How to escape the crowds in Dubrovnik, Croatia
No matter how beautiful Dubrovnik is, the crowds can really ruin it for you. Here are some ways to escape the crowds in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Central and Eastern Europe
Fortified Churches of Transylvania
Seven of the 150 castle-like fortified churches of Transylvania make up a UNESCO World Heritage site, built by Saxon settlers in the Middle Ages.
Communist Prague: 4 places to learn about it
Here are four things to do and see to learn about life in Communist Prague – and Czechoslovakia as a whole – during the Cold War era.
Visiting Cesky Krumlov Castle and UNESCO site
On your trip to Czechia, besides Prague, I highly recommend visiting Cesky Krumlov and the imposing Czesky Krumlov Castle.
Hluboká Castle,South Bohemia, Czechia: Wow!
Hluboká Castle is a 19th-century castle in Czechia crammed with a stunning collection of furnishings and exceedingly accomplished workmanship.
Villa Tugendhat UNESCO site in Brno, Czechia
Villa Tugendhat UNESCO site in Brno, Czechia, designed by Mies van der Rohe: a masterpiece of functionalist architecture & function over form.
What to see in Brno: 3 macabre sights
What to see in Brno? An ossuary, a crypt full of mummies, and a nuclear bomb shelter made my day of sightseeing in Brno distinctly macabre.
Ruminations on an Auschwitz Tour
Ruminations on a tour of Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, where Nazis turned genocide into an industrial enterprise, efficiently turning over a million souls to ashes.
The KGB Museum in Riga, Latvia
You could easily miss the KGB Museum in Riga if you didn’t know where to look. Commonly referred to as “the Corner House,” it looks on the outside like a quite stylish residential building. I walked right by it and had to retrace my steps a block or two away. Basically what the KGB did…
A Riga City Tour: 10+ things to see in Riga
This could have been a review of a tour that doesn’t actually exist. What I mean is that the Riga city tour I took was sponsored by #LiveRiga, a campaign of the Riga Tourism Development Bureau, but it is not run on a scheduled basis. Rather, our guide, Juris Berze, is a freelance tour guide,…
Two Latvian food tours
As you’ve probably guessed, I love food. I can’t call myself a foodie, exactly, because I’m not choosy about what food I eat. I’m likely to enjoy whatever national cuisine I try, or at least find it interesting. Generally, I’m happy with anything from street food to chic food. But tasting the difference between one…
Visiting Karlstejn Castle from Prague
It took me three tries before I got to visit Karlstejn Castle in Czechia. I’d wanted to see it ever since my terrifying flight in a teeny-tiny airplane from Czech Airport, when I got, quite literally, a bird’s-eye view of it. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means that I’ll receive a small commission…
11 stunning UNESCO sites in the Czech Republic outside of Prague
Most people who visit Czechia focus on Prague. Prague is such a beautiful city that it makes a great city trip for a weekend or a week, and no wonder: the old city of Prague is the most important of the UNESCO sites in the Czech Republic. Prague’s Jewish Quarter is a part of the…
Kutna Hora UNESCO site and a macabre church
Kutna Hora, a small city east of Prague, contains an entire historical quarter that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, more correctly called “Kutná Hora: Historical Town Centre with the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec.” The old town maintains its original medieval layout, established at a time when…
Trebic, Czech Republic: A 3-part UNESCO site
The small town of Trebic is about two hours southeast of Prague in the Czech Republic, and the thing to see in Trebic is its UNESCO site. When I say “UNESCO site” though, I’m really referring to three sites that UNESCO has combined into one: the old Jewish Quarter, the old Jewish cemetery, and a…
A UNESCO site in Olomouc (and other things to see there)
The Holy Trinity Column, a masterpiece of the Moravian Baroque style, is a UNESCO site in Olomouc, a small town in the eastern end of the Czech Republic. Standing alone at one end of Olomouc’s Upper Square, this memorial column stands 32 meters tall. Covered in impressive artwork, it dates to the 18th century. (Disclosure:…
Prague Airport tour and a teeny-tiny airplane
If you’ve followed Rachel’s Ruminations for any length of time, you’ll know that I struggle with my fear of flying. So, naturally, when bloggers attending the TBEX conference in Ostrava, Czech Republic, last month were invited to a Prague Airport tour, I jumped at the chance. “Face your fear” and all that. (Disclosure: I took…
Rynek Underground Museum at Krakow Main Square
Krakow’s Old Town is centered around a lovely main square called Rynek Główny, which means main market. It dates to 1257, when it was rebuilt after the Mongol-Tatar invasions. Krakow Main Square Krakow Main Market Square forms the focal point of Krakow Old Town, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the center of the…
Wieliczka Krakow salt mine isn’t just a salt mine!
