One of the things I really love is cycling home at night after the opera. This is even more magical in Paris because you not only have the opera going through your head, you also have Paris all around you. You do have to look out for the taxis, though, Read More …
Oldenburg is known as one of Germany’s dozen-or-so bicycle-friendliest cities, which is not surprising considering its location on the North German plain between Bremen and the Netherlands’ border. The city of Oldenburg has an impressive cycling infrastructure, including an extensive network of separated cycle paths (and hardly any cycle lanes Read More …
Optymo in Belfort is the agency that runs the city’s bus lines, as well as the bike-sharing and car-sharing systems. The name Optymo stands for optimal mobility. The Optymo system currently has 250 bikes available at thirty self-service bike stations in the city of Belfort and in several adjoining towns. Read More …
In the fourth arrondissement of Paris, at the corner of Quai des Célestins and Boulevard Henri IV, there is a fine example of a belle époque apartment building from the beginning of the twentieth century. It is a solid stone building with seven floors above ground level, with the traditional Read More …
The Parc de la Villette is in the far northeast corner of Paris. It is a 55-hectare park with 35 hectares of lawns and gardens, on the site of the former slaughterhouses of la Villette. They say this is now the largest green space in Paris, and also “a laboratory Read More …
Before the old Basel Theater was blown up in 1975, parts of the old stage machinery were salvaged and given to the artist Jean Tinguely (1925-1991), who spent two years recycling this old machinery and making it into an elaborate and entertaining fountain, the Fasnachtbrunnen or Carnival Fountain, on the Read More …
>> Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 2 << This quaint little building (by Dubai, Taipei or Shanghai standards) is the Messeturm (Trade Fair Tower). It is 256 meters tall and was the highest office tower in Europe from 1991 to 1997. Now it is the second tallest in Frankfurt Read More …
For those of us who arrive by train from central or southern Germany, this “grand” two-star hotel (grand being a French word for large) is conveniently located just half a block from the Gare de l’Est, i.e. the East Station. For a single room on the fifth floor I paid Read More …
Groningen, the northernmost city in the Netherlands, is famous for having the highest percentage of bicycle use in the Western world. An estimated 57 % of the 190,000 residents use bicycles as their main form of daily transportation within the city. 59 % of all journeys within the city are Read More …
Markt Bibart is a town at the southern edge of the Steiger Forest, on the main railway line between Würzburg and Nürnberg. The first known mention of Bibart in any document was in the year 816, but it has only been a “Markt” (= market) since the fourteenth century, when Read More …