8 World’s Most Dangerous and Breathtaking Airports

Original posted by Ahsan on http://www.incrediblediary.com

1. Kansai International Airport

Country: Osaka, Japan
Established: 1994

Kansai International Airport is built on an artificial island which is 2.5 miles long and 1.6 miles wide. It is so large that it can been seen from space. Travelers from the airport can go to the main city by car, railroad or a high-speed ferry.

Stewart Schreckengast who is a professor of aviation technology at Purdue University and a former aviation consultant with MITRE, said that this airport might be underwater in 50 years or more because of the climate changes and rising sea levels due to global warming.

2. Madeira Airport

Country: Santa Cruz, Portugal
Established: 1964

Madeira Airport is an international airport. It was once famous for its short runway which was surrounded by high mountains and the ocean that made a difficult landing even for the most experienced of pilots. The original runway was only 1,400 metres in length, but later it was extended by 400 metres.

The length of the runway was doubled in 2003. It was extended out over the ocean. Instead of using landfill, the extension was built on a series of 180 columns, each being approximately 70m tall.

3. Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport

Country: Saba, Netherlands
Established: 1963

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport is the only airport on the Caribbean island of Saba, in the Netherlands Antilles. It covers a comparatively large portion of the small island of Saba. Despite the fact that no major tragedies have ever happened here. Still some of the aviation experts think that this airport is one of the most dangerous in the world.

What makes this airport dangerous is that both ends of the runway are covered by cliff which end instantly into the sea while one side is being covered with high hills. This creates the possibility that an airplane might overshoot the runway during landing or takeoff and end up in the sea or on the cliffs.

4. Ice Runway

Country: Ross Island, Antarctica
Established: N/A

The Ice Runway is one of three major airstrips used to transport supplies to the researchers at Antarctica. There are no paved runways here. All the planes have to land on long stretches of ice and snow. However, these landing strips are groomed carefully. The only challenge pilots have to face is to land the plane carefully so that the plane doesn’t get stuck in the soft snow. Oh this sounds crazy!

5. Princess Juliana International Airport

Country:  Saint Maarten, Eastern Caribbean
Established: 1942

Princess Juliana International Airport is second busiest airport in the Eastern Caribbean. It is named after Juliana of the Netherlands, who as a crown princess landed here in 1944. The airport has a very short landing strip of about 2,180 metres that has made it quite famous. Due to short landing strip, the planes have to approach the island flying extremely low. Various photos of jets flying at 10–20 meters or 30-60 feet above the island have been considered fake but they are real.

6. Courchevel Airport

Country: Courchevel, France
Established: N/A

Courchevel is the name of the largest linked ski area in France.  It has an airport with a very short runway that pilots have to land on an inclined strip to slow down and to take off on a decline strip to get enough speed. Only private or charter planes and helicopters are allowed to land.

You must have seen this airport in the opening scene of the movie Tomorrow Never Dies.

7. Barra International Airport

Country: Barra, Scotland
Established: 1975

Barra Airport is the only airport in the world where planes have to land on the beach. It is situated on a wide beach in Barra Island, Scotland. The airport is literally washed away by the tide once a day.

8. Lukla Airport

Country: Nepal
Established: N/A

Lukla Airport is a small airport in the Town of Lukla in eastern Nepal. The airport is at an elevation of 2900 meters and it is quite popular as it has a huge mountain on one end and a 1000 meter drop on the other. In 2008, it was renamed in the honor of Sir Edmund Hillary who was the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Enjoy France by Train with a Eurail Pass

Paris, Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice. All these cities are connected to the French Railway Network.

Tasting wine in famous vineyards, hiking in the French Alps, enjoying local cuisine, all of it is possible if you travel on a Eurail Pass in France.

Rail Network

A Eurail Pass valid in France is valid on trains operated by SNCF, the national railway company of France. It is also valid for travel on trains operated by SNCF from France to Basel, Geneva (Switzerland), Port Bou (Spain) and Ventimiglia (Italy).

For detailed information on the French trains, visit the website of the French railway company SNCF.

The French rail company, SNCF, provides direct service from most European countries using regular trains. The Eurostar service uses high-speed to connect Lille and Paris with London, the later via the Calais-Dover channel tunnel. The Thalys service uses high-speed TGV trains to connect Paris to Brussels and onward to cities in the Netherlands and Germany.

Railway Service

Exceptional comfort and the wide and various range of services available to customers have made TGV trains into a commercial success. In the enjoyment of a relaxed atmosphere passengers can read a book at leisure, write their postcards to their family and friends, make a phone call or just have a meal, relax and take pleasure in a smooth train ride.

Reservations

For some domestic trains in France Eurail Pass holders need to make a seat reservation.

• Compulsory reservations for TGV and TEOZ high-speed trains cost 3 euro
• Recommended reservations for Corail (IC)  trains cost 1,50.

Some international trains to and from France also require a reservation fee. Examples are the Eurostar to London, the ICE to Germany or the Thalys to The Netherlands.

Reservations can be made in advance through a travel agent, or at larger train stations in Europe. More about train seat reservations

Itineraries

Paris – Lyon – Marseille

Take your France Rail Pass and start at the bustling French capital Paris. Dyon is the gateway to the wine region of Burgundy. Lyon has some nice surprises in store (like a Renaissance quarter). Continue your journey through the Provence region, with cities like Orange and Avignon you shouldn’t miss. The tour ends at Marseille, a busy port town with an interesting blend of French and North African culture.

Tour stages and average journey times:

• Paris – Dijon (1 hr 40 mins)
• Dijon – Beaune (20 mins)
• Beane – Lyon (2 hrs)
• Lyon – Orange (2 hrs)
• Orange – Avignon (1 hr 15 mins)
• Avignon – Marseille (1 hr 20 mins)

As Marseille is a major railway junction, you have plenty of options to continue your French rail adventure from here.

