Built in 1856 just a few steps from the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, London, contains nearly 10,000 paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures, gathered not in the base of the quality or nature artwork, but of awareness of the characters represented there.
The visit, which follows a chronological order, starting with painting at the first floor of Tudor period. Among its exhibits there are a few remarkable: the portrait of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I of Ditchley, Walter Raleigh and miniatures of Francis Drake, and a portrait of Shakespeare, the first bought by the gallery.
A passage leads to the old building. Downstairs, an IT Gallery allows electronic tour of gallery. Upstairs there are portraits of the seventeenth century Secului of Charles I and Charles II, Oliver Cromwell and Samuel Pepys’s famous portrait.
In other rooms, dedicated to the XVIII century there are exposed portraits of Christopher Wren, Isaac Newton, Robert Walpole.
Last rooms on this floor are devoted to the transition from eighteenth century to nineteenth century, portraits of Lord Byron in Albanian dress romantic inspiration, the Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton and the Bronte sisters.
The lower floor is Victorian theme with portraits of Queen Victoria’s Cecil Rhodes, Henry James and a caricature of Oscar Wilde.
The other gallery spaces and the lobby are devoted to the twentieth century characters such as paintings, photographs, sculptures by James Joyce, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana and many others. Royal Family is dedicated to a special place.

Burano Island is located about 8 kilometers from Venice, or rather, 40 minutes by boat. The island is situated in a small estuary, bordering Torcello, north, and Mazzorbo, north-west, being connected through a wooden bridge.

The island has been inhabited since the Roman Empire of the West, before the Lombards to reach this area (in the late sixth century). Much time Burano was administrated from Torcello, being dependent on this until the sixteenth century, when the neighboring island population was decimated by an epidemic of malaria.

Subsequently, the economic importance of the island of Burano increased, being recognized as a center of lace. After about three centuries of prosperity, Burano had to know, in turn, the decay, with the Venetian occupation by Napoleon.
In 1923, Burano was named capital of the islands located in the north of the lagoon and was integrated as the administrative area in Venice.

Currently, the island has a population of about 7,000 people, continuing to decrease, due to the birth rates which are low, and many locals leave the island in search of better living conditions. Those who still live on the island are dealing with fishing, lace trade and tourism.

Burano attracts firstly with its houses painted in bright colors: blue, yellow, red, green – every house has a different color, and their sequence creates a strong visual effect.
As sights, on Burano can be visited the Church of San Martino, with its angled bell, and the Lace Museum, where visitors will learn more about this delicate weave.

To reach the island of Burano, you can take ACTV boat line LN, departing from the Fondamente Nove station, or at the other end, San Marco – Pieta (near Piazza San Marco), with stops on the Lido and Punta Sabbioni.

Meteora is one of the most interesting places to visit in Greece. It is a forest of rocks sculptured by water and wind during 60 million years. Here nature shows about what it is able to do.

Meteora is situated in central Greece, in the northwest plain of Thessaly, near the Pindus Mountains and Peneios river. It’s a beautiful area for hiking but what really makes it special is that it houses the second largest complex of Orthodox monasteries after after Mount Athos. Monasteries are supposed to have been built in XIV century to protect Christian monks during the Ottoman invasion.

Monasteries were built on top of the columns of rock that rise above the Thessaly plain and show as if they float in air, from where comes the name of Meteora which can be translated as “suspended rocks” or “suspended in the air.”

A true forest of stone broke in the middle plain places  the ensemble in a landscape of a disturbing greatness. Meteora is completely holy ground, a place built and guarded by God, because here was consecrated every rock, every cave, every stone, because a lot of pious ascetics and martyrs prayed and were deified in the cliffs and valleys of this place.

Words would not be relevant in describing this whole huge ensemble of rock cliffs that rise to heaven, so that the images will help you better discover their unique beauty and charm.

This island, also called the “real ” island of Hawaii, is so relaxed that you can’t even meet even a single traffic light and no building shall exceed the palms level. From Honolulu, there are about 25 minutes by plane to the Molokai airport, Hoolehua.

Molokai Island in Hawaii is a place of dreams due to the hidden waterfalls and forest roads. Here lovers can make rides with the kayak or with donkeys, or just stand on the beach. On this island there is only one street, so the only jams that occur on this island are caused by colonies of marine turtles, walking into the incredibly clear waters.

