Things to Do in Europe

A honeycomb of narrow streets dotted with baroque churches, lively markets, bustling squares, and a thriving nightlife scene, Nice’s oldest quarter remains the buzzing heart the modern city. Known in French as Le Vieux Nice, this seafront historic center offers an atmospheric introduction to Nice.

Nice Old Town is best explored on foot. A small-group or private walking tour will take in all the main attractions, including the colorful Flower Market and the historic landmarks of Garibaldi Square (Place Garibaldi). Alternatively, opt for a Segway or bike tour and climb to the top of Castle Hill for a spectacular view of the city, glide along the famous Promenade des Anglais, or hop off to sample local foods at the Old Town market. Nice city tours are often combined with sightseeing tours of surrounding French Riviera towns such as Villefranche-sur-Mer, Cannes, Saint-Jeannet, or Monaco’s Monte Carlo.

Old Town is located in central Nice, with the seafront of Quay of the United States (Quai des États-Unis) to the south, Jean Jaurès Boulevard (Boulevard Jean Jaurès) to the north, and Castle Hill to the east. The easiest way to get there is by tram and the closest stops are Opera, Cathedrale, and Garibaldi.

Nice is at its busiest in July and August, when the Old Town can be crammed with tourists. Get there early to avoid large crowds and book ahead for restaurants in the evening. Outside of summer you’ll find fewer crowds and cheaper prices, but be aware that some attractions and restaurants have reduced hours in winter. The holiday season is a popular time to visit, when a huge Christmas market is held on Masséna Square (Place Masséna).

Walk between Masséna Square, the Palace of Justice Square (Place du Palais de Justice), and Garibaldi Square, stopping along the way to admire the baroque Cathedral of Sainte Reparate (Cathédrale Sainte Réparate), browse the morning flower market along Cours Saleya, and grab an ice cream from the famous Fenocchio ice cream parlor. Other notable landmarks include the Chapel of Mercy (Chapelle de la Miséricorde), the Chapel of the Annunciation (Chapelle de l'Annonciation), Saint-Jacques Church (Eglise Saint-Jacques), and Lascaris Palace (Palais Lascaris).

Located in Nice’s Phoenix park, the Museum of Asian Arts, as its name implies, aims to showcase a cohesive ensemble of various Asian arts. The museum was designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange and was opened in 1998 at the initiative of Jacques Médecin, mayor of Nice from 1966 until 1990.

In addition to the visit, the museum offers a wide range of activities including audio-guides in French, English, Italian and German (€2). Guided tours are available at 11am on the 3rd Saturday of the Month from September to June, and every Wednesday and Saturday at 2:30pm in July and August (€4). It is possible to register online or on-site. There are also workshops for both adults and children (€10 / €3.50) and calligraphy, origami and taï chi chuan and Qi gong classes, as well as a weekly tea ceremony. A full schedule is available on the website.

Nonnberg Abbey is a Benedictine nunnery with a landmark spire in the center of Salzburg and is perhaps best known throughout the world as the home of the troublesome novice nun Maria in The Sound of Music, the magical movie that celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015. The nunnery sits tucked under the Hohensalzburg Fortress and was founded somewhere around 715 AD; it is the oldest constantly inhabited convent in Europe and its complex of buildings consists of the abbey, convent, chapels, church, cloisters and refectory, all built in a charming jumble of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque architectural styles.

Nonnberg’s main church of Maria Himmelfahrt is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is Gothic in style, adorned with gleaming stained-glass windows and a series of biblically themed paintings. Largely rebuilt after a fire in 1423, the church nevertheless retains fragments of its original Byzantine and Romanesque frescoes in the choir.

Home to Ruckl Crystal, Nizbor Glass Factory carries on the tradition of making the high-quality Czech glass and crystal that was originally known as Bohemian crystal. All stages of production are carried out here, including glass blowing, painting, crackling, and cutting. Champagne glasses, bowls, plates, vases, perfume bottles, and lamps are just a few of the items you’ll see made. 

Although some of the Ruckl’s wears stays in the Czech Republic, most is exported around the world. On a tour of the factory, which you can access by coach from Prague, you can learn about the 300-year-old tradition of Bohemian glass and crystal making. You’ll see the molten glass being blown straight from the fiery furnaces and watch  artisans hand-cut the products with amazing skill and precision.

 

The factory is around a 35-minute drive from the center of Prague. Take highway D5 toward Pilsen and turn off at Exit 14. Alternatively, skip the hassle of driving by visiting on an organized tour from Prague—many even include pickup and drop-off from your hotel.

