Scuol, Switzerland
Scuol, between the the Silvretta range and the Swiss Dolomites, is a place where mineral waters flow from community fountains. Cobblestone squares are surrounded by historic houses decorated with sgraffito, a technique of scratching a design through the surface layer.
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Addergoole, Ireland: Titanic adventures in small town Ireland
Fourteen people now known as the Addergoole Fourteen traveled from this parish by horse-drawn trap and sidecar to Castlebar railway station. They boarded the 8:23 am steam train for a nine hour journey to Queenstown, in County Cork, to embark on a voyage aboard the largest, most luxurious ship the world had seen–the unsinkable RMS Titanic.
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Switzerland’s Lavaux: A votre sante!
In the 11th century, Benedictine and Cistercian monks began planting vines and building retaining walls on the steep sun-drenched hillsides of the Lavaux region on the north shore of Lake Geneva. Today’s nearly 2000 acres of terraces in French-speaking southwest is Switzerland’s major wine-producing region and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Barging in Alsace Lorraine aboard European Waterways’ Le Panache
We booked a barge trip that began and ended in Strasbourg, capital of the Alsace region of eastern France. This beautiful area between the Vosges Mountains and the Black Forest bears a strong German influence because its nationality and language switched back and forth depending on the outcome of a variety of wars.
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Rostock, Germany
Rostock’s historic Old Town has been meticulously restored, and what was once the Hanseatic League’s coastal defense area , Warnemunde, is now delightful seaside resort.
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Lübeck, Germany
“This is Lübeck–where you find surprising places.” our guide, Jan Kruijswijk, told us as we walked along a winding alley and peeked through one of Lübeck’s 90 or so little arches and passageways.
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Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice
It is said that when the Vikings first saw Iceland–with volcanoes, black lava fields, sulfurous steam, and bubbling mud pools– they thought they had discovered the entrance to the Netherworld.
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Wonderful Copenhagen
The capital of the world’s oldest kingdom is a world of wonders– tales of kings and queens, Vikings, and a mermaid, with a fortress, castles, palaces, and crown jewels. The largest of the Scandinavian cities, once the capital of an empire that included Norway and Southern Sweden, cosmopolitan Copenhagen, or “merchants’ harbor”, is a city as enchanting as the fairy tales inspired here.
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Holland America’s Mediterranean
Our Western Mediterranean cruise began in Rome, center of the empire that once controlled the entire area, and sailed westward to Lisbon, capital of Portugal, whose 15th and 16th century navigators helped build an overseas empire.
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Hamburg, Germany
Hamburg was established and ruled not by royalty but by the wealthy merchants of the medieval trade monopoly known as the Hanseatic League. The Hanseatic merchant guilds began their alliance in the 12th century to protect members on their trading voyages.
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