10 Miniature City Marvels Around the World
Posted September 30, 2009 , comments closed10 Miniature City Marvels Around the World
If you’ve ever read the book Gulliver’s Travels, and wondered how Gulliver felt when he was washed ashore from his shipwreck and woke up in a land of tiny people called Lilliput, here’s your opportunity to find out.
You probably won’t get tied up and find yourself in the middle of a war of tiny nations, but you will get to see some astounding miniature buildings. The attention to detail at these parks is hard to believe. You’ll find yourself wondering how the designers created such intricate, exact replicas.
Bekonscot Model Village and Railroad – United Kingdom
This miniature park is located just 10 minutes outside of London in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. It was constructed in 1929, making it the oldest park of it’s kind in the world. Walking through the two-acre site will undoubtedly give you a glimpse of what English country life was like in the 1930‘s.
It was built in the back garden of the designer, around his swimming pool (which he used to represent the sea) as entertainment for his guests. Much later it became a tourist attraction. The six model villages are all make-believe places with shops that have silly names like the Lee Key Plumbers Merchants.
Wander through the colorful gardens, take a train ride around the property, stroll along the elevated walkway, play with the radio-controlled boats and enjoy the picnic area.
Madurodam – The Netherlands
This was a great park that we visited when my children were small. They thought it was incredible that they were bigger than the buildings and it was fun to watch them race down the paths, stopping occasionally in front of a structure that they recognized from our travels through this small country.
While strolling through the miniature city you’ll see gabled houses, canals, windmills, cows, canal boats and other typical Dutch scenes. You’ll even find a mini version of Schiphol airport, which took two years and four months to complete. The detail in this park is so amazing that you’ll enjoy it even if you are traveling without kids.
The park is located in the Hague, just outside of Amsterdam. A route guide to help you navigate the park is available in 13 different languages.
Cockington Green Gardens – Australia
This park opened about 30 years ago and is still a family owned establishment. It’s so well done that it’s won several tourism awards. The gardens are located about 15 minutes outside of Canberra.
The original models include the thatched roof village of Cockington in Great Britain, Baraemar Castle in Scotland and Stonehenge. Since then, the owners have added an international area where you’ll see the Lahore Gate and Red Fort from India, St. Mark’s Church from Croatia, the Palace of Darius – Perspolis from Iran and a lot more.
Along with the miniatures there is also a cafe, a small steam train ride, a mini train display, lovely gardens that sprawl across a two acre area, and an indoor exhibit area which currently displays an incredible 34 room Georgian style doll house.
Window of the World – China
Located in the city of Shenzhen, this is a park where you can spend a good portion of a day and see 130 of the world’s most incredible sights. You’ll wonder why you bothered to travel the planet when you could have seen everything in one place.
Set on 148 acres, you’ll find replicas of a 354-foot tall Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles, the Acropolis, the Pyramids, the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal, Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Canyon and on and on. The displays in the park are built at ratios of 1:1, 1: 5 and 1:15.
If you like, you can choose different adventure trips to experience while you are visiting including skiing in the indoor alpine area or navigating the Colorado River. There are also several festivals each year hosted at the park – the Cherry Festival, International Beer Festival, Pop Music Festival, World Dance and Singing Gala and others.
Swiss Miniatur – Switzerland
This open-air miniature park is located in Melide on the shores of Lake Lugano. It was built about 50 years ago with the goal of representing a smaller version of the country of Switzerland. All of the models are built on a scale of 1:25.
Inside the park you’ll discover 120 replicas of houses, castles and cathedrals that represent life in Switzerland including Burgdorf Castle and Chillon Castle. There is also a wonderful display called Heidi’s Village in Maienfeld, which is a must-see for anyone who read and enjoyed the book.
For the train lover, there is an extensive miniature train display that includes 11,500 feet of track and 18 moving trains. This outdoor park is open from mid-March through mid-November.
