Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Exotic Places of Canada

Published on October 28, 2009 in Travel. 0 Comments



AN ENORMOUS COUNTRY, NO ROOM FOR BOREDOM

Canada’s var­ied cli­mate is suit­able for extreme pur­suits of all types, with every­thing from cold win­ter snow to warm sum­mer sun­shine. The daunt­ing Cana­dian Rock­ies lay along the bor­der between British Colum­bia and Alberta, and con­tain dozens of top-notch ski resorts whose snowy peaks attract adven­tur­ers dur­ing the chilly win­ter months. The Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Colum­bia pro­vides numer­ous adven­ture options when things start to warm up dur­ing the spring and sum­mer, while Que­bec and Ontario offer vast park­lands, bril­liant lakes and some moun­tain­ous ter­rain. The envi­ron­ment in the ter­ri­to­ries of North­ern Canada is less for­giv­ing and is com­prised mostly of tun­dra, which is defined as being near-treeless moun­tain ter­rain. Up there, extreme cold-weather ven­tures, such as snow­mo­bil­ing and dog-sledding, are preva­lent.

EXTREME DESTINATIONS

British Colum­bia

Kayak­ing a Rapid on the Colum­bia River2 

British Colum­bia is acclaimed inter­na­tion­ally for its beau­ti­ful land­scape, mild weather and high-flying thrills. The Pacific Ocean pro­vides west­ern Cana­di­ans with access to the great wide open. Here, surfers take to the tide to test their nerves and skills against the churn­ing brine. Tofino offers some of the most pop­u­lar surf­ing at Long Beach. Sea kayak­ing is also a pop­u­lar sport. Novices and vet­er­ans alike pit them­selves against the deep dur­ing the sum­mer months. How­ever, fresh­wa­ter kayak­ing in British Colum­bia is far from unheard of. The Colum­bia River, for exam­ple, offers plenty of rapids. A plethora of rivers, water­ways and rapids speckle the entire province and allow adren­a­line junkies to shoot pow­er­ful rapids in canoes or kayaks or as part of a white­wa­ter raft­ing group.

Rock climb­ing is also pop­u­lar in British Colum­bia and the province is gen­er­ally known as the extreme climb­ing cap­i­tal of the coun­try. Climbers often opt to test their abil­i­ties in the Rock­ies, but the inland city of Squamish pro­vides its own unique chal­lenge at the famous Stawa­mus Chief, a mas­sive cliff-faced gran­ite giant, pro­vides more than 1000 dif­fer­ent climb­ing routes and hosts extreme national climb­ing com­pe­ti­tions each sum­mer. The area is also a hotbed for moun­tain bik­ing and cor­re­spond­ing com­pe­ti­tions and events.

The Rocky Moun­tains

 Catch­ing Air in the Cana­dian Rockies3

The Rock­ies of British Colum­bia and neigh­bour­ing Alberta pro­vide an entirely dif­fer­ent range of endorphin-juicing options. BC has over 30 ski hills, includ­ing crit­i­cally acclaimed inter­na­tional des­ti­na­tions like Whistler, Big White, Panorama, Fer­nie, Sil­ver Star, Kick­ing Horse Moun­tain and plenty more. Alberta boasts a wide range of slopes in and around Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. Resorts such as Lake Louise, Sun­shine, Norquay, Mar­mot Basin, Fortress Moun­tain, Nakiska in Kananaskis Coun­try and Canada Olympic Park in the city of Cal­gary bring in skiers and snow­board­ers from all over the world. For an even more extreme down­hill expe­ri­ence, heli-skiing here has gained an excel­lent rep­u­ta­tion among die-hard adren­a­line junkies.

Dur­ing the sum­mer months when the snow has thawed, the moun­tains teem with bik­ers, canoeists, kayak­ers, white­wa­ter rafters and other out­door and extreme sport enthu­si­asts. These parks and peaks make up the sin­gle most pop­u­lar tourist des­ti­na­tion in the entire coun­try.

Alberta

Dirt­bik­ing in Alberta4 

Alberta offers its own range of excit­ing activ­i­ties. Like the lakes in British Colum­bia, prairie lakes see their share of wake­board­ing and water­ski­ing, jet boat­ing and all man­ner of other water­sports. Kite­board­ing and wind­surf­ing are extremely pop­u­lar on Syl­van Lake, Ghost Lake and on other fresh-watered bod­ies scat­tered across the great Cana­dian plains. Snow­mo­bil­ing, ATV­ing and auto rac­ing are also tremen­dously pop­u­lar exploits all over West­ern Canada and both pas­times are rooted deep in Cana­dian cul­ture dat­ing back to the time when gas tur­bine engines and the vehi­cles that used them became abun­dant. And like every­where else that receives annual snow­fall, tobog­gan­ing down the var­i­ous foothills, val­leys and ravines and pretty much any other down­hill grade occurs every win­ter.

East­ern Canada

Wind­surf­ing the Great Lakes5

The east­ern provinces pro­vide just as many oppor­tu­ni­ties to be extreme as those in the west. Ontario is home to more lakes and water­ways than any other province in the coun­try, and accord­ingly, a ton of water­sports await vis­i­tors in this vast province. Water­ski­ing and wake­board­ing, sail­ing and other water­bound thrills can all be suc­cess­fully sought here. Boule­vard Lake is very pop­u­lar with wake­board­ing enthu­si­asts.. Sky­div­ing, hang-gliding and paraglid­ing in Ontario and across Canada pro­vides what adren­a­line junkies refer to as “the ulti­mate hit.” Bungee jump­ing can pro­vide a sim­i­lar rush. Ontario is also home to numer­ous paint­balling estab­lish­ments. Of course, rock climb­ing and sim­i­lar adven­tures can be expe­ri­enced in this vast province as well.

