Learning Spanish from place names such as Costa Rica (and growing pineapple tops)

Problems
Spanish is handy, widely spoken, and a second language or first language of many people in the USA, tn there territory of the island of Puerto Rico, as well as central America (Costa Rica) and several countries in south America. Over in Europe, Spanish is spoken in Spain and popular islands such as Mayorco, Minorca and Tenerife. How do I remember place names? How do I pick up a few words of Spanish quickly?

Answers
Translate a few place names from Spanish into English. I learned one today. Costa Rica means rich coast. What could be easier!

Spanish - English
Costa - coast
Costa Rica - rich coast
Rica - rich

English - Spanish
coast - costa
rich - rica
rich coast - C o s t a  R i c a

It seems obvious, but only after you know it. My first guess was that Costa meant cost. No - coast.

Notice that in English the adjective is before the noun. But in Spanish the adjective comes after the noun.

One account says that Christopher Columbus named the area rich coast. With water on both sides, and a volcano in the middle, and green and red birds, and gold, the words rich and coast are apt.

I found another place name, Cocos Island. In Spanish Isla de cocos.  Coconuts Island.

Spanish - English
coco(s) - coconuts
isla(s) - island (s)

English - Spanish
coconut(s) - coco(s)
Island(s) - isla(s)

I was just writing the above when I looked down at the wast paper bin and decided to empty it. At the bottom was a label. I looked at it and it said Pineapple from Costa Rica.

My goodness, it travelled a long way. The label says that pineapple is called ananas in almost every language except for English.

Spanish - English
anana(s) - pineapple(s)

English - Spanish
Pineapple(s) - anana(s)

Wikipedia reminded me that pina is also pine, or pineapple, as in pina colada.

The piña colada (/ˌpiːnjə koʊˈlɑːdə, -nə-, -kə-/;^[1][2] Spanish: piña [ˈpiɲa], "pineapple," and colada [koˈlaða], "strained") is a sweet cocktail made with rum, coconut cream or coconut milk, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice.

Spanish - English
pina - pine
colada - strained

English - Spanish
pine - pina
strained - colada

Apparently, if you cut the top off a pineapple, you can grow it.You suspend it over water so it grows roots. When you see the roots, you bury the roots in compost in a pot in a conservatory. Keep it watered and within a couple of years time you will probably have another pineapple.

Photo of pineapple by Angela Lansbury, copyright.

http://www.wikihow.com/Grow-a-Pineapple

You can pull out the top or cut it off.

The base you have cut off should be fixed by a horizontal cross of toothpicks and the underside should touch the water. 

(An alternative is to dry it and then bury it.)

What about Puerto Rico?

Wiki says:

Puerto Rico^[a] (Spanish for "Rich Port"),

Spanish - English

Puerto - port

rico - rich

Puerto Rico (literally rich port)

Notice the adjective after the noun in Spanish.

English Spanish

port - puerto

rich - rico (o matching a masculine noun)

Spanish - English

adios - goodbye 

LANGUAGE TIPS  Learning Tips

Spanish is widely spoken in the USA, Equitorial Guinea (on old maps Spanish Guinea), Andorra, Latin American countries such as Argentina, Chile and Guatemala. Cuban Spanish is more usual in Florida, Puerto Rican Spanish in New York.

(Brazil is the country which speaks Portuguese, but people who speak Portuguese can mostly understand Spanish.

To learn the Spanish language decide whether you want to speak Spanish as in Spain, Europe, or Spanish  as spoken in Mexico and South America.

Duo lingo.com - free internet teaching of Spanish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language

https://www.thoughtco.com/varieties-of-spanish-3078185

https://www.thoughtco.com/ways-spanish-english-verb-tenses-differ-3079929

TRAVEL TIPS

Mexico

www.visitmexico.com (beta - meaning website in the planning and testing stage)

Puerto Rico 

Tourist information

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico

Spanish Tourist Board

6th Floor, 64 Noter Row

London W1K 7DE

Tel: +44 0207 3172011

6th floor, 64 North Row

London W1K 7DE   

www.spain.info/en_GB/

Costa Rica tourist information:

essentialcostarica.com

www.visitcostarica.com

Also see wikitravel and TripAdvisor.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. I have several more posts on learning languages and visiting sights. Please share my posts.

Translating a sales email from German and how to teach German with rainbow cake

Problem
I am learning German and can recognise such useful phrases 'as the horse is in the field' or 'the plate is on the table' or 'the boy is eating chicken'. However that doesn't help me when I am emailed a German sales pitch. I was going through my inbox and about to delete it when I thought, let's translate this so that next time it's easy to see what the sender is on about. Here are the results

I tired Google translate, word by word, watching whether I could gain by learning both the words in a phrase and the whole phrase if it made a new concept, just as kinder is child and garten is garden but kindergarten is a pre-school class.

I managed to keep two screens open, one for my blog and the other for the translator, the third for the original German text. Using the F3 key on the top line of my keyboard I could open all these windows, but they only separate on the screen in thumb nail size.

(Aside: The very first computer  had, years ago. allowed a split or slit screen for when you were correcting a text so that you could compare the new and old versions. I am surprised nobody has yet devised an automatic setting to do this for comparing two or four screen.  I shall do an online search and hunt for it.)

b l e i came up as lead but b l e i b came up as follow. The entire phrase was different .

German - English
bleib auf den laufenden - keep up to date
folge uns auf - follow us on
laufenden - current
mitfeiern - celebrate
r e g e n s b o g e n t o r t e - rainbow cake

English - German
arc - bogen
celebrate - mitfeiern
current - laufenden
follow us on - f o l g e  u n s auf
keep up to date - b l e i b auf den laufenden
rain - r e g e n
rainbow - regenbogen

I was thinking about translating from English into German. The John Lewis slogan 'never knowingly undersold' is related to but not identical to other phrases such as: We won't be beaten on price. Bargain. Good value.

Another group of English phrases in sales advertisements and letters is:
Free for every customer.
For the first 100 customers only.
Competition. Free to enter. No purchase necessary.

Translation is very tricky. You have to get it just right. You don't want to mislead customers. You have to consider goodwill, plus legal requirements. One new business offered a free cupcake on a voucher site. A small item. But they were more successful than they dreamed, could not cope with the speed of the demand. They had thousands of requests which they had to honour and went bankrupt. That's why you see wording such as first fifty customers only. They are not trying to cheat you by saying they've sold out. They really do need to be prepared for too much of a good thing - success. So, translating as a ghost writer one has to consider the consequences to the writer or seller and the reader.

I have a friend in Singapore who teaches French and German to a mostly English and Chinese speaking group of students. Other friends of mine teach French in schools such as the International schools. Others teach English as a foreign language to teens and adults.

