The crowds arrive every morning in La Recoleta Cemetery, a huge necropolis in the heart of Buenos Aires, lining up to lay flowers or shed a tear at the modest brass plaque of Eva Peron – emotional displays that began long before Madonna played her in the film version of Evita, or the Andrew Lloyd Rice musical became an international hit.  I

In fact, since the very day she died in 1952, Argentines have worshipped Eva’s memory (Evita is the affectionate form in Spanish, like “Evie” in English).  Her life story has all the elements of a tragic Latin fairytale.  Born Eva Duarte, the illegitimate daughter of a poor provincial family, she came to Buenos Aires at age 15 to try her luck as a radio actress.  Her beauty and talent carried her to fame: She was already successful at age 25, when she met the dashing, up-and-coming politician Colonel Juan Perón at a political event.  The pair became romantically involved, and they began campaigning together on behalf of the disenfranchised mass of Argentine workers, who were known as the descamisados, or “shirtless ones.”

In 1945, when the influential Peron was arrested by nervous rivals in the government, Eva gathered some 300,000 supporters to rally in the streets to secure his release.  Peron was elected President the next year, and the feisty Evita became Argentina’s new international celebrity, touring Europe in jewels and silk ball-gowns like a member of Latin royalty.  Her charity work and campaign to give the vote to Argentine women would win Eva the undying love of poor Argentines and she was declared by Congress “The Spiritual Leader of the Nation.”  But in a cruel twist of fate, Evita was soon diagnosed with cervical cancer and died at the age of 33.

The intense outpouring of emotion around Argentina dwarfs the mourning for Lady Di in Britain many years later: Work stopped, pyramids of flowers were laid in the streets, and the tearful crowds were so large at her state funeral that eight people were crushed to death.  The Vatican turned down calls for her canonization, but in Argentina, Evita is still a saint.

It is time to say “Hasta Luego” to Spain, and “Hola” to the South American country of Argentina.

Over the course of our series we will take a chairlift ride to Cerro Campanario and enjoy the views of surrounding lakes and the Andes mountain peaks, see the Iguazu Falls, and witness Latin America’s most sensuous dance, the Tango, in Buenos Aires.

This year, Argentina celebrates it bicentennial and our vacation to Argentina is sure to be full of South American culture and history.

When traveling to Barcelona, here are some of the must-see Spanish sights:

Catalan National Art Museum
Housed in the National Palace, the Catalan National Art Museum includes one of the most important Romanesque painting collections in the world.

Magic Fountain
Enjoy this spectacular show of water, lights, and music held in front of the National Palace every Sunday evening.

Football Club Barcelona Stadium (Camp Nou)
If you’re a football (soccer) fan, ask your Local Host for directions to view the stadium of the world-famous team. Maybe even see a match!

Barcelona Zoo, Aquarium, Cosmo Caixa Science Museum, Tibidabo Amusement Park
For some special family time, there’s plenty to do in Barcelona, including thrills and panoramic views at Tibidabo Amusement Park high above the city.

Sardanes Folk Dancing
The Sardana is Catalonia’s emblematic folk dance. See it on Saturdays (6:00-8:00 pm) and Sundays (12:00-2:00 pm) in the Cathedral Square.

Picasso Museum, Miro Foundation
The Picasso Museum is the reference center for the formative years (1887-1901) of Pablo Ruiz Picasso. With its complete collection of his early works, see the evolution of the master. Another exciting possibility for art lovers is the Miro Foundation to view the permanent collection of Joan Miro.

La Boqueria
Wander through Barcelona’s most popular food market, which dates back to the 12th century.

La Rambla, El Born, Barri Gotic
Sit back with a drink on La Rambla and watch street performers go by. Enjoy musicians, old-style shops, and flower, bird and souvenir stalls—the opportunities are endless on this famous tree-lined promenade.

Formerly one of the seediest sections of Barcelona, the El Born neighborhood with its medieval roots has seen a revival. It is now one of the hottest spots to shop and dine.

Barri Gotic, Barcelona’s Old City, is the perfect place to wind down at the end of the day. This section of town is filled with the best tapas bars.

The Olimpic Port
With great views of the Mediterranean, the Olimpic Port is a lovely place to stroll along the sea promenade, and there are plenty of fine restaurants. Specialties to try while in Barcelona include fish dishes, paella, Spanish omelet, Catalan cream for dessert, Catalan wines, and sparkling Cava.

Barcelona Beaches
Barcelona’s coastline is over 4 km. long and offers a wide variety of excellent beaches. Barceloneta beach is the closest to the city center and has many great seafood restaurants.

We hope that these Barcelona must-see sights will help you get more vacation from your vacation.  Make your trip even more unique and use our travel planning resources to help get your dream vacation underway. Start planning your European vacation today!

