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Austria |
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It's the spectacular,
snowcapped mountains of regions like the Tyrol that provide
the most familiar images of Austria - a landscape of
jagged peaks and rampaging rivers, giving way to green
pastures studded with onion-domed churches. Yet Austria is
by no means all alpine vistas: the country stretches across
central Europe for some 700km, from the shores of the
Bodensee in the west to the edge of the flat Hungarian.... |
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Salzburg
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Vienna
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Belgium |
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A federal country, with three
official languages and an intense regional rivalry, Belgium
has a cultural diversity that belies its rather dull
reputation among travellers. Its population of around ten
million is divided between Flemish-speakers (about sixty
percent) and French-speaking Walloons (forty percent), with
a few pockets of German-speakers in the east. Prosperity has
shifted back and forth between the two communities over the
centuries, and relations remain acrimonious. |
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Bruges |
Brussels |
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Bulgaria |
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In many ways, Bulgaria remains
the unknown country of the Balkans. Less newsworthy than the
former Yugoslavia, and less heavily touristed than
neighbouring Greece and Turkey, it's a place that brings few
distinct images to mind. Despite being the site of extensive
Black Sea package resorts and the source of several good
wines, it's all too often dismissed as the dour place it was
before 1989, when it served as one of the Soviet
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Sofia |
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Croatia |
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Croatia (Hrvatska)
has come a long way since the summer of 1991, when foreign
tourists fled from a region standing on the verge of war.
Now that stability has returned, visitors are steadily
coming back to a country which boasts one of the most
outstanding stretches of coastline that Europe has to offer.
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Zagreb
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Czech Republic |
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Czechoslovakia's "Velvet
Revolution" in November 1989 was probably the most
unequivocably positive of eastern Europe's anti-Communist
upheavals, as the Czechs and Slovaks shrugged off 41 years
of Communist rule without a shot being fired. But the
euphoria and unity of those first few months evaporated.... |
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Prague |
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Denmark |
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Delicately balanced between Scandinavia
proper and mainland Europe, Denmark is a difficult
country to pin down. In many ways it shares the
characteristics of both regions: it's an EU member, and has
prices and drinking laws that are broadly in line with those
in the rest of Europe. But Denmark's social policies and its
style of government are distinctly Scandinavian: social
benefits and the standard of living are high, and its
politics are very much that of consensus.... |
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Copenhagen
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England
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London is the place to
start. Nowhere in the country can match the scope and
innovation of the metropolis, a colossal, frenetic city,
perhaps not as immediately attractive as its European
counterparts, but with so much variety that the only
obstacle to a great time is the shockingly high cost of
everything. It's here that you'll find Britain's best spread
of nightlife, cultural events, museums, galleries, pubs and
restaurants.... |
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London |
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Estonia |
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It's a tribute to the
resilience of the Estonians that during the ten years
since the Declaration of Independence in August 1991 they've
transformed their country from a dour outpost of the former
Soviet Union into a viable nation with the most stable
economy in the Baltic region. ... |
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Tallinn |
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Finland |
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Mainland Scandinavia's most
culturally isolated and least understood country, Finland
has been independent only since 1917, having been ruled for
hundreds of years by first the Swedes and then the Tsarist
Russians. Much of its history involves a struggle for
recognition and survival, and it's not surprising.... |
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Helsinki |
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France |
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The sheer physical diversity
of France would be hard to exhaust in a lifetime of visits.
The landscapes range from the fretted coasts of Brittany to
the limestone hills of Provence, the canyons of the Pyrenees
and the half-moon bays of Corsica, from the lushly wooded
valleys of the Dordogne to the glaciated peaks of the Alps. |
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Aix-en-Provence |
Marseille |
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Angers |
Nice |
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Avignon |
Paris |
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Dijon |
Strasbourg
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Lille |
Toulouse |
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Lyon
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Tours |
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Germany |
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Germany has always been
the problem child of Europe. For over a millennium it was no
more than a loose confederation of separate states and
territories, whose number at times topped the thousand mark.
When unification belatedly came about in 1871, it was
achieved almost exclusively by military might; as a direct
result of this, the new nation was consumed by a thirst for
power and expansion abroad. |
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Berlin |
Munich (München) |
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Frankfurt am Main |
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Gibraltar |
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GIBRALTAR 's interest
is essentially its novelty: the genuine appeal of the
strange, looming physical presence of its rock, and the
dubious one of its preservation as one of Britain's last
remaining colonies. For most of its history it has existed
in a limbo between two worlds without being fully part of
either, which makes it a curious place to visit, not least
to witness the bizarre process of its opening to mass
tourism from the Costa del Sol. Ironically
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Greece |
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With well over a hundred
inhabited islands and a territory that stretches from the
south Aegean to the Balkan countries, Greece offers enough
to fill months of travel. The historic sites span four
millennia, encompassing both the legendary and the obscure,
where a visit can still seem like a personal discovery. |
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Athens |
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Hungary |
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Visitors who refer to Hungary
as a Balkan country risk getting a lecture on how this small,
landlocked nation of just over ten million people differs
from "all those Slavs". Hungary was likened by the poet Ady
to a "river ferry, continually travelling between East and
West, with always the sensation of not going anywhere
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Budapest |
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Iceland |
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Resting on the edge of the
Arctic Circle and sitting atop one of the world's most
volcanically active hotspots, Iceland is nowadays
thought of for its striking mix of magisterial glaciers,
bubbling hot springs and rugged fjords, where activities
such as hiking under the Midnight Sun are complemented by
healthy doses of history and literature. It's unfortunate,
then, that one of the country's earliest visitors, the
Viking Flóki Vilgerðarson ...
