There's something eternal about all these Roman ruins, artifacts and buildings all over Europe. Still today it's hard to imagine how an empire could operate on such a huge territory and in such high precision. The Romans really have been planers, builders and organizers. I wonder how much of that legacy is still present within the tribes, rites and morals of today. Europe is still full of Roman artifacts, but nonetheless you need to have a closer look on the map in order to find them. One of the best preserved aqueduct bridges is for sure the Pont du Gard in southern France. It was build in the first century AD and carried water over 50 km from the area of Uzes (Ucetia) to the Roman colony of Nimes (Nemausus). Near the town Vers Pont du Gard it crosses the river Gardon. Here the bridge needed to be exactly 48.8 m high in order to transport water from one end to the other without losing too much height. read more…
With curiosity and a lot of interest I recently watched Apple's keynote about the new Apple Vision Pro headset. It's not advertised so much as a virtual reality or augmented reality headset but instead it's referred to as a "spatial computing" device. The term needs a bit of further explanation though looking at what the device can do and given the fact that it's more or less a huge goggle hooked to a computer. As soon as it is released it will present all the information that so far only lives on your flat computer screen in a more or less animated, augmented, three-dimensional reality. Your living room becomes your new desktop. All the information stored on your computer becomes part of the spatiality of your home. read more…
Recently I had the chance to visit Arles, the tiny city in the south of France, in the heart of the Provence region. Arles had a rather important place on any ancient map since Julius Caesar established a colony there back in 46BC. Its ideal location next to the Rhone made it a very important commercial center to transport goods from the Mediterranean sea up the river up to the northern regions of the empire. A lot of historical venues and buildings are present until this day, among them the Roman theatre, the baths of Constantine, a cryptoporticus, the Roman Barbegal aqueduct with its mills and, very impressive even today, the Roman amphitheatre in the very center of the old city. At the time it was hosting up to 21.000 spectators watching the gladiators fighting their combats of life and death. Today the amphitheatre is still in use for regular bullfights, hence the people just call it "les arenes" (the arena). read more…
Have you ever been to Mallorca? No? You definitely should plan a visit there in the years to come. Recent political changes how to treat and possibly limit the enormous amount of visitors each year makes it an even more desirable place to visit. What an irony. Sure Mallorca is still famous for endless parties and possibly a lot of alcohol, but this is not what I want to talk about here. There's so much else to discover and the Spanish island is just too beautiful to recover in bed from your last night's adventures all day long. At least this time this was not part of my plan. read more…
Zermatt's youth hostel lies on a hill, which seems to be quite the norm for almost any youth hostel in the world. In a mountain village like Zermatt this might be even more understandable as simply there's not enough room in the mostly flat areas of the valley for all the houses, restaurants, hotels and yes, youth hostels. The youth hostel in Zermatt was built in the 1950s and over time was clearly showing its age. Especially inside the big bedrooms for many people felt rather outdated. Even in a youth hostel today's guests request some minimal standards like smaller rooms with their own bathrooms, some more space to store their luggage and at least some amount of privacy. To achieve all of these new demands within the old building was simple not possible without significantly reducing the number of available beds. So the youth hostel in Zermatt went right in the other direction and in 2002 started planning and building two new addons, two separate buildings right and left in front of the old, existing one forming a new reception, a new courtyard which opens up to frame the view of the Matterhorn. read more…