Anyone wandering the northern fringe of Barcelona’s Old City will pause in astonishment before a building that is flamboyant even by this city’s standards – the Palau de la Música Catalana, or Catalan Palace of Music.

It was designed in 1908 by a leader of Barcelona’s “Modernista” architectural movement, Domènich y Montaner, as a lavish temple to the Catalan Renaissance, the revival of interest in the Catalan language and culture that had been gaining pace since the late 19th century.

The Palace’s towering terracotta façade is a fantasia of columns and curlicues, with images of Beethoven, Bach and Wagner embedded in its decorations.  The interior is even more magical, with winged horses soaring over the balconies and ornately carved arches, one depicting the local composer Anselm Clavé leading maidens in a traditional Catalan song, Flors de Maig, May Flowers.  But the centerpiece is the ceiling, where an enormous bulb of brilliantly colored stained glass explodes downwards, suggesting the sun bursting forth from a blue Mediterranean sky.  Perhaps only Sydney’s Opera House can be compared to such a stunningly creative performance venue.

There are daily tours of the Palace, but consider instead buying a ticket for one of the evening concerts, so you can join the throngs of devoted locals (starting with a glass of cava, the Spanish sparkling wine, and selection of tapas, small plates of delicious snacks, at the exquisite bar, of course).  Here it’s easy to imagine Barcelona in its golden age of the early 1900s, when it first became a confident, booming city, filled with enough cabarets, bars and brothels to rival Paris.

No Spain vacation is complete without viewing Gaudi’s famous works.  With his wildly inventive design sense, the architect Antonio Gaudí is revered in Barcelona today as the ultimate Catalan genius.  Every one of his buildings is a prized monument; his fantastical shapes and whimsical flourishes are reproduced on millions of souvenir T-shirts, mouse pads and coffee cups; there is even a campaign by local Catholics to have Gaudí canonized as a saint.

But ironically enough, while Gaudí was alive, Barceleños were by no means convinced of his brilliance – in fact, many civic leaders regarded him as a crank and a vandal who was defacing the neo-classical beauty of the city.  And Gaudí was, without doubt, an eccentric figure.  He was born into a wealthy family, and in his twenties seemed a typical gentleman boulavadier, devoting his time to frivolous café life and the half-hearted study of architecture, almost as a part-time hobby.

Everything changed when, at the age of 31, Gaudí’s proposal of marriage was rejected by the woman he loved.  Heart-broken, he took refuge in religion.  He turned his back on his family’s wealth and decided to live as an ascetic, wandering the city long-haired and in simple robes, eating only a diet of nuts and lettuce leaves dipped in milk.  But he continued designing buildings, which he now thought of as offerings to God, drawing on the patterns of Nature – the subtle flowing of water, the shapes of tree roots, the scales of fish or membranes of butterfly wings.  Read the rest of this entry »

We disembark from our river cruise journey to travel back to Spain, this time visiting the capital of Catalonia.

During our series on Barcelona vacations we will wonder down Las Ramblas to watch street performers, explore Gaudi’s most famous works including La Sagrada Familia, and relax at one of the city’s many beautiful beaches.  The city is also home to many museums such as the Picasso Museum and the Catalan National Art Museum.

Spain is a country steeped in history and culture. Sit back, enjoy a dish of paella, and prepare to enjoy a Barcelona getaway.

Outside from ordinary river cruising, theme cruises offer you the chance to personalize your experience even further. Theme departures afford you a unique opportunity to experience a destination focusing on its music and wine, to enrich your subject knowledge with expert presentations, and to mingle with others who share your passion.

Music River Cruises
Let yourself be musically transported to a symphony of destinations! On a Jazz river cruise, attend the Jazz Festival in Vienne, an annual event on the European and World Jazz scenes. On a Music cruise, local experts provide an overview of European music, and shore excursions include a Strauss concert in Vienna, an organ recital in Melk, and a visit to the Opera House in Bayreuth, home of the Richard Wagner Music Festival. In Salzburg, you can explore the city of Mozart’s birth as well as the stunning countryside where “the hills are alive with the sound of music!”

Wine River Cruise
Expand your horizons on marvelous wine-themed river cruise! Learn the differences between an Austrian Grüner Veltliner and a French Sauvignon Blanc. Aboard these cruises a distinguished wine authority explains how various grape varieties are cultivated, and teaches you what to look for in a good wine. These cruises also offer you the opportunity to visit a wine village and taste the wines to test your newfound talent—an adventure Bacchus himself would enjoy!

Christmas River Cruise
Experience the holiday season the Central European way on festive Christmas river cruise vacations featuring deluxe cruises on the Danube and Main River. Enjoy the festive atmosphere of 1,000-year-old Prague and all along the legendary Danube on this enchanting river cruise vacation. Delight in the sights, smells and tastes of local Christmas markets in Nuremberg, Regensburg, Wurzburg, Bamberg, Miltenberg and Vienna.

