No surprise, then, that many Europeans develop a certain geographical myopia. Look beyond the capital cities and — particularly as you move away from Europe’s Atlantic littoral — the gap between Europe and the New World becomes a veritable chasm.

The United States in the European imagination

North America is the terrain of movies. The real America, the communities beyond the cinema screen and the newsreels, hardly feature in the imagination of many Europeans and, insofar as they do, they seem rather scary places — we remember Columbine and Sandy Hook. The U.S. is a far-off land and one that many of us who live in Europe feel uneasy about.

In most European countries, Guantanamo certainly gets more publicity than the entire state of California. Many Europeans would just not know who Harry Reid or Joe Biden are. But we all know who Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning are, and chances are that Europeans you’ll run into on your travels will regard both men with a certain awe for their courage and determination. That’s not to say we totally endorse what they have done, but their audacity in confronting totalitarian tendencies commands respect.

Travel with an open mind

The beauty of travel is that, for those who dare, it is a chance to meet people who think differently. Very differently. It turns one’s mindset inside out and gives it a thorough shakedown. Travel is a chance to confront the demons that frame our everyday life. We meet people whose take on the world is diametrically opposed to our own.

Only a small percentage of the residents of central and eastern Europe have ever crossed the Atlantic to visit the US. Those that have are invariably surprised to discover that the US is full of interesting landscapes populated in the main by mellow and interesting people.

Disconnect from everyday life

The trick of course is to leave your prejudices at home, but it takes something more. Discovery is about stepping out of your lifeworld and escaping from the frame of reference that shapes your thinking back home — escaping even from the web, social media and your regular news channels.

The choice that confronts travellers is stark. The connectivity and immersion in the web that gives texture to your everyday life might be the biggest barrier to appreciating the communities you visit. At one level, travel has never been easier. But real travel has never been harder.

The post Confronting Demons: Why Real Travel has Become More Difficult appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

While each park has a different culture, no matter where you are, you’ll likely find musical performers, sculptures, and fountains, families with picnics and grills, couples young and old, and plenty of spaces for children and adults to play.

Here a sampling of some of my favorite urban strolls.

Autumn leaves in Hampstead Heath. Photo: Lenoz

Tiergarten, Berlin

I would be remiss if I didn’t start with *the* park of my hometown’s parks.  Many tourists in Berlin skirt the edges of this green space, which neighbors major central sites such as the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, and Holocaust Memorial, without so much as dipping in a toe — to their loss!

The park’s vast expanse makes it a great detour to Potsdamer Platz, the Kulturforum (including the Philharmonic Hall), the Soviet Memorial, the Victory Column, even the main train station! With vast areas of lush grass, the park has plenty of both sunny and shady spots, depending on your preference.

Hampstead Heath, London

Once you’ve passed through the recreational areas on the Eastern side of the park and taken in the views of the city from Parliament Hill, it’s entirely possible to forget where you are while crossing this expansive natural space.

Ponds, high grasses and wooded areas make this a pleasant and varied walk.  If you wish, take time to stop in the Heritage site Kenwood Estate, or watch the kite flyers paint the sky in long, colorful strokes.

Parque del Buen Retiro, Madrid

The scruffiest of the bunch, Retiro Park is loved by locals and a great stop for people watching. Let yourself be drawn into a musical performance or two. Shade is at a premium here, and if you don’t have a blanket, be prepared to get a little dusty.

To avoid these issues, simply join the crowd lounging on the stones around the lake while enjoying an ice cream. The park’s Crystal Palace offers free rotating displays of art.

Jardin des Plantes, Paris

From the entrance nearest Gare d’Austerlitz, the park’s shady grande allée may remind you of many of Paris’ other, more formal parks, beloved by joggers and stroller-pushers alike. Perseverance leads to a long promenade of beautifully maintained and varied flower beds, inviting (rather than forbidding) you to walk on the grass and take a closer look.

