Although London does have a Thames River, a Covent Garden Market and a Piccadilly Street, don’t mistaken it with London, England. Instead, this London is a substantially smaller city in Southwestern Ontario that is surrounded by woodlands and farmlands. In fact, it is known as ‘The Forest City’ because when it was first formed it …
A well-to-do western suburb of Paris, Courbevoie is in touch with the centre of the city, but has an easy, residential feel. There are some understated museums to check out, housed in pavilions that were made for the Exposition Universelle in 1878. Courbevoie also contains some of La Défense, the city’s modern banking district, so …
Just shy of the Belgian border in the Nord department, Valenciennes is a city noted for culture and creativity, which gave it the nickname, “Athens of the North”. For hundreds of years this relatively small place churned out painters, sculptors and architects who helped shape French culture forever. You can sample the works of figures …
Mostly known as a ferry port, Cherbourg-Octeville has a lot more strings to its bow: The Cité de la Mer museum for example will take you back to the golden age of transatlantic travel and is housed in a cavernous Art Deco ocean liner terminal. Cherbourg also has the largest man-made harbour in the world, …
In a picture-book scene of hills with a light mantle of cork oak trees sits Montemor-o-Novo. It’s an unpretentious town In the middle of the Alentejo countryside, and has a few heavyweight sights to circle on your map. Alentejo is strewn with prehistoric monuments, and there are 12 in this municipality alone. One dolmen was …
On the southern hills of the Serra de Candeeiros range, Rio Maior is a town known for a strange natural phenomenon that occurs close by. These are salt flats, much further from the ocean than you’d ever expect to find them, and exploited by locals since the 12th century. The natural park should figure in …
On the coast between Aveiro and Porto, Esmoriz is a resort that is beginning to make a name for itself. Surfers are already coming round, as the town’s main beach has reliable beach breaks good for novices as well as old hands. There are surf camps where you can pass a whole week perfecting you …
Amarante is a dreamy town in upland countryside in the North of Portugal. To the east looms the vast mass of the Serra do Marão, while the Tâmega Valley is lined with high hills with a mantle of woodland. The postcard image in Amarante is the São Gonçalo bridge on the Tâmega beside the Renaissance …
One of the fastest growing cities in Canada, Vaughan is just north of Toronto, and although it is a suburb of the large city, it is a city in its own right. Vaughan has a long history that dates back to 1792, but it wasn’t until its massive expansion after 1991 that put the city …
In the Porto District, Paredes is a town and municipality on the edge of the Sousa River Valley. It’s a picturesque rural corner of northern Portugal, with vine-covered hills, and farms growing succulent casca de carvalho melons. Cutting through this region is the Romanesque Route, so there are some atmospheric monuments from the medieval period: …