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7 travel experiences straight out of a fairytale

<p>Some travel destinations are so beautiful they hardly seem real. We’ve put together a gallery with seven dreamy destinations that look like they are straight out of fairytale.</p> <p>To see them all, scroll through the gallery above.</p> <p>1. Holland’s Tulip Fields – The Netherlands </p> <p>2. Sagrada Familia – Spain</p> <p>3. Lake District – England</p> <p>4. Lake Sørvágsvatn – Faroe Islands</p> <p>5. Preikestolen – Norway</p> <p>6. Neuschwanstein Castle – Germany</p> <p>7. Krzywy Domek – Poland</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/travel/international/2016/02/a-look-inside-first-class-cabins/">Inside 8 first class cabins that will amaze you</a></em></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/travel/international/2016/02/most-photographed-locations-in-london/">London’s 8 most photographed locations</a></em></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/travel/international/2016/02/holiday-ideas-for-animal-lovers/">8 holiday ideas every animal lover needs to experience</a></em></strong></span></p> <p><em style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Image credit: Shutterstock</em></p>

International Travel

14 enchanting places that look straight out of a fairy tale

<p>Step right into your favourite storybook with these stunning and completely real places throughout the world.</p> <p><strong>Colmar, France</strong></p> <p>It’s easy to see why this small town in the Alsace region of France is known as “Little Venice.”</p> <p>Lining its canal – which is just begging for a lazy boat ride – are colourful buildings and cobblestone streets.</p> <p>Break out into “Little town, it’s a quiet village,” as you stroll.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CaLTF9WO28T/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CaLTF9WO28T/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Colmar - France (@colmar_tourisme)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Bibury, England</strong></p> <p>Artist William Morris deemed Bibury “the most beautiful village in England” when he visited in the 1800s, and nothing much has changed.</p> <p>The enchanting town still has the quaint homes and rustic charm that any fairy tale should start in.</p> <p>When you live in a town like this, it’s hard to be unhappy.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CclXFe_DgAz/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CclXFe_DgAz/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by English countrysides (@englishcountrysides)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Hohenschwangau Castle, Germany</strong></p> <p>This gorgeous German castle is basically the real-life version of a storybook palace.</p> <p>Crown Prince Maximilian – who would later become King Max II – built it to replace its decaying 12th-century predecessor.</p> <p>King Ludwig II grew up spending time in this beautiful castle, but still wanted to outdo it when he got older.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJTSYI8s98t/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJTSYI8s98t/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Castle Travellers (@castle.travellers)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany</strong></p> <div> <p>That vanity project King Ludwig II used to outshine his childhood home? This is it.</p> <p>The results were so good, in fact, that Neuschwanstein Castle was actually the inspiration for Disney’s Cinderella Castle.</p> <p>On the top of snow-covered mountains in the winter, we can imagine it as the perfect home for <em>Frozen</em>’s Queen Elsa.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJlphhkj79M/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJlphhkj79M/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by VOYAGED by 9GAG (@voyaged)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Manarola, Italy</strong></p> <p>taly’s Cinque Terre is made up of five picturesque villages, but Manarola is among the most dramatic.</p> <p>The brightly hued homes seem to be hanging precariously onto the cliffs, but they’ve managed to keep from crashing into the sea for almost 700 years. Could it be magic?</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc6VmELvywz/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc6VmELvywz/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Carmen Sol (@carmensol_palmbeach)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Rakotz Bridge, Germany</strong></p> <p>Passing under Rakotz Bridge in Kromlau, Germany, you just might feel like you’re on your way to sell your soul.</p> <p>So it’s fitting that it – along with other ancient bridges – are known as “devil’s bridges.”</p> <p>When reflected in the water, the structure makes a perfect circle.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CTKDcs6MjdU/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CTKDcs6MjdU/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Micha (@hobbyfotografie_micha_)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Tbilisi, Georgia</strong></p> <div class="slide-image" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <p>In the middle of this old town sits a surprisingly new clock tower.</p> <p>Puppeteer Rezo Gabriadze gathered pieces from abandoned and ruined buildings from Tbilisi, Georgia, to build the higgledy-piggledy landmark.</p> <p>Quirky as it is, it still tells time.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccj9nGitSjP/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccj9nGitSjP/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Грузия - Georgia - Туры (@georgiaforyou)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Bojnice Castle, Slovakia</strong></p> <div> <p>If we had to pick a castle for our princess dreams, this would be it.</p> <p>The medieval castle has everything we’ve always wanted, from tall spires to a moat.</p> <p>We’ll stay here for our happily ever after, please.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CY5wpbVrP6C/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CY5wpbVrP6C/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by SNM - Múzeum Bojnice (@bojnicecastle)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Multnomah Falls, United States</strong></p> <div> <p>Can’t you just picture a theatrical fairy tale fight between knights on this bridge stretching dramatically over this waterfall?</p> <p>Take a road trip to the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon for your own fairy tale moment.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9uUQGYBWK8/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9uUQGYBWK8/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Multnomah Falls (@multnomahfalls)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Český Krumlov, Czech Republic</strong></p> <div> <p>Sprinkled with charming red brick roofs, this medieval city would make the perfect backdrop for a fairy tale.</p> <p>But the biggest draw is the castle perched on a rock by the river.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/xcCAzfE22j/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/xcCAzfE22j/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic (@cesky_krumlov)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Château de Chenonceau, France</strong></p> <div> <p>If you think Versailles is the extent of France’s palaces, you were totally off.</p> <p>This gorgeous manor stretches over the River Cher and has stunning gardens open to the public.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/COpQlQIHN8l/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/COpQlQIHN8l/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chateau de Chenonceau Officiel (@chateau_chenonceau)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Chefchaouen, Morocco</strong></p> <p>You might assume these bright colours are just a tiny snapshot of this town, but you’ll find the same magical views throughout the twists and turns of the “blue city.”</p> <p>Beyond its walls you’ll find en epic mountains towering overhead and below, with goats grazing on its green pastures.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBF0vStnm33/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBF0vStnm33/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by 🌍Morocco Chefchaouen (@chefchaouen_city)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Pelourinho, Brazil</strong></p> <div> <p>This historic neighborhood in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, doesn’t just have stunning architecture – the bright colours of the buildings accent its beautiful stucco work.</p> <p>It was the country’s capital between 1549 and 1763, when native cultures blended with European and African ones.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CcVmGWnuGGs/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CcVmGWnuGGs/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Dove Viaggi (@doveviaggi)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Ghent, Belgium</strong></p> <div> <p>In this port city, houses are nestled right next to the canal.</p> <p>It sits pretty much smack dab between Brussels and Bruges, but this slice of medieval times doesn’t come with the same droves of tourists.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CcruoFVtpFl/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CcruoFVtpFl/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Lucian (@lucian_ciursa_)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article first appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/travel/destinations/14-enchanting-places-look-straight-out-fairy-tale?pages=2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>.</em></p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

