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Madaba Mosaic Map
by Essexgirl2006
Madaba in Western Jordan is a good sized town with a large Christian section of the population which has influenced the construction of a number of churches. The churches contain some special mosaics, but we only visited one - the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George's. The mosaic here, known as the Madaba Map, is Byzantine (estimated 6th ... century) and depicts a map of the Holy Land as it was known then. Not all the map remains - parts may have been taken by later Muslim rulers in the 8th Century, parts destroyed in a subsequent earthquake. It was re-discovered in the late nineteenth century when a new church was to be built on the site.
In the nearby ticket office (where you will find toilets and a small shop selling postcards, religious gifts and pictures of the map) you will see a reproduction of the map on the wall which you can view before entering the church. I think this is a good idea as the map text is in Ancient Greek, which I suspect is a language not familiar to many of us. Your guide should be able to point out the key points and the wall map is numbered with translations in a variety of languages. The map is not orientated north, as most modern maps are, but east if you are struggling to get your bearings and wondering where the heck they moved Jerusalem to.
Its original dimensions were 16m x 6m, but we can see quite a bit less these days. It allegedly contained over two million pieces and is claimed to be the oldest known geographic floor mosaic, which has apparently help locate other historically significant sites. All this aside, it is still an impressive mosaic to look at and worth a visit if you are in Madaba.
The church itself is quite modern and somewhat smaller than the original church would have been. There are a number of bright, modern religious pictures on the wall, but there is nothing that makes this church impressive in its own right, other than the mosaic which is worth a visit if you are in the area. You can take photos without flash.
Talal St, Madaba
Open Daily
1JD.
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Gullfoss (Iceland)
by fizzywizzy
The population of Iceland is about 300,000. This remote island in the North Atlantic attracts about double that number in tourists and most of them visit Gullfoss. This magnificent waterfall is one of the sights visited on the famous Golden Circle tour which is offered by most of the tour companies on the island. When you travel outside ... of Reykjavik the majority of vehicles on the road are tour coaches and minibuses so you might understandably expect that these natural attractions are going to be besieged by tourists but, at least when we visited on a freezing Sunday afternoon in April, ours was the only bus at the visitor centre at that time.
While it's possible to hire a car in Iceland, most visitors use organised excursions to see the sights outside the capital. There are all kinds of options and too many to list them all here. Using public transport to get to Gullfoss is not really an option.
Coaches pull in at the purpose built visitor centre, a modern building but one that has been designed to have as little impact as possible on the environment. You'll find a gift shop, a café-restaurant, and some super clean loos.
It's a short walk from the visitor centre to the nearest viewpoint. You're quite high up here so it does get very cold, even in 'summer' and very windy; warm clothes are advisable, especially a hat (I had neglected to bring one and regretted it each time my hood was blown off and my ears were assailed by the bitter winds). Sturdy shoes are also advisable, particularly if you want to get closer to the waterfall because the wooden steps can be wet and slippery.
Gullfoss gets its name because on sunny days the water cascading over the stepped falls looks golden in colour. Actually it's a murky brown colour because the river which is carried over the falls, the Hvita, originates from a glacier and contains a lot of the natural sediments which are thrown up and carried along by a glacier as it rasps along its bed. When we visited, however, the water crashing over the falls was pure white, a torrent of angry water crashing over the cliffs, the spray freezing on the sides of the canyon.
The canyon is 32 metres deep and the water falls down three steps and then plunges dramatically two stages; you get very different views of the way the water drops down as you change viewpoint. From a distance it looks as if the Hvita has vanished; it's not until you move round and position yourself in front of the falls that you see how it drops into the crevice.
We walked about two thirds of the way from the visitor centre to the falls but we didn't feel we had sufficient time to go right to the falls and get back to the coach. On a warmer day I would have done but our progress was hampered by doing battle with the strong winds. If you are particularly keen to get right to the top of the falls (and you can get very close) you should check which tours give you the most time at Gullfoss.
In the first half of the twentieth century the waterfall was jointly owned by Tomas Tomasson and Halldor Halldorsson; they rented it to foreign businessmen who eventually came up with a plan to harness the potential of the falls to generate electricity. There's a popular story that Tomasson's daughter Sigridur was so against the idea that she threatened to throw herself over the falls if it was allowed to happen. The truth is that the foreigners were unable to raise sufficient funds for the project so it was abandoned.
One good thing came out of the whole affair, regardless of whether it was really Sigridur's dramatic threats that thwarted the project; Gullfoss was taken into state ownership and remains the property of the Republic of Iceland and enjoys special protection.
A plaque bearing a profile image of Sigridur Tomasdottir stands at the bottom of the stairs near the visitors' centre.
