Valley of the Kings

Advantages: Chateaux and gardens, old towns and local cuisine
Disadvantages: Unexciting landscapes, well-trodden tourist trail

...Where is the best place in France to get away from it all, to slip off for a few days (or a few weeks, or months), perhaps to your second (or third, or fourth) home? With a country so rich in attractive regions, this could be regarded as a tough question, but the kings of the Valois dynasty in the late 15th and early 16th Centuries were in no doubt about their answer. They picked on the lower valley of the Loire, and in particular the stretch between Orleans and Tours, to site their out-of-town chateaux and hunting-lodges. Where they led the court naturally followed, and soon any ambitious aristocrat felt the need to have a prestigious pied-a-terre nearby from which to keep in touch with current intrigue and to curry favour with the king. The reasons that attracted the Valois kings and their retinues to the Loire Valley...

torr 10.10.2005 (13.10.2005) · Read review
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Review of Loire Valley (France)

Valley of the kings- not to be missed

Advantages: amazing access and fantastic amount of history and culture
Disadvantages: 50oc in summer is a little too hot for a long day

...I first visited Egypt last summer (2005) with my partner. We chose to stay in the Hurghada resort for two weeks in june. on the coast the temperature was between 30-35oc. We were planning on spending two nights in cairo looking at the pyraminds however we spoke to our tour guide who reccommended a five hour coach journey to Luxor instead. Our first reaction was to dismiss it as five hours each way is a very long day in the summer heat but our guide was very enthusiatic about Luxor and in particular Valley of the kings so we gave it a go. Our morning call was at 4am but suprisingly the journey did not seem that longand in fact I found it really interesting after travelling through the desert we drove along the Nile and through villages where children and their parents were working or playing in the fields or waving estacically...

emma_georgeson 12.02.2006 · Read review
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Review of The Valley of the Kings, Egypt

Queen of the Valley

Advantages: Interesting, very interesting!
Disadvantages: The most famous tomb is now closed.

...announcing my name change to Nefertiti (the beautiful (or perfect) woman has come). ~Getting there~ The Valley of the Queens is a short distance from the Valley of the Kings, just the other side of Queen Hatshepsut's Burial Temple (see my last review Queen of Hats & Cheap Suits). Getting there would generally be by coach or taxi and it is probably about 20 mins from Luxor. As this site was included as part of our trip, we took the coach from Queen Hatshepsut's temple to the Valley of the Queens, this took us all of about 10 mins and again, we arrived in yet another coach park and had to run the gauntlet of the mini market & souvenirs. ~I'm going in~ We get to the gates to go through to the valley and hand our little tickets over, and make our way along the dusty path (it looks exactly like the one in the picture above). To the left...

tazzywazzy 06.02.2007 · Read review
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Review of Valley of the Queens

The Derwent Valley, Derbyshire

Advantages: A Great Day Out
Disadvantages: Lots Of Enviromental Damage Was Caused During Its Creation

...and the peace and quiet, but be warned during the Summer weekends the Valley can get very popular so if it is peace and quiet that you are after you may have to wander off the beaten track. THE HISTORY OF THE VALLEY The upper two Dams in the Derwent Valley were constructed at the early part of the twentieth century. Building began in 1901, this engineering was so vast that a purpose built Village called Birchinlee was constructed in the Upper Valley to provide Houses for all of those employed on the project. This Village even had its own Railway Station on a spur from nearby Bamford. Today, a hundred years later, traces of both the Railway Track and the Village of Birchinlee itself can still be seen. These two Dams were completed in 1916 and opened by King George V. The principal objective of these new Dams was to provide drinking water...

micksheff 01.03.2006 · Read review
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Review of The Derwent Valley, Derbyshire

The Derwent valley reservoirs

Advantages: A great day out for all the family
Disadvantages: none

...was ceremoniously opened by King George VI on September 25th 1945. Derwent Dam and reservoir? This enormous reservoir covers approximately 170 acres and reaches up to 35 metres deep. A small island lies in the one and a half mile stretch of water. The reservoir and its enormous dam were made famous by the Dam busters ,(or operation Chastise, with Barnes Wallis and his famous bouncing bomb), during World War II. The Dam being very similar to the German dams so the RAF used it to practice there low flying raids. (The majority of the actual film was shot here) Getting there?.. By Road: Along the A57 Glossop to Sheffield road crosses Ladybower by the Ashopton viaduct. A minor road on the west side of this leads to Fairholmes. Approaching from Hope Valley, follow the A6013 north from Bamford to reach Ladybower and the A57...

blissman70 13.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Derwent Valley, Derbyshire

Lightwater Valley - home of the underdog.

