Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
The Gaj Dschami is the only mosque that survived Soviet times at Երևան, Armenia. It is a rather plain mosque dating back to the 18th century. Today it is a museum and it has a nice garden at its centre. It was restored during the last two decades with the help of Iran and is today owned by the Iranian embassy in Armenia. You can easily enter the grounds of the mosque and also access the mosque itself – just remember to take your shoes off.
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East of the city centre of Երևան, Armenia, you can find a mountain formerly covered with forest – the Zizernakaberd (swallows’ fortress). On its top, you can nowadays see two things: a giant sports and culture centre for up to 6,000 spectators and more important, the central remembrance place for the genocide against the Armenians in 1915. It is a catastrophic end of a long-lasting history of conflicts based on religion – between the Christian Armenians and the Muslim Turks.
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To be honest, the city of Mönchengladbach, Germany, isn’t such a beauty. If you want to visit a wonderful building you’ll have to travel a bit and search the castle Schloß Rheydt in the outskirts of the city. No worries: buses from the train stations (Hauptbahnhof, Rheydt) bring you there easily. It is a water castle created in Renaissance style between 1558 and 1591. The manor house is very beautiful and it is especially nice to get here in the evening hours when it is enlighted in warm colours. In 1940 Joseph Goebbels wanted to use it as a guest house, today you’ll find a good restaurant and an interesting museum here.
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If you’re a fan of the epic Star Wars saga (and who isn’t?) the exhibition Stars of the Galaxy at Mönchengladbach, Germany might be the right place for you to visit. In 2005 collectors started to exhibit their Star Wars collections in an old cinema at the city quarter Rheydt. In 2011 the combined collections moved to an even more bizarre location: the Berliner Bad or Kaiserbad – a former indoor swimming pool. Within the old pool itself you can now see a giant scene on the ice planet Hoth. The AT-AT dominating this battle scene is 4.5 meters high.
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The city of Mönchengladbach, Germany, is still today sometimes called Vitusstadt (city of Vitus). It is said that Vitus was a Pagan child in Sicilia, Italy and was converted to Christianity. Already as a small child, he is said to have worked wonders as a miracle healer. His father and also the Roman emperor Diocletian tried to punish and kill him – but they all failed. Torture didn’t work, boiling oil couldn’t kill him, lions wouldn’t eat him. He became one of the fourteen holy helpers and relics from his remains were considered really powerful.
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It is an interesting phenomenon how a movie can shape the image of a complete city quarter and bring many tourists there. Well, Notting Hill would be anyhow worth a trip – but because of the 1999 movie with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant this city quarter of London, United Kingdom gets much attention. People search for blue doors, the ‘Travel Book Co.‘ bookshop (which is in fact The Notting Hill Book Shop) and private gardens with high fences.
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One of the most beautiful places in Leverkusen, Germany, is the Japanese garden. It dates back to the year 1912 and is part of the Chempark – the collection of companies producing chemical products in the city. Since 1950 it is publicly accessible and you can enjoy having the feeling of being in Japan. There are nice lakes, Japanese temples, red maple trees, koi carps, and different statues. It is simply a wonderful place to relax, discover and enjoy life.
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If you want to enjoy good views on the skyline of ‚Mainhattan‘ the Main tower in Frankfurt, Germany is your best choice. A high-speed elevator brings you to the 54th floor and after taking stairs to the 56th floor you‘ll be on a partially roofed viewing platform with unhindered views on the skyline, the river Main and the complete city. On good days you cannot only see the Waldstation but also catch a glimpse on Feldberg mountain in the Taunus mountain range.
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The cathedral of Galway, Ireland officially is called Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and Saint Nicholas (or Ard-Eaglais Mhaighdean na Deastógála agus San Nioclás). A very long name for a beautiful house of prayer. The Roman-Catholic church was opened in 1965; it is a rather young church in old style. Or better said styles: Gothic, Byzantine and Romanesque styles can be observed.
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If you want to feel like walking on the moon you need to visit the Burren in the west of Ireland. In the Irish language, it is called An Bhoireann, which translates to ‘rocky place’; a very good description. As far as you can see there are only rocks with very little vegetation forming terraces. It is a typical Karst landscape that covers one percent of Ireland and which is interesting to walk through. Research shows that this region looked different until the bronze age and that human activity caused erosion and changed the landscape.
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