You wouldn’t think that touring a salt mine would be particularly interesting. I pictured tunnels carved into solid salt, and that was about it. It turns out that the Wieliczka salt mine outside Krakow, Poland, is much more than tunnels carved into salt. It has a history all its own, and, surprisingly, it has artworks…
Urban Adventures Krakow food tour review
Polish food doesn’t have the excellent reputation of, say, French cuisine or Thai cooking. Frankly, it’s not something I ever really thought about. So when I traveled to Krakow for an influencer conference and was offered a place on an Urban Adventures Krakow food tour, I figured, “Why not?” I had minimal expectations of the…
A Krakow Tour with a Twist
Crazy Guides’ communism tour advertises a visit to Nowa Huta, a “model communist city.” Built starting in the 1950s, this experiment in communist community-building is considered a landmark of Soviet-era socialist architecture and urban planning. I signed up for the tour with low expectations. I thought that the phrase our tour guide kept using, “worker’s paradise,”…
Wooden churches of Maramures, Romania
You’d think that after visiting the UNESCO-listed fortified churches of Transylvania and the painted churches of Moldavia, also UNESCO listed, we’d have gotten tired of visiting historic churches. Romania has yet another collection of UNESCO-listed churches, though. (Maybe Romania’s motto should be “Land of Churches”!) Right up near the border with the Ukraine, the wooden…
Elie Wiesel Memorial House: A museum with a message
The Elie Wiesel Memorial in Sighet, Romania, where Wiesel lived, is a small museum with a big, important message.
The spectacular painted churches of Moldavia
Last week I posted about the fortified churches in Transylvania, eight of which make up a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Another collection of churches in Romania, this time in the northeastern part of the country, Moldavia, are also UNESCO sites, just listed as “Churches of Moldavia.” The Painted Churches of Moldavia What makes these churches…
Should you visit Dracula’s castle?
As the crowds shuffled through the castle, some tourists tried to stake out spots where they could take pictures of each room without people in the photo. Others posed for selfies, their backs to the beautifully restored spaces. One man, reaching high in an attempt to snap a picture above our heads, leaned casually on…
The Communist Consumers Museum
A Communist Consumers Museum? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? I mean, in the Cold War, we in the West were the consumer society. We still are. They were, well, communist. So what could a Communist Consumers Museum even show? When we passed through Timişoara, Romania, this summer, we didn’t really have any plans. Picking…
Timişoara photo essay: Faded glory
Majestic buildings boast imposing, ornate facades, even on the side streets. Edged with statues, often figurative, each row of windows differs from those above and below, yet they all display detailed workmanship. Grand doorways framed with artwork, topped with glass, span several centuries of architectural styles. But the paint is flaking away. Underneath, exposed to…
Not visiting Deva Castle
We weren’t even planning to go to Deva Castle. My husband and I were just driving along, minding our own business, on a road trip in the western Carpathian mountains of Romania. The GPS was guiding us from Timişoara (beautiful buildings, much in need of renovation) to Alba Iulia (18th century fortress with seven bastions),…
Five Synagogues in Prague (and One Cemetery)
Five synagogues in Prague and a cemetery are what remains of Prague’s once-thriving Jewish neighborhood. Under the umbrella of the Prague Jewish Museum, they are open to the public, each serving a different function. Tourists can buy a ticket to all or part of a route through all the Prague synagogues. Disclosure: This article contains affiliate…
Trip of a Lifetime: Bloggers Pick their Must-See Destinations
For this collaborative post, I asked fellow travel bloggers about their idea of a trip of a lifetime: If a person who’s never traveled far from home asked you to name the one place they should visit on their one-and-only trip ever, what would you say? I got so many different answers! I’ll start with the…