Europe Travel Destinations

When one thinks of the beach, images of sunny and warm Maui, Rio de Janeiro, Bali, and Ibiza are the first ones to come into the picture. Now, try putting Germany and beach together in one sentence. Does that still sound like a beach holiday to you?

Located in northeastern Germany in the Baltic Sea, Rügen Island or Rugia is Germany’s largets island and is said to be the most beautiful in the region – with white sandy beaches, rough cliffs, and dunes with green beeches adorning the long 580 kilometers stretch of coastline. Rügen has long been an inspiration to the world’s most artistic and most romantic people and as the region keeps getting warmer, people will soon realize that Germany and beach do paint a picture of a lovely and unforgettable holiday.

It’s almost October, and for all you beer-lovers out there, i’m sure one event comes to mind. Oktoberfest! That’s right, the 14-day festival held in Munich, Germany, that is world-renowned, not only for the beer and the activities, but also for the celebrities that participate in the revelry. With the traditional words “O’zapft is!” (translation: the barrel has been tapped), the world’s largest beer festival begins. The name is actually a misnomer, however, and may disappoint some fans travelling in October, because the festival actually starts in September. This year it opened September 20 and ends on October 5.

Don’t lose heart, however. October is loaded with beer festivals, and some may even be near your locale. For our readers based in the USA, there’s still the Great American Beer Festival to look forward to. That’s said to be America’s largest beer festival, sponsored by the Association of Brewers. This year, it’s slated to be held on October 9-11 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.

Image source: www.susanmilne.com
Mainly of Alaska’s glaciers are retreating or thinning or mutually, a new book by the U.S. Geological Survey news.

About 5 percent of Alaska’s area is enclosed by more than 100,000 glaciers — that’s about 29,000 square miles (75,000 square kilometers), or more than the entire state of West Virginia.

While a few of Alaska’s large glaciers are advancing, 99 percent are receding, the book, “Glaciers in Alaska,” states. The book was written by USGS examine geologist Bruce Molina.

A USGS project to take pictures of the glaciers of Montana’s Glacier National Park also showed significant retreat. Based on these photos and glacier recession rates, scientists envisaged the park could lose its namesakes by 2030.

Greenland, which is covered by more ice than somewhere else in the world outside Antarctica, has also seen significant melt of its glaciers in recent decades.

The new book on Alaska’s glaciers used satellite images, aerial photos, maps and other studies to document the retreat of the glaciers, which began as early as the mid-19th century. Some glaciers have even disappeared since being mapped in the mid-20th century, the report found.

The account also said that glaciers in Alaska saw “important retreat” in the last two decades of the 20th century.