NAVROYAL (http://navroyal.blogspot.com)

worlds most powerful people

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Incredible Views and Vistas

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Scenery: New York City

The Big Apple’s skyline has long been one of the world’s most dramatic, with its light-strewn skyscrapers soaring above Upper New York Bay and its rivers. To admire the panorama properly, make sure to put lots of water between yourself and Manhattan. Boats are plentiful here: Several companies operate sightseeing tours and dinner cruises on dozens of types of watercraft, including the tall ship Clipper City, a reconstruction of a 1954 vessel.

Scenery: The Grand Canyon

This gorgeous gorge is one of Mother Nature’s most spectacular creations, and it’s deservedly popular — particularly at the South Rim, the canyon’s most accessible area. While the views from there are breathtaking, it’s likely to be crawling with tourists; instead, head to the North Rim for even better sights (from 1,000 feet higher up) and a much more peaceful experience. For the best vistas, walk into the gorge, where there are fantastic trails for all abilities. Two of the best are the Bright Angel and South Kaibab trails, which feature stunning views for most of their length.

Scenery: St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

For unspoiled Caribbean bliss, head to this idyllic island, the least-populated and least-developed of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Lawrence Rockefeller donated most of his land on St. John to the U.S. National Park Service in 1956, with the stipulation that it must remain protected from development. Today, the Virgin Islands National Park constitutes most of this 20-square-mile island, which offers incredible views of intensely green jungle and azure sea. St. John’s many delectable beaches include Trunk Bay; there are no bridges to mar the view, as St. John is accessible only by boat.

Scenery: The Great Wall of China

The "wall" is actually a series of fortifications constructed over the course of two millennia, stretching across more than 4,000 miles. The most-visited part of the Great Wall is north of Beijing, dates from the Ming Dynasty and offers the most scenic vistas in China: The hills here are steep, and the watchtower-dotted wall rambles up and down among them. Different sections of the wall have varying amenities and crowds; to avoid throngs of tourists, skip the heavily visited Badaling region in favor of the Mutianyu and Simitai areas, both northeast of Beijing.

Scenery: Paris

Anyone can visit the top of the Eiffel Tower, and seemingly everyone does. A better way to enjoy the best vistas in the City of Light is to dine at one of the latticework tower’s two restaurants. Spendy but spectacular, Le Jules Verne is a Michelin-rated purveyor of elegant gourmet fare 410 feet up, reachable by a private elevator. One hundred feet below, Altitude 95 serves less-expensive meals in a family-friendly atmosphere. Diners in both restaurants can see such iconic spots as the river Seine, the Montparnasse Tower, and, farther off, the Arc de Triomphe and the Sacré-Coeur basilica.

Scenery: Machu Picchu

The ruins of this ancient settlement lie 8,000 feet above sea level in Peru’s high Andes, with a commanding view into the Urubamba Valley. For the original Inca inhabitants, the surrounding peaks and deep gorges provided excellent natural defenses. For the modern traveler, they reveal some of the most incredible vistas in the world. Many visitors arrive via the Inca Trail, a rewarding but difficult multiple-day hike, though most take a train or a bus. Be sure to head up the mountain overlooking the abandoned city, where you’ll find the best views and the lightest crowds.

Scenery: Norway:This Nordic nation is famous for its fjords — tranquil inlets winding through glacier-carved, U-shaped valleys, concentrated along the southwestern coastline. One of the best places to soak in the dramatic natural beauty is on the massive outcropping known as Pulpit Rock, overlooking the Lysefjord near the city of Stavanger. Reaching the top means a hike of about two hours and an elevation gain of nearly 2,000 feet, but there are plenty of benches and tables on the way up where you can take a break — and the view from the top is well worth the climb.

Scenery: Na Pali Coast, Kauai:This 15-mile stretch of Kauai’s northwest coast is filled with cliffsides rising up to 4,000 feet above the ocean — Na Pali translates to "the cliffs" in Hawaiian — and as a result is largely inaccessible to cars. Helicopters are by far the best way to see the area: Much of it can be reached only by air, especially the region’s famous waterfalls, and there’s no easier way to enjoy the entire coastline. If you prefer not to take to the air, the 11-mile Kalalau Trail offers great hiking opportunities, and boating and kayaking are also popular.

Scenery: The Matterhorn and the AlpsReaching the 14,692-foot summit of the Matterhorn, situated on the border between Italy and Switzerland, is only for serious climbers — but there are plenty of hiking, rail and cable-car options that will give you a spectacular view of the famous peak and the surrounding Alps. The Swiss resort town of Zermatt is one of the best jumping-off points for the Matterhorn: After gazing at the mountain’s north and east faces, take a gondola from here to mountain lake areas such as Grindjisee for a perfect, yodel-worthy alpine hike. Or, continue up to the 12,740-foot Klein Matterhorn peak — the endpoint of Europe’s highest cable car — where you’ll find fantastic, 360-degree panoramas.

