World's Largest Miniature Airport of Germany

The world's largest model airport situated at Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany, which is also home to the world’s largest model railway landscape. The model airport is based off of Hamburg's Fuhlsbüttel International airport. It also includes a whopping list of accessories, including 40,000 lights, 40 planes, 500 Cars, 15,000 figurines, 10,000 trees, 50 trains, 1000 wagons, 100 signals, 200 switches and 300 buildings. The display took 7 years and roughly $4.8 million to build.

Gisborne Airport; Railway Line Intersecting the Runway

Gisborne Airport is a undersized regional airport that is situated on the western outskirts of Gisborne, the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The unique thing about this airport is one of the very few airports in the world that has a railway line intersecting the runway. The beautiful Gisborne airport covers a land of 160 hectares has three grass runways and one main runway that are intersected by the Palmerston North - Gisborne Railway Line. The airport has a single terminal with two tarmac gates.

The Tasmania’s North Western Coast, Wynyard Airport also had a railway crossing on the runway but moribund rail traffic forced the closure of rail traffic in early 2005, and thus the Wynyard airport rail crossing is no more operational. At Gisborne Airport on the other hand, the rail route functions actively and so does the airport everyday between 6:30 in the morning and 8:30 at night. After that, the runway is sealed off till morning.

One of the more appealing aspects of the Napier-Gisborne railway line is when the line passes directly on top of the Gisborne Airport runway; trains have to stop and look for clearance from the air traffic control tower to cross the runway and continue down the line. The railway tracks splits the runway approximately in the middle and very often trains or aircraft are stopped until one of them moves on.

Indeed it is a very challenging job for the airport authorities to manage landing at the intersecting runway along the operational rail route which has scheduled departures and arrivals itself. The Gisborne airport is a main link to enter the little region of Gisborne and hosts more than 60 domestic flights, and over 150,0000 passengers fly through this airport each year.

World's Most Beautiful Glacier Waterfall in Svalbard Norway

There’s nothing more beautiful than seeing a tons of melted ice cascading into sea. Svalbard is the most striking place on earth, where the arctic cold formed an exclusive flora and fauna, and massive glaciers and crystal waterfalls attract anyone who is able to visit it. Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway as well as of Europe. It is situated about 400 miles north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. In spite of being so close to the North Pole, Svalbard is comparatively warm, thanks to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream, which makes it habitable. In fact, Svalbard is the northernmost everlastingly inhabited region on the planet.

The stunning islands cover a total area of 62,050 square KM, approximately 60% of which is covered by glacier with many outlet glaciers terminating in the sea. A few of these glaciers have small waterfalls formed from melting snow and ice. Most of Svalbard is barren rock but during the short summer, the melting snow in the milder parts of the islands give place to vast stretches of tundra vegetation, sometimes dotted with delicate flowers. Svalbard which “means cold coasts” is home to 7 national parks and 23 nature reserves cover 2/3 of the archipelago, protecting the largely untouched, yet frail, environment.

Svalbard is a breeding ground for a lot of seabirds, and also features polar bears, short legged reindeer, polar foxes, whales, seals and walruses. Svalbard is renowned for its variety of birds, including Arctic Terns, Arctic Fulmar and Puffins. Whales can be spotted off the coastlines particularly during late summer. Humpback whales, Orcas, Beluga Whales, and Narwhals all frequent the ocean waters near Svalbard?

Jested Tower is a unique piece of architecture in Europe, Czech Republic

The hyperboloid shape of the structure is called Ještěd Tower a 94 meter-tall television transmitter and hotel integrated into one, built on the top of Ještěd Mountain near Liberec in the Czech Republic. It was designed by architect Karel Hubáček who received the Perret´s Prize of the International Union of Architects for it.

It naturally extends the silhouette of the hill as well as resists the severe climate conditions on the top of the hill. In the Tower's lower sections it houses a hotel and a tower restaurant. It was well built in the middle of 1960s and.

The tower and the mountain are situated approximately 6 kilometers from the center of Liberec and serves as a leading attraction in the city. 

The monument is accessible by cable car & by road from the foot of the mountain. The hyperboloid shape tower consist of two concentric tubes of varying height in diameters of 5m and 13m, on which individual floors are suspended on a steel structure, starting with the third story above ground. 

On the outer perimeter of the first floor a glazed gallery opens directly tied in to a spiral access ramp. An internal annulus of the first floor forms the entrance hall and reception to the hotel, which is liberated by a suspended staircase leading to an observation restaurant on the second floor. 

The next two floors, clad in aluminum, are used for accommodation. And on the 3rd floor are 14 hotel rooms for a total of 56 guests. On the 4th floor fixed for the rooms for employees of the transmitter and the hotel and two three-roomed flats. However; the area of the 5th to 7th floors are set aside for the aerials of the transmitting technology. 

There is especially developed laminated cladding, against extreme weather conditions, in the shape of a revolving hyperboloid. On the 7th and 8th floors there is a tank for drinking water and battery-operated back-up power supply. The ninth floor contains the lift plant room. Above it a unique pendulum is installed, whose movement absorbs the transverse oscillation of the tower?

Jested Tower is a unique piece of architecture in Europe, Jested-Kozakov ridge, Liberec, Czech Republic. A variety of cycling and hiking possibilities are available in the near vicinity. Babylon Water Park is 10 km away, while the Zoo and the Botanical Garden are 15 kilometer away.