Forbidden Gardens – United States
This park, which is located in Katy, Texas, about 25 miles outside of Houston, was built in 1997 by a Hong Kong native living in the United States. His idea behind the development of the park was the hope of educating people about the history and culture of ancient China.
The sprawling park sits on 40 acres and inside you’ll find replicas of the Forbidden City, the Terra Cotta Warriors, the Summer Palace and more. If you visit with your kids on Asian Adventure Day (which needs to be booked in advance) they will get a guided historical tour, and have a craft activity like making Chinese opera masks or paper lanterns.
Ave Maria Grotto – United States
This unusual park sits on four acres of a Benedictine Abbey in Cullman, Alabama. It was constructed over a 40-year period by a monk named Brother Joseph Zoetti. He built the 125 miniatures of famous churches, shrines and other buildings out of, well, basically junk that people donated for the cause – glass, marble, costume jewelry, broken tiles, whatever, along with some cement and other building materials.
As you walk down a forested trail you’ll pass by replicas of St. Peter’s Basilica, various Spanish missions, scenes of ancient Jerusalem and even a Tower of Babel. What started as a hobby for him became a life’s work and has been written about in a book entitled Miniature Miracles.
Mini Israel – Israel
This park is symbolically laid out in the shape of the star of David, with each point representing a specific area – Tel Aviv, Haifa, Negev, Jerusalem, Galil and Center. In it you’ll find 350 structures which have historical, cultural and religious importance to Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
The models were built on a ratio of 1:25 and completed in 2002 by a diverse team of designers, architects and model builders from different areas and various religious affiliations. It is located in the Avalon Valley near the city of Latrun.
Along with all of the religious structures you’ll also see live bonsai trees, about 30,000 figurines of people, 500 figures of animals, and close to 5,000 mini automobiles, trains motorcycles and airplanes.
Mini Europe – Belgium
After spending a few hours at this park in Brussels, you’ll feel like you’ve visited all of Europe. The models are a representation of 80 cities consisting of 350 buildings. You’ll see things like the Viking Ring Fort of Denmark, the City Hall of Stockholm, the Doge’s Palace in Venice, the Acropolis of Athens and the Houses of Parliament in London.
This park is very well known for the quality of the models. Many of them were quite expensive to build (hundreds of thousands of dollars.) Some of the models were gifts donated by the country represented. Many of the models actually work, like an erupting Vesuvius.
Tobu World Square – Japan
Let’s face it, most people are not going to get to that many UNESCO World Heritage Sites. But, if you make it to this park you’ll at least get to see 42 of them in a miniature 1:25 scale. Some of the models include the Great Wall of China, Parthenon, Statue of Liberty, Sphinx and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The creators of the park paid very close attention to detail during the five years of building. In fact, you may want to bring binoculars so you can get a really up-close look at the engravings, reliefs and stained glass found on some of the models. Every display has been well thought out – a great example of this is Tokyo Station surrounded by hordes of miniature people.
Read about author Deanna Hyland and check out her other BootsnAll articles
Photo credits:
Bekonscot by bortescristian on Flickr, Madurodam by przemion on Flickr, Cockington Gardens by mecookie on Flickr, Window of the World by dcmaster on Flickr, Swiss Miniatur by MnGyver on Flickr, Forbidden Gardens by Mr. Kimberly on Flickr, Ave Maria Grotto by southerntabitha on Flickr, Mini Israel by Templar1307 on Flickr, Mini Europe by Crispy Rice on Flickr, Tobu World Square by scion_cho on Flickr
Text2Fly - African Mobiles "speak English" to Check Flight Schedules
Posted September 29, 2009 , comments closed) Text2Fly is a new way of searching for flight schedules by sending a text message that appears to be an English language sentence. The airline schedules arrive in a few seconds.
Leading commentators have predicted that Africa will be a hot bed of mobile innovation. A new mobile service that lets you check Nigerian flight schedules using plain old Sms proves just that.
Sms is a difficult medium for an application that would normally require lists of cities and other prompts to guide the user. But Text2Fly makes it easy by letting users enter what appears to be an English language sentence for example, “From lagos to abuja on thurdsay at 3pm”.
