Instead of dragging suitcases thickness fee.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary expects and is considering - and provide savings with each new idea highly effective advertising for Eddy. How about with the plan a "Fat Tax", which is not introduced. Therefore, the customers themselves dragging their suitcases.

 

London / Dublin - With its Sperenzchen believes Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary the low cost airlines in the headlines. Was the subject of a plan, a so-called Fat Tax introducing international outrage.

The fee for overweight passengers should be levied on certain dimensions or exceed a certain weight, and came from a Europe-wide customer survey. The French government party condemned such pricing as a "clearly discriminatory" and "degrading".

How the Irish airline, on Friday announced in Dublin, but now they renounce to the contract. The "Fat Tax" can not usefully be implemented. Since the future only to be checked online and the machine only 25 minutes remain on the ground, whether an implementation is not possible, said a spokesman.

O'Leary, however, pursues his undaunted efforts, the transportation of people and suitcases to optimize cost. Currently, he ponders on the absence of baggage after workers. "We would say to the passengers,? Carry their baggage through the airport security and leave it at the foot of the stairs," said Ryanair chief, according to Reuters on Thursday at a press conference. "We put it in the cargo compartment and at the end of the flight back to the stairs and you take it there."

A spokesman said the company will not plan the luggage, if it is the fast handling time in danger. Europe's largest budget airline is always in the criticism of high charges for passengers profit to beat.

Wonders between heaven and earth.

Idyll monastery, saint worship and forgiveness of sins by the minute on the Gargano peninsula, such as atheists and believers can be her own personal experience miracles. Between the sea and the dense forest fascinating ancient places of pilgrimage with unearthly beauty, and - silence.

 

Rosa Zingaro has done nicely. The Mittfünfzigerin in camel-hair coat, with husband, daughter and elderly mother in the Sanctuary of San Michele came to pray and meditate. For years, Rosa deals with the Archangel Michael, and nowhere is it as close as in the grotto of Monte Sant'Angelo on the Gargano peninsula, "With Heart and sword has San Michele fought against evil - and he was terrible in his revenge, "says Rosa and formally vibrates with enthusiasm.

The family has been in the "House of the pilgrim" directly next to the sanctuary quartered, where eilfertige interveners with cappuccino cups and rattle the visitors in all aspects of the religious rite side. Who wants to gain an insight into the intimate and sometimes very personal relationship with their Italian Catholic saint who has come to Monte Sant'Angelo - one of the oldest places of pilgrimage in the western world.

"The place is marked by a profound religiosity influenced - everything here speaks of God," says Rosas husband Vito, an otherwise rather sober-looking management employee from Andria in Apulia. "This is still not in heaven, but no longer on the earth," says the man with long gray hair and straightens his glasses intellectuals.

Just four will be here the Archangel Michael appeared to the people - the first time in the year 490, as the legend that a bull ausgebüxter those cave just discovered, the San Michele chosen later than the sanctuary. "This cave is sacred to me, I will be their protector," continues to be the archangel said. "Where the rock opens, will forgive the sins of the people."

A seductive idea, until today, hundreds of believers to Monte Sant'Angelo lures. Near the Grotto altar with the statue of a sword swinging Michaels take confession from the monks. The doors of the cabin rattle in the chord, the murmur of penitence rebounds in the rock walls. Padre Marco would ask about the sanctuary tell but already sits for four hours in the confessional, and has given the rush of the faithful "really makes no sense for such things."

On the wall of the museum are connected the testimonies of the work of San Michele. Here are pictures of amateur artists who tried touching on the nature detail and "realism" of who, where and when the Archangel was saved. Since blood squirt fountains of operating table - but Uncle Giovanni is about the perilous surgery. Since two Carabinieri racing car with a twelve meter deep down the slope - and yet bear no Schramme it. Whether work-related accidents, bombing or heavy storms at sea - San Michele has all these people from certain death preserved. "Grazia ricevuta" is the magic word - the evidence of God's grace is real and tangible.