Advantages: Cheap, Largely good rides, At times beautiful...
Disadvantages: ...at times shoddy, In-park prices not so good, looking a little run down.

...Visiting theme parks is ultimately, somewhat of a pot luck experience - queues, weather, ride breakdowns can make or mangle your day, and ultimately that is what you should bear in mind when reading a review on one - you day is not necessarily in your own hands, but the wise traveller would be one who remembers the golden rule - eat early and late, bring a change of clothes, and plan in advance those things you want to do, and you're halfway there. Anyhoo. So is it any good? Almost. Anyone new to Lightwater Valley, and if you are reading this review, then there's a good chance that might be you, on a good day, Lightwater valley is a hoot, on a bad day, it is a chore - but either way, it is home to one of Europe's finest Roller coasters, and for a newbie, that is worth the admission price alone. Although not in the best...

slappy_mcguire 16.04.2009 (22.07.2009) · Read review
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Review of Lightwater Valley

King of Queens

Advantages: Funny, good characters
Disadvantages: None

...King of Queens is an American sitcom set in New York. The King in question is Doug Heffernan and the Queens they relate to is actually the suburb of New York he lives in with his wife Carrie. I think this title is a really clever play on words and sets the scene for quite a funny sitcom in my opinion. Doug and Carrie are the main couple in this sitcom and it?s really them that the whole show revolves around. They have a nice relationship but bicker like most couples and they really play on each others stereotypes to get the laughs out of the audience. For example Doug is rather fat and so they definitely play this up on the show. He is generally always eating my Carrie facilitates this by buying him or making him his favourite foods. Doug is played by the very funny Kevin James who has been in movies such as Hitch, I Now Pronounce You...

Spottydog11 01.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of The King of Queens

Valley of the Thrung Thrung Karm

Advantages: splendid isolation; black-necked cranes
Disadvantages: no gurantees, obviously

...The descent from the Dochu La pass (3050m or 3140m depending which chapter of the book you're reading) is as swift as all Bhutanese downhill drives?slow of speed, yet suddenly there is everything above you and little down below. Unlike the others though, this one ended not in the steep-sided ribbon of a river flow, but in the bowl of a lake that wasn't there. The Phobjika valley is broad, but enclosed, and to wander into it is to head down into a forgotten place. Even by Bhutanese standards this is isolation. Deliberately so. It remained disconnected through history for reasons, presumably, of geography, and then man intervened and - for once getting it right - decided not to intervene too much. It is now a conservation area. Development is severely restricted. Whilst there is mains water, there is no electricity in...

hiker 10.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Phobjika Valley (Bhutan)

The Loxley Valley - Land Of Robin Hood!

Advantages: Easily Accesible, Lots Of History
Disadvantages: Some Of The Old Abandonded Industries Are An Eyesore

...planted by the Children of Loxley School in 1935 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V. Whilst the oddly shaped stone is a mounting stone, used for getting on and off a Horse. This is believed to date back to medieval times and originally stood on the opposite side of the road. It was moved to the Village Green when two semi-detached Houses were built on its original site in the 1950's. There were two Churches in the Valley. The Methodist Chapel on Loxley Road was built in 1885 and is still used today. Whilst the United Reform/Independent Church which was built in 1797 closed in 1991, although the Burial Grounds are still used. THE HISTORY THE VALLEY Several hundred years ago the Valley supported several small Industries which grew up around the Water Wheels, the remnants of which can still be seen today. These were mainly...

micksheff 16.10.2006 · Read review
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Review of Loxley Valley

Pharaohs, Puzzles and Pictures

Advantages: A challenging pastime
Disadvantages: frustrating at times

...the instruction booklet), you are given the password needed to access the main Internet puzzle site. This part of the puzzle comes with the attached warning: ?This is a puzzle that many have attempted to solve, but none have succeeded? My kids managed to solve it in under an hour. Now I realise that my kids (like everyone else?s) are the brightest kids ever, so it may take others a bit longer, but this truly is an outrageous exaggeration of immense proportions ? maybe they had the mystery around construction of the pyramids in mind? Now the Internet part You now need to log onto the Internet site at www.PuzzleAdventure.com and input the secret password to access the Valley of the Kings site. The site itself is simple, brightly coloured and requires no real navigation ? You start with the first puzzle, and once you have solved this, you...

MarkKerr 18.05.2002 · Read review
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Review of The Valley of the Kings (PC)