If I were to teach German to a group of student in a class, I would split them into groups and give each group of two or three or four or five an email or advertisement. I would have translated the text myself in advance. They would have ten to twenty minutes to translated it and instruct their representative on what to read back to report to the whole class. Then we would go round the group. For homework, they would have all four texts and be asked to translate all four and list the words dictionary style, English to German and German to English. if we had time, I would then ask then to make up their own advertisement or sales letter. They might do a short, succinct version of one or more of the letters. Or they could create a new subject, using the same phrases.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. Please share links to posts and have a look at my books.

Where's the statue? What's the Story? Sherlock Holmes, find me Paddington Bear and Dalida.

Chopin Statue

Problem
Where's the statue? Heroes and heroines, famous and fictional characters, their statues decorate cities and inform us about history all over the world.

Answers
UK Airports tend to have statues of planes but London's railway stations are good places to see statues of people.

London
Paddington Bear is in Paddington Station, London, England. A fictional character travelling, the little lost bear, lost in large Paddington station, who is easily found, is fun for children.

Also in Paddington see the state of Brunel, wearing a top hat. Why on Paddington? Because he was the pioneer who built the railway going west to Wales, building bridges, literally and the ship to take travellers on to the USA. Brunel University in NW London is named after him.

Nelson, elevated on his column in Trafalgar Square, looks out over the heads of visitors. If you are into history, pop into the nearby National Portrait Gallery.
Oscar Wilde is reclining, near Trafalgar Square. You can stand or sit beside him for a selfie.

Beau Brummel, the dandy, stands near Fortnum and Mason department store. You are surrounded by smart clothes shops, upmarket He looks very dapper, in the West End, where you are amongst food shops and places to eat.

If you like literature, and it is a sunny day and you want to walk, the statue of Peter Pan is in a park where you can have a picnic. James Barrie and his supporters put the little statue in a public place without permission, but when the authorities tried to take it away, popular pressure persuaded them to leave it for the enjoyment of all then and today.

If it's raining, in London, and you have a the time and money for seeing sights, Westminster Abbey features poet's corner.

If you'd rather see people looking more colourful and lifelike, there's Madame Tussauds, next to Baker Street station. Outside Baker Street station stands a statue of Sherlock Holmes wearing his deerstalker hat.

Story of My Sherlock Statue Photo
If you don't have the money or time to queue for ever popular Madame Tussaud's, take a selfie with Sherlock's statue. I nearly lost my impatient family and ended up divorced because I stopped to wait for a group of giggling Japanese girls to finish photographing. After I obtained my essential photo, I popped into the extensive shop in the nearby Sherlock Holmes Museum.

Dozens more:
Euston station has the map maker who mapped Australia, with his cat.
Speaking of cats, two more cats are featured in London. Dick Whittington's cat, companion to a former mayor of London is a popular subject for Dick Whittington pantomimes in London at Christmas time.

Statues of famous people stand in squares or look down from niches all over London and Britain. Kings, queens, busts on buildings, equestrian (horseback) statues, and war memorials, in city squares, beside art galleries, in the middle of busy streets. Soldiers, and nurses. Florence Nightingale.

Literature fans will like Shakespeare. Musicians might opt for Handel. Or Amy Winehouse in Camden.

Which do you prefer, sculpture or painting? Combine both. If you are into art, there's a statue of an artist with his paintbrush and palette on Waterloo station. What's he doing on the station? He was commissioned by the railways to paint their stations and trains. One has to earn a living, something practical, science, travel. Can't be painting and sculpting kings, queens and rich pop stars all the time.

The British Museum has statues from Greeks, Romans, Egyptians. If it's raining, or you want a little light relief, try the nearby cartoon museum which holds events for children, adults and the elderly to learn more about drawing their own cartoons and characters.

VICTORIA AND OTHERS
Queen Victoria is near Buckingham Palace. (You'll see her all over the world, Australia, Singapore.)
See busts of Kennedy, Mandela and many more including a statue of Russian Yuri Gagarin, first man to look down on earth from space.

Years ago I bought a book of statues in London, and since then many more statues have been added.
Churchill and Disraeli are near the Houses of Parliament and PM Mrs Thatcher's statue is inside.
If you are prepared to take a trip out of the centre of the city, Karl Marx has a huge bust in Highgate Cemetery where you can take a tour.

In London you can take bus and walking tours following famous figures or including them, everybody from Shakespeare and Dickens to the Beatles. Houses of famous people in Britain include London homes as museums to Dickens and Keats, more on Dickens around Britain, plus the Brontes up in Yorkshire. You can buy books on literary trails around Britain (and other parts of the world) which usually take you past a statue or two, as shown in the books. Look in libraries and on Amazon.

Going North, Beatrix Potter's statue is in the lovely Lake district.

Scotland
Edinburgh, Scotland's capital, has a famous dog which supposedly stayed devotedly by its master's grave for years. In recent years, some people have cynically said that the dog only hung around because it was fed daily by the cemetery keeper, and admired by visitors. The more humorous and easy going of us would smile and say, 'Why let the truth get in the way of a good story!'

EUROPE
FRANCE
Taking the train from London to Paris, prepare for more statues. In London's St Paul's cathedral the son of architect Sir Christopher Wren installed a p l a q u e (spaces inserted to foil spell checker) which reads, (I've remembered it in colloquial modern English) 'If you want to see my monument, look around you'. Likewise, in Paris, I cannot recall a statue to Eiffel, but I certainly remember his tower. You can't miss it, as they say.

In Paris the two cemeteries which draw tourists are Père Lachaise and Montmartre. Three notable ladies honoured in France by statues are Joan of Arc, actress Sarah Bernhardt, and singer Dalida.

The person from modern times is Dalida. Her name is adapted from Delilah. You can see her white statue against a black background in Montmartre cemetery. A square is named after her and you can see her statue near her house in Paris.

The sexy singer and dancer had Italian parents, was born in Cairo, and lived in France, and sang in French and Italian, Arabic and Hebrew, Japanese and many other languages. She was able to sing in several languages and address and converse with fans in several languages. She won many awards. You can see her website and watch her on YouTube. Her fiancé shot himself after losing a competition and later she committed suicide.

(And the moral is? Don't get depressed by the jury. Keep dancing and singing because you are loved by your fans. There's always somebody, somewhere, family or friend, fan or stranger, now or later, who wants you to live, as long as possible.) You can take a Dalida walking tour.

RUSSIA
Moscow, named after the Moskva river, has a statue of Peter the Great, who founded the navy. He stands amid the sailing ship, surrounded by water. The water is a suitable setting for a statue featuring a ship and a man who founded the navy.

Water has the added benefit of protecting the statue from crowds obscuring it so you can get a better photograph. A water barrier protects the statue from damage, whether deliberate or the indentations of the hands of admirers.

