Charleston: A Historic Walking Tour (Images of America)

Charleston: A Historic Walking Tour will help natives and visitors alike appreciate the history and residents of this beautiful city. With its architecture, palm trees, and cobblestone streets, Charleston is one of the South’s great cultural destinations. Its ballrooms and benevolent society halls attest to grand periods of opulence and high living. The theater, libraries, museum, and college show an appreciation for culture and sophistication. But don’t let the city’s beauty hide its turbulent history. The horrors of bombardment and occupation by conquering armies have left their marks. The city has experienced bleak times and disasters, including fires, a devastating earthquake, and hurricanes, not to mention the challenges of Reconstruction. Yet Charleston has survived its darker days, and now may be the city’s finest hour. Neighborhoods from Calhoun Street to the Battery are in better condition today than they have ever been before. This book offers three tours to explore the historic downtown: the Meeting Street loop, the Legare Street loop, and the Ansonborough tour. Enjoy the walk, and let the city tell you its story.

Charleston: A Historic Walking Tour (Images of America)

The Chillon Castle

The Chillon Castle

From Wikipedia:

The Chillon Castle (Château de Chillon) is located on the shore of Lake Léman in the commune of Veytaux, at the eastern end of the lake, 3 km from Montreux, Switzerland. The castle consists of 100 independent buildings that were gradually connected to become the building as it stands now.

The oldest parts of the castle have not been definitively dated, but the first written record of the castle is in 1160 or 1005. From the mid 12th century, the castle was home to the Counts of Savoy, and it was greatly expanded in the 13th century by Pietro II. The Castle was never taken in a siege, but did change hands through treaties.

It was made popular by Lord Byron, who wrote the poem The Prisoner Of Chillon (1816) about François de Bonivard, a Genevois monk and politician who was imprisoned there from 1530 to 1536; Byron also carved his name on a pillar of the dungeon. The castle is one of the settings in Henry James’s novella Daisy Miller (1878).

The history of Chillon was influenced by 3 major periods: the Savoy Period, the Bernese Period and the Vaudois Period.

Chillon now hosts a museum with some historical objects preserved and is open to public tours. One can also hire some parts of the castle for banquets.

Christopher Columbus Discovers America 1492

Christopher Columbus (c. 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was a navigator, colonizer, and explorer from Genoa, Italy, whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. With his four voyages of exploration and several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, all funded by Isabella I of Castile, he initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the “New World”.

The anniversary of Columbus’s 1492 landing in the Americas is usually observed as Columbus Day on 12 October in Spain and throughout the Americas, except Canada. In the United States it is observed annually on the second Monday in October.

Devil’s Bridge – Teufelsbrücke of St. Gotthard Pass, Switzerland

Teufelsbrücke of St. Gotthard Pass, Switzerland.

The Teufelsbrücke (‘Devil’s Bridge’) is a bridge over the Schöllenen Gorge in the Swiss canton of Uri. The bridge provides access to the St. Gotthard Pass by crossing the gorge and the Reuss River below.

It is named for an old local legend regarding its construction by the Devil, one of many old European Devil’s Bridges with similar creation myths.