Paraglid­ing in Quebec6 

Quebec’s land­scape is fairly sim­i­lar to that of Ontario, how­ever, the province offers a unique down­hill ski expe­ri­ence not found in its neigh­bour to the west. The province has more than 30 dif­fer­ent slopes to choose from, the most well-known being Mont Trem­blant, Mont Ste Marie and Le Mas­sif, which has more ver­ti­cal drop than any other resort in East­ern Canada and ample snow­fall. Que­bec sum­mers are mild and accom­mo­date loads of crazy out­door pur­suits with high-flying moun­tain bik­ing being a pop­u­lar favourite. The province has a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of ATV and snow­mo­bile enthu­si­asts and indulges these folks with many trails and park­ways.

North­ern Canada

 A Yukon Dog-Sled Exploratory7

North­ern Canada’s snow-laden ter­ri­to­ries encom­pass an enor­mous area. The North­west Ter­ri­to­ries, the Yukon and Nunavut all make up this bar­ren land­scape home to a sparse pop­u­la­tion but a ton of extreme out­door adven­tures. The Yukon is home to the Yukon Quest, a 1609 km (1000 mi) race said to be the most chal­leng­ing inter­na­tional race in the world. Dog sled teams from all over the globe rush to start the race in Fair­banks, Alaska and cross the fin­ish line in White­horse, Yukon. North­ern adven­tures and win­ter exploratory expe­di­tions pro­vide thrills unheard of when con­ven­tion­ally camp­ing in a tem­per­a­ture cli­mate. Tun­dra adven­ture tours are plen­ti­ful in the Great North.

for more details about this you can visit  http://tourbuzz.biz




Calgary is in Canada

Published on October 28, 2009 in Travel. 0 Comments



Cal­gary is the largest city in the province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, approx­i­mately 80 kilo­me­tres east of the front ranges of the Cana­dian Rock­ies.

This a place where vis­i­tors come to explore the her­itage of the Cana­dian West. A safe, clean and vibrant city offers the best of all worlds a cos­mopoli­tan city of over one mil­lion peo­ple and breath­tak­ing out­door adven­ture in pris­tine wilder­ness.

A semi arid, high­land con­ti­nen­tal cli­mate with long, dry, but highly vari­able, win­ters and short, mod­er­ately warm sum­mers. The cli­mate is greatly influ­enced by the cities ele­va­tion and close prox­im­ity to the Rocky Moun­tains.

A spec­tac­u­lar expe­ri­ence awaits you at the Cal­gary Tower. Board one of our ele­va­tors, and youll enjoy the breath­tak­ing city and moun­tain views.

For ten exhil­a­rat­ing days every July, the Old West comes alive with a city­wide cel­e­bra­tion of true west­ern hos­pi­tal­ity and rous­ing fun.

The Cal­gary Zoo, Botan­i­cal Gar­dens and Pre­his­toric Park. The zoo is made up of more than 1100 mam­mal, rep­tiles, amphib­ians and birds, includ­ing a troop of west­ern low­land goril­las. The zoo has an inter­na­tional rep­u­ta­tion for its efforts in breed­ing endan­gered ani­mals. The zoo is also home to a botan­i­cal gar­den with a trop­i­cal rain­for­est and but­ter­fly gar­den.

The Cal­gary High­landers Museum the Museum chron­i­cles the evo­lu­tion of the 103rd Reg­i­ment, 10th Bat­tal­ion and the Cal­gary High­landers. The gallery high­lights their sig­nif­i­cant bat­tles and achieve­ments. Ani­mated dio­ra­mas depict the grim real­i­ties of war and are vivid reminders of the hero­ism of Cana­dian sol­diers. Together with pho­tographs, doc­u­ments, medals, weapons and uni­forms, the gallery unfolds the his­tory of this proud reg­i­ment.

The Devon­ian Gar­dens offers sun­shine, foun­tains and warm breezes. So when the weather turns fright­ful, you know where to go. This 2 acre indoor park. The gar­dens fea­ture more than 138 vari­eties of trop­i­cal and native Alberta plants, as well as a play­ground and art gallery.

Cal­gary is a city where an inter­na­tional pop­u­la­tion and a strong local cul­ture assure a broad range of din­ing choices, whether you are look­ing for an old fash­ioned fam­ily restau­rant or feel a need to sam­ple exotic for­eign spices. The bar and club scene is no less diverse with estab­lish­ments cater­ing to every crowd, from draft beer swill­ing tra­di­tion­al­ists to martini-loving pro­fes­sion­als to techno rave enthu­si­asts.

Come and enjoy your­self any time of year and have fun.




Niagara Falls — the Embassy Suites Niagara Falls, Canada

Published on October 23, 2009 in Hotels. 0 Comments



Nia­gara Falls is actu­ally com­posed of two sec­tions parted by Amer­i­can Falls on the United States side & Goat Island Horse­shoe Falls on the Cana­dian side of the bor­der. The Nia­gara Falls are famous all over the world for their beauty as well as a very valu­able source of hydro­elec­tric power.

