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Tuesday 19 May 2020 |
Tour 2020 Umbria: May 19 -24 |
Contact: Debbie Jones.
Umbria is a region of central Italy. It includes Lake Tramismeno andre Falls, and is crossed by the River Tiber. The regional capital is Perugia. Umbria is known for its landscapes, traditions, history, culinary delights, artistic legacy, and influence on culture. The region is characterized by hills, mountains, valleys and historical towns such as the university centre of Perugia, Assisi, a World Heritage Site associated with St. Francis of Assisi, the Basilica of San Francesco and other Franciscan sites, works by Giotto and Cimabue, Terni, the hometown of St. Valentine, Norcia, the hometown of St. Benedict, Città de Castello, main center of the early Renaissance situated in the Tiber High Valley, Gubbio, the hometown of St. Ubaldo, Spoleto, Orvieto, Todi, hometown of the Franciscan mystic Jacapone da Todi, Castiglione del Lago, Narni, Amelia, and other small cities. |
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Monday 29 April 2019 |
Tour 2019
Vienna: 29th April - 3rd May |
Contact: Debbie Jones
Vienna is the federal capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of Austria's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. Apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be "The City of Dreams" because it was home to the world's first psychotherapist – Sigmund Freud. The city's roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city, and then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks. |
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Monday 1 January 2018 |
Tour 2018.
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To be confirmed |
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Monday 8 May 2017 |
Lisbon Art and Cultural Tour |
The tour will take place from 8th to 12th May 2017. Booking forms available from June 2016 meeting.
Lisbon may not offer majesty, but the city does have charm aplenty in its little cobblestone streets, in its lovely blue-tiled courtyards and picturesque pastry shops, and in the trundling old trams and creaking funiculars that carry you up its hillsides and into its picturesque heart. The city's museums are not the grandiose, stuffy palaces you find in many European capital but altogether younger and more vibrant destinations. There's the wonderful Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, its collection gifted by the late oil magnate, standing in the same, elegant parkland as the Centro de Arte Moderna. And then there's the Museu do Oriente, a riot of Eastern artefacts, housed in a converted warehouse, once used to store salted cod. Or the new Museu do Design (known as MUDE), which stands beside a somewhat older cultural treasure, in the form of the 16th-century Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. |
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Tuesday 17 May 2016 |
Cheshire and the Welsh Borders. |
The tour will take place from 17th to 21st of May 2016. Booking forms available at October 2015 meeting
The history of Cheshire can be traced back to the Hoxnian Interglacial, between 400,000 and 380,000 years BP. Primitive tools that date to that period have been found. Stone Age remains have been found showing more permanent habitation during the Neolithic period, and by the Iron Age the area is known to have been occupied by the Celtic Cornovii tribe and possibly the Deceangli. The Romans occupied Cheshire for almost 400 years, from 70 AD, and created the town and fort of Deva Victrix, now Chester. After the Romans withdrew, Cheshire formed part of Mercia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, that saw invasions from the Welsh and Danes. The Norman Conquest in 1070 saw Cheshire harshly ruled by the occupiers as local people resented the invaders and rebelled. War again swept the county during the English Civil War in 1642, despite an attempt by local gentry to keep the county neutral. The industrial revolution saw population changes in Cheshire as farm workers moved to the factories of Manchester and Lancashire. In the 18th and 19th centuries there was a resurgence in the country houses of Cheshire and canals and railways were built. Contemporary Cheshire is now a ceremonial county administered by four unitary authorities; Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, and Warrington. (Warrington, formerly in Lancashire, was added to Cheshire in 1974.) Cheshire retains the offices of Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff for ceremonial purposes. |
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Sunday 12 April 2015 |
Magical Andalucia |
The tour will begin on the 12th April and end on the 17th April. Booking forms will be available at the October 2014 meeting
Andalusia (Spanish: Andalucía) is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities in Spain. The name "Andalusia" is derived from the Arabic word Al-Andalus. As well as Muslim and Romani influences, the region's history and culture have been influenced by the earlier Iberians, Carthaginians/Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Visigoths, Byzantines, all of whom preceded the Muslims, as well as the Castilian and other Christian North Iberian nationalities who regained and repopulated the area in the latter phases of the Reconquista. There was also a relatively large Sephardic Jewish presence. |
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Tuesday 13 May 2014 |
The Heritage of Yorkshire. |
Booking forms will be available at the October 2013 meeting.
The Tour will finish on Saturday 17 May 2014
Yorkshire's heritage encompasses magnificent ruins, grand estates, traces of marauding vikings and the legacy of mills and mining. Discover Yorkshire's stunning gardens and museums, learn about their restoration, collections and about the events they host. Yorkshire's heritage is richly rewarding. |
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Tuesday 14 May 2013 |
The Art, Architecture and Culture of Budapest "The Pearl of the Danube" |
Tour Tuesday 14 May - Saturday 18 May 2013
Budapest is the capital and the largest city of Hungary, the largest in East-Central Europe and the seventh largest in the European Union. It is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre, sometimes described as the primate city of Hungary. In 2011, according to the census, Budapest had 1.74 million inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2.1 million due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter Area is home to 3.3 million people. The city covers an area of 525 square kilometres (202.7 sq mi) within the city limits. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of west-bank Buda and Óbuda with east-bank Pest.
The history of Budapest began with Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement that became the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia. Hungarians arrived in the territory in the 9th century. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241-42.The re-established town became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture[15] in the 15th century. Following the Battle of Mohács and nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule, the region entered a new age of prosperity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Budapest became a global city after the 1873 unification. It also became the second capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a great power that dissolved in 1918, following World War I. Budapest was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, Operation Panzerfaust in 1944, the Battle of Budapest in 1945, and the Revolution of 1956.
Cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, its extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second oldest in the world. Other highlights include a total of 80 geothermal springs, the world's largest thermal water cave system, second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building. The city attracts about 2.7 million tourists a year, making it the 37th most popular city in the world according to Euromonitor.
Considered a financial hub in Central Europe, the city ranked 3rd (out of 65 cities) on Mastercard's Emerging Markets Index, and ranked as the most livable Central/Eastern European city on EIU's quality of life index. It is also ranked as "Europe's 7th most idyllic place to live" by Forbes, and as the 9th most beautiful city in the world by UCityGuides. It is the highest ranked Central/Eastern European city on Innovation Cities' Top 100 index. |
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