Fun fact#1
Iceland has no mosquitoes
Iceland is one of the only inhabited places on Earth with no native mosquito population. The island's freeze-thaw cycles interrupt the insect's life cycle before it can complete.
Europe: 185 stories, quotes and facts
Alpine tunnels, Atlantic cliffs, medieval squares and night trains that smell of oranges.
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Alpine tunnels, Atlantic cliffs, medieval squares and night trains that smell of oranges.
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Story#2
The barman who kept the light on
Our flight was cancelled and every hotel in Reykjavik was full. A barman closing up at two in the morning heard us arguing with an app, shrugged, and let us sleep in the back room on beer crates. He refused money and asked only that we leave the key under the mat.
Fun fact#4
Reykjavik runs on hot rocks
Nearly every home in Reykjavik is heated by geothermal water pumped from volcanic bedrock, which is why the tap water smells faintly of sulphur but the air stays remarkably clean.
Quote#343
Ithaka gave you the journey
Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey. Without her you would not have set out.
Fun fact#5
Norway invented the cheese slicer
The cheese slicer was patented in 1925 by Thor Bjorklund, a furniture maker from Lillehammer who adapted a carpenter's plane to slice brown cheese thinly.
Story#6
A ferry that would not wait
We missed the last ferry by ninety seconds and watched it pull away in flat grey light. Then a fisherman untied his boat, said one word we did not understand, and pointed at the bow. He dropped us on the island an hour later and vanished before we could thank him.
Fun fact#7
The world's longest road tunnel
The Laerdal Tunnel runs 24.5 kilometres under Norwegian mountains and is lit with blue and yellow caverns every six kilometres to keep drivers alert.
Quote#348
Keep Ithaka always in your mind
Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you're destined for.
Story#9
Sauna diplomacy
Nobody in the lakeside sauna spoke English and we spoke no Finnish. For forty minutes we sat in silence, then somebody handed round a bucket of ice and everyone laughed at the same time. It turned out we had been arguing about football using only eyebrows.
Fun fact#10
Sweden recycles almost everything
Sweden recycles or recovers energy from the vast majority of its household waste, and for years it imported rubbish from neighbouring countries to keep its plants running.
Fun fact#11
Finland has more saunas than cars
With roughly three million saunas for 5.5 million people, Finland has more steam rooms than automobiles, including one inside the parliament building.
Story#12
The cyclist's rule
I stopped in the wrong lane and a woman in a suit rang her bell without slowing. Then she circled back, explained the hand signals, and rode beside me for six blocks until I got it right. She was late for something and never mentioned it.
Fun fact#14
Denmark's flag is the oldest
The Dannebrog has been in continuous use since the 14th century, making it the oldest national flag still flown by an independent state.
Quote#354
Ask that the way be long
Hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery.
Fun fact#15
Copenhagen counts bikes, not cars
More bicycles than cars cross central Copenhagen every day, and the city installed traffic lights timed to a cyclist's pace of about 20 km/h.
Story#16
Bread at midnight
A bakery window in Kazimierz opened at midnight and sold the first loaves straight from the oven. There was no sign and no menu, just a queue of taxi drivers and one traveller who had followed the smell for four streets.
Fun fact#17
Estonia declared internet a right
Estonia treats internet access as a social right, runs almost all public services online, and lets citizens vote in national elections from a laptop.
Story#20
The clock that stopped for us
We arrived at the astronomical clock two minutes before the hour and found the square full. A boy on his father's shoulders counted down out loud in Czech, and a hundred strangers joined in without agreeing to.
Fun fact#19
Latvia's forests keep growing
More than half of Latvia is covered in forest, and the total forested area has been expanding for decades as farmland returns to woodland.
Quote#633
Wanderlust
Wanderlust: a strong desire to travel, from the German for a lust to wander.
Fun fact#21
Lithuania has a hill of crosses
The Hill of Crosses near Siauliai holds well over 100,000 crosses left by pilgrims. Soviet authorities bulldozed it repeatedly; locals rebuilt it every time.
Story#22
Chess in the steam
Two men played chess in the hot pool at Szechenyi as if the water were an office. When I sat down to watch, one of them turned the board a quarter turn and pointed at a piece. I lost in eleven moves and stayed for three more games.