Nia­gara Falls was dis­cov­ered in 1604 by a French­man Samuel de Cham­plain. He vis­ited the area dur­ing his explo­ration of Canada and described the spec­tac­u­lar beauty of Nia­gara Falls in his jour­nal. Nia­gara Falls is actu­ally divided into the Amer­i­can Falls & the Horse­shoe Falls. The Horse­shoe Falls are length­ier & drop about 173 feet (53 m).

The Amer­i­can Falls drop about 70 feet (21 m) before they reach a group of fallen rocks, deposited by a mas­sive rock slide in the year 1954. Horse­shoe Falls, the larger of the two is about 2,600 feet (792 m) in width, while the Amer­i­can Falls is about 1,060 feet (323 m) wide. The vol­ume of water that approaches the falls dur­ing the peak flow sea­son is about 202,000 cubic feet per sec­ond (5,720 m³/s), which in itself is amaz­ing.

The spec­tac­u­lar beauty of the falls is worth see­ing and to make this inci­dent extra mem­o­rable, we take the oppor­tu­nity to wel­come you to The Embassy Suites Nia­gara Falls, Canada. We offer Nia­gara Falls Pack­ages & Spe­cial Nia­gara Falls Wed­dings Pack­ages.

A sight of such breath tak­ing falls is at your own dis­posal, if you are a guest of The Embassy Suites Nia­gara Falls, Canada. We pro­vide a choice of Fallsview Suites & Fallsview Whirlpool Suites to suit your taste, with a chance to enjoy Fire­works from your own Suite.

Other choic­est pack­ages offered, include a 2-Night Pack­age, a Romance Pack­age, a Fam­ily Fun Pack­age, a Live The­atre Pack­age, a Water­park Pack­age to men­tion a few, with spe­cial facil­i­ties of Golf, Winer­ies and Casi­nos. The list includes a vari­ety of other pack­ages to make your visit to the place a mem­o­rable inci­dence for the rest of your life with off course an unquench­able desire to visit and revisit The Nigaras.




Save Big At Pod Hotels

Published on October 21, 2009 in Travel. 0 Comments



In the heart of Man­hat­tan sits a unique hotel that wraps all accom­mo­da­tions around the ever-popular iPod. Hotel rooms are small, styl­ish, and fea­ture iPod dock­ing sta­tions, LCD tele­vi­sions, and com­pli­men­tary wire­less inter­net. Pri­vate bath­rooms con­tain rain-head shower fix­tures and stain­less steel sinks. If you’ve ever vis­ited New York City, you know how hard it is to find safe, com­fort­able accom­mo­da­tions for under $150 per night. Most hotels charge over $200 per night, but Pod Hotels are dif­fer­ent!

Pod Hotels are cur­rently offer­ing a win­ter spe­cial pro­vid­ing guests with com­fort­able accom­mo­da­tions for the low rate of $99 per night plus taxes. This is an amaz­ing price within the city, espe­cially for a new hotel that offers clean, com­fort­able rooms. Guests can choose from a bunk-bed room for two, dou­ble room (one dou­ble bed), or a queen room (one queen bed). For even less, you can reserve a sin­gle room (one twin bed) for one for the lower price of $89 per night.

Pod Hotels have on-site restau­rants, a rooftop bar, and is within easy walk­ing dis­tance of Radio City Music Hall, the U.N. build­ing, Times Square, and Broad­way. Sub­ways in New York City are safe, inex­pen­sive and reach other areas of Man­hat­tan within min­utes.

London’s Pod Hotels

Cur­rently, Man­hat­tan holds the only offi­cial Pod Hotel, but there are other hotel chains mim­ic­k­ing what Pod Hotels set out to do. In Lon­don, Easy­Ho­tels, oper­ated by easy­Jet, pro­vide inex­pen­sive accom­mo­da­tions that pro­vide guests with lit­tle more than a bed, toi­let, and shower. These rooms offer just the bare min­i­mum, but the room rate of less than $50 a night makes them pop­u­lar with bud­get trav­el­ers.

Obic Hotels in Ams­ter­dam

Amsterdam’s Qbic Hotel offers rates of $80 to $200 a night for rooms that are always 8 by 10 feet and fea­ture com­fort­able bed­ding, radios, in-room safes, wire­less inter­net, and tele­vi­sions. The inter­est­ing fea­ture with Qbic Hotels is that guests han­dle their own check-ins through a com­puter kiosks. Qbic Hotels offers the low­est rates to those who book far­thest in advance.

Japan Pod Hotels

Finally, Japan is home to the orig­i­nal idea for a pod hotel. These hotel spaces are lit­er­ally sleep­ing pod cap­sules that are just big enough for a per­son to slide into and sleep. Japan’s idea of a pod hotel resem­bles a morgue with slide out body trays. The pods cost approx­i­mately $50 per night and are 3 feet high, 3 feet wide, and 6 feet long. A minia­ture tele­vi­sion is located on the wall and the pods are equipped with light­ing, radio, and alarm clocks.

With pod hotels, what they lack in size, they cer­tainly make up for in lux­ury and style. The com­pact size allows for easy instal­la­tion in many loca­tions such as car parks, air­planes, and other build­ings. They are great places to stay at overnight but prob­a­bly no longer than a week due to the lack of space. Some com­pa­nies are mak­ing rad­i­cal changes like installing flat screens, rotat­ing beds and sur­round sound stereo sys­tems to make the stay as com­fort­able as pos­si­ble. What­ever hap­pens in the future, pod hotels cer­tainly look like a trendy new idea for trav­ellers because of its afford­abil­ity and convenience.




