easy hiking trails in Europe
Here is something you probably did not see coming. After last week’s walk – which took in the moat around the old city walls of Treviso, the town’s scenic canals and the statue of a “nude female torso” that is freely dispensing water from her nipples – you probably thought we had dealt comprehensively with…
Here is a warning: If you cannot stand the sight of water … … and if you are particularly allergic against streams that are narrowly framed by rows of ancient buildings … … you should stay well clear of Treviso because, once you are there, you will find no way of escaping your nightmare. You…
Long urban and country walks are great but they do take up a lot of time: time to organize and to prepare, time to travel, time to do the actual walking. Such walks can easily become projects around which you have to structure not only the day itself but your entire weekend break, squeezing other…
What are the must-have ingredients for an entertaining and enjoyable walk? Well, trees and plants, to begin with, … … then wide open spaces with scenic views into the far distance, … … and on top of that, some bright sunshine would help, if only to highlight the colours of the scenery with a radiantly…
The Altes Land, a few kilometres outside of Hamburg, is Europe’s largest fruit orchard. More than 10 million cherry and apple trees are growing here on the southern bank of the Elbe river, inviting you to stroll through a sea of colour and scenic beauty. That was what we had in mind when we boarded…
St Pauli is the oldest of Hamburg’s Szeneviertels, although you would not have called it a “trendy neighbourhood” when people began to settle here in the late Middle Ages. St Pauli started its life as Hamburg’s messy attic: everything that the municipal administration did not want inside the city walls but, for various reasons, did…
In Germany, more even than in other European countries, the most interesting parts of major cities can be located in the “trendy neighbourhoods”, the Szeneviertel as the Germans call them – a term which, perhaps inadvertently, references the world of the theatre. Inadvertently or not, however, the analogy feels appropriate because these quarters appear to…
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…
Bordeaux, the unofficial wine capital of the world, may have given its name to the most famous appellation in the world, but on the vinicultural map of the region, its territory is represented by a lone blank spot: Bordeaux is virtually the only place within the Gironde département where no commercial vineyards operate, and it…
Bordeaux in the sunny southwest of France is the unofficial wine capital of the world. The label of “Bordeaux”, however, under which the locally produced wines are distributed across the world and which has earned the city its fame, only serves to indicate the name of the place where these wines have been stored, blended…