Island in the Aegean Sea 10 km (6 miles) from the coast of Turkey. It is the birthplace of Sappho (about 612-580 BC), classical Greece's greatest poetess. Her passionate poetry - which seems to have been directed at her female admirers - has given us the word lesbian, for a female homosexual, after the name of the island.
Lesbos is a fertile land of hot springs, olive groves and sandy beaches. The chief town, Mitilini, on the eastern side of the island, and its harbor are overlooked by the huge castle of Gattelusi, which dates from 1373. The castle was built by a Genoese family that ruled the island from AD 1355 to 1462, when the Turks occupied it. South of Sign on the west coast of Lesbos is a petrified forest formed 800 000 years ago when conifers and sequoias were buried in volcanic ash. A rare species of salamander and blind mice live there.
The island has several Byzantine churches, monasteries and an archaeological site at Eressos, where Sappho was born.
Locals hypothesize that the legacy of Italian blood and culture in Cologne, colonized by the Romans more than 1500 years ago, makes the people more jovial and lighthearted. Cologne is the largest city on the Rhine.
Kolsch is not only the dialect spoken here but, also the name of their own top-fermented beer. There are more than 4,000 pubs, restaurant's and brewery taverns in Cologne.
Unlike many of the world's large cities, Cologne, with a population of over a million, gets better every day, there are more things to do and see, more new and innovative buildings... more
Travel is an opportunity to learn, whether geography, languages, history or other subjects.
Cologne is situated on the beautiful Rhine River.