7/21/09-Aberdeen, Scotland

Aberdeen (pronounced /æbərˈdiːn/ ( listen); Scots: Aiberdeen, Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dheathain) is Scotland's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. It has an official population estimate of 202,370.
Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands. During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, whose mica deposits sparkle like silver. The city has a long, sandy coastline. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, other nicknames have been the Oil Capital of Europe or the Energy Capital of Europe.

The area around Aberdeen has been settled for at least 8000 years, when prehistoric villages lay around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don.

In 1319, Aberdeen received Royal Burgh status from Robert the Bruce, transforming the city economically. The city's two universities, the University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495, and the Robert Gordon University, which was awarded university status in 1992, make Aberdeen the educational centre of the north-east. The traditional industries of fishing, paper-making, shipbuilding, and textiles have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeen's seaport. Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world and the seaport is the largest in the north-east of Scotland.

Aberdeen has won the Britain in Bloom competition a record breaking ten times, and hosts the Aberdeen International Youth Festival, a major international event which attracts up to 1000 of the most talented young performing arts companies.

7/20/09-Leeds, England

Leeds (pronounced /ˈliːdz/) is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the recorded history of Leeds can be traced to the 5th century when the Kingdom of Elmet was covered by the forest of "Loidis", the origin of the name Leeds. During the Industrial Revolution, Leeds developed into a major industrial centre for the production and trade of wool, before emerging as a centre for commerce and higher education, being the location of the internationally acclaimed University of Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan University and Leeds Trinity and All Saints. Today Leeds is the UK's largest centre for business and financial services outside London, Leeds is the largest legal centre outside London, and according to the most recent Office for National Statistics estimates, Leeds is the fastest growing city in the UK.

Leeds has a population of 761,100 (2007 est.), and forms the cultural, financial and commercial heart of the wider West Yorkshire Urban Area, which at the 2001 census was shown to have a population of 1.5 million. Leeds is part of the Leeds-Bradford Larger Urban Zone (LUZ), the third largest in the UK after London and Manchester, with an estimated population in the 2004 Urban Audit of 2.4 million, and along with 10 other local government districts is a component of the Leeds city region, which has a population of 2.9 million.

7/19/09-Southampton, England

Southampton (pronounced /saʊθˈhæmptən/) is the largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, on the south coast of England, and is sited around 100 km (62 mi) south-west of London and 30 km (19 mi) north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest. It lies at the northernmost point of Southampton Water at the confluence of the River Test and River Itchen, with the River Hamble joining to the south of the urban area. The local authority is Southampton City Council, which is a unitary authority.

Significant employers in Southampton include the University of Southampton, the Ford Transit factory, Ordnance Survey, the BBC through Radio Solent and South Today, the NHS and one of the largest commercial ports in Europe.[citation needed] The city represents the core of the Greater Southampton region, and the town itself has an estimated population of 231,200. The city's name is sometimes abbreviated in writing to "So'ton" or "Soton", and a resident of Southampton is called a Sotonian. Southampton is noted for being the home of the RMS Titanic, the Spitfire and more recently a number of the largest cruise ships in the world.

7/18/09-Herk-de-Stad, Belgium

Herk-de-Stad is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. On January 1, 2006 Herk-de-Stad had a total population of 11,795. The total area is 42.83 km² which gives a population density of 275 inhabitants per km².

There is an annual free rock festival in the village, Rock Herk. There is a balanced mix of techno, drum 'n bass, electronica, alternative rock, post-rock, punk-rock, hardcore punk, metal, stoner, rock 'n roll, and related genres. Bands that played in the past include Stretch Arm Strong, Isis, Explosions in the Sky, New Wet Kojak, Karate, Add N to (X), and Godflesh.

7/17/09-Roßwein, Germany

Roßwein is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, the Free State of Saxony, Germany.

http://www.rosswein.de/

7/16/09-Schweinfurt, Germany

Schweinfurt (German for Swine ford) is a city in the Lower Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany on the right bank of the canalized Main, which is here spanned by several bridges, 27 km northeast of Würzburg.

Schweinfurt is known for its metal industry, especially ball-bearing plants and bicycle manufacturing, The pigment Schweinfurt Green, which is extremely toxic, was manufactured here. Due to its heavy concentration in primarily one industry, Schweinfurt has suffered high unemployment rates (over 6%) relative to the Bavarian average, especially since the German reunification. Politically, with its heavy concentration of workers and labor unions, Schweinfurt is traditionally the most left-leaning county in the otherwise heavily right-leaning Bavaria. The GDP per capita of Schweinfurt is the third highest in Germany with 65,852 EUR per inhabitant and in 2007 a study ("Prognos Zukunftsatlas 2007") opted Schweinfurt for the most dynamic town in Germany. On the other hand the crime rate of Schweinfurt is about 60% higher than the average German crime rate (making it the highest crime rate in Bavaria).

7/15/09-Budapest, Hungary

Budapest (pronounced /ˈbuːdəpɛst/, also /ˈbʊdəpɛst/ or /ˈbjuːdəpɛst/; Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈbudɒpɛʃt]; names in other languages) is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2008, Budapest had 1,702,297 inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s peak of 2.1 million. The Budapest Commuter Area (or Greater Budapest) is home to 3,271,110 people. The city covers an area of 525 square kilometres (202.7 sq mi) within the city limits. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of right-bank Buda and Óbuda with left-bank Pest.

Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement, was the direct ancestor of Budapest, becoming the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia. Magyars arrived in the territory in the 9th century. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241-42. The re-established town became one of the centers of Renaissance humanist culture in the 15th century. Following the Battle of Mohács and nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule, development of the region entered a new age of prosperity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Budapest became an alpha world city after the 1873 unification. It also became the second capital of Austria-Hungary, a great power that dissolved in 1918. Budapest was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, Operation Panzerfaust in 1944, the Battle of Budapest of 1945, and the Revolution of 1956.

Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, its extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second oldest in Europe. Other highlights include a total of 80 geothermal springs, the world's largest thermal water cave system, second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building. The collections of the Natural History Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts are also significant.

The city ranked 3rd (out of 65 cities) on Mastercard's Emerging Markets Index (2008), and ranked as the most livable Central/Eastern European city on EIU's quality of life index (2009). It attracts over 20 million visitors a year. The headquarters of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and the first foreign office of the CIPA will be in Budapest.