International Travel

“Fairytale” chateau re-listed with million-dollar discount

<p dir="ltr">An estate dubbed Chateau Jardin Perfume has taken a price cut after being on the market since mid 2021.</p><p dir="ltr">The chateau-inspired mansion was first listed for $8 and $8.8 million, and has been <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/sassafras-vic-3787-2017057790" target="_blank" rel="noopener">relisted</a> with a price guide between $5.7 and $6.2 million.</p><p dir="ltr">Located in the town of Sassafras in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges, the home has been renovated and filled with French chandeliers, Italian porcelain floors, custom statues, and an imported staircase.</p><p dir="ltr">The three-bedroom, three-bathroom house sits on 2600 square metres and has been described as a “fairytale”, “off-the-charts” and a “palace in the sky”.</p><p dir="ltr">Its current owners first bought the home in 2016 for $2.66 million, when it was marketed as “Beauxbatons Manor”, referencing the French wizardry school in the Harry Potter books.</p><p dir="ltr">After completing a swift, multimillion-dollar renovation, Peninsula Sotheby’s International says it has become the kind of home you’d find in the Hollywood Hills.</p><p dir="ltr">“When you look at the colouring of the decor, the splashes of pink, the outdoor furniture, which is all from LA, the Rolls-Royce in the garage, it is very Hollywood Hills, even with the aspect over Melbourne city which is typical of what you would see in LA,” agent Rob Curtain said.</p><p dir="ltr">Along with the glamourous finishings, the home features vivid colours and patterns like fuschia and leopard print throughout.</p><p dir="ltr">Originally, the interior and exterior furniture and furnishings - except the artwork - were included with the home.</p><p dir="ltr">With the relisting of the home, Mr Curtain told <em><a href="https://www.nine.com.au/property/news/fairytale-mansion-dandenong-ranges-for-sale/aef16231-7655-4cee-85a5-351dbc618f47" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Domain</a> </em>that the price would be readjusted accordingly if the prospective buyer didn’t wish to buy the fixtures and fittings - which may explain the new, reduced price.</p><p dir="ltr">Other luxe features include two separate master wings, a six-car garage, a “gold-class” theatre room with space for eight people, and an opulent cigar room.</p><p dir="ltr">The extensive renovations also saw the grounds undergo a major transformation, with the 2400-square-metre grounds undergoing extensive landscaping to create gardens filled with roses, camelias, gardenias, tulips, freesias, hyacinth, jasmine and Mexican orange blossom.</p><p dir="ltr">The fairytale atmosphere is made complete with the stunning pool featuring a mosaic tile rose on the bottom, as we</p><p dir="ltr">ll as with a series of stone paths and twinkling lights.</p><p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Domain</em></p>

Real Estate

From fairytale to gothic ghost story: how 40 years of biopics showed Princess Diana on screen

<p>Since the earliest Princess Diana biopics appeared soon after the royal wedding in 1981, there have been repeated attempts to bring to the screen the story of Diana’s journey from blue-blooded ingenue through to tragic princess trapped within – and then expelled from – the royal system.</p> <p>A long string of actresses, with replicas of the outfits she wore and a blond wig (sometimes precariously) in place, have walked through episodic storylines, charting the “greatest hits” of what is known of Diana’s royal life.</p> <p>Biopics about the princess tend to be shaped according to the dominant mythic narratives in circulation in any given phase of Diana’s life. The first biopics were stories of fairytales and romance. From the 1990s, the marriage of Charles and Diana took on the shape of soap opera and melodrama.</p> <p>Now, with the Crown (2016–) and Spencer (2021), Diana has become a doomed gothic heroine. She is a woman suffocated by a royal system that cannot, will not, acknowledge her special place in the royal pantheon.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WllZh9aekDg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <h2>Fairytales and soap operas</h2> <p>The first Dianas appeared on American television networks within months of the July 1981 wedding of Charles and Diana.</p> <p>Both Charles and Diana: A Royal Love Story (starring Caroline Bliss) and The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (starring Catherine Oxenberg) invested wholesale in a fairytale lens.</p> <p>They told of the young and virginal beauty who had captured the attention of the dashing prince, whisked off to a life of happily ever after.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/54QRwogBUQI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>The Diana biopics fell quiet for the first years of the marriage (fairytales don’t tend to interest themselves in pregnancies and apparent marital harmony), and then reemerged after the publication of Andrew Morton’s exposé, Diana: Her True Story (1992).</p> <p>Morton’s biography was written from taped interviews with the princess and inspired the next generation of Diana biopics, ones that I call the “post-Morton” biopics, which borrow from Diana’s own scripting of her life.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R7OnHYcTqLk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>A series of actors were enlisted to play Diana in these made-for-television productions.</p> <p>Oxenberg turns up again in Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After (1992). In Diana: Her True Story (1993), Serena Scott-Thomas (who, incidentally, turns up in the 2011 television biopic William and Kate as Catherine Middleton’s mother Carole) does her best with a terrible script and series of wigs.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tUFUuGpHHPg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>Others gave it their best shot. We had Julie Cox in Princess in Love (1996), Amy Seacombe in Diana: A Tribute to the People’s Princess (1998), Genevieve O'Reilly in Diana: Last Days of a Princess (2007) and, briefly, Michelle Duncan in Charles and Camilla: Whatever Love Means (2005).</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eNTR0nZZXn4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>But even large budget films (such as 2013’s cinema-release Diana, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and starring Naomi Watts) had critics and audiences letting out <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/diana_2013">a collective yawn</a>.</p> <p>In film after film we were offered yet another uninspired, soap opera-style representation of the princess’s life.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ca2GGofxzX4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <h2>A gothic tale</h2> <p>Critics’ voices were quelled somewhat with the appearance of Emma Corrin’s Diana in season four of The Crown.</p> <p>With Netflix’s high budget and quality production values, many — <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crown-season-4-review-a-triumphant-portrait-of-the-1980s-with-a-perfectly-wide-eyed-diana-149633">including myself</a> — felt Peter Morgan’s deliberate combination of accuracy and imaginative interpretation of Diana’s royal life offered something approximating a closer rendition of the “real” princess than we’d been presented with before.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tedqw0gMuCI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>And then we come to the most recent portrayal of Diana on screen, Pablo Larraín’s Spencer (2021), starring Kristen Stewart as Diana. What, royal biopic watchers wondered, could it possibly do to top The Crown’s Diana?</p> <p>Spencer’s statement in the film’s opening offers a clue: it promises to be a “fable from a true tragedy”.</p> <p>This is a film where genre imperatives and creative imaginings are placed at the forefront of its representation of the princess.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f-FBHQAGLnY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>Taking its cue from the gothic themes and tropes Diana can be heard invoking on the Morton tapes, Spencer’s heroine is trapped in a frozen Sandringham setting, gasping for air to the point where her voice rarely lifts above a soft, almost suffocated, whisper.</p> <p>She tears at the pearls encircling her throat. She rips open the curtains sewn shut by staff. She self-harms with wire cutters. She runs like an animal hunted down manor house corridors and across frosty Norfolk fields.</p> <p>She is haunted by the ghost of Anne Boleyn, another royal wife rejected by her husband, prompting <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a38164090/princess-diana-spencer-horror-movie/">one reviewer to ask</a>: “is Spencer the ultimate horror movie?”</p> <p>Larraín and Stewart’s Diana has her precursor in the spectral, gothic Diana who appears in the 2017 future-history television film King Charles III, based on Mike Bartlett’s 2014 play. The anguished howl of this Diana (played by Katie Brayben) echoes throughout the palace in the same way Spencer’s Diana is framed as the royal who will haunt the Windsors for decades to come.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nyckuIRtag0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>The lamentable Diana: The Musical (2021) on Netflix (a filmed version of the Broadway production starring Jeanna de Waal) – with its cliched storyline, two-dimensional characterisation, awkward costuming and early 1980s Andrew Lloyd Webber-style aesthetic – offers some evidence that, even in 2021, the creators of Diana stories haven’t altogether abandoned their investment in the Diana of 1981.</p> <p>But with Spencer, we have a Diana shaped by both the princess’s own version of her story, and the screen Dianas that came before her. Spencer suggests new directions and potential for the telling of royal lives.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173648/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UlebsnuEI1Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/giselle-bastin-391174">Giselle Bastin</a>, Associate Professor of English, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/flinders-university-972">Flinders University</a></em></span></p> <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-fairytale-to-gothic-ghost-story-how-40-years-of-biopics-showed-princess-diana-on-screen-173648">original article</a>.</p> <p><span class="attribution"><span class="source"><em>Image: Pablo Larraín/Roadshow</em></span></span></p>

