Travel Europe History

In 1815 the Battle of Waterloo brought to an end the Napoleonic Wars and the European continent opened up once again to British tourists. The nineteenth century was to be an age driven by steam technology, mass-industrialisation and movement, and, in the footsteps of the Grand Tourists a hundred years earlier, the British middle-classes flocked to Europe to see the sights. In Tourists, the voices of these travellers – puzzled, shocked, delighted and amazed – are brought vividly to life.

Lawrence Durrell's evocative memoir of living in Cyprus, just before the Greek/Turkish partition. This is a touching and atmospheric account of a place, now changed, where the two races lived side by side.

Every year upon arriving in Plobien, the small Breton town where he spends his summers, American writer Mark Greenside picks back up where he left off with his faux-pas-filled Francophile life. Mellowed and humbled, but not daunted (OK, slightly daunted), he faces imminent concerns: What does he cook for a French person? Who has the right-of-way when entering or exiting a roundabout? Where does he pay for a parking ticket? And most dauntingly of all, when can he touch the tomatoes?

Ostensibly written by an English knight, The Book of Marvels and Travels claim to recount his experiences in Egypt, the Levant, India, and China. It describes a journey from Europe to Jerusalem and further into Asia, and the many weird and wonderful peoples and practices of the East. The author claims to have traveled in land populated by Amazons, dog-headed people, cannibals, one-footed tribes, and Pygmies.

When Ben Coates injures his leg and needs to rebuild his strength by walking, he finds himself presented with an exciting opportunity: to rediscover the city he has been working in for over a decade, at a slower pace. He devises ten walks, each demonstrating a different chapter of Amsterdam's history, from its humble beginnings in the early 1200s as a small fishing community through two Golden Ages, fueled by the growth of the Dutch colonial empire, two world wars, and countless reinventions.

Espacios mágicos y rituales, laboratorios de la cultura y de la técnica, los pasajes permiten pensar el gran texto urbano desde sus notas a pie de página. En Barcelona hay cerca de cuatrocientos. Algunos son caminos que conducen a un pasado rural; otros, pasadizos proletarios o callejones de chabolas que hablan de la metrópolis fabril y del franquismo; los más famosos tienen forma de intersecciones ajardinadas y de galerías burguesas del siglo XIX; los más recientes están en polígonos industriales o acogen casas con piscina y restaurantes para turistas.

In the summer of 1849, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italy's legendary revolutionary, was finally forced to abandon his defense of Rome. He and his men had held the besieged city for four long months, but now it was clear that only surrender would prevent slaughter and destruction at the hands of a huge French army. Against all odds, Garibaldi was determined to turn defeat into moral victory.

Drawing on testimony from a great range of witnesses - from Balzac and Hugo to assorted boulevardiers, rabble-rousers, and tramps - Sante, whose thorough research is matched only by the vividness of his narration, takes the listener on a whirlwind tour.

Вечный город! "Вечным" его называли еще в I веке до нашей эры, когда ему было около семисот лет. Столица Италии неумолимо приближается к празднованию своего 2800-летия, которое состоится в апреле 2047 года. В наше стремительное время существуют обзорные экскурсии "Весь Рим за один день". Но провести в Риме всего день и что-то понять невозможно — все равно, что выучить за день весь курс высшей математики. Не обольщайтесь и не будете разочарованы. Рим открывается не сразу и открывается только сведущим. Открывается и затягивает.

Unter der Oberfläche Deutschlands liegen die Reste unzähliger verschwundener Städte, Handelszentren, Dörfer und Industrieanlagen: ein versunkenes, unbekanntes Deutschland. Pia Volk hat sich auf die Suche nach diesen Orten gemacht. Sie erzählt von ihrer einstigen Bedeutung und ihrem Untergang und besichtigt in Wäldern, auf Feldern, im Watt oder in Asphaltwüsten die Überreste einstiger Größe. Ein kurzweiliger Atlas für alle, die schon immer ahnten, dass unter unseren Füßen eine versunkene Welt liegt.

