BULS

It’s easy to forget how recent the  vibrant urban leisure scene is - and how even in rural areas, traditional ways of life are being superseded. An evocative set of photographs on a fashion photography site, take you back to Kenya in the ‘twenties and ‘thirties. They include scenes of rural life, people, land and lake transport, towns and villages.

Kenya is now known for a vibrant urban leisure scene with resorts along the coast and cities such as Nairobi and Mombassa. If you’re planning an urban break - don’t forget all the other delights of East Africa - remember the safari opportunities and wild country that is still untouched.

Freight forwarding can be challenging in Norway, given that the mountainous terrain, intercut with deep valleys and fjords, can make internal transport and freight services difficult in the harsh winters.

However, the freight transport infrastructure in Norway continues to evolve to meet the challenges of the local geography and climate, with the use of transport by sea and waterways particular significant.

A recent report by the Norwegian Centre for Transport Research has been a spur to development as it identified that the international freight transport infrastructure should be improved to provide better access to domestic and international markets, saying that business was being held back by the transport infrastructure even in more urbanised areas..

There are now a number of improvements being made to the freight transport infrastructure, notably to the railway network by the state owned operator, NSB, which has invested in improving rolling stock and line speeds. The 4000 kilometre railroad system connects Oslo with Bergen and Stavanger as well as other larger towns and Sweden and full use is made of these by the freight company. A high speed rail connection also connects the international airport at Gardemoen, north of Oslo.

The railway is concentrated in the south of Norway, whilst most of the north is dependent on freight transport by road, air or boat.

The mountainous terrain is one reason why air transport is very important to the freight company in Norway. The air transport infrastructure is highly developed with no less than 58 airports in the country, nearly half of which are state owned.

The road network of some 57,000 miles is concentrated round the more populated areas, especially around Oslo.

But it is in the quality and breadth of its shipping and boat transport that Norway really stands out
Norway is heavily dependent on shipping and in fact it is one of the foremost shipping countries globally, with Norwegian merchant shipping companies owning 10% of the world’s total fleet. The fleet of offshore service ships is the second largest in the world, due to the size of Norway’s oil and gas industry. Norwegian shipping companies also control 25% of the passenger cruise boats in the world and 20% of chemical tankers and gas carriers worldwide.

Shipping is the lynchpin of the freight forwarding system in Norway. There are many ice-free harbours along the coast. The north and west coasts between the Russian border and Bergen make up a vital international freight route from the Atlantic into the Arctic Ocean.

It is a little known fact that Norway is the world’s biggest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia and Russia. This position has helped consolidate the country’s expertise, with many a specialist shipping company.

However, shipping is also vital on a smaller scale within Norway, with local ferry services a crucial means of transport throughout the country, even in the urban areas of Oslo and Bergen.

Norway has developed its transport infrastructure and freight services in ways that not only overcome the challenges created by its interior geography, but has also embraced the opportunities presented by its natural harbours and waterways.

Norway is truly a blueprint for the successful development of shipping companies worldwide.

Technorati Tags: Freight services, Transport

As gas prices reach record levels and fossil fuels diminish over time, consumer demand for alternative energy technology will do nothing but increase. In fact, urban electric vehicles, while rather novel in the United States, are more common in Europe, where population densities in metropolitan areas necessitated a search for alternatives to driving full size cars long ago.

The urban electric vehicle is essentially a very small car, typically a two-door hatchback designed to hold two to four passengers (and not much else). Relying on electricity as their primary power source, these vehicles are ideal for urban dwellers who need to get from point A to point B in cities crowded with full size vehicles. They are probably especially attractive to those who live in cities with poorly developed or unreliable public transportation systems.

According to the US Department of Energy, urban electric vehicles are considered regular passenger vehicles. Most contain the normal safety features and amenities American consumers have to come to expect: airbags, safety belts, and heaters and air conditioners. Current urban electric vehicles can reach top speeds of somewhere near 60 mph, and can go nearly 12 hours before needing to be recharged. This represents a significant improvement over earlier models, and should increase the acceptability of the technology among the general public.

