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Liverpool is located in England and covers an area of forty-three square miles and has a population of over four hundred and thirty-four thousand residents. The city was incorporated by letters of patent from King John in 1207, but over the period of a hundred years, the city’s population only rose to about five hundred residents. The population of the city continued to grow at a slow, but steady pace until the seventeenth century. In 1699, the city was turned into a parish by Parliament and a trade port was established. As trade expanded, so did the population.

During the nineteenth century over forty percent of the worlds trade flowed through Liverpool, and as a result the city enjoyed a period of increased wealth. As infrastructure was improved and a rail network implemented the population of the city began to grow at a much faster rate. The Great Potato Famine of the 1840′s brought thousands of Irish immigrants to the city, and Liverpool’s population started to explode.

Today, Liverpool is a city that is attempting to recover from the loss of economic activity that came at the close of World War II.

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The economy of the city has switched from manufacturing to service related industries. Another important part of this city’s economy is tourism. Tourist activity has caused the city to invest heavily in the erection of hotels, restaurants and clubs. This city has also began a restoration of many of its prime tourist attractions.

One of the most famous attractions in the city is Pier Head. Pier Head is a riverside area that contains a fair number attractions located there and is listed as a Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first building is the Royal Liver Building. This building was founded in 1911 and was home to the Royal Liver Assurance. It was one of the first buildings in the United Kingdom to be made of concrete and it stands over two hundred and seventy feet high. At the top of the building are a pair of clocks. The next building in this area is the Cunard Building. This building was built in 1917 and is an interesting mix between the Greek Revival and Italian Renaissance architectural styles. On the west side of the building is the Cunard War Memorial.

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This memorial was established to honor those who have died during the first and second world wars. It was built in the 1920s and features a large bronze statue set upon a column. The last building on Pier Head is the Port of Liverpool Building. This building was erected in 1907 and was the original home of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. These three buildings on Pier Head are colloquially known as “the three graces”. Pier Head also contains a number of memorials which include The Titanic Memorial, the Alfred Lewis Jones memorial, the Merchant Navy war memorial and the previously mentioned Cunard War Memorial.

Another prominent attraction in Liverpool is the Liverpool Cathedral. Liverpool Cathedral was founded in 1904 and is located on St James’ Mount. This cathedral has an area of one hundred and four thousand feet and is constructed primarily of sandstone. Its bell tower rises three hundred and thirty feet and contains bells weighing a total of thirty one tons. This cathedral also contains the largest pipe organ in the United Kingdom. It contains over ten thousand pipes and has a Trompette militaire. The other cathedral in the city is the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

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It was originally built in 1856 on St. Domingo Road in 1856. It remained there for over seventy years until it was moved to its current location at Brownlow Hill.

St. John’s Beacon is a tower that was erected in 1969 and opened by Queen Elizabeth II. It stand four hundred and fifty-two feet high. Originally this tower was erected to serve as St. John’s Market’s ventilation shaft, but was never used for that purpose. At the top of the tower was a restaurant, and on top of that an observation deck. In 1984, it was close due to it being in violation of fire regulations. In 2000, the tower reopened as a radio station. The observation deck was changed into a second floor and now houses offices. The tower was also brought up to fire code by the addition of a fire proof shaft enclosing the staircase. From the ground to the top there are five hundred and fifty-eight stairs. Due to the additional weight of the added floor this building is no longer able to rotate.

West Tower is a tower that was built in 2007 to be used for apartments, restaurants and offices. This is Liverpool’s tallest building. It rises over four hundred and twenty feet and contains forty floors.

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The bottom five floors contain the offices for the Beetham Organization and the rest of the building is dedicated to luxury apartments and penthouses. Other towers in Liverpool include the Beetham Tower and the Alexandra Tower.

St. George’s Hall was built in 1854 and houses a concert hall and law courts. The largest feature of this building is the concert hall which is rectangular in shape and is situated in the center of the building. North of the concert hall is the civic court. To the south of it are the crown courts and grand jury room. The basement contains jail cells. The concert hall measure one hundred and sixty nine feet by seventy-seven feet and is eighty two feet high. The walls of the concert hall have niches where various busts are located. These include E. Whitley by A. Bruce Joy, William Roscoe by Chantrey, Sir William Brown by Patrick MacDowell, Robert Peel by Matthew Noble, Rev Jonathan Brookes by B. E. Spence and Rev Hugh Boyd McNeile by George Gamon Adams.

Other prominent attractions in the city include New Hall Place, 1 Princes Dock, Metropolitan House, Aintree Racecourse and the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology.