It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Timi Agama, the founder and CEO says “Text2Fly is so simple even your mother can use it. And your flight schedules arrive on your phone in seconds.”
This approach to delivering an application by Sms is patented and brand new. In theory it can be applied to searching for train times in London or bus schedules in New York.
Nigeria is the largest economy in West Africa and, with over 5 million domestic seats sold annually, has the most vibrant aviation sector.
However the “simple” task of finding flight schedules in Nigeria is much more difficult than it needs to be. Some people send their driver to get flight schedules from the airline ticketing office, but in a busy city like Lagos a short trip can take an hour in each direction. Others look in newspapers, but the papers only show the current day’s flights while Text2Fly lets you search a week ahead. Besides, not all papers carry the Nigerian flight schedules. A further option is to search online, but then you have to go to the web site of every single airline in a country where Internet access is very slow.
Text2Fly is like having a travel agent in your pocket. So to have a little less hassle when you travel, visit text2fly.com.ng to find out more.
Text2Fly is a product of Anthill Digital Limited, a Nigerian provider of innovative web-based solutions.
Jack’s Monopoly Guide to London
Posted September 24, 2009 , comments closedNow, I’ve played plenny of board games – scrabble, draughts (or chequers if you will), a spot of chess as a young’un, and word has it maybe even a spot of Trouble, though not that I’d own up to that with less than a sixpack on the table.
London town had come a-calling, so seemed it was time for the ultimate bored game, why not a round of Monopoly? But mind you, given some of the prices you’d find in the ‘spensive parts of Ol’ Blighty, you’d have to be Rich Uncle Pennybags himself to afford a beer or five if you was to play the Monopoly drinking game. And given I’m not one to do as I’m told, drinking on queue could be added to that list, ‘specially if the mood and lighting ain’t quite right.
Have monopolies, will travel
So, I’m told that “The game is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market by a single entity.” Happy to be that single entotty, and without ample warning to the ports of England, I planned to take the place by storm and force whatever mon-archy there may be to their knees until they cry Oligarchy, which I have on good word is An-archy’s half-brother in-law, twice removed.
Jack goes on a monopoly lookabout in London
Yessiree, the plan to put as many hotels on top of as many train stations, free houses and half-owned streets was the plan, and the means, well cough up for an Oyster and you are more than half-way there.
Johnno had taken more than his fair share of time getting down to the Off Licence (Bottle-o as the folks back home would have it known), so in a hurry to get the game started and rolling dicewards, my hesitation at ripping the oversized fuzzy dice off the rear view mirror of his panel van was a little more short lived that it would have been, if he was standing in the lounge room holding a couple of those super strength London’s finest “Golden Pride” proudly aloft in his hairy little mittens.
But Johnno’s finer points aside, I was ready for the ultimate bard game, that’s right I was gonna own London itself! Even if it was only bounded by the unsurveyed fences of my under-utiliitised mind, where a man can run all the Power Companies himself, regardless of how many trips to the Water Works are required, or how many times you’ve won $10 in an urban beautification contest. Thought I could start off small and local and make a visit to the Community Chest, y’know, take a bit of a Chance – but when I asked her, she wasn’t interested and was lucky to get off without a slap in the face.
Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. To town it is then.
London Monopoly: To the circus!
Stop One was Oxford Circus – no, not one for the kiddies with fairground attractions and rides and fun for all the family. This stop managed to get me my first Hotel as well as landing on the corner of two streets – Oxford and Regent. Skipping off down Regent a stone’s throw away had me at Langham Place, opposite the mightily venerated BBC, home of er, BBC1, 2 and 3, but I think 4 is somewhere else.
