and Watergate, not test card of the scandal which implied Richard Nixon in 1970.

Georgetown
Georgetown developed well before Washington. The Indians had a camping there. In 1703, Ninian Beall accepted a field in concession which it called The Rock of Dumbarton. In the middle of the XVIIIe century, immigrants Scottish came to enlarge the rows of the population, and, in 1751, the city was renamed Georgetown. It quickly became a prosperous port thanks to the tobacco and the flour and was definitively made up in 1789. The port and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal were built in 1828, while the houses started to be aligned along the streets. The railroad carries a heavy blow to the saving in Georgetown which, in the middle of the XIXe century, was declining. However, the situation improved in the years 1950: the paved streets and the pretty houses attracting the young easy couples, well quickly the restaurants and the shops opened on Wisconsin Avenue and Mr. Street. Today, Georgetown cultivates its quiet difference and it is pleasant to stroll there.

Posted: April 28th, 2008 under Travel in general.
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Whistler, paradise of the full air
Extracts of the Guide Ulysses Vancouver, Victoria and Whistler

Mecque of the sports, inter alia the ski, the golf, the pedestrian excursion, the bicycle of mountain, the board with veil, the parapente and the board with snow, Whistler attracts people of everywhere throughout the world.
An imposing hotel infrastructure honours the small village with the foot with the mon­tagnes Blackcomb and Whistler; sporting restaurants, shops, complexes and center of the congresses are added to this holiday resort recognized internationally. The place is attended be like winter, and each season has its batch of activities to be proposed.

ATTRACTIONS

At the beginning of the years 1960, a group of adventurers wanted to make this area the site of the Winter Olympics of 1968 by developing the Garibaldi park.

In spite of their incapacity to obtain the plays at that time, these visionaries did not give up the idea to make this valley a vast skiable field. The population of Whistler multiplied by ten during her the first 20 years, and, in 2007, it counted some 9 600 permanent residents and almost as many owners of second homes. Each year, the town of Whistler accomodates more than 2 million visitors.

The tourist municipality of Whistler extended and took a great importance as a village where people live permanently, in order to develop tourism to the maximum. Thus, with share the large hotels, joint ownerships were done increasingly many, and the trade multiplied. To make it possible to the tourists to more easily move, a free shuttle service around the village was founded. Whistler receives each year more than 900 cm of snow, and the temperature oscillates on average around -5°C during the winter months.

Whistler

The shops of course are devoted in majority to the tourists but also to Vancouvérois. That encourages the purchase of joint ownerships as second homes and supports the saving in Whistler. Thus settled there shopping centres and department stores of food. The art and the art galleries developed also considerably. The number of showrooms increased, and Whistler Arts Council offers many interesting programs.

Several events proceed in Whistler throughout the year, as the male World cup of descent, the World cup of hot-dogging, the week of the gay skiers, the festival of film, etc. The jazz and the classical music take also an increasingly important place in this young agglomeration.

In 2010, whereas Vancouver accomodates the Winter Olympics, Whistler will be the site of the competitions of Alpine skiing and Scandinavian, bobsleigh, toboggan and skeleton, just as of the paralympic tests.

Take time to go to go in the hotel village to the bottom of the mountains; you will be able to better appreciate the environment of festival and leisure which emerges some. All that has a certain price, and these leisures are rather expensive.

Outside the small village, with the entry of the area of Whistler, Function Junction is, which is, to some extent, the small industrial district of the area. The Olympic village of Whistler will be built just at side, in what one names “Cheakamus Valley”.

Winter activities of full air

Alpine skiing and board with snow
Whistler is regarded as the ski resort No 1 in North America with its average of 10 m snow per year and its 1 600 m of unevenness. Once on the site, you will be able to choose between two mountains: Whistler Mountain (2 182 m) and Blackcomb Mountain (2 284 m) (1-866-218-9690, www.­whistlerblackcomb.com). Extraordinary ski, ultramodern installations, but attention with your budget.

You will include/understand why the prices are so high by seeing the troops of Japanese and American tourists monopolizing the hotels and the blue tracks. The two mountains of combined Whistler and Blackcomb form the greatest skiable field in Canada. These alpine ski resorts of international class are privileged by abundant falls of snow and have enough hotels to lodge the population of a city. This metropolis of the ski top-of-the-range offer also the possibility of skiing on tracks not rammed in an impeccable duster and, if the fall of snow is recent, you will make S in an alpine landscape of any beauty.