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Munich is the third biggest city in Germany and is the capital of Bavaria. The city sits on a land area of one hundred and thirty-five miles and has a population of approximately one and a half million people in the city proper. If the surrounding areas of Augsburg, Ingolstadt, Rosenheim and Landshut are taken into consideration then the population stands at around five million residents. The name Munich comes from the German word Munchen, which in English means “monks”. This is because the city was founded by the Benedictine order of monks. It is also the reason that the colors of black and gold are the primary colors of the city, because these were the colors of the Holy Roman Empire. As of 2006, Munich’s motto was “Munchen mag Dich”, which translates into English as “Munich Loves You”. A slogan that is aptly fitting for the city.

Munich is a city that has paid a great deal of attention to the education of its residents. Its also a city that is considered to be at the forefront of scientific research as is evidenced by its long list of Nobel Prize winning laureates.

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The city also has an extensive collection of universities, many of which were founded in the nineteenth century. Some of the more prominent ones include Munich Intellectual Property Law Center, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Pionierschule und Fachschule des Heeres für Bautechnik, Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, Hochschule für Philosophie München, International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences and Deutsche Journalistenschule.

Munich not only has the lowest unemployment rates of any city in Germany, but it also has one of the strongest economies in the country. This city is also one of the largest publishing cities in all of Europe, publish daily newspapers such as the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Munich is also home to many biotechnology, software and service industries, as well as being a major financial city with a large number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered there.

Another thing that Munich is well known for is its breweries.

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Breweries in the city include Augustiner Bräu, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu. The city also host over twenty beer gardens with the most famous being in Englischer Garten. Englischer Garten, also known as English Garden in English, is Munich’s largest park. This park was founded in the eighteenth century by Archduke Carl Theodor. In this park is Chinesischer Turm. This tower was built in the Asian pagoda style and was built in the late eighteenth century. It stands over seventy-five feet high and is Munich’s second largest beer garden. Other attractions in the park include Kleinhesseloher Lake and the Japanese Tea Room. In between these two locations is a large meadow where locals frequently sunbath in the nude.

The most famous landmark in Munich is the Frauenkirche. This church was founded in 1468 and is three hundred and fifty feet high and one hundred and thirty feet wide. The church is well known for its unique domes, which would inspire many future building projects in the city. Inside the church is the black marble grave of Prince Elector Kurfürst Maximilian I.

Another prominent attraction is Marienplatz or St.

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Mary’s Square. At the center of the square is a large tower topped with a statue of the Virgin Mary called Mariensäule. It was built in 1638 to celebrate the end of the Swedish Invasion. Also located in the square is the Neues Rathaus or New Town Square. This building is done in the Gothic style and was built in 1909. It stands two hundred and sixty feet high. This square also features the Carillon, the Fischbrunnen and the Old Town Hall or Altes Rathaus. No visit to Munich would be complete without a trip to Viktualienmarkt. This market area was established by Maximilian I in 1807. This market covers over five acres and is home to over one hundred and forty shops selling everything from fruits and nuts to venison and poultry. There are also stalls that sell flowers, exotic foods and botanicals.

While in Munich don’t forget to take a trip to Olympiapark. This Olympic park was built in preparation for the 1972 Olympic Games, but is still a frequently used location in the city. It contains the stadium, student dorms, an indoor pool, a residential district and an ice rink.

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After your visit here swing by the Residenz Palace. This palace was built in 1385 and served as the home of various Bavarian monarchs from the fourteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. It has over one hundred and twenty rooms and is decorated in seventeenth century frescos. It is also filled with antique rugs, porcelain, furniture and art.

Another museum is Munich’s museum of technology and science called Deutsches Museum. This museum was built in 1925 and has ever since then featured many exhibits of famous technological masterpieces. This museum has exhibits that cover the gambit of disciplines from aerospace, astronomy, agriculture, computers and chemistry to marine navigation, mining and music. This museum offer tours to visitors in both German and English, and most of the exhibits placards are also written in German and English. Other prominent tourist attractions in Munich include Peterskirche, Ruhmeshalle, Nymphenburg Palace Müllersches Volksbad and Isar. There are also a great varieties of restaurants, cafes, street vendors and beer gardens in this beautiful and historic city.

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Located in northern Italy, Venice is a city that has a population of just over two hundred and seventy thousand people. Venice is a city with a very unique geography. The city itself stretches over one hundred and eighteen islands in the Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea. Venice is a city whose origins may seem lost in time, but a few experts agree that the city was founded by refugees from various ancient cities such as Concordia, Altino and Padua.