SUMMARY
UK
LONDON
Bear, Paddington
Beau Brummel
Brunel
Cats: Whittington's cat; cat and mapmaker, Euston.
Charlie Chaplin
Churchill
Eros
Freud
Marx
Napoleon
Spike Milligan, Finchley
Nelson
Paddington Bear
Peter Pan
Shakespeare
Thatcher
Oscar Wilde
Victoria
Wren
ENGLAND
The Beatles, Liverpool
Les Dawson, Lytham St Anne's
Eric Morecambe, Morecambe
Norman Wisdom, Sefton Hotel, Douglas, Isle of Man

WALES
Tommy Cooper, Caerphilly.

SCOTLAND
Dog, Edinburgh.

USA, NORTH AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA, ISLANDS & REGION
NEW YORK
Charging Bull, Wall Street, New York city, NY state.
George M Cohan, Times Square.
Statue of Liberty
WASHINGTON
President Lincoln

OTHER
Presidents, Mount Rushmore
Christopher Columbus, Puerto Rico
Christ the Redeemer, Rio?
Horse, Virginia.
Will Rogers, Oklahoma, USA

AUSTRIA
General Radetsky, Vienna (Radetsky was the man for whom the march was written.)

BELGIUM
Mannequin Pis, Brussels.

BULGARIA
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in front of the House of Humour and Satire, Gabrovo.
 Charlie Chaplin statue stand outside in the Park of Humour and inside are two Cat statues.
CHINA
Sun Yat-Sen.

CZECH REPUBLIC
Wenceslas, Prague.

DENMARK
The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen.

FRANCE
Bernhardt
Dalida
Eiffel
Joan of Arc

ITALY
David (biblical)
Puccini

NETHERLANDS
Anne Frank, Amsterdam

POLAND
Chopin, Warsaw

RUSSIA
Nikolai Gogol.
Peter the Great, Moscow

SINGAPORE
Raffles. Bust in Raffles Hotel. Statue on waterfront.

SWITZERLAND
Charlie Chaplin, Vevey.

AUSTRALASIA
Captain Cook.
Dame Edna Everage, Melbourne, Australia.
Sir John Monash, Melbourne (WWI Commander; Monash University of in Australia and other countries.)

Tips
See Wikipedia for lists of statues by country, tallest statues in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_equestrian_statues_in_the_United_Kingdom#Scotland
My top trip to see statues and a museum is the museum of humour in Bulgaria.s
http://www.humorhouse.bg/engl/book.html

I have only given you a brief glimpse of the statues to see worldwide, but enough to entertain you with their stories, inspire you to seek them out to see statues and research more.

Author Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several other posts about statues in London and elsewhere. Please share links to posts.

Cooling Off In Singapore; Indoor Skiing, Ice Skating and more

Problem
Where do you go to cool off in Singapore?

Answers
Swim in a public pool.

Or sit beside a hotel pool sipping a cool cocktail.

Go to the east coast waterfront.

Go to Sentosa Island.

Go indoor ice skating.

Go indoor snow skiing.

Snow City.
The Rink.

Walk along the underground passages from Orchard MRT and Ion shopping centre.

Walk around Clarke Quay by the river and jump in the fountains.

Have a cooling cocktail in Harry's Bar.

Jump in the fountains at Clarke Quay. Photograph by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Ride on an open top bus tour.

Take a boat trip along the river.

Take a ferry to an island.

Tips
urban ski.com.sg
www.therink.sg
www.snowcity.com.sg

Also see TripAdvisor.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to my pages.

Learn Bulgarian in Three Minutes - and a few words of other languages

Problem
Where can I hear Bulgarian? A website - was it the tourist board's - told me that Bulgarian was the most melodious language after Italian.

Answer
I had two ideas of where to hear Bulgarian. The first was Google. I tried typing 'I love you' into Google Translate from English to Bulgarian.

Stories
English
I could hear the English. Why bother listening to English pronunciation? I was interested in finding out how accurate the English was. Would I get a British sounding voice or a scientific robot?

It sounded fine. Received Pronunciation. But I could not see any button to click on for Bulgarian.

Bulgarian
So I turned to YouTube and typed in 'learn Bulgarian'. the first lady who popped up looked to me as if she needed to comb her hair. I was not impressed. At the end of three minutes I had not yet learned anything.

I realised that you cannot learn an entire language in three minutes. You are supposed to be so thrilled by how much you learn in three minutes that you continue watching the three minute videos every day or every hour until you have at least the basis for simple conversation, get by in the language.

I tried another website. Aha. A young girl with a sweet voice, equally lovely speaking English, was teaching Bulgarian in three minutes. She was so nice to listen to that I watched a few minutes for the pleasure of it. Not that I learned much Bulgarian.

Russian
However I did learn something. The interesting thing to me was that the Bulgarian language sounded familiar and looked familiar. So many words resembled Russian. I haven't got for with my Russian on DuoLingo, but far enough to see that anything which looks like da in any allied language is yes and anything related to dobre is good.

I have now found a great website for learning Bulgarian, which is about 26th on my list of languages I would like to learn one day. I shall show you the other 25 first.

French and Italian
At school I learned French - my French is fluent. I also learned Latin. You don't get much Latin conversation. It's impressive to passers by when you stand reading aloud from a gravestone in a museum and talking to yourself. Translating. I regularly mutter to myself, 'veni vidi vici' (I came, I saw, I conquered) and 'amo amas amat' which means I love, you love, he, she or it loves.
But Romans nowadays speak Italian.

My list is:
1 German - easy vocabulary and easy pronunciation. Kindergarten. Child garden.
2 Spanish - easy vocabulary and pronunciation OK if you can learn to roll the letter r. Los Angeles. The angels.
3 Italian - I already know lots from restaurant menus, operas and visits to Italy and Latin. I like 'tricolore', thee colours of red tomato, white cheese and green.
4 Russian - to learn the alphabet. Sputnik.
5 Greek - to learn the Alphabet. I know so many words. Acropolis, hilltop city.
6 Hebrew - to learn the alphabet. Bethlehem, from Beth, building, and lehem bread, means house of bread.
7 Romanian (Only because I'm planning my first trip to the country and my new plan is to learn the language of every country I visit).
8 Swedish - I like the sound.
9 Welsh - I go to Wales every year. It's time I learned the road signs and place names on maps.
10 Portuguese - similar to Spanish. The Portuguese love the British. Queen Elizabeth fought their neighbour, Spain.
11 Vietnamese - I go to a Vietnamese Toastmasters club in Singapore - too difficult, I looked and left.
12 Norwegian - could be similar to Swedish.
13 Danish - could be similar to Swedish and Norwegian.
14 Irish - nearby.
15 Japanese - easier than Chinese. In my early twenties I went to Japan and learned to say Sayonara. I have since learned that you answer a phone with m u s h i m u s h i. I can say karaoke.
16 Chinese. I wish I had learned twenty years ago. It is hard. I can manage how are you which is, ni how - you good?, and the reply 'how' (good).
17 Dutch - must be similar to German, but only useful in Holland.
18 Malay - easy to pick up. Termimah Kasi - thank you. Similar to Indonesian. Easy language. Doubles a word to make a plural. Anak is child and anak anak is children.
19 Arabic - shares with Hebrew a relationship to Aramaic, same sounding words. Popular names. Dawood is David. Ibrahim is Abraham. Salaam, meaning peace, similar to Shalom and Jerusalem.
20 Yiddish. Mix of Hebrew and German. Mazel tov. Good luck (or rather luck good). Shtum. Quiet. Spiel. Game.
21 Hindi
22 Urdu
23 Tamil - useful in Singapore. You hear it on the train announcements.
24 Polish. I went to Warsaw and Krakow. The language is too difficult for me.
25 Czech - I went to Prague and hoped it would be like Russian. No such luck.
26 Bulgarian.

