Things to do in Europe
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FEATURED
Rome To Paris
21 days (ex Rome)
by Intrepid
Visit iconic cultural attractions in Rome, Travel across the undulating Tuscan countryside, See the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Mingle with locals in Lucca, one of t…Not LP reviewed
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Rental Bike Venice
The scenic plains of the Brenta Riviera make an easy, enjoyable bicycle ride, and you can speed past those tour boats along 150km of cycling routes. Rental Bike Venice is a friendly bike-rental spot accessible by bus from Venice, Mestre or Padua offering city bikes with baskets, mountain bikes and handy foldable bikes to take on buses, plus free parking, roadside assistance and advice in English on itineraries, local restaurants and shops.
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Eiffel Tower
When it was built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World Fair), marking the centenary of the Revolution, the Tour Eiffel faced massive opposition from Paris’ artistic and literary elite. The ‘metal asparagus’, as some Parisians snidely called it, was almost torn down in 1909 but was spared because it proved an ideal platform for the transmitting antennas needed for the new science of radiotelegraphy. Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, the tower is 324m high, including the TV antenna at the tip. This figure can vary by as much as 15cm, however, as the tower’s 7300 tonnes of iron, held together by 2.5 million rivets, expand in warm weather and contract when it’s …
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Jennifer’s Hamam
Owned by Canadian Jennifer Gaudet, this recently opened shop stocks hamam items including towels, robes and peştemals (bath wraps) produced on old hand looms or hand/motor looms. It also sells natural soaps, kese (coarse cloth mittens used for depilation) and rosense products (natural rose hand and body products from Isparta).
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Blue Note
This jazzy pub-cum-dance-bar has a great summer beer garden and usually no cover charge.
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Musée du Louvre
The vast Palais du Louvre was constructed as a fortress by Philippe-Auguste in the early 13th century and rebuilt in the mid-16th century for use as a royal residence. In 1793 the Revolutionary Convention turned it into the nation’s first national museum.
The paintings, sculptures and artefacts on display in the Louvre Museum have been assembled by French governments over the past five centuries. Among them are works of art and artisanship from all over Europe and important collections of Assyrian, Etruscan, Greek, Coptic and Islamic art and antiquities. Traditionally the Louvre’s raison d’être is to present Western art from the Middle Ages to about the year 1848 (at wh…
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Park Güell
North of Gràcia, Park Güell is where Gaudí turned his hand to landscape gardening and the artificial almost seems more natural than the natural.
Park Güell originated in 1900 when Count Eusebi Güell bought a hillside property (then outside Barcelona) and hired Gaudí to create a miniature garden city of houses for the wealthy. The project was abandoned in 1914, but not before Gaudí had created 3km of roads and walks, steps and a plaza in his inimitable manner, plus the two Hansel-and-Gretel-style gatehouses on Carrer d’Olot.
Try coming to the park early on a weekday. On summer weekends it can be unpleasantly packed. Bus 24 drops you at an entrance near the top of …
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Colosseum
The Colosseum is the most extraordinary of all Rome’s monuments. It’s not just the amazing completeness of the place, or its size, but the sense of its gory history that resonates: it was here that gladiators met in mortal combat and condemned prisoners fought off hungry lions. Two thousand or so years on, it’s still hauling in the crowds. Don’t let the lengthy queue put you off: just pop down to the Palatine ticket office, buy your combined ticket there, and on returning march straight in.
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Free Sofia Tour
This free walking tour led by a local tourism volunteer NGO sets off twice daily from in front of the Palace of Justice (diagonally across the road from McDonalds). Led by friendly, English-speaking volunteers, the two-hour brings you by the city’s main sites, with lots of interesting background presented in a fun and engaging way. The tour is a hit with travellers from backpackers to businesspeople, serves as a great introduction to Sofia and often makes new friends among other travellers and locals in the process.
