Travels in Europe

[This section is in the earliest stages of development: 30 May 1999]

I have beaten the bounds of the western half of the continent with which I most closely identify.

 North: to the north of Scotland and the north of Scandanavia;

 East: to Helsinki in eastern Finland, to Vienna in Austria and to Budapest in Hungary;

 South: to Catania in Sicily and Seville in southern Spain;

 West: to Cornwall in England, and to the Dingle peninsula, County Kerry in western Eire.

Although it already feels like an age since the end of the Cold War and the toppling of the Berlin wall, which events have resulted in the opening up of central and eastern Europe for western travellers, the eastern marches of my own experience were conducted prior to the setting of the Soviet and Communist stars. Crossing political borders so polarised by the Iron Curtain tended not to be the shared experience of most British people in the early 1980s.

I wait, now, for opportunities to visit places further east: Leningrad, Moscow, Athens, Istanbul, Petra, Jerusalem, the Pyramids, Dubai, Goa, Delhi, Kathmandu, Dushambe.

Austria / Österreich

I have visited Vienna / Wien twice, both during the 1980s. My abiding memories include St Stefan's Dom (the cathedral), with its zig-zag striped white, green and black roof slates; St Peter's Kirche, a trinket-box masterpiece of Baroque architecture and decoration; St Karl's Kirche; art deco architectural decoration; clunking trams; and kaffe mit schlagsahne at the Hauptbahnhof; hat shops the like of which disappeared from British high streets many decades ago. I stopped off in Salzburg for a couple of hours on one occasion, but found the experience unrewarding.

Belgium

Britain

Denmark

Copenhagen: the Little Mermaid; Carlsberg brewery (Elephant beer). Rosskilde: university town. Helsingor (Hamlet's castle) - a plague of ladybirds upon you.

Eire

Finland / Suomi

Helsinki. Turku. Savonlinna: a flat Finnish "Lake District".

France

Germany / Deutschland

Hungary

Italy / Italia

Luxembourg

I have visited Luxembourg City twice:

 1972: a youth hostelling and walking tour of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which took in Vianden and Echternach.

 1996: with my wife and daughter. The city walls are deservedly a World Heritage Site.

 The Netherlands / Nederland

Norway

In terms of vegetation, Oslo is one of the greenest capital cities I have visited. There is Viking history to be seen, not least in the form of an excavated Long Boat. I think I went to Hell in order to say that I had been there, which strikes me now (and maybe even then) as a futile reason for going some place. The rail journey from Oslo to Bergen crosses the permanent ice fields, through a land of perpetual winter: sometimes it feels really good to be cocooned in the safety of a train. Some point before Bergen, still very high up, we diverted onto a branch line to Flåm, and descended spectacularly past cascading waterfalls to sea-level. In Trondheim, further north up the coast, it rarely stopped raining, but maybe August is not the best month to visit.

Spain / España

Sweden

Stockholm: the old city; overnighting on the AF Chapman - a sailing ship used as a youth hostel. Storuman: out in the wilds. Östersund: railway north through Jokkmuk beyond the Arctic Circle to Jellivare. Picking bilberries and wild raspberries. Reindeer on the railway line.

Switzerland

Travelled through by railway train several times, but never stopped. I should like to visit Zurich some day, and to go walking and skiing in the mountains.

Yugoslavia /Croatia

Zagreb. Šibenik.

p.g.h@btinternet.com