| Washington, D.C.'s Top 10 : Museums |
| The collections of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art Dumbarton Oaks are among the most important in the world. The elegant Federal-style house was the site of the 1944 meetings that led to the founding of the United Nations . |
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| Washington, D.C.'s Top 10 : Art Galleries |
| Corcoran exhibitions tilt toward contemporary media, especially photography. The city’s first art museum, and one of the three oldest in the United States, is also housed in one of America’s most significant Beaux Arts buildings, designed by Ernest Flagg and completed in 1897 . |
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| Lake District - Explore the heart of English (Part 4) |
| The array if imagery around the Ambleside area can suit photographers of all levels. Even the least adventurous can feel like a mountaineer aloft a modest summit. The views from the tops of peaks across deep valleys can be so captivating with just a little effort, but don’t get caught out. |
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| Lake District - Explore the heart of English (Part 2) |
| Let’s not forget to explore the remnants from an industrial era; visit Hodges Close, a slate quarry to the south of Little Langdale. This wonderful location provides the opportunity to shoot fine art landscapes as well as a much lesser known location, Cathedral Quarry. |
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| Lake District - Explore the heart of English (Part 1) |
| The Lake District is one of England’s most exciting landscapes. Cherished as a mecca for literally all outdoor enthusiasts and even more so since photography has become so popular, it’s overwhelmingly beautiful, yet flip a coin and it can become unpredictable and dangerous. |
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| Rome's Top 10 : Ostia Antica (part 1) |
| Some 2,000 years ago, ancient Rome’s lively international port city was right on the beach and at the mouth of the Tiber (ostium means “river mouth”). In the ensuing millennia the sea has retreated several kilometres and the river has changed course dramatically. |
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| Hong Kong's Top 10 : Festivals and Events |
| Hong Kong’s most celebrated festival is a riot of neon and noise. Skyscrapers on both sides of the harbour are lit up to varying degrees depending on the vicissitudes of the economy, fireworks explode over the harbour, shops shut down and doormen suddenly turn nice, hoping for a handout of lai see (lucky money). |
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| Madrid's Top 10 : Museums and Galleries |
| The world famous gallery is housed in Juan de Villanueva’s Neo-Classical masterpiece – an artistic monument in its own right. The relief over the Velázquez Portal depicts Fernando VII as guardian of the arts and sciences – it was during his reign that the Prado opened as an art gallery. |
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| Beijing's Top 10 : Outdoor Activities - Top 10 Parks |
| Also known as Spring Festival, Beijing’s favorite holiday is celebrated with a cacophony of fireworks, let off night and day across the city. There are also temple fairs with stilt-walkers, acrobats, and fortune-tellers. |
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| Beijing's Top 10 : Festivals and Events |
| Also known as Spring Festival, Beijing’s favorite holiday is celebrated with a cacophony of fireworks, let off night and day across the city. There are also temple fairs with stilt-walkers, acrobats, and fortune-tellers. |
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| Chicago's Top 10 : Places to Eat |
| Boisterous and convivial, Gibson’s exudes a good time. A regular crowd of politicians, sports figures, and conventioneers packs the place nightly. The steakhouse fare is in every way a match to the atmosphere – big and bold. |
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| Chicago's Top 10 : Niche Museums |
| The largest Latino museum in the US explores the culture sin fronteras (without boundaries), showcasing works from both Mexico and Mexican-American communities. Pre-Columbian ceramics, Day of the Dead candelabras, and prints by such luminaries as Diego Rivera are highlights of the permanent collection. |
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| Munich's Top 10 : Churches & Houses of Worship |
| An important structure in many ways, this is the largest late Renaissance church north of the Alps. Construction began in 1583. It features the second-largest barrel vault in the world, after St Peter’s in Rome, and was built for the Jesuits. |
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| Munich's Top 10 : Gardens & Parks |
| Enclosed by a wall, this 2-km- (1-mile-) wide park extends west from the palace 1.5 km (1 mile). Picturesque pavilions and follies are scattered throughout the park, which has been declared a nature reserve to protect the 300-year-old trees . |