Scenery: Japan:At 12,388 feet, Mount Fuji is Japan’s highest mountain; one of Japan’s “Three Holy Mountains,” the nearly symmetrical volcano has inspired poets and artists for thousands of years. It’s located just west of Tokyo, so for the best views, situate yourself to the east of the metropolis. This will give you the chance to see stunning sunsets as the sun sinks behind the mountain, throwing it and the cityscape into sharp, dramatic silhouette. One particularly good viewing spot is Tokyo Tower, an Eiffel Tower lookalike with observatories at 492 feet and 820 feet.

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:21:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: Chicago Spire

The Chicago Spire, another Calatrava-designed structure, is under construction in the Windy City but has not yet been completed. The rendering above shows what it will look like if the remaining financing can be secured. The Spire would be located near the shores of Lake Michigan near Navy Pier and if completed, would be one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world at 2,000 feet and 150 stories. About 350 of the residential units have been pre-sold, including the penthouse to Ty Warner, CEO of Ty, Inc., manufacturer of Beanie Babies.

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:20:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York

New York City’s New Museum of Contemporary Art, opened in 2007 and named one of the seven architectural wonders by Conde Nast Traveler the following year, rises out of the gritty Bowery neighborhood in lower Manhattan like a layered wedding cake. It’s an appropriate venue for the contemporary works exhibited inside its walls.

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:19:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: City of the Arts and the Sciences, Valencia, Spain

The City of the Arts and the Sciences complex in Valencia, Spain, houses a science museum, theaters, performance halls, an aquarium and more. Built in a dried-out riverbed, its space-age educational and recreational structures were designed and developed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava as a present to his home city. Shown above is “L'Hemisfèric,” a dome opened in 1998 that includes, among other features, an Imax cinema.

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:19:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: Hearst Tower

The Hearst Tower in New York City, designed by British architect Norman Foster and opened in 2006, is the headquarters of the Hearst Publishing Company. The 46-story structure extends above the six-story building that housed the original Hearst headquarters that was completed in 1928. The triangular pattern of the tower’s exterior provides a sharp contrast to the stone façade of the original building at its base. It was the first skyscraper to break ground in New York City after September 11, 2001, and was the first “green” high-rise office building completed in the city.

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:18:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: Seattle Central Library

The Seattle Central Library, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and opened in 2004, is a beacon for bookworms in a city said to be one of the most literate in the U.S. Its steel-and-glass exterior is modern and futuristic, yet the interior includes some intimate reading spaces. Visitors can also catch a glimpse of Puget Sound from inside the 11-story downtown building.

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:18:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: Ray & Maria Stata Center

Another Gehry design is the Ray & Maria Stata Center, opened in 2004 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Although the building’s aesthetics have been hotly debated, its teetering walls and swooping curves certainly leave an impression on visitors. One reviewer suggested that the structure is “a metaphor for the freedom, daring, and creativity of the research that's supposed to occur inside it.”

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:16:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: Oslo Opera House

The Oslo Opera House in Norway, opened in 2008, appears to emerge out of the neighboring Oslofjord like an iceberg. The sloping marble roof is an open plaza for the public to enjoy and covers the 1,350-seat auditorium below. In 2009, the Opera House received the Mies van der Rohe award for contemporary architecture.

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:15:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: Theatres on the Bay, Singapore

Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay in Singapore, opened in 2002, houses a concert hall and a theater beneath its distinctive spiked shells. Some have likened its spiky glass domes to the durian fruit or the eyes of a fly

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:15:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: Dancing House, Prague

Known for designing grand venues from Spain to California, renowned Canadian-born architect Frank Gehry transformed a neo-Renaissance house in Prague to a structure known as the "Dancing House" upon its completion in 1996. It was initially named the Astaire & Rogers Building since it resembles a dancing couple. Even though some initially referred to it derisively as the Drunk House, this tipsy, tilting modern edifice is now considered a highlight of Prague’s modern architecture.

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:14:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: The Gherkin, London

Nicknamed the Gherkin for its unique round, tapered shape, the office tower at 30 St Mary Axe in London’s financial district opened in 2004. Despite its appearance, there is only one piece of curved glass on the entire building, a lens-shaped piece that caps the very top. The tower reaches nearly 600 feet high, and its 40 stories house insurance companies and other financial businesses.

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:13:00 +0000

Amazing Architecture: Melbourne Recital Center and Theater Company

These modern structures being designed and built in cities around the world may be some of the most spectacular architecture you’ll ever see.

The Melbourne Recital Center and Theater Company complex opened earlier this year and is helping to revitalize Melbourne’s gritty Southbank neighborhood. The exterior features a combination of angles, two-dimensional textures and glowing tubes. The walls inside the main performance space are covered with famous theater quotes that are illuminated when the stage is dark. The complex won the 2009 Victorian Architecture medal for best new building in Australia.

