The Lord of the Rings films

New Zealand

Matamata

Wellington

Nelson

We all know that the movies "The Lord of the Rings" are adapted to a book with the same name from J.R.R. Tolkien  . But we don't know where exactly the movies were filmed until now.
This article is about the places where they filmed these movies:

Canterbury

• Matamata: the Shire and Hobbiton
• Wellington: Gardens of Isengard, the River Anduin, Rivendell, Osgiliath Wood, Paths of the Dead
• Nelson: Home of the 'One Ring', Chetwood Forest, Dimrill Dale
• Canterbury: Edoras (Rohan city)
• Mackenzie Country: Pelennor Fields (the epic field where thousands of orcs bred by Sauron clashed with the men of Gondor and Rohan)
• Southern Lakes: Ford of Bruinen, Gandalf’s ride, Isengard and Lothlorien
• Fiorland: River Anduin, Fangorn Forest

Mackenzie Country

"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy are part of my favorite books, and the movies too. When I saw this article I couldn't believe that these places were real, it's magic. I really love when, first, the director decide to develop a movie of an amazing book, and second, when they choose a real landscape to film the movie, as Peter Jackson did when he started these 3 films in 2001.

I think that sometimes we don't need especial effects to make a movie extraordinary. Just with an espectacular landscape you can catch the attention of the public. And realizing that these landscapes are real, and not just part of the especial effects is amazing. Those fans (like me) would like to go someday to New Zealand just to visit these iconic places.

Southern Lakes

But these are not just words. If I had the chance to visit New Zealand, the first thing that I would do is go to these 7 places (Matamata, Wellington, Nelson, Catembury, Mackenzie Country, Southern Lakes, and Fiorland) just to feel "being" part of the movie. I know that it would be amazing. And I know that all the fans of this trilogy, and the no-fans too, would like to go to these places. Because the simply landscape is attracting for all the visitors, not just for us (the fans) that we know that those places are part of our favorite movie.


Article: http://www.newzealand.com/int/feature/the-lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-filming-locations/

“La Tour des Cedres“

Lausana, Switzerland

The article is about a building that would be constructed in Lausana for 2017, but is not a regular building...Is the first building covered with Cedres plantation!! Was created by the italian architecture Stefano Boeri; in the past he had created a house covered with 150 trees and a cathedral with trees. But this time, he decided to make a building with trees.
The building is going to be 117 meters height and would have 36 floors. Also, it would be covered of Cedrus trees which have the caracteristic of being durable. This plant has the capacity of supporting extreme climate changes, it can be found in the Middle East, and in the Himalaya too.
And it will help to: trap dust, muffle outside noise, strong wind gusts, release additional oxygen into the city, and create more pleasant views for those living.

I love that the people try to do something to contribute to the environment! And that the architectures are finding a way to construct buildings but first thinking in the environment, how the buildings would affect it, and how are they gonna contribute to protect it instead just killing it.

It is so amazing to think how Stefano Boeri imagined this building and what he is doing to complete his project. Because he looks like a very punctillious man, in the article says that the building would be home of 100 trees, 6,000 shrubs and 18,000 plants.

I like that it has so many advantages, and I love that in some way is contributing to the environment. Because we know that we have produced over the lasts years a lot of carbon dioxide and toxics and stuff, and this new plan of creating green-buildings is so original, helpful, and crucial for the environment. And also the fact that has advantages too for the people living there, like I said before, it would trap dust, muffle outside noise, strong wind gusts, release additional oxygen into the city, and create more pleasant views for those living.

Article: https://arquitecturaideal.com/la-tour-des-cedres-arboles-hoja-perenne/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost

Historical data from the Eiffel Tower

Paris, France. 

This article is about some curious data from the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower has 20,000 light bulbs which in 2003 were replaced by 25 mountain climbers for 5 months; originally it was going to last for 20 years but Eiffel found a way to make it last longer; also de fact that all the nights, 5 minutos every hour, the tower glows in gold; to go to the highest part of the tower, the tourists must climb 1,665 stairs, or if you don't want, the tower has 8 elevators; for 41 years it was the highest building in the world, with 324 meters; per year it receives approximately 7 thousand of visitants; it can be seen from almost every part of the city; and more.
Few years before it was inaugurated the tower had this essential part:

For me this is one of my favorite towers of all time. Is so impressive how they did this tower, but especially in that time, because now we use the technology to make the things easier, faster, effective, and in those years the technology wasn't even developed. And especially, what I also like, are the changes that they have done after the creation of the tower. For example, in the article they added a photo of how the first floor was at the beginning (the photo in the right) and if you go there right now is completely different, all is closed and allows more people to go there. And finally, also I love to see the tower with the lights on, was very smart from Eiffel because it is more attractive to watch the tower with a lot of lights on, and also is very simbolic when the tower's lights are from another country's flag in form of solidarity when this other country has suffered terrorist attacks.


