Watching this final issue of hidden europe magazine go to press is a bittersweet moment for us. We are immensely proud of what has been achieved over two decades, but it is now time for us to move on. We pen this editorial in a café by the quayside in the Baltic port of Stralsund. The ferry to the island of Hiddensee is casting off, making a journey to Kloster with a couple of stops along the way.
In this 69th issue of hidden europe we look, possibly more than in any preceding issue, to our coastlines and inshore waters for inspiration. We visit islands off Croatian and Scottish coasts, take boat trips through Greek and Norwegian waters, stand at the point where the Skagerrak meets the Kattegat and explore Germany's Wadden Sea.
In this new issue of the magazine we present articles with a focus on Sweden, France, Greece, Spain and Malta. We have a number of thematic pieces too, taking inspiration in part from rail travel which is experiencing such a welcome renaissance in many parts of Europe just now.
In hidden europe 67, we go mountain hiking in Croatia's Kvarner region, ponder the relationship between mining and cultural heritage, take to the rails in Germany with a wonderful slow travel deal and discover a former Catholic seminary in the Braes of Glenlivet. We also visit both Hoek van Holland and Harwich and make tracks for an unsung delta on the Adriatic.
In hidden europe 66 we explore the Drin Valley in Albania, the Vipava Valley in Slovenia, reflect on sustainable tourism and check out the boats in Port Grimaud. We also celebrate a special anniversary with a an article on fifty years of Interrail.
In issue 65 of hidden europe magazine, we roam from Scotland through France and Germany to Vienna and beyond. We have whisky and cheese, thoughts on cross-border rail services, a remarkable report on the world’s first hybrid cars and disturbing news about bees in Arctic Russia.
Staying close to base brings its own rewards. This is the first time since the inception of the magazine (16 years ago) that we have ever carried a full feature on that rural area, just south of Berlin, which we count as our home region. All three of our guest contributors in this issue similarly write on communities and landscapes with which they have had a long engagement.
Is there not a measure of absurdity in all our lives today? We have discovered that it’s hardly possible to plan anything. And yet there is a certain liberation in simply not trying to plan, in just receiving with simplicity all that might come our way. This may of course be the secret of enjoying travel, as and when the day comes when we can start exploring Europe again.
We do rather like an amble, even sometimes a ramble, but when we are in rural regions we do also quite like to vegetate, and the current pandemic has certainly allowed us many opportunities to do just that. And thus maybe unsurprisingly, there is a walking theme to this issue of hidden europe. Enjoy the read.
Coronavirus seemed merely a distant threat as the last issue of hidden europe went to press on 28 February. We then spent the early part of March in Luxembourg and Switzerland, making tracks for Berlin just as much of Europe shut down due to Coronavirus. Life suddenly became quieter. We all had time to think.
We are writing this editorial in Luxembourg, a diminutive Grand Duchy where there is seemingly limitless choice. Three other countries are within a half-hour drive of the capital and thanks to the splendid Schengen Agreement there is absolute freedom of mobility across those borders. Luxembourg gets a mention in the pages that follow, of course, but we also invite you to join us as we visit Scotland, Malta, Austria, Ukraine and Lithuania.
If good writing makes the reader think, even if she or he might wholly disagree with the authorial view, then a fine purpose is well served. So see what you make of our words in this new issue of hidden europe where the dominant theme is place and identity.
Our abiding interest in hidden europe is in places and landscapes, and in the manner in which they shape the human experience. And issue no. 57 brings a hefty dose of these themes. Enjoy the read!
Welcome to hidden europe 51, published in March 2017, with articles on Jewish Warsaw, filigree crafting in Kosovo, calvaries in Brittany, Butrint in Albania and much more.
Welcome to hidden europe 50. We live and work in a city where foreign nationals make an immense contribution to the local economy, to society and to the arts. Berlin is in that respect very typical of many places in Europe. In hidden europe, we celebrate the diversity of our home continent.
Welcome to the 49th issue of hidden europe magazine. In this issue we visit the Ukrainian town of Odessa, explore western Serbia, witness the vanishing art of cowbell crafting in Portugal's Alentejo region and attend the matanza in the Spanish village of Secastilla. All that and much more besides.
Welcome to the 47th issue of hidden europe magazine. In this issue we visit Geneva, explore villages in Transylvania, take the train from Zagreb to Sarajevo and take a look at the Berlin suburb of Marienfelde. All that and much more besides.
Welcome to issue 46 of hidden europe travel magazine. In this issue we walk through Lisbon and take the ferry to Iceland's Vestmannaeyjar. We also explore the Suffulk coast of England and visit the Danube wetlands and the Scottish Cairngorms.