Exploration of the side allées yields a formally structured and educational botanical garden and even a small zoo.  It’s possible to end your adventure in the adjacent Natural History Museum.

Where do you park it?

Which parks have you fallen in love with, sought refuge from crowds and heat in, or simply stumbled into while traveling?  Share your favorites in the comments.

The post Hanging with the Locals: Our favorite urban parks in Europe appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

A church in Jutland. Photo © hidden europe magazine

Beat those Winter Blues

Those few leisure travelers who are out-and-about are heading in the main for Europe’s winter sports regions. Buck that trend and you will have much of Europe to yourself.

We traveled last week along Denmark’s windy North Sea coast, enjoying empty roads and clear blue skies. This past weekend we rode by train through northern Germany: ten trains in all, and never more than a handful of people aboard. Spread out, and enjoy the space on trains which would be crowded in mid-summer.

Low season rates and heavy discounting by hoteliers still don’t woo the crowds. So travel is cheap. Bleak weather is still interesting. And there is a peculiar charm to many off-season coastal resorts. Expect dramatic skyscapes and wild seas. Go dressed for the worst.

Five of the Best

Here are a handful of our top coastal choices for January travel:

Gozo: Malta’s kid sister is at her best in the depths of winter. Catch it when the fierce grigal winds blow in and you’ll see a moody Gozo far removed from the sedate Mediterranean island featured in guidebooks.

Connemara and Galway: Western Ireland can be formidably crowded in summer, yet even popular spots like Clifden offer space to breathe in deepest winter. Watch and feel Atlantic waves and winds roll in off the ocean.

Istria: This little pocket of territory near the head of the Adriatic, where the Latin and Slavic worlds collide, is the perfect antidote to winter blues. Piran (Slovenia) is our favorite winter hideaway on the Istrian coast.

The North Frisian Islands: It just happens that’s where we are staying all this week. The chic set who celebrated New Year here has gone and everyday life has returned to this happy scatter of Danish and German islands in the eastern North Sea. Off-season in the region is hard to beat, whether you opt for the islands of Sylt, Amrun and Föhr (all on the German side of the border) or head further north to the Danish islands.

Galicia: The north-west corner of Spain teems with summer visitors, yet is deserted in January. The seafood is as good as ever and if you drive out to the headland at Cape Finisterre on a stormy day you really will have a sense of having reached the end of the earth.

The post Exploring Europe’s Coastal Regions in Winter appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Mainstream versus the offbeat

All well and good, if you are staring at the Mona Lisa or the Taj Mahal. But we wonder whether Google Goggles will be quite so adept at recognising a particular spot on the Russian steppes, the Hungarian puszta or on a remote stretch of Scottish coastline. Catching the essence of landscape, and indeed of most places we visit on our European travels, is about more than merely accessing a gigabyte of data on major landmarks.

What makes a place tick?

Guidebooks are certainly going through a tough time – facing competition from the more critical travel websites. The more innovative publishers are reinventing their products for a web-wise generation. But appreciating a particular place (or even a whole country) needs more than just facts, data and listings.

So it is interesting to note that while the sales of print guidebooks decline, narrative travel writing has gone from strength to strength. The reading public evidently has a considerable appetite for well written prose that really helps us understand what makes a place tick. Iain Sinclair’s London Orbital gave us a completely new take on the M25 freeway that encircles London, just as Alice Albinia’s Empires of the Indus introduced us to 2000 miles of river and 5000 years of history, while Ian Thomson’s The Dead Yard opened our eyes to Jamaica.

The spirit of landscape

We still think it worth browsing a guidebook or two before leaving home. And casting an eye over some travel websites for information on accommodation and to get a feel for the range of reactions to a place is always helpful.

But for really getting under the skin of a region or country, some well chosen narrative travel writing is essential. Travel through southern Russia without a guidebook if you really must, but don’t so much as even think of venturing to the region without having read Philip Marsden’s The Spirit-Wrestlers. Here, we think, even Google Goggles might have met its match.

