Before planning my week-long trip to Paris, I was only generally aware of the Chateau de Fontainebleau. It wasn’t an included stop on either of the two group tours of France I took as a teenager – we went to Versailles both times instead. But with the UNESCO-listed palace located a mere 56 kilometers from Paris, […]
UNESCO
72 Hours in Brussels, Belgium
A winter trip to Brussels wasn’t in my original Europe travel plan. Having previously spent a few days in the Belgian capital in 2007, I wanted to focus on other new-to-me destinations, preferably farther south. But search as I might, flights to Barcelona just didn’t match up with my travel dates. So I took a […]
Discover Riga: A Guide to the Old Town Architecture
Riga, Latvia was founded by German crusaders at the beginning of the 13th century. It joined the prosperous Hanseatic League during the Middle Ages, and for a time reigned as the largest city in the Swedish. The Russian Empire took over control in the 18th and 19th centuries, and then the Soviet Union from 1940-1991. […]
Kutna Hora and its Church of Bones
With a full week to spend in Prague, I had plenty of time for a day trip to see more of the Czech Republic. My destination of choice was the Kutna Hora Bone Church, an unusual attraction famous for its skeletal decorations. Creepy as it might sound, I found the macabre display to be surprisingly […]
Getting Wonderfully Lost in the Gardens of Prague
If there was ever a fairy-tale city, Prague is it. There’s a castle on a hill, UNESCO-protected Easter egg-hued architecture, stone bridges spanning a river, and sculptures galore. The gently rolling cityscape is a sea of red tile roofs and spiky church spires. Music and the sweet scent of freshly baked trdelniks waft in the […]