Destinations
Blake’s Lock Museum, charm and character of Reading
by admin on Nov.09, 2009, under Destinations
With its own character and vibrant history, Reading is located only twenty minutes from London on the banks of the river Kennet and the river Thames. Among many other attractions in Reading visitors will find one of the charming museums that has its own character. A walk along the River will bring any visitor to this captivating Blakes Lock Museum in an old Pumping Station.
Occupying two former industrial buildings that include preserved turbine machinery, Blake’s Lock Museum describes the story of two rivers named as the Kennet and the Thames. The two buildings are known as the Screen House and the Turbine House and the former displays a gypsy caravan where the visitors can find a medieval mill wheel and engage in interactive shows to find out how the mill worked. Exhibits also include full-scale Victorian shops.
Finding Reading accommodation in a fine Reading hotel will ease ones visit to this museum. One such hotel will be Millennium Hotel located in Reading.
Occupying two former industrial buildings that include preserved turbine machinery, Blake’s Lock Museum describes the story of two rivers named as the Kennet and the Thames. The two buildings are known as the Screen House and the Turbine House and the former displays a gypsy caravan where the visitors can find a medieval mill wheel and engage in interactive shows to find out how the mill worked. Exhibits also include full-scale Victorian shops.
Finding Reading accommodation in a fine Reading hotel will ease ones visit to this museum. One such hotel will be Millennium Hotel located in Reading.
Celebrities Vacation Destination Alicante, Spain
by admin on Sep.23, 2009, under Destinations
All in all the Alicante region of Spain is a great place to either unwind or to have an adventure, relaxing at beaches depending on what you are looking for and with a large expat community, it is no wonder many celebrities around the world visit Alicante just like desperate housewives star Eva Longoria is holidaying in Spain at the moment in Alicante. After having spent the weekend playing the host center with an event of charity, Eva Longoria went to the mode of relaxing and relieving, returning a little basketball and the exhibitor with the sun upwards on the beaches of Alicante, Spain. She showed off her toned figure while stripping down to a tie-dyed bikini on the sunny summer day. The Hoteles Alicante is a perfect cut current to enjoy their holiday’s vacation as to accommodate celebrity’s business trip.
Live The Life of Johnny Depp in a Chateau in France
by admin on Sep.03, 2009, under Destinations
You might not spend $16,000 for a bottle of 1978 Romanee Conti in a London restaurant and hang around with Rolling stones bad boys Keith Richards and Ron Wood, but you can spend a week or two living like Johnny Depp in a French Chateau.
He spends 6 months a year when not filming living happily in a village in France with his wife Vanessa Paradis former Chanel girl and their 2 children, Jack and Lily-Rose.
Depp fell in love with France while shooting the Ninth Gate here in 1998. Today, locals regularly spot him picnicking with his family, shopping for veggies at the village market and riding around the countryside on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
“Each morning, I can go to the little village not far from my chateau, have a cup of coffee, sit there with my girl and not worry about the paparazzi,” he told reporters in 2001.
“I love America. I love going back, seeing my family and friends – but it’s wonderful to get back to France and be living in a tiny village with nothing around. There is still the possibility to live a simple life. You can go to the market, walk about, buy fruits and vegetables – the things they did 100 and 200 years ago. We have moments when we’re sitting in our house and our kids are playing, and we look at one another and think, ‘Thank God we escaped.’ “
He says he is shocked by the gun violence in American schools and feels it is far safer raising a family in France. “I want to raise my baby away from all the weirdness.”
Neighbours say “He’s someone who will join us old men for a friendly game of Boules on a Sunday afternoon then have a drink at the bar,” Depp, Paradis and their two kids generally go marketing on Thursday mornings and can be seen on many Sunday mornings wandering around an open-air flea market. It is a very normal family life.
“Johnny often has a little chat with us in French. He’s good, but not fluent yet.”
At 40, Depp loves to play loud electric guitar, wears clothes that could use a cleaning, occasionally orders $16,000 bottles of wine in restaurants, and pals around with Rolling Stones bad boys Keith Richards and Ron Wood. He also has a large collection of guns, (a paparazzi deterent) a habit he got from his father.
Depp is also known for his love of French wines. He recently confessed to having his “Winona Forever” tattoo abbreviated (via laser) to read “Wino Forever.”
He announced to Figaro that Chateau Calon-Segur, a Saint-Estephe third-growth, is his favourite wine. In addition to plugging Calon-Segur as his favourite tipple because it’s both a great value and delicious, he’s admitted to admiring grand estates Petrus and Chateau Cheval-Blanc, in addition to Burgundy’s Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, purveyor of the most high priced wine in the world.
He spends 6 months a year when not filming living happily in a village in France with his wife Vanessa Paradis former Chanel girl and their 2 children, Jack and Lily-Rose.
