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!
Western Europe
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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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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
Ever considered living in a houseboat? The Houseboat Museum in Amsterdam gives a glimpse of houseboat life: a very quick glimpse, given how small a vintage houseboat is.
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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…
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What makes German Christmas markets special
It’s funny: most countries in Europe have Christmas markets of some sort. Yet Europeans travel to visit the ones in Germany.
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Touring Reichstag Dome for a Wider View of Berlin
Made of steel and glass, the new dome of the Reichstag echoes the old one that was there originally, and offers a 360-degree view over Berlin.
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Stasi Museum Berlin: The Dark Heart of East Germany
At the Stasi Museum in Berlin, it becomes clear how the Stasi managed to keep everyone under control for so long. Read about it here.
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The Jewish Museum in Berlin
I was apprehensive about visiting the Jewish Museum in Berlin, but it turned out to be an excellent museum with the right mix of information and emotional effect.
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Street Art in Berlin with Alternative Berlin Tour
The meeting place for the street art tour by Alternative Berlin Tour was easy for me to find. I looked for the guide at the base of the Berlin Television Tower in front of the Starbucks. I loved the irony of starting an alternative walking tour in front of a Starbucks. Ben from New Zealand, our tour guide…
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Berlin’s Palace of Tears
Walking into the Palace of Tears is stepping back in time. The floor tiles, the wall clock, the “modern” design of the building: all hearken back to a 1960s aesthetic in interior design. Standing on East German territory since 1962, the Palace of Tears was an addition to the older Friedrichstraße train station. This station…
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A Peek into East Germany at the DDR Museum
In my last post, I wrote about the Berlin Wall as a gash across the city. What brought me to the Berlin Wall Memorial was my visit just the day before to the DDR Museum in Berlin. That museum and its hands-on portrayal of life in the former DDR (called the German Democratic Republic or GDR in…
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The Berlin Wall Memorial Illuminates Berlin’s Divided Past
The consequences of the division of Berlin by the Berlin Wall (1961-1989) are visible all over the city. The Wall was a wide, empty gash through the city, and that gash has, ever since the Wall “fell” in 1989, been repurposed in a variety of ways. In some places, buildings encroach on the space: Potsdamerplatz is a…
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The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin
The night I arrived in Berlin was full of color and light: the annual Festival of Lights was underway. A light show projected onto the Brandenburg Gate kept the crowds entertained in the cold autumn air. Walking the short distance from the Brandenburg Gate to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe meant, both…
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Baix Empordà villages: a photo essay
Baix Empordà, part of the province of Girona in Catalonia, is one of those hidden gems, to use the cliché, that no one seems to know about. Many tourists visit Girona, and many of them venture out to the Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueres. Most, though, don’t stay long enough to explore the lovely stone villages…
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8 Things to Do While Waiting in Line for the Dalí Museum, Figueres
As I mentioned in my post about the Dalí Theatre-Museum, we were stupid enough not to book tickets ahead of time, forcing us to wait in line in the center of Figueres, Spain. It was the middle of the day in August and, believe me, it was hot in Figueres. We waited about 45 minutes to get to…
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Modernism in Alcoi, Spain
It was a hot Sunday morning in August when I walked from the deserted Plaça d’Espanya into the visitor’s information office in downtown Alcoi, Spain. The lone woman at the counter seemed thrilled to have someone to talk to. All I wanted was a map, but she insisted on telling me, in detail, about everything…
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Reconsidering Benidorm
Benidorm is one of those places everyone has an opinion about, and it usually isn’t good. When I asked my husband what he thought of the place, he described it as “an overgrown beach town with high buildings right up to the beach.” It was full, he said, with “loud Dutch and fat, pale, English…
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Arolithos “Traditional Cretan Village”
A review of Arolithos Traditional Cretan Village: a replica village/hotel outside of Haraklion, Crete.
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Rethymnon in half a day
Rethymnon is a popular destination for visitors to Crete. Here are some highlights you can see in just a few hours.
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Arkadi Monastery and its Tragedy
Ruminations on a visit to the 13th-century Arkadi Monastery in Crete – still an active monastery – and on the tragic story attached to it.
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Knossos and the Minoan Mystery
Knossos, ruin of a Minoan palace, raises questions about archaeological methods, especially in the past, and about the fate of the Minoans.
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Ter Apel Cloister
The village of Ter Apel has been in the news a lot lately. A huge refugee center there is the first home for hundreds of Syrians, Eritreans, Afghans and others seeking safety and a new life in the Netherlands. Ter Apel’s claim to fame, though, if you can call it famous, is a medieval cloister…
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What to do in Zaanse Schans
Zaanse Schans is home to historical windmills, quaint little shops as well as a charming historical village. A guide to Zaanse Schans.
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Visiting Dutch Gardens
When you think of the Netherlands and gardens and flowers, what comes immediately to mind? I assume your answer is “tulips.” Tulips are cultivated here in huge quantity and they or the bulbs are exported all over the world. Keukenhof and Giethoorn One of the biggest attractions for tourists in the Netherlands is Keukenhof, a tulip…
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Amsterdam Central train station sightseeing
If you find yourself with some time to kill at Amsterdam Central train station, there’s plenty to do right nearby. Here are some suggestions.
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The Sex Museum Amsterdam: Cure for insomnia
The Sex Museum Amsterdam is much more about pornography than sex, containing a mix of interesting objects and cheesy mannequins.
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Churches of Groningen province (part 1)
When I first arrived in the Netherlands back in 1997, one of the first bits of sightseeing I did, besides exploring my new hometown of Groningen itself, was to go on a driving tour of village churches in Groningen province. The idea came from my favorite guidebook: the Michelin green guide to the Netherlands. The…
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The Town Musicians of Bremen
The city of Bremen loves this Grimm fairy tale, and references to the town musicians of Bremen are scattered throughout the old center.
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A weekend in Bremen, Germany
Spending a weekend in Bremen, Germany: a pleasant place with an interesting history as a Hanseatic city, and plenty of things to see.
