easy hiking trails in Europe
Münster is one of western Germany’s most favourite day trip destinations and also happens to be a modern art hotspot. People from the region and beyond like to come here partly to experience the town’s ancient and interesting history: in 1535, the Siege of Münster ended the tyrannical regime of the eccentric Jan van Leiden, a…
If you want to see the largest number of ghosts crammed together into the smallest possible space to get the biggest spectral bang for your London-walking-buck so to speak, go to the City of London. After all, before the square mile became a business district, it was pretty much all of London there was. While cows were…
Ready to meet more of London’s undead? Good, they have been dying to meet you – in some cases waiting for you for hundreds of years in the haunted City of London. Brave enough for the Haunted City of London? We start the second part of our walk on Trafalgar Square, right underneath Nelson’s Column….
Some people travel to England to learn English, to do business, to watch a West End play or a football game. Others travel to Britain to meet a ghost. Don’t laugh: this is big business. Owners of castles try to lure overseas visitors with a promise of a meeting with their dead ancestors, stately homes…
Chichester: Roman Walls, Cricket’s Babe Ruth and Philip Larkin I normally shy away from dishing out general travel advice, but here is one: rather than picking your destinations according to fashion and the dictates of the travel press, base your choice on expedience and opportunity. If someone, for example, invites you for a job interview…
Once they were giants – Breil and the Roya River. From the train, Breil-sur-Roya looks incongruously large and imposing, with its tree lined riverside avenue and two large churches in the centre of town. Located in that part of the border country between France and Italy that is characterized by perched hilltop villages and their nervous…
All beautiful landscapes and areas have one ugly spot: one place where they concentrate all those warehouses, tyre vendors and utilities that they need – like everybody else – but prefer to keep out of sight. And so, while the glittering towns and beauty spots get themselves ready for the ball (aka the annual tourist…
Sanremo and San Romolo: once conjoined twins, with the Funiculaire of San Romolo. Once upon a time, the remote hillside village of San Romolo was one of the Italian Riviera’s most popular day trip destinations. Mention its name to natives from Sanremo of a certain age only if you are ready to be showered with…
Here is a tip if you face an acute what-to-do-with-the kids emergency in Barcelona. If you are visiting the Catalan capital with teenage kids in tow who have become ever so slightly rebellious after three days of art nouveau, hallucinogenic architecture and the musty smell of museum corridors take them to Girona (it’s a little…
Castellar is a vaguely picturesque medieval village just to the north of Menton on the French Riviera, and on its own (we might as well be honest about this), it is not worth the trip. Castellar’s 972 inhabitants may hate me for saying this, but such are the risks of boldly speaking truth to power….