Whistler Mountain is the elder one of the two stations. The experts, the insane ones of the duster and the jumpers all of cliff will flow in Peak Chair, the chair-lift which leads to the top of Whistler Mountain. Of up there, the skiers and the planchists aguerris have access to an alpine zone made up of red tracks and black glazes of a deep and light snow.

For the enthusiastic ones of the ski in North America, Blackcomb represents impossible to circumvent “muscular” ski. A vigorous debate is maintained since the years by the skiers with knowing which of the two mountains (Whistler or Blackcomb) is the best. Unquestionable thing, Blackcomb gains the palm in the category of the vertical unevenness with its 1 609 m. When you are in Blackcomb, make a turn on the glacier. From there, the sight is formidable!

Héli-ski
If you were already conquered by the landscapes of Whistler, that’s no problem: it is time for you to have the cut breath! Go up on board a helicopter which will deposit you on a top with, descending in front of you, of the kilometers of still virgin duster. To organize an excursion, the skiers and the planchists of intermediate level to advanced will be able to address themselves to Whistler Heli-Skiing Ltd. (730$ per three voyages, lunch and guide; 1-888-435-4754).

Posted: April 28th, 2008 under Travel in general.
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Williamsburg, a haunted city… Ian Robertson - SUN MEDIA © Photos Sun Media This building was used formerly as law courts. There are not only the alive ones which visits this old British capital of the first American State… According to many anecdotes’, last and recent, phantoms would haunt the surroundings. The certain evenings, bravest among us can join to the guided turns launched in 2004 by Bruce Luongo to explore sites where, one tells, of the strange things occur and sometimes even can be seen or physically felt. When the wind strips their sheets the trees of these rectilinear streets where 88 original or rebuilt residences are drawn up, the most courageous visitors hear these stories whereas they are joined together in a basement of tavern.

Great center Of 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the political, cultural center and intellectual of most important and populeuse American colony. All the ideas with the source of a government says responsible and those surrounding the concept of personal freedoms were nourished by personalities such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason and Peyton Randolph.

TO ALSO SEE: A jump in time: learn more on the phantoms of … When the capital of the country was moved in Richmond, on the recommendations of Jefferson, Williamsburg became a peaceful city.

Then, 80 years later, the reverend W.A.R. Goodwin, vice-chancellor of the church of the parish of Bruton, recruited the philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and started the restoration of the old city. Functioning like a non-profit-making private company and without governmental assistance, the historical part of the city accomodated, since 1932, nearly 100 million visitors. Each new day that the cocks accomodate while singing sees its batch actors to cover their costumes of time to undertake their rounds and their speeches. Actors Those which are in the search of phantoms could confuse them with these capped actors of tricorns and buttoned frock coats. But you recall, the day belongs to the alive ones, as they say. After a supper with old in one of the many taverns still opened to the paying visitors, my companions and me, we ventured under the reverberators with the gas which drives out the shade of the buildings and the pavements. To create a certain atmosphere in the basement of the tavern Shield, the storyteller, Tim McCarthy, lets its face be made sprinkle by the yellow light of a lantern which it holds in his hand, after having reduced electric lighting. It is time, says it, to speak about the unexplainable one. Legends One of the most contemporary stories of McCarthy is that of guide-interprets with the pink dress of this place. This woman, who always covered the same costume of time, entered to work this day early. She discussed with the preserving one, then says to him that she was to leave because she had something to make. But when the other guide-interpreters arrived and that the preserving one says to them that the guide had passed earlier, they all were struck, said McCarthy, on a more intimate tone. “It is that this injury had died ten hours earlier. She had come to return a last visit to her friend “, says it… Through the old city, rumours of cries and slappings of doors were reported. But sometimes, of the phantoms and visitors touch even physically appear. The Randolph House, Nicholson corner and North England, are well-known for this kind of phenomena. Built in 1715 by William Robertson then increased, she was visited by the Washington General itself in her time. But Peyton Randolph, former president of the first Congress, would still wander in these places, 231 years after its death in 1775. One evening, something pushed a guard of safety to the bottom of several steps but “when it was turned over, it”, had not said nobody there McCarthy. Another time, a guard “was found in the basement, its revolver with the hand, trembling of fear. It resigned the following day and always refused to reveal what had occurred.” The Tunings tavern In the tavern Tunings, extremely popular to the 18th century near the punters and of the musicians, one says that the chairs move there all alone, sometimes even with individuals who sat there! One day, known as McCarthy, “somebody saw a young girl vêtue of a long blue dress with a fair hair. It had sat on a chair; it rose, made a reverence and disappeared “. It is called Abigail. An investigator in paranormaux phenomena said to have met a man called Peter who “was opposed by those which had rebuilt the old city while omitting to rebuild its house”. The spirit called to the investigator that it had deposited a flower with the feet of a woman who had given rise to a premature child and whom she returned to work at this place “the lovesongs in love thus exist even after death”, said McCarthy. In the same tavern, on the occasion, a man carrying of clothing of the 17th century “walks while moving back through the walls while greeting people, then fleet in the airs to the window of the second stage to look at there, thus frightening the girls”.