Santa Maria di Pulsano: plunge into the divine Hermitage

Who lively to Monte Sant'Angelo, who have a convent stay presents contemplative and meditative, which was only nine kilometers away Abbey of Santa Maria di Pulsano to the heart. Already on the way there will be breathtaking embrace of loneliness. The huge Stahltor at the entrance must be opened by hand and there is a faint sigh of themselves. In the unreal landscape rocks there is a huge cross over the Gulf of Manfredonia, whose waves of ice dancing and sunspots are durchsiebt.

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Precisely here, in the hills of Pulsano, fled once the first Christian hermits of the world - and you can imagine why: It smells of honey and spring flowers, a disheveled donkey grazes peacefully next to a group of pigs on the hillside. The Abbey nestles in the rugged rocks, as if they hold on to them - no wonder it is enthroned on a 200 meter deep ravine. Already in the 7th Century, there was a monastery here, which destroyed 500 years later by the Benedictines was rebuilt.

Only a cowbell and birds can be heard - otherwise silence reigns above, a peace which is the heart and the limbs may become difficult. "I have from the beginning to the great fascination of this place felt," says the monk living here Efrem, a slender man with a watch, clever eyes. For all its theological reflection was the life in the monastery very simple: "Our aim is to existential things, not the trappings."

The 52-year-old sits in the plain, but with icons and candles decorated the monastery church, on whose altar is a powerful, natural grotto warp. On the pews shiny brass plates with the names of those who have donated money for it. In the air hangs still the incense of the last fair.

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Until a few years ago was a Pulsano Geisterort consisted only of ruins and rubble, after the monastery of the early 19th Century and abandoned ruin was. Only in 1997 was inaugurated the new Abbey will be - thanks to the help of numerous community members, monks and donations to the collectors of the "Movement for Pulsano from Manfredonia.

Orthodox Liturgy on Easter Sunday

Is still constructed and rehabilitated, the life of the clergy and of the approximately one hundred community members, however, has long since found its rhythm. "We keep a very original monastic life, but are not too strict," says Efrem brother. It was important to be open for people to stay. As in many monasteries in Italy are also available in Pulsano a guesthouse with a few small and simple rooms in which the faithful and the curious can stay, enjoy the silence and to God, or can find. Obviously, they may participate in the worship and pray with the monks.

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Walking through Rome: Dolce Vita hourly (07.05.2009)

Efrem and his three brothers live under the rules of the Benedictines, but also maintain the Byzantine tradition, in 8th and 9 Century in the great Greek monasteries was developed.

So, for example, follows the worship service on Easter Sunday of the Orthodox liturgy - and if it is cosmopolitan: In a solemn procession of the monks draw with the community on the monastery grounds, to stay in different places and read the gospel in one of twelve languages - including also the dialect of the mountain dwellers. An unusual, and reverently touching ritual under open sky, where you can view the beauty of different languages and a sense of global solidarity in the belief that can get goose bumps.

Brother Massimo, the art expert to the convent: It deals extensively with icons and their symbolism, and there his knowledge and traditional techniques to young monks, which a number of exceptionally authentic-looking pictures have produced. In an adjoining room of the church are the golden Madonna with the piercing gaze issued. Whoever wants to can buy the icons and the ongoing restoration work will support.

For seven years, lives in Pulsano brother Efrem - and do not want to miss a single day. Praying five times a day, he directs seminars and studying the Bible. For him Christian means to live the life of Jesus Christ, and thus imitate the Son of God to be similar. Pulsano was easy for him the ideal city: "Here I can give back the love that I got."

Dolce Vita hourly.

How much Rome fits in a day? For tourists can walk on the search for the Dolce Vita, as it is from Fellini films knows. You will experience a city rich in ancient treasures - but sometimes has trouble in arriving today.

 

Rome - Finalmente! After a painfully long week full of noise and hectic everyday life takes on the Tiber at last weekend up. If Peter is now tilted in St. Peter's and the sunlight wraps, then you can start the day, as he always should start with a cappuccino and a sweet-filled cornetto.