Venice is best known for its system of canals. The entire city is built on an archipelago system that is constructed of almost two hundred canals set in a shallow lagoon. Each of the islands in the system is connected by a series of almost four hundred bridges. In the older parts of the city travel is only possible by boat or by foot. In the newer parts of the city a causeway was added that allowed for automobile traffic. Though, even to this day most travel done by Venetians is done by either gondola or by water buses.

The Grand Canal is the main canal that splits the city of Venice in two.

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It is also one of the most popular attraction, mainly due to the fact that this is the part of the city that always appears in television shows and movies. One of the most popular activities on the Grand Canal is to take a nice leisurely ride the waterway in a gondola. This offers the best view of the city and visitors can see sights such as the Ca da Mosto and Ca d’Ora very well this way.

Piazza San Marco, or St.Mark’s Square as its commonly called, is the center of the city of Venice. This square is a popular gathering spot for locales and tourist alike. All along its borders are various cafes and shops. This square was also where the first Venetian churches were built, the Palazzo Ducale and the Basilica di San Marco. If one travels through the arches of the Torre dell’Orologio then visitors can gain access to the road named Mercerie. At the end of this road is the Rialto. One of the first things that visitors to St. Mark’s square usually see is the Torre dell’Orologio. This clock tower was built in 1496 and still keeps the correct time. Two bronze figures strike the bell every hour.

The Rialto is the historic place where the first bridge that stretched over the canal was built.

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Though the original wood structured bridge no longer exist, the current stone one was built in 1588. All around this area is a thriving market center.

Another main attraction in Venice is the Basilica dei Frari. This Gothic style church was built during the fourteenth century and is best known as being the final resting place of Titian and Antonio Canova. Not only is the outside of this building spectacular but the inside is as well. Inside this church contains the works of artist such as Donatello, Giovanni Bellini and Titian.

The Scuola di San Rocco is another famed attraction in Venice. This building, which is also known as the School of St Roch served a dual purpose. Members not only spent their time adorning the walls with their work but they also paid a tithe to the school to support fellow members. This school is probably best known for its extensive collection of work from the artist Jacopo Tintoretto that is contained there.

One of the greatest collections of art that can be found on the entire continent of Europe is located at Venice’s Gallerie dell’Academia.

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This collection of art from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries include works by notable artist such as Lorenzo Lotto, Giovanni Bellini, Paolo Veneziano and Vittore Carpaccio.

Another great collection of art can be found at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The collection covers the art styles of Cubism, Surrealism and European Abstraction with important pieces by Jackson Polloc, Kandinsky Magritte,Picasso, Max Ernst, Dali and Brancusi. This collection was gathered together between the years of 1938 and 1947.

Campanile di San Marco was built during the ninth century and feature a three hundred and eighteen foot bell tower. It is one of the highest buildings in the city of Venice. Visitors who journey to the top will be rewarded with great views of the city. Sites that can be seen from the top of Campanile di San Marco include the top of St. Marks and the lagoons.

When you visit Venice you can be sure of one thing. There are definitely no shortage of fine hotels here. Some of the most prominent ones are Residence Venice, Albergo La Meridiana and the Alla Bianca Hotel Trattoria. Cafes in the city include the Taverna del Campiello Reme, the Caffč Lavena and Caffč Quadri. Venice also has some nightclubs for the adventurous tourist.

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These include the Piccolo Mondo and the Casanova on Lista di Spoagna. The city of Venice also has a staggering amount of restaurants and markets. Some of the restaurants in this city are the Fiaschetteria Toscana, Trattoria Altanella, Vino Vino and the Ristorante Quadri. Shopping venues in this city include Fanny, Francis Model, Atelier Marega and the Venetia Studium on San Marco.

If your looking for a place in Venice to keep the kids entertained then consider one of them many theme parks and family friendly attractions located here. These include Aqualandia, the Museum of Natural History, the Naval Museum, Murano, the Parco delle Rimembranze and Po Delta Natural Park.

Venice also has a number of special events available to visitors during various parts of the year. One of the most popular of these events is held just east of Venice. Its called the Barcolana and features thousands of boats that take part in a race off the shores of the Triest. Another popular event is the Suezo Peri Ponti. This is a marathon race that is held every year in Venice. And with all the bridge crossings that the runners must traverse, you can be sure of an interesting race each and every time.