Fun fact#23
Poland's forest of bent pines
In the Crooked Forest near Gryfino, some 400 pine trees all bend sharply north at the base. Nobody has ever proved why.
Fun fact#25
Krakow's bugle call stops mid-note
A trumpeter plays the Hejnal from St Mary's tower every hour, cutting off abruptly to commemorate a medieval bugler said to have been shot mid-warning.
Story#26
The wrong train, the right valley
We boarded the wrong regional train and only realised at the fourth stop. The valley it climbed into had a glacier at the end of it and a hut selling apricot dumplings. We told everyone afterwards that we had planned it.
Quote#637
Fernweh
Fernweh: a longing for far-off places, the opposite of homesickness.
Fun fact#27
Czech beer beats water
Czechs drink more beer per person than any other nation, and the pilsner style itself was born in the Bohemian town of Plzen in 1842.
Fun fact#29
Prague's astronomical clock still works
The Orloj has been keeping time since 1410, making it the oldest astronomical clock still operating, complete with a parade of apostles on the hour.
Story#30
A conductor's mercy
My ticket was for the wrong day. The conductor examined it for a long moment, looked at the rain outside, punched it anyway, and moved on down the carriage without saying a word.
Fun fact#31
Slovakia has the most castles per person
Slovakia counts more than 100 castles and hundreds of manor houses across a country smaller than Denmark, giving it one of the highest castle densities on Earth.
Quote#643
Resfeber
Resfeber: the restless race of a traveller's heart before the journey begins.
Story#32
The autobahn lesson
A car passed us so fast the mirrors shook. Our host later explained the unwritten rule: the left lane is not a place to live, it is a place to visit. We drove more politely for the rest of the trip.
Fun fact#33
Hungary's thermal underground
Budapest sits on more than 100 thermal springs, feeding grand bathhouses where locals play chess in steaming water in the middle of winter.
Fun fact#35
Austria's ice cave is the biggest
Eisriesenwelt near Werfen stretches 42 kilometres into the Alps and is the largest ice cave in the world, lit only by carbide lamps carried by visitors.
Story#36
Canal house arithmetic
The staircase in our rental was steeper than a ladder. The landlord explained that houses were taxed on width, so everything went up instead of out, and furniture still arrives through the windows on a hoist.
Fun fact#37
Vienna's tap water rides the mountains
Vienna's drinking water arrives by gravity alone through pipelines from Alpine springs more than 100 kilometres away, no pumping required.
Quote#653
Hygge on the road
Hygge: the warmth of a small, well-lit room while the weather outside does its worst.
Fun fact#39
Switzerland has bunkers everywhere
Swiss law long required fallout shelters in new buildings, leaving the country with enough bunker space for its entire population, now often used as wine cellars and hostels.
Story#40
Waffles and rain
It rained for four days without pause. On the fifth we gave up on sightseeing, sat in a cafe for six hours with two waffles and a notebook, and had the best day of the trip.
Fun fact#41
The Matterhorn's shadow is famous
The Matterhorn is so recognisable that its silhouette became the model for the Toblerone chocolate bar, made in Bern since 1908.
Story#44
The last metro home
At 00:58 the platform at Chatelet was full of people all pretending not to run. When the train came, a busker got on with an accordion and played the same song for four stops while nobody looked up and everybody listened.
Fun fact#43
Liechtenstein can be rented
The entire principality of Liechtenstein was once offered for rent for corporate events, complete with temporary street signs and a night in the village.
Quote#658
Dolce far niente
Dolce far niente: the sweetness of doing nothing, best practised on a terrace after lunch.
Fun fact#45
Germany has no autobahn speed limit
About half of Germany's autobahn network has no general speed limit, though an advisory 130 km/h applies and trucks are strictly capped.
Story#46
A market that closed at noon
We arrived at half past eleven and thought we had time. The stallholders were already packing. One olive seller pressed a bag into my hands, refused payment, and said the word for tomorrow twice, pointing at his watch.
Fun fact#47
Berlin has more bridges than Venice
Berlin's rivers and canals are crossed by more than 900 bridges, comfortably outnumbering those in Venice.
Fun fact#49
The Netherlands is mostly reclaimed
Roughly a quarter of the Netherlands lies below sea level, and much of the province of Flevoland was seabed until the 20th century.
Quote#663
Sobremesa
Sobremesa: the conversation that keeps you at the table long after the food is gone.
