TRAVEL EUROPE Ask our Europe Specialists about these 'best' things to do in Europe this year! 10
things to do this year 1 Sample the new professional hospitality of the old nobility at their Country Castles. Be surprised at the value and at how the local lords and ladies enjoy meeting new people, especially when they are helping to pay for the roof. A good Web site is www.chateauxandcountry.com. 2
Sample the new opulence of Grand Hotel living. In Paris,
the Meurice reopened. Said to be "bent on stealing the already pampered clientele of
The Ritz, The Bristol, and the Plaza Athenee". The Web site for the Hotel Meurice is www.meuricehotel.com. 3 Visit Barcelona, with more of a buzz than Madrid; Milan, with more current cultural life than in Rome; Marseille and Rennes, that have made Parisians stop scorning the provincials; Antwerp, as creatively busy as Brussels and Poland's, Wroclaw, a revived inner city that doesn't envy Warsaw; with its Guggenheim, Bilbao. 4 Now is good time to Buy a Piece of Real Estate. It's still underpriced compared with U.S. equivalents. A town house in Brussels costs the same as a Manhattan studio and a castle in France is the price of a suburban house in many U.S. cities. Maintenance and taxes are lower, too. 5 If you're doing Great Britain and the Continent and take the Eurostar, Second Class is as comfortable as business class on a plane and you can go from Paris to London round-trip for less than $100, if you choose your days right. 6 Visit Berlin for all the energy of local young life in the Prenzlauer Quarter. See for yourself why it has been said that "Berlin is becoming the inner hub of what Germans hope will be Europe's fusion culture, linking East to West". 7 See the restored facade of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The Eni oil company did a photogrammetric survey with chemical and physical analysis, then geo-radar techniques to determine the health of the stone which checked and certified the subsequent stucco laid on in 50.000 separate applications. 8 Try the New Wines. Tokay is a noble wine again; the exquisite Eszencia, aromatic, rich as a sauterne, yet with a final bite; France's Lague doc region, noted until now, for gros rouge is making excellent reds and all that tastes wonderful from the Douro region these days is not just good old port - try the Quinta do Cotto red. 9 Hear the New Music, drawn from all over the world - in particular, Latin America and North, West and Central Africa - the cultural baggage of the immigrants who embody the new cosmopolitanism. Paris is the best place. Get "Nova", the most connected magazine, to find out what's on where and when, while you're in town. 10 See an Epic Folly - Paris's National Library, the last grand project of President Mitterand. Allegedly modernist "functional" architecture which is, in fact, dysfunctional. Books are piled high in glass towers sheltered from the sun (as an afterthought, by blinds) and scholars sit below ground in artificial light! |
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