The Martinitoren: a Groningen Landmark
Climbing the 15-century Martinitoren in the center of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Western Europe
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Medieval Churches in the Val d’Aran, Spain
There’s something special about the medieval churches in the Val d’Aran, Spain. All are quite small, stone-built in Romanesque style, and date from the 11th to the 15th century. Disclosure: I went to the Val d’Aran as part of a discounted package provided by Pyrenees Experience. I’ve already written about what to do in the Val…
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Italian Days Food Tour: A review
Our tour guide from Italian Days Food and Wine Tours was far too cheerful for such an early start. We had been picked up at seven in the morning—before sunrise in mid-January—and denied even a cup of coffee before leaving. Our hotel’s breakfast only started at seven, so we had run downstairs and grabbed a…
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Hotel El Ciervo: a bit over-the-top … but in a good way!
I wasn’t even going to write a review of our hotel, the Hotel El Ciervo, here in Vielha, Spain. It was just a place to stay while we explored the Val d’Aran in the Pyrennees and its ski resort, Baqueira Beret. Or rather, while I explored and my husband and son skied. I’m not being sponsored…
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Osteria dè Poeti: Classic Bolognese Food
Housed in a former wineceller, Osteria dè Poeti restaurant in Bologna offers a menu with all the classic must-try Bolognese specialties.
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Walking the Portico di San Luca in Bologna
For centuries, in the city of Bologna, Italy, a byzantine image of the Madonna and Child was carried ceremoniously from the Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca every year during Ascension week down to the Cathedral of San Pietro in the city center. It stayed there overnight, then was carried back up. The problem…
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Exploring Amsterdam’s Undiscovered North
Most visitors focus on the canal district, but Amsterdam North offers a very different experience: artistic and hip and edgy.
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Hotel Touring: quality in a great Bologna location
When I met Manuela Stagni at the World Travel Market in London and saw her enthusiasm in describing her hotel, the Hotel Touring in Bologna, Italy, I made a note to keep her in mind if I ever traveled in Italy again. A couple of months later, when she mailed me an offer to stay…
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Huis Marseille photography museum in Amsterdam
Huis Marseille Photography Museum in Amsterdam, in two 17th-century canal houses, shows rotating exhibitions by compelling photographers.
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The Dutch Resistance Museum, Amsterdam
The Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam looks at how the Dutch coped with the Nazis before and during the war: collaborate, resist, or just try to get by. Which would you have done?
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Wintergoud, Winterstad and WinterWelVaart 2025: Groningen’s Christmas market
Wintergoud, Winterstad and WinterWelVaart are together the annual Christmas festival in Groningen, with an unusual maritime twist that makes it extra special!
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Visiting Valor in Villajoyosa
Last spring in Guadeloupe I visited an archeological park where I got to sample the pulp from a fresh-picked cacao pod. I heard more about chocolate cultivation at two coffee plantations. Given my obsession with chocolate, I decided to take the process a step further on my short visit to the Costa Blanca in Spain,…
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Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution: a review
Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution in Amsterdam presents a measured, pragmatic view of an institution usually looked at with derision and disapproval.
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Alcoy: My Too-Brief Visit
The Refugio de Cervantes Bomb Shelter Museum is what I visited, but there is much more to Alcoy in Spain: here is an overview.
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Driving Costa Blanca: Some Advice
If you’re ever in the Costa Blanca in Spain, here’s what I’d recommend: get away from the coast! Yes, you can enjoy the beaches and party till the wee hours in the coastal towns, but there’s far more to see inland. The drive I did the other day, for example, was absolutely lovely. Leaving from…
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Hash, Marijuana & Hemp Museum Amsterdam
It’s not surprising that Amsterdam is home to a museum of Hash, Marijuana and Hemp, given its generally tolerant policy toward soft drugs.
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The Museum of Bags and Purses Amsterdam
The Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam might be worth a look, if you like handbags or if you enjoy the absurdity of a museum devoted to purses. [This museum is now closed.]
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Body Worlds Amsterdam: Museum or freak show?
At Body Worlds Amsterdam we are viewing actual dead bodies, called plastinates. Is this entertainment? Education? Or just a freak show? A critical review.
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Gothic Barcelona: A Walking Tour with a Difference
As you know, I attended the TBEX travel bloggers’ conference in Lloret del Mar recently. While I was there, I was fortunate to be able to take a walking tour of Gothic Barcelona offered by Context Travel. They operate walking tours in more than 36 cities, “the world’s cultural capitals,” around the world. Context Travel’s unique selling…
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Gala Dali Castle: Dalí’s Gift to his Muse
If you like Salvador Dalí’s art—even if you’re not such a fan of his work—the Gala Dali Castle in Púbol, Spain, is something you should not miss. This is not a Dalí museum. Dalí bought the building, a medieval castle, as a gift for his wife and muse, Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, who was called simply Gala….
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5 Reasons to Visit Lloret de Mar
(Nederlands versie beneden!) When I told people I was going to Lloret de Mar for the last week of my one-month solo trip (Guadeloupe, Martinique, New York, Lloret de Mar), the usual reaction was something along the line of “Lloret de Mar? But why?” Lloret de Mar has a reputation as a party city, along…
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The most beautiful Starbucks?
You know how sometimes you get so used to what you see every day that you stop noticing it? I’ve walked by the Starbucks in the Groningen central train station hundreds of times in the course of commuting to and from my job up in Leeuwarden. I just didn’t pay much attention to it until…
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The Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam: A review
The Rembrandt House Museum gives a realistic idea of what a new 17th century Amsterdam house looked like. It’s a bit too new: it lacks atmosphere.
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Van Loon Museum: A restored Golden Age house
The Van Loon Museum’s rooms give an impression of how wealthy residents of Amsterdam’s canal houses lived and, to a lesser extent, how their servants lived.
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Canal House Museum Amsterdam: A review
Grachtenhuis means “canal house,” so it’s not surprising that the Canal House Museum is housed in a charming Golden Age row house on a canal in Amsterdam.
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Ons Lieve Heer op Solder: A surprising little museum
Ons Lieve Heer op Solder museum is a great choice for a quick taste of the Golden Age of Amsterdam; it was a secret church built into a canal house attic!
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Yes, you CAN visit the Rijksmuseum in 2 hours!
Yes, it is possible to see the Rijksmuseum in just two hours. Read this article to find out how I saw the best of the Rijksmuseum in 2 hours.
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An unusual walking tour in Athens
It was just my luck that the day I’d signed up to take a walking tour in Athens, there was torrential rain. Nevertheless, this tour – covering religious Athens under Ottoman rule – was fascinating. Disclosure: I received this tour for free, but all opinions are my own. It never occurred to me, to be honest,…
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St. Maartens Day: A sweet local tradition
Today is St Maartens Day here in Groningen, a children’s tradition that is relatively unique to this area. On the 11th of November, once the sun goes down, children go door-to-door begging for sweets. Instead of threatening “trick or treat” like on Halloween, the deal here is that they sing a song, and in return,…
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A one-day Greek island cruise
I’ve been to Athens before, so I’ve already done the usual Athens itinerary like visiting the Acropolis. Disclosure: This is a sponsored article in that I was given a free ticket to the cruise in exchange for writing about it. All opinions, however, are my own. So, with only one free day after my conference was…
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Bicycle baptism
All we were trying to do was to get out of the car while it was stopped in traffic. The plan was to walk to the restaurant two blocks away while my husband went to park the car. It made sense. I stepped out on the right side, but not before saying to the kids…
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Watery Hubris
That’s part of this admirable hubris: complete and utter self-confidence.