Story#50
The night bus to Lisbon
The bus smelled of oranges because the man behind me had a crate of them. He offered one to every passenger who woke up. By dawn the whole bus smelled like a grove and nobody had slept.
Fun fact#51
Amsterdam floats on wooden poles
The old centre of Amsterdam rests on millions of wooden piles driven into sand, including the 13,000 that hold up the Royal Palace.
Fun fact#53
Belgium prints comic murals
Brussels has painted more than fifty giant comic-strip murals across the city, turning blank walls into a free open-air museum of Belgian cartooning.
Story#54
Tram 28 at seven in the morning
Everyone says tram 28 is unbearable. At seven in the morning it is a commuter service full of people going to work, the windows are cold, and you can hear the wheels complain on every corner.
Fun fact#55
Luxembourg made transport free
In 2020 Luxembourg became the first country to make all public transport free nationwide, buses, trams and trains included.
Quote#668
Saudade
Saudade: the presence of an absence, a longing for something that may never return.
Story#56
Pouring cider from a height
The waiter held the bottle above his head and the glass at his hip and poured without looking. He gave me the bottle to try. I hit my own shoe, and he refilled my glass without comment.
Fun fact#57
France has the most time zones
Thanks to overseas territories from Polynesia to the Caribbean, France spans twelve time zones, more than any other country.
Fun fact#59
Paris hides an entire ossuary
Beneath Paris lie some 300 kilometres of quarry tunnels, part of which hold the bones of about six million people moved from overflowing cemeteries.
Story#60
Twelve o'clock in the plaza
At noon in August the plaza emptied so completely that pigeons walked down the middle of the street. By eight in the evening the same square held four hundred people and a brass band.
Fun fact#61
Mont Blanc's height changes
Surveyors remeasure Mont Blanc every two years because its ice cap gains and loses metres, so the official summit height keeps shifting.
Quote#688
Meraki
Meraki: doing something with soul, creativity and love, leaving a piece of yourself in the work.
Fun fact#63
Spain siestas less than you think
The long midday break is mostly a rural and small-town tradition now; most Spanish office workers take a short lunch and finish late instead.
Story#64
Coffee standing up
A coffee at the bar cost one euro and took ninety seconds. Sitting at the table cost three times as much. The barman explained this as if it were a law of physics.
Fun fact#65
Barcelona's cathedral is still unfinished
The Sagrada Familia has been under construction since 1882, funded almost entirely by donations and ticket sales rather than public money.
Quote#748
Lagom
Lagom: not too little, not too much. Just the right amount, including in your backpack.
Fun fact#67
Spain has a tomato street fight
Every August the town of Bunol throws about 150 tonnes of overripe tomatoes in La Tomatina, followed by a hose-down of the whole main street.
Story#66
The alley that ended in water
We followed a map for eleven minutes and arrived at a wall of canal with no bridge. A woman leaning out of a window above us laughed, pointed backwards, and held up four fingers. Four turns later we were at the restaurant.
Fun fact#69
Portugal's oldest bookshop
Bertrand in Lisbon's Chiado district has been selling books since 1732 and holds the record as the oldest bookshop still trading.
Story#70
Snow in the ruins
It snowed in Rome for two hours one February morning. The Forum went white, every phone in the city came out at once, and by lunchtime it was gone as if the city had imagined it.
Fun fact#71
Porto gave port its name
Port wine takes its name from the city, though the grapes grow upriver in the terraced Douro Valley, the world's oldest demarcated wine region.
Quote#753
Sisu
Sisu: stubborn determination in the face of hardship, especially cold and dark.
Fun fact#72
Italy has the most heritage sites
Italy holds more UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country, ranging from Roman ruins to entire mountain villages.
Story#74
The shepherd's shortcut
The gorge trail was closed and we sat at the gate feeling defeated. A shepherd walked past with eleven goats, looked at our boots, and gestured for us to follow. His shortcut took two hours and involved no path at all.
Fun fact#75
Rome throws coins by the tonne
Around a million euros in coins is fished out of the Trevi Fountain each year and donated to charity.
Fun fact#76
Venice is built on a forest
Venice stands on millions of alder logs driven into the lagoon mud. Starved of oxygen, the wood petrified instead of rotting.