Zu Fuß zum Meer, die Feder im Gepäck. Eine der erstaunlichsten Reisen unserer Zeit! An einem verregneten Dezembertag macht sich der 18-jährige Patrick Leigh Fermor zu Fuß, quer durch Europa, nach Konstantinopel auf. In dem Jahr, in dem Hitler an die Macht kommt, wandert der vielseitig interessierte junge Mann durch Wiesen und Wälder, verschneite Städte und die Salons der guten Gesellschaft. Er macht Bekanntschaft mit Handwerkern, Arbeitern und Direktoren, er nächtigt in ärmlichen Hospizen, Scheunen und auf märchenhaften Schlössern.

From the incomparable John Baxter, the best-selling author of The Most Beautiful Walk in the World, a sumptuous and definitive portrait of Paris through the seasons, highlighting the unique tastes, sights, and changing personality of the city in spring, summer, fall, and winter.

From Palermo to Castiglione di Sicilia to Alimena, Sicily holds great secrets from the past and unspoken promises. Now, slowly shaking itself free of the Mafia, Sicily is opening itself up to visitors in ways it never has before. Sicilian Splendors explores the history, politics, food, Mafia, and people which John Keahey encounters throughout his travels during his return to Sicily. Through conversing with natives and immersing himself in culture, Keahey illustrates a brand new Sicily no one has ever talked about before.

In July 1942, the French police in Paris, acting for the German military government, arrested Victor Ripp's three-year-old cousin, Alexandre. Two months later, the boy was killed in Auschwitz. In Hell's Traces, Ripp examines this act through the prism of family history. In addition to Alexandre, 10 members of Ripp's family on his father's side died in the Holocaust. His mother's side of the family, numbering 30 people, was in Berlin when Hitler came to power.

Your narrator for the adventure is me an American, the sort of fellow the Irish might refer to as a boyo. The times recounted are before Ireland joined the European Union, when it was the “old sod.” If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to visit relatives in Ireland, my stories will be warm and enlightening. There is something magical about visiting where, but for a generation or two, you’d be living and laughing everyday with cousins.

Take four friends, put them on two Ural motorcycles (complete with sidecars), send them off on a 2,500-mile odyssey retracing history’s most famous retreat, add what some might consider an excessive amount of Vodka, and you’ve got Sylvain Tesson’s Berezina, a riotous and erudite book that combines travel, history, comradery, and adventure.

Two years ago, Graham Robb moved to a lonely house on the very edge of England, near the banks of a river that once marked the southern boundary of the legendary Debatable Land. The oldest detectable territorial division in Great Britain, the Debatable Land served as a buffer between Scotland and England. It was once the bloodiest region in the country, fought over by Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and James V. After most of its population was slaughtered or deported, it became the last part of Great Britain to be brought under the control of the state.

In 1921, Britain's most illustrious highway, the Great North Road, ceased to exist – on paper at least. Stretching from London to Edinburgh, the old road was largely replaced by the A1 as the era of the motor car took hold. A hundred years later, journalist and cyclist Steve Silk embraces the anniversary as the perfect excuse to set off on an adventure across 11 days and 400 miles. Travelling by bike at a stately 14 miles per hour, he heads north, searching out milestones and memories, coaching inns and coffee shops.

Das neue Hörbuch von Katja Eichinger über den Sehnsuchtsort Côte d'Azur. Ultramarinblaues Meer, weiße Strandpromenaden, Palmen, Mimosen und ein einzigartiges Licht: die Côte d'Azur. Nirgends sonst ist die Dichte der Geschichten und der Künstlerinnen und Künstler, die sie verewigt haben, höher. Nietzsche war hier, Coco Chanel, Marlene Dietrich, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, James Baldwin und die Rolling Stones. Ein Ort, an dem Extreme und Exzess, die Yachten und Bauten der Superreichen, die Glitterati und Easyjet-Touristen vor der unbeeindruckt bezaubernden Natur aufeinandertreffen.

À la fin du XVIIIe siècle ils étaient trois à rêver, avec leur œuvre, d’atteindre les sommets, d'atteindre le firmament : Mozart et sa « Petite musique de nuit », les frères Montgolfier et leur ballon. Hélas la petite sonate ne fut jouée qu’après la mort de l’auteur, et c’est Pilâtre de Rozier qui s’envola à la place des deux frères!