The Tanum rock carvings are one of the world’s most extraordinary prehistoric art sites, a UNESCO World heritage collection of over 1,500 Bronze Age petroglyphs etched into the glacially smoothed granite bedrock of western Sweden. Dating back 3,000 years or more, these remarkable carvings depict warriors, ships, animals, hunting scenes, and mysterious rituals that offer […]
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
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
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 […]
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 […]
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
The windmills of Kinderdijk are the most famous Dutch landscape on Earth, 19 beautifully preserved 18th-century windmills lined up along the canals of the Alblasserwaard polder near Rotterdam, forming a UNESCO World heritage site that is the single strongest image of the Netherlands in the global imagination. More than just a photo opportunity, Kinderdijk is […]
Categories: Netherlands, Sights
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia, the biggest and most vibrant city in Baltics, and an important seaport, situated on the mouth of the Daugava. It is also the largest city of the Baltic states and third-largest in the Baltic region, behind Saint Petersburg and Stockholm. Riga’s historical centre is declared a […]
Haarlem is one of the Netherlands’ most elegant and eminently livable cities, a historic North Holland gem whose magnificent Grote Kerk (Great Church), world-class Frans Hals Museum, and beautifully preserved medieval centre make it the perfect antidote to Amsterdam’s crowds while being just 15 minutes away by train. Often overlooked by international visitors in favour […]
Categories: Netherlands, Sights
Salamis is the most important archaeological site in Cyprus, a vast ancient city on the island’s eastern coast near Famagusta that served as the capital of Cyprus for over a thousand years, from the late Bronze Age through the Roman and Byzantine periods. Today, Salamis is a hauntingly beautiful expanse of ruins stretching along the […]