Cheap Hotels in Hamburg Near the Harbor and Airport

Published on October 20, 2009 in Travel. 0 Comments



There are var­i­ous cheap hotels in Ham­burg but only a few are located by the har­bor and near the air­port. Hotel Hafen Ham­burg is your best option for an accom­mo­da­tion near the har­bor while Leonardo Air­port Hotel pro­vides excel­lent lodg­ing pack­ages near the Ham­burg Inter­na­tional Air­port.

Every year, hun­dreds and thou­sands of peo­ple visit Ham­burg for busi­ness, employ­ment and as a vaca­tion des­ti­na­tion. It is not only North­ern Germany’s major port city; it is also regarded as one of Europe and the world’s most impor­tant har­bor. Its tag as “The Gate to the World” resulted to a great boom in its hotel indus­try. At cur­rent, both lux­ury and cheap hotels in Ham­burg have their share of vis­i­tors who want to taste a piece of one of EU’s rich­est met­ro­pol­i­tan area.

Ham­burg, over the cen­turies, has devel­oped into an inter­na­tional city not only because of inter­na­tional trade but also because of its polit­i­cal dimen­sions. It also houses the 3rd largest aero­space indus­try of the world, one of Germany’s most impor­tant media hubs and one of the most sought after invest­ment as well as retire­ment homes in the world. In fact, as an inde­pen­dent city state inhab­ited by 1.7 mil­lion peo­ple, it is now the 2nd largest city of Ger­many.

Cheap Hotels in Ham­burg

Hotel Hafen Ham­burg — This pri­vately owned & man­aged hotel is located directly above the Ham­burg Har­bor. Since it opened as a seafarer’s home in the year 1864, it has been oper­a­tional for over 30 years now. It is known to pro­vide a spe­cial ambiance and excel­lent indi­vid­ual ser­vices to guests, espe­cially to sea­far­ers.

This mar­itime hotel offers 353 well appointed guest rooms with a tower bar by the top floor. Dif­fer­ent pack­ages await guests such as a room with a view pack­age (2 nights with a buf­fet break­fast and a bot­tle of red wine) for only €290 to €386; a dine & sleep pack­age (2 nights with a buf­fet break­fast and 3-course menu at their Port restau­rant) for only €330 to €399; a Sun­day musi­cal bar­gain pack­age (1 night in dou­ble room with buf­fet break­fast and 2 tick­ets to a major musi­cal pro­duc­tion) for only €339 to €365; and a Kiez-Cult at Schmidts TIVOLI pack­age (1 night in dou­ble room with buf­fet break­fast and 2 tick­ets to the “Heisse Ecke — Das St. Paul Musi­cal”) for €240,000.

Leonardo Air­port Hotel Ham­burg — Although cheap hotels in Ham­burg don’t really come cheap, this air­port hotel is your best bet for an afford­able accom­mo­da­tion near the city’s inter­na­tional air­port. It is also near the quiet and peace­ful green­belt area, city cen­ter, main sta­tion and fair­ground “Ham­burg Messe”. Guests are pro­vided with shut­tle ser­vices to/from air­port, a sump­tu­ous organic break­fast, AC units, 24-hour front desk, bar, lug­gage stor­age, shoe shine machine and a busi­ness cen­ter. All 37 spa­cious rooms of this 3-star hotel are non-smoking units. The rate of the hotel depends on the room and pack­age cho­sen which ranges from €95 to €381 per per­son per day. For inquiries, call them at +49 – 0-40 – 500-222 – 0 or fax them at +49 – 0-40 – 500-222 – 26.




Niagara Falls: Twenty Trivia Facts for you

Published on October 20, 2009 in Travel. 0 Comments



You’ve prob­a­bly heard of Nia­gara Falls but how much do you really know about it? You will learn about twenty trivia facts about the Falls. You will dis­cover the answers to these ques­tions and more — How tall is it? How deep is it? How high is it? What does it com­prise of? Who owns it? How much does it erode? How much water flows over it? Where is it? What’s gone over it?

Here are some inter­est­ing facts about Nia­gara Falls, mostly taken from Metromap Publication’s Street Map Guide to the Regional Munic­i­pal­ity of Nia­gara:

1. The Falls at Nia­gara can­not claim to be the high­est or the widest in the world, or even to have the great­est flow of water. The Iguazu Falls on the Paraguay-Brazil-Argentina bor­ders sur­pass Nia­gara Falls on all three counts. But Niagara’s are the world’s most pop­u­lar.

2. From the water level to the crest, the Amer­i­can Falls are 182 feet high, the Horse­shoe 176 feet high.

3. Ten per­cent of the water flows over the Amer­i­can and Luna Falls, 90% over the Horse­shoe Falls.

4. There are actu­ally three Falls: Amer­i­can (Rain­bow), Luna (Bridal Veil) and Horse­shoe.

5. The U.S. owns all, or part, of all three, while most of the Horse­shoe Falls belong to Canada. Nia­gara Falls is located 23 miles north­west of Buf­falo, New York and 79 miles south­east of Toronto, Ontario.

6. Today 50% of the Nia­gara River never makes it to the Falls: it is diverted for power. This per­cent­age increases to 75% at night and in the win­ter months.

7. The Falls have eroded an aver­age of 3.78 feet/year since 1842. Since the begin­ning there has always been a large spread of water on the approach to the Falls.