Yes, Bulgarian is my 26th language. I though I'd take a look and see how the language compares with Romanian.

Now I have added Bulgarian to my list of languages which sound good and look easy.
English - Bulgarian
Good night - leka nosh.
Bulgarian - English
leka nosh - good night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Hfd853J50

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. I have several other posts on languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to type Romanian characters - and pronounce them

Problem
How do you type Romanian characters with accents? The accents are there to help you to how to pronounce the word.

Here's one way. Type them out from a Romanian website and copy them.

I copied these from a website called
romanian.typeit.org

You had to press command (on an Apple Macbook keyboard) and the letter and tap once for one letter with accent and twice for the second.

Here are the seven accents.
ă

â

î

ş

ș

ţ

ț

I have enlarged the text so you can see the letters and accents above or below more clearly.

ăThe first a with the accent on the a looks like a bowl or the lower half of the letter o.  The a is pronounced like oh.

âThe second a with the hat on the a sounds more like er, said quickly, as if you were about to clear your throat. 

î Same as the a with the hat. 

ş

ș S with a tail is pronounced SH as in shell.

ţ

ț T with a tail is pronounced TS as in cats.

Tips
duo lingo.com free language learning on the internet.

For information on travel see

www.romaniatourism.com

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. Please share links to my posts.

Romanian words of the week : plums and prunes

Romanian
P r u n a - plum
p r u n a  u s c a t a - prune

English
plum - p r u n a
prune - p r u n a  u s c a t a

Note the bowl shape accents on the letters tell you how to pronounce them. You can also hear the words said using Google translate and /or Duolingo.com

Duolingo.com Free language learning website.

For information on travel see
www.romaniatourism.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher and learner of languages. I have several more posts on the Romanian language and other languages. Please share links to my posts.

Three more fun Romanian words

Romanian - English
f l u t u r e - butterfly (one which flutters by)
s a r p e - snake (cedilla or comma under the Romanian s makes the sound sh)
Memory aid: Look sharp, there's a snake in Romania.
vaca - cow (memory aid - they always look so vacant)

English - Romanian
butterfly - F l u t u r e
cow - vaca
snake - s a r p e

Tips
Duolingo.com Free language learning website.
www.romaniatourism.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and languages. Please share links to my posts.

Learn yet another five Romanian words for animals

Romanian - English
cocos - cock
cal - horse (That's a short, easy word in Romanian.)
gâscă - goose
leu - lion (like leo) 
urs - bear

English - Romanian
bear - u r s  (think of the sky at night - see u r s ....)
cock - cocos (cedilla or comma under the s, pronounced cockosh)
horse - cal
goose - gâscă
lion leu


Duolingo.com Free language learning website.

www.romaniatourism.com

Author Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and languages. I have several more posts on Romanian and other languages. Please share links to my posts.

Learn five more Romanian words for animals

Romanian - English
animal d e c o m p a n i e - pet
c a i n e - dog
hamster - hamster
pasare - bird (migrating bird passing through)
p i s i c a - cat (the last two letters of pisica are the same as the first two letters of cat)

English - Romanian
bird - p a s a r e
cat - p i s i c a (what does a cat eat? Fish. Fish sign - pisces. A pis eating ca t.
dog - c a i n e
hamster - hamster
pet - animal de c o m p a n i e

Duolingo.com Free language learning website.
www.romaniatourism.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and teacher of languages. Please share posts

Romanian words for animals

Problem
How to learn Romanian fast? Why fast? When you have a trip or holiday planned, how do you learn Romanian fast?

Answer
Pick words which sound similar. Even if you don't have much use for some to the words, they will stick easily and with a growing vocabulary you will increase confidence, urge to learn more, and urge to read signs and menus and brochures.

Animals
d e l f i n
e l e f a n t
i n s e c t a
p i n g u i n
v u l t u r

These words look like a child's attempt, or a modified script. I hardly need to translate them. However, as a reminder I shall make another list, which might also help somebody for whom English is a second language.

Romanian - English
d e l f i n - dolphin
e l e f a n t - elephant
i n s e c t a - insect
p i n g u i n - penguin
v u l t u r - vulture -actually, Duolingo lists it as an eagle, but at least you know it's a bird. Eagles swoop on live prey. Vultures stick to safer dead items.

English - Romanian
dolphin - d e l f i n
elephant - e l e f a n t
insect - i n s e c t a
penguin - p i n g u i n
vulture - v u l t u r

For more words and phrases see
www.DuoLingo.com
You can use this website, which is free, on a computer, laptop or mobile.

For travel information on Romania see
www.romaniatourism.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and foreign languages.

Romanian words for food or cutlery

Problem
How to remember Romanian words for food and cutlery?

Answer
Look for similarities.

Tips
The comma or cedilla under a t turns it into a ts sound as in cats, lots, knots, pots, tots, what's.
The comma under the s turns the sound into SH.

Romanian - English
banana - banana
c u t i t - knife
furculiţă - fork
l i n g u r a - spoon
lingurita - teaspoon
servetel - serviette or napkin

English - Romanian
banana - banana
fork - furculiţă
knife - c u t i t
Napkin/serviette - servetel
spoon - lingura
teaspoon - lingurita (think of a little spoon, adding i t a, like señorita like a little señora )

To learn Romanian and other languages go to
www.duolingo.com
 Free language learning website.

For tourism information see
www.romaniatourism.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. author and speaker, teacher of English and learner and teacher of other languages. 

Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Decoration Day and Gettysburg

Gettysburg cemetery, from Wikipedia.

Problem
When is Memorial day, what's it for and how does it differ from Decoration Day and Veterans Day?

Answers
Memorial Day is the last Sunday in May in the USA. It started at the time in the 1800s after the civil war to remember the dead. The idea started in the south and spread to the north.

Why remember this war? Huge numbers of dead, in south and north.

