Find your inspiration for the next trip

1Eternal views on Mount Nemrut Mount Nemrut, a 2,150-meter-high mountain in southeast Turkey, houses the remains of one of the most ambitious constructions of the Hellenistic period: the mausoleum of King Antiochus I, which he occupied between the years 69 and 34 BC the throne of Commagene.

At the top of the mountain stands a 50-meter-high artificial mountain made of small stones where the powerful monarch is believed to be buried.

And at its feet there are three terraces where impressive stone statues surprise.

Earthquakes have beheaded most, and today the great heads (up to two meters) of the Greek and Persian gods and of the king himself rest on the ground flanked by huge lions and eagles.

To reach this enclave, a world heritage site since 1987, a road leads to the foot of the mountain, and then in half an hour of ascent the summit is reached.

GETTY images

2Potes, a town that has not been painted The Cantabrian town of Potes, where the four valleys of the Liébana region converge and the Deva and Quiviesa rivers join their waters, was elected Capital of Rural Tourism 2020 in an online vote at the beginning of July organized by the reservation center EscapadaRural.com to which 205 candidates submitted.

Embedded in the heart of the Picos de Europa, Potes is a medieval-flavored town with a motley old town crossed by five bridges (hence its name), and a perfect base camp to discover the natural wonders of Liébana.

Founded around the 9th century, it preserves a set of cobbled streets and manor houses such as the Torre del Infantado, which currently houses the permanent exhibition 'The Cosmos of Beato de Liébana', dedicated to the monk of Santo Toribio, who in the 8th century wrote his well-known commentaries on the Apocalypse of Saint John.

Ekaterina Kolomeets alamy

3The spring of a lawn clock The Swiss luxury watch brand Audemars Piguet, founded in 1875 in the town of Le Brassus, has inaugurated its new workshop museum (audemarspiguet.com) in 2020.

A space in which to learn about the history of Swiss watchmaking - from the famous cuckoo clocks made of oak wood to modern wristwatches - and see live the work of watchmaking craftsmen, the true protagonists of the exhibition.

The steel springs that move the delicate precision movement of the winding clocks inspire the building's shape, by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels (BIG).

The result is a double spiral covered with grass and supported by undulating glass walls, with meandering interior spaces separated by glass walls that provide a full view of all rooms.

A circular space in the center of the museum houses some of the most famous watches of the brand.

MUSÉE ATELIER AUDEMARS PIGUET

4El Reino de los Mallos The mallos, huge formations of conglomerates sculpted by erosion from ancient sea beds, form one of the most unique places in the Pre-Pyrenees.

From the town of Riglos (Huesca) you can walk to the base of some of them;

the Piso and the Firé, two of the famous Mallos de Riglos, are the best known.

On the other side of the Gállego river, other smaller mallos attract the view and, at its foot, the pretty town of Agüero (in the photo), from which Queen Berta (widow of Pedro I of Aragón) ruled at the beginning of the century XII the so-called Kingdom of the Mallos, which extended through Murillo de Gállego, Marcuello, Ayerbe and Riglos.

Agüero, belonging to the network of the most beautiful towns in Spain, has been included, in third position, among the secret treasures (Hidden Gems) of Europe 2020, a list that is produced each year by European Best Destinations.

The route also invites you to visit places such as the Romanesque castle of Loarre, Puente la Reina, the Yebra caves or the Santa Orosia sanctuary.

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5Poles melted in London's summer A dozen giant colored poles, melting in the heat, graced the iconic grassy steps of Granary Square along Regent's Canal - which runs through North London - in the King's neighborhood last summer Cross.

Ice creams, and fake striped loungers, were strategically scattered on the steps to help maintain a safe social distance while passers-by lounged by the canal.

The intervention, by the Kit & Caboodle design studio, was called 'Lollypop Lounge', and was part of The Great Outdoors (kingscross.co.uk/greatoutdoors), the summer program of free activities and outdoor exhibitions that animated King's Cross until the end of August.

Despite being in the city center, this fashionable area has among other attractions with more than 10 hectares of green spaces, so during any stay in the British capital it is a good time to discover it.

John sturrock

6 Live art in Ordes The municipality of Ordes (A Coruña) has completed, one more year, and already 13, with the 'street art'.

Last August was the scene of DesOrdes Creativas, an international festival of urban art.

Among the participants, the artists Maz, Cinta Vidal, Reskate, Møu and Manolo Mesa, the latter author of a mural that shows a jug of water to irrigate the lands that surround it (in the image).

In this edition, parallel activities such as concerts or workshops were suspended as prevention against covid-19 (which is why only Spanish artists participated).

For those who could not attend the appointment in summer, they can always go to Ordes and stroll through the streets in search of the large murals that decorate the facades of old spaces revived in full color.

Estudio Mutante Creativo, curator of the festival, points out the more than 80 works in the urban area on a map that can be consulted on the DesOrdes Creativas website (desordescreativas.com).

An open-air museum.

ALCREGO

7A waterfall in the theater The rococo canopy bed designed by Vincent Olinet floating in the Saint-Félix canal;

two trams of lines 1 and 3 painted by the artist Chourouk Hriech crossing Nantes, and an impressive waterfall lining the entrance of the Graslin theater in one of the main squares of the French city.