8. The Nia­gara River is not a river it is a strait.

9. One and a half mil­lion gal­lons of water flow through the Nia­gara River every sec­ond, or one cubic mile every week.

10. The Falls have taken 12,000 years to erode the seven miles from Queen­ston Heights, where they began, to their present posi­tion. But the Falls sep­a­rated around Goat Island only 600 years ago.

11. The Nia­gara River drains 255,000 square miles of mid-continental North Amer­ica.

12. With power require­ments and anti-erosion mea­sures, ero­sion has been reduced to less than one foot a year.

13. The whirlpool is 126 feet deep at the water level. The water spins around in a coun­ter­clock­wise direc­tion.

14. The water depth of the lower rapids is 45 — 60 feet, with cur­rents of up to 30 m.p.h.

15. The drop from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario is 330 feet depend­ing on sea­sonal water lev­els.

16. Seven peo­ple have gone of the Horse­shoe Falls in a bar­rel. Four lived, three died.

17. Only two liv­ing things have been seen to go over the Falls safely with­out spe­cial pro­tec­tion — a dog over the Amer­i­can Falls in the 1800’s and a boy over the Horse­shoe Falls in 1960.

18. Five large boats and innu­mer­able small ones have gone over the Falls, many with peo­ple in them.

19. A free swim­mer has never con­quered the lower rapids.

20. Before his death in 1942, the famous Red Hill saved 28 peo­ple from death over the Falls and sal­vaged 149 bod­ies of those that didn’t make it. He accu­mu­lated more life­sav­ing medals than any­one else in the world.

As you can see, many facts have been com­piled about Nia­gara Falls over the years but at least you prob­a­bly now know con­sid­er­ably more than you did before about this amaz­ing spec­ta­cle. You can either tell oth­ers that are plan­ning to visit the Falls what you have learned, or you can plan to see it your­self now that you are an expert on the sub­ject!

Keith J. Valen­tine has been trav­el­ing through­out the UK, Europe and North Amer­ica for years. For more on travel, tips and a free e-zine, please visit 101 Easy Arti­cles at http://www.EasyArticles4u.com




The Hermitage Restaurant is Vancouver’s Best French Dining

Published on October 15, 2009 in Restaurant Reviews. 0 Comments



Here is a lit­tle about Herve Mar­tin, the chef and owner of the Her­mitage restau­rant in Van­cou­ver.

 

Hervé Mar­tin, Chef/Owner of The Her­mitage Restau­rant trained for eight years in France to achieve the level of Exec­u­tive Chef. On his quest to achieve this posi­tion, Hervé also trained as a Pas­try Chef and a Butcher prior to serv­ing as the pri­vate chef to the King Leopold of Bel­gium. He has worked at some of the finest 3 star Miche­lin restau­rants in Europe and then went on to be the exec­u­tive chef at some of the best hotels in Europe, the United States, and Canada. Included in this cat­e­gory were the Palace Hotel in the South of France and Ire­land; the Hotel Plaza de la Chaudiere in Hull, Que­bec; the King Edward Hotel in Toronto; the West­bury Hotel in New York and the Palace Hotel in Philadel­phia. In 1985 Hervé Mar­tin came to Van­cou­ver to open the Pan Pacific Hotel. Dur­ing his three years at the Pan Pacific, sev­eral things occurred: the open­ing of the Pan Pacific was a hit, Hervé and his culi­nary team received many awards for var­i­ous com­pe­ti­tions, and he decided to open his own restau­rant; thereby mak­ing Van­cou­ver his home.

 

As a mem­ber of such renowned wine appre­ci­a­tion soci­eties as the Chaine des Rotis­seurs; the Con­frérie du Sabre de’Or; the pres­ti­gious “Con­frérie des Cheva­liers du Tastevin” and other asso­ci­a­tions, Hervé’s knowl­edge of French Gas­tro­nomic and the var­i­ous wines that work well with it are out­stand­ing. There­fore, Hervé has care­fully cho­sen the wines for his crit­i­cally acclaimed cel­lar includ­ing fine Bur­gundy wines from his family’s Chateau de Chamilly vine­yard in France.

 

Now, about the restau­rant.

 

Since its open­ing in 1988, The Her­mitage has been a favorite of Van­cou­verites and vis­i­tors alike. Sit­u­ated in an enclave away from the hus­tle and bus­tle of world famous Rob­son Street; it offers an ele­gant, but charm­ingly infor­mal atmos­phere that reflects the warmth and hos­pi­tal­ity of provin­cial France. While engulfed by the cozi­ness of French antiques, fam­ily trea­sures, and the warm brick of the fire­place, you can select from a menu cre­ated by mas­ter chef Hervé Mar­tin and served in the tra­di­tional French style. The crit­i­cally acclaimed wine list boasts one of the best selec­tions of Bur­gundy wines in Van­cou­ver and is high­lighted with exclu­sive wines from the fam­ily win­ery in Chamilly, France. Always on the list when acco­lades are being given, The Her­mitage has received many awards as a result of the mix of tra­di­tion, knowl­edge and artistry that Hervé brings to his restau­rant. On a warm summer’s evening, you may wish to enjoy your din­ner on the pri­vate court­yard patio while con­tem­plat­ing which of the won­der­ful desserts you will choose. Whether din­ing inside beside the fire­place or out­side on the patio, you will be in for a mem­o­rable din­ing expe­ri­ence.

