Things to Do in Kelowna & Okanagan Valley

The city of Memphis was the capital of ancient Egypt. It was the King's residence and the political and administrative center until around 2,200 BC. It had impressive fortifications and temples, largely to Ptah, the god of creation and artworks. Estimates of population vary from 6,000 to 30,000 but either way, it was one of the larger, if not the largest, cities of its era.

Archaeological digging in the area has uncovered a Temple of Ptah and sculptures, including a sphinx (smaller than the one at Giza but still impressive), and the Colossus of Ramses II. These are now housed in the outdoor Memphis Museum in Mit Rihina, the modern town in this area. In 1979, UNESCO designated the area a World Heritage Site.

Glasgow’s Merchant City buzzes with cool bars, hip restaurants, boutique hotels and designer stores. Stretching from Merchant Square to Royal Exchange Square, the whole area is perfect for a stroll and popular for its high-end shopping centered on Ingram Street and the Italian Centre, the home of the UK’s first Versace. With its piazzas, arches and pavement cafes, the city center district has a decidedly continental feel - a surprise in the heart of Scotland’s biggest city.

With the body of a fish and the head of a lion, a Merlion statue is a national icon of Singapore, representing the country's history, identity, and transformation from a fishing village to the "Lion City." More than a spot of cultural interest with its own statue, though, Merlion Park provides a beautiful backdrop to play and relax on the banks of the Singapore River and stunning photo ops to boot.

With its ornate golden-colored façade and grand baroque church towers set against an idyllic backdrop of the Wachau Valley and the Danube River, Melk Abbey looks more like a palace than a monastery. Founded in 1089, the Benedictine abbey underwent a dramatic makeover in the 18th century and is now regarded as one of Europe’s most beautiful baroque churches.

The Basics
The town of Melk lies at the western end of Austria’s Wachau Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and full-day tours from Vienna often combine an abbey visit with wine tastings in the valley, a boat cruise along the Danube River, or even a trip to Salzburg or across the Czech border to Cesky Krumlov. The castle is open to visitors with or without a guided tour from April to October.

• A visit to this monastery is a must for history buffs and architecture lovers.
• Guided tours of the abbey last about an hour.
• Melk Abbey tours from Vienna include roundtrip transportation (about a 1.5-hour drive each way).
• A restaurant, gift shop, and restrooms can be found on-site.
• The abbey is accessible for wheelchair users.

How to Get There
Perched on a hilltop overlooking the town, the Melk Monastery can be reached on foot from the Melk train station (a 10-minute walk) or by a short taxi ride. Most visitors opt to visit on a day trip from Vienna, 50 miles (90 km) east, but it’s equally accessible from Salzburg, 70 miles (115 km) west, or Spitz, 12 miles (20 km) north.

When to Get There
The Melk Abbey is open all year round, but from November through March, visits are only possible by guided tour and must be booked in advance. The abbey can get busy in July and August, so plan an early morning or late afternoon start to avoid the crowds.

The Baroque Gems of Melk Abbey
The abbey is famous for its exquisite baroque architecture, the work of architect Jakob Prandtauer. Highlights include the Marble Hall, with its magnificent ceiling frescoes by Johann Michael Rottmayr; the opulent library, filled with priceless manuscripts; and the Abbey Church, with its dazzling gold altar.

Dominica is a volcanic island, which means much of the shoreline is rocky, and there are fewer sandy beaches than visitors might be accustomed to in other parts of the Caribbean. Mero Beach is the closest beach to the capital Roseau, and also one of only a few beaches on the island that has food, drinks, bathrooms, showers and other amenities nearby. With sandy beaches few and far between, Mero Beach is a particularly popular spot among visitors and locals alike, especially on the weekends. And because Mero has warm, protected waters for swimming and public restrooms and showers nearby, it’s an ideal place for families to spend a day playing in the sun and sand. And just a quarter mile from Mero Beach, you’ll find the Wacky Roller Adventure Park where you can climb across rope bridges, ride ziplines and go river tubing.

Impeccable Merdaka Square - or Dataran Merdeka - was a cricket ground in colonial times. The cricket ground was overlooked by the Royal Selangor Club which housed a club for the colonial rulers. When independence for Malaysia was declared, it was here that the Union Jack flag was lowered and the Malay flag was first raised. The flag still flies on a massive flagpole on the edge of the square.

The square is surrounded by historic buildings, the most majestic of which is the Sultan Abdul Samad building which housed the British administration and now houses the Ministry for Heritage, Culture and the Arts. The Moorish style building is dominated by a tall clock tower nicknamed "Big Ben."

The square is now the focus of many of the city’s celebrations and the Independence Day festival is held here on August 31st.

Following WWII, Budapest was firmly brought under Soviet occupation and only escaped the harsh embrace of Communism in 1989, when the Iron Curtain came down across Europe and democracy was (largely) restored.

Under Communism, scores of statues celebrating Marx, Lenin and Engels were erected as propaganda tools around Budapest. They were all uniformly monumental in scale, made out of concrete and downright ugly, and were soon joined by equally vast statues of Hungarian Communist leaders Béla Kun and Arpád Szakasits as well as gigantic allegorical monuments to Soviet heroism.

When the Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1989 and Hungary began to enjoy its first vestiges of independence, these monolithic reminders of years of suppression were torn down and carted off to Memento Park on the city’s south-west outskirts. Here they are displayed as a grim reminder of Communism and the Cold War along with an old Trabant and a half-destroyed statue of Lenin, which was desecrated in the 1956 rebellion.

The park is dominated by the 20-foot (six-m) statue of a wild-eyed liberation soldier, arms flung wide, hammer and sickle in his hand and gun slung around his neck; this once stood on the top of Gellért Hill and was seen as a symbol of Budapest’s repression.