The post Google Goggles and the Future of the Guidebook appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Candidates for the 2010 UNESCO List

The historic center of Amsterdam is in the running this year for one of the cherished spots on the UNESCO List. Heritage is of course more than merely Gothic cathedrals and Tuscan gardens and this year’s applications from Europe include a pitch from Slovenia that focuses on the history and legacy of the mercury industry around Idrija. Belgium also picks up a mining theme with a plea for a new UNESCO designation for old mining communities in Wallonia. Other candidates for 2010 are the old Episcopal city of Albi in southwest France and the Augustów Canal that spans the border of Poland and Belarus.

Downe: Evolution in the spotlight

Our favorite bid in this year’s palette of applications is that from the UK. The Brits are plugging Downe, a nomination that seems a little improbable at first sight. But Downe, on London’s southern boundary, is more than just one more anonymous community on the rural-urban fringe. Charles Darwin lived in Downe for forty years and the country immediately around Downe was the setting for many of Darwin’s investigations into evolution. The UK proposal for Charles Darwin’s Living Landscape Laboratory must surely be a front runner for 2010.

When things go wrong

Getting a place on the UNESCO list is not easy, and once secured means that the city or site stays in the limelight, as the Taliban found to their cost when they dynamited the famous Afghan buddhas that had long featured on the list.

The German city of Dresden fell from favour as city officials pushed ahead with plans for a new road bridge over the Elbe, so slicing through a World Heritage Site. UNESCO was not amused and last year stripped Dresden of its World Heritage status. The Elbe valley at Dresden is the only World Heritage Site in Europe ever to have been delisted.

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Defy the travel canon

If we had a month to spare in Paris, we would surely hit the Louvre, but it is not compulsory for a first-time visit. We must confess to having skipped the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, the Kremlin in Moscow and the Tower in London.

Of course, it does take a bit of courage to miss those big sights, the multi-starred attractions that have acquired legendary status as keystones in the travel canon. The art of being away from home does not come easily, but after years of practice, we think we have it sussed. It is, essentially, to live as the locals do. Parisians do not spend their weekends in long lines waiting to see the Mona Lisa, and nor should you.

Opt for an alternative

This strategy takes a bit of nerve to begin with. We returned home and confessed to elderly relatives that we went to the Vatican, but skipped the Raphaels and Michelangelos, preferring instead to go and see the Vatican railway station (yes, there is one!).

But slowly we grew into the role, realizing that it was possible to travel through Bavaria without including Neuschwanstein Castle in our itinerary. We became ever bolder with every journey. We missed the Edinburgh Festival, slept by accident through Tuscany, and said “No, thanks” when offered free tickets to the Alhambra.

“What barbarians,” we hear you say. “How can they visit Athens and skip the Acropolis?” Our retort will always be, “Because there are too many more interesting things to do instead.” In Paris, there are cafés to linger in, parks to savor, backstreets to explore. And, in truth, once you have traveled through Europe as much as we have, one Renaissance crucifixion begins to look much like another.

Tell us what you think

Do you agree that your travel experience can be enriched by skipping the big-name draws? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

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Barcelona’s Palau Nacional. Photo: Paula Funnell

Undaunted by the setback, Eiffel had better luck with Paris and, despite some opposition from local residents, the structure was constructed for the 1889 World Fair (Expo) – with the understanding that it would be dismantled thereafter. In the end it stayed, and few are the visitors to the Paris icon today who remember that the tower was initially designed to be merely a temporary addition to the Paris skyline.

World-class architecture in Barcelona

The general idea with Expos is that landmark buildings are constructed for the event, and then dismantled after the exhibition has concluded. And that is just what happened to the German pavilion for the 1929 event in Barcelona. It was demolished in January 1930. Later, Mies van der Rohe commented that working in Barcelona had been a high point of his professional life, and such was the enthusiasm for the lost pavilion that in 1986 it was reconstructed. Today it rates as a world class piece of European architecture.