Both Nissan and Ford are testing urban electric vehicles and Daimler-Chrysler is in contract to bring the original urban electric vehicle, the Zap! Smart Car into the United States. Previously, Smart Cars had to be imported from other countries, especially Canada, and modified to meet U.S. safety standards. Urban electric vehicles offer a range of benefits to drivers. Urban electric vehicles produce no emissions, which means they have the potential to reduce the harmful environmental impact of other forms of personal transportation. People who live in smog-filled cities may find this benefit especially attractive.

Second, urban electric vehicles, like hybrids and other advanced energy powered cars, often qualify for state and national tax credits. Some argue these credits can make up for the additional cost related to purchasing electric or hybrid vehicles. Finally, the urban electric vehicle’s small size make it an ideal choice for commuters in crowded cities. The compact nature of the urban electric vehicle makes it easier to drive in heavy traffic, and requires much less parking space. As cities become more crowded and gas gets more expensive, urban electric vehicles may be positioned for a massive jump in popularity.

Technorati Tags: electric vehicles, Transport, urban transport

Amsterdam the city on water is famous for its canals and museums. There could hardly be a better way of discovering the “Dutch Venice”. The boat’s time-table lets a person stop and get off as many times as one wish.

The three 17th-century canals one explore through Herengracht (Gentlemen’s Canal), Keizersgracht (Emperor’s Canal), and Prinsengracht (Princes’ Canal) are the very heart of Golden Age Amsterdam, emblems of the city’s wealth and pride in its heyday. One stroll by the side of miles of tree-lined canals and pass innumerable old canal houses with gables in various styles (bell, step, neck, and variations), classical facades, warehouses converted to apartments, houseboats, bridges, museums, cafes, restaurants, boutiques, offbeat stores, and battered bikes secured to lampposts.

West India House is the 17th-century headquarters of the Dutch West India Company that handled trade (including the slave trade) between Holland, the Americas, and Africa later became the offices of a social-welfare organization, and a Lutheran orphanage, and 18th-century brewery pakhuizen (warehouses) that have been turned into chic and expensive apartments combine to make this one of Amsterdam’s most photogenic corners.

Noordermarkt is an old market square hosts a Farmers’ Market for “bio” (organic) products. It is also a flea market during weekdays. Clothes that were fashionable a decade and more ago are, for some reason, highly esteemed, and dealers recycle everything from Golden Age antiques to yesterday’s junk.

The Noorderkerk (North Church), the last masterpiece by architect Hendrick de Keyser, the guiding hand behind many of Amsterdam’s historic churches, dominates the square. It’s something of a rarity in this nominally Calvinist city, since it has a large and active congregation. On the facade, a plaque recalls the February 1941 strike in protest at Nazi deportation of the city’s Jewish population. A three-figure sculpture-group outside recalls the dead and wounded from the 1934 Jordaanoproer, street riots to protest poverty, which were suppressed by the army.

One can trace the development of the rich folk’s wealth and tastes as one progress up the house numbers on Herengracht, and this section on both sides of the canal is just the top of the place. Built with old money around the 1670s, it is the fading afterglow of the Golden Age, when French-influenced neoclassicism was all the rage, they are in the main built of sandstone, rather than brick, on double lots with double steps and central entrances.

At Amstel River – the river is thick with houseboats and canal barges. To the left is the refurbished Blue Bridge over the river, built in 1884 on the lines of Paris’s Pont Alexandre III; to the right is the famous Skinny Bridge double drawbridge. To have a great view on the comings and goings on the water just step on to any bridge and have a great time.

Technorati Tags: Amsterdam, Urban Leisure

San Francisco Bay residents and travelers have many grand gardens and parks to be explored. San Francisco is one of the biggest metropolitan cities in the world and it boasts eye-catching and sophisticated parks and gardens.