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Reykjavík |
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Ireland |
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Landscape and people are what
bring most visitors to Ireland - the Republic and the North.
And once there, few are disappointed by the reality of the
stock Irish images: the green, rain-hazed loughs and wild,
bluff coastlines, the inspired talent for talk and
conversation, the easy pace and rhythms of life. What is
perhaps more of a surprise is how much variety this very
small land packs into its countryside. |
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Belfast |
Galway city |
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Dublin |
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Italy |
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Of all European countries,
Italy is perhaps the hardest to classify. It is a modern,
industrialized nation. It is the harbinger of style, its
designers leading the way with each season's fashions. But
it is also, to an equal degree, a Mediterranean country,
with all that that implies. Agricultural land covers much of
the country, a lot of it, especially in the south, still
owned under almost feudal conditions. In towns and villages
all over the country .... |
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Florence (Firenze) |
Rome |
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Genoa |
Siena |
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Milan (Milano) |
Turin (Torino) |
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Naples
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Venice |
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Padua |
Verona |
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Palermo |
Vicenza |
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Pisa |
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Latvia |
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The history of Latvia ,
like that of its neighbour Estonia, is largely one of
foreign occupation. The indigenous Balts were overwhelmed at
the start of the thirteenth century by German crusading
knights, who massacred and enslaved them in the name of
converting them to Christianity. |
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Riga |
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Liechtenstein |
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Only slightly larger than
Manhattan island, Liechtenstein is the world's
fourth-smallest country. It's a quiet, unassuming place,
ruled over by His Serene Highness Prince Hans Adam II, and
has made a mint from nursing some Sfr90 billion in its
numbered bank accounts, a living that has inevitably laid it
open to accusations .... |
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Lithuania |
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Unlike its Baltic neighbours,
Lithuania once enjoyed a period of sustained
independence. Having driven off the German Knights of the
Sword in 1236 at Siauliai, the Lithuanians emerged as a
unified state under Grand Duke Gediminas (1316-41). The 1569
Union of Lublin established a combined Polish-Lithuanian
state which reached its zenith under King Stefan Bathory.
But the Great Northern War of 1700-21, in which
Poland-Lithuania .... |
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Vilnius |
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Luxembourg |
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Across the border from the
Belgian province of Luxembourg, the Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg is one of Europe's smallest sovereign states,
a tiny independent principality with a population of around
420,000. As a country, it's relatively neglected by
travellers, most people tending to write it off as a dull
and expensive financial centre ... |
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Monaco |
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Monstrosities are common on
the Côte d'Azur, but nowhere - not even Cannes - can outdo
MONACO . This tiny independent principality, no
bigger than London's Hyde Park, has lived off gambling and
catering for the desires of the idle international rich for
the last hundred years. Meanwhile, it has become one of the
greatest property speculation sites in the world - a sort of
low-rise Manhattan-on-Sea with an incredibly dense
concentration of fin-de-siècle Edwardian hotels
standing in for the skyscrapers. |
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Netherlands |
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The Netherlands is
a country partly reclaimed from the waters of the North Sea,
and around half of it lies at or below sea level. Land
reclamation has been the dominant motif of its history, the
result a country of resonant and unique images - flat,
fertile landscapes punctured by windmills and church spires;
ornately gabled terraces flanking peaceful canals; and mile
upon mile of grassy dunes, backing onto stretches of
pristine sandy beach. |
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Amsterdam |
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Norway |
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In many ways Norway is still a land of
unknowns. Quiet for a thousand years since the Vikings
stamped their mark on Europe, the country nowadays often
seems more than just geographically distant. Beyond Oslo and
the famous fjords the rest of the country might as well be
blank for all many visitors know - and, in a manner of
speaking, large parts of it are. Vast stretches in the north
and east are sparsely populated, and it is possible to
travel for hours without seeing a soul. |
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Oslo |
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Poland |
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In many ways, Poland is one of
the success stories of the new Europe, transforming itself
from a one-party state to a parliamentary democracy in a
remarkably short period of time. More than a decade of
non-communist governments has wrought profound changes on
the country, unleashing entrepreneurial energies and
widening cultural horizons in a way that pre-1989
generations would have scarcely thought possible. |
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Kraków |
Warsaw |
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Portugal |
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Portugal is around
the size of Scotland with twice the population and has
tremendous variety both geographically and in its ways of
life and traditions. Along the coast around Lisbon, and on
the well-developed Algarve in the south, there are highly
sophisticated resorts, while the vibrant capital Lisbon has
