分类必应美图下的文章

盛开的樱花和姬路城，日本姬路 Cherry blossoms and Himeji Castle in Himeji, Japan (© Tororo/Getty Images)

Castle on a hill

In honor of Castle Day in Japan, we're featuring Himeji Castle—one of the most pristine examples of traditional Japanese castle architecture, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Castle Day is on April 6 (or 4/6) because the Japanese character for castle (城) is read as 'shiro,' and the Japanese pronunciation of 'four' is 'shi' and 'six' is 'ro.' Samurai warrior Akamatsu Norimura built Himeji Castle in 1333 as a fortress. Over the years, the structure has undergone many remodels, and several buildings were added as it changed hands. The castle even survived WWII unscathed while surrounding areas were bombed mercilessly.

维多利亚瀑布上的彩虹，赞比亚 Rainbow at Victoria Falls in Zambia (© Dietmar Temps/Shutterstock)

The rainbow connection

April showers bring rainbows, and on April 3, the celebration of Find a Rainbow Day. The rainbow shown here is at Victoria Falls in southern Africa on the Zambezi River, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Scottish explorer David Livingstone named the falls in honor of Britain's Queen Victoria, though it's also still called by its indigenous Lozi language name, Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means 'the smoke that thunders.' According to some historical records, local villagers described the falls to Livingstone as 'Seongo' or 'Chongwe,' which means 'The Place of the Rainbow,' since rainbows usually appear in the fall's constant spray. Under a bright moon, the falls will produce a 'moonbow.'

French philosopher and scientist René Descartes did some of the first studies of optics and rainbows around 1637--but no one at the time understood where the colors came from. In 1666, Isaac Newton explained that sunlight is really a mixture of the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

从庞塞德莱昂河口向灯塔望去，佛罗里达州 Looking inland from Ponce de León Inlet toward the lighthouse, Florida (© Jason Sponseller/Shutterstock)

Pascua Florida Day

We're at the Ponce de León Inlet Light in Central Florida for Pascua Florida Day, which marks the anniversary of the Spanish explorer's arrival here in 1513. Believing it to be an island, Ponce de León claimed the land for Spain and named it 'La Florida'—because of the verdant landscape and also because it was during the Easter season, which the Spaniards called 'Pascua Florida' (Festival of Flowers). According to legend, Ponce de León arrived here in search of the Fountain of Youth, a mythical water source said to restore the youth of those who drink or bathe in its waters. While that mission was unsuccessful, his name lives on in history–and on this lighthouse and the inlet where it shines.

At the Kistefos Museum's sculpture park in Norway, The Twist bridges the Randselva River via a multipurpose walkway (© Laurian Ghinitoiu)

What a twist

No, it's not a sci-fi movie set—but maybe it should be. The Twist seems like an intrusion from the future amidst the dense woods and preserved historic buildings of Jevnaker, Norway, home to the Kistefos Museum's sculpture park. The Twist is a bridge, but also an art gallery. Its unique construction features straight slats set at increasing angles as one moves toward the center—'like a stack of books,' as its architects at the Bjarke Ingels Group describe it—to create a 90-degree turn where a wall becomes the ceiling and vice versa.

Situated about an hour's drive from Oslo around a defunct wood pulp mill on the Randselva river—which the Twist spans—Kistefos boasts a collection of works by Anish Kapoor, Claes Oldenburg, and other notable artists. The Twist, which opened in fall 2019, will be a space for rotating (pun intended) art exhibitions and even music performances. Its 2020 season won't kick off until May 24, so it's not too late to book that flight to Norway.

连接巴林托伊附近两处悬崖的Carrick-a-Rede索桥，北爱尔兰安特里姆 (© NordicMoonlight/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

中央公园，纽约 Central Park, New York City (© Tony Shi Photography/Getty Images)

Central Park early spring day

As the saying March goes in like a lion and out like a lamb. The Central Park in New York welcomes its picturesque spring as many areas in the US start to warm up.It is the fifth-largest park in New York City by area, covering 843 acres (3.41 km2). Main attractions of the park include landscapes such as the Ramble and Lake, Hallett Nature Sanctuary, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, and Sheep Meadow. As much a part of the city’s image as the Statue of Liberty and Times Square, leafy Central Park is the green heart of the Big Apple. A template for hundreds of urban parks around the world, the huge green space stretches 51 blocks through the middle of helter-skelter Manhattan.

悬崖边的福门托尔角灯塔，西班牙马略卡岛 Formentor lighthouse at the tip of Cap de Formentor, Mallorca, Spain (© Lasse Eklöf/DEEPOL by plainpicture)

The meeting point of the winds

We're at the northernmost tip of Mallorca's rugged Cap de Formentor, a seven-mile long slab of rock that's home to one of the most picturesque lighthouses on the Mediterranean Sea. Built atop this Spanish island in 1863 at 689 feet above sea level, the beacon still shines (by solar power now), protecting ships from the rocky coastline below. The wild and rugged Cap de Formentor is accessible by a twisty road that offers incomparable views along the way—including several beautiful beaches and, since 1929, the Hotel Formentor, a glamorous icon for Mediterranean jetsetters. During its heyday in the mid-20th century, the hotel was a destination for writers and celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and the Prince of Monaco. Today, the cape is less known for its star-studded past and more for protecting and conserving its natural and unspoiled beauty.

鸟瞰蒙特雷附近的大苏尔海岸线，加利福尼亚州 Aerial view of the Big Sur coastline near Monterey, California (© Blue Planet Archive/Alamy)

Gray days ahead in Monterey

Grey whale migration is a rare scenery, thousands of gray whales, many with calves in tow, swim by this part of the Pacific coast as they migrate from the warm waters of Baja California to their summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea. Come winter, they pass by again on the swim south. The entire roundtrip route clocks in at about 12,000 miles, making gray whales among the longest migrators of animal kingdom. Because they travel close to the coastline, it's also one of the few whale migrations you can see from shore.

It's Tolkien Reading Day

For Tolkien Reading Day, we're featuring Oxford University's Radcliffe Camera, home to the world's largest archive of J.R.R. Tolkien's original manuscripts and drawings. While Tolkien never worked in the Radcliffe Camera (Latin for 'room'), he both studied here at Oxford (graduating in 1915 with first-class honors in English language) and taught here as a professor of Anglo-Saxon and later as a professor of English language and literature.

During his years at Oxford, Tolkein wrote 'The Hobbit' and its sequel, 'The Lord of the Rings,' along with other books and research. In 2003, the Tolkien Society organized the first Tolkien Reading Day to celebrate and promote the works of Tolkien. They selected March 25 since it was the day that the Dark Lord Sauron was defeated and the Black Tower destroyed in the 'Lord of the Rings.'

RainierClouds_ENUS_SS1021697089_1920x1080_HD_ZH-CN170801398.jpg

A peak in the clouds

World Meteorological Day brings us to Washington's Mount Rainier, a huge stratovolcano with a habit of creating its own weather systems. Jutting out about 2 miles above the surrounding landscape, its high altitude interrupts the flow of air that comes in off the Pacific Ocean, creating unusual weather such as the saucer-shaped clouds on our homepage. They're called lenticular clouds, and because of their distinctive appearance, they've been suggested as an explanation for some UFO sightings. Thanks for the science of meteorology, we know they're a normal weather phenomenon, commonly occurring on the downwind side of obstructions such as mountains, buildings, or other tall structures.

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