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Copenhagen is the largest city, and capital of Denmark. It covers an area of one hundred and seventy-five square miles and has a population of almost two million people, of which only about a million are in the urban center of the city. This city is situated on the Island of Zealand on its eastern shore. To the east of Copenhagen is the Oresund Strait. The city has three beaches which together cover an area of around five miles. The beaches are augmented by a collection of Harbour Baths along the waterfront. The origins of Copenhagen can be traced back to the eleventh century when it was a small fishing village, but the city didn’t officially become the capital of Denmark until the fifteenth century.

The city has a definite appreciation for history, art and culture and that is reflected in the great number of museums located here. The most prominent of these is the Statens Museum for Kunst, or National Museum. The collection here consists of art from the fourteenth century to the present day. There are over nine thousand paintings and sculptures, three hundred thousand pieces of paper drawn art and over twenty six hundred plaster cast of ancient art.

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The building itself was built in 1896 in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. Another museum to visit in this city is the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. It features a collection of art from the personal collection of Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg Breweries. This collection consist of mainly sculptured art, but there is also quite a collection of paintings by famous French impressionist such as Monet, Pissaro and Degas. This museum was built in the nineteenth century and additional galleries were added on a regular basis.

But, true lovers of art should make the trip to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. It was built in 1958 and has a very unique circular shape. This collection include Pre-Columbian works of art consisting over almost four hundred objects. It also has a large collection of modern art that spans from World War II to the present day. The modern artist represented by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art include Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Asger Jorn, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg and Anselm Kiefer. Around the outside of the museum is a sculpture garden that features works from artists such as Alexander Calder, Henri Laurens, Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Max Bill, Louise Bourgeois, Joan Miró and Henry Moore.

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Located near Jaegersborg Dyrehave is the Ordrupgaard Museum. This museum was founded in 1918 by Wilhelm Hansen. Ordrupgaard features a danish fine arts collection, a french fine arts collection and a collection of furniture and handicrafts. In the heart of Copenhagen’s suburb city Ishoj is the Arken Museum of Modern Art. The building is designed in a very modernist fashion and features modern works of art by Danish and Scandinavian painters. There are over four hundred works by artist such as Sherin Neshat, Wolfgang Tillmans, Damien Hirst, Olafur Eliasson and Michael Elmgreen. Other reputable art museums in the city include the The David Collection, The Hirschsprung Collection, Thorvaldsens Museum, Cisternerne and the Museum of National History.

One of the most photographed attractions in the world is Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid Statue. This statue was commissioned in 1909 by sculptor Edvard Eriksen upon order from Danish brewer Carl Jacobsen. In 1913, Carl Jacobsen gives the statue to the city of Copenhagen and it is placed at Langelinie Pier on Copenhagen Harbor.

Another prominent attraction in the city is Tivoli Gardens.

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This is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world and brilliantly combines its past history with many modern innovations. This can be seen by examining the stark contrast between features like modern roller coasters and the elegant historical features like the gardens located here. This park also features booths and vendors of every sort.

Visitors should also check out the residence of the royal couple Amalienborg Palace. Though many parts of this is off limits to visitors, there are still some unused royal chambers that can be checked out and many people seize the opportunity to have themselves photographed in front of it or to watch the changing of the guard. That palace takes its name from Queen Sophie Amalie. It was built in the seventeenth century but was burned to the ground in 1689. It was then rebuilt and today serves as the royal residence.

Another palace in Copenhagen is the Kronborg Castle. This famous palace is known worldwide as Shakespeare’s Hamlet. One of its primary features are the tapestries that were commissioned in the sixteenth century by King Frederik II. These tapestries feature over one hundred Danish kings and are currently on public display at the castle. Also in the castle are studios where up and coming Danish artist now reside.

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Inside visitors can find a magnificent ballroom and a statue of national hero Holger Danske.

For a stunning view of the city of Copenhagen then a trip to the Round Tower is in order. This tower also goes by the name Rundetaarn and it was originally built during the seventeenth century (though the current observatory is only from 1929) and it was used to observe the stars. Encircling the observatory is a platform where an unprecedented view of the city can be ascertained. Though the tower is only one hundred and eight feet high, to reach this platform, visitors must walk up a eight hundred foot spiral stair.

Before leaving Copenhagen visitors should be sure to take one of the many Canal Tours. These tours traverse the canals and the harbor of the old city and take visitors on an hour long ride past the cities many monuments and historical landmarks. Another location that must be visited in the city is the pedestrian street known as the Stroget. This is the longest pedestrian street in the entire world and boast an impressive shopping district. All along the route are hotels, restaurants and shops of various size and function. There are also some historical landmarks such as the Church of Our Lady, the court house at Nytorv Square, Christiansborg Palace, City Hall Square and the Stork Fountain.