Across the road was the Langham Hotel – told ‘em who I was and rather than show me the door they showed me around. A bar that said BAR, made from the finest quality marble and old money itself, a Tea Room that (now let me show you my tea prowess) with the right cup of hand-cut Uji Japanese Sencha green tea will have you seeing through time with all the right accoutrements and knobs on (amazing stuff hanging from the tea room ceiling). And not to forget a Grand Ballroom that is grand and could easily accommodate a ball in its roominess. Tick, tick, tick – boxes checked, rent paid, Hotel placed on Regent Street.
Round the back of the Palladium and via Great Marlborough Street (was the Monopoly board missing the Great there?) I headed back up to the Circus and made for Victoria Street just in time to catch that naughty little number 11 double-decker bus (upstairs front row Seat of Death anyone?) about to sneak off to Liverpool Street. So I jumped the bugger when he weren’t looking and rode that bus like a broken buck mule on its merry way round the whistle-stop Monopoly lookabout tour.
London lookabout tour
Wending up past Westminster Abbey and Parliament in time to catch the changing of the guard and the household Calvalry, I spied a massive stone erection in the approaching square. “Alas poor Horatio, I knew him well, Yorrick”, Yoda once mumbled to me after a night on the whiskey of Scotch, and indeed it was. Nelson with a pillar up his clacker high up in the air, declaring something in geological time and marking the spot where Trafalgar Square had been won in the bloody battle of Passing Jail (I think).
But in fact I believe, never to let a gaming opportunity go by, he was pointing to a free house! “London Moon of the Mall” (of course), so I notched that up then: four properties, one hotel and one house. I was putting the winner back into weiner faster than you could say, “Um, yeah, sure, right.”
Bond Street: Jack’s looking for Rich Uncle Pennybags himself to afford it
Another roll of the invisible fuzzy dice had the bus rolling up the Strand, past the Adelphi Theatre, another quick Hotel was stacked on, courtesy of the Waldorf Hilton (a healthy high class, tossed salad establishment). Next the Belgravia Hotel obliged as Fleet Street came by and though I heard not the clackety-clack of the journalist ridden typewriters of the newspapers that, well at least in cheap paperback novels, made the Fleet Street name famous, it was more apt I reckoned, given the ways of the English papers, that the Old Bailey was easily seen across the way – rough justice served daily, condiments extra.
Liverpool Street was little more than a station, a great sprawling train interchange replete with info-confusion and the continental-cum-English confusion of whether to walk on the left or the right side of any given path. No Hotels here so out the door I went, jumping a train round to Kings Cross, sharing its quarters with the patron saint of heavy drinkers, St Pancreas, and on out of town I went. Given Monopoly is a little bit older than the contemporary London situation, there were no airports on the board (though I think Fenchurch Station never existed, it was always just a t-shirt brand, if my keen fashion eye is to be believed). Stand-instead Airport had me intrigued and as I was headed out I crawled my way past Whitechapel, and its overflowing street markets sitting right by the Royal Hospital (managed to dodge that hospital bill that jumped out at me by Chance). Bow Road, not street, wiggled past, full of car yards but not a hotel to be seen, so I cut my losses and headed for the king of the board: Mayfair.
A district not a place, Mayfair would be the one to stack those hotels high, get me some rent set up and some cocktails knocked back. I made my way round past the culinary delights and bars lurking round the Angel Islington, said no to Smoking and avoided Pall Mall, had a touch of Free Parking while I dropped the kids off at Picadilly Circus, and some fine shopping without the Super Tax as I rounded Bond Street. With the Park Lane under my feet and Hyde Park in my sights (the starlight hotel doesn’t count I don’t think, spotting some real estate barons-to-be sleeping under newspaper blankets on the Park’s perimeter) I came up upon the Blue patch of Monopoly gold – round from Soho, Mayfair stood like the shimmering diamond of the day’s hard fought riches!
Verily, the hours whirl past
Verily, the hours whirled past like a minute hand whirring round a Looney Tunes clock - Yoda dropped by for a double, the Margaritas became Martinis which left me shaken but not stirred. New friends were made and lost as the line between Monopoly money and real money blurred.
