Not far from the Albanian border, but none can match the simple beauty of the "Konitsa Bridge"; a single span pedestrian bridge that crosses the Aoos River.
The Epirus Region of Greece is known for its rugged beauty, its mountain ridges, and alpine flora and fauna. It’s also famous for the stone arch bridges that cross the region’s rivers, connecting a network of historic towns and villages.
Arguably the most charming of these bridges is the Konitsa Bridge (sometimes called the Aoos Bridge), which spans the Aoos River just to the south of Konitsa. Completed in 1870, it was the work of the architect and engineer Ziogas Frontzos from Pyrsogianni, a small village some 20 miles north of Konitsa.
Despite his provincial education—he learned much of his craft in the quarry near his village—Frontzos nonetheless impressed the Turkish engineers who had previously tried and failed to build a bridge over the Aoos. When the Turks asked him where he had studied, he proudly told them he had studied at the University of Pyrsogianni, in the “quarry outside the village where young craftsmen were taught the secrets of this art.”
The elegant single-arched bridge is 66 feet (20 m) high and 115 feet (35 m) in length, which could quite well make it the largest single arch bridge in the Balkans. It’s narrow, however, just wide enough for pedestrians, livestock, and carts to pass from one side to the other.
It’s also not the kind of bridge you’d want to stumble across in an inebriated state. The low walls at either side don’t offer much of a barrier between pedestrians and the river below. Because of this, a bell still hangs under the arch to warn passersby of strong winds, which could make the crossing dangerous.
The fact that this pretty bridge still stands at all is no mean feat. The Turkish Army tried unsuccessfully to burn it down in 1918 and later attempts to blow it up during the Greco-Italian war and the civil war that followed also proved fruitless. Ziogas Frontzos would surely be proud that his picturesque arch, a seemingly fragile and fairytale-like construction, managed to survive these various threats.
Source: The Hiking Experience

This little store in Dresden is the “World’s Most Beautiful Milk Shop,” an official title bestowed upon it by the Guinness Book of World Records. That claim might be hard to verify, but there can’t be many contenders rivaling the sumptuousness of Pfunds Molkerei.
The milk shop was opened in 1880 by Paul Gustav Leander Pfund, and was fortunate to survive the heavy bombing during World War II that destroyed most of the city. Little has changed inside the shop since then, although much has changed outside, namely the inventions of refrigeration and pasteurization that have made milk easier to keep at home.
But today Dresdenites aren’t just walking into this splendid dairy shop for a tall glass of milk. Now, they come for the atmosphere. The entire interior is decorated with hand-painted Villeroy & Boch ceramic tiles. The shop is covered floor to ceiling with dancing angels, chubby babies, cows, and woodland creatures. It’s all accented in gold and blue, and lit by chandeliers, which might delude some into thinking this is a luxury jewelry shop, rather than one selling milk.
The wares inside haven’t changed much either. Pfunds Molkerei still sells milk and boasts one of the country’s finest cheese selections (though they were forced to limit it to a mere three state-sanctioned brands during the socialist years of East Germany). The cafe upstairs sells dairy-based delicacies, like tortellini with spinach and grated feta or pork in pepper cream sauce. The shop also offers chocolates, milk soaps, and cream-based liquors, though it can be hard to reach them through the hordes of German milk-lovers.

The Column of Marcus Aurelius is a Roman victory column that commemorates the military campaigns and triumphs of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It stands at the center of Piazza Colonna in Rome and is almost 100 feet tall. The column features a spiral relief depicting the military campaigns of Marcus Aurelius against the Germanic tribes along the Danube River. It is considered to be one of the best examples of Roman art and architecture and is a popular tourist attraction in Rome.

Baths were likely built between 212-217 CE, during reigns of emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla. They were in operation until 530s CE, and then fell into disuse and ruin.

Its stark towering presence, formation, and character are incredibly intriguing and mysterious. Devils Tower is a mass of rock nestled among the Black Hills near the town of Sundance. It rises 1,267 feet in the air above the Belle Fourche River, grasslands, and ponderosa pine forests. It was established by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 as our first national monument.
The history of Devils Tower has baffled Native Americans and early explorers for many years. According to Native Americans, seven little girls were playing in the forest when giant bears started chasing them. The girls ran and jumped on a boulder and started praying. The rock began to grow up toward the sky, putting quite a bit of distance between the girls and the bears. It's said that the cracks and columns on Devils Tower came from the bears' claws as they tried to climb the tower.
Devils Tower is a popular destination for classic rock climbers. Some of the rock columns feature cracks up to 400 feet long.
Why is Devils Tower important? Even today, many Native Americans still consider Devils Tower a sacred site. To respect the tribes' cultural traditions and rituals still performed there, the monument is off limits to climbers during the month of June. These sun dances, vision quests, and prayer offerings are all significant parts of Devils Tower history.
Geologists determined that Devils Tower in WY was actually formed as a result of a volcano. The cooling magma created the delineated columns. The tower is unique because of its size and the type of rock, phonolite. The columns that make up Devils Tower are some of the tallest and widest found in these types of formations.