Why May? Not to remember any particular battle. On the contrary, to give equal recognition to all who died. The last Sunday means the date varies.

May was chosen because flowers are out. The American south is hotter than the north, but flowers are out in both areas.

It was a day for remembering those who died in battle, the army.  Why only the army? Planes had not yet been invented in the time when this started. Not much call for a navy either, with those in the north fighting those in the south.

What's the difference between Memorial day and Veterans Day? Memorial day is like memorial services, held in memory of the dead. Veterans day is for the living.

What is decoration day? It's a day for decorating graves. (Similar events honouring family graves occur in Asia.) That can include family graves, people not involved in wars.

Finger Walking Tips
You can read more and see more pictures in Wikipedia.

Travel Tips
Places to visit in the USA:
Gettysburg - my top visit. Everything is stunning. The battlefield. The stories of the soldiers. The story of memorials. The story of how Lincoln wrote his Lincoln's Gettysburg address speech. He started with seventy years and changed to three score years and ten.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to posts.

Kiev Checklist Wishlist

Problem
 Here's a map of Kiev. Kiev is the capital of Ukraine. Ukraine was the birthplace of one of my ancestors on my late father's side. Do I want or need to see Kiev? If I go, what should I see?

Before I throw out all the brochures cluttering my house, I need to check what they tell me.

Answers
Old Kiev
Kiev is city of the Golden Domes. The landmarks include:

1 St Sophia cathedral
The gleaming figure of eight golden dome surrounded by at least six green domes with smaller gold domes on top. You can climb the b e l f r y. (Oops! I am sure I typed b e l f r y, not belly. It must be the spell checker.) Inside are twenty bells, one massive 13 ton bell. White walls and green domes.
Entry fee 70 UAH.
www.n.sophiakievska.org

Want something free? Most museums and parks are free, except for the Museum of Miniatures, the guided tour of the caves, and the medieval horseback fighting knights show.

2 St Michael's Monastery
St Michael is the patron saint of Kiev.
All gold domes a glitter topped by gold crosses. White columns with gold tops.  Courtyard contains wish fountain. Since entry is free, you might donate a coin and make a wish.
www.achrangel.kiev.ua

New and Modern Kiev

Kiev Cooking
Chicken Kiev. My favourite. Although I can buy it in Tesco supermarket in London, it would be interesting to try it in Kiev.

Packing Your Car, Stacking your car, Planning You Trip Essentials, Items Retrieved In Emergency

Problem
How to fit all suitcases and bits and bobs in your car boot and interior?

Answer
Car boot - American and British names
Americans call it the trunk. The British word for the front is the bonnet. The American word for the part at the front is the hood.

How do remember the American and British words? Imagine a lady or a dress maker's mannequin laying down across the rack on top of the car, looking forwards to see where the car is going and enjoy the view. Her bonnet or hood is at the front. Her boots are at the back. By her feet is her trunk or suitcase.

Fixe of Car Boot
1 Try the empty suitcases in the car before packing.
2 Try the suitcases pyramid stacking. If the top obscures the drivers view, line everything up towards the left or right.
3 If you want to get things out en route, try stacking upright like books on a bookshelf with another other across the top.
4 If you are travelling with a friend who is arriving at your house, or being picked up along the route, ask the size of their suitcase or tell them the limit.

Stacking suitcases
1 Have all items needed for the journey or on arrival in you handbag or a small big in the body of the car.
2 Place valuables which must must be left in the car instead into a small light wheel on aircraft-friendly 18 inch bag, left on top or even in the car, so you can take it with you when rushing to the toilet at motorway stops.

Packing Suitcases
1 Allow room for souvenirs by packing a spare travel bag inside your biggest or handiest bag or handbag.

Saving Space
2 Consider taking old clothes you can leave behind
3 Use a folding device.
4 Use the roll-up method.
5 Use the nesting dolls principle.
6 Wear two layers of thin clothes.
7 Consider colour coding. For example, green case or green Marks and Spencer carrier bag for food needed on the journey.

Do not obscure the driver's vision. Keep the back window clear. In some countries a van can drive without rear vision but must have mirrors on both sides.

Animals and Babies
Take into account any animal such as a dog or cat in a box or cage or behind a barrier on the back seat.

For a baby allow for: the baby, (sitting or lying down, the cot, the baby seat, and the size of a pushchair. Add the space of baby clothes, changing mats, toys and food. Consider how you need them to be accessible at stops on the way or when unpacking at your destination.

Fragile Items
You can get souvenirs posted home and delivered by courier. Or wrap them inside towels or blankets, or inside boots and shoes. A blast sealable covering is useful. Also tupperware boxes for small items which might leak such as cosmetics.

Food and Drink
You can allow space for a cool box with an ice container inside to keep food and drinks cool for the journey amor at the destination.
Food bought at the destination can be sent home by courier to arrive after you get back.

Need Extra Space
1 Lower the back seat for skis. When buying or hiring a car, check it will take skis.
2 Check the roof rack and allow time to buy a rack plus fixing straps.
3 Consider buying a trailer to attach behind a bike or car. The vehicle manufacturer or brochure should tell you the weight and shape a vehicle can pull. Learn how to turn corners without being pulled over by the weight or endangering others if the back portion swings out.
4 Alternatively hire a big motorhome for the holiday. Transfer clothes already on hangers from your home into the motorhome.

Check the glove box contains your insurance, car handbook - print one off the internet - especially how to open the boot, open the petrol compartment - often a lever under the knee level on the driver's side, central locking and child locks, what the warning signals mean, petrol stations (gas stations) en route, cheap hotels en route inc as your journey is delayed, coffee bars en route, landmarks, maps and routes, hats, sunglasses, glasses, water, food, blanket in cold weather, first aid kit, emergency numbers.

Story
Do not over pack. I was on my way to a holiday in Wales still in England on the M4 which I was rear-ended by another vehicle. My car was a write-off. I had to empty the car of what I needed to take with me for the holiday.

I kept them waiting fifteen minutes whilst I unpacked from the smashed up car my bag of clothes and books. I was afraid I would never see again the items left in the car, which was towed to a car graveyard garage.

I had to carry all my luggage on the journey to my destination. First offloading it. Then hoisting it into the cab of the tow truck.

Then by train. First the departure station. Then the stop, with one change of train and the stairs at the station and running back to the ticket office to check the times and platforms since none were shown and I did not know which intermediate point station I needed.

Finally, two weeks later, go to the dump to collect my left behind possessions from the car. Nothing in it? There is always something. Your favourite pen under the seat. A coin. Maps. The tool kit, spare tire, towing ropes, first aid box, business card, spare key in box under wing.

You also need a photo of the damaged car to prove it was the other driver's fault (eg rear end damage). You need photos to claim for your injuries (eg broken windscreen, blood on car, or damaged driver's door showing impact. You might not even have noticed at the time, the tell-tale damage which your family or the insurers will note.