Movies

A Japanese fairytale

<p><em>Justine Tyerman has a Japanese lesson, discovers a magical bamboo forest and finally sees the world’s most famous volcano in the clear.</em></p> <p>It happened when we least expected it. En route by taxi to Mishima Station at the end of our week on the <span><a href="https://walkjapan.com/tour/izu-geo-trail">Izu Geo Trail</a></span>, suddenly, right ahead of us, dazzlingly close and clear, was Mt Fuji. I nearly fell out the window, trying to get a photo of the perfect cone. It was a fitting finale to a fabulous week during which time we explored the Izu Peninsula on foot with <span><a href="https://walkjapan.com/tour/izu-geo-trail">Walk Japan</a></span>.</p> <p>Our last day began with a stroll around Dogashima and the pumice cliffs above the seashore. As we walked by a stall, a sprightly lady selling jewellery began an animated conversation with our guide Yohei. She was aged 75 and had been a diver since the age of 10. In her younger days, she used to dive 12m in 40 seconds up to 600 times a day. Still diving regularly, she was also a great saleswoman too and managed to sell a few sets of earrings to the ladies.</p> <p>We climbed up a huge rock to ‘Matsushima of <span>Izu</span>’, a scenic look-out visited by the Showa Emperor in November 1954. Turtle and Snake Islands, topped with green trees, were just a stone’s throw across a narrow channel of clear, turquoise blue-green water. The striations in the rocks told the story of millions of years of volcanic activity. </p> <p>A 200-metre-long tombolo or sand bar stretching to the trio of Sanshiro Islands was visible just below the surface of the sea. You can walk to the islands at low tide. Nearby, we peered into a great chasm in the earth where the roof of the Tensodo Sea Cave had collapsed. While we were there, a boat full of excited tourists appeared below us, one of many daily excursions from the wharf at Dogashima that take passengers right into the cave.</p> <p>Heading for the hills, we drove through a little village where an elderly couple were working on a tiny plot of land, cultivated right up to the door of their house, and further on, a man in a carpark who looked to be at least 95, doing exercises and stretches while cleaning his car — time and space are seldom wasted in Japan.</p> <p>The Izusanryosen Trail to the summit of Mt Daruma, 982m, an extinct volcano in the west-central highlands of the <span>Izu</span> Peninsula, was the focus of our hike for the day. After scaling many, many steps on a warm afternoon, we were rewarded with another tantalisingly-hazy glimpse of Mt Fuji.</p> <p>After a picnic lunch at the summit... and a chat with six well-equipped Japanese women hikers who had climbed all the way from the village of Heda... we descended Daruma and ascended 890m Kodarumayama meaning small Darumayama. The signpost sparked a language lesson with Yohei who explained the meaning of the Japanese characters — ko means small and yama means mountain so Kodarumayama means small Daruma. The things you learn while hiking with Walk Japan.</p> <p>The track down from Kodarumayama was probably the most difficult of the whole week — seemingly never-ending steps where the soil had eroded away leaving just the wooden support structure. It required a high level of concentration to make sure you planted your feet in exactly the right place. I was relieved I was wearing my heavy-duty, trusty TBs (tramping boots) that day. I sure needed their ankle support.</p> <p>We had a bus with us the whole day so some took the option of going down by road, rejoining the group for the last part of the hike, an amble along a wide, grassed pathway that looked like the fairway on a golf course. We stopped for refreshments at a restaurant with a magnificent elevated view of <span>Izu</span>’s volcanic landscape including the Tanzawa Mountains in the distance.</p> <p>A short time later, we arrived at Shuzenji in the hilly centre of the peninsula. Our accommodation for our last night on the <span>Izu</span> Geo Trail was Arai Ryokan, a graceful 140-year-old historic Japanese inn. Before checking in, we explored Shuzenji Onsen, an exquisite town with the Katsura River running right through the centre. One of the oldest and most famous hot spring resort towns on the <span>Izu</span> Peninsula, Shuzenji was named after the Shuzenji Temple founded by a Buddhist monk, Kobo Daishi, about 1200 years ago. The oldest of the original onsens, is now a public foot bath by the river.</p> <p><strong>Magic in the air</strong></p> <p>Wandering along the river and across picturesque bright red bridges on a glorious mild afternoon, we discovered little cafes and boutiques selling pretty umbrellas, crafts and pot plants. Our pathway took us through a bamboo forest. The play of light and shade through the tall spindly trunks of the bamboo was mesmerising. We lay on our backs on a platform at the centre on the forest and gazed skyward at the impossibly-high tops of the trees swaying in the breeze. The sunlight and shadows played tricks with my eyes. There was magic in the air.</p> <p>My room at Arai Ryokan, overlooking the river, was one of the loveliest and most spacious of our six nights on tour. Sliding windows opened wide, bringing the sound of the river into the room. I loved looking out at the historic Japanese buildings with the turned-up corners on the roofs.</p> <p>The main indoor onsen baths, Tenpyo Dai Yokudo, were built from cypress wood in 1933, in the 8th century Nara Era architecture style. They are registered as a National Cultural Asset. There are indoor family baths that can be booked for private use, and outdoor baths surrounded by gardens.<br />Strolling around the ryokan’s beautiful gardens with their arched bridges over ponds full of colourful fish, and lush green foliage interspersed with the vivid crimson of maple trees, I felt like I was in a Japanese fairytale. It’s a place I’d happily return to.</p> <p>Arai Ryokan specialises in kaiseki cuisine with fresh local seafood and vegetables. By now we were well-versed in traditional Japanese dinners and the 10-course menu (in English and Japanese) was mouth-watering. Knowing the following day I’d be heading home to Kiwi fare, I made the most of the exotic flavours and artistic presentation. It was a fitting feast for our last night together which ended with speeches and a presentation to our excellent tour leader and guide, Yohei.</p> <p>Next morning, it felt odd to be dressed in street clothes and footwear. Everyone looked so different after a week of hiking gear during the daytime and yukata in the evenings. Yohei accompanied us to Mishima Station where he helped us buy our train tickets to various destinations. I always find railway station farewells quite emotional but as we bowed goodbye, I had a sense our paths would cross again sometime, probably walking somewhere.</p> <p>Walking, the purest, simplest form of transportation, was the bond that had united our enthusiastic, energetic international group of 12. Walking was the focus of every day, enabling the gradual discovery of new terrain, a slow unravelling of landscape allowing the senses to absorb the sights and sounds and smells. The experience was enriching, deeply satisfying, and more than a little addictive.</p> <p>Snowshoeing in <span><a href="https://walkjapan.com/destinations/hokkaido">Hokkaido’s</a></span> remote eastern region with its abundant wildlife, shimmering crater lakes and onsen thermal hot spring baths surrounded by glistening white snow looks tempting...<br /><br /><strong>Fact file:</strong></p> <ul> <li>The <span><a href="https://walkjapan.com/tour/izu-geo-trail">Izu Geo Trail</a></span> is a 7-day, 6-night guided tour starting in Tokyo and finishing in Mishima. The trail explores the Izu Peninsula in the Shizuoka Prefecture, one of the most unique geological areas on Earth. The mountainous peninsula with deeply indented coasts, white sand beaches and a climate akin to a sub-tropical island, is located 150km south west of Tokyo on the Pacific Coast of the island of Honshu, Japan.</li> <li>An easy-to-moderate-paced hiking tour with an average walking distance of 6-12km a day, mostly on uneven forest and mountain tracks including some steep climbs and descents.</li> </ul> <p><em>Justine Tyerman was a guest of <a href="https://walkjapan.com/">Walk Japan</a>.</em></p>