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Falls Road Republican Murals
The first republican murals appeared in 1981, when the hunger strike at the Maze prison saw the emergence of dozens of murals supporting the hunger strikers. In later years republican muralists broadened their scope to cover wider political issues, Irish legends and historical events. After the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the murals came to demand police reform and the protection of nationalists from sectarian attacks.
Common images seen in republican murals include the phoenix rising from the flames (symbolising Ireland reborn from the flames of the 1916 Easter Rising), the face of hunger striker Bobby Sands, and scenes and figures from Irish mythology. Common slogan…
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Indian Mango
Indian Mango specialises in Goan food, serving beef, duck, fish and some vegie mains. Its chef – poached from a five-star restaurant – makes up light, spicy, delicious dishes. Its bestselling (seasonal) creation is an Icelandic-Indian hybrid completely unique to this restaurant – svartfugl (guillemot) marinaded in Indian spices.
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Charles Bridge
Strolling across Charles Bridge is everybody’s favourite Prague activity. However, by 9am it’s a 500m-long fairground, with an army of tourists squeezing through a gauntlet of hawkers and buskers beneath the impassive gaze of the baroque statues that line the parapets. If you want to experience the bridge at its most atmospheric try to visit it at dawn.
In 1357 Charles IV commissioned Peter Parler (the architect of St Vitus Cathedral) to replace the 12th-century Judith Bridge, which had been washed away by floods in 1342. (You can see the only surviving arch of the Judith Bridge by taking a boat trip with Prague Venice.)
The new bridge was completed around 1400, and t…
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Musée d’Orsay
Facing the Seine from quai Anatole France, the Musée d’Orsay is housed in a former train station (1900). It displays France’s national collection of paintings, sculptures, objets d’art and other works produced between the 1840s and 1914, including the fruits of the Impressionist, post-Impressionist and art nouveau movements.
Many visitors to the museum go straight to the upper level (lit by a skylight) to see the famous Impressionist paintings by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Degas and Manet and the post-Impressionist works by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Seurat and Matisse, but there’s also lots to see on the ground floor, including some early works by Manet, Monet, Reno…
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Pantheon
Competition is fierce, but the Pantheon is surely ancient Rome’s most astonishing building. This Roman temple has been standing for almost 2000 years, and it’s a unique, unparalleled experience to enter its great doors and have your vision directed upwards, just as it would have been for the ancient Romans. Its current form dates to around AD 120, when the emperor Hadrian built the Pantheon over Marcus Agrippa’s original temple (27 BC). For centuries, historians read the name Agrippa in the inscription on the pediment and thought that Hadrian’s version was the 1st-century-BC original. When excavations in the 19th century revealed traces of the earlier temple, they realise…
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La Sagrada Família
If you only have time for one sightseeing outing, this should be it. La Sagrada Família inspires awe with its sheer verticality and, in the true manner of the great medieval cathedrals it emulates, it’s still not finished after more than 100 years. Work is proceeding apace, however, and it might be done between the 2020s and 2040s. If the work should be carried on is the subject of controversy, but Spain’s most visited monument was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI in late 2010. The main nave is now open for daily mass. Feathers were much ruffled by the high-speed train tunnel project, on which work began in 2010, that will pass in front of the church under Carrer de Mallo…
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Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Home to Picasso’s Guernica, arguably Spain’s single-most famous artwork, and a host of other important Spanish artists, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is Madrid’s premier collection of contemporary art. The collection principally spans the 20th century up to the 1980s.
In addition to Picasso’s Guernica, which is worth the admission fee on its own, the work of the Madrid-born Juan Gris (1887–1927) or Georges Braque (1882–1963) may appeal. The work of Joan Miró (1893–1983) is defined by often delightfully bright primary colours, but watch out also for a handful of his equally odd sculptures; his paintings became a symbol of the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
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Gamaya
A breath of fresh laid-back Ibiza air runs through this new ladies’ wear store tucked away on a street that has gone from near abandonment in the 1990s to become a delightful shopping lane today. The lady who runs this shop designs the breezy summer dresses, pants-and-tops combinations and prints herself.