Posted: April 28th, 2008 under Travel in general.
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Hawaii became famous thanks to Hawaii 5-0, the famous turned telesery with Honolulu, capital of this 50e American State. But the island which gave its name to the archipelago is much known and much less attended than his/her seven sisters. However, it hiding place treasures. Outline of a destination to seizing contrasts!
The Hawaii, largest and southernmost of the islands of the archipelago of the same name, was formed starting from volcanic lava. It would thus be believed very arid; however, it conceals meadows spread out as far as the eye can see where feed of immense herds. And although it is located in tropical zone, snow there is found!

Higher than the Everest
It is also in the island of Hawaii, the “large island” as it is called, than is the most top of the world: the volcano Mauna Kea. Formed on the ocean floor, it is 10 203 m height - the Everest culminates to 8850 m.

At the top of Mauna Kea, to 4205 m of altitude (compared to the sea level), one embraces an infinite horizon, concerning practically stars. As Hawaii is the world capital of astronomy, the ridge of the mountain does not accomodate less than 13 telescopes, of which most imposing 10 m diameter measure. But there is no need to be astronomer to admire the lunar landscape of this deadened volcano which one reaches in the commercial vehicle sport.

Attention with the pernicious effects of the rise. In spite of an obligatory stop in the center of interpretation, located at 3000 m, several visitors support altitude badly: headaches, nauseas, losses of balance. Fortunately, the majority are free for breathlessness and dizzy spells (at the top, there are only 60 % of oxygen, compared to the rate which exists on the sea level).

See the sun to lie down on the brownish cones and the craters holds of the unreal one! And what to say club of local Alpine skiing?

Earth in an island
The scientists listed 13 climatic zones on our planet. With it only, the island of Hawaii includes/understands 11 of them. It misses there only the climates the Arctic and Saharan.

To the west, one passes from the arid fields of lava to a desiccated vegetation strewn with cactus. Then, as one goes up, the temperature is refreshed, and the gilded meadows turn to the intense green. It is the kingdom of the pastures, where the horses and the cattle feed. Close to Waimea, to approximately 1000 m of altitude, the herd of the Parker Ranch, the most important ranch with single owner of all United States, counts more than 30 000 animals.

In the east, a tropical vegetation covers the escarpé littoral. One can observe spectacular valleys, carved by the erosion, of which Waipio, a pit of 600 m. Abrupt descent (25 %) led to a small river throwing itself in the sea. Upstream, with a few kilometers, the falls of Hi’ ilawe reach 340 m height (they are 6 times higher than the falls of the Niagara).

By travelling towards the south, one reaches Hilo, capital of the island and kingdom of the rain. Because of the presence of Mauna Kea and orientation of the dominant winds, this town of 40 000 inhabitants is wettest of the United States; annual precipitations reach on average 3300 mm.

Hilo was struck by several tsunamis, tidal wave which can reach tens of meters height and moving to hundreds of kilometers per hour. The last one took place in 1960.

Around 3000 m, the vegetation yields the place to black fields of lava. Higher, the side of the volcanos becomes russet-red, a color which points out the surface of the planet Mars.