A total lack of international hotel chains on this island is another reason why lovers couples worldwide prefer Molokai.

Once you get in this corner of paradise in the hawaian archipelago, you can visit the waterfalls on the island, practice kayaking among removed rocks, riding on donkeys through the lush valleys of Molokai, or simply to laze in the sun on beautiful beaches .

In the western part of the island is the most beautiful and secluded beach, the Papohaku Beach, which has golden sands and stretches three miles.

A deep ravines, sometimes almost with vertical wall, splitting spectacular cliffs and high mountains in the west of Crete. On a length of 18 km winds the Samaria Gorge, sometimes narrow, sometimes larger, following a serpentine path with meanders through Levka Ori, meaning the White Mountains, whose slopes shine white in the summer sun, in winter dressed in snow.

Cypress, fig and oleander grow in cracks of gorge walls. In some places, there is a mature cypress stretching its roots in the thin crust of limestone deposited in the stone of water flowing from the mountains. Hawks and eagles hovering above, and flocks of rocks are spinning like vortexes of smoke of a forest fire.

The gorge has been dug in time by the Tarraios River, which flows along a fault between the Massif Pachnes to the east and Gingilos Mountains and Volakias to the west .
In winter, the river turns into a rough torrent, but in summer it becomes a crystalline stream.

For centuries, the gorge was shelter to villains and those who were running from the eternal blood feuds between the villages of Crete. In the ’40s, here were hidden communist guerrillas who were fighting in the Greek civil war.

At the north end of the gorge, about 1200 m above sea level, a steep wooden staircase descends to the river bed in Ravenna, through pine forests. 8 km inside the gorge is situated the Samaria village, which in 1962 was abandoned by locals and named a national park. The Byzantine church, Osia Maria, is supposed to contain ancient frescoes, gaving the name itself to the gorge.

Each side of the valley offers new stunning views. Giant boulders are stacked one above another, the river boils over stone thresholds and filles small pools of water , while forces of erosion sculpt in stone delightful forms.

Refuged in some ragged cliffs, the Old Man of Storr guards the Skye Island that belongs to Scotland. Consisting of basalt rock formations of almost 50 meters height, it is situated in a precarious balance on a stone pedestal, an amazing 60 meters high sea-stack.

A crowd of blocks, huge stones and debris are the result of many landslides and definitely the thick layer basalt results from the volcanic eruptions which took place about 60 million years ago covering old layers of soil. As a result of crust movement, the land is unstable become and large blocks of basalt have slid towards the sea, being gradually eroded by the forces of nature.

Several days, on the rocky coast the sea used to be a mirror where reflects the blue sparkle sky. But within a few hours the sky can become black, with heavy clouds gathering and a thick drizzle bathing rocks in a shiny black.

Here the Skye Island coast is full of historical events. The beach guarded by the Old Man of Storr is full of fossils, including remains of an ichthyosaur were found- a similar saurian to the dolphin, of 200 million years old. Not far have been discovered some interesting silver coins belonging to Anglo-Saxons, with some coming from the city of Samarkand Asia, which maybe Vikings who came in the region made them dissapear.

Rwenzori Mountains in Africa, also called the Mountains of the Moon, hide its splendor peaks behind a veil almost always of clouds, the wild beauty of covered peaks by snow is revealed only when the fierce winds apart the curtain of fog that surrounds them. Henry Morton Stanley, the explorer who found Dr Livingstone has come to this mountain, previously unknown to Europeans, in 1888. He noted that 300 days a year ridges were covered by a dark cloud, but when it began to dwindle, the view was grand.

Rwenzori is crossed by numerous waterfalls. Greek geographer Ptolemy believed that inside this mountain flows Nile. Sources of the Nile are somewhere else, but Ruwenzori is located exactly where it shows the map of Ptolemy.
Ruwenzori means “the one who brings the rain”, Stanley being the one who gave the names of batnu tribes language, snowy mountains, at only 48 km from the equator. The massif covers about 96 km along the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Seaworthy peaks, covered by glaciers that descend slowly the valleys, reach for the sky in the heart of the mountain, Margherita, one of the peaks of Mount Stanley, amounted to 5110 m altitude.

Permanent fog creates an atmosphere of sauna, favoring the appearance of a lush vegetation. Plants reach unnatural dimensions, surrounded by dripping water and the eternal smell of wet moss and mushrooms.
All plants from here overcome the crowns of trees size, in fact the lack of competition from some trees allowed them to reach such dimensions. Another factor is the acid soil rich in humus, in which live long earthworms as a human arm. With such bizarre it’s no wonder that this land has given birth to a large number of superstitions.