Unusual Monuments: Russia

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:07:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Russia

The Mashuk-Akva Term spa in the city of Zheleznovodsk southern Russia recently unveiled a particularly unusual monument. The Enema Monument is a nearly 800 pound bronze statue of a syringe held by three children. This area of the country, near the Caucasus Mountains, is known for its mineral springs, the water of which is used in enemas to treat digestive disorders as well as other ailments.

Unusual Monuments: Prague

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:06:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Prague

St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech Republic, is honored with many statues around the country. But the sculpture of St. Wenceslas Riding a Dead Horse in Prague turns those monuments — literally — upside down. Hanging in the gallery of a shopping and entertainment complex, it was created in 1999 as a parody of a right-side-up statue in a nearby public square

Unusual Monuments: Cadillac Ranch, Texas

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:05:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Cadillac Ranch, Texas

Located in a cow pasture off Interstate 40 in Amarillo, Texas, the Cadillac Ranch is a bizarre roadside attraction. Created in 1974, it consists of a row of half-buried Cadillac cars. Spray-painting graffiti or other messages on the cars is encouraged by the Ant Farm art group, which created the monument, so is has a colorful and ever-changing look

Unusual Monuments: Concrete Park, Wisconsin

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:04:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Concrete Park, Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Concrete Park in Phillips is an outdoor museum displaying 237 sculptures built by a retired lumberjack, Fred Smith. The figures are constructed of concrete and have been embellished with broken glass, ceramic and other reclaimed materials. The display depicts the history of the region and the nation between the late 1800s and early 1900s, including subjects such as American folklore and Native American history. Smith says he built the park "for all the American people everywhere. They need something like this."

Unusual Monuments: Memento Park, Budapest

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:03:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Memento Park, Budapest

The open-air museum called Memento Park, in Budapest, is a peculiar collection of statues and monuments. After communism ended in Hungary in 1989, the country removed statues of Communist leaders such as Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx that had been placed around the country. Four years later, in 1993, this park opened to the public to display the symbols of a once-celebrated era.

Unusual Monuments: Manneken Pis, Brussels

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:02:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Manneken Pis, Brussels

The statue of a little boy urinating into a fountain, the Manneken Pis, is arguably the most well-known landmark in Brussels. The statue, built in the early 1600s, is thought by some to honor a young ruler who was known for urinating on troops. Others believe it commemorates a missing young boy who was found while peeing in the street, while a third legend refers to a small boy who saved the city from peril by putting out a fire with his good aim.

Unusual Monuments: Stone Mountain, Georgia

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Stone Mountain, Georgia

Stone Mountain is a large granite dome that reaches nearly 1,700 feet high with a circumference of approximately 5 miles. Located in Georgia, in a town sharing the same name, the side of the mountain displays a bas relief that depicts three key figures of the Confederate States of America: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

Unusual Monuments: Fremont Troll, Seattle

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:59:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Fremont Troll, Seattle

Lurking under a bridge in a quirky neighborhood of Seattle, the Fremont Trollstares down visitors with its one hubcap eye. The 18-foot-high troll, sculpted by artists in 1990 who received the commission after winning a national competition, clutches a Volkswagen Beetle in one hand.

Switzerland

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:57:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Switzerland

In the Swiss city of Bern, a disturbing fountain depicts an ogre devouring a naked child, while holding an armful of other terrified-looking children. Built in 1546, the Kindlifresserbrunnen, or child-eater statue, is said to depict the story of Kronos from Greek mythology, who eats his children to keep them from taking his throne. There are other legends about the statue’s origins, but regardless of its meaning it remains successful at reminding local children to behave.

Switzerland Unusual Monuments

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:56:00 +0000

>Unusual Monuments: Switzerland

Unusual Monuments: Crazy Horse Memorial

Begun in 1948, the still unfinished Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota will someday be the world’s largest sculpture, at a planned 563 feet high and 641 feet wide. The model pictured above, with the actual carving in the background, will immortalize the Oglala Lakota warrior, bare-chested and on horseback.

Unusual Monuments: Crazy Horse Memorial

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:54:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Crazy Horse Memorial

Unusual Monuments: Le Palais Ideal, France

Ferdinand Cheval was a French postman in the village of Hauterives in south-east France, who gathered stones on his mail route each day to build Le Palais Ideal, “The Ideal Palace.” The work took 33 years, from the late 1800s until the 1920s, mixes a variety of architectural styles, and drew inspiration from the Bible as well as other religious sources. Cheval is buried in a cemetery nearby, in a mausoleum he also constructed from stone.

Unusual Monuments

noreply@blogger.com (ROYAL) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:51:00 +0000

Unusual Monuments: Le Palais Ideal, France

Unusual Monuments: Carhenge

Monuments around the world honor important individuals or movements in politics, religion and history. The message and intent of most of these tributes is clear, but some are more obscure than others. Here are a dozen of the most unusual monuments around the world.

In the northwest corner of Nebraska, a unique replica of England’s Stonehenge rises out of the high plains. Carhenge was constructed in 1987 with vintage automobiles painted gray to replicate stone. The site was built by Jim Reinders as a memorial to his father, who once lived on a farm located where Carhenge stands today.