The diverse and fascinating geography of the European continent has blessed it with magnificent and varied natural sights. Mountain ranges such as the Swiss Alps, the French Vosges, Germany’s Fichtelgebirge, and the Black Forest region have given birth to the great rivers of Europe, which have provided most important transportation links since ancient times.

Before the advent of highways and road transportation, the rivers were the only efficient method of carrying goods from one place to another. Those most important trading centers located on a river soon grew into some of Europe’s most important cities—Budapest and Vienna on the Danube, Strasbourg and Cologne on the Rhine, Mainz and Frankfurt on the Main, and Koblenz and Trier on the Moselle, to name but a few!

The challenge facing the early navigators was how to tame the rivers and make them navigable along their entire lengths. One answer was the invention and development of the lock.

Normally, water levels on each side of a navigation lock are different, so a lock has to work like an elevator. This is accomplished by using two sets of gates to enclose a chamber.

The lock starts with one set of gates open, and the water level in the chamber is the same as the water in the channel on that side. A vessel enters through the open gates. Once the vessel is moored inside the lock chamber, the lock operator closes the lock gates behind the vessel.

With the vessel securely tied up and the gates closed, the lock operator can then open the valves at the opposite end of the lock. To adjust the water level in the lock chamber to match the water level of the waterway on the opposite end, water is allowed to enter into the chamber from the high-water side or drained out of the chamber to the low-water side, thus raising or lowering the ship.

Once the water levels are equalized, the gates at that end are opened and the vessel can continue on its way.

While aboard your river cruise, you will hear references to many nautical terms. Here’s your handy guide so you too can sound like an expert aboard the ship.

AFT toward the stern of the boat
ASTERN in back of the boat
BOW the forward part of a ship
BRIDGE the location from which a vessel is steered and its speed controlled
CLEAT a fitting to which lines are made fast
COURSE the direction in which a ship is steered
DISPLACEMENT the weight of water displaced by a floating vessel
DRAFT the depth of water a boat draws
FATHOM six feet
FLOOD an incoming current
GALLEY the kitchen area of a ship
GUNWHALE the upper edge of a ship’s sides
HELM the wheel or tiller controlling the rudder
HULL the main body of a vessel
KEEL the centerline of a boat running fore and aft
KNOT a measure of speed equal to one nautical mile (6,076 feet) per hour
LEEWARD the direction away from the wind
NAUTICAL MILE one minute of latitude; approximately 6,076 feet—about 1/8 longer than the statute mile of 5,280 feet
PORT the left side of a ship looking forward; a harbor
STARBOARD the right side of a ship when looking forward
YAW to swing or steer off course

But why stop at just being able to say some of these terms? Knowing the history behind a few of these terms will make your fellow river cruisers think you know just as much as the cruise captain!
OVER THE BARREL
The most common method of punishment aboard ship was flogging. The unfortunate sailor was tied to a grating, a mast, or over the barrel of a deck cannon. Read the rest of this entry »

The Danube is Europe’s most popular river to cruise. Yet no cruise is complete without knowing the fascinating history behind the canal through which you are traveling.

The Main Danube Canal is an old dream of humanity. Charlemagne started the construction of its “Fossa Carolina” more than 12 centuries ago, and while his construction effort failed, parts of the canal are still visible in southern areas of central Franconia. King Ludwig I of Bavaria built the first fully functioning Main Danube Canal in only 10 years of construction from 1836-1846. Yet, the Ludwig-Main-Danube Canal, as it was called, with its 101 water locks, was rather narrow and its practical use for shipping was highly limited. Its operation came to an end in 1945, partly due to damage from WWII.

The planning of the present canal dates back to 1922. A project of this magnitude caused a lively debate over the environmental and economic consequences of its construction. Economic planners gravely overestimated its potential, while environmentalists largely underestimated the positive aspects of its construction for the biotope—and the fact that the canal actually provides 1.25 million cubic meters of water to the dry Northern Bavarian region every year.

It was not until September 1992 that the present-day Main Danube Canal opened for traffic. It stretches for a length of 106 miles from Bamberg in Germany via Nuremberg to Regensburg.

The canal reaches its apex 1,332 feet above sea level. Sixteen water locks facilitate safe passage of vessels. Eleven water locks were needed to overcome the ascent of 574 feet between the Main in Bamberg and the apex and five additional locks facilitate descent from the apex. The canal is 180 feet wide and 13 feet deep. All traffic water locks are 40 feet wide and 623 feet long.

Thanks to the canal, it is now possible to navigate from the Rhine delta at Rotterdam, Holland, to the Danube delta at the Black Sea—a stretch of 2,200 miles.