Golden Gate Park is the best city landmark worth spending a glossy afternoon in or at the very least a turn through in your VW Campervan - or just to admire the VW Campervans that are often parked on display. It is larger than  New York City’s Central Park; Golden Gate Park is about 1,000-acres of fields, gardens and made up of wooded paths. Whether you are chartering a row boat at Stow Lake or tentative the over 6,000 plant species at Strybing Arboretum and at the Botanical Garden, the park has something amazing for every nature lover. Highlights of the park comprise Shakespeare Garden, the Conservatory of Flowers as well as the Japanese Tea Garden.

The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park is residential in a recently renovated Victorian glass makeup and is touted as the oldest public greenhouse in the western hemisphere. The greenhouse is actually open on Tuesday till Sunday. A nominal fee is obligatory for admittance to the greenhouse, but it is waived for the first Tuesday of every month.

The elegantly countryside Japanese Tea Garden of Golden Gate Park is full with cherry trees, shrubs, bonsai and wonderful pools of water. The highlights of this section of the park contain the huge bronze Buddha dating back to 1790, a Buddhist wooden pagoda and the Wishing Bridge.

Another exclusive park space at San Francisco is the Presidio that passed from the U.S. Army to the National Park Service during 1994. It’s worth a drive to although you won’t be able to camp - it doesn’t allow VW Campervans. The Presidio is one of  only a few urban national parks to unite historical, architectural and natural world elements in one space. The nearly 1,500-acre park contains coastal dunes, prairie grasslands and other assorted rare plant and the bird life. Founded during 1776 as a military post under the Spanish, the Presidio was a military muscular hold for nearly 220 years before attractive one of San Francisco’s most well-liked and historic attractions.

The city of San Francisco and its house have a strong link with nature and it shows with the city’s various, one of a type park and gardens. Visitors must be sure to spend some time discovering these wonderful nature preserves.

Amjath
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/parks-at-san-francisco-116557.html

Technorati Tags: San Francisco, San francisco parks, VW Campervan

It is unbelievable how nine days can just fly by. Today my brother, sister-in-law and our two Austrian friends are scheduled to fly back to Graz, Austria, via Vienna. There has been an increasingly palpable sense of sentimentality in the air, in light of the fact that this wonderful time is coming to an end alarmingly quickly.

It’s also amazing how many activities one is able to cram into a short amount of time. I wanted to give them a really good taste of everything that I love about the city of Toronto and my new country. So occasionally I put a few too many things on our plates and we ended up racing through a few of the activities. On the whole though, I think our European guests had a fabulous time and they fell in love with Toronto, just like I did, many years ago.

Saturday all six of us went off-raoding in a VW T25 syncro (known as Vanagons or Westfalias over her) - loads of mud and getting stuck. The we went golfing to a little par-3 golf course in the East end of Toronto. None of my Austrian guests had ever golfed before, so a couple of days earlier we started with a few buckets of balls at the driving range, followed up by an indoor putting practice session on the carpet. Saturday we would get to try the real thing. The attempts at the driving range didn’t look all that great, with balls spraying all over the place, to the left and to the right. But on Saturday afternoon, another gorgeous day, our four Austrian guests performed quite admirably and only lost 2 balls in the water hazard.

They really enjoyed golf, a sport they had never even dreamed of playing, but the Toronto area with its several hundred golf courses, many of them reasonably priced, made it easy to give this sport a try. All preconceived notions about golf only being a sport for old people went out the window, and they enjoyed the challenge of trying to sink the round little ball in the hole.

Sunday came our second big excursion: a driving tour through the Kawartha Lakes (again in the VW T25). I had only planned two major driving tours: a wine-tasting tour through the Niagara Peninsula, and a second one to the lake district of the Kawarthas. We started by driving east on Toronto’s 401, a 12 to 16 lane highway whose size duly impressed my European visitors. Then we headed north-east through rolling farm country to Peterborough, a rural university town with a population of about 70,000. From there we drove north into the Kawarthas, a gorgeous lake region set in the rocky landscape of the Canadian Shield.

Our first stop was Buckhorn, where we watched the mechanics of lift locks of the Trent-Severn Canal that links Lake Ontario with Georgian Bay. We saw how several boats assembled inside the lock following by an opening of the sluices and the water level equilibrating itself with the level of the lower portion of the river. The Parks Canada lock supervisor explained the whole process to us and it only took about 10 minutes for the boats to reach the lower level.