Story#77
Ferry deck at dawn
We slept on the deck under jackets because the cabins were sold out. At four in the morning the engines changed pitch and everyone woke to see an island appear out of the dark, one white line at a time.
Quote#758
Friluftsliv
Friluftsliv: open-air living, the belief that being outdoors is a fundamental part of being well.
Fun fact#79
Pompeii is still being dug
After more than 250 years of excavation, roughly a third of Pompeii remains buried, deliberately left for future archaeologists with better tools.
Story#80
The border that moved
The bus stopped at a checkpoint that did not appear on any map we had. It took two hours, three stamps and one shared cigarette between drivers before we crossed into a country whose name had changed twice in thirty years.
Fun fact#81
San Marino is the oldest republic
San Marino claims a continuous republican government since the year 301, making it the world's oldest surviving sovereign republic.
Fun fact#82
Vatican City fits in a park
At 0.49 square kilometres, the Vatican is smaller than many city parks, yet it has its own post office, pharmacy and railway station.
Story#84
Coffee with the mayor
We asked for directions and were invited for coffee. Halfway through, someone mentioned our host had been mayor for eight years. He was more interested in explaining lake trout than politics.
Quote#763
Allemansratten
Allemansratten: the right to roam. In Sweden the countryside belongs to everyone who respects it.
Fun fact#85
Malta drives on the left
Malta kept left-hand driving from its British era, one of only a handful of European countries to do so alongside Ireland and Cyprus.
Fun fact#86
Greece has thousands of islands
Greece has around 6,000 islands and islets, but only about 200 of them are inhabited.
Story#87
The bridge divers
A young man stood on the parapet for eleven minutes collecting coins before he jumped. Someone in the crowd explained that he would not go until the collection reached a certain amount, and that this had been the rule for centuries.
Fun fact#89
Santorini's colours are volcanic
Santorini's red, black and white beaches come from a single enormous eruption around 1600 BC that blew the island's centre into the sea.
Quote#769
Gezellig
Gezellig: cosy, convivial, the feeling of a Dutch cafe on a rainy afternoon.
Fun fact#90
Athens invented the marathon
The marathon distance commemorates a messenger's run from the plain of Marathon to Athens, and the modern race was revived at the 1896 Olympics.
Story#91
Sarajevo roses
There are scars in the pavement where shells landed, filled with red resin. Nobody points them out. You simply notice one, then another, then you walk more slowly for the rest of the afternoon.
Fun fact#92
Croatia's coast counts 1,200 islands
The Croatian Adriatic includes over 1,200 islands, islets and reefs, though fewer than fifty have permanent residents.
Story#94
A wedding we were not invited to
The road was blocked by a wedding procession. We waited, and then someone knocked on the car window with two glasses of plum brandy and would not take no. We arrived at our guesthouse three hours late and extremely happy.
Fun fact#95
Dubrovnik's walls survived everything
The city walls of Dubrovnik run two kilometres around the old town and were never breached by an invading army in their long history.
Quote#773
Craic
Craic: good conversation, good company and good fun, usually in that order.
Fun fact#96
Slovenia is half forest
More than 58 percent of Slovenia is forested, and brown bears still roam within an hour's drive of the capital.
Story#97
The cellar with street signs
The wine cellars had road names painted on the tunnel walls: Cabernet Street, Feteasca Avenue. Our guide drove an electric buggy and took corners like a taxi driver.
Fun fact#99
Bled's island has a wishing bell
On Lake Bled's only island, visitors climb 99 steps to ring a church bell said to grant a wish to anyone who rings it properly.
Story#101
A night train to nowhere useful
The compartment had four bunks and five people, and the fifth was fine with the floor. Tea arrived in glasses with metal holders at six in the morning whether you were awake or not.
Fun fact#100
Bosnia rebuilt its famous bridge
The Stari Most in Mostar was destroyed in 1993 and rebuilt stone by stone using original techniques, reopening in 2004.
Quote#779
Slainte
Slainte: to your health, the only Gaelic word you truly need in a pub.
Fun fact#102
Montenegro means black mountain
The country's name refers to the dark pine forests of Mount Lovcen, which appear almost black from the coast.
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Propose your travel story
The missed ferry. The stranger who handed over a key. The meal that ran until midnight. If something happened to you on the road and you still think about it, send it - a few sentences is plenty, and we do the tidying up.