These are three of the installations that could be seen, until September 27, at the contemporary art festival Le Voyage à Nantes (levoyageanantes.fr).

Although this year the pandemic delayed its celebration by a month, on August 8 the ninth edition of this event was launched, which unites sculpture, photography and architecture in cultural spaces and historical buildings of the city, such as the castle of the Dukes of Brittany. .

Since the festival was born in 2012, some of the interventions have remained forever in the streets of Nantes, which already has a peculiar collection of 112 works that can be visited by following a green line that runs for more than 10 kilometers from it. location.

MARTIN ARGYROGLO / LVAN

8Shore Geometry in Gran Canaria The impact of the pandemic this past summer brought with it an unexpected order on Spanish beaches, a territory used to crowds.

Aerial images like this one, taken on August 19 on a beach in the Gran Canaria municipality of Mogán, which has 16 uninterrupted kilometers of coastline, shows with total clarity how covid-19 has disrupted our vacation habits.

A battalion of perfectly aligned umbrellas, with the proper safety distance between one and the other, is deployed daily on the sand to guarantee a safe recreation of bathers.

emilio morenatti AP

9Mirage in the Swiss Alps Art and architecture merge in the heart of the Swiss Alps, in the town of Gstaad, to form a striking mirror-clad steel and wood cabin, the brainchild of American artist Doug Aitken.

The ultimate purpose of this work of 'land art', open to the public until January 2021, is "to interact with the mountain that surrounds it, reflecting the passing of the seasons and the constant evolution in the encounter between earth and sky", according to the Luma Foundation that organizes the third edition of the 'Elevation 1049' exhibition, of which the Mirage Gstaad house is the centerpiece.

At times, and depending on the intensity of the sunlight, it seems that the entire structure disappears, absorbed by the imposing natural landscape that surrounds it.

This fruitful dialogue with nature continues inside the house, where a multitude of mirrors arranged like a kaleidoscope takes the visitor into a universe in which everything is multiplied into a thousand pieces and nothing seems what it really is.

Mirage or reality?

Torvioll jashari

10King Kong returns to New York A gorilla much more tender and friendly than the one that terrorized the island of Manhattan almost a century ago perched on the antenna of the Empire State in the iconic film 'King Kong' (1933) has settled in Hudson Yards , the fashionable neighborhood of New York, where he will stay for nine months.

Lying back in a loving attitude and with her hand outstretched for anyone to sit on her, 'King Nyani' is a colossal bronze sculpture measuring two meters high, seven meters long and weighing two tons.

The Australian artist couple Gillie and Marc Schattner seek with this work, inaugurated in August in front of the Bella Abzug Park, to raise public awareness of the threat of extinction that looms over the great primates, victims of wars, poaching and deforestation .

The inspiration came from a recent visit to Uganda, where they saw mountain gorillas in the wild.

They were impressed by the sweetness of the apes, in contrast to the terrifying image they sometimes convey.

The myth of King Kong staggers in the city where he was born.

Ted Shaffrey ap

11Sublime alpine panorama “Where the raindrops begin their long pilgrimage towards the sea, new perspectives burst forth”, reveals the Noa Network of Architecture studio, responsible for the new Ötzi Peak viewpoint.

Built on the crest of the glacial valley of Schnalstal in Italy's South Tyrol region, it rises 3,251 meters to offer sublime panoramic views of the perpetual snow peaks of the Italian and Austrian Alps.

An oxygenating vision from a prodigy of steel that seems to want to merge with a natural setting where stone and wind shape a majestic landscape of unpredictable figures.

The funnel-shaped structure is designed in such a way that it barely touches the ground, creating an unreal feeling of floating in the air.

Hikers who look out from its glass terrace will be able to contemplate the immensity of a pristine horizon and perhaps realize in that instant that "only fate will decide whether a drop of glacial water will make its way to the Mediterranean or the Black Sea."

alex filz

12London in full color “One of the things I enjoy the most is when I transform places for magic to break out,” Camille Walala wrote on Instagram on September 2, next to a picture of the Adams Plaza pedestrian bridge in London's financial district. Canary Wharf.

The French artist had just covered it with colorful geometric patterns that contract and lengthen in the eyes of those who cross the catwalk.

Walala is one of more than 150 artists who took part in the London Mural Festival in September which, despite sanitary restrictions, filled the streets and buildings of the British capital with color and creativity.

A powerful exhibition of urban art, with works and large-scale murals, to breathe optimism and pride into a city devastated by the pandemic.

Although the festival ended at the beginning of October, a downloadable map (londonmuralfestival.com/map) allows you to locate the works on the street and visit them in the future, since many will continue on the facades of the neighborhoods thanks to the good reception they have had between neighbors.

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noir alamy

13From the sea to the sky in Tenerife It is impossible to climb higher, or do it from below.

The inauguration of Route 0.4.0, which connects Socorro beach, in the Tenerife municipality of Los Realejos, with the very summit of Teide (3,718 meters), the highest in Spain, marks a new hiking milestone: the route marking the highest possible slope in our country (over 3,700 meters) along a route, always upwards, of 26.5 kilometers.

