Travel blog
Bagan was the capital of the Burmese empire. He dazzled Marco Polo and still has a unique splendor. Its more than 4000 temples, more than 2000 in the archaeological site, are a sufficient reason to travel to the country of pagodas and the friendliest people …
The Forbidden City, everything you need to know. Located in the city center of Beijing, the Forbidden City is the greatest architectural example of the city’s imperial past. Considered the largest imperial residence in the world ever built. The Forbidden City of Beijing was declared …
The most beautiful natural landscape in the interior of Croatia, the Plitvice Lakes National Park (in Croatian: Nacionalni Park Plitvička jezera), is well worth a visit during our stay in Dubrovnik.
It is not a nearby excursion, since it is more than 400 kilometers away, but the wonder that awaits us there will compensate for the effort of the trip. As it is, as it happens in the Blue Lake in Iceland, a fascinating place due to its spa of thermal waters that without a doubt you cannot miss when traveling to Iceland.
Plitvice, which has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 1979, has an area of 30,000 hectares of forests, mainly leafy beech forests, although there are also fir trees and pine trees.
This forest mass is home to numerous animal species, including lynx, deer and various amphibian species that inhabit Plitvice lakes and streams.
A paradise of lakes and waterfalls.
The absolute protagonist of Plitvice Park is, however, water, which has modeled the landscape of these lands over millennia.
Hidden in the thicket are hidden 16 lakes of different sizes fed by the Korana River and communicated with each other by a dense network of waterfalls, canals, and waterfalls.
Plitvice lakes line up forming a long succession of just over five and a half kilometers.
Prošćansko: The second largest Plitvice lake.
Ciginovac
Okrugljak
Batinovac
Veliko
Bad
Vir
Galovac
Milino
Gradinsko
Veliki Burget
Kozjak: The largest and deepest, with 47 meters.
Milanovac
Gavanovac: Where the spectacular Milka Ternina waterfall is located, with 47 meters of fall.
Kaluđerovac: Where are the caves of Golubnjača and Šupljara.
Novakovića Brod.
The entire area of the park is encompassed within the karst area of southeastern Europe, whose main feature is the abundance of fragile and porous rocks, especially limestones, which gives rise to all kinds of caves, chasms, cracks and underground cavities.
The cave system is so complex that it has not yet been fully explored by speleologists. Even so, visitors to the park can go into some of them such as Golubnjača and Šupljara, on the banks of Lake Kaluđerovac, as well as those of Čudinka and Rodic, where remains of the gigantic Cave Bear have been found, an extinct species about 10,000 years
To get to Plitvice from Dubrovnik it is essential to have a vehicle, so the best option is to rent a car. A trip of four and a half hours awaits us, so it is advisable to make several stops along the way.
It is advisable to get up early and go first thing in the morning, as it is a very visited place, and the parking lot fills up quickly, when you arrive later, you park further. The entrance time in the Park from April is from 07.00 to 20.00, extending the closing time of the parking one more hour.
If you have not decided to rent a car but want to see the Plitvice Lakes, you can also arrive by bus, which depart from the main cities of the country: Zagreb, Split, Zadar.
The price of the entrance to the Plitivice Lakes National Park depends on what time of the year you go. In low season (from November to March, both inclusive) the price is 55 Kunas, in exchange they are just over 7 euros per person.
In mid season (April, May, June and September) the price is 150 Kunas per person, € 20.30, and high season (July and August) 250 Kunas, € 33.85 if you enter before 4 in the afternoon, after 4 in the afternoon the entrance fee is 150 Kunas, € 20.30.
The price includes the boat ride on the largest lake, and the journey in a kind of tourist train that brings you closer, both to go and to return, from the car parks to the park entrance.
The frequency of these two internal means of transport is approximately every half hour, and they only work in summer, from April to September.
Due to its popularity, on weekends and during the summer months many people go to the Plitvice Lakes, to enjoy a unique landscape in the world and to bathe in its blue waters.
However, visiting the park in winter is not a bad idea, especially if you are lucky enough to find the indescribable spectacle of frozen falls.
The Amalfi or Amalfi coast, with its natural and architectural landscape of great beauty, has attracted poets, artists and travelers from all over the world. In fact, it has been a place of exchange between the Islamic world and the West, rich in contrasts, the …
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There is no doubt, it is to think about Australia and in addition to the image of a kangaroo and a koala, the Sydney Opera House appears in your head. So much so that it is the number one tourist destination in the country, it cannot be missing in any travel itinerary through Australia and, of course, it is one of those places that you have to see in Sydney even if you have very little time.
Today there are many buildings with shapes completely removed from the classic vertical line. Sloping, bulging, undulating walls … abound in large cities.
But when the Sydney Opera House was built in the mid-twentieth century, the effect was almost as exciting as admiring the first Gothic cathedral. That which had only been an idea crossed out as impossible could be put into practice.
As it happened decades later with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the opera house put Sydney on the map. It mattered little that it was a concert hall, it could have been the building of a museum or a prison.
It was his groundbreaking design and his position on the bay that made up that image that was exported to the rest of the world.
Despite that, it was not until 34 years after its completion, in 2007, when it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
The visionary architect who designed the one that would become a symbol of the whole country was Jorn Utzon. By the name it seems that very Australian was not. Indeed, it was Danish. Together with architects from 31 other countries, he submitted to the international competition promoted by the state of New South Wales.