A perpetual eruption
Here, one does not flee the active volcanos, one precipitates there to enjoy the spectacle! It is that the volcanos of the island of Hawaii are not in explosive matter. The lava runs out about it rather in a continuous flood, sometimes intense, sometimes light. In Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, created in 1916, one of the volcanos, Kilauea, is in continual activity since 1983. The lava which escapes from it runs out to the sea. One can see with kilometers with the round the vapor column which is formed when the lava comes into contact with surface water.

While walking in the marked out paths which carry out to less than 300 m of the incandescent flood, one feels the heat which emanates from the fractures of the earth’s crust under which this lava in fusion circulates. A visit of night makes it possible to see the red reflections of the magma. Magic experiment!

It is on the West coast of the island, where several black sand beaches are to the jade reflections, which the tourist activity concentrates: luxurious hotels - surrounded of golf courses -, built charming lodgings with mountainside… and unspoilable view on the sun couchers of the Pacific!

Like a Japanese garden
We who are fans of diving, after one equipped of more than 2500 km in 10 days (the large island bears his name well!), we leave two weeks on board Kona Aggressor II, a long motorized catamaran of 25 Mr. Objectif: discovered of a very particular marine environment.

GUI Garcia, of Portuguese origin, counts more than 20 years of experiment in this water. Captain with calms reassuring, it also devotes himself to photography. It is thus with the sensitivity of the artist that it describes sea-beds surrounding the island: “Hawaii does not have anything the Southern Pacific Islands One does not seek here the multitude of colors which the Fiji islands or New Guinea-News-Guinea offer. It is necessary rather to approach the diving in this water as if a Japanese garden were visited. With the first glance, there is an impression of vacuum. Then, while looking at there more closely, all appears to us well organized, and the colors appear.”

To appreciate the diving in Hawaii, it is necessary to spend time and to sharpen its direction of the observation to with it. Because if fauna is abundant there, the environment, primarily composed of lava, does not cause the spontaneous magic of the divings in the Southern Pacific or the Caribbean Sea.

Once the initial shock passed, a phase of amazement starts: Hawaii being the archipelago more isolated from planet, about a third of the 400 marine species which live there are single and are not nowhere elsewhere!

Escorted by a bench of dolphins, the catamaran leaves Kailua-Kona and moves towards the south. The course of some 90 marine miles lasts one week, and the 14 passengers make diving up to 6 hours per day. Globicéphales, lines, tortoises, octopuses, murenes, ptérois, butterflies…, the list of the species lengthens ad infinitum, just like the variety of the dresses which they raise.

Following the example traditional temples that one still finds in the island, the cathedrals of lava, decorated with coral, inspire the respect.

It is in the sea that one observes with the most acuity the great paradox of Hawaii: over background of a dark and arid magma, the life triumphs with splendour.

According to the legend…
It is Pélé, goddess of fire and the volcanos, who gave rise to the islands of the archipelago hawaïen. Driven out of Tahiti by her sister Na-maka-O-Kaha’ I, goddess of water, it had taken refuge in a crater in the north of the archipelago, that his/her sister had flooded at once. Pélé had then had to be another refuge. However, his/her sister, who always pursued it, destroyed each time her efforts. Continuing its search, Pélé thus successively created the eight islands of the archipelago, finishing by that of Hawaii. This goddess thus represents at the same time creation and the destruction, the birth and death.

Island of Hawaii: reference mark

Geographical situation: 4382 km in the south-west of Vancouver
Dimensions: 149 km out of 122 km
Population: 146 000 inhabitants
Climate: subtropical; tourist season: from December at April, low season: from May to November
Temperature: max. 28 °C, min. 20 °C
Information: www.gohawaii.com

Not to miss!

The top of Mauna Kea and its center of interpretation: to envisage hot clothing — the temperature seldom exceeds 15 °C — and the hiring of a commercial vehicle sport (SEEN).
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: to reserve a night with the hotel located in the park, in order to go to observe the incandescent lava flows; the visit lasts one day.
The valley of Waipio: a spectacular site, accessible in SEEN and at your risks! A picnic on the black sand beach or an excursion with the foot of the falls Hi’ ilawe is worth displacement.
Petroglyphs: one can observe these drawings carved in the stone at various places of the island, in particular in Waikoloa Petroglyph Preserve.
Akaka Falls: falls reaching 135 m height.
Kohala Mountain Road: a panoramic road leading to the northern part of the island, more than 1000 m of altitude.