 

Chef/Owner Hervé Mar­tin and his highly pro­fes­sional staff wel­come you to The Her­mitage.

 

Men­tion that you read this arti­cle on ARTICLE BASE and receive $25 off your bill.




Are Violent TV Cartoons Harmful?

Published on October 12, 2009 in Visual Art. 0 Comments



BUGS Bunny Blamed for School Fights, head­lined The Times of Lon­don. The news­pa­per reported how some teach­ers feel about the behav­ior of young­sters who, it is claimed, imi­tate vio­lent scenes from TV car­toons.

Most car­toons are vio­lent, asserted one deputy head of a pri­mary school, and even if the good guy wins in the end, the way he does so leaves much to be desired. Do you feel the same way about the trend of TV car­toons?

Faced with the increas­ing pop­u­lar­ity of ani­ma­tion, which is now widely avail­able on video, many par­ents feel con­cerned. Some are anguished by their young­sters’ car­toon men­tal­ity and even accuse car­toons of pro­mot­ing vio­lence, deceit, and dis­obe­di­ence.

But can there really be any harm in view­ing car­toons, even if they do con­tain some vio­lent scenes?

Any Harm?

Accord­ing to BBC (British Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion) guide­lines, TV pro­duc­ers must care­fully con­sider the effects of any vio­lence their pro­grams por­tray, car­toons included. Emo­tional arousal as a result of vio­lence increases with the abil­ity of the viewer to iden­tify with the sit­u­a­tion is the offi­cial view.

By their very nature, car­toons present fan­ci­ful sit­u­a­tions; so is the dan­ger min­i­mal? Most young­sters who avidly watch TV car­toons obvi­ously do so for amuse­ment. Car­toons do amuse. But can they do more? Yes, indeed, since any car­toon can make a last­ing impres­sion. Dr. Gregory Stores of Oxford Uni­ver­sity told the pro­gram list­ing mag­a­zine TV Times that the car­toons chil­dren watch are one source of the mon­sters, ghosts or wild ani­mals that are widely present in children’s night­mares.

Sim­i­larly, the British gov­ern­ment study Screen Vio­lence and Film Cen­sor­ship acknowl­edges that the com­pany in which a child views a film influ­ences the effect it has on him. So a dan­ger for chil­dren can lie in unsu­per­vised car­toon view­ing.

The same report con­tends that preschool chil­dren read­ily imi­tate vio­lent actions they watch and that with some sort of emo­tional ‘push,’ older chil­dren about the age of five or six will engage in aggres­sive acts they have learned.

Con­se­quently, broad­cast­ers admit the pos­si­bil­ity that over a period of time, view­ing the por­trayal of vio­lence on tele­vi­sion may have a desen­si­tis­ing or triv­i­al­is­ing effect par­tic­u­larly on chil­dren, what­ever their age. This can make them less sen­si­tive to engag­ing in vio­lence them­selves or make them cal­loused when it is inflicted on oth­ers.

The Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry addict, who may have first seen those char­ac­ters years ago on the movie screen, may now be a par­ent and can, at the touch of a but­ton, tune the TV in to their mod­ern antics. But stan­dards have changed. With their chil­dren in mind, par­ents will surely seek to mon­i­tor the con­tent of car­toons shown today.

Take the case of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Tur­tles. These Amer­i­can film char­ac­ters were con­sid­ered too vio­lent for many transat­lantic audi­ences. Con­se­quently, before show­ing the spin off car­toon series in Britain, the BBC cut out some scenes. It even deleted the word Ninja because that refers to Japan­ese war­riors. Instead, it called them Teenage Mutant Hero Tur­tles.

Even so, par­ents expressed some dis­quiet. One mother told the Scots­man news­pa­per: Chil­dren are very gullible. I have a five year old who is a tur­tle maniac. When I go to col­lect him from school the chil­dren in the play­ground are all try­ing to kick each other.

The con­cern felt by par­ents and teach­ers is unex­pect­edly shared by some toy store own­ers. One British store announced a ban on sales of the rep­tile war­riors amid fears of chil­dren ter­ror­is­ing each other with karate kicks and risk­ing death by hid­ing in sew­ers. Are there any other dan­gers?

Hid­den Dan­gers

Per­haps the most cyn­i­cally suc­cess­ful children’s mar­ket­ing ploy of all time is how one news­pa­per described the link between the Tur­tles car­toons and the mar­ket­ing of asso­ci­ated prod­ucts. Although such link­ing is not new, what is new with the Tur­tles is the sheer size of the mar­ket.

In this case the licensees are eager to sell an esti­mated 400 Tur­tle prod­ucts, such as comics and T shirts, to enthralled young­sters. Now if car­toon view­ing so entices chil­dren to want these goods, the scenes they watch in those same car­toons must surely have some effect! How­ever, some may say that these new fads do not last long.

Even if such fads do not per­sist, old car­toon favorites retain their appeal. Mutant Tur­tles may come and go, but Tom and Jerry are for ever, claims The Times of Lon­don. So you may need to ask your­self some ques­tions. Does view­ing such car­toons in your home indi­cate to your chil­dren that you approve every action depicted? What about scenes of cru­elty to ani­mals? You may, of course, rea­son that car­toons can­not be equated with real life. But do you know what is now hap­pen­ing to car­toons? Ani­ma­tron­ics!

