Europe Vintage and Recent Photos Collection

EC145 Helicopter : Amazing Mercedes Benz Style Luxury Flight

The EC145 Mercedes-Benz Style is the first product in the new Mercedes-Benz Style range. The Eurocopter EC145 Mercedes-Benz Style is the most adaptable and large model in its class. This twin-engine turbine helicopter with a high-end interior for eight passengers was revealed at the 2010 European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland and will be accessible from the fourth quarter of 2011.

Lock Your Love "The Bridge Of Love"

Interesting News from Vrnjacka Banja (Town in Central Serbia) : One history board, next to little bridge. On railing of the bridge thousands of padlocks with names on them. We found that bridge is called "Bridge of Love". We also learn that girls from Serbia wanting to preserve their love, write their names and those of their loved ones on padlocks, and tie them to the bridge fence, and symbolically throw the keys into the river..



From the Bridge of love History Board



“At the dawn of the First World War, while the war was not even suspected yet, a schoolmistress Nada and a Serbian officer Relja started having deep feelings for each other. They fell in love and made a commitment to each other. It was a love widely talked about, attracting the attention of all the people living at Vrnjacka Banja Spa. But the war did break out with all the horrors it entails. Relja went off to war fought in Greece. He left never to return on account of a beautiful Greek woman he had fallen in love with, and therefore broke up the engagement to Nada. The legend does not say anything about his further fate, whereas, on the other hand, every inhabitant of Vrnjacka Banja spa is familiar with Nada’s destiny. Owing to overwhelming sorrow she faded away day after day and finally died, young and miserable. Upset by Nada’s destiny, girls, wishing to keep their own romances, started writing down their names along with the names of their lovers on padlocks that they bound to the railing of the bridge which used to be the favorite meeting place of Nada and Relja. Afterward the keys were symbolically thrown into the river. New wars and sufferings came up. The story fell into oblivion, and the girl’s custom to “bind” their love became uncustomary. It had been case until Desanka Maksimovic, according to the stories of old residents of Vrnjacka Banja spa, became acquainted with this tragic story. Inspired by it she wrote down one of her most beautiful love poems “A Prayer for Love”, (Molitva za ljubav). Although we tend to forget things, this story remains to be unforgotten, and in order to prolong its existence the young couples kept on with the tradition of “binding” their love and it bridge itself got the name “THE BRIDGE OF LOVE”.”

Cascamorras Festival, Spain Unique Festival Photos Collection

The Cascamorras Festival which takes place in Guadix and Baza in Granada province every September, is another of Spain’s most bizarre celebrations, where the two towns fight for possession of the statue of the Virgen de la Piedad.

The most-commonly accepted version of the origins of the battle date back to the Middle Ages after the Reconquest of Spain, when a labourer was working on building a church on the site of a former mosque in Baza in 1490, and heard a voice coming from the wall he was demolishing. It was said to be crying out, ‘have mercy!’
He uncovered a statue of the Virgin Mary buried in the rubble, which from then on became known as the Virgen de la Piedad – the Virgin of Mercy.

The story goes that the local authorities of Guadix, where the workman was from, and Baza, where the statue was found, had to intervene after a dispute arose about who should retain possession of the statue. It remained in Baza and a religious festival was set up every September in honour of the Virgin.
Legend also has it that if an accitano (as the people of Guadix are known) was able to enter Baza during the festivities and reach the Iglesia de la Merced without getting dirty he would be able to recover the statue for his town.

The delegation which made the attempt was accompanied by a jester or buffoon who was probably the precursor to today’s ‘Cascamorras,’ who in his harlequin suit, runs through the streets of Baza as he tries to reach the church without being stained with the tinted water with which the people of Baza are armed.

Now classed as National Tourist Interest, this impossible mission takes place in Baza every 6th September. There are stops along the way for the crowd to bow down before the Cascamorras as he waves the cascamorras flag over their heads, with other stops at two fountains on the route for the traditional dunking of the would-be thief.
By this stage, the intrepid accitano and all those in the crowd are absolutely filthy.

Needless to say, the task of the Cascamorras has been unsuccessful for more than 500 years, and he remains in Baza for the next two days before returning to Guadix on 9th September.
There, he is pelted again for failing to capture the statue for his home town.