The factory is open to visitors from Monday through Saturday, morning to afternoon, year-round. Outside of the peak summer months, however, opening hours are shortened and Saturday visits need to be booked in advance. Check before you go.

 

The Ruckl Family Glassworks has being producing cut crystal since 1846, with techniques passed down through generations and surviving two world wars and the communist nationalization of all family businesses. The Nizbor factory has been in operation since 1903.

Although the Dutch royal family has a total of four palaces throughout the Netherlands, including one in Amsterdam, today the royals prefers to work from The Hague. In the historic center of the city, Noordeinde Palace has been office to King Willem-Alexander since 2013.

With its roots going back to 1533 when wealthy aristocrat Willem van de Goudt turned the farmhouse into a stately home, the Noordeinde wasn’t used as a palace until 1609, when it was presented to William of Orange’s widow in recognition of her husband’s service to the Dutch nation.

Seventeenth-century Dutch super-architect Jacob van Campen, who built the Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace) in Amsterdam, had a hand in developing the Noordeinde’s Renaissance style. He created the H-shaped building seen today, along with many of the building’s serene, classical attributes, such as the equestrian statue in the courtyard, a tribute to William of Orange. The grounds include the Royal Stables and Palace Garden and make a good stop on a stroll through the city center.

The old heart of Amsterdam runs from the throbbing Dam Square – home of the Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace) – south down to the great cobbled public square of Nieuwmarkt. Once bordering a canal that was filled in around 1601, Nieuwmarkt is today packed with bars and cafés and is the gateway to both Chinatown and the Red Light District, which lies a couple of streets west between the parallel canals of Oudezijds Voorburgwaal and Oudezijds Achterburgwaal. The central focus of Nieuwmarkt is the city’s last surviving fortified gate; constructed around 1425, the spiky-spired De Waag sits in the middle of the plaza and was originally one of three entrance gates into the city through the fortified walls. After the walls were demolished to allow the city to expand, De Waag was used as a weigh house for goods coming in to Amsterdam by sea before becoming the lodgings of the Surgeon’s Guild, immortalized in Rembrandt’s gory painting The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp of 1632. Following World War II it housed the Jewish Historical Museum; its present-day incarnation is as a restaurant opened in 1996.

Currently under renovation (penned to finish before summer 2015), the upper stories of De Waag are only occasionally open for special exhibitions but its lower floors are occupied by the Restaurant-Café in de Waag, which serves drink and food all day long; in summer punters spill out on to Nieuwmarkt to watch the world go by. Many well-known Amsterdam sights are nearby, including the somber Oude Kerk (Old Church), the Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (Museum of Our Lord in the Attic) and the Zeedijk Temple, Europe’s largest Buddhist place of worship.

Niedzica Castle was built between 1320 and 1326 by the Hungarian Kokos of Brezovica. Sitting on a hill upstream from the mouth of the Dunajec River, it is also sometimes called the Dunajec Castle. Long a border post with Hungary, the castle is considered to be one of the most picturesque in Poland. It has changed hands and undergone renovations numerous times over the centuries, but has been a museum since 1963.

While much of the castle is in ruins, the dungeons and some rooms in the upper and middle castle have survived, as has a painting of the crucifixion that once hung in the chapel. The castle museum displays artifacts, remnants of the old interior, historical documents, prints and engravings of the castle’s exterior and antique clocks, pistols and rifles. Two terraces provide visitors with scenic views of the river and nearby lake.

Niedzica Castle is also the subject of local legend, which says that an Inca princess was killed here, leaving her ghost to haunt the castle nightly, leaving a testament to her son describing the location of a lost Inca treasure.

Newfoundland Memorial Park opened in June 1925 as an homage to members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment that served alongside the British Army in World War 1. It is one of only two Canadian historical sites that exists outside of Canada (the other is in France, too). 

Visitors enter the memorial through the main gate and are immediately met by a large dedication stone with a bronze cast statue and an engraved quote by John Oxenham. The somber reminder sets the tone for what many describe as a truly unique experience. A large triangular stone reminiscent of the 29th Division’s badge recognizes the men who lost their lives at the hands of the Germans and five Caribou statues mark an important place in the battle or serve as a tribute to fallen soldiers. The memorial park is also home to three cemeteries: Hawthorn Ridge, Hunter’s and Y Ravine. 

The Nicolaus Copernicus Museum (Muzeum Mikołaja Kopernika in Polish) is set in Frombork, a seafront town on the lagoon of the Vistula River in northern Poland. It was here that Renaissance genius and astronomer Copernicus lived and worked for years until his death in 1543, leading to this museum complex’s focus.