More Tips
http://www.traveller24.com/TravelPlanning/Suitcase-secrets-how-to-pack-a-car-boot-20140526
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4549930/Practical-Princess-Ford-infographic-pack-car

Finally - car keys
Do you have the spare key with you or back home? Do you know the number of the key and where to re-order a key?

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photograph, author and speaker. I have other posts on packing. Please share links to posts.

EMERGENCY! Dial 112 after and prevent Fires and learn safety in hotels, holiday lets and holiday home and expats abroad

Fire alarm and speaker switch. Photo from Wikipedia.

Problem
A visitor starts a fire in the rented room or apartment kitchen. What should you do to extinguish it?
Who is responsible for the damage?

Answers
Prevention
The landlord in the UK is responsible for instilling a fire alarm. At the annual check or renewal of a tenancy agreement the landlord should check the batteries. (This is in the landlord's own interests.)

Story
This year I have been a tenant of a flat in one country and a landlord of a property in my home country, as well as helping family members deal with contracts in both countries.

In one property a leak from overhead damaged ceilings, walls and floors. Further leaks led to insects and rodents.

In another property an oven caught fire. I believe when the oven was turned to grill by mistake, I was not there at the time.

Tips
Check rules in the country where you are letting to others or renting from others.

Check that both landlord and tenant have insurance covering fire, and third party liability.

Place a fire alarm and extinguisher near the oven and hob.

Have a sign pointing to fire exit.

Have a key to fire exit beside the fire exit. If that is the back door, have the key by the back door. You might wish to have the only key by the back door. If you have two keys you can leave another back door key near the front door. But you don't want to rush to the back door in the dark and find the key is back next to the front door.

Display the number for the fire brigade and ambulance services in the kitchen. Note that different countries have different numbers. You cannot rely on the tenants, visitors, landlords, knowing the number for the country where the property is situated.

Fix fire action instructions beside the hob, oven and microwave. These should include:

Do not throw water on a fire. This causes scalding or burning fat to splash out, injure people, and extend the fire, and sometimes cause an explosion.

Keep the number of the insurance company on the fire notice and the date of renewal. You need a photo and to contact them immediately.

Insurance
You may wish to keep insurance details handy. Yu  may have a 24 hour hotline to an insurance company or legal advice as either a landlord, tenant, or member of the public.

Emergency Numbers
How will you find the emergency numbers? Emergency numbers will be displayed by swimming pools in condominium complexes, on railway stations, on buildings sites, and on maps. In the UK and USA you will often be able to find them in public places and private buildings> in Hotels and all suite hotels look in the booklets in hotel bedrooms or the local phone directories in bedside tables.

You might wish to copy down the emergency numbers of your holiday or business destination on the front of your diary for quick access and into your phone.

You could even print a couple of copies of the emergency phone numbers on an a$ sheet, laminating it if you have a laminating machine. Take two copies, one for each room in your all suite hotel or holiday flat, or two copies in case you change hotels and accidentally leave the first one behind in your first hotel. You might wish to leave a copy behind in your hotel bedroom or show it to a friendly novice guest house owner

Fill in these numbers wis and when you need them:
UK AND USA
Emergency Numbers in UK
999 emergency
111 You need medical help fast but not an emergency.

Emergency Numbers in USA
ASIA
Emergency numbers in Asia
Singapore
EUROPE
Emergency numbers in Spain

Emergency numbers in Romania.
The European emergency number 112 is the only emergency number in Romania. It is possible to call 112 from a mobile phone even without a SIM card. The average time to answer a 112 call is 4 seconds.

Finally, do a rehearsal with the entire family of what to do in the case of
Fire outside the front door.
Fire in the kitchen.
Flood.
First aid box.
First aid and CPR.
Nearest hospital.
(It's usually quicker to call the emergency services. Why? Because they can set their flashers and have larger vehicles which other traffic avoids or gives way to. They also deal with any parking tickets.)

Emergency numbers worldwide:
http://chartsbin.com/view/1983
Shows a map of the world with colours matched to emergency numbers.

http://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/emergency/
Useful text explanation. Very handy advice that 112 works worldwide even on locked mobile phones.
Why 112 and how do you remember it? If you use the same number on the old dial phones you would have to deliberately dial. On a mobile phone you could accidentally press against a key and holding it down it repeats. So you dial 11 which is easiest to find, then a 2 at the end.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/112_%28emergency_telephone_number

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on safety. Please share links to my posts.

How The Heating Works - in your hotel or holiday home or home - how to turn it off in summer

Temperature controller for radiators. Centigrade. Five to twenty five. Photo by Angela Lansbury, copyright.

Problem
The temperature rose. I could not turn off the heating.

Heating has always been a mystery to me. Whether I am at home, in a hotel, a place I've rented, or in somebody else's flat when they are asking me, and everybody else, what to do.

How do you know what is affecting the boiler and what is turning the radiators? Where is the controller? What do the mystery numbers mean? What temperature do you set?

Answer
Now I know. My son who had a degree in engineering explained. I can't believe how simple and obvious it is, once you know.

Finding The Controller
I remember watching an electrician looking for a flat's heating controller and finding it on the lounge wall. I always wondered how he knew which sets of dials operated what.

What Is It Operating?
You can tell by both the location and the temperature setting.

You might have a dial or two in the kitchen in the boiler cupboard or timers next to it. They set start and stop times.

Is It Working?
You go into a new flat and nothing seems to happen when you fiddle the dials or set the times. Is it a 24 hour clock or a 12 hour clock. Aha!

So before you call out somebody to check, you can do your own check.

If you can't see which is which, you should be able to tell within ten minutes whether the water has got hotter, by turning on the hot tap, and within an hour whether the radiator is working, by feeling it. (Make sure it is turned on, as well. Look at the radiator. Does it have a dial?)

Story
I turned off the switch in the hot cupboard but the kitchen and house were still stifling hot. I called my son to come and help.

Finding The Controller
He asked, "Where is the temperature controller?"

What controller?

He walks into the hall and looks. "Look! There's a dial on the wall."

"Oh, yes. Outside the water boiler cupboard. I thought it operated the water boiler. How do I know it regulates the radiators and temperature of the rooms?"

Checking Temperature Range
"Look at the temperature. What does it say?"

"Er? Five to twenty five. It is centigrade. I grew up with fahrenheit."

"This is centigrade. What is boiling point?"

"A hundred?"

"Yes. In theory a boiler goes up to a hundred. But this only goes up to 25. That would be pretty cool for water. So it isn't boiling water; it's warming the air.

"In centigrade body temperature is much lower than boiling point, about 28ish. You swim in water that's about 30.  A hot tub would be much hotter. Let's say 40 maximum - you can look it up and check.

