As grand buildings in Europe go, the Mezquita of Cordoba is right up there with the best of them. The site on which the building stands was originally home to a pagan temple, which then became a church, then a mosque before being becoming a church again in the 13th century. The fact that it [...]
For long unknown to all but an intrepid few travellers, the Alentejo region of Portugal is getting a lot of media attention in the last couple of years. So it might surprise you that you’re likely to find very few other tourists on a visit to the region, even in the main towns. Whether you’re [...]
With barely a soul in the first class carriage I figured the three hour journey would be a good chance to get some work done. I had just spent two days in the rural backwaters of eastern Poland to research a couple of articles and was returning to Warsaw in time to catch an [...]
I travelled to Iceland in March on a trip to research a couple of stories. While the stories tell of two different but (I think) fascinating sides of Icelandic life, these images perhaps give a better taste of the natural beauty from the sparsely populated north of the country, where neighbours may live a hour [...]
It is the world’s oldest republic and arguably has the continent’s worst national football team. San Marino is well worth a visit if you are making a visit to Italy’s Adriatic coast. My article about San Marino on the BBC Travel site was published in August (here for UK folks), but I thought I’d share [...]
Taking an underground tour is hardly an unusual experience these days. There are tours of sewers, bomb shelters, abandoned train lines and natural caves in almost every major city. So what makes the 23 kilometres of tunnels known as the Casemates of Luxembourg different and worthy of special attention? For a start there’s the age [...]
Ask people where they want to go on their European holidays and if they’re not heading to the beaches of the Mediterranean they’ll most likely tell you about Paris, London, Barcelona or Venice. Some may head east to Prague, Krakow or Budapest. Yet despite being the most populous European country (excluding Russia) Germany hardly ever [...]
Many blog entries, particularly photo posts, are designed to inspire others to visit a particular place. This one is a definite exception. No tourist is likely to being visiting Aleppo anytime soon. As I heard the depressing news from Syria I looked back at my photos of our trip there in 2009. Our happy memories [...]
It is often said that the best way to get to know a country is through its cuisine. With this in mind I was determined to sample at least one cake in every country through which we passed in our recent rail journey. Even when we only used a country as a transit stop (as [...]
If you’re planning a rail trip in Europe you’ll probably need to decide whether it’s worth buying a rail pass or getting individual tickets as you go. Choosing the wrong option can leave you heavily out of pocket. While arranging a recent trip from Rimini in Italy back to London it soon became clear that [...]
