Nice and Paris – the two most visited cities in France – make up an odd couple. In almost every way you look at them, they are the antithesis of each other. Above all, the two are distinguished by the weather, of course: unpredictable and often grim in the capital, sweet and gentle on the…
Göttingen is no longer famous, but it should be. The story of this town in the heart of Germany is a metaphor as poignant as the tales of Easter Island or Dunwich, the mightiest medieval city on England’s east coast until it was flushed into the North Sea by a series of landslides and violent…
No country in the world benefits as much (materially) from tourism as Italy – or suffers as much from its consequences. Other countries may attract more visitors, but these visitors are spread out more thinly over a vast territory (the USA), are more concentrated in a few coastal resorts (Mexico), or both (France). In Italy…
If you travel a lot in Europe, there is a good chance that you will, sooner or later, pass through EuroAirport. This airport – which is located near prime hiking areas such as Lake Constance and the Black Forest and used a lot by low-cost airlines including Wizz and Easyjet – is the only airport…
Water. If you want to know what shapes and sustains the Mediterranean way of life, just follow its flow. Drinking water is the magical essence of the Mediterranean alchemy. It turns scruffy woodlands into orchards and lush gardens, baking-hot courtyards into oases of coolness and calm, and parched savannahs into fertile fields that can sustain…
Alone among European countries, Germany can claim sections of both the Rhine and the Danube, Europe’s most storied rivers. Most of you will have been aware of that, of course, but here is something that may surprise you: the German sections of both rivers are of a roughly similar length (865 km for the Rhine,…
Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life here, but there are many other reasons to visit this hilltop village north of Cannes. If the French Riviera is not exclusively famous for being a playground of people with more money than sense – from 19th century Russian aristocrats via eccentric East Coast heiresses during…
200 years after the event, we followed the Emperor and his army on the first stage of their walk back to Paris and to Waterloo On 1 March 1815, the recently deposed Emperor Napoleon landed with a small band of 1000 loyal soldiers in Golfe Juan near Cannes, arriving from his exile in Elba to…
On the basis of the evidence, it feels safe to say that the Empire’s troops did not come here to enjoy the beautiful beaches The history of the Riviera, if we are honest, begins in the 17th century when its oldest towns were built, and it really picks up 200 years later with the invention…
Berlin’s Tempelhof airport has been turned into a paradise for cyclists, windsurfers, wild birds, crazy golfers, baseball fans – and walkers Hiking, in a certain way, is like listening to popular music – because, let’s face it, most hikes do not really offer anything strikingly original like something you have never seen before, but rather…