Posted: January 17th, 2008 under Travel in general.
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The beach, fine sand, seafood at will, environment surfing in the USA… It is forgotten that it is at side. Direction: Hampton Beach!

Since the episode of Sex and the City in which one saw the famous New Yorkeans in a rich person villa on the edge of the sea with Hampton Beach, the popularity of this small city of New Hampshire climbed. To go on the boardwalk at the rate/rhythm of the waves and to make shopping in the small shops of Portsmouth are now activities of true fashionistas!

Restaurants and left
For one evening young relaxes (not expensive), Portsmouth Brewery remains one of the most animated places city. Puffs out is excellent there, and the small terrace with the back is charming! To test, the beer tasting (10 in all) been useful in miniverres, which are aligned on a long wood plate. 56, Market Street, Portsmouth. • Information: 603 431-1115 or www.portsmouthbrewery.com

Two shops more hot
The Spot > This shop is absolutely delirious! Bikinis of surfing, sexy evening gowns, board shorts, hats, paréos, jewels… One wants ALL to buy! 99, Oarweed Lane, Perkins Cove. • Information: 207 646-1316

Anna Street Studio > Blow of heart for the reversible hand bags of this designer of Portsmouth. Single creations and very fashion. A must! 113, Market Street, Portsmouth. • Information: www.annastreet.com

With voir/à to make absolutely
De Hampton Beach in Jenness Beach, borrow the A-1 motorway which skirts the sea. It is there that the splendid villas are which one saw in Sex and the City!

The fallen night
As the best restaurants are not located at Hampton Beach, the solution is to choose a hotel with Portsmouth, a charming city located at a score of minutes in the car. Appointment in Courtyard by Marriott (1000, Market Street), which offers a good quality-price ratio.

Best moments to go there
From June to October. Water will be probably hotter, even if it always remains - how to say - enough reinvigorating!

Not to forget before leaving…
Draw up your route while passing by Magog! The road which crosses White Mountains is to be cut the breath and the distance, a little less long. • Information: www.hamptonbeach.org

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Activities

BEACH > Nothing of such as idleness on hot sand and the dives in the waves to refresh us. It is the number one activity of the area! , one will devote itself to it in Hampton Beach even, the most beautiful beach of Hampton.

SURFING > Here, it is also Mecque of the surfers. By the A-1 motorway, one goes to North Hampton or Jenness Beach, the two most run beaches. To check the height of the waves before leaving, visit the www.surf-forecast.com

ON the ISLANDS > Starting from Portsmouth, one can go in the archipelago of Isles of Shoals. Why not there spade-not screw before going in the islands? One of them, Appledore, is the old property of Celia Thaxter, a novelist and very known poetess. • Information: 1 800 441-4620 or www.islesofshoals.com

BICYCLE > In Hampton Beach, an activity very hot, it is to make bicycle. It is also the best means of visiting all the beaches of the corner without having to worry about the parking. Odiorne Point State Park offers also accessible kilometers of paths for the bicycles. • Information: 603 436-7406

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Posted: January 17th, 2008 under Travel in general.
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Photograph: Newspaper of Montreal

Typical seaside resort of the American East coast, Hampton Beach preserved its a little old-fashioned charm. The Inhabitants of Quebec which visited it there are 20 or 30 years will find it almost intact.

Less foil that Old Orchard and Wildwood, Hampton Beach offers to the holiday makers a nice family atmosphere, a splendid beach and a walk which changed little.

As formerly, the stands of hotdogs, fried and pizza pie are aligned at the sides of the salesmen of tee-shirt, the arcades and the shooting ranges. The old casino of Hampton Beach shelters the same plays apparently as those which made it possible to the children to gain gigantic doggies there is more than one quarter century.

The Ocean Boulevard was repaired. With foot or in the car, it is always also pleasant to circulate there to admire the visitors in light behaviour there.

One always finds there many motels at a cheap rate and of old country cottages of summer in gray shingles which one can rent at the week.

There are certainly some innovations: water a slip, modern hotels along the Ocean Boulevard, a project of condos of luxury… But essentially, Hampton Beach counts still and always on the natural beauties of its sandy beach and the Atlantic Ocean to attract the tourists.

