hidden europe 40

In hidden europe 40, we discover a forgotten synagogue in Georgia's Racha province, explore hidden Istria, visit a nature reserve in Sweden and take the pulse of Paris' 15th arrondissement.

We also hop on a ferry that takes us around the Balearic Islands, relax in a ruin in Budapest, capture the spirit of Berlin's Gleisdreieck railway station and recall Thomas Cook's first tour to Switzerland through the diaries of one of Cook's clients - a young woman called Jemima.

Picture above: U-Bahn train leaving Gleisdreieck, Berlin (photo © hidden europe).

Summary

In hidden europe 40, we discover a forgotten synagogue in Georgia's Racha province, explore hidden Istria, visit a nature reserve in Sweden and take the pulse of Paris' 15th arrondissement.

We also hop on a ferry that takes us around the Balearic Islands, relax in a ruin in Budapest, capture the spirit of Berlin's Gleisdreieck railway station and recall Thomas Cook's first tour to Switzerland through the diaries of one of Cook's clients - a young woman called Jemima.

Hidden Istria

Istria may be defined by its coastline, but the hinterland warrants a visit too. Rudolf Abraham, co-author of the new Bradt Guide to Istria, invites us to join him in a search for mediaeval frescoes, truffles and an enigmatic pillar of shame. Along the way we discover the many languages of Istria.

The lost kingdom

A 1924 essay by Joseph Roth on an unsung railway station in Berlin fired our imagination and inspired us to take the train to Gleisdreieck - an elevated station that in Roth's day looked down on a tangled maze of railway lines and sidings. Nowadays, nature is reclaiming the industrial landscapes of yesteryear.

Miss Jemima’s Swiss journal

In 1863, Jemima Morrell participated in the first ever escorted tour of the Alps organised by Cook. Her diary of that journey is a remarkable piece of writing - one that slices through Victorian formality. The story of what happened to that diary is as intriguing as the journey described within its pages.

New ports for the Far North

The harbour front at Kirkenes could be transformed if the Norwegian port became a major transit point for freight to and from Russia. The key to this happening is getting Russian-gauge railway tracks to Kirkenes. But other ports in northern Norway are also developing similar plans. We look at the politics of laying tracks across frontiers.

The Caucasus dimension

Georgians have high hopes for the Lithuanian Presidency of the European Union - a six-month term that started this month. Georgia, like Lithuania, slipped out of the Soviet Union in 1991. The hopes in Tbilisi are that Lithania will open European doors for other ex-Soviet states.

Hitting the buffers

Does the European Rail Timetable, published by Thomas Cook since 1873, have a future with a new publisher? Plans are afoot for the relaunch of a book that has defined horizons for generations of travellers.