How Easy it is to Cross the Border Between Two Old Foes
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How Easy it is to Cross the Border Between Two Old Foes

Half-German-half-Polish Usedom is used to playing second fiddle among Germany’s Baltic coast islands, but has a unique distinction Usedom is Germany’s sunniest spot. Talk about damning with faint praise, eh? But before any of you can accuse me of sneery sarcasm, let me point out that Usedom gets an almost Mediterranean 1917 hours of sunshine…

The Picturesque White Cliffs of Ruegen
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The Picturesque White Cliffs of Ruegen

As seen on an iconic, world-famous painting – and by Kaiser Bill’s mother Ruegen is Germany’s largest island and one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. Unsurprisingly, considering the German love for hiking, Ruegen also has a dense network of hiking paths, all centred on the 140 km long Hauptwanderweg – the “main hiking path”…

Spotlight on Stralsund as Gateway to Ruegen and Usedom
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Spotlight on Stralsund as Gateway to Ruegen and Usedom

The German city of Stralsund is the gateway to Ruegen and Usedom in the Baltic Sea and before you set out for a hiking trip on either of these two fascinating islands, you should take the time to explore what is in many ways the most interesting of the great German Baltic sea ports. We…

More Rip Van Winkle Villages Along the Italian Riviera
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More Rip Van Winkle Villages Along the Italian Riviera

More places to discover on our walk through the land that time forgot. Villages along the Italian Riviera In our last post, we took you down the Riviera memory lane from San Lorenzo to Santo Stefano. Today, we shall hike further down the coast, passing through more villages along the Italian Riviera that have become…

What are the Rip van Winkle Villages of the Italian Riviera?
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What are the Rip van Winkle Villages of the Italian Riviera?

From Imperia to Bordighera, there is a stretch of Italian Riviera villages that have become unstuck in time All the small coastal towns between San Lorenzo al Mare and Santo Stefano look as though they had retreated into a time capsule, a little like the New England hamlet in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village”, with…

Where to See the Breathtaking Murals of Kosice
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Where to See the Breathtaking Murals of Kosice

When Kosice became European Capital of Culture in 2013, the municipal authorities took a bold decision: resisting the temptation of putting all the money into their historic town centre, they allocated a significant proportion of the budget to the city’s modern, residential areas. Rather than hiding these quarters away – in terms of surface as…