James' World 2

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Literally translated into English as the ‘Green Coast’, the Costa Verde is situated at the base of the Bay of Biscay in the northern region of Asturias and Cantabria in Spain. Its stunning coastline stretches the length of the Basque region until reaching France. The Costa Verde is sheltered by the Cantabrian Mountains, which provide the perfect backdrop to this beautiful stretch of coastline as well as offering a great opportunity for hiking. Rightly names the ‘Green Coast’, the area is abundant with lush vegetation and scenery which contrasts with the golden sand of its shores. The quality of the coast’s vegetation is mainly owing to the area’s particular climate which is typical of any resort fed off the northern Atlantic coast. Summers are mainly warm and dry however there can be rainy periods and these continue throughout the winter, however, the result is beautiful.

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Verona is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 259,610 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in northeast Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona covers an area of 1,426 km² (550.58 sq mi) and has a population of 714,310 inhabitants. It is one of the main tourist destinations in northern Italy because of its artistic heritage and several annual fairs, shows, and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, an ancient Roman amphitheater.

Between the 13th and 14th century the city was ruled by the Della Scala Family. Under the rule of the family, in particular of Cangrande I della Scala, the city experienced great prosperity, becoming rich and powerful and being surrounded by new walls. The Della Scala era is survived in numerous monuments around Verona.

Two of William Shakespeare’s plays are set in Verona: Romeo and Juliet (which also features Romeo’s sojourn to Mantua) and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. It is unknown if Shakespeare ever visited Verona or Italy, but his plays have lured many visitors to Verona and surrounding cities. Verona was also the birthplace of Isotta Nogarola, who is said to be the first major female humanist and one of the most important humanists of the Renaissance. The city has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of its urban structure and architecture. Wikipedia

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Behrensdorf is a municipality in the district of Plön, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It lies on the western shore of Hohwacht Bay on the Baltic Sea coast. About one kilometer to the north is the eighty-year-old Neuland Lighthouse.

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Vancouver is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2016 census recorded 631,486 people in the city, up from 603,502 in 2011. The Greater Vancouver area had a population of 2,463,431 in 2016, making it the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada. Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada, with over 5,400 people per square kilometer. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada: 52 percent of its residents are not native English speakers, 48.9 percent are native speakers of neither English nor French, and 50.6 percent of residents belong to visible minority groups.

Vancouver is consistently named as one of the top five worldwide cities for livability and quality of life, and the Economist Intelligence Unit acknowledged it as the first city ranked among the top ten of the world’s most well-living cities for ten consecutive years. However, Vancouver also ranks as the most expensive city to live in Canada and as the fourth-most expensive housing market globally. In 2011, the city planned to become the greenest city in the world by 2020. Vancouverism is the city’s urban planning design philosophy. Wikipedia

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The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North and Central European Plain.

The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. A marginal sea of the Atlantic, with limited water exchange between the two water bodies, the Baltic Sea drains through the Danish Straits into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, Great Belt, and Little Belt. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, and the Bay of Gdańsk.

The Baltic Proper is bordered on its northern edge, at latitude 60°N, by the Åland Islands and the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga, and in the west by the Swedish part of the southern Scandinavian Peninsula.

The Baltic Sea is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea-Baltic Canal and to the German Bight of the North Sea via the Kiel Canal. Wikipedia

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Valencia, is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-largest city in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona, surpassing 800,000 inhabitants in the municipality. The wider urban area also comprising the neighboring municipalities has a population of around 1.6 million. Valencia is Spain’s third-largest metropolitan area, with a population ranging from 1.7 to 2.5 million depending on how the metropolitan area is defined. The Port of Valencia is the 5th-busiest container port in Europe and the busiest container port on the Mediterranean Sea. The city is ranked as a Gamma-level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

Valencia was founded as a Roman colony by the consul Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus in 138 BC and called Valentia Edetanorum. In 714, Moroccan and Arab Moors occupied the city, introducing their language, religion, and customs; they implemented improved irrigation systems and the cultivation of new crops as well. Valencia was the capital of the Taifa of Valencia. In 1238 the Christian king James I of Aragon conquered the city and divided the land among the nobles who helped him conquer it, as witnessed in the Llibre del Repartiment. He also created the new Kingdom of Valencia, which had its own laws (Furs), with Valencia as its main city and capital. In the 18th century, Philip V of Spain abolished the privileges as punishment to the kingdom of Valencia for aligning with the Habsburg side in the War of the Spanish Succession. Valencia was the capital of Spain when Joseph Bonaparte moved the Court there in the summer of 1812. It also served as the capital between 1936 and 1937, during the Second Spanish Republic. Wikipedia

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A mangrove is a shrub or small tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves occur worldwide in the tropics and subtropics, mainly between latitudes 30° N and 30° S, with the greatest mangrove area within 5° of the equator The total mangrove forest area of the world in 2000 was 137,800 km² (53,200 sq mi), spanning 118 countries and territories.

Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees, also called halophytes, and are adapted to live in harsh coastal conditions. They contain a complex salt filtration system and complex root system to cope with salt water immersion and wave action. They are adapted to the low-oxygen conditions of waterlogged mud.

The word “mangrove” is used in at least three senses: (1) most broadly to refer to the habitat and entire plant assemblage or mangal, for which the terms mangrove forest biome, and mangrove swamp are also used, (2) to refer to all trees and large shrubs in a mangrove swamp, and (3) narrowly to refer just to “true” mangrove trees of the genus Rhizophora of the family Rhizophoraceae.

The mangrove biome, or mangal, is a distinct saline woodland or shrubland habitat characterized by depositional coastal environments, where fine sediments (often with high organic content) collect in areas protected from high-energy wave action. The saline conditions tolerated by various mangrove species range from brackish water, through pure seawater (3 to 4% salinity), to water concentrated by evaporation to over twice the salinity of ocean seawater (up to 9% salinity). Wikipedia

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The province of Udine was a province in the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Its capital was the city of Udine, which has a population of 99,242 inhabitants. It had a total population of 530,849 inhabitants over an area of 4,907.24 square kilometers (1,894.70 sq mi). The province was abolished on 30 September 2017.

Not much information is known about Udine prior to its ownership by the episcopal see the Patriarchate of Aquileia in 983. The Patriarchate of Aquileia did not reside in Udine until after the 13th century, when they began by living in the castle of Udine, followed by its archiepiscopal palace. In 1350, Austria intervened in the region and caused a number of factional problems for residents. It was annexed by Venice in 1420 and control over Udine was granted to Tristano Savorgnan, the leader of a family in the city. His family had mostly been executed for opposing the Austrians and were allied with Venice.

Under the rule of Venice and the family of Savorgnan, Udine fell into decline due to neglect, although it continued to be ruled by Venice until the French forces of Napoleon conquered the region. Following this, Austria gained control over Udine in 1814 but this was not received well by residents; they announced independence from Austria in 1848 that resulted in the Austrians bombarding the city with its artillery. The unification of Italy in 1866 prevented any further Austrian rule. In World War I, Udine was the main base for the forces of Italy until Austria occupied the city in October 1917; it was liberated by Italy in November 1918. Wikipedia

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The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are noted for having a bluish color when seen from a distance. Trees put the “blue” in Blue Ridge, from the isoprene released into the atmosphere. This contributes to the characteristic haze on the mountains and their distinctive color.

Within the Blue Ridge province are two major national parks – the Shenandoah National Park in the northern section, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the southern section. The eight national forests include George Washington and Jefferson, Cherokee, Pisgah, Nantahala, and Chattahoochee. The Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile (755 km) long scenic highway, connects the two parks and runs along the ridge crest-lines, as does the Appalachian Trail. Wikipedia

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Udaipur, also known as the “City of Lakes”, is a city in the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the historic capital of the kingdom of Mewar in the former Rajputana Agency. It was founded in 1559 by Udai Singh II of the Sisodia clan of Rajput when he shifted his capital from the city of Chittorgarh to Udaipur after Chittorgarh was besieged by Akbar. It remained as the capital city till 1818 when it became a British princely state, and thereafter the Mewar province became a part of Rajasthan when India gained independence in 1947.

The city is located in the southernmost part of Rajasthan, near the Gujarat border. It is surrounded by the Aravali Range, which separates it from the Thar Desert. It is around 660 km from Delhi and approximately 800 km from Mumbai, placed almost in the middle of two major Indian metro cities. Besides, connectivity with Gujarat ports provide Udaipur a strategic geographical advantage. Udaipur is well connected with nearby cities and states by means of road, rail, and air transportation facilities. The city is served by the Maharana Pratap Airport. Common languages spoken include Hindi, English, and Rajasthani (Mewari). Wikipedia

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