europe

After ten years of work, London's history St Pancras railway station has been restored to its former glory, and reopened by Queen Elizabeth, in a ceremony on Tuesday.

Passenger services from St Pancras International, which previously went to the rather unimpressive Waterloo International station, will begin on November 14th, to Paris (two hours, fifteen minutes) and Brussels (one hour and 51 minutes).

Pictures from the BBC.

One of the many certainties of travel is that a trip to Rome or Venice will have you negotiating your way through crowds of other travellers, competing with them for accomodation and queueing behind them to enter museums and other historic attractions. This is to be expected, of course, given the world-renowned status of these cities.

After a while, however, the throngs of people wear you down, and the sheer business of tourism takes much of the authenticity away from these cities. Is it possible to see a piece of historic Italy without having to share it with thousands of other alien invaders like yourself?

Perhaps it might be worth putting Genoa on your itinerary, and bypassing the larger towns, as recommended in this article.

Located on the Italian Riveria, not far from the French border, Genoa has a history old city, parts of which are recognised on the UNESCO World Heritage List. With a population of only around 600000, it is not a large city by world standards, and doesn't get anywhere near the amount of tourist traffic seen by its more popular Italian siblings, which makes it ideal for a relaxing trip.

Genoa is served by several InterCity rail routes: Milan (1.5 hours), Turin (1 hour 50 minutes), Florence/Pisa (3:20/2:10), and also by international trains from Nice (3 hours) and Zurich (6.5 hours). Additionally, there are overnight services to Naples and Palermo.

One of my favourite TV travel documentary series has been that put together over the last two decades by former Monty Python member, Michael Palin. In fact, it was probably his documentaries that first sparked my interest in travel, as there were few other travel shows on television here in Australia, at the time, that showed off-beat and hard-to-get to destinations. Amongst many other countries, Palin did a marvellous job of opening up Russia to the world, in his programs, as it was just starting to emerge from decades of isolation from the West.

Now Palin has turned his sights on somewhere a little closer to home - in his latest documentary, New Europe, he explores Eastern Europe, visiting some the new members of the EU as well as some prospective members.





The show is currently screening on the BBC in the UK, and will be shown in November, on TV ONE in New Zealand. No word on when it will be shown and who will show it in Australia, the US or Canada.

There's an interview with Michael Palin on stuff.co.nz here.

The series has an accompanying book of the same name (see advertisement above).

Germany is well-known for some of its historic cities that look like they're straight out of a fairytale, and Lübeck, the former capital of the Hanseatic League, certainly falls into this category. If you're a medieval-architecture aficionado, you'll be in your element here, with three areas listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The old city area is situated on an island in the middle of the river Trave. The town is famous for the towers that form one of its two remaining city gates, the Holstentor, located in the west of the city and likely to be the first landmark you see if you arrive by train.

Other famous sights include the Marienkirche, the imposing 14th-century Gothic-style cathedral - the third largest church in Germany; the Heiligen-Geist Hospital, a medieval almshouse; the Burgtor, the Castle Gate to the north of the city; and the 13th century town-hall in the centre of the city.

Lübeck has two youth hostels: the Altstadt hostel, located in the old city, about ten minutes walk from the railway station (84 beds, €17,10 per night), and Vor dem Burgtor, located at the north end of the city (211 beds, €16,00 per night).

There's an hourly Regionalexpress rail service from Hamburg (50 minutes), and also from Kiel (one hour and twelve minutes), so Lübeck can make an ideal day trip from either of those two locations. Lübeck is also served by the rail/ferry service to Copenhagen, Denmark (four hours), via Puttgarden, and hence makes a worthy stop on a trip to Scandinavia.

Germany's most famous festival is on again in Munich and if you happen to be in the vicinity, I thoroughly recommend making a visit. For the uninitiated, it's a two week fiesta of food, socialising, fair-ground rides and of course, beer.

I was last there three years ago, arriving on the opening purely by chance, on my way back from a three week trip around the Balkans. It's well worth dropping by, just to experience some of the wonderful Bavarian food.

