Travelling Modern Europe with a Victorian Railway Guidebook

Are you looking for a way to travel back in time? Well, we haven’t cracked the laws of physics yet, but we have the next best thing – a guidebook from another time. Move over Lonely Planet, Bradshaw’s was one of the original guides that inspired the British to travel the Continent for leisure. Bradshaw’s…

Sweden has the most islands in the world, so which ones make for the perfect escape?

Let’s pack our bags and plan a summer holiday on some beautiful island. But forget the palm trees; we’re heading up north to the land of Vikings and the country with the most islands in the world. That’s right, Sweden has more than 220,000 islands. Okay, so that number might be up for debate as…

A Brief Compendium of Egyptomania

Sphinxes, scarabs and obelisks, oh my! Egyptomania quite literally indicates a madness for anything Egyptian; a phenomenon most of us tend to associate with the 1920s when archeologists cracked open King Tut’s tomb and unleashed a new wave of excitement that penetrated every facet of mainstream western culture. But our fascination with ancient Egypt spans…

What about Mrs* Eames?

“What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts,” once said Ray Eames, the artist, designer, and wife of Charles Eames. The Eames partnership revolutionised our concept of modern furniture and quite literally shaped the way we live. Although their collaboration was truly egalitarian, Charles Eames became the face behind…

Forget the Scenic Route, Take a Detour Down a Corpse Road

Walk with us, as we follow ancient trails where the living once carried the dead. We’ll be traversing Europe’s rural landscapes via a network of so-called “corpse roads”, occasionally marked with crucifixes and low stone benches, cutting across windswept hills, overgrown pastures, gushing rivers and rocky brooks. In Britain alone, 42 of these little-known funerary…

Templar Secrets of Sintra’s Mysterious Initiation Well

Hidden behind a cluster of moss-covered boulders in a Portuguese garden lies a well. It’s no ordinary well, as you’ll see when you push the stone slab that leads you to the top of an inverted tower that plunges into an underworld. With curving arches flanked by ionic columns, lichen and moss-clad stone dripping with…

The Twisted Tale of the Real Mickey Mouse

Once upon a time, in 1927, Walt Disney created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal. This bunny had a round white face, a button nose, and floppy black ears. After Disney sold a series of shorts to Universal, he returned in 1928 to offer his services to create more cartoons featuring Oswald. However, he not…

We Can’t Pronounce His Name, but He Was Basically Austria’s Gaudí

If the Emerald City of Oz had ever been in need of a new architect, he would have been just the man for the job. In his fight against the “godless line”, Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s buildings swirl into the sky with undulating curves in a kaleidoscope of colours, pierced by trees and clad with grass and…

Check Out When You Die: Varanasi’s Death Hotel

Where is the best place in the world to die? According to Hindus, dying in the sacred city of Varanasi brings liberation –mukti– no matter your faith or religious denomination. If someone needs a place to stay before embarking on their final journey, they’ll find it in Mukti Bhawan, Varanasi’s “Death Hotel”. Varanasi is one…

Secret Tourism: Travelling with Europe’s Nomadic Shepherds

It will probably sound out of character if we told you that to discover Europe’s most secret corners, you should follow the herd and keep to the beaten path, quite literally. But hear us out and grab your hiking boots because today we’re taking notes from a very small group of folks who actually plan…