Archive
Abandoned Airport: Ciudad Real
Nothing highlights the Spanish financial problem like an abandoned airport.
Opened in 2009 at a cost of €1.1bn, the Ciudad Real Central Airport saw light use before being shut down in April of 2012. Ciudad Real is a Spanish city about two and a half hours south of Madrid. The airport was to be the first linked to the Spanish high-speed AVE rail system, making the trip to Madrid only 50 minutes.
Giethoorn, Netherlands: the Town with No Roads
When thinking of traveling by water throughout a city, Venice is usually the first name that springs to mind. What if waterways were the only way to get around town? Such is the case for Giethoorn, Netherlands, a small town of about 2,600. Read more…
The Anchors of Tavira Island at Algarve, Portugal
For centuries the tuna industry flourished in Algarve, Portugal. When fishermen flocked to the coast of Portugal, the tuna population became threatened over time until it was no longer profitable to fish for tuna. The ships are long gone, however the anchors were left behind. Read more…
Lighthouses: A Reference Guide
Lighthouses are a dying breed. Ships feared dark coastlines and relied on lighthouses to keep them safe from dangerous rocks. Today with GPS and other technologies, fewer ships need them so new lighthouse construction is extremely rare.
From candle-powered and manned lighthouses thousands of years ago to the modern, stand-alone LED lighthouses of today, it has been an interesting evolution for the coastline protectors of the world. What follows is a chronicle of important lighthouses in history.
Biggest Vehicle in the World: Bagger 293
Exactly how big does a land-based vehicle need to be to qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records as largest in the world? How about 315 feet tall, 740 feet long, and weighing over 31 million pounds?
The Bagger 293 is a giant bucket-wheel excavator built in Germany in 1995. It requires a crew of five to operate and can move over 8.5 million cubic feet of earth per day. To put that in perspective, that is the equivalent of digging a hole the length of a football field and over 80 feet deep in a day. Read more…
The Smallest Country in the World: Sealand
Considered more of a principality, the micronation of Sealand is located on an old British World War II radar platform. It was a Maunsell Sea Fort constructed by the British military in 1943, and originally given the name HM Fort Roughs. Later it would be renamed Sealand by Major Paddy Roy Bates, who would live there with his family and host a pirate radio station. Read more…
Dancing Mania
In July of 1518 in Strasbourg, France, a woman named Frau Troffea walked into the street and started to dance. She continued to dance on the street for several days, and by the end of the week thirty-four others had joined her. By the end of the month there were around four hundred dancers in the streets. These people danced uncontrollably and in bizarre fashion; shouts, screams, and singing were reported to accompany hallucinations.
Eventually, many would die from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion. Read more…
Italian Ghost Town: Craco, Italy
Craco is a commune and medieval village located in the Region of Basilicata and the Province of Matera, about 25 miles inland from the Gulf of Taranto at the instep of the “boot” of Italy. The medieval village of Craco is typical of the hill towns of the region with mildly undulating shapes and the lands surrounding it sown with wheat. Around 540AD the area was called “Montedoro” and inhabited by Greeks who moved inland from the coastal town of Metaponto. Tombs have been found dating from the 8th century suggesting the original settlement dates back to then. Today, earthquakes, landslides, and a lack of fertile farming land have contributed to the abandonment of Craco. Read more…