A pavilion reborn

It is a wonderful building, a temple to the appeal of the Modern Movement. Sleek, textured and cool, the pavelló is an oasis of polished travertine and marble in lovely Montjuïc, southwest of Barcelona’s city center. From Montjuïc, there are super views over Barcelona and an opportunity to see the architectural legacy of the 1929 Expo and the 1992 Olympics – which were both based on and around Montjuïc.

Famous Expo leftovers

Hannover’s large mailbox. Photo: Photocapy

Some other buildings from that Barcelona fair won a reprieve from demolition. The Palau Nacional is a beautiful palace that was constructed as the centerpiece for the 1929 Expo. Original plans to demolish it met with fierce opposition from Barcelona citizens and the building found new life as home to a museum devoted to Catalan visual art.

Many European cities have World Fair leftovers that escaped the post-event bulldozers. The Oceanarium in Lisbon, a leftover from Expo 1998, is one. In the Heysel area of Brussels, the Atomium is another. It was built for the 1958 World Fair and celebrates the achievements of a generation that had – for better or worse – developed a fuller understanding of the atom.

Our favorite Expo relic, however, is in Hannover, where a 150-foot-high mailbox is a quirky reminder of the 2000 World Fair in Hannover – probably the most lackluster Expo event of all time, but that outrageous mailbox always raises a smile.

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Over forty European cities or urban regions have done a stint as Capital of Culture, with the city of Luxembourg (perhaps a little improbably) being the only place to have twice enjoyed the accolade. The second time round, Luxembourg shared the award with partner towns in its international hinterland.

Reaching beyond the EU

Usually only cities in the European Union are accorded the cherished status, but there have been a few exceptions. Reykjavík, Bergen, and Stavanger have all been featured. But EU magnanimity does has its limits and there has until now been no serious talk of giving a Russian city the title, which is a pity as the European part of the Russian Federation surely has a dozen cities which could easily cut a dash in the European cultural arena: Saint Petersburg and Kazan are just two obvious examples.

2010: Istanbul, Pecs, and Essen

Yet 2010 does see a bold EU move, with the cultural hand of friendship extended across the EU’s eastern boundary to embrace Europe’s largest city as a capital of culture: Istanbul. There are a trio of designated cities for 2010 : The two others are Essen in the industrial Ruhrgebiet of western Germany and Pécs in southern Hungary.

Pécs happens to be quite a gem, a fabulously sunny city full of hillside gardens, vineyards, and terracotta roofs. Whether Essen can compete with beautiful Pécs and exotic Istanbul in the culture stakes is an interesting question.

The city that missed out: Görlitz

Essen pipped another German city into the final trio, and we rather think that its rival, a city on the Polish border called Görlitz, might have been the better choice. But the selection of Essen does mean of course that canny Cheapos who head to Görlitz this summer won’t need to fight the crowds that will surely flock to Essen. Perhaps the judges thought, like us, that Görlitz is just too fine a spot to worry about titles.

If you do make it to Görlitz in 2010, it would be a chance to try one of our favorite hostelries. The Hotel Börse has an enviable location on the main square. Rooms in the main building are from €70, including breakfast. For those on a budget, the amiable host Georg Rittmannsperger can also offer rooms in the baroque townhouses opposite the hotel. Rates there are from €50 a room, and that includes breakfast in the Börse.

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We have over the past twelve months spent time in and reported from some twenty countries across Europe. The year has seen a lot of changes. We are pleased to see some governments across Europe beginning to levy heftier taxes on aviation, and we hope that 2010 will see more following in their wake. Higher plane fares within Europe will be a big incentive to encourage more responsible traveling. Britain has taken a welcome lead in this. We applaud the decision in Scotland to subsidize ferry fares on longer routes to the Hebrides – another important step in encouraging travelers to think twice before hopping on a plane.

