Category Archives: Travel Guides
Goethe: Journey of the Mind
The German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is often seen as the quintessential eighteenth-century tourist, though with the exception of a trip to Italy he hardly left his homeland. Compared to several of his peripatetic contemporaries, he took few actual journeys, and the list of European cities in which he never set foot is quite
The Ends of the Earth
An author, foreign correspondent, academic, and television personality, Roger Willemsen is a familiar figure in Germany, and The Ends of the Earth offers English-language readers a chance to engage with his uniquely astute and perspective take on the world. Consisting of twenty-two essays recounting and reflecting on a lifetime of travel to the far and
An Armchair Traveller`s History of Tokyo
Presents the modern capital of Japan from the first forest clearances on the vast Kanto plain, through the wars and intrigues of the samurai era, up to the preparations for the 2020 Olympics. Tokyo (the `Eastern Capital`) has only enjoyed that name and status for 150 years. Before then it was the site of Edojuku
Smile of a Midsummer Night: A Picture of Sweden
Lars Gustafsson and Agneta Blomqvist have written a personal guide to their Swedish homeland. Setting off from the south their journey leads them all the way up to Norrland, from the farms of Scania to the Laponian area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But it is the idyllic fjord in Bohuslan, in the Vastmanland region,
Black Earth: A Journey Through Ukraine
“Will someone pay for the spilled blood? No. Nobody.” Mikhail Bulgakov wrote these words in Kiev during the turmoil of the Russian Civil War. Since then Ukrainian borders have shifted constantly and its people have suffered numerous military foreign interventions that have left them with nothing. As a state, Ukraine exists only since 1991 and
The Liquid Continent: Alexandria, Venice and Istanbul
Combining history and travel narrative, Nicholas Woodsworth journeys around the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, the sea which gave birth to Western civilisation. This sea, he says, should not be seen as an empty space surrounded by Europe, Asia and Africa, but as a continent in its own right, a place from whose coastlines people
Borges in Sicily: Journey with a Blind Guide
When Alejandro Luque receives a book of photographs taken in Sicily by the Argentinian writer, essayist, and poet Luis Borges, he decides to trace the writer`s journey, setting off with a group of friends on his own Sicilian odyssey. Meticulously identifying the location of each photograph, Luque uses Borges`s pictures to imagine the range of
A Journey into Russia
Ten years ago journalist Jens Muhling met Juri, a Russian television producer whose job it was to sell stories to TV stations in Germany but who always maintained that `The true stories are more unbelievable than anything I could invent.` Ever since, Jens Muhling has been travelling through Russia in search of stories that appear
Rilke`s Venice
Travel was a way of life for the Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke, and it was integral to his work. Between 1897 and 1920 he visited Venice ten times. The city has inspired countless writers and artists, but Rilke was both enthralled and provoked by it, as eager to see and explore the
Istanbul: City of Forgetting and Remembering
Starting with a wild taxi ride into town from Ataturk airport, Tillinghast takes his readers on a voyage of discovery through the storied city of Istanbul, known in Byzantine times as the `Queen of Cities` and to the Ottoman Turks as the `Abode of Felicity`. As comfortable talking about the distinctive and delicious Turkish cuisine
Tasting Spain: A Culinary Tour
Whether it is in Madrid`s cafe s or in Barcelona`s fish markets, van den Brinks takes you on a trip through Spain where tasting and smelling are the key occupations. You will see the shop windows in Madrid displaying pig`s trotters, the famous Serrano ham, or typical Spanish sweet cakes. You will taste crispy pig`s
Farewell to Salonica: City of the Crossroads
In this enchanting and moving memoir, Leon Sciaky describes his childhood before the FirstWorld War in a prosperous, loving Jewish family in the cosmopolitan city of Salonica (nowThessaloniki in Greece). Under the Ottoman Empire, the city`s diverse communities – Jews,Muslim Turks, Orthodox Greeks and Bulgarians – met, traded and lived alongside each otherday-to-day in an
Morocco: In the Labyrinth of Dreams and Bazaars
While much of the Middle East is now engulfed in conflict and repression, Morocco remains a curious anomaly: peaceful and open to the West, it has provided refuge for artists and writers for generations, and it remains an exotic destination for many curious travelers. The country has been influenced by an incredible variety of peoples
Seeking Provence: Old Myths, New Paths
A region steeped in fable and myth, Provence is a cultural crossroads of European history. A source of inspiration to artists, poets, and troubadours, it is now an enviable refuge for the wealthy and fashionable. Nicholas Woodsworth, who was born in Ottawa, Canada, married into a Provencal family and has lived in the region for
Stealing with the Eyes
Will Buckingham travelled to Tanimbar Islands (Indonesia) as a trainee anthropologist to meet three remarkable sculptors: the crippled Matias Fatruan, the buffalo hunter Abraham Amelwatin, and Damianus Masele, who was skilled in black magic, but who abstained out of Christian principle. Part memoir, part travel-writing, Stealing with the Eyes is the story of these men,
After Dark: A Nocturnal Exploration of Madrid
In 1762 the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau observed that we are blind half our lives because of what we miss during the night. Yet we fear the dark, and are led to believe that bad things happen during the small hours, especially in cities. This is when insomniacs, psychopaths and photophobics–those who are afraid of the
Long Rider to Rome: 1,400 Miles by Pilgrim Horse from Canterbury
Still hooked on adventure after their long pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a few years later Mefo Phillips and her spotted horse Leo set off again from Canterbury, this time heading for Rome, with Mefo`s husband Peter once more trying to keep track of them in Bessie the Bedford horsebox. Turning her back on the
Illustrated Seamanship
Today, yachts are often equipped with electrical windlasses, autopilot, bow thrusters, etc. This equipment has also become much more reliable, making it possible to make long offshore passages without much knowledge of seamanship. However, as the coastguards in many countries can confirm, more and more yachts require assistance, even when they should be able to
That Untravell`d World: Seven Journeys Through Turkey
Shortlisted for the 2020 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award`s Lonely Planet Debut Travel Writer of the YearNicholas Dylan Ray grew up next to an American national park, whose mountains and forests he explored to escape his troubled home. As a young man, he left the United States, and aged twenty-two set out on a six-month