The locals refuse to touch chameleons, some of the oldest inhabitants of the forest in the region. With three horns on them, the reptile is being considered an evil, ominous.
In the area there are other representatives of the animal kingdom, such as bird-sun, Colobus monkey with black and white fur, leopard, the hyrax that looks like a rabbit and herds of elephants that worthy patrol through reeds and papyrus groves.

Old granite peaks of the Shrew mountains in the Transvaal region of South Africa rise like giants above the winding valley of the Blyde River Canyon, peaks being split by ravines giddy.

Down, silver rivers and streams cross a quiet landscape, along with abandoned mine, prospecting districts that have been forgotten by time and vertical waterfalls of stone covered with lichens. The tumultuous water gurgling is mixed with rare birds screams and barks of baboons that evoke tinted rocks echoes of minerals in red, yellow and orange.

This spectacular canyon, which marks the border between southern African plateau and the eastern Lowveld, is one of the most beautiful landscapes on the African continent. From a height of about 1000 m, the rock wall stretches stunning to the Blyde River bed.

Shrew Mountains offer splendid views to the Lowveld and to one of the most popular nature reserves of Africa: Kruger National Park.
Slopes and sloping valleys host a wide variety of wild animals. Monkeys are sheltered by forests, while kudu antelopes and klipspringer prefer heights. Predators such as leopards, hippos and otters live in the waters of lakes and rivers.

Blyde River springs on one of the slopes near the village of Pilgrim’s Rest, where a century ago seekers were digging for gold. Today, they disappeared, and the river water boils down, thundering at the bottom of the canyon in a series of streams and waterfalls. In time, the river has brought with it tons of particles carried by water, who dug the spectacular 24 km long route through the canyon.

Sacsayhuaman archaeological complex, one of the most popular, large and interesting archaeological sites, is located near the old city Cusco. More specifically, is a ruin located approximately 3 km above Cuzco with a fabulous view.

Sacsayhuaman is a great example of Inca construction skills and techniques: huge blocks of stone, some over 300 tons are perfectly joined without using mortar or other binder. The building has many underground passages (chincanas).

There are many different opinions about this building’s destination, as some researchers think that Sacsayhuaman was built in order to be a fortress, and after others, Sacsayhuaman is considered to be a huge zoomorphic representation. However, is certain that the Spaniards used many of stones masonry in order to raise the colonial buildings in Cusco.

Besides the Sacsayhuaman fortress, with its walls cicolpice, you can also visit the ceremonial centers such as Tambomachay, Quenco, Puca Pucara.

Renowned worldwide due to the struggle for survival from Kruger (Battle at Kruger), Kruger National Park offers a wildlife experience that rivals the best in Africa. Founded in 1898 in order to protect the South African fauna and flora, the park covers no more than 2 million acres and houses a huge diversity of wildlife.

Remnants of early hominids can be seen here, from the rock paintings and archaeological sites as Masorini Thulamela. These real cultural treasures are preserved, along with flora and fauna using innovative techniques and management policies that have brought international recognition to the park administration.

The area considered a true heaven for thousands of years for South African hunters and gatherers, the Kruger National Park has become today one of the largest and most famous nature reserves in the world. The park has a length of 360 kilometers from north to south and 64 kilometers from east to west. A huge and exciting stretch where visitors can witness the full spectacle of wildlife.

In fact, one of the most popular videos that have ever been posted on You Tube, Battle at Kruger, was recorded in this park. No less than 6 national ecosystems are found throughout the reserve, where can be found 1982 species of plants, 517 species of birds, 147 species of mammals (including the 5 Giant of Africa: lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and African buffalo) and 114 species of reptiles, including crocodiles 3000. The true emblem of the South African Reserve also can boast other impressive numbers: 336 species of trees, 49 species of fish.

At the Kruger there can be found 350 African wild dogs as well, a specie of which exists within South Africa territory less than 400 copies. The park owns a huge “family” of elephants, about 12,000 copies, and this despite the fact that the reserve can not sustain more than 8000 such mammals .The Kruger National Park is also one of the most popular tourist destinations of South Africa which comes with 21 camps and 15 lodges for safari enthusiasts.