Subterranian fun in Austria

Advantages: Interesting, educational and fun
Disadvantages: 9 degrees and damp

...tried to target the mine but succeeded only in blocking the entrance for a time. The Germans themselves tried to destroy the mine when they abandoned it near the end of the war. Not long after the war ended the mine was reopened to tourists and to date more than 10,000,000 visitors have toured the mine and its workings. At the beginning of October I went to Vienna for a weeks break from the drudgery of work, it was a last minute choice of destination (well, I booked it three weeks before leaving but everything else was booked up for the week I wanted to go, my original choice was either Prague or Venice) and it was an inspired choice as it turned out. The second day of our holiday saw us driving out of the city and down to the Bergwerk Seegrotte, we had seen a pamphlet about it in the hotel and thought it looked interesting...

jimblob 17.10.2004 · Read review
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Review of Vienna (Austria)

The not so cheeky guide to the book

Advantages: Hilariously funny and often quite useful
Disadvantages: If you parents read this they probably wont allow you to go to uni

...Moving to university is a big step and this book may help you with that step, ok so this is not likely but hey, its a great read. From the authors of other Cheeky Guides (such as Brighton and Oxford) this book will take you through the world of student life and is an essential for any future student, present student, past student, or anyone brave enough to investigate university life. The book was a gift to me and not a book I would normally read so I was very sceptical before I read it. The good thing about the book is for you hardened readers it will keep you gripped for long enough to read the whole book but for lightweight readers such as me (maybe half an hour a day), the book can be picked up and put down as many thimes with no plot to lose. The book is written by a group of five authors who have all been to university...

leighton_87 18.03.2005 · Read review
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Review of The Cheeky Guide To Student Life - Cheeky Guides

The A to Z guide for Vienna

Advantages: Great city for a weekend break or even more
Disadvantages: can be quite hot in summer

...This A to Z guide is intended to give you an overview about what to see and where to go in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Some more detailed reviews of certain attractions will follow later (some are already available). A Augarten This is a nice park north of the city centre, long ago a hunting area for the emperors, but since 1775 open to the public. It also hosts the famous Augarten porcelain factory, which is located in the former Orangerie where Mozart and Beethoven did perform music for the emperors. B Belvedere The two palaces (Upper Belvedere and Lower Belvedere) have been built as the summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy, an important Austrian military strategist who defeated the Turks in 1683 after they besieged Vienna and he defeated the French Army of Louis XIV at Blenheim in 1704 (together...

Michael-S 06.07.2001 (23.11.2001) · Read review
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Review of Vienna (Austria)

Compact Guide to Croatia

Advantages: Compact size and waterproof cover
Disadvantages: Disjointed and hard to find information.

...I am the sort of person who enjoys planning for their holiday. I love researching our destination and I devour as much information as I can before I go as I find that if I am knowledgeable about a place I enjoy myself much more. Embarking on a cruise last year was my idea of heaven as it gave me ample opportunity to research lots of different places. One of our ports of call was Dubrovnik and it soon became apparent that this would be a suitable destination for an independent sightseeing tour. I read quite a bit on the internet but decided that taking a guidebook with us was probably a wise move. My local bookshop only had one book covering Croatia so that?s how I came to purchase the Berlitz Pocket Guide at £4.99. Appearance First impressions of this guidebook were very positive. It is, as the name suggest, compact in...

Meggysmum 15.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Croatia Berlitz Pocket Guide

Brilliant Brits Guide!

Advantages: Clearly laid out with really useful information.
Disadvantages: -

...Before I go on holiday I delight in researching where I am going. I love to know lots about my destination and I feel I get a lot more out of my holiday if I am well-informed. My family always tease me about the fact I like to be so ultra organised but really they agree that our holidays are usually interesting and fun as a result. When we decided to visit Orlando several years ago my planning went into overdrive. I thought that it was somewhere we would only visit once and knew I wanted to "do" as much as we could. Little did I know that we would return several times as we love it -but thats another review! I began looking around for a good guide book that particularly focused on the Orlando area. There are several books which cover the whole of Florida but since we had young children we did not want to do much travelling...

Meggysmum 23.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Brit Guide to Orlando - Simon Veness & Susan Veness

The Lipizzaner, an Allen Guide

Advantages: Good, useful book
Disadvantages: A little thin, perhaps?

