European holidays: Guardian writers share their tips – and you can too | Travel. Le Comptoir Général, Paris A 10-minute walk from the metro stop République, past the trendy young Parisians languishing along canal Saint-Martin, lies Le Comptoir Général. But don't look for it by name. Instead head for 80 quai de Jemmapes, where you'll probably be met by a queue and a tall, friendly Senegalese bouncer. Le Comptoir Général is a lounge bar-cum-gallery-cum-library and cinema that celebrates the creativity of poor African communities and, in a wonderfully chaotic style, curates everything from old barber shop equipment to witchcraft paraphernalia.
The food is excellent. Try the street food platter of fried plantains with fried dough balls and chicken. Wash it down with bissap juice made from hibiscus flowers and popular in Senegal and Mali. • lecomptoirgeneral.com/en, open 11am to 1am most days, drinks from €6Eliza Anyangwe Parc Floral, Paris Hotel Viator, Paris Camping Du Lac Bleu, Lake Annecy Dordogne night markets Lac de Clarens, Casteljaloux Gargano peninsula Opera, Verona. Eindhoven. Dutch Topographic map of Eindhoven (city), March 2014 Eindhoven (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɛi̯nt.ˌɦoː.və(n)] ( Neighbouring cities and towns include Son en Breugel, Nuenen, Geldrop-Mierlo, Heeze-Leende, Waalre, Veldhoven, Eersel, Oirschot and Best. The agglomeration has some 440,000 inhabitants. The metropolitan area (which includes Helmond) has nearly 750,000 inhabitants. Also, Eindhoven is part of Brabant Stad, a combined metropolitan area with more than 2 million inhabitants.
History[edit] The name Eindhoven derives from the contraction of the regional words eind (meaning last or end) and hove (or hoeve; a section of some 14 hectares of land). Around 1388, the city's fortifications were strengthened further. The industrial revolution of the 19th century provided a major growth impulse. Industrialization brought population growth to Eindhoven. In the 2000s decade, Eindhoven emerged as the capital of Dutch industrial design.
Geography[edit] Terrain map of the Eindhoven Region Climate[edit] Bologna. Bologna (Italian pronunciation: [boˈloɲɲa] ( ); Emilian: Bulåggna pronounced [buˈləɲɲa]; Latin: Bononia) is the largest city (and the capital) of Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, located in the heart of a metropolitan area (officially recognized by the Italian government as a città metropolitana) of about one million. The first settlements date back to at least 1000 BC. The city has been an urban centre, first under the Etruscans (Velzna/Felsina) and the Celts (Bona), then under the Romans (Bononia), then again in the Middle Ages, as a free municipality (for one century it was the fifth largest European city based on population). Home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna hosts thousands of students who enrich the social and cultural life of the city. History[edit] Etruscan, Celtic and Roman times[edit] Middle Ages[edit] Porta Maggiore, one of the twelve medieval city gates of Bologna.
Bari. Bari listen (Bari dialect: Bare; Latin: Barium; Ancient Greek: Barion) is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia (or, in Italian, Puglia) region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas. The city itself has a population of about 320,475, as of 2011, over 116 km2, while the fast-growing urban area counts 653,028 inhabitants over 203 km2. The metropolitan area counts 1 million inhabitants. Bari is made up of four different urban sections. Modern residential zones surround the centre of Bari, the result of chaotic development during the 1960s and 1970s replacing the old suburbs that had developed along roads splaying outwards from gates in the city walls.
History[edit] Ancient[edit] Middle Ages[edit] In 1071, Bari was captured by Robert Guiscard, following a three-year siege. Early modern period[edit] St. Turin. Turin (Italian: Torino, pronounced [toˈriːno] ( Much of the city's public squares, castles, gardens and elegant palazzi such as Palazzo Madama, were built in the 16th and 18th century, after the capital of the Duchy of Savoy (later Kingdom of Sardinia) was moved to Turin from Chambery (nowadays France) as part of the urban expansion. Turin is sometimes called the "cradle of Italian liberty", for having been the birthplace and home of notable politicians and people who contributed to the Risorgimento, such as Cavour.[3] The city currently hosts some of Italy's best universities, colleges, academies, lycea and gymnasia, such as the six-century-old University of Turin and the Turin Polytechnic.
Prestigious and important museums, such as the Museo Egizio[4] and the Mole Antonelliana are also found in the city. Turin's several monuments and sights make it one of the world's top 250 tourist destinations, and the tenth most visited city in Italy in 2008.[5] History[edit] Ancient origins[edit] Venice. Venice seen from ship Photography of Venice at dusk Venice view from the Bridge Foscari, to the Bridge Santa Margherita. Venice (English /ˈvɛnɪs/; Italian: Venezia [veˈnɛttsia] ( )[1] alternative obsolete form: Vinegia; Venetian: Venexia [veˈnɛsja]; Latin: Venetia; Slovene: Benetke) is a city in northeastern Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges.[2] It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers.