Ani­ma­tron­ics is elec­tronic wiz­ardry that makes car­toon fan­tasies look real, so real that audi­ences find it dif­fi­cult to dis­tin­guish between car­toon and real­ity. The ani­ma­tronic king­dom is so con­vinc­ing in close up, reports The Sun­day Times Mag­a­zine, that even the most cyn­i­cal of view­ers, used to fan­tas­ti­cal movie tricks, are not dis­tracted by a false pore or fake wrin­kle. Vio­lent scenes pre­sented this way pos­sess a shock­ing real­ism.

Con­sider also the stan­dards of behav­ior mod­ern car­toons offer the next gen­er­a­tion. The char­ac­ters fea­tured in one new car­toon craze are an obnox­ious fam­ily of loud­mouths, layabouts and ‘under­achiev­ers,’ reports The Times of Lon­don. They appeal partly because they are so anti estab­lish­ment.

Yes, par­ents, you may well have cause for con­cern when you con­sider your children’s car­toon view­ing. What, then, can you do?

Ban­ish ‘Vio­lence for Fun’

Eval­u­ate the advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of pre­pared enter­tain­ment. With fam­ily wel­fare in mind, some par­ents have decided to do with­out TV. Oth­ers help their chil­dren weigh the pros and cons of the pro­grams they are allowed to watch. The more equipped a child (or even a grown up) is to look at a car­toon, an adver­tise­ment, or a news broad­cast crit­i­cally and ana­lyt­i­cally, explains The Inde­pen­dent of Lon­don, the more she or he is going to get out of the media. Par­ents are cer­tainly in the best posi­tion to help their chil­dren do this.

A recent study of television’s involve­ment in fam­ily life focused on two dif­fer­ent meth­ods of teach­ing. One involves rea­son­ing and explain­ing, cou­pled with an appeal to the child’s sense of achieve­ment. The other basi­cally uses pun­ish­ment and threats. What did the results show?

The chil­dren whose par­ents threat­ened them with pun­ish­ment dis­played a pref­er­ence for anti­so­cial tele­vi­sion con­tent, whereas chil­dren with moth­ers who pri­mar­ily dis­ci­plined with rea­son­ing and expla­na­tion were least affected by such scenes. Thus, car­ing par­ents explain to their chil­dren why it is unwise to watch vio­lent car­toons. But remem­ber, young­sters are born imi­ta­tors, and this places a heavy respon­si­bil­ity on par­ents to avoid watch­ing vio­lence for fun. If you watch it, your chil­dren will see noth­ing wrong in watch­ing it them­selves.

‘How, then, can I keep my chil­dren amused?’ you may ask. One sug­ges­tion: Why not seek amuse­ment by watch­ing real life ani­mal antics? Do you live near a nature reserve or zoo­log­i­cal park that you can visit as a fam­ily? If not, you can always choose suit­able wildlife videos to watch at home.

Unfor­tu­nately, none of us can presently escape the vio­lence of the world in which we live. But whether we are young or old, we can wisely choose, if we so desire, to avoid watch­ing any­thing that nur­tures violence.




Facts About Costa Del Sol Hotels

Published on October 12, 2009 in Travel. 0 Comments



Costa del Sol is a vaca­tion des­ti­na­tion that can guar­an­tee a mem­o­rable and fun vaca­tion expe­ri­ence. Even at the com­forts of Costa del Sol hotels you will know more about this city, espe­cially about the known hos­pi­tal­ity of their locals.

Costa del Sol lit­er­ally means the “sun coast” or “coast of the sun”. It is a stretch of Mediter­ranean coast­line within the Andalu­sia region of south­ern Spain. It was then made up of small fish­ing set­tle­ments before it was trans­formed dur­ing the lat­ter part of the 20th cen­tury to a world famous major tourist hub. Its com­mu­ni­ties include La Linea dela Con­cep­cion, San Roque and Sotogrande. In addi­tion, the set­tle­ment in this won­der­ful tourist spot dates back within the Bronze Age. As a pop­u­lar tourist des­ti­na­tion, it offers many lux­ury and cheap Costa del Sol hotels you can choose from.

This region has a vast and col­or­ful his­tory. Most of the locals in the olden days lived in their fish­ing vil­lages. More­over, you’ll find more Costa del Sol inter­est­ing facts through the hotel staff and by min­gling with the locals. Costa del Sol was devel­oped in order to meet the demands of tourism inter­na­tion­ally in the early 1950s and has been a famous vaca­tion des­ti­na­tion ever since. It is not only known for its beaches but also for its cul­ture.

Cheap Hotels in Costa del Sol

Hotasa Gran Hotel Cer­vantes — There are lots to know about Costa del Sol hotels. This par­tic­u­lar hotel is located at Calle de las Mer­cedes. It offers ele­gant accom­mo­da­tions as well as friendly staff. It is also a per­fect loca­tion for an unfor­get­table Costa del Sol vaca­tion. You will learn many inter­est­ing things about Costa del Sol hotels once you decide to stay within one of its hotels such as the Hotasa Gran Hotel Cer­vantes. Hotel ameni­ties include ban­quet facil­i­ties, a bar or lounge, hair­dresser or beauty salon, busi­ness cen­ter and con­fer­ence facil­i­ties as well as fit­ness or gym facil­i­ties, restau­rants, lifts or ele­va­tors, sauna and facil­i­ties for the dis­abled peo­ple along with a solar­ium, out­door swim­ming pool, tour desk and safety deposit boxes.