International Travel

Prince Harry and Meghan's fairytale horse carriage for wedding day

<p><span>Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding is set to be a fairytale occasion with Kensington Palace confirming the couple will travel through the streets of Windsor in a carriage drawn by grey horses.</span></p> <p><span>Last night, Kensington Palace announced that the carriage procession will immediately follow the wedding ceremony on May 19.</span></p> <p><span>The couple have chosen to ride in an Ascot Landau, which is one of five such carriages owned by the royal family.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle have selected the Ascot Landau carriage for their procession through Windsor Town after their wedding on May 19th. <a href="https://t.co/uR9bKgqmiX">pic.twitter.com/uR9bKgqmiX</a></p> — Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) <a href="https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/991609031868534784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2018</a></blockquote> <p style="text-align: center;"><span> </span></p> <p><span>In 2011, Harry was in one of the open-topped landaus as he was transported from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace following the wedding of Prince William and Catherine.</span></p> <p><span>The Ascot Landaus also transported the Queen for her coronation visit to Edinburgh, her Silver Jubilee visits to Glasgow and Cardiff, and other various state visits.</span></p> <p><span>The Ascot Landaus are also used to transport new Commonwealth High Commissioners when they are invited by the Queen for an audience at Buckingham Palace.</span></p> <p><span>“There will be one horse-drawn carriage in the carriage procession from St George’s Chapel, which will take the newly married couple through Windsor town, returning to Windsor Castle along the Long Walk,’’ Kensington Palace said last night.</span></p> <p><span>“The carriage will be escorted by a travelling escort of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.</span></p> <p><span>“Prince Harry and Ms Markle are very much looking forward to this short journey which they hope will allow them to express their gratitude for everyone who has gathered together in Windsor to enjoy the atmosphere of this special day.’’</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle will take part in a Carriage Procession around Windsor after their wedding on May 19th.<br /><br />🎥 Go behind the scenes at The Royal Mews to learn more the Carriages and Horses that will be used: <a href="https://t.co/cKM7KpTgAF">https://t.co/cKM7KpTgAF</a> <a href="https://t.co/HDHj2awXBq">pic.twitter.com/HDHj2awXBq</a></p> — The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) <a href="https://twitter.com/RoyalFamily/status/991657964464476161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2018</a></blockquote> <p><span>Meghan, the royal family and the bridal party will arrive at the ceremony in some of the State Car collection vehicles.</span></p> <p><span>The palace said details would be later released as to which cars are chosen from the collection, which includes two Bentleys, three Rolls-Royces and three Daimlers.</span></p> <p><span>If it rains heavily on their wedding day, the pair will conduct the carriage procession in the enclosed Scottish State Coach.</span></p> <p><span>The coach features the royal arms for Scotland and the insignia of the Order of the Thistle. The other carriages owned by the royal family all bear the royal arms for England and the insignia of the Order of the Garter. </span></p>

