Trial

Though yet another of China's megalopolises, Xi’an (pop. 13.6 million), on an inland plain in the country's northwest, is one of…

North America has only three countries officially, but even so, culturally manages to be an amazingly varied continent. There’s no better example than the robust, vibrant francophone culture of Canada’s Quebec province. Its historic capital (pop. 541,000, metro 806,000),…

Many if not most countries of the world, of course, set aside choice pieces of territory to protect and often showcase precious natural environments. But thanks to its size and a conservationist ethos dating back to the mid-19th century (though these days being increasingly threatened), few…

      Samot

Nestled on Britain’s lower west coast is perhaps the least heralded (and least touristed) of…

St. Tropez… Monaco… St. Barth… Aspen… Dubai… In this Gilded Age when the so called “lifestyles of the rich and famous” are lionised more than ever before, their playgrounds have also become inevitably become household names. In recent decades, Spain has also come to boast its share, as…

As rich as the recorded history of Spain is, it all adds up to a mere microsecond in terms of human presence on the peninsula that eventually became known as Iberia. Homo sapiens arrived here during the Paleolithic era, some, oh, 1.2 million years back, give or take – including the last stand of the…

                 Marcin Krzyzak, 

One of Europe’s quirkier enclaves – as well as…

Astride the coast of the Aquitaine region and France’s Basque Country, the country’s southwesternmost city (just 19 kilometres/12 miles from the Spanish border) has been one of its most famous seaside resorts since the mid-19th century. And still strongly flavoured with…

What’s it like to visit the world’s largest city proper (as opposed to greater metropolitan area, which is Tokyo)? A city on the mouths of the Yangtze and Huangpo River roughly midway along the South China Sea coast where the numbers boggle – 24 million spread across…

Ah, we progressive folks in the USA do especially love Canada and prime minister Joe Trudeau these days, especially now that it's become along with Germany the leader of the free world. But I've always loved every Canadian city I've ever visited, and none more than Canada's…

The mighty Roman Empire started gradually invading and turning the Iberian Peninsula into Hispania in the first two centuries BC a pax romana that would last till the 4th century AD, when it started to lose ground to barbarian…

Europe’s cities especially pour on the charm during the Yuletide season, and Spain’s capital is no exception. Here are the top holiday highlights to watch out for!

Holiday Lights

Starting at the end of November, the bright-luces-big-ciudad thing gets an extra…

How many cities in Sweden – or for that matter, anywhere in Scandinavia – can you name outside the country’s capital? For many of us, the answer is few if any. And yet, the smaller places like Denmark’s …

Settled by Celtic peoples even before the Romans ruled the peninsula they called Hispania, the capital of today’s autonomous community of Castile and León holds a special place in this country’s history. It was the first capital of…

Growing up in Miami, I always found found our neighbor just to the north a pleasant enough but somewhat nondescript place. Fort Lauderdale‘s main attributes appeared to be some impressive waterways, a decent ocean beach – and of course a rowdy, booze-soaked college scene when it came time…

Today is of course the 15th anniversary of one of the USA’s most traumatic events of the post-World-War-II period: the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It’s also the second anniversary in which the Freedom Tower, the skyscraper that replaced those doomed Twin Towers has been open to the public. 



I made it…