Extra Info

Airport – station links

From Paris Airport Charles de Gaulle, there are connections to Paris Nord (RER Line B, Eurail Pass is valid in this direction only) and many other destinations. More details on the airport website.

From Lyon St. Exupéry there is a tram link to Lyon Part Dieu (Rhônexpress, every 15 minutes – Eurail Passes not valid).

Eurail Aid Offices in France

For questions about Eurail during your trip, visit the international ticket offices at Gare de Paris-Lyon, Gare de Paris–Nord, Gare de Paris-St. Lazare, Gare de Marseille St. Charles, Gare de Nice-Ville or Aéroport Charles de Gaulle (Paris CDG Airport).

Via eurail.com

Cannes – Nice – Menton – Monte Carlo in the XIX century

Travelling is a little bit history also, the next set of pictures shows the Cote-d’azur in the XIX century, starting from Menton to Cannes, via Monte-Carlo and Nice. Enjoy the travel to the past

See all the pictures on http://www.info-histoire.com/actualite/19eme-siecle/7210/photos-nice-cote-azur-au-xix-siecle/

 

 

   

  

Cannes city break guide

Cannes: a film festival with a town attached? This is nearer the mark than the tourism people would like, yet far enough away to make the jibe seem a bit harsh. Much smaller and less substantial than Nice, Cannes gleams on the surface. (There are few city promenades more dazzling than La Croisette).

image

But it’s mainly glitter and bling underneath, too. And all the way down. Since noble Britons rolled into what was then a tiny fishing village in the 1830s, the place has been fashioning itself in the image of the fashionable. More recently, its real achievement has been to spin out the sparkle generated by the (two-week) film festival throughout the whole year.

Of course, the bay is glorious and there are sandy beaches – but such things aren’t unknown around the Med. What sets Cannes apart is the shiny veneer with which it has coated these elements. Thus, the world-class collection of palace hotels is kept turning over happily. The ambitious boutiques, too. And so the story of a modest little town in the South of France continues to hold the world’s attention.

What to do

La Croisette

This is the splendid promenade curving around the bay where, at film festival time, you might think you have spotted a star or two (they’re usually lookalikes). At other times, it is the stage for the spectacle that is Cannes. With a sparkling acreage of briny out front and exotic greenery on the prom itself, even ugly people look good.

You’ll see beautiful youth, handsome families and over-tanned ladies with brush-head dogs still wearing furs in June (the ladies, that is, not the dogs – though…). Weaving in and out will be joggers, rollerbladers, clowns on stilts and perhaps even a particularly impressive chap I once saw there. He would light a cigarette, place it in his mouth, then on his tongue, then swallow it and blow smoke out of his ears. Then pass the hat round.

Palais des Festivals

Despite its red-carpet fame as HQ of the annual film thrash, the Palais des Festivals has the architectural eloquence of a nuclear power station. Clearly, whoever designed it didn’t much like Cannes, the seaside, people, beauty, elegance or, in all probability, movie stars.

Talking of whom… down the side of the building, very many of the most prominent have left their hand-prints in coloured bricks set in the pavement. Frankly, this Allée des Stars is looking a bit neglected now – it’s a collecting area for cigarette butts – but we are promised that the whole area, including the Palais, is to be brightened up shortly.

The grand palace hotels

More glorious, to my mind, are the Palais’s immediate environs. Amble along the seafront and revel in a prospect which has been enchanting elites for generations.

The palace hotels line up like grandees on the other side of the road: the Majestic Hotel, and beyond it La Malmaison, a private 19th-century mansion open to the public; the belle-époque Carlton Hotel; the more modern Hôtel Noga-Hilton, incorporating the façade of the former Palais des Festivals, pulled down in1988 after serving as the venue for the Cannes Film Festival for 40 years; and the art deco Hotel Martinez.

In between are gardens, the odd playground and stretches of water where you may loose a child (or a husband) on the remote-controlled boats.

Pointe de la Croisette

By the time you arrive opposite the Hotel Martinez, you’ve done the essentials of the stroll. But I’d continue, round the coast past the (newish) Port-Canto to the Pointe de la Croisette headland. There used to be a little cross (“une croisette”) here, protecting sailors setting out to sea. Hence the name of the headland and of the promenade. The cross is no longer. There’s a casino in its place. That’s Cannes in a nutshell.

Le Suquet

Before the great, good and filthy rich discovered the place, Cannes was a small fishing village concentrated on Suquet hill . This rises quite sharply back from the port. Fishermen and associated folk lived doubtless tough lives in the wriggling labyrint  of sinuous streetlets and steep stairways. The labyrinth survives, of course – these days colonised by bars, restaurants and shops selling mainly inessentials.

Don’t complain. And, for heaven’s sake, don’t say “touristy”. For a start, we’re all tourists. Secondly, if you had told the fishermen that they could make a far better living flogging postcards and decorative earthenware, they’d have dropped their nets in a flash. Anyway, Le Suquet retains a certain atmosphere.

Go in the morning or very late at night and you might still get a sense of the place and of the close-knittedness of lives lived there. Head in on Rue St Antoine and then wander the warren as you will.

Musée de la Castre

At the top of Suquet Hill, this fine 11th-century pile was once the land-based HQ of the monks of Lérins. Now it’s a diverting museum of eclectic collections – from archaeo-material to musical instruments… and a first-class assembly of ethnic art and artefacts from the five continents. It’s well worth a look, especially on the first Sunday of the month, when it’s free. And the views from the top of the tower are outstanding…

Article and full guide via Telegraph UK.