enough going on to please most city devotees. But in its
rural areas this is still a conspicuously underdeveloped
country, and there are plenty of opportunities to experience
smaller towns and countryside regions that have changed
little in the past century. |
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Lisbon |
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Romania |
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Travel in Romania is an
rewarding as it is challenging. The country's mountain
scenery and great diversity of wildlife, its cultures and
people, and a way of life that at times seems out of the
last century, leave few who visit unaffected. However,
although not as impoverished as Albania and most of the
countries of the former Soviet Union, it is still one of the
hardest countries of Eastern and Central Europe to travel
in. |
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Bucharest |
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Russia |
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European Russia
stretches from the borders of the states of Belarus and
Ukraine to the Ural mountains, over 1000km east of Moscow;
even without the rest of the Russian Federation, it
constitutes by far the largest country in Europe. It was
also, for many years, one of the hardest to visit. |
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Moscow |
St Petersburg |
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Scotland |
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The Scottish capital,
Edinburgh , is a handsome and ancient city, famous for
its magnificent castle and Palace of Holyroodhouse
as well as for a world-acclaimed international arts festival
and some excellent museums - not least the outstanding
National Museum of Scotland . |
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Edinburgh |
Glasgow |
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Slovakia |
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The republic of Slovakia
(Slovensko) - independent since 1993 - consists of the long,
narrow strip of land which stretches from the fertile plains
of the Danube basin up to the peaks of the High Tatras -
perhaps Europe's most exhilarating mountain range outside of
the Alps. The country's numerous mountains have long formed
barriers to industrialization and modernization, and parts
of the country remain surprisingly rural and unspoilt, some
to the point of neglect. |
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Bratislava |
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Slovenia |
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The northernmost republic of
what was once Yugoslavia, Slovenia currently appears
the most stable, prosperous and welcoming of all Europe's
erstwhile communist countries. It was always the richest and
most westernized of the Yugoslav federation, and apart from
the Ten-Day War which brought it independence in 1991, it
has avoided the strife which has plagued the republics to
the south. For centuries ... |
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Ljubljana |
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Spain |
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If you are coming to Spain for
the first time, be warned: this is a country that fast
becomes an addiction. You might intend to come just for a
beach holiday, or a tour of the major cities, but before you
know it you'll find yourself hooked by something quite
different - by the celebration of some local fiesta, perhaps,
or the amazing nightlife in Madrid, by the Moorish monuments
of Andalucia, by Basque cooking, or the wild landscapes and
birds of prey of Estremadura. |
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Barcelona |
San Sebastián |
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Madrid |
Santa Cruz |
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Playa de Las Américas and Los Cristianos |
Sevilla |
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Puerto de la Cruz |
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Sweden |
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Sweden is a large,
geographically varied and strangely little-known country
whose sense of space is one of its best features. Away from
the relatively densely populated south, travelling without
seeing a soul is not uncommon. The south and southwest
of the country are gently undulating, picturesque holiday
lands, long-disputed Danish territory, and fringed with some
of Europe's finest beaches. |
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Stockholm |
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Switzerland |
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Switzerland is one
of Europe's most visited countries, but one of its least
understood. Pass through for a day or two, as most people
do, and you'll get the quaint stereotype of Switzerland that
the locals deem suitable for public consumption - the Alpine
idyll of cheese and chocolate, Heidi and the Matterhorn.
Stay longer though and another Switzerland will emerge, the
one which the Swiss inhabit, and one which can be an
infinitely more rewarding place to explore. |
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Zürich |
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Turkey |
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Turkey is a country
with a multiple identity, poised uneasily between East and
West. The only NATO member in the Middle East region, the
country has recently been accepted as a candidate for
membership of the EU. Yet although in many respects Western,
Turkey retains its frustrating differences, and its
contradictions: mosques coexist with churches, and remnants
of the Roman Empire crumble alongside ancient Hittite and
Neolithic sites. Politically
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Istanbul |
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Wales |
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Although Cardiff boasts
most of Wales' national institutions, including the National
Museum, the appeal of a visit lies outside the towns, where
there is ample evidence of the war-mongering which shaped
the country's development. Castles are everywhere, from hard
little stone keeps of the early Welsh princes and the mighty
Carreg Cennen to Edward I's doughty fortresses such
as Beaumaris, Caernarfon and Harlech . Passage
graves and stone circles (such as on Holy Island )
offer a link to the pre-Roman era when the priestly order of
Druids ruled over early Celtic peoples, and great medieval
monastic houses, like ruined Tintern Abbey , are
easily accessible. |
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Cardiff |
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