Relationships

Inside Serena Williams' fairytale wedding

<p>On Thursday, Serena Williams married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian at a private wedding ceremony at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.</p> <p>The couple, who were secretly dating for 15 months after meeting in Rome and kept a low profile until their engagement was announced in December 2016, had a <em>Beauty and The Beast</em>-inspired ceremony with a star-studded guest list.</p> <p>Guests of the special event included Serena’s sister Venus Williams, Meghan Markle, <em>Vogue</em>’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, Beyoncé and husband Jay-Z.</p> <p>The newlyweds chose the wedding date of November 16 in honour of Ohanian’s mother who passed away nine years ago.</p> <p>"It is her birthday, and we wanted her to be represented at the wedding," Williams told <em>Vogue</em>. "Obviously, we wish that she could be here for this, but choosing her birthday as our wedding date was a nice way of making sure she’s still involved and made us feel more connected to her on our day."</p> <p>Serena chose a princess-inspired wedding gown featuring a luxurious cape, which was designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. <em>Vogue</em> exclusively published snaps of the special day.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media"> <div style="padding: 8px;"> <div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"> <div style="background: url(data:image/png; base64,ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaacwaaaascamaaaapwqozaaaabgdbtueaalgpc/xhbqaaaafzukdcak7ohokaaaamuexurczmzpf399fx1+bm5mzy9amaaadisurbvdjlvzxbesmgces5/p8/t9furvcrmu73jwlzosgsiizurcjo/ad+eqjjb4hv8bft+idpqocx1wjosbfhh2xssxeiyn3uli/6mnree07uiwjev8ueowds88ly97kqytlijkktuybbruayvh5wohixmpi5we58ek028czwyuqdlkpg1bkb4nnm+veanfhqn1k4+gpt6ugqcvu2h2ovuif/gwufyy8owepdyzsa3avcqpvovvzzz2vtnn2wu8qzvjddeto90gsy9mvlqtgysy231mxry6i2ggqjrty0l8fxcxfcbbhwrsyyaaaaaelftksuqmcc); display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div> </div> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BbnlRjGg7up/" target="_blank">@serenawilliams married @alexisohanian in a stunning Sarah Burton for @alexandermcqueen princess gown. Tap the link in our bio for more exclusive photos from the star-studded celebration. Photographed by @mistadubb and @ericamelissa_.</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Vogue (@voguemagazine) on Nov 17, 2017 at 5:39pm PST</p> </div> </blockquote> <p>“I flew to London to meet with Sarah and ended up falling in love with the ball gown silhouette, which is completely the opposite of what I ever thought I would choose for myself," Serena told <em>Vogue</em>.</p> <p>"I loved the idea of doing a really spectacular ball gown, and it has turned out to be such an incredibly special piece," she said. </p> <p>Serena’s bridesmaids all wore custom Galia Lahav dresses.</p> <p>"She talked to all of us and just kind of let us have creative control as to what dress fit our personality. And then she approved it, of course!" William's best friend Val Vogt told <em>Vogue</em>.</p> <p>For the reception, Serena surprised guests with a second wedding dress. The Versace dress was detailed with lace and feathers took a total of 1,500 hours to complete.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media"> <div style="padding: 8px;"> <div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"> <div style="background: url(data:image/png; base64,ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaacwaaaascamaaaapwqozaaaabgdbtueaalgpc/xhbqaaaafzukdcak7ohokaaaamuexurczmzpf399fx1+bm5mzy9amaaadisurbvdjlvzxbesmgces5/p8/t9furvcrmu73jwlzosgsiizurcjo/ad+eqjjb4hv8bft+idpqocx1wjosbfhh2xssxeiyn3uli/6mnree07uiwjev8ueowds88ly97kqytlijkktuybbruayvh5wohixmpi5we58ek028czwyuqdlkpg1bkb4nnm+veanfhqn1k4+gpt6ugqcvu2h2ovuif/gwufyy8owepdyzsa3avcqpvovvzzz2vtnn2wu8qzvjddeto90gsy9mvlqtgysy231mxry6i2ggqjrty0l8fxcxfcbbhwrsyyaaaaaelftksuqmcc); display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div> </div> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bbns6ZagXk1/" target="_blank">After tying the knot with @alexisohanian last night, @serenawilliams debuted her second dress of the evening, a dramatic beaded, feathered @versace_official moment that made her look like a fashion-forward superwoman. Tap the link our bio to see all the stunning photos. Photographed by @melbarlowandco and @allanzepedaphotography.</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Vogue (@voguemagazine) on Nov 17, 2017 at 6:46pm PST</p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The couple chose to write their own vows during their ceremony and Alexis shared a heartfelt tribute to his bride.</p> <p>"You are the greatest of all time, not just in sport," he said. "I’m talking about as a mother and as a wife. I am so excited to write so many more chapters of our fairytale together. And my whole life I didn’t even realize it, but I was waiting for this moment. And everything that I have done, everything that I am so proud of in my career, and in my life, for the last 34 years, pales in comparison to what we’re doing today. And I am so grateful, and I am so in love."</p> <p>Following the reception dinner, Alexis introduced his new wife as she entered wearing a third wedding dress and the couple danced as the band started playing “Tale as Old as Time”.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media"> <div style="padding: 8px;"> <div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 62.5% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"> <div style="background: url(data:image/png; base64,ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaacwaaaascamaaaapwqozaaaabgdbtueaalgpc/xhbqaaaafzukdcak7ohokaaaamuexurczmzpf399fx1+bm5mzy9amaaadisurbvdjlvzxbesmgces5/p8/t9furvcrmu73jwlzosgsiizurcjo/ad+eqjjb4hv8bft+idpqocx1wjosbfhh2xssxeiyn3uli/6mnree07uiwjev8ueowds88ly97kqytlijkktuybbruayvh5wohixmpi5we58ek028czwyuqdlkpg1bkb4nnm+veanfhqn1k4+gpt6ugqcvu2h2ovuif/gwufyy8owepdyzsa3avcqpvovvzzz2vtnn2wu8qzvjddeto90gsy9mvlqtgysy231mxry6i2ggqjrty0l8fxcxfcbbhwrsyyaaaaaelftksuqmcc); display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div> </div> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BbnlN_kAOcW/" target="_blank">“You are the greatest of all time, not just in sport. I’m talking about as a mother, and as a wife. I am so excited to write so many more chapters of our fairy tale together.” Congratulations to @serenawilliams and @alexisohanian, who exchanged vows last night. Tap the link in our bio to see the exclusive first photos from their fairytale wedding in New Orleans. Photographed by @melbarlowandco and @allanzepedaphotography.</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Vogue (@voguemagazine) on Nov 17, 2017 at 5:39pm PST</p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Serena and Alexis’ wedding comes three months after the <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/2017/09/serena-williams-shares-first-photos-of-baby-girl-alexis/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>birth of their first child</strong></span></a>, Alexis “Olympia” Ohanian Jr.</p>