Welcome to the forty-fifth issue of hidden europe travel magazine. In this issue we reach out to the extremities of the Schengen area, roaming from the south of Italy to the north of Norway. We venture west to Brittany and east to Lithuania.
Welcome to the forty-fourth issue of hidden europe travel magazine. Enjoy articles from the Barents Sea to the coast of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.
Welcome to hidden europe 43. “Do not rush on your journey,” implores Cavafy. That’s a lesson we have taken to heart in hidden europe. We skip the fast train and avoid main highways, instead favouring the slow train and meandering back lanes. It is a way of handling journeys, but it’s also a way of handling life. This issue of hidden europe reveals the fruits of lingering.
Welcome to hidden europe 42. More than half a century after his death, Robert Schuman still makes good reading. His work in the early 1950s to create “a gathering of European nations” was rooted in ideals for a Europe that wanted to look to the future rather than the past. The ideals which Schuman valued were freedom, equality, solidarity and peace.
Welcome to hidden europe 41, in which we sweep from Wales to Croatia, from southern Spain to eastern Germany. It is a Europe that is a wondrous place, a place with real and imagined territories.
Welcome to hidden europe 40, in which we sweep from Georgia to Sweden, from Istria to the French capital and explore Norway's Arctic ports, Britain's rarest bus and the pleasures of Berlin's Gleisdreieck station.
Welcome to hidden europe 39, in which we sweep from the Pyrenees to the Tatra Mountains, from Rannoch Moor in Scotland to Russia's Arctic outpost of Franz Josef Land. Ghosts of Habsburg days haunt the pages of hidden europe 39. [full text available online]
Welcome to hidden europe 38, where journeys of the imagination feature aplenty.
Our journeys during the first half of 2012 have taken us to a dozen European countries. Sometimes alone, but more often together, we have travelled these past months by train, bus and boat from Calais to Cádiz.
Welcome to hidden europe 36, an issue full of Anglo-French connections and Baltic moments.
Welcome to hidden europe 35, an issue full of slow travel moments and northern flavours.
Europe specialises in stories, and there are as many different tales of Europe as there are citizens of our continent. We look at some of those stories in this latest issue of hidden europe magazine.
Borders always make us think about who we are and what might lie on the other side of the frontier. To paraphrase Fernand Braudel, when we slip over the border, we change. We are suddenly foreigners. And that's a theme we play with in several articles in this issue of hidden europe.
The Europe of the imagination is an intriguing continent, one which we explore a little in this issue of hidden europe as we envisage a Switzerland without the Alps and try to unravel quite why it is that Berlin is well beyond the comfort zone of many who have been brought up and live in Germany's western Bundesländer. We also ponder the demise of the Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable and explore communities along some of Europe's great rivers: the Sava, the Danube and the Rhine.
In this issue of hidden europe we take the pulse of rural life in the Faroe Islands, join a cattle drove along the canadas in Spain, visit a small community in the Basque country and explore Trieste, that most curiously un-Italian of Italian cities. We also recall the legacy of Georgian-born architect Berthold Lubetkin, take the boat to an island in the Gulf of Bothnia and cross from France into Italy on the trail of Alan Sillitoe.
Welcome to hidden europe 30! In this issue of hidden europe magazine we visit the painted monasteries of Rumania, explore Iceland's eastern fjords, delve into subterranean Budapest, think about rail privatisation and discover York's Quaker community.
Welcome to hidden europe 29! In this issue of hidden europe magazine we take the boat to Iceland, spend a day in the Czech town of Domazlice, travel from Berlin to Budapest by train, visit Crete's Lasithi Plateau and spare a thought for the old Penguin cerise series.
Welcome to hidden europe 28. The issue contains articles on the Belarusian city of Vitebsk, Zagreb's literary ghosts, the Italian port city of Genoa, the Luxembourg village of Schengen and the small French town of Wissembourg.
Welcome to issue no. 27 which contains articles on Liguria's Hanbury Gardens, the Georgian town of Akhaltsikhe, subterranean Vienna, the Sami of the Kola Peninsula, a quest for the elixir of youth and more.
Welcome to hidden europe 4. This issue of hidden europe magazine features articles on the Soca Valley of Slovenia, a Jewish sect in Ukraine, Morecambe Bay, the European spa tradition, the Lough Foyle ferry service and more.
welcome to hidden europe 3 which features articles on Europe's exclaves and enclaves, Estonians in Georgia, Aromanian Vlachs, the Latvian port of Ventspils, La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Swiss Jura and more.
Welcome to hidden europe 6. Join us as we explore the Albanian village of Lin, Sardinia's ethnic diversity, Mount Athos, the Dhle Diely in Bratislava and the Ukrainian Polish border.
