We stood at the bar of the grand Lough Erne Resort, looking out at the driving rain. “You see that lake out there,” mused the barman wryly. “That was a field this morning.” This was my first trip to Northern Ireland’s lake lands in the western region, two hours by car from Belfast and a slightly longer drive from Dublin.

Europe Travel

The new Gotthard Base Tunnel is a 35-mile stretch through a mountain of granite. The scenery transforms from mountainous Alpine stretches to palm tree-dappled Mediterranean landscape. Even the outside temperature is a few degrees warmer than it was where the tunnel starts.

On a sunny Friday afternoon in April, the sleepy city of Kilkenny, Ireland, began to wake up. Chattering students filled the sidewalks, their book bags slung across school uniforms, many of the boys carrying the short, hockey-like sticks used in hurling. Locals hurried through Butter Slip, a narrow passage between two streets where butter vendors set up stalls in medieval times. And shoppers ducked into the small stores that share a main street with a 17th-century merchant’s house and an 18th-century town hall building that was served as a customhouse.

Our three-week British bike trip last spring could be called a series of literal highs and lows. We cycled what’s called the End to End: from Land’s End on the southwestern tip of Cornwall in England to John O’Groats in the northeastern corner of Scotland.

Germany’s second-largest city, Hamburg, is awash with history, and played especially key roles in the stories of 19th-century emigration, World War II and the Beatles.

All over Europe, there is little stomach for war. The motto of one military museum I visited in Vienna says it all: “War is something for museums.” And many European countries have followed this advice — creating fascinating exhibits about their military heritage.

In the just-waking hours of a cool, misty morning, we slipped into Frankfurt, Germany, the way dreams slide between vivid reality and hazy memory: surreal and ephemeral.

I don’t give much thought to petty crime when I travel abroad. I’m well aware that it happens: I’ve been preaching about the importance of wearing a moneybelt for decades. And for decades — probably about a total of 4,000 days of travel — I’ve never been hit by a thief. Well, my happy streak finally ended: I was pickpocketed in Paris last summer.

Amped-up Spanish flamenco bars, dirndl skirts in Germany, ape tours of the Rock of Gibraltar — when does something slip from authentic to cheesy?

Europe travel

A world record-breaking gondola is set to open Friday on Germany’s tallest mountain, the Zugspitze, just outside the Armed Forces Recreation Center Edelweiss Lodge and Resort.

You can’t say you’ve seen Sweden if you’ve only been to Stockholm. Rural Sweden, especially the province of Smaland, is a worthy addition to any Scandinavian itinerary.

Europe Travel

With no canned music, fake greenery, plastic kitsch or war toys, Nuremberg’s Christkindlesmarkt feels classier than your average crafts fair. With all these goodies, it’s no wonder that the market attracts more than 2 million people annually.

Sometimes in travel, the journey is the reward. And that is particularly true in Europe, where trains, buses and boats link destinations near and far, high and low, urban and rural, often through spectacular scenery.

There is something about trains that has captivated me since childhood. Alas, living in the U.S., I’m not able to indulge my passion for them much, which makes it all the more wonderful when I’m somewhere where I can. That most recent somewhere was Ireland, and the train wasn’t your garden variety type, but rather the Belmond Grand Hibernian.

The City of Light shines year-round, but Paris has a special appeal in winter. Sure, the weather can be cold and rainy (the average high in January is 43 degrees Fahrenheit), but if you dress in layers, you’ll keep warm and easily deal with temperature changes as you go from cold streets to heated museums and cafes.

I find the holiday season in Rome a joy: crisp air, stylish big-city Italians sipping hot cappuccino in corner cafes, and hurried shoppers thoughtfully pausing at grand manger scenes. The season in the Italian capital stretches for more than a month — not to maximize shopping days, but to fit in the season’s many holy days.

To go where cruise ships don’t go was perhaps the biggest advantage of a sailboat charter in the Greek Cyclades.

Just two hours north of Lisbon, Portugal, is one of my favorite beach towns: Nazare, an Atlantic Coast fishing village turned tourist retreat.

Strasbourg is the capital of France’s Alsace region and just a two-hour train ride from Paris. But it’s also just 2 miles from the border of Germany, and a popular port of call for cruises down the Rhine River.

Romania is full of surprises and wonderful people. And as you leave the capital of Bucharest, it gets even better. In the Romanian countryside, the nation’s unique history and traditional culture live on vividly.

Within Rome's ancient walls, just 12 miles around, lie many of the city’s iconic gems: the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain. We walked nearly everywhere, moving between epochs in a matter of minutes.

