Travel stories, quotes and fun facts

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.

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.

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.

The journey is the reward

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.

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.

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.

Luxembourg made transport free

In 2020 Luxembourg became the first country to make all public transport free nationwide, buses, trams and trains included.

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.

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.

To move, to breathe

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to gain all while you give, to roam the roads of lands remote.

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.

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.

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.

Travel makes one modest

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No one realises how beautiful

No one realises how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old familiar pillow.

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.

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.

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.

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.