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| Seattle's Top 10 : Museums |
| A parade along 4th Avenue in early July kicks off Seafair, a celebration of maritime and aviation history highlighted by the aerodynamic “derring-do” of the Navy’s Blue Angels F/A-18 fighter pilots, an All Nations Pow Wow at Daybreak Cultural Center, hydroplane races on Lake Washington, and battleships open to the public on the waterfront. |
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| Seattle's Top 10 : Festivals & Parades |
| A parade along 4th Avenue in early July kicks off Seafair, a celebration of maritime and aviation history highlighted by the aerodynamic “derring-do” of the Navy’s Blue Angels F/A-18 fighter pilots, an All Nations Pow Wow at Daybreak Cultural Center, hydroplane races on Lake Washington, and battleships open to the public on the waterfront. |
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| Barcelona’s Top 10 : Perfect Squares |
| Barcelona’s nerve centre is the huge Plaça de Catalunya, a lively hub from which all the city’s activity seems to radiate. This square is most visitors first real glimpse of Barcelona. |
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| Barcelona’s Top 10 : Modernista Buildings |
| Dizzying spires and intricate sculptures adorn Gaudí’s magical masterpiece. Construction began at the height of Modernisme, but is still in progress more than a century later. |
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| Toronto's Top 10 : Architectural Highlights |
| Causing a significant stir in 1960s Toronto, the design of New City Hall is bold, daring, and unique. Finnish architect Viljo Revell’s two curving towers seem to embrace the central domed structure between them. A sweeping public plaza out front, Nathan Phillips Square, is the symbolic heart of the city . |
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| Toronto's Top 10 : Museums & Art Galleries |
| Over 800 high-tech, interactive exhibits within 11 specially themed exhibition halls aim to make science fun and fascinating. Youthful visitors can navigate their way in a rocket chair, climb the rockwall, touch a tornado, and explore the hair-raising effects of electricity . |
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| Boston's Top 10 : Figures in Boston History |
| Grandson of Irish-American mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald and son of ambassador Joseph Kennedy, John F. Kennedy represented Boston in both houses of the US Congress before he became the first Roman Catholic elected president of the United States. |
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| Boston's Top 10 : Moments in Boston History |
| Boston’s Puritan leaders established a college at Newtown (later Cambridge) to educate future generations of clergy. When young Charlestown minister John Harvard died two years later and left his books and half his money to the college, it was renamed Harvard. |
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| New York's Top 10 : Art Galleries |
| This top-of-the-art-world gallery, representing the estates of artists including Larry River, Red Grooms, and R.B. Kitaj, has opted for two locations. The Midtown gallery has shown work by sculptors such as Anthony Caro and Jacques Lipschitz. New sculpture and paintings are found at the Chelsea location. |
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| New York's Top 10 : Museums |
| The largest museum of its kind in the world exhibits everything from dinosaurs to Chinese costumes and rare gems. In addition to the planetarium show in the Rose Center, there are films in a giant IMAX theater. |
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| Paris Top 10 : Art Galleries |
| A favourite of Parisians and visitors alike. The beautifully restored Hôtel Salé in the Marais is a splendid setting for this extensive collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings and other works by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), including works from his Cubist period. |
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| Paris Top 10 : Museums |
| French and Italian sculpture, Greek and Roman antiquities and paintings from the 12th to the 19th centuries are just some of the highlights of the world’s largest museum . |
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| London's Top 10 : Tower of London (part 1) |
| London’s great riverside fortress is usually remembered as a place of imprisonment, but it also has a more glorious past. Originally a moated fort, the White Tower was built for William I (the Conqueror) and begun around 1078. |
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| London's Top 10 : Parliament Square |
| The spiritual and political heart of the city, the Palace of Westminster was built here a thousand years ago as a royal household, seat of government and abbey. |
