Today, we will present you the second half of a great double-bill for a weekend trip in eastern France. From Metz, the place we visited last week, we are today heading off to the regional capital of Nancy. The two cities are only separated by a 30-minute train ride but offer a total contrast in…
When you pick a provincial city in France as your holiday base or destination, you never know in advance what you will be getting. Some of these cities are prosperous, well-kept, lively and colourful – others drab and full of the stench of misery and neglect. I call this the French Tourism Roulette. Not everything…
This week, we will serve you another slice of unknown Italy but with a twist to the recipe. While last week’s destination of Udine is, roughly following the famous Donald Rumsfeld classification of unfamiliar objects, very much an “unknown unknown” (think: obscure medieval poets), the city of Brescia is “known-unknown” in the fashion of Edmund…
No country in the world benefits as much (materially) from tourism as Italy – or suffers as much from its consequences. Other countries may attract more visitors, but these visitors are spread out more thinly over a vast territory (the USA), are more concentrated in a few coastal resorts (Mexico), or both (France). In Italy…
There is no point beating about the bush: Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, is not the most interesting of European city destinations. It is not even the most interesting city destination in Croatia (that honour goes to Dubrovnik). It is, however, a convenient entry point into the country (with good travel connections by land and…
When Germany was rebuilt from the ruins of WWII, the city fathers of every German town made sure that at least a few streets would be restored to their pre-war appearance. This, I believe, was meant to reassure the citizens that not all ancient traditions, beliefs and cultural foundations would be swept away with the…
After the downfall of the Third Reich, Germany was rebuilt from the ruins of war in a hurry, and, more often than not, it shows. Throughout the 1950s, as Germany was clearing up the WWII rubble and slowly finding its feet again, the priority for politicians and urban planners was to build what was urgently…
Gathering tourism experiences has been the Easy Hikers’ primary occupation for these past 10 or 15 years, so you may trust me when I say that popular destinations generally have more in common than we would ideally wish them to. Seaside walks and beach promenades resemble each other to the point where they seem virtually…
Milan is the economic powerhouse of Italy but also the country’s least charming city. Fortunately for visitors, however, Milan is also surrounded by places which – all within an hour or so by rail – represent the best that Italy can offer. For scenic beauty, few parts of the country can rival Lake Como and…
Modern architecture is difficult to love. It is not so much the concept that is the problem here: all of us can easily agree that its principles are fine and noble – simplicity (less is more), an appearance of elegant restraint (ornament is crime), transparency of structure (form follows function). But while this theory has…