Centered around Cathedral Hill, multiple structures and exhibits make up the museum, including Copernicus’ second burial site, the Gothic-Baroque Bishops’ Palace and Copernicus’ Tower, where he developed in his observatory the then-revolutionary theory that the earth moved around the sun. Constructed in the 14th century, the tower has been rebuilt multiple times and today houses a reconstruction of Copernicus’ sparsely furnished study.

Also refurbished after being razed by a fire, Bishops’ Palace features a permanent exhibition on Copernicus’ life, displaying early telescopes as well as a collection of stained-glass from the cathedral. The Belfry offers a planetarium with regular 3D shows, a gallery of modern art and Poland’s only functioning Foucault’s pendulum, which measures the rotation of the earth.

The Nordic Museum (Nordiska Museet) is an institution dedicated to Swedish cultural heritage, ethnography, and folk art. Situated on the island of Djurgården in Stockholm, the museum’s collection includes textiles, clothes, dollhouses, and other objects spanning a 500-year period that illustrate Swedish life, culture, and traditions.

 

Swedish teacher and folklore expert Artur Hazelius founded the Nordic Museum in the late 19th century. The vast collection gives a comprehensive survey of Sweden’s cultural history from the 16th century onwards. The massive building, the design of Isak Gustaf Clason, was originally intended to be a national monument housing the nation’s material inheritance. The grand main hall is dominated by an enormous sculpture of King Gustav Vasa, the founder of Sweden. 

 

The Nordic Museum is a stop on many Stockholm city tours, and is often combined with other attractions in Djurgården and the surrounding area. A Stockholm red bus hop-on hop-off ticket or a boat tour frequently includes the Nordic Museum along with other Stockholm sights such as Old Town, the Royal Palace, Gröna Lund Tivoli, the open-air museum and zoo Skansen, the maritime Vasa Museum, and more.

 

 

You can reach the Nordic Museum by buses 67, 69 and 76. If arriving by Tunnelbana, get off at the Karlaplan stop. Ferry service is to Allmänna Gränd from Slussen, and in the summer there is a ferry stop at Nybroplan.

 

The museum is open daily 10am to 5pm Thursday to Tuesday and until 6pm on Wednesday. In summer, when most travelers visit Stockholm, it is open from 9am to 8pm. If visiting Stockholm in the winter, a day at the Nordic Museum could provide a welcome respite from the bitter Scandinavian weather. Summertime takes most area residents out of doors, and a visit to the museum could easily be combined with other Djurgården sights in walking distance.

 

The Nordic Museum has a rotating roster of special exhibitions on different time periods in Scandinavian life. Check the museum’s calendar for dates of exhibitions focusing on Sweden in the 1950s, Swedish holiday traditions, Sami (Sweden’s native population) life, and other special topics.

There are three Corniche roads of the Cote d'Azur, each with spectacular views.

Forged by the Romans and shored up by Napoleon, the Grande Corniche is the highest of the roads along the coast, and also the most dangerous. But not only is it the least safe driving-wise (in some spots barely wide enough for two cars to pass), its altitude also often means a whitewash of fog, which does a driver no favors. Confident drivers wishing to see the Cote d'Azur at its most unspoiled will want to take this road – but only on the clearest of days.

This road goes along the coast, often side-by-side with the train line – thus its name, which translates to the Low Cornice. Exits for all of the French Riviera towns make this a convenient route for road trippers, but this can also mean extreme congestion on the weekends and during the high season. However, if you have a car, sooner or later you'll find yourself on the Basse Corniche, and it's quite wonderful.

The Moyenne Corniche is the newest of the routes along the Mediterranean, and it sits in altitude between the upper Grande and the lower Basse. Eze, the popular inland destination, is accessible via the Moyenne. It offers wonderful views of the coastline and is a tad less vertiginous than the Grande Corniche. However, it still isn’t ideal for those wary of a cliffside drive.

Although Nimes is in the Languedoc Region, its close proximity to Provence's Avignon make it a natural day trip destination – particularly if you're following the trail of Roman history that is so prevalent in the South of France. And what a history it has!

It's a history that stretches back to pre-Roman times, with various evidence of Bronze Age settlements. But with the Romans came more permanent colonization; soldiers were often given tracts of land in the area as payment for battles. The original Roman gates are still there, as is the Colosseum-style arena. Check the city's entertainment schedule before visiting, and catch a concert inside – something you can't do in Rome!

