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by: Compulsiv… |
views: 807 |
03:40
Vanessa presents Cyprus:
Where is Cyprus?
It looks hidden in the Mediterranea…moreVanessa presents Cyprus:
Where is Cyprus?
It looks hidden in the Mediterranean. But it has been famous for 2 thousand years.
Did you know Cleopatra used to come here because she loved the beaches and its balmy weather?
Today Brits and Russians still crowd its beaches. But there are plenty of other things to do and see.
Take the city of Paphos for instance.
The beautiful 4 star Almyra Hotel is built right on the water . Here you can get a massage and look at the medieval castle from the days of the Crusades right across the harbour.
Take this church from the 13th century. St Paul was chained to this pillar and flogged for preaching Christianity. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.
You can walk to the archeological city which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. Here rich Romans built their villas with great mosaics on the floor.
Look carefully at these people drinking wine….
Sun and breezes means grapes and those Romans loved Cyprus wine.
It’s vintage time and OLYMPUS winery in the Trodos mountains is busy picking grapes.
South of Paphos is the Rock of Aphrodite, where according to legend Aphrodite the goddess of love sprung out of the water.
In Limassol the famous Crusader Knights built this castle in the middle of vineyards,
A thousand years ago they produced a dessert wine called Commanderia still enjoyed today.
Here it is also wine festival time, where wineries from all over Cyprus come to pitch their wines. Cyprus although a very small island ranks 37th in wine production in the world.
Going East are great beaches and sports activities
Then some culture, visiting these grottos carved in the rocks where monks used to live and pray. Wow!
Keo is a major winery producing world class wines.
Finally, time to relax on endless beaches and secluded coves…
Cleopatra was right! Cyprus is a magical place!
You can visit our sponsors websites and enjoy foods and wines from Cyprus by ordering from their US distributors.
And if you have time for a vacation you can book a trip right here.
www.visitcyprus.com
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by: Tim Frake… |
views: 4953 |
0:48
This video clip is from St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt. To get there, we t…moreThis video clip is from St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt. To get there, we took a taxi from Elat, Israel to the Egyptian border crossing at Taba. After paying the usual departure taxes and customs screenings, we walked into Egypt. The Egyptian customs officials pulled us into a side office and grilled us for fifteen minutes. They wanted to know about our video camera. Egypt understands that Hollywood can pump millions of dollars into a local economy. Customs officials are on the lookout for film crews and make sure that you are paying for permits. Of course, we have a tiny budget and no permits. When they figured this out, they let us go.
Taba is a dusty border town. The most lively thing going is the taxi stand. Tourists make their way across the border en route to Egypt’s classy coastal resorts. They also take passengers to Mt. Sinai. After negotiaiting a rate for the three-hour drive to Mt. Sinai and back, we climbed into a ragged old station wagon with our driver, Suleiman, and two Israeli tourists. The shared taxi system is common in Taba.
Soon we were whipping south along the coast road headed for Nuweiba, a resort town, where we dropped off our two Israeli friends. The young men were going on a hiking adventure in the desert.
One of them spoke English. Suleiman, our driver did not. So, from that point on, we had limited communication. The Sinai Desert is amazing. The rugged mountains are ablaze with rich color. Every ten or fifteen kilometers you pass a Bedouin village consisting of a few shacks, some camels, an SUV and a satellite dish. You can count the number of towns in the southern Sinai on one hand. It was a desert when Moses came through. It is a desert now.
We reached Mt. Sinai just before noon - not a good time to be out in the desert sun. Fortunately, the weather was fairly
cool, around 85 degrees. Located at the base of Mt. Sinai is St. Katherine’s Monastery. Christian Emperor Justinian built the monastery here in the 6th Century to honor an early Christian martyr, St. Katharine. Christians believed then, as they do today, that this is the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. St. Katharine’s is a big tourist trap in the middle of a huge desert. You can’t walk five feet without someone trying to give you the hustle.
Still, the old walled monetary is impressive. It looks like some place out of an adventure story. Our plan had been to spend the night at St. Katharine’s, then climb the mountain early the next morning. Unfortunately, Suleiman and the local hotels would only take cash. I didn’t have enough to cover both, so we just took some video footage of the mountain and St. Katharine’s, then headed back to Eilat.
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