10 of the World’s Most Unique Fountains

Many of us enjoy the rhythmic sound of water. Spraying water. Rushing water. Trickling water. The sound of water gently lapping at a shore or raindrops on the roof of our home. We have water features in our yards and spend time near lakes and the ocean. Maybe it’s because our own bodies are 66% water.

Whatever the reason, if you’re missing the melody of water, and find yourself inland or in the midst of urban sprawl, try searching out a fountain to get your fix.

Jet D’Eau – Lake Geneva, Switzerland

This fountain is located in Lake Geneva where the lake empties into the Rhone River and is one of the largest fountains in the world. It is so grand that you see it from everywhere in the city and from a distance of six miles in the air.

There is a stone jetty that you can walk out onto if you’d like to get a closer look but beware, the fountain pumps 132 gallons of water up in to the air each second. If the wind shifts, you are likely to get drenched.

Peterhof Palace Fountains – Saint Petersburg, Russia

There are many fountains located throughout this UNESCO World Heritage Site complex, with the most famous being the Grand Cascade on the northern side of the Grand Palace. It is a breathtaking sight made up of of 64 separate fountains, 200 statues and many other decorations, including an amazing bronze statue of Samson wrestling with a lion.

As you wander the grounds you’ll see many other water features including one that resembles a large chessboard, a pyramid fountain, and one shaped like a disk which shoots out water to resemble the sun’s rays.

Trevi Fountain – Rome, Italy

Rome is a city overflowing with fountains, but this one is the most famous. You’ve undoubtedly seen it at some point in a movie, or perhaps you’ve heard the legend about throwing a coin into the fountain? It’s supposed to guarantee you a trip back to Rome. Two coins? You’ll get a new romance. Three coins? Marriage or divorce, whichever your preference may be. I wouldn’t recommend throwing any more coins, you may go broke. I wonder who gets to clean out the fountain and keep all those coins?

The fountain is located at the end of an ancient aqueduct that was built in 19 BC. It was designed by Nicola Salvi and completed in 1762, and is an incredible work of art. The design is of Neptune riding a chariot pulled by two sea horses & Tritons. On either side you’ll see the two statues of Abundance and Salubrity.

Magic Fountain of Montjuic – Barcelona, Spain

When I visited Barcelona for the Olympics in 1992 I assumed that this fountain was a new modern marvel constructed specifically for the Olympics. Little did I know that it had been created years before for the Great Universal Exhibition of 1929.

It’s been putting on quite a show ever since and is a definite must-see if you find yourself visiting this city. The sprays of water in the 164’ x 213’ pool combine with music, vivid colors, lights and motion to make the fountain appear almost to be dancing.

Bethesda Fountain – New York City, United States

Located next to the lake and near the center of Central Park in New York, this fountain hosts hundreds of visitors everyday for a myriad of reasons. People come in the summer to relax and cool off, moviemakers love it as a backdrop (it’s been shown in many films) and romantics spend time near it being, well romantic.

It was sculpted in 1868 by Emma Stebbins, the first woman ever to be asked to design a major piece of art for New York City, and unveiled in 1873. If you look closely you’ll see that the winged female angel holds a lily in her hand, a symbol for the fresh water brought to New York City when the Croton Aqueduct was built in 1842.

Chocolate Fountain – Cologne, Germany

This is not your typical fountain, but being a chocolate lover it’s one of my personal favorites. Judging from the 5 million visitors the museum receives each year, I’m not the only one. Trust me, dipping a wafer into the stream of chocolate pouring from the fountain and then savoring it, is reason enough for a visit.

The fountain is located inside the Chocolate Museum in Cologne. In the museum you’ll find out everything you need to know about how chocolate is made, beginning with the bean right up to the delicious morsel you pop in your mouth. When you leave there is a museum that sells postcards, books, mugs for hot cocoa and of course, chocolate.

Dundas Square – Toronto, Canada

The Dundas Square splash fountains are the perfect place for urban dwellers to spend a warm afternoon. They are located in the center of Toronto, in what used to be an undesirable part of town, but thanks to a city revitalization project the area was improved and the fountains and square were built in 1998.

The fountains consist of two rows of ten fountains each that run through the main walkway of the square. They were designed with the intent that people splash around in them, so the water goes through a filtration system to keep it clean. If you’d rather not get wet, there is plenty of room to walk around and just enjoy that magical fountain sound.

Court of Neptune Fountain – Washington DC, United States

This elaborate fountain is located in Washington D.C. outside the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. It was created by the sculptor Roland Hinton Perry in 1897.

The fountain shows a scene from the court of the sea god Neptune. Neptune is huge, about 12 feet tall, and is surrounded by the lesser god Triton, sea nymphs and other sea creatures and monsters.