Much has been made of the dearth of available accomodation without booking in advance, but I found that I was able to get into a reasonable priced hotel quite easily, just by looking on the net from an internet cafe opposite Munich's main railway station. Even if it does prove problematic, Munich is served by a great public transport network, so staying in surrounding towns on the outskirts (for example Dachau) is always an option.

Continuing the theme we started last week with our look at Venice, we'll do a round-up of the various articles on Italy that have been cropping up in the print media over the last few weeks. The Melbourne Age has no fewer that four stories on Italy this month, starting with a look at cycling through the hills of Tuscany, moving to the other end of the country to try out some of Sicily's delicacies and then heading north to a health resort on Lake Garda.

And if that wasn't enough for you, consider having a look at the new couples obsession in Rome: chaining padlocks to metal posts on Ponte Milvio.

The New York Times checks out the sulfur baths near Viterbo, and later visits Sardinia's port city of Cagliari. Returning to Tuscany, we have two articles, one from Canada's Globe and Mail and the other from the UK's Independent.

In the blogosphere, the Vancouver Sun has been tracking the progress of Stephanie, in Me and my Euro Summer; her Italy coverage starts at day 29, in Florence. Episode 102 of the Amateur Traveller podcast focuses on the Cinque terra and Lake Como.

To round things off, there's a wonderful photo of Vernazza, from the Why Go blog.

The Sydney Morning Herald has a good article on Herculaneum the ancient Roman city which was, like Pompeii, was destroyed in the 79AD eruption of Mr Vesuvias.

Herculaneum is on Line 1 of the Circumvesuviana metropolitan railway between Naples and Sorrento. The journey takes approximately 20 minutes from Naples, and 50 minutes from Sorrento.

The Guardian has an article on Croatia's island of Hvar, one of Europe's up and coming party destinations. While many may well be justified in considering this a good reason to avoid it, the article points out that it is a long way from being Ibiza, at this point in time...

Related articles

• Drive to Split & Ferry to Hvar, from Dalmatian Coast - a one week itinerary


• Executive Travel - Hvar


• Hvar, from Polka Girl in Croatia


• Hvar Hello, from Good Morning Sarajevo

One of the two newest members of the EU, Romania is rapidly gaining ground as a popular destination for backpackers. There's a great article in this week's Independent, comparing the Romania of today with the Romania of just two decades ago.

There are three main international rail routes into Romania; from Western Europe, most travellers will arrive via Budapest, and from south-eastern Europe, via Sofia. From the countries to the north of Romania, it's more difficult - there are lines from both Lviv and Kiev in the Ukraine, but it will involve a number of changes.

We're all familiar with the Louvre, but it's not the only museum that Paris has. Get away from the crowds and go visit some of Paris's lesser known museums.

Some truely amazing photos of Iceland, from omarrun.

Found via TravelMinx.

While most travellers would be very familiar with the huge party that is Munich's Oktoberfest, fewer would know that there are many more similar traditional German festivals held throughout the year in other German cities. One of the larger festivals is Schützenfest Hannover, which opens in four days' time, on June 29th, and runs until July 8th.

So, for anyone thinking of heading to Germany to get a taste for the beer halls and traditional German food, here's a brief guide to Hanover and some of the sights of the surrounding area.

The New York Times spends 36 hours in Milan.

Antwerp is often overlooked by travellers, caught between the large capital Brussels to the south, the highly enticing Amsterdam further north, and the tourist-meccas of Ghent and Bruges to the west.

Nevertheless, it's wonderful place to visit, with beautiful buildings, great restaurants and a much more down-to-earth feel than its neighbours. There's plenty to do; a look through the enormous Cathedral of Our Lady, wandering around the many diamond shops south of Centraal Station ... or for the really offbeat, take a walk through the art deco St. Anna tunnel, a pedestrian tunnel under the river.

The New York times has an article on Antwerp's Kloosterstraat, a long stretch of cafes, antique shops and restaurants.

With last week's opening of the new Paris to Basel high-speed TGV railway line, Switzerland is more accessible than ever. Four trains a day run to Basel, taking 3.5 hours; one continues Zurich (Paris, 8.28am, taking 4.5 hours).