Venice is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks.[2] The city in its entirety is listed as a World Heritage Site, along with its lagoon.[2] The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC.[4][5] The city historically was the capital of the Republic of Venice. History Origins Beginning in 166-168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the main center in the area, the current Oderzo. Trapani. Cloister of the Museum Pepoli. Trapani listen (Sicilian: Tràpani; Latin: Drepanon, Greek: Δρέπανον) is a city and comune on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands. History[edit] Trapani was founded by the Elymians to serve as the port of the nearby city of Erice (ancient Eryx), which overlooks it from Monte San Giuliano.
After the Roman, Vandal, Ostrogoth, Byzantine and (from the 9th century) Arab dominations, Trapani was conquered by the Normans of Roger I in 1077, flourishing under their dominations and having also a role in the Crusades as one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean Sea. The city was badly damaged during World War II, when it was subjected to intense Allied bombardments. Administration and demographics[edit] The comune of Trapani consists of two discontiguous parts separated by the comune of Paceco. Pisa. Pisa (/ˈpiːzə/; Italian pronunciation: [ˈpiːsa]) is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower (the bell tower of the city's cathedral), the city of over 88,332 residents (around 200,000 with the metropolitan area) contains more than 20 other historic churches, several palaces and various bridges across the River Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics. The city is also home of the University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the 12th century and also has the mythic Napoleonic Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies as the best[citation needed] Superior Graduate Schools in Italy.
History[edit] Ancient times[edit] It is supposed that Pisa was founded on the shore. Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages[edit] Billund. Oslo. Oslo (English pronunciation: /ˈɒzloʊ/, OZ-loh,[3] Norwegian pronunciation: [²uʃlu] ( ) or, rarer [²uslu] or [¹uʃlu]) is the capital of and most populous city in Norway. Oslo constitutes a county and a municipality. Founded around 1000 AD, and established a "kaupstad" or trading place in 1048 by King Harald III, the city was elevated to a bishopric in 1070 and a capital under Haakon V around 1300. Personal unions with Denmark from 1397 to 1523 and again from 1536 to 1814 and with Sweden from 1814 to 1905 reduced its influence. After being destroyed by a fire in 1624, the city was moved closer to Akershus Castle during the reign of King Christian IV and renamed Christiania in his honour.
It was established as a municipality (formannskapsdistrikt) on 1 January 1838. Oslo is the economic and governmental centre of Norway. Urban region[edit] To the north and east, wide forested hills (Marka) rise above the city giving the location the shape of a giant amphitheatre. General information[edit] Barcelona. Barcelona (English /bɑrsɨˈloʊnə/, Catalan: [bərsəˈɫonə], Spanish: [barθeˈlona]) is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain, and its 2nd largest city, with a population of 1.6 million[1] within its administrative limits.
Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. After merging with the Kingdom of Aragon, Barcelona continued to be an important city in the Crown of Aragon. Besieged several times during its history, Barcelona has a rich cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre and a major tourist destination. Particularly renowned are the architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner, which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona. Names[edit] The name Barcelona comes from the ancient Iberian Phoenician Barkeno, attested in an ancient coin inscription in Iberian script as History[edit] Madrid. Madrid (English /məˈdrɪd/, Spanish: [maˈðɾið]) is the capital of Spain and its largest city. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million[4] and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be around 6.5 million.
It is the third-largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-largest in the European Union after London and Paris.[5][6][7][8] The city spans a total of 604.3 km2 (233.3 sq mi).[9] Madrid houses the headquarters of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), belonging to the United Nations Organization (UN), the SEGIB, the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), and the Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB).
It also hosts major international institutions regulators of Spanish: the Standing Committee of the Association of Spanish Language Academies, headquarters of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the Cervantes Institute and the Foundation of Urgent Spanish (Fundéu BBVA). History[edit] Valencia. Valencia is integrated into an industrial area on the Costa del Azahar (Orange Blossom Coast). Valencia's main festival is the Falles. The traditional Spanish dish, paella, originated in Valencia. Name[edit] The original Latin name of the city was Valentia (Latin pronunciation: [waˈlentia]), meaning "strength", or "valour", the city being named according to the Roman practice of recognizing the valour of former Roman soldiers after a war. The Roman historian Livy explains that the founding of Valentia in the 2nd century BC was due to the settling of the Roman soldiers who fought against an Iberian rebel, Viriato.
During the rule of the Muslim kingdoms in Spain, it had the nickname Medina bu-Tarab ('City of Joy') according to a transliteration, or Medina at-Turab (مدينة التراب, 'City of Sands') according to another, since it was located on the banks of the River Turia. Geography[edit] Location[edit] Climate[edit] Economy[edit] Commercial zone Port[edit] Port of Valencia Transport[edit]