When German speakers were expelled from Czechoslovakia after the second world war, Vrbovec lost almost its entire population, along with its wine-related traditions and festivals. This unassuming town, however, is the site of a spectacular cultural renaissance. While on a tour of the Czech wine region of Znojmo, I was initially a little dubious when we pulled up in Vrbovec (population: 1,200). Booking essential, heritageireland.ie Andy Pietrasik Vineyard revival, Czech Republic And mind-boggling to think that 5,000 years ago, without the aid of mathematical tools, stone age builders had arranged this aperture to be perfectly level with the horizon when the sun casts its first rays, on only one day a year. Darkness.”Īs we weren’t there on the shortest day of the year, we had to make do with the guide’s torch to simulate the sepulchral light. I could feel the spirits of the dead all around me … and then a point came after 17 minutes, a sudden cut-off. “It gradually widened to a 17cm band that illuminated the whole interior. “The first shot of orange-red light penetrated right to where I was sitting,” O’Kelly said. But only on one day of the year, the winter solstice. His theory was that the slit was put there to let in the rays of the rising sun to wake the spirits of the dead. O’Kelly found a slit above the entrance to a vaulted inner chamber that contained the bones of four adults and one child. The late archaeologist Michael J O’Kelly excavated and restored Newgrange from 1962 to 1975, and made a remarkable discovery, which he eerily related in Arthur C Clarke’s 1980s television series Mysterious World. Or, as an Irish colleague put it: “Post-restoration, it looks like a 1960s Methodist church.” But Newgrange tomb is among the oldest buildings in the world – it predates the pyramids by five centuries. From afar, you could mistake it for some sort of military installation. Photograph: MNStudio/AlamyĪt the end of a country lane about 15 minutes’ drive west of Drogheda sits a big grassy dome fronted with quartz and engraved kerb stones. Newgrange, a prehistoric monument built during the Neolithic period. Rachel Dixon A chilling experience in an ancient tomb, County Meath The Museo Canario in Las Palmas, the capital, is a good place to learn more about the indigenous Guanches who built it – yet another aspect of the Canary Islands I had been in ignorance about. On the edge of town is the fascinating archaeological site of Cañada de los Gatos, a pre-Hispanic settlement thought to be more than 1,300 years old. We climbed to a lookout point above the fishing quarter, then headed down to one of the numerous waterside restaurants to eat garlicky lapas a la plancha (grilled limpets) washed down with Canarian white wine – at a fraction of Venetian prices. Visitors can wander around the flower-filled streets and boardwalks, take a boat trip (no gondolas, sadly) and swim off the sandy beach under high cliffs. Puerto de Mogán is an old fishing port linked to a newer marina by a series of canals and bridges, hence the nickname. What I wasn’t expecting to find was a Little Venice. We trekked around Pico de las Nieves, the summit in the centre of the island, and ventured out on to the vast Maspalomas dunes. I’d been to Tenerife and Lanzarote, and was keen to explore another lunar landscape. When a friend invited me to Gran Canaria this summer, I thought I knew what to expect. As the digital and arts world continue to intersect and become increasingly mobile, this application is sure to add value to all professionals who operate within both spaces.īanner image by Leo Reynolds, licensed under Creative Commons.The old fishing port Puerto de Mogán on Gran Canaria. The Amazing Slow Downer’s intuitive user interface and integrated connectivity among other popular music applications makes it a must-have for music educators and performing arts administrators. Additionally, students will be able to leverage the educational benefits made possible by the app without any financial investment by working with the tailored file distributed to them directly by their instructor. The user can keep the altered sound file for their own records, share it with a broader audience, or utilize it immediately in a working environment. One of the best features of this version is that the user can now easily save and export the adjustments made during the working session within the program as an attachment to an email file, allowing the work session and sound adjustments to live beyond the confines of the app. In previous versions of The Amazing Slow Downer, sound file updates were limited to use within the program itself. Save your customized music for future use.
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