"Been There" Virtual Travel Quiz? Round #64
See Round #20 for info about and rules for the contest.
Round #49 won by Portolan
Submitted by BKMD. Axel Towers, Copenhagen, Denmark. Copenhagen, which was my favorite city on the Scandinavia tour has bike trails/lanes throughout the country, not only in the city.
Round #50 Unoffically won by AlanS (playing behind the scenes via PM and doesn’t count)
Submitted by Smiling Sam. Gold Funerary Offering, Chimu, Imperial Epoch (1300 AD - 1532AD) found in the mud brick city of Chan Chan, the capital of the Chimu kingdom of NW Peru. The picture was taken at Lima’s Rafael Larco Herrera Museum during the Peru and Galapagos tour.
Round #51 won by Portolan
Submitted by JohnS. We are in Chitwan National Park on the river Rapti in the Terai lowlands of Nepal. This was on the first day of our Safari on the Northern India and Nepal trip.
Round #52 no winner!!!
Submitted by SueMS. This shot was taken during a walking tour of Old Town Warsaw of the Castle Inn. The inn is set in the sixteenth century townhouse of the Kościelski family in the heart of Warsaw’s picturesque Old Town, and is in itself a true work of art. Its rooms dreamt up from concepts of exquisite visionaries like Rene Magritte, Maurits Escher and Lewis Carroll.
Round #53 won by Smiling Sam
Submitted by BKMD. Hosier Lane, Melbourne, Australia "The town is a graffiti capital in Australia apparently. Recently it has been attracting the world-wide attention to its street art: the city attracts people from all around the globe, therefore they develop a really unique style."
Round #54 won by Smiling Sam
Submitted by AlanS. Bunratty Castle, Bunratty, Ireland. Best of Ireland, Small Groups
Round #55 won by Derek
Submitted by Sealord. Mosi oa Tunya National Park, Livingstone, Zambia. The deck bar at the Royal Livingstone- sunset over the Zambezi.
Round #56 won by Smiling Sam
Submitted by BobHamburger. River Rafting on the Snake River just outside Jackson, Wyoming, part of the Yellowstone & the Tetons: American Safari tour. The Tetons are in the background.
Round #57 won by JohnS
Submitted by Smiling Sam. Petros the Pelican, Mascot of Mykonos (the current Petros.) Pelicans can live 15 - 25 years!
Round #58 won by JohnS
Submitted by Kathy M. Kampana tower in Kotor, Montenegro. Tour?
Round #59 won by Portolan
Submitted by JohnS. Katmandu, Nepal. It is the capital and largest city in Nepal. Historic areas of Kathmandu were severely damaged by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in April 2015. Some of the buildings have been restored and some remain in the process of reconstruction.
Round #60 won by Portolan w/assist from TravelGuy
Submitted by travel maven. Civic Center, Bucharest, Romania. Room is in the Palace of Parliament (originally the Palace of the People in typical communist regime?). It is the second largest building by volume in the world...after the Pentagon. This room contained a secret door behind the chair of Nicolae Ceausescu which led to a series of tunnels hidden beneath the Palace of the Parliament. The tunnels were designed by Nicolae Ceausescu so that he could get from the building to the airport below ground in case of a Revolution.
Round #61 won by cvc
Submitted by AlanS. The Parliament Building in Vaduz the capital of the Principality of Liechtenstein. This building is called the “High House”, the other two being the “Joining House” and the “Long House.” Laws passed by parliament (known as the "Landtag") must be approved by the Prince, countersigned by the Prime Minister and published in the National Legal Gazette. Laws that are not approved by the Prince within six months do not enter into force and are considered as having been rejected by the Prince.
Round #62 won by AlanS
Submitted by BKMD. 15 cm replicas of the famous Xi’an terracotta soldiers made from Chocolate by Chef Sun Hao, pastry chef of Hilton Xi’an
Round #63 won by BKMD
Submitted by Smiling Sam. A woman of the Karen tribe which reside in both Myanmar and Thailand. Picture was taken in Chiang May, Thailand on the Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand tour.
Round #64 is officially open. Submit your photo in a reply [Leave a Comment] to this announcement.
Comments
OK, try this:
What and where is it? - easy(ish) Update: maybe hard(ish) as I see that this location is no longer on the Tauck tour during which we were there. So, may past travelers or skilled internet searchers.
What claim to fame does the green patch on the hillside at bottom center have? - hard(ish)
Scott
What are those six structures with tiny windows on the top floor below the roof line that overhang the wall? Don't tell me they are like the similar structure on medieval castles.
Well, the green patches are grape vines.
Katzenzungen Castle, home of the 350+ year old vine of Versoaln. At first I found the building while searching about grapes and villas and found it in an article about old indigenous Italian grapes/vines. In this case, according to the photo pop-up, Versoaln. Then I searched under Versoaln .
"Versoaln- This isn’t just Italy’s oldest vine, it is one of the oldest in the world – and the largest in Europe. Located in Tisens, South Tyrol, it is 350 years old, and its branches form a 300-square-meter pergola. It produces a white wine that goes by the same name as the vine, Versoaln. Found it- see first sentence.
According to legend, the Versoaln vine planted at Katzenzungen Castle was originally a cutting taken from a Versoaln vine planted at the palace of Versailles in the Île-de-France region of north-central France. The vine was reportedly brought to northeast Italy by a former owner of Katzenzungen Castle, Grafen Schlandesberg.
AlanS nailed it. According to this sign on the property (below), it's perhaps the oldest and largest grapevine in the world. This castel (Italian) is near Bolzano and was a memorable dinner venue (also below) on our 2010 Week in Bavaria, the Dolomites and Venice (plus the Oberammergau Passion Play) tour.
Scott
Don't forget the qualifier- . . . . "probably" the oldest. . .
We had lunch on our own during our fairly short stop in Balzano and didn't have dinner until we reached Davos on Ultimate Alps & Dolomites several years ago.
Did you get a tour of the castle? What about my question above?
Same castle different views or different renovations? I found the answer- first photo is of the front and the second the rarely shown or photographed back side. There is a gallery on their website with 45 photos, some which show the massive restoration work needed- the entire roof had to be replaced. Floodlights were installed in those protruding structures on the front (formerly latrines? I know the ones on the back were!
).
Tour, yes, but not to the rooms on the top floor. I understand your query, not have never been to a castle which was en suite in every room. Usually had some form of shaft as well to avoid staining the e exterior. Maybe some form of sunshade? They appear on the southeast and southwest facades.
The ones in the back on your photo were clearly the more typical explanation.