Alay Hotel Benal­madena — This hotel is located at Avanida Alay in Costa del Sol. It is con­sid­ered among the most pic­turesque mari­nas in the globe. Every­thing about Costa del Sol hotels and accom­mo­da­tions can be expe­ri­enced once you stay in this hotel. It is an ideal des­ti­na­tion for work meet­ings and vaca­tions with your fam­ily or loved one.

TRH Hotel Mijas — This won­der­fully cheap hotel is located at 2 Urban­iza­tion Tamisa. It offers a unique level of com­fort and warm wel­come within a sophis­ti­cated ambiance. All the rooms in this area are fur­nished in a Mediter­ranean style and come with ameni­ties that would surely ensure you a sat­is­fy­ing and plea­sur­able stay in Costa del Sol.

The Costa del Sol is a long stretch of Mediter­ranean coast­line in the Andalu­cia region of south­ern Spain, com­pris­ing the coastal towns and com­mu­ni­ties along the Mediter­ranean coast­line of the Malaga province.

The Costa del Sol is a pop­u­lar tourist region that is vis­ited by mil­lions of peo­ple annu­ally. Tourist gen­er­ally arrives at Malaga air­port and from there head to one of the many resorts located along this stretch of coast­line from Gibral­tar in the west to Nerja in the east.

The east­ern Costa is highly devel­oped, but not nearly as much so as the south west­ern part, which has been con­stantly devel­oped and rede­vel­oped since the 1960s and is geared wholly towards inter­na­tional tourism. Costa del Sol has Sierra Nevada which is the high­est moun­tain in Spain.

Malaga inter­na­tional air­port ser­vices the Costa del Sol. Buses and trains run very fre­quently from here to every des­ti­na­tion along the Costa. There are vari­ety of accom­mo­da­tions avail­able in Costa del Sol from cheap and afford­able to lux­ury one.




Some Comparisons Between Private Schools And Public Schools In Canada

Published on October 4, 2009 in Education. 0 Comments



In Canada, chil­dren are required by law to attend school until they reach the age of 16. They can attend their local pub­lic school for free, as paid for by tax dol­lars. How­ever, some par­ents choose to send their kids to pri­vate school instead of pub­lic school, with the belief that they are offer­ing them a bet­ter edu­ca­tion. Are pri­vate schools bet­ter than pub­lic schools, or are they sim­ply equal? Does pri­vate edu­ca­tion bring enough ben­e­fits to make the cost worth­while? Do the two types of schools really com­pete with one another?

Pri­vate Schools Have Admis­sion Require­ments

When you send your child to the local pub­lic school, he will be attend­ing school with any­one, regard­less of their abil­ity, per­son­al­ity, reli­gious belief, or other char­ac­ter­is­tics. This can be good, but par­ents who wish to focus their chil­dren in a cer­tain direc­tion find that inde­pen­dent school gives them that chance. Pri­vate schools are able to post admis­sion require­ments. Stu­dents may have to hold to a spe­cific reli­gious creed, have a cer­tain aca­d­e­mic abil­ity, or con­form to a set of behav­iour stan­dards in order to attend a pri­vate school. For many par­ents, this is a huge ben­e­fit.

Pri­vate Schools Have Bet­ter Student/Teacher Ratios

Canada’s pub­lic schools are over­crowded. T his causes many par­ents to send their kids to pri­vate schools. Most pri­vate schools have smaller class sizes, which allows the teacher to spend more one-on-one time with the stu­dents. This helps the stu­dents get more out of their edu­ca­tional expe­ri­ence.

Both Offer Stan­dard­ized Test­ing

Both pub­lic and pri­vate school­ing out­comes are mea­sured through stan­dard­ized test­ing. In this way, the two com­pete with one another. On aver­age, Cana­dian pri­vate school stu­dents per­form bet­ter than pub­lic school stu­dents on stan­dard­ized test­ing. How­ever, this may have just as much to do with the stu­dent demo­graphic as it does with the qual­ity of edu­ca­tion. Fac­tors such as sta­ble fam­ily life, small class sizes, and more involved par­ents will con­tribute to higher aver­age test scores in the pri­vate school sec­tor.

Pri­vate Schools Are Bet­ter Ranked

While there are good and bad pri­vate schools, in gen­eral, pri­vate schools tend to rank higher than pub­lic schools. For exam­ple, he Fraser Insti­tute ranks most pri­vate schools higher than pub­lic schools. Per­haps the pres­ti­gious nature of some of these schools draws bet­ter teach­ers, or the smaller student-to-teacher ratio improves the learn­ing abil­i­ties of the stu­dents. Some pri­vate schools are bet­ter because they have a more intense cur­ricu­lum. They do not have to use a cur­ricu­lum that includes stu­dents of all abil­ity lev­els like a pub­lic school does. A “col­lege prep” pro­gram in a pri­vate school is expected to be chal­leng­ing and stren­u­ous, as com­pared to the “gen­eral edu­ca­tion” pro­vided in a pub­lic school.

So which is the best option for your fam­ily? Only you can decide that. Pri­vate school pro­vides an excel­lent foun­da­tion for your child if he intends to head to col­lege some­day, and a pri­vate edu­ca­tion allows you to avoid some of the prob­lems with Canada’s pub­lic schools, but it is an extra expense in your family’s bud­get. The best way to make the choice is to visit the schools in your area and see which ones offer the best edu­ca­tion for your child, help­ing you reach your goals of her future.