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| Berlin's Top 10 : Churches & Synagogues |
| Berlin Cathedral, the largest and most lavish church in town, was reopened in 1993, after almost 40 years of restoration. Designed by Julius Raschdorf in 1894–1905, the building reflects the empire’s aspirations to power. |
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| Berlin's Top 10 : Moments in History |
| Berlin’s history as a cultural capital began in 1685, when the far-sighted Great Elector announced in the Edict of Potsdam that around 20,000 Huguenots would be taken in by Berlin. |
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| San Francisco's Top 10 : Art Galleries |
| Opened in 1970 this was one of the first galleries dedicated to showing the work of emerging Bay Area artists. In addition, the Gallery Slide Registry contains images by more than 500 professional artists from across the US. |
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| San Francisco's Top 10 : Museums |
| The city’s stylish home for 20th-century European and American art and contemporary multimedia works is a sparkling cultural hub in the South of Market area. Its collections span the whole modern spectrum, from proto-Impressionists to cutting-edge digital installations . |
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| Washington, D.C.'s Top 10 : US Presidents |
| The United States’ first president George Washington (1789–97) was never greater than when he refused to interpret the position of president as equivalent to “king.” |
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| Rome's Top 10 : San Clemente |
| Nowhere else in Rome can give such a clear idea of the city’s layering and millennia of cultural riches than this wonderful church. The very lowest level remains largely unexplored, dating back to Republican Rome, probably the 2nd century BC. |
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| Rome's Top 10 : Santa Maria del Popolo |
| Few churches are such perfect primers on Roman art and architecture. Masters from the Early Renaissance (Pinturicchio, Bramante), High Renaissance (Raphael) and Baroque (Caravaggio, Bernini) exercised their genius in all disciplines here: painting, sculpture, architecture and decoration. |
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| Hong Kong's Top 10 : Ways to Experience the Real China |
| Hong Kong’s wet markets can bring on instant culture shock for those tourists who are more used to the orderly atmosphere of supermarkets. Tiptoe through rivers of blood, past gizzards and buzzing flies as hawkers yell and housewives bargain. |
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| Hong Kong's Top 10 : Moments in History |
| Hong Kong has guns galore defending the sea, but the Japanese come by land. They have little trouble breaching the aptly named Gin Drinkers Line – a motley string of pillboxes. Hong Kong is surrendered two days before Christmas, beginning a brutal three-year occupation. |
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| Madrid’s Top 10 : El Escorial (part 1) |
| Enjoying a suitably majestic setting in the southern foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama, the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial was commissioned by Felipe II as a mausoleum for the tomb of his father, Carlos I. |
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| Madrid’s Top 10 : Museo de América |
| Often overlooked by visitors, this is one of Madrid’s best museums. The collection comprises more than 20,000 items recovered from the Americas, including textiles, ceramics, tools, paintings and sculptures. |
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| Beijing's Top 10 : Moments in History |
| In 1900, championed by the Empress Cixi, a band of rebels from north China known as the Boxers attacked Beijing’s Foreign Legation Quarter. A joint eight-nation army had to be sent to lift the siege. |
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| Beijing's Top 10 : Great Wall of China |
| The Great Wall snakes through the countryside over deserts, hills, and plains for several thousand miles. At its closest point it is less than 40 miles (60 km) from Beijing. |
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| Chicago's Top 10 : Skyscrapers |
| One of the earliest remaining skyscrapers, this 1888 Chicago landmark combines traditional wall-bearing and newer steel frame construction. The latter made it possible for its architects, Burnham and Root, to design an open interior, with office spaces set around a central light well. |
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| Chicago's Top 10 : Moments in Chicago History |
| Over 250 people died and 17,000 buildings were destroyed in this fire, allegedly started by a cow kicking over a lantern. Just a few buildings survived, including the Historic Water Tower and Pumping Station. |
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