Whether museum and cinema, shopping or an extended trip to the Roman restaurant with an aperitif in advance - all but really wants to be moody begun. And even if the "Dolce Vita" of Federico Fellini with a light layer of dust covered the history and the Rome of Pier Paolo Pasolini in the past: to stroll and enjoy the Eternal City invites always.

So, what was with the cappuccino in the cafeteria at the top of the Terrazza Caffarelli with the view of the Palatine hill? At the bottom of the Piazza del Campidoglio by Michelangelo collects a wedding party, which still varies between composite and joyful countenance.

Espresso with a view

The army already attracts international tourists up to the treasures of the Capitoline Museums to admire. Since, the Romans rather not snake, but are straight on to the terrace on the smallest of the Roman hill and looks reverently - with a cup of espresso in his hand - on the mild morning mist in Trastevere neighborhood is on the right side Tiber.

Such a view invites further to stroll, the city is manageable and provides enjoyment of art in all corners and ends. Certainly, Rome is not a metropolis of boulevards such as the Seine-Paris.

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The "Eternal City": Center of Rome is easily explored on foot - with the car to get ahead but only poorly

But Rome is littered with gems from the ancient and later times - such as the Quirinalspalast inhabited by President Giorgio Napolitano and only a short walk away from the cafeteria. In the former Stables - the Scuderie, which is now a museum - the art encounters interested trotter on works from the brilliant time, most recently about the high Renaissance masterpieces by Giovanni Bellini. And that is certainly not just a magnet for tourists Rome.

Before lunch with a light antipasto and a glass of Frascati wine sits the money yet not so loose. The shopping spree, to a vertrödelten day in the capital of Italy in any case, may be good but we still put the afternoon - perhaps in the Via del Babuino between Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps, that is, below the Villa Borghese, on the northern edge of the historic center . Severed with the New York's Madison Avenue, the street lined with boutiques trend known only as names, from Jil Sander to Tiffany's.

Too modern for Rome?

Before lunch, but still waiting for the Emperor Augustus on the banks of the Tiber a "buon giorno" - his Peace Altar and the Ara Pacis museum "are at least talk again in Rome. Because the post-new mayor Giovanni Alemanno likes the strictly contemporary building just do not know that the American star architect Richard Meier to protect the plant was designed. My favorite would have torn him Alemanno. So you have to hurry, the hyper-modern piece of architecture of glass and steel of the "Ara Pacis Augustae" to pay tribute.

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Because actually doing it but the city with the past, overwhelming everything quite well, now and then a step to venture into today.

Now is the enormous appetite but "spaghetti all vongole" or rather the Involtini (rolls) on Roman Art? Let's see what "Il Gusto, near Augustus around the corner on the card. The well-known faces from the Roman cultural life are already there, it is a day when you outside on the terrace on the Piazza Augusto Imperatore place and that they can sit back. Herrlich!

"Il Gusto" is a gastronomic magnet concept in style and seems to have no end: Osteria and cafe, pizzeria and wine bar, cheese shop and shop with fine kitchen utensils - it's all that yes, the "Dolce Vita" in the 21st Century. Well, Fellini Via Veneto is the sterile realm meeting stunted, and Anita Ekberg increased today in the Trevi Fountain, and would rubberneck Carabinieri quickly on the spot.

Above all, Rome is no cinema metropolis of rank, as well helping the young, previously little-known film nothing. The Kinofan needs during his afternoon stroll but not go so far to get the latest Woody Allen movie in its original version to be able to see. Because there is the one the movie "Metropolitan" on the Via del Corso, a hotspot for cinema friends, from the outside it looks like a classic cafe with tables and bar

As an alternative, in the historical center would remain the "Nuovo Olimpio" in the small Via in Lucina. Popular with all that but on the Roman noses look is still hidden in the Trastevere, the "Nuovo Sacher", one of the director Nani Moretti equipped meeting place for cinema lovers of all nations. After the visit to the cinema loads a movie nearby bookstore to browse, as well as for brunch.

