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Zermatt, Switzerland
Another few hours and multiple trains lead to the town of Zermatt, less than ten miles from the Italian border and the Matterhorn that lies along it. The village seemingly wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the draw of the surrounding mountains. Everything is geared toward tourism, with clearly more hotel rooms than residences, and…
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Grindelwald, Switzerland
This mountain village lies around three hours by rail to the southwest of Zürich. It’s reportedly quite popular with hikers and sightseers in the summertime, as well as with skiers in the winter, but in autumn, virtually everything shuts down. A 25-minute gondola ride to the Grindelwald First station puts visitors in the best location…
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Antwerp to Lier and Back
Having explored the center of Antwerp on the prior days, it was time to leave the city. Lier was in the overlap between nearby places flagged for a possible visit and those recommended by a native of Antwerp who was working the hotel desk the night before. With a population of just thirty-five thousand, Lier…
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Antwerp: First Look
As the only city occupying four nights on an otherwise fast-paced agenda, there’s simply too much to share in a single post about Antwerp. Instead, it makes more sense to give a day-by-day account. That will likely mean seeing some of the same locations photographed on different days, but changing weather and the lighting at…
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Kinderdijk
Land, and fertile land in particular, is a scarce resource. While territory grabs have resulted in countless conflicts throughout history, the Dutch have been at war with water for centuries for their land. At least 17% of the country was once underwater, and that number is still growing in a time of rising sea levels.…
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Rotterdam
In a word, this unusual Dutch city is impressive. Why unusual? That requires a bit of historical explanation.. On the western border of Germany was a terrible place to be going into WW2. Hitler wanted a swift victory over the Netherlands, but progress westward was slow to non-existent. A German general sent a letter to…
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Dinant, Belgium
There’s a shocking amount of traffic passing through Dinant, but it’s otherwise a sleepy town of less than fifteen thousand residents. Whether due to it being a weekday in the off-season, or because of COVID, many local shops were closed. The main attractions are one of the best photo opportunities on the Meuse (Maas in…
