Browsing: Europe

Right before the hour in the Main Market Square, the pigeons appear to know something that the tourists don’t. People turn their heads toward the taller of the two brick towers of St. Mary’s Basilica, and about 266 feet up, a small window opens to reveal a brass trumpet bell. The tune is the hejnał, (roughly pronounced “hey-now”), consisting of five notes that rise, linger, and then stop, cut off mid-phrase as though someone had

At the base of Bologna’s two famous towers, the morning air smells of espresso and wet brick, as bicycles pass through Piazza di Porta Ravegnana. The Torre degli Asinelli rises above them, built of 12th-century masonry, and stands 319 feet tall. Next to it stands the Garisenda, shorter and leaning at about four degrees. The city recently installed a protective fence around the Garisenda and used steel supports from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to

As soon as the gates open each morning, joggers, a few early photographers, and the peregrine falcons that live at the Minster take up the section of York’s city walls between Bootham Bar and Monk Bar. The limestone beneath your feet is damp and cold. Behind one side are back gardens and well-kept allotments; on the other, the cathedral rises above the slate roofs, so close you can see the individual carved faces in the

Each ‌autumn, ‌between six and seven million people gather in a 103-acre meadow in southwest Munich. They wear traditional dress like their grandparents and drink beer from heavy glasses that hold exactly one liter. Locals call the meadow the Wiesn, but the rest of the world knows it as Oktoberfest. More than two centuries old, the festival has grown louder, larger, and more Bavarian each year.

Oktoberfest began

The horse rises straight up among the people, its black coat gleaming, and its front hooves sweep through the air above the hundred raised hands. In the Plaça des Born, the main square of the old part of Ciutadella. Historically, people reached out to touch the horse’s chest, as it is traditional to do so to secure a year of good luck. This is the jaleo, the climax of the Festes de Sant Joan which

At Sligachan, under the Old Bridge, a woman in a rain jacket kneels on the rocks and dips her face into the river. Local legend says that if you keep your face in the water for seven seconds and then let it dry in the wind, you’ll gain timeless beauty, a gift of the faeries. The water comes straight from the Cuillin, the steep black mountains above, and it’s so cold that seven seconds feels

On the third Sunday of September, the meadow at Ukanc fills with the sound of cowbells arriving before the cows do. Then the herders come down from the high pastures, shoulders loaded with the basenga, the whole kit of tools and utensils that made cheese possible above the tree line all summer. The cattle wear flower crowns. The brass band plays through it. Somewhere behind all of this, Lake Bohinj lies perfectly still.

The Cows’

Austria’s second-largest city has a Renaissance fortress, a blue museum that resembles a friendly alien, and a Saturday market where people pour pumpkin seed oil on vanilla ice cream. Moreover, it is less crowded than it should be. Then there is the matter of the clock tower. The long hand shows the hours while the short hand indicates the minutes, a feature that dates back to when the tower displayed only the hour, and the

Although the bus leaving the airport does not stop at Fairy Bridge, the small stone bridge spanning the stream on the main road to Douglas, the passengers still speak up. “Hello, fairies,” says one person, and a few more join in, partly in jest and perhaps some completely sincerely. The trees along the bank are decorated with ribbons, photographs, and handwritten wishes, some faded by the weather while others were tied that morning. Taxi and

Turkey’s third-largest city has more than 2,300 years of history, but İzmir isn’t defined by one famous monument. Instead, it’s a real Turkish city with its own food and character, and it’s close to three of the Aegean’s top day trips. After a few days, most visitors settle into the local rhythm. Around five in the afternoon, a sea breeze drifts in from the Gulf of İzmir and cools the air along the Kordon, the

The first time I saw Krampus was on a side street in the Old Town of Salzburg, and I should make it clear that “saw” is an understatement. What in fact took place was that a creature about eight feet tall, dressed in a fur coat and equipped with a pair of ram’s horns as big as bicycle handlebars, swung a bunch of birch switches just within a foot of my shins while a cowbell

For eleven days every winter, Venice turns itself into the world’s most elaborate costume party. Step into St. Mark’s Square on a Saturday afternoon during Carnevale, and you might spot a courtier in a gold-beaked plague mask posing beside the Basilica. A woman in a hooped gown the color of crushed raspberries glides past a café, entirely unbothered that hooped gowns and narrow Venetian bridges were never meant to coexist. Nobody is in a hurry.