EUROPE BY REGIONS

Travel Guide with beautiful photos and exciting descriptions of the most amazing and unique places in Baltic states and Europe.

West coast of Latvia boasts with beautiful seashore bluff which stretches for several tens of kilometers. The sandy coasts have made bluffs up to 20 metres high, and they are constantly washed out by sea which occupies more and more of land every year. This is ideal area for hiking, as well as calmful relaxation at the sea (in contrary to popular beaches of Jurmala, Liepaja, Saulkrasti, etc., these areas are usually empty of people).
Travel Guide with beautiful photos and exciting descriptions of the most amazing and unique places in Baltic states and Europe.
Although nature has not endowed Riga with prominent relief features (to put it mildly), and Riga is not a skyscraper citadel, there are still many interesting and beautiful panoramic viewpoints in the city. A large part of them, thanks to the silhouette of Old Riga's towers and the Daugava's water area, offer several excellent viewpoints from ground level. However, there are also quite a few views from above, offered by the city's verticals - some of them publicly accessible, others not. Here is a compilation of the 30 best viewpoints for Riga's panorama.
Travel Guide with beautiful photos and exciting descriptions of the most amazing and unique places in Baltic states and Europe.
One of the most unusual geological formations in Lithuania is the so-called "Devil's Pit" - a substantial
MAIN FACTS
LOCATION Lithuania, Trakai district
DEPTH 40 metres
DIAMETER 200 M
RATING (8,53/10)
crater approximately 200 meters in diameter and 40 meters deep, whose origins remain a mystery to scientists. Some theories link its formation to the melting processes of Ice Age glaciers, while another hypothesis suggests it was caused by a meteorite impact. Regardless of its origin, this is a fascinating and distinctive site to visit—arguably even more visually impressive than the famous and much more tourist-visited Kaali meteorite crater in Saaremaa.
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Travel Guide with beautiful photos and exciting descriptions of the most amazing and unique places in Baltic states and Europe.
Estonia's natural charm rests primarily on three pillars – cliffs, waterfalls, and giant boulders. Lahemaa National Park is particularly rich in giant boulders. The Majakivi boulder site is reached by a
MAIN FACTS
LOCATION Lahemaa National park, Estonia
HEIGHT 7 metres
VOLUME 584 M3
PERIMETER 32 M
RATING (8,47/10)
forest trail approximately one and a half kilometers long. At the trail's start, seemingly designed to "tease" those accustomed to much smaller boulders, stands another rock, Elu Kivil. One might think they've already arrived at the main attraction. However, the true colossus lies much deeper in the forest, and the moment its mighty silhouette begins to emerge between the tree trunks is mesmerizing.

It's the third largest boulder in Estonia and all of the Baltic states. "Majakivi" doesn't translate to an Indonesian native or an exotic fruit but rather to "home stone," and it is indeed the size of a respectable two-story house. Specially constructed stairs lead to the top of the boulder, and standing on the giant’s back, you're already midway up the height of the surrounding pines, which here, due to the partially marshy soil, are smaller than usual.
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Travel Guide with beautiful photos and exciting descriptions of the most amazing and unique places in Baltic states and Europe.
Lyon, third largest city in France, offers neat and harmonic historical built-up with several magnificent jewels in it's architectural crown. It has some building ruins dating back to Roman times, medieval churches, Neo-Rennaissance quarters and 19th Century palace-style buildings. But one of the strongest magnets of the city is the cityscapes and panoramic perspectives which derives from it's natural advantages - hilly relief, as well as distinctive natural setting between the two rivers.
Travel Guide with beautiful photos and exciting descriptions of the most amazing and unique places in Baltic states and Europe.
Palais de la Bourse is an ornate 19th Century building in Lyon, occupied by Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Lyon. 

MAIN FACTS
LOCATION Lyon, France
ARCHITECTURE Neo-Renaissance
BUILT 1860
ARCHITECT René Dardel
RATING (8,41/10)
The decoration of the building, both in its facades that its interior, reflects the destination of the building : the statues of Justice, the Temperance, Agriculture, Trade and Industry. The group around the clock on the facade is the work of Jean-Marie Bonnassieux. The exterior white marble statue, near the stairs and the Place des Cordeliers, is an allegory that personified Saône and Rhône joining their arms to point to the future. It was made in 1905 by sculptor Wermar. The two fronts at north and south are richly decorated with many entablatures, balconies and columns. Most paintings of interior ceilings are the work of artists from Lyon such as Antoine Claude Ponthus-Cinier or Jean-Baptiste Beuchot. [Wikipedia]
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Travel Guide with beautiful photos and exciting descriptions of the most amazing and unique places in Baltic states and Europe.
"Dancing house" is famous contemporary architecture landmark in Prague, built in the site of an apartment building which was destroyed by the U.S. bombing of Prague in 1945 which supposedly happened accidentally as Prague was mistaken for Dresden. 

MAIN FACTS
LOCATION Prague, Czech Republic
ARCHITECTURE Postmodernism, Deconstructivism
BUILT 1996
ARCHITECT Vlado Milunić, Frank Gehry
NICKNAME Ginger and Fred
RATING (8,55/10)
One of two architects of the building, the famous Frank Gehry called the house Ginger and Fred - after the dancers Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire as the house resembles a pair of dancers. Gehry himself later discarded his own idea, as he was "afraid to import American Hollywood kitsch to Prague". 

The building consisting of two parts, static and dynamic ("yin and yang"), which symbolizes the transition of Czechoslovakia from a communist regime to a parliamentary democracy. Dancing house was a complex construction project which was financed by the Dutch insurance company Nationale-Nederlanden (ING Bank from 1991 to 2016) - the funding for the building was almost "unlimited". 

The Dancing House won Time magazine's design contest in 1997. It was also named as one of the most important buildings in the 1990s by architecture press. However, as always with such new, experimental projects, the building got a fair share of criticism from architecture purists and conservatives - it has been called inappropriate in the classical city of Prague. The deconstructivist design is controversial because the house disrupts the Baroque, Gothic, and Art Nouveau buildings for which Prague is famous. The style, shape, heavy asymmetry, and material are considered out of place by some critics and civilians. [Wikipedia]

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