The Elizabeth I oak four-poster belonged to the Radclyffe family of Salford and graced the Star Bed Chamber at Ordsall Hall, Salford in the late 16th century. It is the only surviving piece of furniture from the Hall. Made as the wedding bed for Sir John Radclyffe and Lady Anne Asshawe it has had a colourful past and even more colourful recent history.
John was born in Manchester in 1536, the second son of William Radclyffe and Margaret Trafford. He was a Knight of the Shire and famed for the strength of his Catholic faith, even in the Protestant age of Elizabeth I.
Mistress Anne Asshawe was born near Chorley, in the same year as Edward VI was crowned (1548). She was a woman of immense wealth as the sole heir to her father Thomas’ fortune. She was a Lady of the Court of Elizabeth I and married Sir John aged 25. They had six children and lived and slept happily together for 17 years before John’s death in 1590.
The Radclyffes of Ordsall Hall were one of the most influential families in England. They served a number of Plantagenet and Tudor kings and queens in civil and foreign wars. Many were knights and later Justices of the Peace and local MPs. A direct ancestor of Sir John in the 1300s is credited by some as inviting Flemish weavers over to Salford and thus starting the textile industry which was to make the North of England wealthy and economically active.
Like all noble families at the time, the Radclyffes recognised that they could not exist in isolation and married into other noble dynasties as a way of securing their futures and their fortunes. These stories of intermarriage and dynastic security are played out in the bold carvings depicted on the bed. Carvings that relate directly to the Radclyffe coat of arms and intriguingly also carry the Royal Arms used by Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I.
The bed disappeared somewhere around 1650 when the Hall passed from family ownership. It turned up in the 1930’s at the house of a Whalley Range recluse. All of his possessions, including the bed, were sold off to cover death duties, purchased by a Mrs Robinson of Monyash, Derbyshire.
The bed lay in pieces in farm outbuildings until it was put back together and bought in 1968 by Dr Chris Douglas who was a collector of medieval and Tudor furniture. When the bed went under the hammer, Ordsall Hall raised funds to bid for the bed and to ‘bring it home’. They managed to raise four times the suggested guide price. However at bid they came up against a wealthy businessman who wanted to acquire the bed for his young daughter as the perfect Princess bed.
Determined to make sure that the bed was not lost again from Salford, Ordsall curator Caroline Storr had one last try and made an emotional plea to the new owners. Relating the history of the bed and the story of the Radclyffe family worked and the new owners agreed to let the bed come back to its original home.

This archaeological treasure was discovered by a Swedish expedition that classified these figurines in the Cypriot-Archaic era and is a huge archaeological find and historical theme, as the collection of thousands of figurines in a place of worship is nowhere in the world except the buried soldiers in the Mausoleum of the First Chinese Emperor. In the treasure of Cyprus, 2,000 clay statues with mainly male figures and cattle were placed as votive offerings in a semicircle around the altar of the sanctuary. The male figures wore war clothing but were unarmed. The multitude of statuettes, the many chariots drawn by four horses manned by drivers and warriors in full armor, a few bronze statuettes, as well as a large number of life-size statues arranged in wide semicircles around a stone enclosure cultural value. About two-thirds of the unique archaeological finds were transported to Sweden in 1931 and are now the core of the Cypriot collections of the Stockholm Medelhavsmuseet. About 12,000 of the 18,000 mobile finds were packed in 771 wooden containers and transported by rail from Nicosia to Famagusta, and from there by ship to Sweden. Sweden also has all the diagnostic shells. At the moment, the 1,500 figurines are in Sweden, while the rest 500 figurines that remain in Nicosia are one of the most impressive exhibits in the Archaeological Museum of the island's capital.

It covers 9,000 square feet (836 m2) and was made in the late Roman period, 4th Century AD

One of the most beautiful and evocative parts of the Vatican Museums is certainly the long corridor of 120 meters in length and six in width that leads to the Sistine Chapel adorned with geographical maps.

Photo by Einsamer Schütze