Despite the similarity of the shells, shells or vaults of the Sydney Opera House with the segments of an orange, it is not clear that it was based on them. Yes, there are those who say that the idea occurred when peeling an orange and opening its segments.
Nothing similar had been designed even less built until that moment. Obviously, he won the contest, but what less people know is that he never saw his finished building … and not because he died before finishing it.
He said the construction was about to end all the characters involved. Well, its architect was one of the first victims.
The tensions created throughout the process reached the limit in 1966, eight years after the start of the works and Utzon submitted his resignation, left Australia and never returned. To put things in context, the initial estimate was that the entire work would require a total of three years of work … and there were already eight.
Finally they ended up being sixteen years old and the seven million dollars became one hundred and two.
Jorn Utzon had never been to Sydney, nor to all of Australia, until he won the contest with 5,000 pounds of prize.
To defray the costs of the work, the state of New South Wales launched a lottery. Australians can say that the building is literally yours.
Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the building in 1973, although a “concert” had already taken place. In 1960 Paul Robeson sang “Ol’ Man River ”to the workers. That day, the seats were scaffolding.
1,056,000 bright white and cream ceramic tiles cover the building segments. Manufactured by a Swedish company, they are designed to clean themselves.
It is possible to visit the Sydney Opera House with guided tours of two types: the «classic» and the «backstage tour».
During the one-hour visit, some 300 steps are climbed, but there is a special tour for people with reduced mobility. The price is $ 40. It is possible to include dinner in the visit.
All information, and reservations, are available on their website.
The Temples of Angkor or Angkor Wat as they are popularly known, are one of those things to visit when one is traveling through Cambodia and Southeast Asia in general. Stone vestiges of one of the most important cultures in Asia, the Angkor Wat Temples …
The Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park is one of the most famous on the island and travel to Madagascar, sculpting around the gorges of the Manabolo River an impressive stony forest of huge and pointed calcareous needles, the Tsingy , local word meaning pinnacle. These …
Daigoji Temple is an important temple of the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism. One of the must-see in Kyoto, this temple becomes even more beautiful in autumn. Now is when his famous room Bentendo charges a special frame, all red, like the fire that seems to be reflected in the building.
UNESCO World Heritage Site, with many national treasures and cultural assets, the great complex of this temple covers the entire mountain of Daigo-san, and is one of the largest in Kyoto.
More than 80 buildings are divided between the bottom and the top of the mountain, connected through a spectacular hiking trail. Outside the usual tourist circuits, there are not usually many people, which will allow you to feel the peace and calm of this millenary site.
Upon entering the grounds of the Daigoji temple, the first thing we will find is the Sanboin, the former and elegant residence of the high priest, dating from 1115. Sanboin is an imperial temple and within this temple, you will find the Sanboin Garden, a national treasure that has 800 rocks. The current building was rebuilt and expanded, and is the place where the famous cherry blossom festival of Toyotomi Hideyoshi is celebrated.
The building is an excellent example of the extravagant Momoyama architecture that you should not miss. Just as the Temple of Abu Simbel is one of the jewels of Egypt, a huge shrine dedicated to Pharaoh Ramses II.
A few steps away, the Shimo Daigo area is where most of Daigoji’s other important buildings are located. Among them the Kondo Hall, or main hall, which was originally built in 926. The current building was relocated to Daigoji in 1599 and stores objects of worship and a statue of the Yakushi Buddha.
In this part of the complex there is a five-story pagoda, which is 38 meters high, and is currently the oldest building in Kyoto. Built in 951, the pagoda is the only structure that has come intact to this day, despite the fires that have destroyed Daigoji over the centuries.
And finally the most photographed construction of Daigoji, next to a pond in the back of the Shimo Daigo area, the Bentendo room, especially beautiful at the end of November, when it is surrounded by the intense colors of autumn.
Also in this area, the Reihokan Museum, preserves treasures and a large collection of historical documents and objects of temple art. Some of the most impressive trees in the temple are in the garden of this museum, cherry trees that reach exceptional beauty in April.
Daigoji is divided into two parts: kami and shimo, or what is the same, top and bottom. Most visitors stay at the bottom where the most famous buildings and the pagoda are located, but if you have time, it is worth climbing up to Kami Daigo, the top.
The road is beautiful and the historic buildings are surrounded by trees and bamboo forests.
It takes about an hour to climb the steep path but the route that passes through lonely wooden corridors among the trees of dense forest, is simply a unique experience.
A different way to enjoy nature, beauty, silence and views, which on clear days reach the city of Osaka.
In Kami Daigo we can see the Nyonindo or Hall of Women, the Seiryu Gongengu, a Shinto shrine dating from 1434, the Junteido that contains an image of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, and the Yakushido dating from 1121 and which is a national treasure, with an image of the Yakushi Nyorai, which is believed to have been carved in 907.
At the top of the hill there are three more buildings: Godaido, Nyoirindo and Kaisando, the latter two with beautiful cypress roofs dating back to the end of the 17th century.
Kyoto is one of the most beautiful cities in Japan, and in autumn the red and ocher colors take over their gardens, there is nothing like the magic of this season in this beautiful corner of Japan.
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