Most of our group sought sanctuary in the café-restaurant at the visitors' centre. You can get a warming bowl of soup, hot or cold sandwiches, a variety of cakes and other sweet items, fruit and hot and cold drinks. The prices were quite reasonable which I found surprising as I'd have expected to have paid through the nose at this remote location.
Although you can't actually see Gullfoss, the building has been designed to make the most of the views of the surrounding countryside and we found it rather enjoyable to sit with a hot chocolate watching the wind blow a gale outside.
The gift shop is extensive and carries all manner of authentic locally made items such as knitwear and other handcrafted items, as well things like t-shirts, key-rings and other novelty items. You can also pick up hats, scarves and other cold weather gear if you have been persuaded that you don't really come out dressed for the occasion.
If you've booked for the Golden Circle tour then you're going to Gullfoss whether you want to or not. Even if you don't want to walk all the way to the falls I would recommend you try to catch at least two of the viewpoints as the differing aspects are really quite remarkable.
Visiting Gullfoss can be quite exhausting because of the wind but there's also something energising about these magnificent falls that has you coming away feeling invigorated and somehow refreshed. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.
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Cypress Grove Estate House
by KittyKate100
After a fantastic holiday in Orlando a couple of years ago, my fiancé and I returned home to continue umming and ahhing over where our wedding destination would be. We toyed with Cyprus for a while but decided against it due to language and money restrictions, and the fact that many tour operators didn't know the ins and outs of wedding ... planning that we had hoped for to help us plan a wedding in a foreign country. All we knew was we wanted a wedding abroad, for our closest family and friends to attend. Getting married in the UK is a far more expensive affair - unnecessarily so - and even if we didn't have a budget we would have still chosen to fly out of the country out of principle.
After a little while, unpacking the holiday clothes and developing photos, it dawned on us that we could probably get married back in Florida for a good price, in a place we knew we loved (and that family had visited and loved too) where there would be great weather to get wed outdoors.
We started our research online and looked for companies that would help plan bespoke day, from start to finish, for a decent price and have locations based around Orlando. Out of four or five companies we settled on Crownline Weddings.
Crownline's website boasts they are the "longest established company for destination weddings" and support over 500 weddings each year, and have a long scrolling page of testimonials to back up our good feeling about them. The company showed a professional approach with a friendly, warm and wholesome feel to it. After a couple of emails to them enquiring further into what they could do for us, and a brochure sent promptly in the post, we decided to hire Crownline to make our special day the best day of our lives.
We were not disappointed.
We were looked after by Naomi, a British lady who had years of experience as a wedding planning in the USA. She was very helpful in answering any queries we had (despite the eight hour time difference) and was always excited to be planning the wedding with us (a contagious feeling to all involved!).
We opted for Cypress Grove (having first thought of getting married in Cyprus, we thought this was fate!) - a white colonial-style estate house that stands proudly in 80 acres of park, which is situated next to a gorgeous lake with a white gazebo next to it - our chosen location.
The Crownline/Cypress Grove partnership have their own vendors to choose from, that way you and they can rest assured that the day will run smoothly with florists, musicians, limousine drivers etc that are well known and trusted associates. We asked for specific flowers and table decorations for our reception table (we had a long banquet table that would seat all of our 13 guests) and specific flowers and fabric to decorate our white gazebo by the lake. All requests were not only adhered to, but happily so. Nothing seemed too much trouble, and each of our wishes were granted like nothing was too much trouble or too difficult to accomplish.
We decided upon August as our month to wed - my (now) husband and I both work in schools so we had to choose a school holiday to marry - and this seemed a good distance away to save for the wedding (Crownline only wanted a percentage upfront). Little did we know at the time that the weather in August can be very unpredictable. One minute there can be sunshine beating down on you in 80 degree heat, the next minute it could be pouring with rain lasting anything from 5 minutes to three hours. We asked to change our wedding slot from 3pm (when it is most likely to rain and include thunder storms) to 1pm. Naomi checked her diary and changed our time straight away! And she also had a back-up plan if the weather on the day was so bad that we couldn't perform the ceremony lakeside, which was getting married in one of the estate house rooms overlooking the grounds. Even though I had my heart set on marrying outside, the second option was a delightful one as the rooms in the house are beautiful, bright and clean. Luckily the weather was perfect on the day.
Crownline offers a one-stop shop for all your wedding day needs, from covering the flowers to the notary (we had a very friendly and wonderful lady), food to music, and with an amazingly helpful team to aid in your every need, and Cypress Grove was the most idyllic setting. I couldn't have asked for more, and it was probably a weight off my husband's chest not having to deal with a Bridezilla!
Would highly recommend for a beautiful wedding day - it was the best day of our lives!
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