Throughout the city are various ruins that have been preserved as best as possible, but the jewel of Nimes is without a doubt the temple Maison Carrée. Built just before the turn of the millennium, its near-perfect condition makes it one of the finest examples of Roman architecture found anywhere in the world. Thomas Jefferson was so taken with it, in fact, that he has the statehouse in Virginia built in its likeness!

Today Nimes is a fairly large and bustling city, with great restaurants and gorgeous parks and other public green spaces. It's only about 45 minutes from Avignon, and on the way you can stop at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Pont du Gard, to soak in even more Roman architecture and history!

The volcanic island of Nisyros lies north of Rhodes, a craggy, mountainous and fertile speck in the Aegean Sea. It forms part of the Dodecanese Islands along with Kos and Tilos, and is an unspoiled treasure that has so far dodged the onslaught of mass tourism.

The volcano that forms the greater part of Nisyros last erupted in 1888 but it is one of the most active in the region. Of the island’s six craters, Polivotis is the biggest, measuring 260 m (853 ft) across and reaching a depth of 30 meters (98.5 feet); it steams gently as gases bubble up from underground. Thanks to all this volcanic activity, thermal springs disgorge their sulfurous waters into the sea at several points around Nisyros; visitors flock to the spa at Loutra on the north coast to take advantage of their healing properties, while other hot springs are found at Thermiani and Avlaki.

Nisyros’s main town of Mandraki is tucked into hills on the northwest tip of the island, a charming waterfront sprawl of squat, white-washed houses and taverna-lined piazzas. Inland Byzantine chapels such as the Church of the Panaghia Faneromeni are scattered across the landscape, accessible by way-marked cycling and hiking trails, but the most startling of the island’s cultural remains is the Paliaokastro, high on a hilltop overlooking Mandraki. Dating from the fourth century BC, this was once a mighty acropolis and fort but now little survives except for fragments of the walls constructed out of volcanic basalt, although two towers have been recently remodeled out of rock surrounding the site.

Jutting out into Oslo Fjord, the Bygdøy Peninsula is a one-stop leisure destination just west side of the city center. It is Oslo’s ‘Museum Island’ and hosts several maritime museums as well as the open-air Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (Norsk Folkemuseum).

Highlighting Norway’s colorful cultural history from 1500 to present day, this wonderfully family-friendly museum presents an array of more than 150 buildings brought together from all over the country, each representing different regions and eras and including a reconstructed traditional Sami goahti (tent) and the exquisite, 13th-century wooden stave church from Gol, north of Oslo.

There are several streets of wooden houses from Oslo and its suburbs, as well as a three-story, 19th-century apartment block, rebuilt here to showcase life in the Norway of the last two centuries, from an elegant Art Nouveau interior to a suitably scruffy 1980s student bedsit. Permanent exhibitions include a collection of Sami national costumes from the northern reaches of Lapland, toys and folk art. There’s a full schedule of temporary exhibits and photographic displays, plus folk dancing and horse-and-carriage rides; the museum’s staff are all kitted out in traditional costume and run a farm and saw mill.

The history of the world’s most distinguished awards ceremony is the subject of Stockholm’s ever-evolving Nobel Museum, with fascinating exhibitions chartering some of history’s biggest milestones.  Located in the Old Town of Gamla Stan, the museum opened in 2001 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the prestigious Nobel Prize, which has been awarded to pioneers in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace since 1901.

Visitors can’t help but be inspired by the exhibitions on award recipients and Stockholm-born inventor Alfred Nobel, whose unique vision led to the foundation of the prize, along with multi-media presentations of the Nobel Laureates’ achievements. Gain a deeper insight into famous honorees like Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr and Henri Dunant, then go behind-the-scenes during the candidate selection process and the annual Nobel Banquet held across the water in the Stockholm City Hall each December 10th (the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death). Finally, pay a visit to the on-site cafe and be sure to check the underneath of your chair - Nobel Laureates visiting the museum are asked to sign the bottom of their chairs before leaving, so you might find you’re sat in the seat of one of the greats.

Prague's New Town Hall isn't as new as its name might suggest. It dates back to 1377 after Charles IV founded the New Town, and it served as the seat of municipal government until 1784. At that point, the building was converted into a criminal courthouse and prison. Today the New Town Hall building is a heritage center and is used for exhibitions, social events and weddings. 

Not much remains of the original building from the 1300s, but today you can see additions and renovations from different periods in history. The Gothic tower, which was added in the 15th century, stands at almost 230 feet tall and offers visitors who climb the 221 stairs views of the New Town and Karlovo (Charles) Square. The south wing of the building was designed in a Renaissance style in the 16th century, and if you look closely, you'll notice a chain fixed to the building. This is from a time when the streets in Prague were closed off by chains.