Relationships

This Swiss village is like something out of a fairytale

<p><em><strong>Travel writer Ben Squires spends time in the fairytale-like village of Gstaad.</strong></em></p> <p>Switzerland is a country with no shortage of jaw-dropping views, to the point where it’s impossible to imagine someone visiting without filling three or four SD cards with holiday snaps. That being said, as my train started to approach the station, with the Alps surrounding a rolling, chalet-lade hillside, I knew I was in for something special.</p> <p>My destination was Gstaad, a small upscale resort village in the German-speaking region of the canton of Bern. It’s a major destination for skiers during winter but, as I would soon find out, also has plenty to offer those visiting in summer.</p> <p>Gstaad is a chance to experience the very best of the Swiss countryside, and whether you’re hiking, biking, golfing or visiting the spectacular Glacier 3000, you’ll find no shortage of things to do. With a motto “Come Up, Slow Down”, all it takes is a few breaths of mountain air to forget about the stress of day-to-day life.</p> <p><img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/40745/gstaad-palace-in-text_500x333.jpg" alt="Gstaad -Palace -In -text"/></p> <p><em>Gstaad Palace. Image credit: Gstaad Saanenland Tourismus</em></p> <p>We stayed at Gstaad Palace, a historic 5-star hotel that’s hosted many famous guests including Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Roger Moore and Michael Jackson, the last of whom famously offered to purchase the hotel (he was politely declined). Even in comparison to other 5-star hotels the palace really feels a cut above, with attentive staff, luxurious lodgings and the surrounding mountain view creating a superior experience.</p> <p><img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/40749/walig-hut_500x333.jpg" alt="Walig -hut"/></p> <p><em>Walig Hut. Image credit: Sheila Moser </em></p> <p>If you’re after something a little more rustic, enquire at the front desk about the Walig Hut. This authentic Swiss cabin was first built in 1786, and has only been slightly renovated since. We dined here our first evening, and it has a very charming, dairy farmer-esque vibe. A night in a mountain cabin might seem inferior to a 5-star hotel, but the Walig Hut is cosy, comfortable and gives you a chance to really appreciate the scale and beauty of the Alps. </p> <p>Our next day began with a blissful horse carriage ride through the neighbouring village of Saanen, before we were whisked away by chairlift to enjoy a lunch at Wasserngrat, which at an altitude of 1,920 metres is the highest mountain restaurant in the region. Spectacular panoramic views were accompanied by a performance from a trio featured in the Montreux Jazz Festival.</p> <p><img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/40750/wasserngrat_500x333.jpg" alt="Wasserngrat"/></p> <p><em>Wasserngrat. Image credit: Ben Squires</em></p> <p>Gstaad Palace’s head chef Franz Fäh put together a five-course menu which showcased some of the best local cuisine and was accompanied by a range of delicious regional wine. Switzerland might not have the same reputation as other countries for its wine but that’s not because it’s not as good. The Swiss just like to keep it for themselves, rather than exporting it (which after you’ve had a glass or two seems completely understandable). </p> <p>If you’re visiting early in July make sure you catch a game of the Gstaad Major beach volleyball tournament. A beach volleyball tournament in the middle of the mountains might seem like an odd prospect but it’s a major event on the competitive calendar and a favourite among spectators and competitors alike. Gstaad is also home to the Swiss Open tennis tournament in late July, where the sand is replaced by a clay court to create an event that undeniably has one of the most spectacular backdrops on the ATP World Tour.</p> <p>We were sad to say goodbye on our last day, but not before the highlight of our visit - breakfast in the mountains with Hélène and Ruedi Wehren, two Swiss dairy farmers. Hélène put on an incredible spread, while Ruedi explained his cheese-making process, which combines traditional principles with a few more modern methods to create a product that really is top of the line. We were lucky enough to sample some (that he’d obviously prepared earlier) and there really isn’t anything like it. You’ll be left considering how you’ll be able to cope with the Swiss cheese on offer at your local supermarket.</p> <p><img width="400" height="600" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/40751/dairy-farmer.jpg" alt="Dairy -Farmer"/></p> <p><em>Ruedi hard at work. Image credit: Sheila Moser </em></p> <p>Gstaad will always be a destination that’s most popular in winter. The population typically triples in December months with visitors looking to experience the idyllic Christmas scenery. But even if you happen to find yourself visiting in summer you’ll find plenty to like about this Swiss village, which really is like something out of a fairytale.</p> <p><em>Hero Image credit: Gstaad Saanenland Tourismus</em></p> <p><em>*The writer travelled courtesy of Switzerland Tourism.</em></p> <p><em>Visit <strong><a href="http://www.myswitzerland.com/" target="_blank">www.myswitzerland.com</a></strong> for more information about Switzerland.</em></p> <p><em>And visit <strong><a href="http://www.myswtizerland.com/rail" target="_blank">www.myswtizerland.com/rail</a></strong> for the Swiss Travel Pass which allows holders unlimited access to all Swiss public transportation including buses, boats and trains, up to 50% off mountain railways and cableways and free access to more than 500 museums around the country.</em></p>

International Travel

Cruising the Moselle River is like a fairytale

<p>Somewhere in the night, Scenic Pearl has sailed into another dimension and found itself in a fairytale. I went to sleep in Koblenz at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers: an attractive town, but discernibly in the 21st century, with its cable car and riverine container ships and student-loud beer gardens. Next morning, however, I fling back the curtains of my cabin, buzz down my panoramic window, and blink at Cochem and another world. </p> <p>The great sluggish Rhine has contracted to the dainty, silvery Moselle River. Houses have been downsized and painted pink and yellow and, on a hill above, a castle flaunts pepper-pot towers and weathervanes. As if to reinforce the Hans Christian Andersen moment, two white swans paddle past my balcony.</p> <p>This is what river cruising is all about. While I was sleeping, someone else went to the bother of teleporting me elsewhere, cutting out all the practical annoyances of travel. I'm fresh as a daisy and eager for the morning's shore excursion, which propels us first above Cochem and into Reichsburg Castle. No surprise that it's the most castle-like castle you could possibly imagine: it was reconstructed by an industrial magnate to suit his apparently feverishly romantic imagination. The castle sports a wishing well, banquet hall, secret passageways and dressers full of Delft porcelain.</p> <p>"They used to collect porcelain in those days," says our entertaining Scenic guide Katy says. "So did my mother and grandmother, but I'm afraid I only collect things that go in the dishwasher."</p> <p>We stroll down through Cochem, past an old people's home with a view over a kindergarten and town graveyard ("So you see, the whole circle of life is here," Katy says) and into the medieval town square, where our guide points out which houses are genuine and which clever post-war reconstructions.</p> <p>Next morning we sail past Cochem and up the vineyard-flanked Moselle Valley. Vines were first planted along the Moselle River by the Romans; since the 18th century riesling has been the predominant grape variety. Some of the world's best rieslings are produced here, including intense ice wines made from frozen grapes, and rare trockenbeerenauslese wine for which the grapes are left on the vine until they shrivel, leaving concentrated sugars.</p> <p>A relaxing day of sailing takes us to Bernkastel-Kues and has passengers glued to the open deck with their "Tailormade", a Scenic commentary device that works with GPS to feed passing titbits of information into our earpieces. I learn that these are among the steepest vineyards in Europe; Bremmer Calmont takes out the record with a 70 per cent incline. The grapes thrive on the south-facing slopes, whose slate absorbs the sun and radiates night heat.</p> <p>On our third day on the Moselle, we're offered a choice of excursions from Bernkastel. Some passengers opt for the ancient German town of Trier, but most are eager to head to Luxembourg City, tempted at the thought of visiting a new country. Luxembourg is an odd place, part international city and financial centre, part country town refreshingly free of mass tourism. The old town sits on a rock above a curved ravine, giving it one of the best settings of Europe's cities. It's hard not to be fascinated by a tiny country ruled by a grand duke, though the city is more suitable as the set of a frivolous operetta than a fairytale.</p> <p>Back in Bernkastel, however, I step into another town straight from a Brothers Grimm illustration. The river splits it in two, medieval houses on one side leaning crookedly against each other, enfolded in vineyards and topped by the ruins of a castle from whose tower Rapunzel could have let down her hair. </p> <p>The lovely town is tour-group busy, but I borrow a ship's bicycle and don't have to go far to find quieter villages along the river, and a wine tavern on its banks where I can sample the local riesling and gaze across the water at spectacularly steep vineyards. Tomorrow I'll be teleported out of here and into another adventure as Scenic Pearl sails towards Switzerland. For now, I soak up one of Europe's prettiest corners, content that the day will have a happy ending.</p> <p><strong>More information</strong> <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://mosellandtouristik.de/" target="_blank">mosellandtouristik.de</a></strong></span></p> <p><strong>Cruising there</strong> Scenic's 15-day Romantic Rhine & Moselle cruise between Amsterdam and Basel (or the reverse) has frequent departures between April and October 2017. See scenic.com.au.</p> <p><strong>Getting there</strong> Emirates flies from to Dubai with onward connections to Amsterdam (7.5 hours). See <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://emirates.com/au" target="_blank">emirates.com</a></strong></span></p> <p><em>The writer travelled as a guest of Scenic</em></p> <p><em>Written by Brian Johnston. First appeared on <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz.</span></strong></a></em></p>

