Across Europe, many castles have been changed into hotels. Check out five of the best and most beautiful places to stay.

Hotel Schools Thannegg

Hotel Schools Thannegg lies in the middle of the Austrian Alps, a fairy-tale sight in the snow and the perfect winter break getaway. The ceilings date back to 1150, and the hotel has its own free bus that will take you away on a skiing adventure in winter.

Swinton Estate

The English may not be hugely romantic. But their country castles certainly are. Swinton Estate is the home of the Cunliffe-Lister family, and has been turned into a 30-bedroom hotel. It comes complete with small towers, long passages, grand staircases, and wide balconies.

Hotel de la Cite

There are few better places to base yourself when you explore the city of Carcassonne than Hotel de la Cite. It’s the only hotel that sets inside the walls of the UNESCO World Heritage Site （世界遗产地）. Enjoy a glass of wine on the balcony as the sun sets over France, taking in the impressive views.

Castel Porrona

Deep in the rolling Tuscan hills of Italy—in a delightful village dating back to the 1lth century and surrounded by vineyards （葡萄园）, sunflower fields and olive groves. Bach of its 25 rooms offers wonderful views of the village, the castle grounds and the whole landscape.

Pousada de Óbidos

There are only nine rooms —so plan your booking in advance. Within the city walls of Obidos lies the Pousada di Óbidos, which has been turned into one of the country’s finest hotels, and one of the first to become a pousada, a traditional or historical Portuguese hotel. The hotel is charming and intimate （温馨的）, particularly popular in the summer months.

My daughter Maggie and my husband Mark were united desiring for a dog on Maggie’s 11th birthday. I held different ideas. But why, they argued. “Because I don’t have time to tend a dog.” But we’ll do it. “Really? You’re going to walk her? Feed her? Bathe her?” Yes, yes and yes. “I don’t believe you.” We will. We promise.

They didn’t. From day two, neither of them thought to walk the dog. While I was slow to accept I would be the one to keep track of her shots, take her to the vet （兽医）, feed and clean her, Misty knew this on day one. As she looked up at the three new humans in her life (small, medium, and large), she figured out, “The medium one is the sucker in the pack.”

As the months went on, she and I developed a very comfortable relationship. Even so, part of me continued to complain about walking duty. Mark and Maggie had promised. Not fair.

Then one day about one year later, Mark’s doctor said an unthinkable word： cancer. With that, I spent ten hours a day with Mark in the hospital, doing anything I could to ease his discomfort. During the hospitalizations （住院）, Maggie adjusted to other adults being in the house when she returned from school. However, Misty still needed walking. My friends offered to take her, but I refused. Actually, I realize that I wanted to walk Misty. The walk in the morning was a peaceful time to gather my thoughts and the evening walk was a time to shake off the day’s upsets.

Unfortunately, Mark died with two years in hospital. After years of struggling, the joyous Misty always reminds me no matter how hard life is, there’s always some measure of joy to be gained from the moment.

Ultra haulers are the world’s biggest trucks. They deal with rocks and dirt at places called surface mines （露天矿山). Workers use mining tools to dig up dirt and rocks, and then pour them into the ultra haulers. The haulers drive away to unload. Then they come back to get filled up again.

An ultra hauler is heavy! It would sink into the road if it were driven to the mines where it would work. So after it is built, it has to be taken apart again. The pieces are loaded onto trains or tractor-trailer trucks, and then delivered to the mine. When the pieces arrive, workers put the truck together again.

Today’s biggest haulers can carry 400 tons. That is the weight of about 243 cars. Even without a load, they weigh between 250 and 400 tons—the weight of about 40 elephants. If two of those elephants stood on top of each other, they would just reach the top of one truck. Hauler drivers have to climb stairs up to the truck’s cabs, nearly 20 feet off the ground.

Larry Conner test-drives （试驾） ultra haulers for a company building giant mining equipment. “Driving an ultra hauler is like driving a two-storey house,” Larry says. “You sit in your upstairs window, take the steering wheel, and start driving. It’s really great. ”

A few years ago, people in Sparwood, British Columbia, got together to save a special ultra hauler. It was the Terex Titan, the longest ultra hauler in the world. The truck had been used at a local mine for 12 years. Its huge engine cost so much to run that it had to be put out of use.

The coal company and the people of Sparwood did not want the Terex Titan to go to the scrap（废料)pile. They collected donations and volunteered their time to make the truck ready for display. Many visitors see the giant truck every year.

People living in New York City are fearful after facing the worst of COVID-19 health crisis（危机）. This fear is bringing about a sudden increase in home sales and rentals around the small towns and wooded hills to the city’s north.

Anil and Joyce Lilly won’t be staying in their Bronx apartment much longer. They just bought a house north of New York in the Hudson Valley. It takes about an hour to reach from the city.

“We were more elbow rooms. We were locked into the apartment for three months, three full months,” Joyce Lilly explained their move to Washingtonville, New York. “I feel like I’m getting out of prison and I want to run as far away as possible. ”

House sellers describe an active market recently, with many house hunters able to work from home. Steven Domber said plenty of the home buyers are coming from Manhattan, in the heart of the city. Many of them are experiencing “cabin fever （幽居病）, which is wanting to get out of an apartment and having some land if there’s a lock down again,” he said. House agents say sales and rental activities are far above normal. Domber said his June sales were up about 30 percent compared to the same month last year. Home builder Chuck said he took eight orders in one month, compared to his usual one and a half each month.

But New York City is in no danger of losing a lot of people any time soon. The movement looks more like a trickle （细流） in a city of 8.3 million. With new homes in the area running from under $200, 000 to more than $l million, it is an escape many people cannot afford. But the increase in sales and long-term rentals suggests many New Yorkers see the city as less livable.