Category European Cities
2017 Balkan Tour Revisited – Kosovo
Kosovo is one of those places that conjures up thoughts of conflict and strife. Synonymous with the Yugoslav Conflict in the same way as Sarajevo, Mostar and Srebrenica. The Islamic enclave and particularly its embattled capital Pristina certainly bore a heavy price due to the ethnic cleansing that the Serb forces carried out in those […]
Le Tour de France – Part Fin, Paris
The actual Tour de France finishes in Paris with a parade up the Champs Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe, so this is where I will finish too. I have visited the wonderful French capital more times than I can remember thanks to Eurostar. If Mrs Wilbur and I do not visit at least once […]
Le Tour De France – Part Six, Normandy & Brittany
Normandy & Brittany Thousands of years ago, the UK was attached to modern day France and although those land ties have long since been broken, a special bond and landscape similarity remains between Essex & Kent in England and Breton et Normandie en France. The fact that a Eurotunnel train only takes 35 minutes to link Folkestone […]
Le Tour de France – Part Four, Alsace, Lorraine & Lyon
Alsace The region that has changed from being German to French on more than one occasion is now firmly part of France, albeit retaining a distinctly Germanic feel in many places. The best known and noticeably most Arian city is the diplomatic centre of Strasbourg, home of the European Parliament Building and the European Court of Human Rights. The city […]
Le Tour de France – Part Three, Avignon & Roman France
Continuing my alternative tour ideas in France utilising engine power, I am now turning my attention to Romanesque France…… Gaulish The two main cities that you can use as a convenient base to explore the Roman sites are Avignon & Nîmes, so let’s start there. Avignon The walled compact city of Avignon and it’s smaller, younger brother Villeneuve-lès-Avignon sit […]
Le Tour de France – Part Two, Provence & The Camargue
Continuing my touring ideas for France, not by bicycle but by road and rail (see my stage one post for Côte d’Azur). Provence Also accessible from Nice, a better gateway is Marseille, especially as you can now get a direct train there from London. You can read about my journey and stay in the great city here. […]
Le Tour de France – Part One, Côte D’Azur
Perhaps the toughest sporting event of them all, Le Tour de France, is now into its closing few days. Those precipitous mountain roads of the Alps & Pyrenees that they climb make me wince just thinking about them. Hopefully the sport is now totally drug free meaning the event truly is the ultimate test for a […]
Old Town Square, Prague
I first visited Prague in 1992 when it was the capital of Czechoslovakia, you could only book accommodation through State run Cedok and Communism & Revolution were still very fresh in the memories. Fast forward half my lifetime and I am back in the city that grabbed me like no other on my first visit. […]
Jazzy Ljubljana
When I booked for Mrs Wilbur & I to visit the Slovenian capital this June I had no idea that it would coincide with the city’s 60th jazz festival. We have both grown to love this musical genre and indeed the whole trip that saw us ending up in Vienna was predicated on us going […]