Article: http://www.grandesmedios.com/curiosidades-de-la-torre-eiffel/

Hotel in the border of France and Switzerland

Les Rousses, France & Switzerland

This article is about an hotel made by a man called Monsieur Ponthus in 1863, he made a building in the border of France and Swiss in order to make border business, but few years later the building became an hotel.
In 1862 the governments of France and Swiss said that they were going to modify the border in the Valley of the Dappes, they signed it in December 8 of that year, but it didn't say that a bulding could modify the border, so Monsieur Ponthus took the opportunity to build that building to make his trades.
In 1921 a man called Jules-Jean Arbeze purchased the building and modified it into a Franco-Suisse hotel which is the one that exists right now.
The hotel has few custom stories because in the WWII France was occupied by the Nazis and Switzerland was neutral, so the German officers could enter in the hotel but they couldn't go to the second level because it was part of the Swiss territory, so this hotel became a refugee for fugitives of the war.

Since I saw this article I loved that place. Not only because it is in the middle of the border between France and Switzerland, mostly because of the history of the hotel which once was a business trade building. Is so curious that the government of both countries left Ponthus build that building, because is something that you cannot see in any part of the world.

It is unique.

And is cool too. They must receive a lot of European people and tourists too, even if the tourists cannot pass through the border without permission is awesome just watching a place like that and the advertisements of the border just like the picture below:

This hotel is very unusual but is a place where everybody need to know, is more than a simply hotel, is something cultural, is a place that have a lot of memories. As I said before, in the article says that there, in that hotel, fugitives went to that hotel to escape from the Nazis soldiers that wanted to kill them. That hotel has saved lives, a lot of lives, and it cannot be ignored, is something to be proud of.


Article:  http://www.amusingplanet.com/2012/03/hotel-arbez-franco-suisse-located-half.html

A Maze in Italy!

Parma, Italy

This article is about a man called Franco Maria Ricci that made the world's largest maze in Parma, Italy, is called the Mazone Labyrinth. It is a 20-acre, star-shaped bamboo labyrinth, he wanted to inspire wonder and curiosity in the people to have this extreme adventure of getting lost in a maze. In 1998 he sold his house to build this labyrinth.
He was inspired in a conversation he once had with his friend Jorge Luis Borges, and Argertinian writer and poet, and since then he started to work in his labyrinth to accomplish his dream, and this labyrinth eclipsed the Dole's Pineapple Garden Maze in Hawaii which was the largest maze until the Mazone Labyrinth was created.
Ricci wanted to see his creation fully grown in his lifetime and is why he used 200,000 bamboo plants to create his maze, in part because it is one of the fastest-rowing plants on Earth, and also because the bamboo plants are very strong.

I love it! Is so amazing when people wants to create something new and they do it, even if friends or family say that it is impossible, that is what Jorge Luis Borges told Franco Maria Ricci when he came with the idea to make the largest labyrinth. I like that Ricci was persistent in making what he wanted: creating a labyrinth were people can get lost, because he says that getting lost is unforgettable for everyone.

I like that he was inspired in what Borges told him about that a labyrinth is a metaphor of the human conditions, and the fact that it simbolyzes the human path, because is so deep and it is true, sometimes people get the track off or simply they get lost, but in some way we have to find the way to get out of there.

Borges loves writing about that kind of themes.

And, another fact that is amazing is that it reminds me Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. J.K. Rowling writes that the last task of the tournament was in an enchanted maze. Harry's task was to find the Goblet of Fire inside the maze but he first needed to answer some conundrums and fight with people inside, and aditionally the maze changes inside.

That is one of my favorite books and if I go to Italy I will like to go to that maze to simply get lost.

Article: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/get-lost-worlds-largest-maze-180955903/?utm_source=twitter.com&no-ist