Early the morning, the first visitors walk calmly along the beach of ten kilometers. Quickly, calms it morning made place with the agitation of the bathers.

The weekends of heat wave, approximately 200 000 people can invade the beach. With share of the Inhabitants of Quebec, one finds there mainly Americans of New Hampshire and area of Boston, hardly at one hour of road from there.

Nobody seems too much rejected by another of the things which did not change in Hampton Beach during years: water cold, sometimes frozen, of the Atlantic Ocean.

TO ALSO SEE:

The Inhabitants of Quebec are back

Small guide of the beaches of New Hampshire
Portsmouth, a rich history

N.D.L.R. The Newspaper was the guest of the Office of tourism of New Hampshire.

Posted: January 17th, 2008 under Travel in general.
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Haiti, located at the heart of the zone of the Caribbean, offers the traditional attractions of tourism of this area, but also a certain originality due to its history (first black republic in the world). Its charm is still accentuated by an exuberant tropical vegetation, coral benches attended by multicoloured thousands of fish, cascades, caves, pits, and still well of other treasures!
Geographical overflight
The Amerindians who populated the island of Hispaniola (or of Haiti) were Taïnos and the Caribbean. The Republic of Haiti occupies one the western third of the island, and the Dominican Republic the two other thirds. The island is located at the center of the Caribbean Sea, and at equal distance of Miami (the United States), of Panamá, Wearing of Spain (Puerto Rico) and Bogotá (Colombia). Several islands are integral part of the country; most important and known are the island of Gonâve and the island of the Tortoise.

Attractions
In 1954, at the time of the 150E birthday of independence, one set up with Port-with-Prince, on the place of the Field of Mars (in front of the National Palate), of the statues of the four heroes of independence: Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe, All Saints’ day Louverture and Alexandre Pétion.

The Defly House (street Legitimates, with Port-with-Prince) is a beautiful example of architecture with “wood lace”. It shelters the episcopal University now.

Pétionville is located in the heights of Port-with-Prince and conceals many art galleries, excellent restaurants, hotels of class and shops of craft industry. This old site goes up geologically at the beginning of the tertiary era. At one more recent time, Taïnos lived insulated there as the objects found on the site prove it.

Haiti

For a first impression of the terrestrial paradise, the island with Vaches, in more of its natural beauty, will interest the visitor impassioned of archaeological vestiges or hunting in the treasure, of many boats having sunk on the reefs of the North-East of the island. Five Spanish galleons charged with gold are supposed to be in the surroundings.

Bassin Bleu is located at the north of Jacmel. Over there, a river of mountain falls in steps in three basins.

Not far from Cape-Haitian, immense Coco Beach accomodates the North-American steamers of cruising. The beach was selected because of its ideal situation and of the beauty of the site.

In Milot draws up the palate of Without-Concern. On the left the part reserved to the soldiers is, the central part being for the king. The two lions bronzes some which trônaient with the entry are now in front of the law courts of Port-with-Prince. While entering on the left side, one joined the room of king Christophe and, by the line, the tree where it returned justice.

The Henri citadel, very close to Milot, is called also the “Christophe citadel”, of the name of the king who ordered construction of it, or the “citadel the Tool bag”, of the name of the peak on which it is built.

The 2 km length beach which extends to Western Pointe is regarded as one of most beautiful of the Caribbean. It wants to be ideal for the bathe, the diving-tuba or simply for the relaxation on its white sand giving on a sea emerald.

Jump-in Eau is a fall running close to Happiness City, in the west of Mirebalais, where go each year of many pilgrims in search of the purification of their heart, July the 15 and 16. They celebrate there Ezili or Erzulie, goddess of the sensuality and the love.

Hinche deserves a visit for the caves and for Bassin Zim. height a 30 m, the water fall of Zim flows in a deep basin of a bright, perfect blue for the bathe, in the medium of a luxuriant tropical vegetation. In the caves, you will be able to observe curious pictograms allotted to the Amerindians populating the island before the arrival of the Spaniards. Others attest of their African origin.