Buffalo mozzarella and balsamic Modena

About the cinematic debates would smooth the shopping list for the delicatessen shop in oblivion can. When does "Roscioli in the Via dei Giubbonari near the Campo dei Fiori is actually sealed? Well, lucky again, and as soon as look at the showcase will run one's mouth water: buffalo mozzarella and parmesan are matured well here, and the aged Edelessig "balsamico from Modena is also available.

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Now the legs tired from the city running, it will be time for an aperitif. While the Romans usually a wide arc around the Piazza Navona tourist magnet, is in addition to a very silent street hidden "Caffe della Pace" - since time immemorial, it seems - an attraction of intellectuals and those who like to keep. The tired walkers opted, however, but now for the canapés in the "Salotto 42", the equally as cozy chic resort on the charming Piazza di Pietra to the Chamber of Commerce.

How does the evening? Another leap in the multi-museum before dinner - or maybe more after that? Indeed, following an equally successful as long renovation invites the Palazzo delle Esposizioni on Friday and Saturday for the late visit.

The magnificent building on the Via Nazionale moves only because of its magnificent architectural stockings interested in the arts - and the evening is not just a special atmosphere, one is also not on the feet. As for the exhibitions, there is the enormous bandwidth, and they sometimes threaten the general store to be. After a Mark Rothko retrospective in his high holy halls of the Palazzo bestach last example, with a large Etruscan review.

So it only to the museum and then "Perilli in the Testaccio district, the scene of Rome, the audience for some time for themselves discovered. Inconspicuous on the broad Via Marmorata located, is "Perilli" to those taverns to the "good old days" remember and thus for the day's finale almost obtrude. Lamminnereien or the traditional oxtail stew: The choice is difficult.

At the final chord Kastanienmus feel of a stroll then, as the day was exhausting. The dance in a disco-Testaccio falls flat this time - and the diary is full anyway.

Versailles for dogs.

Seed bank with history: The French National Stud Haras du Pin is a tourist magnet and famous for its Stallions. The millionenteuren animals live in luxury are perfectly maintained - after all they have to create a considerable workload.

 

Argentan - "workaholic" is good: He has his name not be honored, but must be earned grace chew bread. The 27-year-old colt has the French National Stud Haras du Pin in Normandy brought a lot of money: 5000 Euro mare owners had to pay each time for a sperm donation from the American Trotter to obtain.

But since 2005, "workaholic" as a stallion in retirement, and he lies on his head curiously stable out when a group of tourists approached. Stud Guide Hervé Motas told that France's government for the purchase of the horse once converted one million euros issued. As amazed the visitors - as so often in this extraordinary place.

The Haras du Pin is the oldest of almost 20 national stud, which makes France. The buildings are from 1715, the Directorate for a castle-like building was built in 1730 completed. "Louis XIV decided that the farm is being set up," says Motas. Has experienced the "Sun King" to perfection but not anymore.

Because of the symmetry and the splendor of the buildings, the stud is often known as the "Versailles of the horses' means in reference to Louis XIV for large-scale converted castle near Paris.

Stallion Parade is Thursday

A landscape full of green pastures and forests surrounding the stud. It is located in the province of Normandy in the department of Orne, the closest major city is Argentan. But despite the secluded location, there are days in summer, where the parking spaces are scarce, because the number of visitors is so great: Every Thursday, the red uniformed employees at the stud "Jeudis du Pin" stallions before. There are horse-riding shows and dressage and horse show against the backdrop of the historic building.

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Of the 60 breeding stallions of the Haras du Pin Decksaison stay during February to July 20 in the stud, the others are in various locations in Normandy distributed. Who in keeping as many horses want to see, is planning his visit, therefore, better later in the summer. You can see there are Arabs stallions, as a working horse known cold-blooded Percheron and other breeds.