Depp fell in love with France while shooting the Ninth Gate here in 1998. Today, locals regularly spot him picnicking with his family, shopping for veggies at the village market and riding around the countryside on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
“Each morning, I can go to the little village not far from my chateau, have a cup of coffee, sit there with my girl and not worry about the paparazzi,” he told reporters in 2001.
“I love America. I love going back, seeing my family and friends – but it’s wonderful to get back to France and be living in a tiny village with nothing around. There is still the possibility to live a simple life. You can go to the market, walk about, buy fruits and vegetables – the things they did 100 and 200 years ago. We have moments when we’re sitting in our house and our kids are playing, and we look at one another and think, ‘Thank God we escaped.’ “
He says he is shocked by the gun violence in American schools and feels it is far safer raising a family in France. “I want to raise my baby away from all the weirdness.”
Neighbours say “He’s someone who will join us old men for a friendly game of Boules on a Sunday afternoon then have a drink at the bar,” Depp, Paradis and their two kids generally go marketing on Thursday mornings and can be seen on many Sunday mornings wandering around an open-air flea market. It is a very normal family life.
“Johnny often has a little chat with us in French. He’s good, but not fluent yet.”
At 40, Depp loves to play loud electric guitar, wears clothes that could use a cleaning, occasionally orders $16,000 bottles of wine in restaurants, and pals around with Rolling Stones bad boys Keith Richards and Ron Wood. He also has a large collection of guns, (a paparazzi deterent) a habit he got from his father.
Depp is also known for his love of French wines. He recently confessed to having his “Winona Forever” tattoo abbreviated (via laser) to read “Wino Forever.”
He announced to Figaro that Chateau Calon-Segur, a Saint-Estephe third-growth, is his favourite wine. In addition to plugging Calon-Segur as his favourite tipple because it’s both a great value and delicious, he’s admitted to admiring grand estates Petrus and Chateau Cheval-Blanc, in addition to Burgundy’s Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, purveyor of the most high priced wine in the world.
Rosarito “The Hollywood Connection”
by admin on Aug.15, 2009, under Destinations
By Victor Loza & Michelle Meyn
Tourism is not new to Baja California or the Rosarito area. The first tourists to visit Rosarito arrived around 1874 to hunt and fish, but it was another 52 years, in 1926, that the Rosarito Beach Hotel was founded. The opening of this historic Hotel is generally credited with the beginning of the tourist period and was very much the forerunner in the development of the area.
During the 1940’s Rosarito became a haven for the Hollywood set welcoming Rita Hayworth and her husband Prince Aly Khan as regular patrons as well as other Hollywood visitors such as Orson Wells, Mickey Rooney, Ava Gardner, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Kim Novak, Clark Gable, Lana Turner and the legendary beauty Marilyn Monroe. In fact, Marilyn Monroe loved the ambience of Rosarito so much, she had furniture made for her first and only home in Brentwood, California, which included the bed where she died.
Frank Sinatra and the “Rat Pack” were also frequent visitors to Rosarito, spending many long hours at the Rosarito Beach Hotel’s bar. It was not unusual to have an impromptu concert in the wee hours of the morning by Frank, Dino, and Sammy, which brought in staff members who worked in the hotel. It has been said that some waiters got as much as a $1,000 tip just to cater to Frank and his buddies.
John Wayne, who was always attracted to Latin women, would visit Rosarito to surround himself with the culture and to woo an occasional beauty or two. Ava Gardner would visit the Tijuana bull fights and then come to Rosarito Beach where she knew she would be unnoticed.
Clark Gable, one of Hollywood’s “man’s man” loved to visit Rosarito for deep sea fishing; while Gregory Peck loved to stroll on the beach and Lana Turner cherished having local cobblers custom make shoes for her. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn also frequented Rosarito which allowed them to spend some quality time alone and away from the prying eyes of the press.
James Cameroon, fell in love with the city and brought Rosarito and the Hollywood Connection to the spotlight once again with the construction of Fox Studios, Baja. Built specifically for the Academy Award winning film, Titanic, the studio boasts the biggest indoor water tank in the world. A mock up of the ship was constructed on the grounds, and the sinking of the mighty Titanic was filmed in the water tank.
Cameroon spent years of research and huge amounts of money to make sure that every detail in the movie was as close to the original Titanic as humanly possible. You can now tour the set and see the china used during the filming with the Titanic logo, playing cards with the same logo, visit the room where Rose took the ax and freed Jack, see the boiler room, or take a picture on the same replica deck where Jack proclaimed, “I’m the King of the World.”