"The control setting in an airing cupboard is controlling the boiler. The cupboard gets hot and can stay hot for hours, when the room temperature has gone down, so a controller measuring the heat in the air would not tell you the right thing if it measured the temperature in your cupboard. The boiler might be set to run at 50-60 degrees centigrade. Not a hundred, because people would keep scalding themselves.

Boilers temperature controls start at 50 degrees. Not five. So your dial going from 5 degrees to 25 is not heating water but the air, so it is not for the boiler but the radiators.

How The Dial Works
"To pick up the temperature of the house, the dial is in the living room, sometimes the corridor. If you've just moved in, look around at eye level in the living room and corridor. The electrician just walks into the living room or corridor, then scans the walls, turning his head, until he spots a little box on the wall. He might ask you where it is first. If you don't know, he finds it."

Air Conditioning
"In Singapore in a community centre, the box controlling the air conditioning is usually by the door. The leader of the club often knows what to do without calling the management."

"That's air con, in a public building or hotel in a hot country.

Controller Position
Let's continue looking at the heating. To pick up the temperature of the entire flat, rather than the kitchen cupboard, the controller will be in the living room or corridor.

Setting Temperature
"You set it to a temperature like 20 degrees. You'll find advice all over the internet and sometimes in a leaflet with your electricity bill. If your bills are too high in winter, you may want to turn down the temperature.

How Room Temperature Controller Works
"When the corridor gets lower the controller turns on. It's a heat sensitive dial. It aims at the target temperature, and turns on until you reach the target temperature. Then it turns off. When the temperature goes down again, it turns back on."

The Moral Of The Story
I have lived in the UK, USA, Spain and Singapore and stayed in numerous buildings and been to conferences and clubs. Now I shall look at every controller, for lights, air con, or heating, and learn what to do.

Next time it won't be somebody else explaining to me. It will be me explaining to somebody else. I dare say the same applies to you.

Tips
http://www.thehottubandswimspacompany.com/about-us/blog/item/576-what-is-the-best-temperature-for-your-hot-tub

Hot Tub Temperature
PS The hot tub temperature, according to the industry, should not be above 40 for health reasons. 38-9 max would be about right.

The lowest temperature is about 7, even when nobody is using it, not zero, to be sure it doesn't freeze and cause damage.

http://www.ragsdaleair.com/blog/why-wont-my-central-air-conditioning-unit-turn-on-4/
Best tip - make sure it is not set to heat. Set it to cool. Just think about it. You told the poor controller to heat and then you told it to cool.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.  Please share links to your favourite posts.

Where to worship St Nicholas's bones or see a relic of Santa in Russia

Three Santas, and at least three countries claiming associations with Santa. Photo by Angela Lansbury Copyright.

The generosity of the saint continues to influence others worldwide. A Santa run for charity in aid of St Luke's Hospice, Harrow, England. This lady is wearing her Santa outfit and the medallion she was given for completing the fund-raising run. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
Who is the real Santa Claus and where can you see him, or at least a tiny bit of him?

Answer
The bones of St Nicholas are in Bari in Italy now (2017). He originally came from a place in Asia Minor which is now in Turkey.

But a relic from the bones has been loaned to a church in Moscow. You can see the relic if you are willing to queue (line up) for hours, along with Russians keen to see it and touch the case.

Of course St Nicholas lived all year, when he lived, not just at Christmas. St Nicholas was originally shown wearing a green outfit. But red livens us up on dark days and nights. The fervour the popularity of the red-dressed Santa started with an advertisement for CocaCola in the USA.

They say that red sells. The Santa Claus costume proved it.

However, the success of the exhibition in Russia shows that St Nicholas draws followers not just at Christmas, but all year.

Tips
www.italiantouristboard.co.uk
www.italia.it/en/home
www.italiantourism.com (for the USA)

http://www.visitrussia.org.uk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-40062807 Story of relic in Moscow.
More on wikipedia, wikitravel and TripAdvisor

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on Italy, Christmas and Russia. Please use the search on this website. Please share your favourite posts.

How to Learn Languages, Start a New language of the month and make friends

Problem
How do I find out a bit about other languages without spending hours researching?

Answer
Languages Websites
I use Duolingo and have signed up for several languages and looking at the opening page or explanations and tired the first two or three exercises.

But which language is most useful? Wherever you are going for your next holiday, or dream of going, you can start learning the language and planning a possible trip.

You can see videos on YouTube of people who have learned a dozen languages. In Singapore I often meet people who speak three or four languages. How to catch up, know at leat a little, enough to say hello or goodbye.

It would be good to even recognize which languages people are speaking. I often sit in a train, or in the sauna in a gym, and hear a foreign language.

I can recognise the Japanese. They end their sentences with deska which is a question word, equivalent to isn't it, or is that so?

Knowing a little of another language gives you the curiosity and the courage to open a conversation. Even if you know only a few words, that's enough to establish rapport.

If you want encouragement, Wikitravel has a language of the month.

Tips
duo lingo.com

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to useful and entertaining posts.

Where to find tourist board websites and cities

Problem
How do I find tourist board websites and cities?

Answer
Country List with Flags and Capitals
Got to www.Wikitravel.org
See www.countryconnect.co.uk

The quickest way to find a list of countries of the world is not to go to wikipedia which gives you the flags, which is good, together with the capital which is good, but in most of their tables several columns of other information.

Simpler List
Instead go to Simple.wikipedia.org

It's no use copying with select all because you get all the wikipedia page logos which overlay anything else you have already typed above.

Finding Addresses
How to find the tourist board addresses? I used the address cards and the WTM Catalogue 2016, issued in November 2016. Then I discovered a website with the addresses of the tourist boards in London and the addresses for getting a visa.

USA
Major cities and states include: Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington DC.
Visit sites associated with Edgar Allen Poe, Houdini, Molly Brown, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley and Presidents Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington, JF Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jnr.

www.visitusa.org.uk
www.VisitTheUsa.com

UK
www.visitbritain.org

ENGLAND
Major cities in England include: Bath, Brighton, Cambridge, London, Manchester, Oxford, Windsor, York.
Major attractions include Madame Tussaud's, Sherlock Holmes' House, The V&A, Tate Modern, National Portrait Gallery, and a trip to Warner Brothers Studio Tour (Harry Potter locations).
Visit sites connected with Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Disraeli, Beatrix Potter, Queen Victoria, The Rothschilds, William Shakespeare, Wordsworth.
Major areas to visit include Cornwall and Devon, or the Lake District.

The National Trust
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
www.visitlondon.com
www.visitbath.co.uk
www.visitbrighton.com
www.wembleystadium.com
www.westminster-abbey.org
www.wimbledon.com/museum
www.wbstudiotour.co.uk
www.visitisleofwight.co.uk

www.VisitEngland.com is the official tourist board for England.