Welcome to hidden europe 5, which features Tallinn and rural Estonia, the Polish city of Wroclaw, follows the Tito trail in Belgrade, maps central Europe and visits Father Frost in Russia.
Welcome to hidden europe 7. This issue of hidden europe travel magazine covers articles on Yezidi in Germany, the Teschen area of Austrian Silesia, Novi Pazar in southern Serbia, Europe's highest road and Merida in Spain.
Welcome to hidden europe 8. We feature articles on two villages in Macedonia, Oskar Brüsewitz in Zeitz, the Akropolis Express in Kosovo, the Italian town of Barga, and Portmeirion in Wales.
Welcome to hidden europe 9. This issue explores the Georgian Military Highway, discovers Istria, reports on Adriatic small states, and follows the old postal route of the Aland Islands.
Welcome to hidden europe 11. This issue of hidden europe travel magazine visits Abkhazia on the Caucasus, reports on chess boxing, London's Vauxhall pleasures, the Trakai in Lithuania, Berney Arms railway station and slow travel.
Welcome to hidden europe 10, in which we visit townships in Spitsbergen, Europe's lost synagogues, Prague's African community, coal mines in Lusatia, the island of Sylt and go bagging tripoints.
Welcome to hidden europe 13 in which we explore the Bernina railway in Switzerland, the Banat region of Serbia, churches for travellers, Nagorno Karabakh, the Vojvodina and remote communities in Scotland.
Welcome to hidden europe 12. The issue features articles on Potsdam's hidden history, the hofjes of Haarlem, the Polish port of Frombork, European night trains and communal living in beguinages.
Welcome to hidden europe 15. Join us to explore the Lofoten Islands in Norway, the Svaneti in the high Caucasus range of Georgia, the night train to Narvik and fireworks frenzy in Malta.
Welcome to hidden europe 14. In this issue we visit the border zone around Lake Prespa, Grodna in Belarus, discover the soul of Estonia in Saaremaa and think about festivals and the festivalisation of culture.
Welcome to hidden europe 17. hidden europe magazine visits islands in the Venetian lagoon, takes the road to Abergwesyn, explores European borders in Moresnet, defines literary cartography and travels pilgrim paths in Spain.
Welcome to hidden europe 16, which explores the Polish city of Bydgoszcz, windmills in Andalucia, MS Lofoten boat in northern Norway, the Sorbs of Lusatia and the Narva river region.
Welcome to hidden europe 19. We feature the Polish town of Zamosc, London's Crystal Palace, the island of Gozo, rural Ukraine, la corrida in Spain and more.
Welcome to hidden europe 18. This issue of hidden europe travel magazine covers articles on sworn virgins in Albania, the Vrbas valley Bosnia, the city of London. new lakes in Lusatia and more besides.
Welcome to hidden europe 20. The issue contains articles on the island of Helgoland (Heligoland), England's Pennines, the mountains of Montenegro, South Ossetia, local markets in Hungary Pecs and European charity stamps.
Welcome to hidden europe 21. This issue of the travel magazine features Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, Atarazanas market in Málaga, camps of migrants from Africa in Malta, Moldova, the River Thames and more.
Welcome to hidden europe 22. The issue features the Moselle valley, Velebit mountain on the coast of Croatia, Transdniestr, an article on checking airline routes on the web and more.
Welcome to hidden europe 23. This issue of hidden europe travel magazine contains articles on film history in Golzow, the island of Tresco, Istanbul's western districts, the European Artic and European microstates.
Welcome to hidden europe 24. This issue of hidden europe travel magazine contains articles on Poznan's main square, the city of Angouleme, Allianoi on Turkey's Aegean coast and the search for Franklin's lost expedition.
Welcome to hidden europe 26. This issue of hidden europe travel magazine contains articles on the Croatian village of Jovici, the German spa town Bad Saarow, a village in the Basque Pyrenees and the Danish town of Roskilde.
Welcome to the twenty-fifth issue of hidden europe magazine. We travel from Belgium to Belarus, from Latvia to Spain and from Iceland to Turkey. And we launch our manifesto for slow travel - an agenda for restoring some sanity and even a little quality to European travel.
Welcome to hidden europe! Join us on a journey that in this issue will lead from rural Russia to the Scottish Hebrides, from Poland to Piedmont, and from Lithuania to Albania. hidden europe evokes the spirit of Europe's diverse landscapes, conjures up a sense of place and probes the curiosities of our continent's diverse cultures.
welcome to hidden europe 2. This issue features articles on the Faroe Islands, Ruthenia, Mukaceve, Russyns in eastern Europe, the German town of Görlitz, Spanish Galicia and the Orient Express.