Many stallions have a past as racehorses. In the summer of 2008, for example, was "Daramsar" Haras du Pin in the home, one of the Aga Khan bought horse, 2006, five times in seven races and won 157,600 euros in total prize money einstrich. "He had this season 100 mares covered," says Hervé Motas proudly.

When visitors get a tour among other things, the upholstery can be seen, even goes to the coaches during the tour. They all come from the 19th Century, even a red-painted old stagecoach is underneath. "Before they were ten horses were always tense," says Motas, while his audience through the eyes have been elsewhere.

Because compared to the depot is located in the tall trees shade the grave of "Furioso," with many colorful flowers decorated. The stallion was 1946 to 1967 here at home and is the father of some 300 foals, many of whom were celebrities too. "Lutteur B" carried his rider Pierre d'Oriola Jonqueres in October 1964 in Tokyo, even the Olympic gold medal in show jumping.

Other studs must conclude

"We are a seed bank with a lot of history and beautiful architecture," says Hervé Motas at the end of his leadership and brings the purpose of the Haras du Pin in order to the point. How long the time to go further, in which the French state horse breeding as actively supported as it is today, however, is unclear.

The organization wants the national stud in the summer of 2009 to refocus begin foreseeable that in the coming three to four years, probably some studs are closed, "says Andrea Sölter, the representative of the Normandy Tourist Organization in Germany. According to their information will be located in the Normandy National stud - besides the Haras du Pin still in Saint Lô - but not be affected.

"Workaholic" may therefore continue to head to the curious stable stretch out when once again a tourist group, the "Versailles of the horses" and visited the stud farm leaders from the totals tell the American Trotter in his best years here, "deserve" has.

In the sanctuary of the whales.

Gigantic shipwrecks, colorful coral gardens and playing Dolphins: An Italian Riviera between San Remo and La Spezia is a fantastic diving spot next to another. From time to collect Pot and its fin like Fluke greeting the athletes.

 

If the members of the visiting Nuremberg from diving club now do not need, then: hineinschlüpfen into a skin-tight wet suit, a choppy ride with a small boat and the subsequent descent into the cool, fresh Mediterranean Sea. Yesterday evening was long, was in Portofino Fiesta, and the missed sleep still is expressed on the eyelids. But they are here to Liguria nicest dive sites to explore - and this is now time not from the beach.

The rising air disciples into the boat and look for a place near their diving equipment. Gradually they are hot under the suit. With a loud "Andiamo!" Paolo drives, the skipper, the last in a hurry to Flea. Finally he started the engine and tuckert from the harbor. With the slower pace he crossed the bay, past the luxury yachts and carved into the rock Paraggi Villa, in which every now and then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to leave einmietet.

Outside the bay there Paolo gas. The boat flies over the waves, falls and rises: Rodeo on the sea. The divers cling firmly to the rope holding out against tanks Scheppers. Then it's done: "Uno, due, tre", with a Rückwartsrolle they can fall into the waves.

Farbpracht marine marguerites

By immersing the fatigue disappears, the heavy diving equipment is only a light backpack, and the divers are under water to walkers. The steep, from the surf rundgespülten rocks dominate the landscape below the surface. As pointed out by hand aufgetürmt are giant boulders on the seabed. Some rocks have faces, others are scratched by the falling debris of bygone days. Large colonies of anemones crust, by the Italians' Margherite di Mare "referred to pull on the rocks like flowers with a yellow sea.

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Deep below the fauna is quite another. At the bottom of the rocks hanging in the shade, hundreds of red coral. In the Mediterranean Sea is such a high concentration today, little more can be found: Too intense for decades they have been in jewelry caught. On the edge of the coral garden to grow a further depth of jewelry, rotgefächerte gorgonians, outside the light cone of the divers lights dark blue stone on the stick. Intermediate lugen always thick moray eels from the columns, the mouth wide open.

