The Abbey of San Galgano is one of Italy’s most atmospheric and romantic ruins, a roofless Gothic Cistercian abbey in the Tuscan countryside near Siena, whose soaring walls and empty window arches frame nothing but sky, and whose nearest hilltop hermitage houses the legendary Sword in the Stone, Italy’s own Excalibur. Abandoned in the 18th […]
Categories: Cities, Italy, Religious Monuments, Sights, Sights
Bovški Gamsovec is one of Slovenia’s best-kept mountain secrets, a spectacular viewpoint at 2,392 metres in the heart of the Julian Alps that delivers an uninterrupted, jaw-dropping panorama of Mount Triglav, Slovenia’s highest peak and national symbol. Far less crowded than the better-known Triglav summit routes, Bovški Gamsovec offers experienced hikers a chance to stand […]
Kmeťov vodopád (Kmeť’s Waterfall) is the highest waterfall in Slovakia, a spectacular 80-metre cascade in the remote Kôprova Valley (Kôprová dolina) of the High Tatras, plunging down a near-vertical granite wall in one of the Tatra National Park’s most pristine and less-visited valleys. Named after the Slovak botanist and ethnographer Andrej Kmeť, this waterfall is […]
Categories: Nature, Nature, Slovakia, Waterfalls
Dumme Mosse is one of southern Sweden’s largest and most important wetlands, a vast nature reserve of peat bogs, marshes, and shallow lakes in Småland that is a critical habitat for migratory birds, including cranes that gather here in their thousands during the spring migration, creating one of Sweden’s most spectacular wildlife spectacles. The reserve, […]
Pärnu is Estonia’s “Summer Capital”, a charming Baltic seaside city with a 3-kilometre white sand beach, a beautifully preserved 19th-century spa quarter of tree-lined avenues and wooden villas, and a laid-back cultural scene that transforms the city into Estonia’s most popular holiday destination every summer. With a history as a Hanseatic trading port and a […]
Delft is one of the most delightful small cities in the Netherlands, a perfectly preserved Dutch Golden Age town of tree-lined canals, humpbacked bridges, and gabled merchant houses that is synonymous with three things: Johannes Vermeer, Delft Blue pottery, and being the final resting place of the Dutch royal family. Often described as a smaller, […]
Categories: Netherlands, Sights
Tongeren is officially the oldest town in Belgium, a captivating Roman-founded city in the Flemish province of Limburg where 2,000 years of history are woven into every cobblestone street, medieval rampart, and Roman archaeological find. Best known today for its sprawling Sunday antiques market, the largest in the Benelux, Tongeren offers a perfect blend of […]
Thayatal National Park is one of Austria’s most beautiful but least-known protected areas, a dramatic 13-kilometre-long valley on the Czech border where the Thaya River has carved a deep, meandering canyon through ancient metamorphic rock, creating a richly forested landscape that is home to wildcats, black storks, and over 40 species of orchid. Together with […]
Møns Klint is Denmark’s most dramatic natural wonder, a 6-kilometre stretch of brilliant white chalk cliffs rising 128 metres above the turquoise Baltic Sea on the island of Møn. Formed from the fossilised shells of microscopic coccolithophores over 70 million years ago, these gleaming cliffs offer one of northern Europe’s most breathtaking coastal landscapes, rich […]
Maastricht is one of the Netherlands’ most distinctive cities, a vibrant university town whose medieval heart of cobbled streets, Roman ruins, and Gothic churches has more in common with Flanders or Wallonia than with the canal-ringed cities of Holland. Sitting at the southernmost tip of the Netherlands, wedged between Belgium and Germany, Maastricht’s cosmopolitan, Burgundian […]
Categories: Netherlands, Sights