Cruising

My fairytale holiday in the Swiss village of Grimentz

<p><em><strong>Justine Tyerman is a New Zealand journalist, travel writer and sub-editor. Married for 36 years, she lives in rural surroundings near Gisborne on the East Coast of New Zealand with her husband Chris. In this piece, she takes us to the history, fairytale village of Grimentz, high in the Swiss Alps. She was so enchanted, she wants to go back in the summer…</strong></em></p> <p>The dull thud of explosives penetrated my dreams, peeling away the layers of sleep. I floundered my way out of feather duvets and pillows so deep, they must have placed the entire Swiss goose population in serious jeopardy.</p> <p>I wondered whether I had accidentally been spirited away to a war zone in the night. My heart pounding as the muffled blasts intensified, I stumbled over a mountain of pillows and peeked out the window to see a blizzard of epic proportions raging outside.</p> <p>High up in the mountains above our cosy chalet, I visualised the heroic ski patrol bombing the steep slopes and wind-blown cornices above the pistes, releasing controlled avalanches before opening the ski area.</p> <p>We had arrived the previous day at the exquisitely-beautiful alpine village of Grimentz, one of a cluster of small settlements in Val d'Anniviers in Switzerland's Valais region.</p> <p>Negotiating the half-hour, narrow, windy road by car from Sierre was an adventure in itself and reminded us of the spectacular but hair-raising Skippers Canyon road near Queenstown.</p> <p>We discovered on the return trip that we had taken the wrong turn-off and driven on a secondary route rather than the main one, but it was worth it for the sheer thrill factor.</p> <p>There was a high degree of trepidation and anticipation as we unlocked the sturdy wooden door to Anne's chalet, booked from New Zealand via the international home swap website, <a href="http://www.lovehomeswap.com" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Love Home Swap</span></strong></a>. We had suffered a few scam attacks (not on the Love Home Swap website, I hasten to add) en route to securing the perfect Swiss chalet so it was a relief to find ourselves ensconced in the most stunning of homes.</p> <p>The luxurious, spacious, five-bedroom, two-bathroom holiday home on the top two floors of a traditional Swiss chalet-style complex was even more gorgeous than portrayed on the website. Elegantly-designed with oak floors and enormous cathedral windows in the apex of the steeply-pitched roof, the chalet overlooked the magnificent Val d'Anniviers.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img width="498" height="245" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/35154/in-text-image_498x245.jpg" alt="In -text -image (2)"/></p> <p><em>Looking down on the Val d'Anniviers from the Grimentz ski area. Image credit: Justine Tyerman</em></p> <p>What's more, it was just a few steps from the speedy bubble télécabine to the Grimentz ski area, the brand new high-speed cable car linking Grimentz with the neighbouring Zinal ski area ... and Florioz' legendary Après Ski bar owned and run by Claudio Florey, an Italian woodcraftsman loved by all.</p> <p>As I stood on the balcony drinking in the sweet alpine air and the breathtaking mountain and valley panorama, a few wispy snowflakes began to drift down from the silver-grey heavens.</p> <p>Later in the afternoon, as we wandered through the picturesque village, with its sun-blackened wooden granaries on stone stilts, a serious blizzard set in, delivering much-needed fresh snow to the slopes.</p> <p>We took shelter in Restaurant Claire-Fontaine where we feasted on scrumptious raclette (a traditional Swiss tummy-warming potato and cheese dish) and spicy vin chaud (hot mulled wine).</p> <p>By next morning, the weather had miraculously cleared and we had the best blue-sky powder day of our lives. The snow was the lightest, driest fluff you could dream of. We skied every on-piste and off-piste run on the entire mountain until the lifts closed.</p> <p>It was a heady thrill to ski the wide, open, uncrowded, sunny slopes with our adult offspring who can now ski faster and better than their ageing parents... all those years in ski school finally paid off.</p> <p>Having first-class, new ski equipment also made a huge difference to our skiing. The charming Benoit at Val Sports in Grimentz assured us the Dynastar Neva skis he picked out for the females in the family would be perfect ... and they were. A versatile ski designed especially for women, they were soft, light, forgiving and easy to manage. We fell in love with them.</p> <p>In addition to an excellent, efficient, logically-designed network of chairlifts at Grimentz, we were astonished to ride poma and T-bar lifts that turned corners and carried on even further up the mountain just when you expected to unload.</p> <p>And nothing ever breaks down on a Swiss ski field. It would be considered a national disgrace ... unlike elsewhere on our month-long family ski tour.</p> <p>From the top of the Grimentz field, we could see the majestic Matterhorn in the distance, standing aristocratically apart from the dozens of other 4000m-plus peaks.</p> <p>Jets from the Swiss Airforce thundered over us during the day, leaving the sky crisscrossed with vapour trails like a drunken game of noughts and crosses. They kept returning for yet another circuit of the clear blue sky, tipping their wings in greeting to the skiers and the mountains, no doubt as reluctant as we were for the fun to end.</p> <p>Rosy-cheeked and deliriously happy, we stopped off for a glass or two of local wine and beer at Florioz before heading home to our cosy, warm chalet. It was such a novelty for us, as Kiwis, to be within strolling distance of the lifts, supermarket, restaurants, butcher, boulangerie, patisserie, ski shops and the best après ski joint in the village.</p> <p>After luxuriating in hot baths (there were two in the chalet) and cooking dinner in the superbly-equipped kitchen, we fell into our sumptuous beds and slept soundly until the boots of the first skiers walking down to the lift woke us from our blissful slumbers.</p> <p>We had five unforgettable days' skiing at Grimentz, Zinal and neighbouring St Luc in bright sunshine, with few people and the best snow conditions in the alps, thanks to the high altitude.</p> <p>Riding the shiny new cable car linking Grimentz and Zinal was an exciting scenic experience. The huge rectangular capsules can transport 125 people at a time over the steep mountain between the two resorts in just eight and a half minutes. It is the pride and joy of Grimentz-Zinal lift company director Pascal Bourquin. He said the cable car took two years to construct at a cost of $32m Swiss francs, a huge vote of confidence in the future of tourism in the region.</p> <p>For variety, we also rented snow shoes from Benoit and spent half a day hiking the tracks above the village, lunching at the up-market Marais Restaurant, one of many on the mountain. It was a warm zero degrees so we snow-bathed outside in deck chairs until the sun went down.</p> <p>As soon as the skiers and snowboarders headed for the bars or their beds, the mountains became the domain of the snowcats. I loved watching the groomers at work just above our chalet, preparing the pistes for the next day, pushing mounds of snow ahead of them and creating smooth trails in their wake. The powerful lights of the massive machines illuminated the white darkness and the plumes from the snow guns on the lower slopes.</p> <p>I had never heard of Grimentz before I came across Anne's chalet on the Love Home Swap website, and neither had many of the Swiss people we talked to. But this remote, relatively-unknown jewel of a resort turned out to be a highlight of our ski touring adventure in the Swiss, French and Italian Alps.</p> <p>The beauty of the village and the mountains, the comfort and convenience of the chalet, the vast scope of the excellent, high-altitude ski areas and the quality of the snow took us completely by surprise.</p> <p>Rather than a house swap which did not suit Anne, we negotiated a points swap whereby she earned points or credits for our week that she can use at other Love Home Swap members' homes anywhere in the world at any time.</p> <p>At the end of our week-long stay, I wandered around the lovely chalet, imagining how it would look in the summer with the light streaming through the cathedral windows, and the doors open wide to the mountains and the valley. I had visions of myself sitting on the balcony in the wooden chair made from a tree trunk, sipping chilled white wine in the sunshine instead of vin chaud by the roaring fire.</p> <p>The name Grimentz does not express the mesmerising effect of the place. Far from being grim as the name implies in English, it is enchanting. It played with my heart and my head, fooling me into a fantasy that it was not really 30-plus hours from New Zealand and that we could pop back in the summer to go hiking and biking ... and sip chilled wine in the sunshine.</p> <p>Have you ever been to Switzerland? Share your travel experiences in the comments below.</p> <p><em>Anne's chalet can be booked through the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.lovehomeswap.com/home-exchange/switzerland/grimentz-stunning-penthouse-ski-duplex" target="_blank">Love Home Swap website.</a></strong></span> For further information, visit <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.valdanniviers.ch/" target="_blank">anniviers.ch</a></span></strong> and <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-au/home.htm" target="_blank">myswitzerland.com.</a></span></strong></em></p> <p><em>Justine Tyerman travelled in Switzerland with a Swiss Travel Pass courtesy of Switzerland Tourism.</em></p> <p><em>Love Home Swap assisted with accommodation. Visit <a href="https://www.lovehomeswap.com/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">www.lovehomeswap.com</span></strong></a> to view 100,000 properties in over 150 countries.</em></p>