For the world’s roughly 800 million Protestants, a small corner of eastern Germany is their spiritual home — a place that takes on added importance this year, the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

For travelers today, Malta’s proximity to Europe’s glamour destinations is a definite plus, if not a widely appreciated one. Often experienced as a day stop on Mediterranean cruises, Malta greatly rewards a longer stay.

In long-ago days, this venerable town became known — oddly, affectionately — as “Auld Reekie.” It’s believed the nickname came, in part, from the smell generated as residents of yesteryear greeted each new day by opening their windows and flinging the contents of their chamber pots into the street below. This was before indoor plumbing — if you get my drift.

I recently spent a peaceful afternoon at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, marveling at its impressive collection of art and artifacts, many of international importance.

Europe Travel

Historical Museum of the Palatinate's display covers the details of King Richard I’s life and legend with more than 150 objects borrowed from renowned museums, libraries and even the queen of England.

When our children were 11 and 9, young enough to still be entirely inside the family circle but old enough to remember, we splurged on a “once-in-a-lifetime vacation” and rented a small farmhouse in Southwestern France outside the village of Saint-Cyprien. Each day, our son and daughter would say goodbye to the donkey that hung around our patio and we’d climb in the tiny rented Renault and drive somewhere in the fairy tale-beautiful Dordogne River region.

Coffee culture has come to Ireland in the past decade, but at home, the Irish drink tea.

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

As many as 60,000 people will come to this corner of southwest Ireland for an annual singles soiree that has been going on for 150 years.

I came back to the playground of my youth, Dreamland, because it reopened in May after a $30 million refurbishment. Would it live up to my memories?

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Every day, a handful of travel companies ferry mostly foreigners to Chernobyl's 19-mile "exclusion zone" to witness the remnants of the former Soviet Union's missile program.

Scotland has more than two dozen official long-distance trails through moors, peat bogs and forests. We chose one of the most popular, the West Highland Way.

Keep the crowds and high prices in the rear-view mirror by renting a motor home or RV and experience Spain’s scenic Mediterranean coast through seaside towns, ancient ruins, bucolic orchards and sprawling badlands.

VIDEO, GALLERY

Bad Duerkheim is famous for two things, and both have to do with wine — not surprising as the town is surrounded by vineyards on the German Wine Road (Weinstrasse).

Our cruise offered a port-intensive itinerary that would more than satisfy our hunger for history.

When you walk down to the end of Chalidon street and burst upon Chania, Crete’s old Venetian port, the first thing you think of is vacation.

I had been to Paris in my early 20s and managed to get in the highlights. For my return more than 10 years later, I wanted to explore a different, more offbeat side of the City of Lights.

ANALYSIS

British Airways' epic meltdown over a busy holiday weekend further fanned public outrage of an industry infamous for its focus on cost cuts over customer service, leaving the U.K. carrier scrambling to explain how a local computer outage could lead to thousands of stranded passengers.

I had savored Jamon Iberico, the luscious cured ham made from those pigs, and I knew I wanted more. That was enough to set me on a three-day journey to discover this unsung corner of Spain.

“Demand is overwhelming,” says Christoph Lieben-Seutter, general director of the Elbphilharmonie, a new concert hall in Hamburg, Germany. Subscriptions for classical concerts have doubled since the hall opened, tour operators are pressuring the organization to make more tickets available, and more than 1.5 million people have visited the public plaza since it opened last November.

If there is any attraction more popular than Kensington Palace, it’s the trio of museums that dominate the landscape on what is described as the “Museum Mile.”

One of the battles fought in World War I was for the St. Mihiel Salient in eastern France. In a bloody fight that lasted four days in August and September of 1918, the U.S. First Army defeated the Germans. The Montsec American Monument commemorates the victory and the Second Army’s operations in the area in November.

Antwerp is a diverse and cosmopolitan port city, one that wouldn’t exist were it not for the sluggish, slate-gray river Scheldt. “All an Antwerper has to do to connect with the rest of the world is simply dip his hand into the Scheldt’s water,” former Antwerp mayor Lode Craeybeckx once said.

This city’s Jet d’Eau (water jet), a fountain in the middle of its namesake lake, is as much a symbol of Geneva as Big Ben is of London, the Eiffel Tower is of Paris and the Colosseum is of Rome. On sunny days, it’s often colored by rainbows.

My Camino experience: 31 days of physical endurance through awe-inspiring landscapes, of contemplation punctuated by deep connections.

