The red sandstone Munster in Basel overlooks the majestic sweep of the Rhine River as it turns northward to define the border between France and Germany. Basel was one of our last stopovers of the Continental Heritage Tour which ended…
The presidential flag fluttering above the palace overloking the historic town centre of Prague proudly carries the Czech national motto ‘Pravda Vítézí’: truth prevails. Vaclav Havel, the playwright-dissident who became president of the newly democratic Czechoslovakia in 1989, made this…
Tourism has been around much longer than the stereotypical ‘loud, cigar-puffing American’ of the popular imagination. The ‘Grand Tour’ of the 18th century, for example, was an essential rounding off of the education for élite young Europeans. Thomas Cook, a…
Did you catch the story last week about the man who cut through the iron curtain between Hungary and Austria? Gyula Horn, former Hungarian prime minister, died last wednesday, aged 80. Twenty-four years ago this week, on June 27, 1989,…
Fathers Day was celebrated in many European countries yesterday, the third Sunday in June. For various historical reasons, most of Switzerland marked this day two weeks ago, Austria and Belgium last weekend and most Nordic countries will wait until November. …