WALES
Places to see: Caerleon, Cardiff, Fishguard, Llangollen, Tenby.
Northern Ireland
Major attractions are The Giants' Causeway; Belfast's Titanic Exhibition.
www.visitwales.com

SCOTLAND
Major cities are Glasgow and Edinburgh.
www.visitscotland.com

CHANNEL ISLANDS
www.visit.guernsey.com
www.jersey.com

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA tourism authority
www.antigua-barbuda.com

ARGENTINA
www.argentina.travel

ARUBA
www.aruba.com

AUSTRALIA
(Major cities: Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney.)
http://www.australia.com/en-gb

AUSTRIA
See Salzburg, Vienna (Freud Museum).

BELARUS
Major cities include Minsk, not to be confused with next city which is Pinsk.
www.belarustourist.by

BELGIUM
See Brussels and Flanders Fields.
www.visitflanders.com
www.waterlooandbeyond.be

BRAZIL
visitbrasil.com

CAMBODIA
Allow three days to visit Ankor Wat temple and city walls, and tour half a dozen other temples, near the top tourist city, Seam Reap. Recently voted the world's top attraction. Tour in a tuk-tuk. the capital city is Phnom Penh.
tourism.cambodia.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phnom_Penh

CANADA
visit-canada.com
www.tourism-vancouver.org

CHILE
www.chile.travel/patagonia

CHINA
Top tourist cities are huge Shanghai with art deco waterfront, Big Beijing the capital and Xian for the now exposed once buried statues of warriors.
www.cnta.gov.cn

COSTA RICA
essentialcostarica.com
www.visitcostarica.com

CROATIA
www.croatia.hr

CZECH REPUBLIC
Captal Prague with Charles bridge hilltop castle and Kafka museum.
www.czechtourism.com

CYPRUS
www.visitcyprus.com

DENMARK
Major city Copenhagen.
Major character: Hans Andersen.
www.visitdenmark.co.uk

DUBAI - see UAE

FINLAND
www.visitfinland.com

FRANCE
From the UK on the ferry or tunnel or by air. Paris, the capital, the Loire valley castles, or south to the riviera.
www.uk.rendezvousenfrance.com

GERMANY
Berlin, the Romantic road through cities with riverside castles.
www.german.travel

GHANA
www.ghana.travel

GIBRALTAR
Gibraltar Tourist Board, 150 Strand, London WC2R 1JA UK
tel:+44 (0) 20 7386 0777.
www.visitgibraltar.gi

GREECE
Athens or second city Thessaloniki. Islands including Crete, Kefalonia, Mykonos. Trip to Olympia, flame site.
www.visitgreece.gr

GUYANA
www.guyana-tourism.com

GUATEMALA
Land of Catholics, cobblestones, coffee, Conquistadors, Mayan villages and volcanoess.
www.visitguatemala.com

INDIA
Major tourist cities and states and areas include: Agra, Delhi, Mumbai (previously called Bombay), Calcutta.
Ministry of Tourism:
www.incredibleindia.org
Railways:
www.irctc.to.in
Hotel Association of India (HAI) www.hotelassociationofindia.com
Airindia:
www.home.airindia.in
London Office:
email:indiatourism@aol.com

INDONESIA
Jakarta. Bali.
www.indonesia.travel

ISRAEL
Major cities include: Bethlehem, Eilat, Haifa, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv (Bauhaus-art deco). Biblical characters (Old and New testament, too many to list. OK - cities, tombs, walls, building, Abraham, Solomon, Jonathan, David, Romans and ruins, Jesus, rabbis.)
Jerusalem-hotels.org.il

IRELAND
Major city Dublin.
www.tourismireland.com

ITALY
Major cities include: Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence, Assisi, Perugia.
www.umbriatourism.it

JORDAN
Roman ruins and churches, Moses stood here.
www.visitjordan.com

KOREA - South Korea
Major city is Seoul.

english.visitkorea.or.kr/

LITHUANIA
Major city Vilnius.
www.vilnius.lt

MACEDONIA
www.visitmacedonia.com

MALAYSIA
Day trips and buses from Singapore. KL capital city. Waterfalls. Pink city.
www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my

MALDIVES
www.visitmaldives.com

MALTA
Side trip to second island.
www.airmalta.com
www.visitgozo.com

MEXICO
visitmexico.com
www.mexicoonline.com

The NETHERLANDS / Holland
Amsterdam.
Board of Tourism
Http://www.nbt..nl/holland

PERU
www.peru.travel

PHILIPPINES
www.tourism.gov.ph:
itsmorefuninthephilippines.co.uk
https://www.tourismphilippines.com.au/

PORTUGAL
Lisbon. Oporto.
www.visitportugal.com

ROMANIA
Bucharest.
www.romaniatourism.com

email romaniatravel@btconnect.com

or tel:0 207 935 6435.

RUSSIA
Moscow. Stalingrad / Volgograd / St Petersburg.
www.visitrussia.org.uk

SERBIA
www.serbia.travel

SOUTH AFRICA
Johannesburg, Pretoria,  Durban. Trip to Sun City.
www.durbanexerience.co.za

SPAIN
Madrid. Seville. Fly drive staying at paradores.
Barcelona is in the Catalan region.
Catalan Tourist Board
17 Fleet Street, 3rd floor, London EC4Y 1AA. tel:+44 (0)20 7583
8855
info.act.uk@gencat.cat
www.andalucia.com
www.catalunya.com
www.spain.info

SWEDEN
www.visitsweden.com

THAILAND
https://www.tourismthailand.org/
Tourism Authority of Thailand

Address: 370 Orchard Rd, Singapore 238870

Phone: +65 6235 7901.

UAE
Dubai is the largest city. UAE consists of several emirates.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
https://www.visitdubai.com/en-uk/

UKRAINE
(Main cities: Kiev; Lviv; Odessa.)
kyivcity.travel e-mail:kyivtourism@gmail.com
www.lviv.travel
www.odessa-tourism.com

VIETNAM
www.vietnametourism.gov.vn

Open top buses:
www.bigbustours.com
www.city-sightseeing.com
For the latest feedback on which is best in the city your are visiting, see TripAdvisor.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to posts.
Azerbaijani is the primary and official language of Azerbaijan, and is also known as Azeri Turkish. It is alUKRAINEso t

Authe primary language in northwestern Iran, and is also spoken to a small extent in southern Dagestan (Russia), the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia, and eastern Turkey. It is a Turkic language with notes of Russian and Persian influence.
Azerbaijani is the primary and official language of Azerbaijan, and is also known as Azeri Turkish. It is also the primary language in northwestern Iran, and is also spoken to a small extent in southern Dagestan (Russia), the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia, and eastern Turkey. It is a Turkic language with notes of Russian and Persian influence.