cities

Travelodge is building a hotel in West London made from 86 modified shipping containers. When completed in June, it is expected that rooms in the hotel will cost around €25 per night, less than a third of the cost of the nearest Travelodge in Slough, and cheaper than the nearest youth hostel.

The rooms are pre-fabbed in China, shipped out to the UK, where they are installed and then will be decorated. It is intended that the rooms are recyclable and although the words eco-friendly have been touted in relation to this building, I have to wonder what the insulation is going to be like. How are shipping containers going to deal with an unusually hot summer?

I wish I'd known about this, when I was last in Berlin: Alternative Berlin, a series of tours of that give visitors a taste of everyday Berlin, rather than just sights from a guidebook - everything from graffiti to driving Soviet style tanks. The main tour leaves from Alexanderplatz every day at 11am, and they recommend that you have a daily public transport ticket.

Thanks Drew!

After reading this article, which describes an itinerary that will get you from London to Marseilles in six hours, with the newly opened UK high-speed leg of the Eurostar, it made me wonder just where you can get to within six hours, without needing to fly.

Virtually all of Belgium is now within easy reach, taking in the very popular Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp, and of course, Brussels.

London to Amsterdam comes in at five hours and 34 minutes, with a change to an Intercity train at Brussels. Theoretically, the Thalys train on the Brussels to Amsterdam leg should be a little faster than the Intercity service, given it has fewer stops, but it's probably not worth the extra fare.

London to Frankfurt only just overshoots the mark, coming in at six hours and seven minutes, but just once a day: the 14:32 service, changing at Brussels (arrive 17:23. depart 17:59).

Strasbourg comes in at an average of five hours and 45 minutes, with the shortest trip being five hours and thirteen minutes (departs London at 10:30, arrive Paris Nord 13:53 and then stroll across to Paris Est to catch the TGV Est service to Strasbourg at 14:24).

Luxembourg can be reached via either Brussels or Paris, and ranges from five hours 40 minutes to six hours, with ten departures a day.

The area around Cologne, in Germany, is easily reachable in five hours and ten minutes - and two trains a day will get you there in only four hours and 48 minutes, departing London at 6:57 or 10:00 and changing in Brussels).

Lyon, too, with its high speed TGV line, is an easy destination, coming in anywhere between five and six hours, the shortest trip being just four hours and 50 minutes (departing London 11:05).

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.

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.

The world's oldest film festival, the Venice Film Festival is less than two weeks away, so it's a good excuse to see what the area has to offer the independent traveller.

With Le Tour well underway, it seems an appropriate time to look at what various travel writers have been up to in France...

Fairfax New Zealand looks at some of the many military attractions in Paris, while across the Tasman, The Australian takes a cruise down the Rhone river.

Heading to the northern hemisphere, The Independent in UK gives us the Complete Guide to Languedoc Roussillon, a writer the The Observer clearly didn't enjoy her trip to Paris too much, and The Times gives us a walking holiday in Gascony.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the LA Times investigates the new Quai Branly Museum in Paris, and tells of a new campaign to make Parisiens a little bit more friendly. As if they weren't delightful enough already.

Finally, the Toronto Star has a great guide to renting an apartment, from the newly polite French...

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.

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.

If you're heading to Germany this summer, and are looking for some offbeat attractions, you might be interested in Gridskipper's guide to the Seven wonders of Berlin.

Amsterdam is a particularly popular city for travellers, not least for its thriving nightlife and beautiful historic centre. But along with the throngs of visitors come high prices, and if not adequately prepared, the unsuspecting traveller can find themselves spending considerably more money than they had intended to.

With a bit of planning, however, it's possible spend time in Amsterdam without blowing a fortune - or, at the very least, being able to save your money during the day so that you can party hard at night, if that takes your fancy. This guide tells you how.

In the first of a series of articles on northern Germany, The Toronto Star visits a Ballhaus in Berlin, a city in a constant state of change.

Newcomers to London are often shocked at the price of accomodation. A single room in a three-star hotel could easily set you back £100 - or more. The Independent gives a rundown of the five best budget accomodation options" that London has to offer.

The people at shortwalk.blog.co.uk have put together a great map of London's tube showing the walking times between stations.

Rodcorp also has a tube map with walklines.