Seemed the next morning I’d made the front page. A fresh copy of the newspaper across my crumpled suit, a rock for a pillow and the hot London summer sun ablaze on my newsprint-stained face – the hangover that stumbled within the long Kubrick-esque Hotels of my mind, grasping only fantasms of the day-before’s unofficial auctions – seems I’d won the lot and spent it, now down on my luck – the only property (or was it a card?) I’d retained had me advanced to the next Utility where I was assessed for Street Repairs. Without it, my life, my insurance, and perhaps I, had matured, and learnt that only a Squatter could truly own the world and not lose it in one day.
-Jack Brown
Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s London tours and things to do in London.
Viator.com Earns Top 10 Web Award from TRAVELtech
Posted , comments closedYou may have read earlier about Viator.com being nominated for the TRAVELtech 2009 Website of The Year award (click here if you missed it).
TRAVELtech honors the top travel websites in Australia. And yes, mate, Viator has Australian roots! Viator was founded and maintains a strong presence in Australia (along with our offices in San Francisco, Las Vegas and London). And we were honored to be on TRAVELtech’s shortlist of Australia’s top travel websites.
And then just last week, we were even more honored for Viator.com to be named one of Australia’s Top 10 travel websites! Our friends at LonelyPlanet.com took top honors, so congrats to the LP team. Viator was among 8 other sites recognized for travel greatness, including Qantas.com, Worldnomads.com, Hotelscombined.com, Stayz.com.au and Flighcentre.com.au.
Congratulations to all the winners. While many of our businesses were ‘born’ Down Under, so to speak, it’s impressive how global and international Australia’s top travel sites have become.
Viator.com - a TRAVELtech Top 10 travel website!
-Viator Travel Team
The Beatles on Tour
Posted , comments closedI’ll start off with a confession, I am becoming hopelessly addicted to Beatles Rock Band, I would play it eight days a week. My brother and I are big Beatles fans, so naturally we got the game, and despite genetic advantages, are still trying to get our high harmonies in sync.
Let’s just say I have new respect for the Beatles’ skills since they could score a double or triple fab every time, and we are still trying to get a couple per song consistently. Still my brother’s rock band guitar gently weeps.
A Fab Four of Viator Travelers on Abbey Road
Try to see it my way
But I digress. My burgeoning obsession got me thinking about why I like the Beatles so much and one reason, I think, is that they were great ambassadors of travel. Try to see it my way, only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong.
One reason people travel is that they find it renewing, even inspiring. Think about the White Album, many argue the greatest Beatles album, largely composed while the Beatles took their famous spiritual journey to India, and possibly kicking off a whole travel trend of hippie kids journeying to India to find themselves. You don’t need me to show the way, love.
Or let’s go back even further, we can work it out. Remember when they hopped the pond to the USA? The Beatlemania screaming girl glamor of them stepping off the plane to greet a whole new nation of fans. And then the famous touring years - Tokyo, Shea Stadium in New York, Australia. I’d also be remiss not to point out the movies from around this period, Help! is a mishmash of sequences shot all over England, Salzburg / the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas.
Come together, right now
Beatles Story Museum
Let’s get back to where they once belonged. Who’d heard of, or cared about Liverpool before the Beatles? They’re synonymous with the city. As long as people love the Beatles, people will visit the Cavern Club, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, and gawk at George’s house. Seriously, Viator sells an awful lot of the Beatles and Liverpool Day Trip from London. Or the curious case of Abbey Road. Without the Beatles why would anyone take a special trip to the Abbey Road crosswalk?
Still not with me? Come together right now. There’s evidence of the Beatles’ lovely travel (sometimes as allegory) songs: I”ll Follow the Sun, Magical Mystery Tour, Back in the U.S.S.R, Day Tripper, Ticket to Ride, Ballad of John and Yoko and Yellow Submarine to name a few of my favorites.
All these places have their moments, with lovers and friends I still can recall. Some are dead and some are living, in my life I’ve loved them all.
PS: Feeling like you got to get the Fab Four into your life? Check out all the Beatles tours on Viator. I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.