VISITING LIVERPOOL

Liverpool. The very name conjures up images of a glorious maritime history, world-beating musical heritage, two of the Premiership’s biggest football teams and not one, but two majestically different Cathedrals. This Northwest city and the surrounding City Region is certainly all those things, but it is also so much more.

It is now bulging with fabulous new shops, has buzzing new restaurants, hip hotels and trendy wine bars, as well as a world class cultural offering with more museums and galleries anywhere outside of London. Not forgetting its inhabitants, of course, who are famously friendly and will welcome you with pride.

PLACES TO VISIT:

Liverpool Museum

Walker Art Gallery

World Museum

Merseyside Maritime Museum

International Slavery Museum

STORYTELLING AT THE BEATLES STORY

THE CAVERN CLUB



ANGLICAL CATHEDRAL

CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL

THE LIVERPOOL BIG WHEEL

ONE YEAR TO 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES IN LONDON

The London 2012 Olympic Stadium is illuminated to mark '1 year to go to the Olympic Games'. These exclusive photos show the number one mown into the grass in the Olympic Stadium to start the celebrations for the '1 year to go' milestone.

LONDON 2012

LONDON 2012 MASCOTS

Explore the website to find out more about Wenlock (the London 2012 Olympic Mascot) and Mandeville ( the London 2012 Paralympic Mascot) and join us on our journey. Come back often - there's always something new. Have fun

Wenlock and Mandeville

CAMDEN MARKET - LONDON

One of the biggest attractions in London are street markets.Camden is the best of all London street markets and is a world renowned place to shop for alternative clothing.

If you need help, you can read the transcript at any time.

MACHU PICCHU DISCOVERED 100 YEARS AGO

On July 24, 1911, American archeologist Hiram Bingham gets his first look at Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca settlement in Peru that is now one of the world's top tourist destinations.

Tucked away in the rocky countryside northwest of Cuzco, Machu Picchu is believed to have been a summer retreat for Inca leaders, whose civilization was virtually wiped out by Spanish invaders in the 16th century. For hundreds of years afterwards, its existence was a secret known only to the peasants living in the region. That all changed in the summer of 1911, when Bingham arrived with a small team of explorers to search for the famous "lost" cities of the Incas.

Traveling on foot and by mule, Bingham and his team made their way from Cuzco into the Urubamba Valley, where a local farmer told them of some ruins located at the top of a nearby mountain. The farmer called the mountain Machu Picchu, which meant "Old Peak" in the native Quechua language. The next day--July 24--after a tough climb to the mountain's ridge in cold and drizzly weather, Bingham met a small group of peasants who showed him the rest of the way. Led by an 11-year-old boy, Bingham got his first glimpse of the intricate network of stone terraces marking the entrance to Machu Picchu.

The excited Bingham spread the word about his discovery in a best-selling book, sending hordes of eager tourists flocking to Peru to follow in his footsteps up the Inca trail. The site itself stretches an impressive five miles, with over 3,000 stone steps linking its many different levels. Today, more than 300,000 people tramp through Machu Picchu every year, braving crowds and landslides to see the sun set over the towering stone monuments of the "Sacred City" and marvel at the mysterious splendor of one of the world's most famous man-made wonders.

FIRST MAN ON THE MOON

On 21 July 1969, American Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon.

Eagle landing craft.

As he put his left foot down first Armstrong declared: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

He described the surface as being like powdered charcoal and the landing craft left a crater about a foot deep.

Take off

On 16 July 1969, the Saturn V rocket launched Apollo 11 into the sky from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

The Crew

Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Michael Collins

The Lunar Module

To land on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin used a lunar module nicknamed Eagle.

When they landed Neil sent the following message back to Earth

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

Everything is achievable

A remarkable achievement especially as no human being had ever been in space prior to 1961. Within a short space of only 8 years, we had learned not only how to send someone into space but also to land safely on the moon.

THE FOURTH RUNNING OF THE BULLS

 This fourth running of the bulls, with bulls from the mythical Miura bull-ranch, the most veteran bull-breed of the Sanfermin fiestas and the most often used on Sundays precisely because this breed traditionally behave well, turned out to be a very fast running of the bulls (2 min.29 sec.) and very exciting. There were lots of trip-ups and falls due to the large number of runners taking part, especially in the final stretches of Estafeta, Telefónica and the entrance down to the bullring.

The pack of bulls ran the whole stretch at a very fast pace with a big black bull leading the field from the end of the first stretch at Santo Domingo. In Mercaderes, some of the bulls slipped up, but they then continued to run head together and at a very fast pace. In Estafeta, in spite of the fact that there was a lot of pushing and shoving, slips-ups and falls, some good running was also to be seen close to the horns as the bulls began to loosen up and form three small groups. This bull-breed once again behaved nobly without shaping up to make charges at the runners.

Three black bulls lead for most of the way followed tightly behind by the bell-oxen, with a brown-colored bull then coming up behind this group. Further back, there were two more black bulls taking up the rear. The bulls entered the bullring in this order and the black colored bulls were quickly led towards the pens. The brown-colored bull turned back in the center of the ring and caused a few moments of tension before it too was skillfully led towards the pens by the "dobladores" without offering further resistance.

STATUE OF LIBERTY - NEW YORK