This small peninsula rewards the intrepid traveler. In long expanses, it’s little changed from the Iron Age, when fields were squared off by low stone outlines, which you still can make out on green hillsides by the sea. In fact, it’s only the occasional ruined tin mine that interrupts vast mosaics of heather and gorse, stretching from the coast roads to rocky cliffs.

Ferraria de Sao Joao and 26 other rural villages built wholly or partly of schist are now part of the Aldeias do Xisto (Schist Villages), an eco-tourism complex located in a mountainous region of Portugal’s interior that is geologically rich in this metamorphic rock.

In truth, Edinburgh has many faces. You might start your day researching the city’s (sometimes bloody) past, move on to a wind-swept hike of green hills and finish up with a plunge into the lively dining and bar-hopping scene.

Dingle is known for its pubs. Dick Mack’s has a walk of fame outside that lists the celebrities who’ve visited, among them Dolly Parton. Foxy John’s, a beloved spot, houses an old-fashioned hardware store and a bike rental business on the premises along with the classic pub.

Vermeer, the unique jewel in Dutch painting's crown, copied ideas from his contemporaries like every other artist, argues a new major exhibit at the Louvre Museum.

On the 50-minute drive from Iceland’s Keflavik International Airport to downtown Reykjavik, the landscape switched from long, flat stretches of dirt to patches of grass studded with rocks.

Delayed at the airport in Nuremberg, Germany, and thoroughly frazzled, we checked and re-checked our watches as the miles ticked by, with the Danube River and our Scenic River Cruises ship, the Pearl, nowhere to be seen.

San Gimignano is the epitome of a Tuscan hill town. About 25 miles from both Florence and Siena, it’s the region’s glamour girl: Visually striking and perfectly preserved, it gets all the fawning attention from passing tour buses. But despite its tourist-trap feel, it’s still worth slotting into your Italian itinerary — especially if you can sidestep the hordes who descend during the day.

As a seaside metropolis with a lively outdoor vibe and dozens of picturesque islands beckoning nearby, Athens is more often considered a summer tourist destination than a winter escape. But if you’ve got more than beaches on your mind, there’s plenty of upside to a brief, cool visit that avoids the crowds and heat of summer.

A a $2.4 billion plan to construct a two-mile tunnel underneath Stonehenge and widen the nearby highway has the support of English Heritage and UNESCO. But it has infuriated archaeologists who worry that the construction will destroy vital heritage.

Forget the three Rs. I went to Speyside, Scotland’s “single-malt capital of the world,” to brush up on the three Ws: whisky, wool and walking.

2017 in Europe: What’s in it for you? Plenty, according to a survey of travel magazines, tourism board calendars, museums, railways and bargain-flight providers.

Our goal during five nights and six days in Paris was to spend no more than a total $250 per day among the four of us. With our bargain accommodations price fixed at $150 per night, that left $100 per day for food, transportation, attractions and trinkets.

Starting in February, some guests at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch-Partenkirchen may be a little on the furry side.

The USO is discontinuing its popular express and overnight leisure bus tours in three U.S. military communities in Germany, ending a long-standing operation that shuttled countless servicemembers and their families to popular destinations all over Europe.

PHOTO GALLERY

The Hamburger DOM’s winter edition wears a distinct Christmas coat and can make a welcome contrast from the almost too picture-perfect ambiance of more traditional Christmas markets.

It's the world's oldest nation and one of its tiniest, but San Marino is not on many travelers' bucket lists. It should be.

At The Kennedys museum, visitors can travel back in time to the day when President John F. Kennedy came to Berlin. A film of the speech plays on a continual loop in black-and-white inside a darkened room.

Since moving to the Netherlands two years ago, I’d become smitten with "voetveren," or foot ferries — small boats specifically for foot passengers and cyclists. So we planned a ferry-centric bike trip.

This avenue, stretching from Placa de Catalunya to the Christopher Columbus monument, is a pedestrian paradise squeezed in between the bustling traffic of the city.

The summer sun had barely risen over Venice’s quiet waterways when the voices started up again. Blaring in Mandarin Chinese and French from the loudspeakers of cruising tour boats, they told the centuries-old saga of this fabled, once-mighty city in a few minutes, as passengers sipped spritzes and took selfies in front of the passing palazzos and cathedrals. For the rest of the day, the voices would echo throughout this miracle of a city, known as La Serenissima, or the Most Serene One, about once every half an hour until night fell over St. Mark’s Square and the Doge’s Palace.

This was no walk in the park. Sheep grazing on the green fields cried out and I became awash in self-doubt. I didn’t know where I was, but I continued on my way.