A swarm of silver bream moves slowly past the divers. A group mackerel appears suddenly, frantically chasing bream through the round, up, down and away. The groupers, which has become familiar here, are just there and watch - they can be sure that nothing happens to them. For over ten years may, in the marine park of Portofino and harpuniert no longer be fished commercially.

From Portofino control from the Nuremberg their next dive spot on. You drive past Genoa and follow the direction Arenzano a coastal road, which indeed the word "picturesque" deserves. It smells of salt and citrus fruit, the warm wind caresses the skin, and in the winding old villages sit on small wooden Schemeln before trattorie: Italy as a picture book.

Steel giant in the Mediterranean

Their goal: the 334-meter-long tanker "Amoco Milford Haven" in 1991 in the Bay of Genoa when deleting its cargo caught fire. It was the worst oil spill on the Ligurian coast. The ship broke into two parts, the rear section with a length of approximately 250 feet sank a half mile away from Arenzano: The "Haven" is now the largest ship in the Mediterranean Sea and ruin one of the largest wrecks worldwide.

The tanker is more than 80 meters deep on, or stands upright on the keel, as he would still want to ride. From the hull up to the bridge is the wreck as high as a 18-storey skyscraper. It is a water column of 30 meters. The huge fireplace has been cut off, so that ships calling at the port of Genoa to start, not to hang him.

Who long and deep dive will find here his playground. But even ordinary sports divers come to the mega-site at their expense. A rope leads the group down to the boat, dive guide Mauro observed them closely: Already, some divers are dropped into the bottomless because they underestimated the depth or to have drunk from the nitrogen, which is below their blood anfüllt.

Decks lead into the darkness and look "like the paragraphs of an oversized staircase." Flocks of red flags perch inhabit the wreck. The leaders, from deck to deck, are oysters with seaweed and overgrown. An eel is hiding in a small fireplace and angry jerks back and forth, as it the glow of the lamp fault. In the control room to get through a burned-out windows. He is empty, the flames, the walls and instruments destroyed - only a small statue is still there: a saint of the crew before the accident should be preserved.

"Wal! As he blows!"

In addition to moray eels, sea bream and eels cavort mammals before the Ligurian coast: The entire section above Sardinia belongs to Santuario dei Cetacean, the "whale sanctuary". The marine reserve was established in 1999 at the instigation of the countries bordering Italy, France and Monaco established. Dolphins, pilot whale and bottlenose dolphin can be seen here regularly. From time to come even Finn and sperm whales over, bump into the wind from its surface and dive back into the depths, the powerful Fluke how to greet collected.

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The chance of these graceful giants to face to get at is "whale watching" tours, however, significantly higher than for a dive. As Manuela Capone of the diving base "Pianeta Blu" in Ventimiglia says, "we often see dolphins under water. But the great whales avoid the coastal areas, they usually pull over in the open sea."

Dives in front of the Riviera around San Remo worthwhile but even without Walbesuch, says Nürnbergerin Nina: "Whether submerged helicopter or a fighter aircraft from World War II, to discover there is enough. This is the good for the Mediterranean fish abundance, as determined by wuselige flags perch , moray eels and stunning bright red mullet kings - the only cardinal perch species in European waters. " My personal highlight? "A two-meter-high fish-moon, which occurs at the surface of the birds had shed putzen." The diskusförmigen and clumsy-looking fish can often spend hours at the surface, its up to two-ton body inclining to the side.

For the diving club is to stay stopped, at least what the diving is concerned. The memory of their digital cameras are full, the memories in my head. Lunch is their morning flying back to Germany - and if they are on the last evening, should be boring, it is in one of the many small towns to find again a fiesta.

Climb into purgatory.

He hisses, puffed, and gargles prustet: The Stromboli is a very active monster - and his ascent is not for timid. blogs-ONLINE-author Annette Langer fought in more than 900 meters above sea level to a fiery gala event.

 

There are tourists like my friend Bela, on the Kamchatka from a military helicopter and raises hopes that the parachute opens. And there are travelers like me who like to sit around in cafes, drinking cocktails, and the idea Aktivurlaub to have to do it, get shortness of breath.

