Today, July 25, is the Catholic feast day of St. James, the biggest date along the Camino de Santiago(Way of St. James), Europe’s most famous religious pilgrimage route, whose endpoint is the majestic cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, believed by
A cruise to Spain on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam showed us there are many contemporary reasons to consider the ancient city of Valencia as a top-notch vacation destination.
Since the 8th century, Valencia has seen Christian and Muslim conque
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Ach, du liebe! It’s that sudsy time of year again, as Germany’s Oktoberfest begins anew later this month. When many of us think “beer”, Deutschland naturally springs readily to mind – and for some, perhaps also Belgium, known for some distinctive br
"I am the last Jew in all of the Azores,” Jorge Delmar tells us. He is a stocky man in his early 50s who runs an import/export business in Ponta Delgada, the capital city of São Miguel, largest of the nine islands that comprise the Portuguese archip
I do love a garden, and I especially like one that’s been rescued from near dereliction. Cornwall’s Lost Gardens of Heligan are probably the best-known example, Coincidentally, the Tremayne family, who owned the Heligan Gardens were related to the
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Porto is the second most populous city in Portugal, located in the north of the country, on the right bank of the River Douro. Porto is one of the oldest cities in Europe, the former capital of the country and the current capital of port wine.
In the
My solo travels have mostly taken me throughout North America; but this last trip stretched my independence and my endurance. I was originally intrigued when several months ago I saw an online mention of airfare to Reykjavik from Los Angeles for $20
Cliffs plummet dramatically to beaches and crashing surf. Lush green hills rise and fall, then keep rising until they swell into the craggy, majestic Picos de Europa range. In the compact principality of Asturias, roughly midway along Spain's north
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Malta is a group of islands in the Mediterranean between Sicily and North Africa. Its location means that it has been influenced by a variety of cultures, including the Roman, Moors, French, and British. When John and I visit a location for a week or
Frankfurt am Main usually doesn't rate high on the list of Germany's must-visit cities due to its often misunderstood reputation as a staid financial services center. One of Frankfurt's most visible distinctions contributing to stereotypes like this
Are you a an Austria expert? A well known U.S. guidebook series would like to hear from you: http://www.tripatini.com/group/mediaonly/forum/topics/fodor-s-travel-seeking-vienna-writers
North of Norway's Arctic Circle in the Finnmark region, the small city of Alta (one of the world's northernmost), located on a west-coast fjord, is home to among other things gorgeous scenery, an ice hotel, and thousands of UNESCO World Heritage rock
A seemingly endless source of fascination and pleasure for visitors, Portugal‘s most popular area with sun-seeking vacationers has for generations been its southernmost region, the 1,930-square-mile (4,997-square-kilometer) wedge known as the Algarv
‘If you steal a sheep, they’ll hang you, but if you steal a mountain, they’ll make you a Lord’
- old Welsh saying.
There’s e
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Greece witnessed its biggest tourist season ever in 2015, with more than 25 million tourists proving, that this southern European country remains a welcoming and safe place to enjoy a sailing holiday.
The best way to experience Greece is on a sailin
In the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, Italy’s third largest city, ancient queen of the Mezzogiorno, the country’s south, is a glorious contradiction. The face of Napoli is luminous, yet sports plenty of wrinkles, scars, and squalour. History, good eating
The legendary Irish “gift of gab” has helped Ireland punch above its weight literarily for centuries now – and Dublin in particular has been a literary hotbed – in fact, officially designated a “Literary City” by UNESCO in 2010 in case anyone had any
C'era 'na vùota (once upon a time), the Mediterranean's largest island was a handsome but clannish, primitive backwater known as a stronghold of the Mafia and the Catholic Church. These days...well, admittedly there's still some of that hanging on,
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Hey, can you by any chance name a Danish city outside of Copenhagen? Most likely not. Your loss, really, because Denmark's second largest, for example, is a truly charming bit of business called Aarhus, (pop. 265,000, larger metro area 330,000), on
The 16th-century Protestant Reformation against the corruption and excesses of the Roman Catholic Church was spearheaded by a number of seminal figures, as diverse as John Calvin in Switzerland, Jan Hus in Bohemia, and Britain‘s King Henry VIII of t
