Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?
It has everything you’d ever want in a medieval castle. There’s only one problem: It’s in the middle of a giant steel mill.
Read moreIt has everything you’d ever want in a medieval castle. There’s only one problem: It’s in the middle of a giant steel mill.
Read moreImages of the dizzyingly diverse former Yugoslav republics of Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
Read moreThe Cares Trail clings to the side of a 1.5km-deep gorge in the Picos de Europa mountains of northern Spain.
Read moreA wonder of modern architecture, a spectacular mountain range, one of Europe’s deepest canyons, and the charming city that gave port wine – and a country – its name.
Read moreLong before dating apps Romanian villagers would bring their daughters to a remote mountaintop in the hope of finding love.
Read moreThe world’s biggest bagpipe festival is not in Scotland but in an obscure, post-industrial town in the Czech Republic.
Read moreAnyone who tries to tell you death is no laughing matter clearly hasn’t been to Romania’s Merry Cemetery.
Read moreThe 500th anniversary of the death of one of history’s most original — and macabre — artists deserves a parade. But an ordinary parade just won’t do.
Read moreA Soviet time warp and unrecognised breakaway state, Transnistria is one of the strangest places in Europe.
Read moreEvery two years the International Bagpipe Festival draws pipers from all over Europe — and occasionally from as far away as New Zealand — to a small town in the Czech Republic.
Read moreA lively capital, an ancient cave monastery, the world’s biggest wine cellars and a Soviet time warp await visitors to Europe’s least touristy country.
Read moreOne of my favourite experiences during my last visit to Romania involved a chance encounter with a shepherd, a pack of singing sheepdogs and a 19th-century-style road crash involving a horse-drawn cart.
Read moreThe two biggest biggest wine cellars in the world are in … France? Italy? California’s Napa Valley? The former Soviet republic of Moldova? The answer might surprise you.
Read moreMy pick of best and worst accommodation ranging from a flash eco-resort to a chicken coop.
Read moreWhat makes a group of Dutch students so passionate about Māori culture that they travel halfway around the world each year to take part in Waitangi Day festivities?
Read moreHow I ended up with a piece of the Czech president’s flag.
Read moreA 19th century uprising against bad beer, in what is now the Czech Republic, led to the invention of the golden lager we know and love today.
Read moreBelgium’s Trappist monks make some of the best beer in the world – but forget trying to watch these pious brewers at work.
Read moreHow a ‘New Zealand monument’ designed by eccentric Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser ended up being built in Holland instead.
Read moreThe author accidentally finds himself on a ship shuttling Eastern European sex workers to the brothels of Istanbul.
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