From Buckhorn we drove through rocky and marshy countryside to the quaint village of Bobcaygeon where we took an extended stroll. We had a nice waterfront lunch, looking across to the marina, seeing the the boats come in an out of the canal. Particularly our Austrian friends Luis and Isabella love boating and seeing the many houseboats on the Trent-Severn Canal gave them a few ideas for future vacations in Canada.

The lunch was delicious and we took a little stroll around this charming town, admiring the waterfront parks and picnic facilities that allow great access to the water. From Bobcaygeon we drove on to another little picturesque country town: Fenelon Falls, whose name comes from a waterfall in the middle of town that has been used for electricity generation since the 1870s.

After a sizeable line-up we picked up a few delicious cones of Kawartha Dairy ice cream and strolled over to the bridge over the falls and then down to the little peninsula that sticks out into the river. From there you can look into a rocky gorge where both sides of the river are surrounded by high rocks.

Again, we watched boats being lifted and lowered, this time in lock 33 of the Trent-Severn Canal System. This is another town with a beautiful little park right by the locks with lots of opportunity for barbeques or simply for a relaxing snooze in the sun . Time was flying by and by this time it was already 3:30 pm so we had to start our return to the city. We only took back roads and my brother lost count of the numerous golf courses that dotted the landscape. It was a nice relaxing drive through rolling countryside and we made it back to Toronto in less than 2 hours. All four of my Austrian guests had fallen in love with the Lake District and the prospect of another vacation in Canada to explore the waters north of Toronto seems ever more likely.

Yesterday was their last full day in Toronto, and we took our bikes out for a spin one more time. Since we all love water we rode down to the Eastern Beaches again, and leisurely explored the waterfront. We watched some lawn bowling, and one of the participants kept coming over to us to explain the rules of the game to us since none of us was familiar with this sport. My guests commented several times on the friendliness of people in the stores, restaurants, in line-ups and even I myself was surprised at the approachability of Torontonians, often known as a more reserved breed of people. But we truly kept having very positive experiences, equally with people employed in the service sector, as well as with regular citizens, taking a stroll, playing a game of lawn bowling or going for a walk with their dog.

Of course we admired the inukshuks by the beach, a public play area for adults with rocks of various shapes and sizes that are used by passers-by to create interesting stone sculptures. We watched a few tense points at the Kew Gardens Tennis Club, and checked out the picturesque Kew Gardens park itself. From there we headed west past the beach volleyball facilities to the little peninsula west of Ashbridges Bay which always offers a fabulous view of Toronto’s skyline. We took in the tranquil atmosphere and soaked in the sun for a while before we started our return back along the waterfront. My European visitors commented several times how incredible it is to have all this publicly accessible land right along the waterfront and how in some secluded spots you don’t even realize that you are in a major metropolitan area.

To get back up to our house we had to climb back up from the waterfront and this time we chose the Glen Stewart Ravine, where a little brook has carved a valley into the slopes leading down to the waterfront. It is a densely forested area and when you are in there it feels like you are in a remote forest somewhere, not right in the middle of Toronto.

Once back at our house, preparation got started for our final goodbye barbeque and we had invited a few extra friends to join us to give our Austrian guests a proper sendoff back home. We enjoyed some excellent food and they sampled a few more varieties of Canadian wines and beers, all of which they had commented quite favourably on. We didn’t sample much restaurant cuisine since my brother is a talented chef, but the fresh ingredients that he purchased in Toronto’s various markets made for some truly delicious dinners.

In the evening we took one more spin in the car, first to revisit the Distillery District at night. Luis had wanted to buy some beer glasses at the Mill Street Brewery as a souvenir, but unfortunately the brewery and restaurant were closed. The whole Distillery area was a little quiet, not surprisingly, since it was Labour Day, the last official day of summer, and the final day of respite before school would begin again. We continued our driving tour with a little spin through downtown and up Yonge Street before we turned east on Bloor Street. We crossed the Bloor Street Viaduct and arrived on the Danforth, Toronto’s Greek area. As always, Greektown was quite busy and people were milling about. We sat down on the patio of one of our favourite restaurants and enjoyed some Greek snacks before we headed home after another long day, all of us a little sad, commenting how nine days can pass so quickly.