Posted: January 15th, 2008 under Travel in general.
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The name of Guatemala comes from the word Cuauhtemala, which means the “ground of the trees”. Just like the ceiba, the mythical tree of the Mayas, Guatemala has deep human roots going up at the beginning of times, of the millenia before the arrival of the Spaniards. The metaphor of the tree has still more to offer to us to include/understand this country host of the Mayas.
Geographical overflight
Guatemala has the particular characteristic to be exactly in the geographical center of the American continent. The country divides its borders with Mexico in north and the west, with Honduras and El El Salvador in the south, and finally with Belize in the North-East. Of a surface of 108 899 km2, the territory of Guatemala offers a primarily mountainous landscape. The volcanos which are drawn up at the horizon represent derechef the most spectacular elements of the country.

Attractions
With its three million inhabitants, Ciudad of Guatemala, commonly called Guaté, is the vastest urban centre of Central America. Cosmopolitan nodal place, it posts a way of life vibrating of activities which Marie international manners with the customs of the traditional culture.

Guatemala

Museo Popol Vuh de Arqueología places in the cultural complex of the university campus Francisco Marroquín, in Ciudad of Guatemala. This splendid museum has a large collection of art précolombien and colonial as well as a copy of the codex of Dresden, one of the four Maya books writings in hiéroglyphes still preserved nowadays. Its visit will supplement that of Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología. The museum Popol Vuh draws its name from the crowned book of K’ iche’ discovered in Chichicastenango by the Dominican father Francisco Ximénez between 1701 and 1703. With the quantity of religious information, historical and linguistics which it contains, Popol Vuh, translated under the name of “Book of the Council”, is one of richest documents the being used for the study of the Maya people.

Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología is located in the park Aurora, in the southern part of the capital. The national museum indisputably has the largest collection of sculptures, of parts out of jade and ceramics of the Maya culture. The organization of the rooms takes as a starting point the colonial Spanish architecture, where all the parts were ordered around an interior court.

In the heart of the valley of Panchoy, where two small rivers run and which is surrounded of hills and the volcanos Fuego, Acatenango and Agua, Antigua Guatemala will seem to you a jewel of town planning and colonial architecture. In the east of Parks Central, the current parish church of San uses the first three spans of old Catedral Metropolitana, which was built between 1543 and 1680 and was rebuilt many times. The vestiges which you see today are those of the last rebuilding in accordance with the earthquake of Santa Marta in 1773.

Panajachel is presented as the door of entry for the majority of the travellers who come to venture in the area of Lago de Atitlán. This small city, located at the accesses of the lake, grows at sight of eye. With its many shops of craft industry, Panajachel will make the joy of the hunters of good occasions. On Calle Santander, you will discover the greatest selection of Guatemalan artisanal products and many restaurants and terraces.

Santiago Atitlán is the most important village tz’ utujil with the accesses of Lago de Atitlán. It extends on the sides from the volcanos Tolimán and Atitlán on an old lava flow. On the other side of bay, vis-a-vis at the village, rises the volcano San Pedro. As much the men whom the women carry their traditional clothes. The women are vêtues of huipiles white with some lines of red color and the embroidered birds. They wear also quoted of a long red fabric belt which they roll up around their head.

The town of Chichicastenango (commonly called Fuss) is certainly the borough more visited Highlands of Guatemala. Chichicastenango was built on the site of a founded kaqchikel city at the beginning of XVe century and that the documents call Chaviar Tzupitakah. Capital of Kaqchikel during their association with K’ iche’, it was abandoned in catastrophe in 1470, after the argument with K’ iche’.

For several tourists, Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa draws its importance from the immense engraved stones which are disseminated in the surrounding plantations of cane with sugar and which one believed for a long time untransportable because of their weight. For those which are interested in the companies of before the Spanish Conquest, a halt with Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa will enable them to discover sculptural vestiges which testify to the evolution of the occupants of the coast of the Pacific.

Declared “inheritance of humanity” by UNESCO in 1979, the old Maya city called today Quiriguá occupies an important place in the prehispanic history of the world. By its geographical situation, to forty kilometers to flight of bird of Copán, Quiriguá forms part, with the large town of Tikal, of the Maya cultural area which one calls the Lowlands of the South and whose center is in Petén. The Festival Folclórico Nacional de Cobán celebrates the traditions of the various ethnos groups of the area. Ritual various brotherhoods there are practised and, August 1, one carries out the folk dances like El Venado, and El Diablo y El Chompipe. It is also the time of famous El Paa Banc, that is to say the rite of transfer loads of administration of the brotherhoods, accompanied by religious ceremonies where the representatives of the people swear to maintain the ancestral faith and habits. It is one of the most important activities for Kekchí of the area. The procession of the Tezulutlán princess and Rabín Ajau, the queen of the traditional costume, is single in Cobán.

