Category: Europe Explored

"Nie od razu Kraków zbudowano "("Kraków was not built in a day" - Polish saying) Back in 2020 I had booked a family holiday to travel through Poland to Ukraine, which had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. With travel to Ukraine now off-limits, we decided to amend this to a trip just …

Continue reading "Europe Explored Trip 4 – Poland – Part One: Kraków and Wrocław"

How late it was how late - novel by James Kelman Day 9 – Monday 16th May 2022 – Bled to RegensburgWhen I booked this trip I bought a Deutsche Bahn ticket from Lesce-Bled railway station to Regensburg in Bavaria. Only from my researching the route for the previous day did I discover that the …

Continue reading "Europe Explored Trip 3 – To Slovenia and back – Part Four: Germany and home"

Slovenia - "a nation of beekeepers" Day 7 – Saturday 14th May 2022 – Trieste to LjubljanaI made my way the short distance from my hotel to Trieste Centrale railway station. On my arrival in Trieste the day before I had bought myself a ticket for the 0903 departure to Ljubljana, it not being possible …

Continue reading "Europe Explored Trip 3 – To Slovenia and back – Part Three: Slovenia"

"In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance." (Harry Lime – The Third Man) Day 4 – Wednesday 11th May 2022 – Zurich to InnsbruckI mentioned in a previous post that I'm not a eater of big breakfasts and …

Continue reading "Europe Explored Trip 3 – To Slovenia and back – Part Two: Austria and Italy"

"In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, and they had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." (Harry Lime - The Third Man) When the Europe Explored idea was first conceived in the happy pre-Covid times of late 2019, the first trip I planned was a tour to visit …

Continue reading "Europe Explored Trip 3 – To Slovenia and back – Part One: France and Switzerland"

“Everything ends this way in France – everything. Weddings, christenings, duels, burials, swindlings, diplomatic affairs – everything is a pretext for a good dinner.” (Jean Anouilh) Day 8 - Wednesday 2nd March - San Sebastian to BordeauxThe hotel I was staying in was one of the more upmarket ones that I had chosen for the …

Continue reading "Europe Explored – Trip 2 – From Lisbon to London – Part Three: France"

"There is no night life in Spain. They stay up late but they get up late. That is not night life. That is delaying the day." (Ernest Hemingway) I'm continuing my account of my recent trip from Lisbon to London, picking up from where I left off in Porto in northern Portugal. Day 4 - …

Continue reading "Europe Explored – Trip 2 – From Lisbon to London – Part Two: Spain"

"Oh salty sea, how much of your salt Is tears from Portugal?" – Fernando Pessoa After I had completed my two successful trips last Autumn (to Normandy and Granada), I started thinking about where to go next. At that time Covid cases were in decline across Europe with restrictions being relaxed, and I was due my …

Continue reading "Europe Explored – Trip 2 – From Lisbon to London – Part One: Portugal"

"Nous avons besoin de la sagesse normande"('What we need is common sense', once translated literally in the European Parliament as 'what we need is Norman Wisdom'.) Nearly eighteen months late I finally managed to get Europe Explored under way this month. Not wishing to tempt the Covid fates too much, I planned a short six …

Continue reading "Europe Explored – Trip 1 – From Cornwall to Normandy"