Following Titanic, Fox used the studio to film other movies including Master and Commander with Russell Crowe; 007’s Quantum of Solace and Tomorrow Never Dies, and Pirates of the Caribbean, just to name a few. During the filming of these movies it was not unusual to see Russell Crowe walking down Benito Juarez, or Johnny Depp and Laurence Fishbourne having dinner at a local restaurant and eating with locals as if they were old friends. Once again Rosarito became “the Hollywood Connection.”
Some of the recent visitors that have been seen leisurely walking the streets of Rosarito include stars like Jessica Simpson, Sandra Bullock, Jesse James, and Cuba Gooding Jr. In fact, Cuba Gooding Sr. loves the city so much that he now lives in the Calafia Condos Resort and Villas.
It is no doubt that Rosarito has continued throughout the years to be the best kept secret in Hollywood. Even the Hollywood superstar’s cannot deny the beauty of walking under the stars in this wonderful piece of paradise. And that’s why we call it “The Hollywood Connection.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Victor Loza and Sharon Heafey are co-founders of Your Baja Connection. YBC provides real estate and relocation services for buyers in Mexico. YBC can be reached at 858.748.5870, via email at YBC@YourBajaConnection.com, or at www.yourbajaconnection.com.
Tourism is not new to Baja California or the Rosarito area. The first tourists to visit Rosarito arrived around 1874 to hunt and fish, but it was another 52 years, in 1926, that the Rosarito Beach Hotel was founded. The opening of this historic Hotel is generally credited with the beginning of the tourist period and was very much the forerunner in the development of the area.
During the 1940’s Rosarito became a haven for the Hollywood set welcoming Rita Hayworth and her husband Prince Aly Khan as regular patrons as well as other Hollywood visitors such as Orson Wells, Mickey Rooney, Ava Gardner, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Kim Novak, Clark Gable, Lana Turner and the legendary beauty Marilyn Monroe. In fact, Marilyn Monroe loved the ambience of Rosarito so much, she had furniture made for her first and only home in Brentwood, California, which included the bed where she died.
Frank Sinatra and the “Rat Pack” were also frequent visitors to Rosarito, spending many long hours at the Rosarito Beach Hotel’s bar. It was not unusual to have an impromptu concert in the wee hours of the morning by Frank, Dino, and Sammy, which brought in staff members who worked in the hotel. It has been said that some waiters got as much as a $1,000 tip just to cater to Frank and his buddies.
John Wayne, who was always attracted to Latin women, would visit Rosarito to surround himself with the culture and to woo an occasional beauty or two. Ava Gardner would visit the Tijuana bull fights and then come to Rosarito Beach where she knew she would be unnoticed.
Clark Gable, one of Hollywood’s “man’s man” loved to visit Rosarito for deep sea fishing; while Gregory Peck loved to stroll on the beach and Lana Turner cherished having local cobblers custom make shoes for her. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn also frequented Rosarito which allowed them to spend some quality time alone and away from the prying eyes of the press.
James Cameroon, fell in love with the city and brought Rosarito and the Hollywood Connection to the spotlight once again with the construction of Fox Studios, Baja. Built specifically for the Academy Award winning film, Titanic, the studio boasts the biggest indoor water tank in the world. A mock up of the ship was constructed on the grounds, and the sinking of the mighty Titanic was filmed in the water tank.
Cameroon spent years of research and huge amounts of money to make sure that every detail in the movie was as close to the original Titanic as humanly possible. You can now tour the set and see the china used during the filming with the Titanic logo, playing cards with the same logo, visit the room where Rose took the ax and freed Jack, see the boiler room, or take a picture on the same replica deck where Jack proclaimed, “I’m the King of the World.”
Following Titanic, Fox used the studio to film other movies including Master and Commander with Russell Crowe; 007’s Quantum of Solace and Tomorrow Never Dies, and Pirates of the Caribbean, just to name a few. During the filming of these movies it was not unusual to see Russell Crowe walking down Benito Juarez, or Johnny Depp and Laurence Fishbourne having dinner at a local restaurant and eating with locals as if they were old friends. Once again Rosarito became “the Hollywood Connection.”
Some of the recent visitors that have been seen leisurely walking the streets of Rosarito include stars like Jessica Simpson, Sandra Bullock, Jesse James, and Cuba Gooding Jr. In fact, Cuba Gooding Sr. loves the city so much that he now lives in the Calafia Condos Resort and Villas.
It is no doubt that Rosarito has continued throughout the years to be the best kept secret in Hollywood. Even the Hollywood superstar’s cannot deny the beauty of walking under the stars in this wonderful piece of paradise. And that’s why we call it “The Hollywood Connection.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Victor Loza and Sharon Heafey are co-founders of Your Baja Connection. YBC provides real estate and relocation services for buyers in Mexico. YBC can be reached at 858.748.5870, via email at YBC@YourBajaConnection.com, or at www.yourbajaconnection.com.
