Iceland’s Culture of Folk Tales

Iceland’s Culture of Folk Tales
On March 20 Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull erupted several times in a row and caused major disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe. Our writer Meg Pier went there last May and found out firsthand why the Icelandic people have such a healthy respect for the power of Mother Nature, and [...]

Maltese Blue

Maltese Blue
Colorful Boats Tell the History of an Island Civilization
Taking the strong arm offered to me, I was the last to board the small boat. I plopped down at the rear of the craft, next to the man who helped me on. During the next half-hour, he navigated my journey into [...]

Time Travelling In Gozo

Time Travelling In Gozo
“If you do any digging in the Maltese islands, you’re bound to find something—it’s all just one big museum,” said my guide, Amy Pace of Sliema. “When the streets of M’dina were being repaved about four years ago, they discovered they had hit a buried column of an old Roman temple.”
Indeed, the [...]

Paris Underground

Paris Underground
Very few tourists know that when they stroll around Paris, others may be lurking only 40 metres underground beneath their feet. The French capital hides an unexpected treasure known to only an exclusive and initiated elite.
For years and years, I have been strolling through these tunnels under the [...]

Chernobyl: Green, Tranquil and Toxic

April 26, 1986. Chernobyl’s Reactor Four erupts in the morning sky – shuddering through the homes of its workers in the town of Pripyat 3 kilometres away. Official silence is maintained by the Soviet government until Swedish radiation detectors sound the alarm days later.

Wieliczka’s Hidden Treasure

Wieliczka’s Hidden Treasure
Hidden beneath a small town on the outskirts of Krakow, Poland lies one of the world’s oldest salt mines. Wieliczka was one of the largest and most profitable medieval industrial establishments at a time when table salt was as commercially valuable as today’s oil. The mine has been [...]

Across Russia By Train

Across Russia By Train
The Tran-Siberian Railway is the ultimate rail journey: the longest in the world – possibly the coldest if you go at the wrong time of year. A journey of almost mythical proportions that spans two continents while staying in a single country; without leaving your seat you clatter [...]

A Date With Sofia

The Balkan state is appealing to travelers looking for bargains behind the former Iron Curtain. But so far, its capital city and rugged countryside have escaped the tourist crush.
On the plane from London, two British men chatted enthusiastically about the killing they expected to make on property investments in Sofia. Huge [...]

A Tale Of Two Cities

The River Danube winds through the heart of Hungary’s capital. On its western bank, Buda’s monumental Hapsburg palace crowns a green, wooded and craggy hill, where the pinnacled spire of Mátyás church soars above a colourful glazed tile roof and a dark interior painted in patterns reminiscent of Turkish carpets. Nearby, [...]