Rothenburg is a medieval German city preserved because of poverty and luck. Poverty kept the town from evolving, freezing it in the medieval ages. Luck kept it from being bombed during WWII because both the Americans and Germans in charge near Rothenburg realized the historical value and the city was saved. Today though, the poverty [...]
Zagreb’s main cathedral, The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Mary, is one of the city’s most impressive architectural and cultural landmarks.This neo-gothic structure rises high above the city. During my first few weeks in the city I used the spires as a route marker. After a day of exploring, it was the church [...]
Winner (5 October 2009): The winner of the Europe a la Carte Twitter competition (1) is Cristina who writes for BootsnAll, aka as @WhyGoGreece on Twitter. Cristina wins a one year worldwide subscription to the Indie Travel Podcast Magazine. Cristina correctly named the location of the Twitter background photo as Newquay in Cornwall. She commented [...]
Nothing makes a European city break like a good cathedral. Stained glass, vaulted ceilings, dusty floors and echoing walls – you don’t need to be religious to appreciate these gorgeous architectural monuments. Here are some of my favourite European cathedrals: Durham Cathedral – Durham, England I think Bill Bryson says it best: “I unhesitatingly gave Durham [...]
When I visited Rome last spring, we were staying a stone’s throw from St Peter’s square, and so we took the opportunity to visit the dome of St Peter’s basilica one afternoon, after we had already spent the morning sightseeing. The entrance is to the right of the main basilica and we had to queue for [...]
Sweden is full of UNESCO World Heritage sites with quite a few of them just around Stockholm. There’s Birka, the Viking Age town, there’s Drottningholm, a royal residence, and then there’s Skogskyrkogården. The woodland cemetery. When I think World Heritage sites I think of historical buildings, or ancient towns, not cemeteries from the beginning of [...]
I’m easily drawn to tourist attractions that are the biggest, longest, narrowest or best for some reason or another – so when a friend in Germany raved to me about Ulm’s cathedral (known locally as the Ulmer Münster), I had to see it. It’s recognised (at least by my friend, and by Wikipedia) as the [...]
One of my favourite museums in Zagreb is the Croatian Museum of Naive Art. Situated in the old town, close to St. Mark’s Church, this museum displays some of the finest works of naive art in Croatia. Naive art is a simplistic art form characterized by its emphasis on detail, patterns and colours, but not [...]
Europe a la Carte is offering readers a £15 discount code, applicable to the price of flexible rate roons at many UK Travelodges for stays between 19 September and 6 December 2009. You’ll need to book from 19 September – 1 October 2009. All you have to to is enter the code LO27322G when making [...]
Edinburgh is one of my very favourite European cities and that’s not just because I’m Scottish, so I was looking forward to reading and reviewing Andy Hayes’ Historic Walking Guides Edinbugh. As Andy says, Edinburgh is fairly compact so exploring the city on foot is a great option. Edinburgh skyline from Calton Hill by europealacarte [...]