Palais Longchamp – Marseilles, France

The city of Marseilles used to have a serious water shortage and in 1835, after a deadly cholera outbreak, the inhabitants decided they needed a supply of fresh water. They undertook the enormous project of digging a 53-mile canal from the river Durance. To celebrate the arrival of the water, the magnificent Palais Longchamp and fountain were built.

The fountain is a brilliant creation. It consists of four bulls and three female figures. The women each represent something different: the Durance river, grapes and vines, and wheat and fertility. Water pours from these into a basin and then a pond, eventually coming out of 12 bronze fountains lining a cascading waterfall area.

Generalife – Granada, Spain

Generalife is part of the Alhambra palace complex, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The building was the summer palace for the sultan rulers of Granada and was built by Muhammad lll in the 1300’s.

The summers were hot, so the gardens had alluring fountains in them to help cool the royal court. The most photographed is the long pool found in the Patio de la Acequia. It is surrounded by eye-catching, fragrant flowerbeds.

Read about author Deanna Hyland and check out her other BootsnAll articles.

Photo credits:
Jet D’Eau and Grand Cascade by stevesheriw on Flickr, Magic Fountain by colinjcampbell on Flickr, Bethesda by Photo Gallery on Flickr, Chocolate Fountain by The Voice Of Objective Truth on Flickr, Dundas Fountain by Kevin Steele on Flickr, Court of Nepture by wallyg on Flickr, Longchamp by orangejack on Flickr, Generalife by Marciela on Flickr, Trevi by khoogheem on Flickr

15 of the Best Expat Blogs

Of all the entertaining varieties of travel blogs out there, there’s one category that sets itself apart in a way that I find most appealing – and that’s the expat blog. I’m a wannabe expat myself, so clearly that’s part of the draw for me, but I also think the way an expat approaches blogging is inherently different from any other travel blogger. In fact, many of them wouldn’t even consider themselves travel bloggers, and there’s a good reason for that.

It’s because they’re not.

Being an expat blogger can mean writing about cultural observations about one’s chosen home, or about the new cafe or shop or museum one discovers in the getting-to-know-you phase of living in a different place. But once you’re settled in, it can be hard to continue to look at where you live as a traveler might. Which is why so many expat blogs are one part travel guide, one part cultural anthropology class, and one part “what I had for breakfast” blog.

Obviously, with this kind of ingredient list it takes a good writer (or photographer) to keep things interesting. So in this article I want to highlight a few of what I think are the best expat blogs out there.

15 of the Best Expat Blogs (in No Particular Order)

Miss Expatria (Rome & Montpellier) – Christine Cantera, AKA Miss Expatria, is one of my favorite bloggers, period. She’s hysterically funny but also unfailingly charming with her enthusiasm for everything. She’s like a kid in the candy store of the world, and no matter where she is she’s in love with something enough to tell you about it. Reading her blog, you feel like you’re chatting with an old friend over coffee. Or wine. Or both.

David Lebovitz: Living the Sweet Life in Paris (Paris) – David’s a food writer who lives in Paris, so the blog is equal parts food porn and Parisian (sweet) life. His cultural observations are amusing as well as interesting, and a recent post about what he’d miss if he moved away from Paris was particularly enlightening. (His Twitter updates are immensely entertaining as well.)

Alexandre Gervais (Tokyo) – Alexandre Gervais’ self-titled blog is a showcase for his photography, and what beautiful photography it is. He’s from Montreal, and moved to Japan to learn Japanese – thankfully he’s also a top-notch photographer who enjoys sharing his surroundings with the rest of the world. The words are minimal on the site, but the pictures are huge; and, for photo-geeks, the technical details of each picture are provided, too.

Traveling Mama (Morocco) – Tina and her family are, technically speaking, in the middle of something of a round-the-world trip. It’s just that they’ve been in Morocco since early 2007 and her husband runs a language school there – so I think it’s probably more accurate to call them expats than travelers at the moment. Either way, the blog is beautiful (the fact that Tina’s husband is also a skilled photographer doesn’t hurt!) and the writing lovely.

Danish Accent (Portland) – One of the best things about an expat blog is the potential for seeing your own home country in a new way, so finding expat blogs in the United States is particularly fun – especially when that blogger lives part-time in your home city, too! Peter Fogtdal is an author who splits his time between Copenhagen in his native Denmark and Portland, Oregon, where he’s a literature and writing professor. His blog includes posts about his travels and cultural observations, as well as information about the books he’s written.

Still Life in South America (Buenos Aires) – As the about page of this blog states, it’s “part travel journal and part resource for fellow travelers,” which is a pretty good combination for an expat blog. It’s written by an American writer and English professor who moved to South America in early 2008 with her husband in order to learn Spanish, and they’ve lived in Buenos Aires since mid-2009. You may never know the name of “the writer,” but the writing is great, and the photos are plentiful.

