Did You Know...? The island’s western tip was a haven for gunrunners during the U.S. Civil War and rum runners during Prohibition. The Caribbean yellow pine is the most common tree on the island. Grand Bahama provided film locations for two of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. Freeport got
Did You Know...? About 22% of German wine is made from the Riesling grape. Bad Durkheim hosts the world’s largest wine festival [600,000-plus attendees annually). Speyer boasts it has the world’s oldest unopened wine bottle, from 325 A.D. Six of Germany’s 13 wine regions are in Rhineland-Palatinate and they produce
Did You Know...? KD German Rhine Line is the world’s oldest river cruise company (1826). The Rhine-Main-Danube Canal creates a water route from the North Sea to the Black Sea. The Danube crosses more countries (10) and more capitals (four) than any other river in the world. Eighty percent of
Did You Know ... ? Bavaria’s King Ludwig II never saw Neuschwanstein Castle without scaffolding. Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German while at Wartburg Castle (1521) in Eisenach. The 19th century Hohenzollern Castle was never occupied except for a few months in 1945. Germany’s oldest wine-growing village is
Did You Know ... ? The prisoner fictionalized in “The Man in the Iron Mask” was held on Ste. Marguerite Island off Cannes. Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald worked on “The Age of Innocence” and “The Great Gatsby,” respectively, while living on the Riviera. Grasse counts about 30 perfume
Did you know ... ? King Midas, Herodotus (father of history), St. Paul and St. Nicholas (remembered as Santa Claus) were born in Turkey. Bodrum’s Tomb of King Mausolus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, gave us the word mausoleum. The world’s oldest known human settlement, from
Did You Know? Nijmegen, with a 2,000-year history, is deemed the oldest city in the Netherlands. The country first imported bicycles in 1869; Deventer hosted the first bicycle club (1871). In the 16th century, the Oudewater weighhouse was used to weigh humans — to determine if they were witches. The
Did You Know? Hippocrates, the father of medicine, led classes and tended the sick on Kos. Christian tradition says John, one of Christ’s disciples, wrote the Book of Revelation on Patmos. The name Dodecanese is Greek for twelve islands. The “Colossus of Rhodes,” destroyed in a 226 B.C. earthquake, was one
Did You Know...? The Mayflower Pilgrims (1620) and Roanoke’s ill-fated settlers (1586) departed England at Plymouth. The total height climbed if walking the 630-mile South West Coast Path is 114,931 feet (Everest is 29,028). Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540) and Agatha Christie (1890) were born and lived in Devon. Devon
Did You Know ... ? Emperor Rudolph II bought Cesky Krumlov (the town) in order to park an illegitimate son in the castle (1602). Nearly 180 Czech castles, chateaux or their ruins are open to the public. The Czech composer, Bedrich Smetana, was born in Litomysl. The Sedlec Ossuary, near