The second category, people like to go to Italy, where they meet many like-minded, who prefer her over the edge sunglasses a freshly grilled swordfish examine, as their lives for a bit of muscle be put in jeopardy. Nevertheless, even in the land of the "dolce far niente" sporting challenges possible - if one wants high and the evening gala event "volcano spits fire" on the island of Stromboli has posted.

"Asthmatic prefer to stay at home" I read in a travel guide to celebrate the 926-meter factories - and begin immediately to hüsteln nervous. A total of six hours will the adventure take you during descent sink so deep in fine ash dust that his hand before your eyes no longer see, they say. I see myself with breathing mask and schweißnassem T-Shirt halbblind stumble over rocks, and decides, with the threat of total disgrace vorauszuschicken a dress rehearsal.

Vulcano, the aliens

In Sicily Milazzo I climb into a boat to Vulcano, the third largest of the Aeolian islands and named all the fire mountains of this world. Here waits the little brother of Stromboli on me - the only 391-meter-high Gran Cratere, by the Romans as a forge of the fire god Vulcanus revered. The advantage of this crater must climb alone, without a dynamic leader or gemsenhaft nimble Swiss, annoyed at the lame-eyed stragglers. Here there is only me and the volcano, the biting me welcome sulfur vapors blow into his face.

It rains a little, as I am from Porto di Levante on the road doing. In the Palm Gardens glow fuchsiafarbene flowers, gorse bushes push falteringly First flowers. Looks really harmless from the mountain. Shortly after the vegetation boundary, however, fairly steep climb quickly. My old hiking shoes on the rubble of the first meter final on their minds. I begin to sweat terribly at what I rarely do otherwise and somehow find undignified. Already I regret, for lunch ordered a red wine to have, because now my face is red and the legs are as heavy as an overdose after autogenic training.

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But few minutes later waves, the first reward: For a careless glance over your shoulder all appear Aeolian Islands - Alicudi, Filicudi, Salina, Lipari, Panarea, and even the distant Stromboli - the most beautiful sunlight beneath me. Like on the side is a sleeping giant in the Tyrrhenian Sea and deceive the fact that under the sea occasionally blogs the hell is going on.

I Trabe continue through the ash-gray sea, when suddenly a red-white glowing, semi-arid rocky landscape before me. The eruptions of the past have deep furrows in the soft stone withdrawn - today carve love couples car keys with her initials in the tuff.

Only a few meters, it is up to the goal when suddenly a fierce wind like a wall before me and I almost umwirft. So angry he tugs on me that I am on all fours crawling on the crater rim in order to take a look at the depth to be able to throw. The dust is everywhere - in the eyes, ears, nose - and the lens of my camera.

I look down into a brown hole ödes, long look at an almost magical pull unfolded. About the crater snake white vapor, volcanic gases, which rise from so-called fumaroles. The sulfur has the landscape lemongrass green color, so that one has the feeling that an alien planet landed on his. I pinch the eyes, to the unforgettable experience on the retina burn, and then join the retreat. Phew, I can tomorrow for the premiere.

Respect, not fear!

"Everyone has his own personal mountain, he must conquer," said Zaza, since 20 years on Stromboli and a legend among the local leaders of the volcano. "And it is unimportant how much is," he added smiling.

Behind the bearded, he is original, my fear of mountain, Stromboli, and puffed and prustet, gargles and groans - "just like a living being," says Zaza. In December 2002 caused the most active volcano in Europe for terror, as a part of his cone demolition after an eruption, and crashed into the sea
meter high tidal waves triggered. A year later there was another serious outbreak, in which huge Lavageschosse many houses destroyed. Access to the crater was closed for two years. Today, the summit only if accompanied by an authorized officer to be climbed - and take their job seriously.

