Aberdeenshire castles worth visiting
Aberdeenshire, Scotland has dozens of castles, but many are them are either private or in ruins. Here are the 14 Aberdeenshire castles that are most worth seeing.
Europe travel
This category includes all my articles about my Europe travel. Because I live in the Netherlands, I can travel in Europe quite easily, and as you see here, I’ve seen a lot of it. Generally I don’t write “ultimate list” or “everything you need to know” posts. Instead, I tend to focus on just one or a few sights or experiences from my specific point of view. Enjoy!
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Wick Heritage Museum, Scotland
The leaflet advertising the Wick Heritage Museum compares the museum to the TARDIS. If you’re a Doctor Who fan, you’ll know exactly what that means: Doctor Who’s form of transportation, a blue police box (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), is bigger on the inside than the outside. Outside, the museum is small and unimpressive:…
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Dunrobin Castle, Scotland
In my last post – about the Scottish Highland heritage tour that I took with my friend, Kate – I mentioned Dunrobin Castle as one of our stops. In reality, we stopped there twice: once on the way north and again on the way south. The first time we tried to see Dunrobin, the electricity…
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A Scottish Highland Clearances tour
When I told my friend Kate that I was planning to visit my son in Aberdeen and spend a week exploring Scotland, she immediately wanted to come along. Kate has Scottish heritage and was curious to see some of the history of her family and why they left Scotland. Our trip turned into a wonderful…
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11 stunning UNESCO sites in the Czech Republic outside of Prague
There are 11 UNESCO sites in the Czech Republic outside of Prague. I’ve visited most, but thanks to two other bloggers, you can read about all of them here.
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Kutna Hora UNESCO site and a macabre church
Kutna Hora UNESCO site isn’t just about a pretty old town. The UNESCO designation focuses on two churches, but there’s a macabre Bone Church to see too!
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Trebic, Czech Republic: A 3-part UNESCO site
Trebic, Czech Republic has a UNESCO site made up of three sites: the old Jewish Quarter, the old Jewish cemetery, and a Catholic Basilica, and they’re all worth seeing.
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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 Czechia.
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Prague Airport tour and a teeny-tiny airplane
Despite my fear of flying, I jumped at the chance to take a Prague Airport tour, including a flight in a small airplane. “Face your fear” and all that. Read all about it here!
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A self-guided Rotterdam walking tour: Architecture and art
Rotterdam is famous for its post-war architecture, mostly because a World War II bombing in 1940 destroyed much of the city. Yet it didn’t just rebuild and settle in; it is still constantly changing, expanding and reinventing whole neighborhoods. On a recent visit, I took a tour of a few new buildings, but I also…
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De Rotterdam Architecture Tour
Very little of Rotterdam survived World War II. While this means it is not the place to see the Netherlands you expect – charming streets along canals, 16th century merchants’ homes, or picturesque windmills – it is the place to see post-war architecture. This is why I signed up for a tour with De Rotterdam…
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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…
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Wieliczka Krakow salt mine isn’t just a salt mine!
The Wieliczka Krakow salt mine is much more than tunnels carved into salt. It has a history all its own, and, surprisingly, it has artworks made of salt!
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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…
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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,”…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Lovely Burghausen Castle
I don’t see why Burghausen Castle isn’t on the German castle must-see list. It’s among the best medieval castles I’ve ever seen.
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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),…
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Is the Erotic Museum in Amsterdam erotic? A review
Is the Erotic Museum in Amsterdam erotic? The short answer is “No.” What is it then? Thought provoking and sometimes disturbing.
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Micropia museum of invisible life
Micropia Museum in Amsterdam is remarkably successful, considering that it’s all about creatures that are invisible to the naked eye! Not for those with a weak stomach!
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Moco Museum: Contemporary art in Amsterdam
Read here about MOCO Museum, a little art museum in Amsterdam with an outstanding exhibition of Banksy works and other modern and contemporary art.
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The Wallace Memorial and a travel blogger’s heart
My son has decided he wants to go to university in Scotland. After investigating the possibilities on line, he applied to five universities that offered the sort of program he was looking for. It didn’t really occur to him that perhaps he should consider other factors in his choice. Would he prefer an urban or a…
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Five Synagogues in Prague (and One Cemetery)
Five synagogues and a cemetery (with a ceremonial hall) are what remains of Prague’s once-thriving Jewish neighborhood. Together, they now make up the Prague Jewish Museum.
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Yotel Hotel at Schiphol: A Review
A review of Yotel Hotel Schiphol (a.k.a. YotelAir): inspired by capsule hotels, it’s worth considering if you have an early flight and little luggage.
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Electric Ladyland: hippie heaven
Electric Ladyland in Amsterdam is one of the weirdest museums I’ve visited yet. The museum claims to be the “first museum of fluorescent art.”
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The Cat Cabinet: Another quirky Amsterdam museum
The Cat Cabinet is a rather mixed bag of cat art – from movie posters and mass-produced figurines to Picasso and Rembrandt – in a beautiful Amsterdam canal house.
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The Houseboat Museum, Amsterdam
The Houseboat Museum in Amsterdam offers a glimpse of houseboat life: a very quick glimpse, given how small a vintage houseboat is.