Isoglossia (Slovenia & Bulgaria) – I’m oddly drawn to Isoglossia, despite it feeling like it’s more about things like potty-training and other child-rearing topics than about travel, because the author is bitingly funny. John is an American who recently moved his family from Slovenia to Sofia, Bulgaria, so it’s possible the new environs will inspire more travel-esque posts in the future. Even if that’s not the case, however, the site is worth stopping by for a good chuckle now and then (as is the Twitter feed). And any travel trivia freak will be happy to know just what an isogloss is.

Rome Photo Blog (Rome) – There’s no shortage of “daily photo blogs,” but I particularly like Jessica Stewart’s. She’s a talented photographer who has a knack for spotting things in her adopted city that you might miss if you were just passing through (she’s particularly fascinated by street art). Looking at her photos makes me look at my surroundings, wherever I am, in a new way – which is a great attitude to have whether you’re traveling or not.

Diary of a White Indian Housewife (Mumbai) – Sharell met the man of her dreams in a Kolkata nightclub while on leave from her job in Melbourne, and that changed her life forever. They got married and moved to Mumbai, where she is – as the blog title indicates – a “white Indian housewife” who writes about travel in India for About.com and about life in India on her blog. There are cultural observations, travel tips, and tidbits about daily life – and there are also lots of pictures.

Le Franco Phoney (La Clusaz) – As you can probably tell from the cute blog name, this blogger has a sense of humor. Australian April Hollands moved to the French Alps after two stints living in England in order to be closer to snow (she loves winter sports), and has been blogging since mid-2008. April’s a writer with a background in journalism, but don’t worry about getting overwhelmed by hard-hitting serious topics on her blog. You’ll find more in the way of funny observations about life in France on the blog than anything else, and that’s one of the things that makes it so delightful.

Touching Up My Roots (Croatia) – This blog is about one American family’s journey tracing ancestral roots in Mrkopalj, Croatia. The blog’s author, Jennifer, is the one with the Croatian family ties, but her husband and their two kids are along for the adventure, too. There’s evidently a book in the works, but you can follow along before publication on Jen’s Croatia blog – full of photos and colorful local personalities. And for fun, check out the kids’ blog, too.

From Russia With Love (Rostov-on-Don) – Eileen Emch is a missionary in “the largest city in southwest Russia,” Rostov-on-Don, and has lived there since 1999. She’s been blogging since 2006, and her blog is full of observations on both the local culture and what travel is like in the former Soviet Union. She’s an experienced and eager traveler (not to mention an eager blogger), and she takes lots of pictures.

Living in Egypt (Cairo) – As Maryanne Stroud Gabbani says on her website, “I have experienced Egypt myself as a tourist and then as someone living here on a day to day basis. I know the difference.” Maryanne’s been in Egypt since the 1980s, blogging since 2003, and she now leads horseback riding tours in Giza. Her perspectives as both a long-time local and yet still an outsider make for an interesting read.

Emilie Johnson (Paris) – There’s a nice mixture on this blog of travel tidbits and what Emilie’s daily life is like in Paris, plus she takes lovely photos. The cast of characters includes her French husband and his adorable daughter as well as her in-laws, so you get a feel for French family life in addition to expat life. Read up on Parisian life quickly, though, as it appears Emilie’s returning to New York (with her French family in tow) in early 2010. Let’s just hope she keeps blogging.

Ahoy, Hanoi! (Hanoi) – Although the author of this blog is starting to bounce around a bit location-wise, he’s still firmly outside his home country and pretty funny no matter where he is. Ben August had planned to spend six months in Hanoi, but then he met a girl – you know how that goes. He ended up staying for more than a year, and even returned after traveling for awhile. Ben’s got a great sense of humor, and posts lots of photos and video of his life in Vietnam and his travels throughout the region.

Finding Expat Bloggers

We’ve all heard how everyone has a blog these days, and sometimes that feels true – which is why I said this is only a list of some of the great expat blogs out there. There are, as you might expect, a kajillion (that’s a technical term) expat blogs, and a huge number of them are really interesting.

If you’re looking for more expat blogs, one handy place to look – especially if you’re looking for blogs in a specific location – is the Expat Blogs site. You can find blogs by country, and you can also find information about living in that country.

And if your favorite expat blog wasn’t included in this list above, please let us know what it is in the comments section below. We love finding out about new expats worth following.

About the Author

BootsnAll staff writer Jessica Spiegel is midway through the excessively long paperwork process involved in becoming a legal immigrant to Italy, and in the meantime she continues to write about Italy travel for BnA on WhyGo Italy. You can also find her on Twitter @italylogue.

photo by mangpages