Category: Europe Explored

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Europe Explored – Trip 19 – Here, There and Everywhere – Part Two: Zagreb, Osijek, Pécs and Budapest

"Bez cilja i nada mi smo samo mjerači vremena." ("Without goals and hope, we are just measurers of time." - Ranko Marinković (Croatian novelist) Continuing the account of my whirlwind tour of Europe, concluding with the time that I spent in Croatia and Hungary. Day 5 – Sunday 12th October 2025 – Maribor to ZagrebAlthough …

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Europe Explored – Trip 19 – Here, There and Everywhere – Part One: Gothenburg, Prague, Graz and Maribor

"The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment." (Johannes Kepler) I wished to see a performance of Puccini's opera La Boheme at my favourite opera house in Gothenburg, and to …

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Europe Explored – Trip 18 – The Baltic States – Part Two: Latvia

“You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” (Mikhail Tal - Latvian Chess World Champion) Continuing the account of the recent trip I took with my wife to the Baltic States. Day 5 – Monday 15th September 2025 – Vilnius …

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Europe Explored – Trip 18 – The Baltic States – Part One: Lithuania

"Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (Pink Floyd album, based on the title of a chapter in The Wind in the Willows.) Having not been on a full multi-city Europe Explored trip for several months, my wife and I decided to visit the three Baltic states. It was our first time visiting countries that had …

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Europe Explored – Trip 16 – Return from Catalonia – Part Two: France

"With a hop, skip and a jump" This post continues the account of my journey from Barcelona to London, covering my time in France. I had been in South West France on two of my previous Europe Explored expeditions (in March 2022 and November 2023), so my itinerary was filling in the gaps of some …

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Europe Explored – Trip 16 – Return from Catalonia – Part One: Spain

“Homage to Catalonia“ (George Orwell) This trip was designed to weave together some places I had not been to before, some I had been to a very long time ago, and some from more recently where I had not had enough time on my previous visit. This first post describes my time in Spain, while …

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Europe Explored – Trip 15 – Romania and Bulgaria – Part Two: Bulgaria

"... And now for something completely different" (Monty Python) This post continues the account of my journey to Romania and Bulgaria in October 2024. Romania was a country that I had previously visited 41 years earlier, whereas I had never been to Bulgaria before. Bulgaria uses the Cyrillic alphabet, but all place names in this …

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