International Travel

Woman’s search for her biological father leads to parents’ falling in love

<p>A woman’s quest to find her biological father has ended in an unexpected fairytale ending for her parents, who fell in love and will wed next month.</p> <p>Melbourne woman Emma Lennon, 34, and her mother Anna Bourke, 52, decided to track down Emma’s biological father as Emma had never met her father,</p> <p>“He doesn’t know I’m alive or my mum was ever pregnant,” Emma told <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.9news.com.au/good-news/womans-search-for-her-biological-father-leads-to-parents-wedding">9News</a></strong></span>. “For the first time I thought, ‘maybe it’s not fair that he’ll never find out and maybe I should do a bit of searching’.</p> <p>“My step-dad had been around since I was six and he’s amazing, but I thought maybe it’s not fair on the other person and I should try and find him.”</p> <p>Anne first met her Emma’s biological father Wayne Ferguson in the Yarrawonga Caravan Park, when they were teenagers. She was 14 and he 16. </p> <p>“I had this secret crush on Wayne but he didn’t know I existed,” she said.</p> <p>Three years later, the pair ran into each other again at a party and a “spark happened”. The couple spent some time together but eventually went their separate ways.</p> <p>Anne later learned she was pregnant and made the decision not to tell Wayne she was pregnant.</p> <p>“I was about 14 weeks pregnant when I found out,” she said.</p> <p>But this year, Anne and Emma decided it was time to track Wayne down. They found him on Facebook.</p> <p><img width="500" height="278" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/27458/couple_500x278.jpg" alt="Couple (2)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p>“I got the phone call and it blew me out of the water, put me on top of the world, it completed me, I always wanted a daughter,” Wayne said. “I was over the moon.”</p> <p>Wayne and Anne spoke on the phone, spending hours catching up, before the three of them met at the pub.</p> <p>“I wasn’t thinking anything other than this is the moment Emma will meet her biological father,” Anne said, continuing, “But then Wayne put his hand across the table and said, ‘I want to marry you’ and I said ‘that sounds like a good idea’.”</p> <p>“We got to know each other, spending lots of time together, laughing, I’ve got a six-pack from all the laughing.”</p> <p>“It’s a bit of a fairytale,” said Anne.</p> <p>The couple has set a wedding date for next month. </p> <p><strong>Related links: </strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/2016/03/trusted-tips-for-finding-love/"><em>6 trusted tips for finding love</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/2016/05/what-to-consider-before-dating-after-a-divorce/"><em>5 questions to ask yourself before dating after a divorce</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/2016/05/psychologist-advice-to-get-through-a-break-up/"><em>Breaking up doesn’t have to break you</em></a></strong></span></p>

News

Teaser trailer for Disney’s new “Beauty and the Beast” film has people in awe

<p>The latest recreation of a classic fairy-tale is coming, and it looks nothing short of magical. The first teaser was released on social media today, and already has fans riled up, reaching the far corners of Facebook as Disney enthusiasts fawn over the news.</p> <p>Rather than featuring scenes from the movie-which is still in production – the teaser is a minute–long tour of the Beast’s opulent, abandoned castle.</p> <p>The eerie beauty of it all is disputed by the arrival of a mysterious and beautiful young girl, (<em>Harry Potter’s</em> Emma Watson) promoting two unseen voices (suspected to be Ewan McGregor‘s Lumiere and Ian McKellen‘s Cogsworth) to speculate in whispers as the camera falls on an apparent Belle.</p> <p>The story is as old as time, with the book being written and published in the 1700s, and the first Oscar winning film adaptation released in 1946. The film also stars <em>Downton Abbey</em> vet Dan Stevens as the Beast.</p> <p><em>Beauty and the Beast</em> opens in theatres March 17, 2017.</p> <p>How to do you think Dan will go as the charming “Beast”? Let us know what you think in the comments below.</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/movies/2016/04/best-romantic-comedy-films/"><em>The 6 best rom-coms of all time</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/movies/2016/03/best-movie-quotes-of-all-time/"><em>20 classic movie quotes you’ll love</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/movies/2016/03/top-inspirational-movies/"><em>10 truly inspirational movies</em></a></strong></span></p>

News

Mother creates fairy tale artworks with her iPhone

<p>At first glance at Ali Jardine’s artwork, it’s easy to make the mistake that the fairy tale photographs are from famous fantasy movies. But this creative mum doesn’t have a team of animators, or even a professional camera.</p> <p>Jardine takes these beautiful images of her daughter Pippin using only her iPhone camera and apps. For her, it’s a creative outlet that allows her to step into the world of fantasy through the lens.</p> <p>“I have always been a dreamer and having children of my own only increased my love of fairy tales and magic,” she says. “I created these images thinking of the stories we all grew up with, with the idea to take the viewer back to a simpler time of childhood.”</p> <p>Jardine’s imagination and talent has taken daughter Pippin on some amazing adventures. Through art, she’s stepped into the blue dress of Alice in Wonderland to explore a mythical pink garden and channelled Snow White in an enchanted forest. <br />These artworks have to be seen to be believed. Take a look at Ali Jardine’s beautiful photographs in the gallery above.</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/news/news/2015/12/ice-sculptures-around-the-world/">Ice sculptures around the world</a></strong></span></em></p> <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/entertainment/art/2015/12/artist-combines-everyday-objects-with-food/">Artist uses everyday objects to create food art</a></strong></span></em></p> <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/travel/travel-tips/2015/12/11-weirdest-museums-in-the-world/">11 weirdest museums in the world</a></strong></span></em></p>

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Mother creates fairy tale artworks with her iPhone