"One must have respect but no fear," says Mario Pruiti, studied political science and for years local leaders volcanic organizer "Magamatrek". Accidents so far there have been only if safety precautions were ignored. That
National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania (INGV) monitors the seismic activity of the volcano, the Civil Defense and the Interior under standing "for high-risk" attempt to assess risks as precisely as possible.

Pruiti lives in the tiny village Ginostra in the southwest of the island, the only by boat to reach is: "I is not about the spectacle," says the 41-year-olds. "For me, the volcano is fascinating, because he has more than 1000 years, is constantly in motion and changed." The Stromboli is the perfect combination of four elements: "The magma is the synthesis of everything."

Against 16 clock spin trekking the first candidate to the office of
Magamatrek On. It sits on the stone wall, watching the sea and chat. Motorized tricycles rattle over, everyone greets everyone, because everyone knows everyone. The 500-soul village of Stromboli, despite glut welcoming tourists and manageable. They indulged the myth of the beautiful Ingrid Bergmann, the 1949 here for the recordings to Rossellini's melodrama "Stromboli" ungelenk on the cliffs räkelte.

Design for the rest stop.

Bridges with glass shelf and toilet houses marble: Norway embellished his trunk - also to be more affluent, older Wohnmobilstellplätze attract tourists. But not every design gimmick unfolded the desired effect.

 

Lillehammer - As the sheiks in Dubai also set the Norwegians for the period after the oil boom in tourism. If the "black gold" from the North Sea floor no petro dollars will be tourism jobs. Artificial islands and five-star-plus hotels are in the land of the fjords, however, not planned. Instead, the country cleans trunk 18 by the year 2012 as "National tourist routes" out. Auto tourists must look for new rest areas, viewpoints and quality-controlled leisure facilities along the routes.

"We have chosen Norway's most beautiful streets," says Helge Stikbakke, project manager at the Statens vegvesen, the state roads in the former Olympic city Lillehammer. "Routes, where the beauty of the landscape from the car window can be experienced." The objective is to provide alternatives to the main roads to offer and encourage tourists to time and nature to enjoy.

Furthermore, it is arrived, along the routes that many outdoor activities are possible and the tourist service providers meet rigorous requirements. However: "We are only responsible for the infrastructure," explains Stikbakke. "We can not prescribe the restaurants, what they offer."

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Stikbakke displays a slideshow from Sphärenklänge entertained, roads are to be seen. In narrow fjords roads, roads under blue skies and snowy mountains, roads with hairpin curves, which is as gray snakes through green hills wind. As if they, by nature, there always were. If the weather permitting, Norway is beautiful. So why all the effort?

Tourism is increasingly important

Norway has for many years in comparison to competitors such as Canada and New Zealand visitor numbers to the lost, Helge Stikbakke replied. Besides the Ölwirtschaft looked at the fishing and agriculture into an uncertain future. For rural areas as tourism industry will become increasingly important - hence the project.

Six roads are still considered "Nasjonale Turistveger recognized. In Fjord Norway, these are the Old Strynefjellstraße the trunk seven the Hardangervidda plateau and Sognefjellstraße. In addition, a route on Rondanemassiv, a part of Highway 17 to the coast and Europe 10, which connects islands of Lofoten. By 2012, the twelve remaining streets to follow.

Some 240 kilometers north of Lillehammer you can see what Helge Stikbakke with "nature of the car window," says: In hairpin bends snaking the Trollstigen about 800 meters up to the pass. The slope is more than ten percent. At the halfway lead a narrow, stone bridge at 320 meters high waterfall Stigfossen over. The mist spraying up on the roadway.

Experiences such as this, the "Golden Gray 'enthusiasm - the" Golden horror "from Germany and the Benelux countries, whose children have long been stripped and that of their academic content now available on self-organized tours to motorhome relaxation.

Since it is not enough, new street signs that are on the premium routes attention. Where previously Allerwelts architecture made wide at the roadside, there are picnic areas, fire departments and outhouse made of steel, glass, concrete, granite, wood and even marble.

Also on Trollstigen Plateau was built next to the service and facilities as well a new platform designed.