...The Allen Guide to Horse and Pony Breeds is one of the guides that the company publishes for the dedicated horse enthusiast and ride. It is guide number 8 in the series and is entitled The Lipizzaner. The guide is written by Una Harley and is "a full colour guide." Although it is a rather thin book, it is packed with a great deal of information. Probably more than you would get with other books 20 times as thick! It starts with an introduction as to exactly what Lipizzaner horses are, their origins, when they were first bred, who by, and for what reason. (I will not give a history lesson on the breed. For I am reviewing the book, not the breed!) However, the description of the origins of the breed taught me, in a matter of a couple of pages, much more that I ever knew about these stunning white horses and their origins, which...

Martinscholes 26.07.2006 · Read review
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Review of The Lipizzaner (Allen Guides to Horse & Pony Breeds) - Una Harley

Good solid guide book

Advantages: Good history backgrounds
Disadvantages: Directions a bit off

...I went on a guided tour of Egypt and then independently in Cairo using the Rough Guide for directions and advice when needed. For the guided tour I didn't need to use the book for directions but found they were mostly right. The history and explainations of the sights are all detailed and accurate as well. The advice on dangers, tourist traps and scams were all good as well. I used it most often around Cairo and found the directions generally OK but of limited use. I think Cairo changes too fast for any guide book to be useful though, and no reliable maps of Cairo exist anyway. So I found bus stops, stations and hostels moved or non-existent, prices way off and and new scams. The major monuments are still where they should be, but ticket prices were generally increased or inflated. They were probably negotiable though. The maps needed...

Tegteg 26.06.2005 · Read review
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Review of The Rough Guide to Egypt - The Rough Guide

Oscar Wilde's obsession with books

Advantages: Full of fascinating information about Wilde's life and love of books
Disadvantages: None really, except maybe best enjoyed by those with some prior knowledge of Wilde

...The controversial Victorian playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, so the introduction to this book tells us, ?devoured and luxuriated in books?. He had a lifelong thirst for reading, so it?s not surprising to find that his house in Chelsea was packed with them. Not only was he an avid collector, but he was also an accomplished speed reader with a remarkable ? and to some extent photographic ? memory which helped him to absorb and recall instantly vast amounts of prose and verse. As a reviewer for the Pall Mall Gazette, he could master a book's content, plot or argument in minutes. (If only ciao had been around in those days as well). Maybe it is only fair to get the one major chink in his armour out of the way quickly. Once, when he was preparing a lecture on the poet Chatterton, most of his notes were made up of entire pages and paragraphs...

JOHNV 24.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Oscar's Books - Thomas Wright

A Book Lover

Advantages: Well-drawn characters. Creative use of words.
Disadvantages: A little difficult to adjust to the changing style of writing

...The Book Thief written by Australian author Marcus Zusak was published in Australia in 2005 as an adult novel and in America in 2006 as a children?s novel. It finally came to the UK in 2007 published by Doubleday and Black Swan in both adult and teen-age versions. Though I have to admit, I do not know what the differences between the two versions are! My copy and the one I am reviewing is the adult version. The novel proved to be a triumphant success greeted by glowing accolades from a wide range of literary reviewers ? excerpts of which can be found in the book. The most apt from The Irish Examiner, ?A peculiar tale, whose deceptively plain language and cryptic style describe the most profound of human emotions and the most hideous of human actions . . . an unusual and compelling novel? Set in Nazi Germany during the Second World...

MAFARRIMOND 03.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

The best revision guides!

Advantages: colourful, brokendown info, helpful diagrams, humour
Disadvantages: not enough info

...When revising a subject or topic it is never easy. The best way to do this is by making it as easy as possible. The C.G.P revision books understand and have made their revision books both easy and practical to use. The C.G.P Company are situated at Newcastle upon Tyne. C.G.P stands for Coordination Group Publication Ltd. The company are widely used in most schools across the UK. This is because the revision guides are so good and have helped many students pass exams. They have excellently made long-winded passages of heavy material into straightforward and readable paragraphs. The company have divided the topics into more easy to digest sections. This makes revision a little easier to cope with. Also helping students divide there revision time up into these sections. The revision guides deliver vital...

emi_angel 17.02.2006 (04.06.2006) · Read review
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Review of CGP Revision Guides