Over the past year, travelers have benefited from Switzerland joining the Schengen group of nations and Slovakia adopting the euro. Iceland‘s financial misfortunes in late 2008, with a slump in the value of the Icelandic króna, suddenly made the island nation much more attractive for travelers from North America and mainland Europe. In ailing economies in eastern Europe, and particularly in the Baltic States, tourism has been a key element in the fragile recovery now underway.

New travel opportunities

Citizens of some Balkan states are today much less well traveled than their parents. But that looks set to change with the new European Union visa regulations that came into effect last weekend, ushering in a more relaxed visa regime for visitors to the EU from Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. For Serbia, this is a tangible reward from the EU to the Belgrade government for playing the great game of European integration. Olive branches from Brussels are being offered to Minsk too, and we predict that 2010 will surely see some thawing of the relations between Belarus and the EU. That will perhaps in time make life easier for travelers bound for Belarus, which remains one of Europe’s most inaccessible and yet most intriguing countries.

Rail links and politics

A new train service would not normally be greeted as a major diplomatic event, but when the new service links Serbia with Bosnia via Croatia then folk do take notice. The Belgrade to Sarajevo route was severed during the conflicts of the nineties. Now it is back, with a very welcome once daily train from the Serbian to the Bosnian capital. The new service started in mid-December.

If train services are a mark of political cooperation, then we must mourn the demise of one of Europe’s key night train links – the daily service from Berlin to Kaliningrad. It ran for the last time ten days ago. The withdrawal of this train now leaves Russia’s Baltic exclave at Kaliningrad even more isolated.

Airlines that left the skies

Finally, a thought for all the staff and passengers affected by over a dozen airline bankruptcies in Europe in 2009. Casualties included the national flag carriers of Lithuania (FlyLAL) and Macedonia (MAT); discount carriers such as Sky Europe, Fly Globespan, and My Air; and niche carriers serving particular markets such as Sky South and KD Avia (with hubs at Shoreham and Kaliningrad respectively).

We shall be back next month, but meanwhile warm best wishes for the holidays from us both.

The post 2009 Retrospective: Highlights and lowlights of European travel appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

One of our favorites is Gozo in the Med. Gozo is at its best in midwinter when the crowds have gone and the grigal winds bear down fiercely on the rocky island that Calypso once called home.

Azores, Hebrides and Lofoten Islands

Then there’s Moskenesøya, the most rugged of the Lofoten island group in northern Norway. It is a place where fierce black peaks tower out of the sea.

Lovely Colonsay in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides surely stakes a claim, as does remote Corvo in the Azores.

Nor should we neglect tiny Fugloy, the Faroese outpost that is draped in mist for half the year and yet still the most delectable spot in the North Atlantic archipelago.

And what of Brändö in the Åland Islands?

Or tiny San Lazzaro degli Armeni in the Venetian lagoon with its cypress trees, peacocks and the Armenian monastery where Byron once studied the Armenian language.

The Scilly Isles. Photo © hidden europe

Our pick: Tresco and the Scilly Isles

That’s seven of the best already, but these past few days of Indian summer on Tresco push this remote outpost of England right up into the premier league of European islands. The Scilly Isles, of which Tresco is the second largest, are on the same latitude as Winnipeg and Newfoundland. But warm Gulf Stream waters bathe the islands, so frost-free Tresco has an almost Caribbean demeanor.

Palm trees and cacti, eucalyptus and strelitzia rub shoulders in the lush gardens that surround Tresco Abbey. Canny Brits have always had a soft spot for the Scillies, but the islands are not well known among other travelers.

Routes to Tresco

A half hour helicopter flight from Penzance (on the UK mainland) will bring you straight to Tresco, but, better still, take the boat as we did. The three-hour crossing from Penzance to St Mary’s (from where there is an onward ferry to Tresco) on the Scillonian III affords views of fabulous Cornish coastal scenery, basking sharks, dolphins, and porpoises.

Try Tresco! It might well get our vote to be Europe’s most beautiful island.

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