Tikal is essential without any doubt like one of the most attractive places of planet. Top of a pyramid, one is let rock by the flight the toucans, the cries envoûtants of the monkeys hurleurs and by the indefinable rustles of the jungle, which acts like a true speaker. Although this ceremonial center was abandoned more than one millenium ago, Tikal remains a temple one cannot more alive. Here, in front of the spectacle being offered to the sight, in the silence of the rise towards the heights and in the giddiness of the top reached, one cannot prevent oneself from entering in communion with the Mayas, even with very whole humanity. In Tikal, the Maya fact is indeed transcended; it carries us beyond the cultures and of the borders.

Posted: January 15th, 2008 under Travel in general.
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The Guadeloupe makes dream. Its charms draw their source in a fine amalgam of French and creole traditions: the torments of love and the ice coconut meet very as much as salad lobster and beer of Alsace, whereas the terraces open on gleaming floods, sometimes decorated by the boat of a fisherman.
Geographical overflight
The two larger islands forming the Guadeloupe, Low-Ground and Large-Ground, separated by the Salted river, offer an extremely different relief in spite of their proximity. With broad of the coasts of the island of the Guadeloupe, energy of is in west, emergent three small islands: Désirade, Marie-Gallant and the Holy ones, which holds splendid landscapes.

Guadeloupe

Attractions
Escarpée coast of the Point of the Large Watchtower to the beautiful sand beaches of the south of Large-Ground and Marie-Gallant, while passing by the luxuriant forest of the solid mass of the Sulphur mine and the coral reefs to broad of Deshaies, without forgetting the charming creole villages dispersed with the four corners of these islands, the Guadeloupe has very to fill the visitors in search of sun, rest and a little expatriation.

Large-ground
Large-ground is presented in the form of a vast not very broken calcareous plate of 566 km2. Punctuated the dull ones and fields of cane with sugar which seem to lengthen ad infinitum, it has a pastoral face. The fertility of these grounds constituted the only richness of the Guadeloupe a long time, but one knows another priceless treasure today to him, that is to say the long gilded sand crescents which border the southern coast of the island. Beaches so beautiful that they attract without slackening the visitors attending the seaside resorts of Gosier, Sainte-Anne and Saint-François. One also finds there Point-with-Clown, who constitutes the economic and industrial heart of the island. The city is composed of modern buildings, beautiful houses and animated arteries, in particular around the roads.

Low-ground
By locating Low-Ground at the horizon, one sees a long assembly line whose summit seems perpetually hidden by the clouds, a spectacle quite different from the Large-Ground landscapes relatively not very broken. This solid mass is dominated by a volcano, the Sulphur mine, which culminates to 1 467 m and whose sides are marked by two types of vegetation. The major part of this island is protected by the national park from the Guadeloupe. Rich person of a nature of an exceptional beauty, it is furrowed by a crowd of paths, marked out for the majority, which carry out the visitors to the heart of this luxuriant vegetation revealing of the splendid landscapes.

The Holy Ones
The Holy ones gathers in fact several tiny small islands resembling large rocks where small hamlets clung. It is the marvellous nature of Holy which constitutes its more beautiful attraction indisputably: hiking trails, gilded sand beaches, dull from where one contemplates the fabulous spectacle of the sea…

Marie-gallant
Marie-gallant, largest of the dependences inhabitants of Guadeloupe, is made up of a vast calcareous plate where the cane with sugar is cultivated. Besides these fields of cane dominate still the horizon, everywhere in the island serenity reigns, and it is not rare to cross on the roads an oxcart. The charm of this island is due to these beautiful pastoral scenes which dépaysent the traveller gently.

Désirade
Désirade is in fact a long band of rocks whose arid grounds are not very favourable with agriculture; a weak population settled there. The southern, long coast, 11 km is punctuated beautiful sand beaches, often almost deserted.

Posted: January 15th, 2008 under Travel in general.
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