The resort of Oostkapelle is on the peaceful northwest coast of Walcheren, once an island that became a peninsula with the construction of the Oosterscheldekering dam in 1986. Middelburg, the capital of Zeeland is only ten kilometres to the south, and in the 17th and 18th century its wealthy citizens founded country estates near the …
Couched in a sprawling urban area in Pinellas County, this town of 5,000 shares a boundary with St. Petersburg. Kenneth City is purely residential, apart from a commercial area along SR 693. There’s no doubt that the location is a big asset, with St. Petersburg’s super cultural attractions a few minutes away. Some of my …
Set on a barrier island next to Boca Ciega Bay, Treasure Island is part of Pinellas County’s Gulf Beaches. The island has three unbroken miles of some of the loveliest beaches I’ve ever laid eyes on. These have Gulf Coast’s classic soft white, sands, with glistening emerald waters. The main beach in Treasure Island is …
Part of the Gulf Beaches, St. Pete Beach is a sublime coastal escape on a barrier island. The city was incorporated in the 1950s and is actually made up of two former towns on Long Key. That means you have two lively downtown areas to check out, with restaurants, shops, markets and annual festivals. Still, …
The seat of Hardee County is a quaint small town surrounded by pastoral farmland. Flowing by, just east of Wauchula is the scenic Peace River. This might be my favorite river in Florida, with grand bald cypresses on its banks and limestone bluffs, almost never seen in the Sunshine State. These are packed with fossils …
In a wide-open polder landscape, Damme is a historic fortified town that grew up in Medieval times as a trading outpost for nearby Bruges. Under Napoleon a big strip of the town was demolished to make way for the Damse Vaart, a canal that was to be one piece of an ambitious but unrealised network …
This beautiful and historic city, often named among America’s best small towns, was built around a unique almost perfectly circular spring-fed lake. DeFuniak Springs was developed in the 1880s as a resort for the Chautauqua movement, which burgeoned in rural America at the turn of the 20th century. The original resort is in a wonderful …
This laid-back city is a few miles in from the Atlantic shore in Indian River County. For me Fellsmere embodies the best of both the coast and the inland rural lifestyle in the swamps. Head west and there are freshwater lakes, marsh, and cypress domes, all bursting with wildlife. A few minutes east of Fellsmere …
Up to 1963 this city in Hainaut was part of West Flanders, but switched to Wallonia because of its large francophone population. It’s no exaggeration to say that Mouscron is at a crossroads, as close as can be to the French border and Belgium’s own internal boundary. The city’s main square, a stage for the …
For hundreds of years up to the 1950s Verviers was an international byword for high-quality fabrics like woollen cloth. The riches generated by this industry can be seen in the palatial city hall, the Neoclassical mill complex housing the city’s textile museum, the Grand-Théâtre opera house and the startling collections at Verviers’ fine arts museum. …