Showing posts with label Architecture. Show all posts

A Water Bridge in Germany !

The Magdeburg Water Bridge is a navigable aqueduct in Germany that connects the Elbe-Havel Canal to the Mittelland Canal, and allows ships to cross over the Elbe River. At 918 meters, it is the longest navigable aqueduct in the world.
The Elbe-Havel and Mittelland canals had previously met near Magdeburg but on opposite sides of the Elbe. Ships moving between the two had to make a 12-kilometer detour, descending from the Mittelland Canal through the Rothensee boat lift into the Elbe, then sailing downstream on the river, before entering the Elbe-Havel Canal through Niegripp lock. Low water levels in the Elbe often prevented fully laden canal barges from making this crossing, requiring time-consuming off-loading of cargo.





 Construction of the water link was started as early as in the 1930s but due to the World War 2 and subsequent division of Germany the work remained suspended till 1997. The aqueduct was finally completed and opened to the public in 2003.


























References:
Wikipedia
How Stuff Works
Wired/WiredScience
Rumormillnews

Bosnia: A Mix Of Oriental And European Styles


You might not have ever been to Bosnia but you could have seen movies directed by Emir Kusturica who is a Serbian director of a Bosnian origin. His 1998 Yugoslav Romantic comedy film 'Black Cat, White Cat' is considered by many one of the best comedies. He also directed other movies devoted to the Balcan problem as the fate of his Motherland worried him a lot. Let's make a journey into Bosnia, a country that can make you fall in love with it!



Living conditions of the Bosnian people. The apartment blocks look nice and cozy.

The center of Sarajevo can be reached following the long road with tram lines in the middle.
Pictures below show the view of the evening Sarajevo, a beautiful city built in the Oriental style.

It may be not that easy to find a hotel as well as a paid parking lot.



A three star hotel with breakfast, Internet and parking lot can cost you 40 Euro a day.



Today there is a strong connection between Bosnia and Turkey. Turkish Airlines and Air Bosnia make 14 flights a week from Istanbul to Sarajevo and from Sarajevo to Istanbul.


Sarajevo still has much in common with other European cities.




The city has a plenty of orthodox and catholic churches, mosques and synagogues. It seems strange how people belonging to different confessions and living together for ages could start a murderous war at once.











Sarajevo has seen even more global conflicts shared not only by countries of the former Yugoslavia but many other countries as well. On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip participated in the assassination in Sarajevo of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand which led to beginning of World War I. The assassination attempt was made several meters away from the bridge.

The LP guide has a small page devoted to Sarajevo roses. It's true to life as roses here grow everywhere.




The semi-destructed church looked interesting.



Travnik is a beautiful city with a magnificent temple on the top of the mountain.






Cows are feeding on the hills reminding of Switzerland.





An area called Plava Voda is one of the central places in Travnik where restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops are situated.
















Donji Vakuf is a small town with a clock-tower and a beautiful mosque.







Jaice is famous with its waterfall and ancient fortress.



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7 Buildings Shaped What They Sell

1. The Longaberger Company, Newark, OH




Longaberger is known for its handcrafted maple baskets, so its headquarters are obviously shaped like a giant basket. Not just any old basket, though. It’s a Longaberger Medium Market Basket that’s been blown up to 160 times its normal size. The basket includes a seven-story atrium, heated handles that prevent ice formation, and two 725-pound gold leaf Longaberger tags. Want to take a look the next time you’re in Ohio? Longaberger has visiting hours!


2. Twistee Treat Ice Cream




Between 1983 and the mid-1990s, Twistee Treat opened 90 or so ice cream shops around the country, and each one is shaped like a delicious cone of soft-serve vanilla. Want your own towering cone? A completely stocked one in Zephyrhills, Florida, is on the market for a mere $475,000. Or, if you’re on a budget but good with tools, the same listing also offers “A Separate Dismantled Ice Cream Cone Building” at the bargain price of $40,000.


3. Kansas City Public Library’s Parking Garage




Parking garages are usually eyesores, but this one’s beautiful. The garage for Kansas City’s Library is cleverly concealed behind what look like the bindings of 22 giant books. What’s really terrific is that local residents got to help pick what books would get the nod for 25-foot renderings on the side of the garage. Some of the tiles that made the cut: Catch-22, Invisible Man, The Lord of the Rings, Silent Spring, and Charlotte’s Web.


4. House of Free Creativity, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan


Kansas City doesn’t have a monopoly on book-shaped buildings, though. Turkmenistan cut the ribbon on this open book in 2006 as part of an effort to create a comfortable environment for journalists. Of course, “free creativity” may be a bit of a stretch. The journalists in question all work for Turkmenistan’s state-run press, and the country had no foreign or private media and very little open Internet access when the building opened during the reign of the late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov.


5. The Hood Milk Bottle




This one’s a Boston institution. In 1933, Arthur Gagnon wanted to open an ice cream stand in nearby Taunton, and he designed his new business to look like a giant milk bottle. After several changes in ownership (and a sail from Quincy to Boston proper), the structure is now known as the Hood Milk Bottle and resides at the Children’s Museum. It’s 40 feet tall and could hold 58,000 gallons of milk.


6. United Equipment Company, Turlock, CA




United sells and rents heavy equipment like compactors and excavators, so it’s only natural that the company’s headquarters building is shaped like a two-story yellow bulldozer. The bulldozer building, which opened in 1976, is “using” its redwood treads and giant blade to move a pile of boulders. 


7. The Phoenix Financial Center, Phoenix, AZ




Financial services made early use of massive punch-card-driven computers, and the Phoenix Financial Center looks as if it’s offering an odd tribute to this antiquated technology. The entire building has narrow slits for windows and looks like an oversized punch card. According to Phoenix’s municipal government, though, the resemblance was purely accidental; the narrow windows are there to minimize the effects of the hot desert sun on the building’s air conditioning bills. Nevertheless, local residents still refer to it as “the Punchcard Building.” 



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