Here is a quiz question for you. What is the only European country that has never possessed any kind of a railway network? Hands up everybody who said “the Vatican”. Wrong! (The correct answer is Andorra.) Don’t feel downhearted if you could not get it right, as the New York Times comforts those of its…
Our latest trip to Rome was the 4th time we visited the city. We went first in the mid-1980s when the world was a different place: the Iron Age of the modern world. Many things have changed since then, but the Eternal City is not one of them. Which, after all, is why it bears…
When you are in Rome for the first time, you should do what everybody else is doing: walk past the Roman ruins, visit the Vatican museums, jump into the Fontana Trevi. For the second time, rather than doing all of that again, you should try something else. Like jump into another fountain, so-to-speak. Extend your…
Last week, we took you on a day trip away from busy and noisy Madrid to the tranquility of Aranjuez. But peace and quiet are not the only things that you will struggle to find in Madrid. The city’s history, too, is short of a register or two. Madrid overflows with the Baroque glory of…
Madrid is big and lively, but after a few days of holidaying in the Spanish capital, even people who actually like big and lively may yearn for a day of calm and tranquility. For these visitors of the Spanish capital, the Aranjuez Gardens are just the ticket. But hey, I hear some of you say,…
For this week’s post, we stay within Burgundy but move from a stopover town on the circuit – Auxerre – to a destination near the top of the charts. With the possible exception of Dijon, the region’s capital, no town in Burgundy attracts as many visitors as Beaune. Most of these visitors come here to…
Towns in provincial France or La France Profonde come in two varieties: they either aspire to be smaller versions of Paris, or they do not. Auxerre – as near the geographical centre of the country and, perhaps, its heart as you can hope to get – is an excellent example for the second group. Auxerre’s…
Cordoba is the hottest city in Europe – no more than par for the course, you might say, considering its latitude and the absence of any natural source for cooling (such as the presence of the sea). Cordoba, however, holds another distinction that may come as a far bigger surprise: it also was, albeit only…
Cordoba in the south of Spain is the hottest town in Europe. Temperatures reach an average daytime high of 37° centigrade in July and August (100° F). In July 2022, the city experienced 19 days with 40° or more (104° F), a record for any European city, and one day in April 2023, the thermometer…
There are two reasons to travel to the town of Beaucaire. Firstly, there is the experience of walking across a border: not a national but a cultural border, one that has divided France into tribes of different customs and habits for centuries. Up to a point, it still does so today. Take the train to…