Of course, it is not necessary to do it all at once, something that involves between seven and nine hours (only ascent);

After the halfway point of the walk, which runs through the pine forest landscape of the Corona Forestal Natural Park, a detour connects with the El Portillo visitor center —and other trails— of the Teide National Park.

Upward, winding, the path seeks the surroundings of Montaña Blanca and reaches La Rambleta (3,555 meters), the point from which to continue to the top of the volcano (in the photo, the crater valley) for the last 630 meters of ascent, which that requires prior permission (reservasparquesnacionales.es).

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14Graphitis in the museum The giant head in the photo is one of the sculptures in the exhibition 'Segredos' (Secrets), by the Brazilian duo OsGemeos, one of the greatest exponents of international urban art.

Inaugurated on October 15 at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo (pinacoteca.org.br), it marks the cultural rebirth of the Brazilian city after the stoppage due to the pandemic with a trip to the “dreamlike, playful and pulsating” universe of the Otávio twins and Gustavo Pandolfo (São Paulo, 1974), two artists known for their colorful murals and sculptures in metropolises around the world and their characteristic yellow characters.

Influenced by the 'hip hop' culture, the brothers started in urban art in 1987 on the walls of the São Paulo neighborhood of Cambuci;

today their works are exhibited and auctioned in museums and art galleries, and they have also decorated planes and trains.

In addition to graffiti, sculptures, drawings and paintings, 'Secretos' brings together until February 22, 2021 about a thousand personal objects, tools, notebooks and sketches that had never been shown to the public.

sebastiao Moreira efe

15Floating over the La Gran Senda de Málaga gorge, a 745-kilometer route that crosses 52 municipalities, four parks, two reserves and five natural sites, has had a new and spectacular attraction since last October: a 50-meter suspension bridge long and 1.20 meters wide that connects the municipalities of Sedella and Canillas de Aceituno, in the Axarquía region.

Suspended at a height of 50 meters above the bed of the Almanchares River, in the El Saltillo area, this steel and wood footbridge thus becomes the third largest in Spain in natural spaces.

Its construction seeks to save a vertiginous gorge and open an alternative route that avoids the sections that until now were made along the shoulder of the road.

With an investment of 600,000 euros, the infrastructure improves communication between the residents of these towns in the interior of Malaga and the safety of the two million hikers who travel this 35-stage route each year attracted by the environmental richness of a unique landscape.

Juan M. Alvarez

16The Nazca Cat Lying on a steep slope of the Mirador Natural, a rocky hill at the foot of the Pan-American Highway around which some of the famous Nazca lines converge - hence its name - it was hidden, almost imperceptible because of the erosion, the last of the geoglyphs discovered in this desert archaeological territory in southwestern Peru that, according to the Ministry of Culture of the Andean country, the body responsible for this new discovery, "express the magical and religious world of the pre-Hispanic Paracas and Nasca societies" .

The figure (in the photo) represents a feline —body in profile, head in front—, it was traced on the arid surface of the hill with curved and straight lines between 30 and 40 centimeters wide and 37 meters long.

According to the archaeologists of the Nasca-Palpa Management Plan, due to its stylistic features it would date from the Late Paracas period - between 370 and 200 BC - and it would be older than the geoglyphs discovered so far in the Nazca pampa, declared heritage world in 1994. MINISTRY OF CULTURE PERU EFE

17The artificial hill in Copenhagen Beneath the green blanket in the photo - a 370 meter long synthetic ski slope - is Denmark's most efficient, cleanest and most fun power plant.

The two furnaces at Amager Bakke, on the shores of the Oresund Strait in Copenhagen, incinerate between 50 and 70 tonnes of garbage every hour, which are transformed into electricity and district heating for homes in the Danish capital.

Furthermore, they do not generate bad odors - the air from the waste silo is sucked in and used to regulate the combustion temperature - and the smoke that exhales from their chimneys is free of toxins, thanks to a purification system with various filters and a catalyst that removes nitrogen oxide.

For this reason, its sloping roof has been home to the Copenhill (copenhill.dk) for a year, an artificial hill that offers ski and snowboard descents on four slopes of different difficulty and inclination, walking paths, a viewpoint 82 meters high and a 80-meter climbing wall that rises up the façade.

Hufton + Crow

18Murals against the virus Fortaleza, as the word itself suggests, is the latest project by urban artist Pejac to optimistically face the COVID crisis and encourage those who suffer the most: the health workers and the sick themselves.

A tribute - "offering them the best I know how to do, which is painting," says the graffiti artist - which he has captured in three wall paintings on different facades of the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital in Santander, a center that is currently participating in an international study to find a vaccine to stop the pandemic.

'Social distance' (in the image), 'Overcoming' and 'Caress' are the evocative names of his canvases.

As in his previous work in the Cantabrian prison of El Dueso, which the inmates helped him finish, this time he had the participation of patients from the children's oncology unit, who colored the portrait of a young man with their hands. that turns your wheelchair into a trampoline.

"Something that we as a society could do: take this crisis and use it to propel us forward."