Today we’ll have to take their four rented bicycles back and around 2:30 we’ll have to start the trek to the airport. It’s been a fabulous 9 days, an extended sleepover with four great people and we won’t forget this holiday for a long, long time. We are already hoping for another reunion, either in Austria, or back here in Canada, to deepen this fabulous connection.

Susanne Pacher
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/hello-from-toronto-part-5-novice-golf-driving-through-the-kawarthas-a-little-offroad-mountainbiking–101689.html

Technorati Tags: golf, mountain-biking, Toronto, VW t25, VW t25 syncro

There are so many awesome things to do in San Diego that you need a way to get around and see them all. And unless you know someone who lives there, you need some help. Old Town Trolley Tours might just be your answer. It was ours. These tours are San Diegos only regularly scheduled on-and-off, fully narrated tour of San Diego and Coronado. Colorful anecdotes, humorous stories and historical information are combined into a fast paced, two hour narrative that will both entertain and educate.

We started our tour at the Cruise Ship Terminal. There was free parking there on weekends so we left our VW T25 there. Plus, we got to tour the waterfront before the tour began. That saved us another stop. After the tour we also decided to take a sunset bay cruise so ending the tour at the waterfront helped us in that regard as well. All we did was step off the trolley and straight onto the boat. Some of the better seafood restaurants are in the area as well.

We could not have chosen a better spot to start our tour.The trolley tours through San Diego and Coronado on a continuous loop. Start the tour at any one of the stops throughout the day. Stay on board the trolley and get a fascinating narrative and a great overview of San Diego until you return to your starting point in about two hours. Or hop off the trolley at a few of your favorite sites then reboard and continue on with the tour until you return to the starting point. The earlier you start the more time you will have for visiting San Diego attractions, shopping, and dining.

You only get one go around, so if you plan your stops beforehand you can make a day of it. In fact you can see all the best places and things to do in San Diego on the tour in one day.

There are ten stops around the city:
Old Town State Park
Cruise Ship Terminal
Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum
Seaport Village
Marriot Hotel and Marina
Horton Plaza
William Heath Davis House
Coronado
San Diego Zoo
El Prado

You can spend hours or even a full day in any of these stops, especially if you like to shop. Restaurants and dining facilities are all over and at every stop as well.

If you love the beach you will want to stop at the island of Coronado. They have a beautiful beach and a historic hotel that has been made famous in several movies. The trip across the bridge to the island is also a must do just for the view.

We skipped the stop at the Aircraft Carrier but we did enjoy the stop at Seaport Village. And we went back there after the tour was over for dinner and a wonderful evening stroll.

Balboa Park, which is the El Prado stop, was also a great place to stop and stroll. There are so many museums to visit it can take you several days. If you go on a weekend, there are also street performers and vendors as well. An added bonus is the free trolley tour of the park which is provided for all park guests and not connected to the Old Town Trolleys. The San Diego Zoo is also in the park and you can visit here as well, but I recommend you send a whole day there.

Horton Plaza is the place for shopping. They have all the large stores and smaller boutiques as well. Old Town State Park is the stop for experiencing San Diegos Mexican heritage. Great Mexican restaurants, shops, and cantinas abound.

Normally tour guides are fountains of information. But these tour guides not only knew their stuff, but they had audio clips that served as jokes as well. Sitting on a trolley was a bit more fun than sitting on a coach bus.

If you have only one day to send in San Diego, this is the tour you want to take. It is cheap and it covers everything worth seeing. Plus you get to decide where you want to spend the most time.

Ameen Kamadia
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/things-to-do-in-san-diego-ca-old-town-trolley-tours-56902.html

Technorati Tags: San Diego, trolley bus, Urban Leisure, VW t25