Having returned from our recent trip to Avignon, I went through old Easy Hiker posts to check what we had posted from our previous visits of the town – and found, much to my surprise, that the answer was: nothing. Nothing at all! Was that even possible? We must have visited Avignon at least four…
Winter is the season that most dramatically divides the world into North and South. But here is a comforting thought for all those among you who are currently in the grip of the cold and the dark: the people who inhabit the gentler climes of the Mediterranean may be spared the worst of the weather,…
Who ever says that you cannot turn back time has never been to Biella. Or, more precisely, has not taken the funicular elevator from downtown Biella up to the oldest part of town, 50 metres up and 100 years back. Our Time Travel in Biella We travelled to Biella (and near-by Oropa) as a stopover…
The Santuario di Oropa aka Sacred Mountain of Oropa, in the northern Italian region of Piemonte is one of the largest sacred shrines in the Alps – and also one of the most storied. It all started with St Eusebius in the 4th century: on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, as the legend has…
Here is something about Madrid that many people may not know: a river runs through it. But why is the Manzanares so much less famous than, say, the Thames, the Seine or the Tiber? One reason is certainly that all of Madrid – not just its river – flies a bit under the radar, and…
The Centro with the Madrid dos Austrias, the Gran Via neighbourhood, Malasana and Chueca: last week, we gave you a good roundup of the Spanish capital’s “greatest hits” while walking through its central districts. But big cities like Madrid are always a sum of all their parts, not only the three of four that make…
People either love big cities or they don’t. If you are not energized by the noise, the speed, the rapid flow of images – and if the prospect of having to process all the stimuli and information at the same time fills you with dread rather than nervous excitement, you will not love Madrid. There…
Rocamadour in the Dordogne valley east of Bordeaux is one of France’s top visitor attractions, but unlike most of the other entries in tourism’s Top Of The Pops, it has been a hit for centuries. Had visitor numbers been measured in the Middle Ages, Rocamadour would have topped such a statistic year after year, centuries…
Limoges is in possession of not one but two town centres. This does not make the capital of the Limousin province (located about half way between Paris and Bordeaux) unique as such, but its two richly storied ancient quarters, unlike most of the other town centre twins, are not conjoined. Centuries later, they still resemble…
What makes a great urban walk? First of all, it almost goes without saying, an urban walk should combine natural beauty with some urban rough. All cities are beautiful, says the American poet Christopher Morley, but their beauty is grim, and urban walks should provide an introduction into this grim beauty. But this is…