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Grand Place
For one of Europe's finest urban views, head straight to Brussels' magnificent central square, Grand Place. It boasts the country's best baroque guildhalls, the beautiful Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall), museums, pavement cafés, chocolate shops and intimate cellar restaurants - a combination that lures visitors in droves. Hidden at the very core of the old town, it's revealed as you enter from one of six narrow side alleys (Rue des Harengs is the best) - a discreet positioning that adds charm.
The square dates from the 12th century and rose on a site that was once marshland. By the early 15th century, Brussels was booming through the cloth trade and the patronage of the duke…
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Jardin du Luxembourg
When the weather is fine, Parisians of all ages come flocking to the formal terraces and chestnut groves of the 23-hectare Jardin du Luxembourg to read, relax and sunbathe. There are a number of activities for children here, and in the southern part of the garden you’ll find urban orchards as well as the honey-producing Rucher du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Apiary).
The Palais du Luxembourg, at the northern end of the garden, was built for Marie de Médicis, Henri IV’s consort; it has housed the Sénat (Senate), the upper house of the French parliament, since 1958. There are guided tours of the interior, usually at 10.30am one Saturday a month; advance reservations obligat…
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Belém
Portugal's caravels sailed off to conquer the great unknown from Belém, and today this leafy riverside precinct is a giant monument to the nation's Age of Discoveries.
First stop should be the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, a Manueline masterpiece whose intricate decoration and peaceful spaces will leave you inspired.
A short walk away is the Torre de Belém, the much-photographed symbol of Portugal's maritime glory. The imposing limestone Monument to the Discoveries, also facing the river nearby, is shaped like a caravel and features key players from the era.
If you have time, look around the Centro Cultural de Belém, one of Lisbon's main cultural venues, which houses the Mu…
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Basilique du Sacré Cœur
Perched at the very top of the Butte de Montmartre, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart was built from contributions pledged by Parisian Catholics as an act of contrition after the humiliating Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. Construction began in 1873, but the basilica was not consecrated until 1919.
Some 234 spiralling steps lead you to the basilica’s dome, which affords one of Paris’ most spectacular panoramas; they say you can see for 30km on a clear day.
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Menza
This stylish Hungarian restaurant on Budapest’s most lively square takes its name from the Hungarian for a drab school canteen – something it is anything but. Book a table if you can; it’s always packed with diners who come for its simply but perfectly cooked Hungarian classics with a modern twist and chilled atmosphere. Weekday two-course set lunches are a mere 890Ft.
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Narosa Life
Offers surf lessons, yoga and fitness classes, as well as guided walks of Muckish Mountain and Horn Head.
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Aya Sofya
Called Hagia Sofia in Greek, Sancta Sophia in Latin and the Church of the Divine Wisdom in English, İstanbul's most famous monument has long and fascinating history. Built by Emperor Justinian, it was constructed on the site of Byzantium's acropolis, which had also been the site of two earlier Aya Sofyas.
The first of these was a basilica with a timber roof completed in 360 by Constantine's son and successor, Constantinius, and was burned down in a riot in 404; and the second was a building commissioned by Theodosius II in 415 and destroyed in the Nika riots of 532. Justinian's church, which dwarfed all other buildings in the city, was completed in 537 and reigned as the…
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Dubrovnik City Walls
No visit to Dubrovnik would be complete without a leisurely walk around the city walls. Built between the 13th and 16th centuries and still intact today, these powerful walls are the finest in the world and Dubrovnik's main claim to fame.
The first set of walls to enclose the city were built in the 13th century. In the middle of the 14th century the 1.5m-thick walls were fortified with 15 square forts. The threat of attacks from the Turks in the 15th century prompted the city to strengthen the existing forts and add new ones so that the entire Old Town is now contained within a curtain of stone over 2km long and up to 25m high. The walls are thicker on the land side - up …
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