Spending just one day in Barcelona is only enough time to realize that you need to spend more than a day there.

Street art is front and center in the Portuguese capital, which has transformed itself into an open-air museum, proudly awash in eye-catching murals.

The skies were cloudy as I strode across that famous bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, ready for a day of checking off Florentine must-sees.

From the top deck of the cruise ship River Tosca, the fabled Nile River was wide and blue and calm. And I had the deck of the 236-foot ship to myself.

On June 7, Versailles unveiled a large-scale exhibition of Olafur Eliasson’s contemporary art, including a waterfall. Following the likes of Jeff Koons and Anish Kapoor, Eliasson is the latest artist to take over the estate with art installations — a buzz-generating annual event that invites visitors to see the chateau in a new way.

Summer in Paris can be a steamy soup swimming with tourists. So follow the smart Parisians and get out of town. In two hours you can have your feet on the hot sands of a resort called Deauville.

We chose a cruise on AmaWaterways specifically because it offered bicycle excursions on an itinerary that started in Vienna, stopped in Hungary, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria, and finished a few miles south of Bucharest, Romania.

I just spent 10 days in England, and before you ask, no, I didn’t get a glimpse of the queen or Buckingham Palace.

TRAVEL

At first glance, Germany’s Reinheitsgebot seems straightforward enough. Known in English as the Beer Purity Law, it limits the ingredients in German beers to water, barley and hops.

Few people were surprised when construction crews working on the future U.S. Navy support site in the farming town of Gricignano in the mid 1990s began uncovering artifacts. Those artifacts are displayed today in the Archeological Museum of Agro Atellano.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy wants to end a long-standing and well-recognized tradition: the midafternoon nap.

Our European adventure started in Rota, Spain, where we enjoyed mild winter temperatures, the appealing countryside, friendly people and historical landmarks.

Madrid is an easy city to love. It’s clean, the people are friendly and the climate is mild and sunny. Best of all, this world capital has so many interesting sights that it doesn’t feel crowded.

Spring is just around the corner, which means it’s almost tulip time in Holland. Next Thursday, Keukenhof opens for the 67th time, and about a million flower lovers will descend on the famed gardens on the outskirts of Lisse.

In March 2015, a funny thing happened to the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, an Armed Forces Recreation Center in the Bavarian Alps. The hotel and its grounds suddenly transformed into a 1980s Olympic ski lodge in Canada.

When you sail on a ship like the 208-passenger Star Breeze, a vessel nimble enough to squeeze up to almost any tiny cove or narrow gorge, it’s a good idea to bone up on the ports-of-call in advance.

How many islands dot Ireland’s Clew Bay? As many as days of the year, goes the saying.

After eight days of tastings in London, my suitcase was crammed with more chocolate than clothes.

In Europe, Italy tops the list for most popular destination as listed by the U.S. Tour Operators Association. Here’s a look at the rest of the top spots recommended by the travel industry.

At just 37, Great British Chef Nathan Outlaw has four restaurants in England (three bearing Michelin stars), a chef academy and several books to his name, including “Nathan Outlaw’s British Seafood.” We met him at his flagship eatery in Port Isaac to talk about his favorite subject: All things fish.

Fans of the BBC's epic 18th-century drama “Poldark” have discovered not only the rippled abs of its handsome star, Aidan Turner, but they've also fallen in love with the craggy, windswept landscape of the English county of Cornwall. I recently became a "set-jetter" and watched the cast filming.

The Bastogne War Museum, opened in the spring of 2014, gives the visitor a personal experience of the Battle of the Bulge, as exhibits trace the history of World War II and what led to it.

This region on France’s mid-Atlantic coast is a vacation paradise, with islands, beaches, canals, pleasant cities, incredible seafood — and cognac.

Called “P Street” by Americans at nearby Lask Air Base, Piotrkowska Street in Lodz, Poland, is the city’s main shopping avenue, art district and party zone all in one.

GALLERY

The Staedel, Frankfurt, Germany’s esteemed art museum, wraps up its 200th anniversary celebrations with an exhibit of masterworks borrowed from some of the world’s most prestigious art museums.

It was my first day out on a walk across Scotland, and I’d stumbled upon one of the most beautiful camping spots I’d ever seen.

A visit to Georgia and its capital Tbilisi reveals that over the centuries it has been on the crossroads of east and west.

Researchers have discovered evidence of standing stones believed to be the remnants of a major prehistoric stone monument near the Stonehenge ruins.

On a recent assignment I spent a couple of nights in Minden, a northern German town on the Weser River.

Lying in the shadows of the Pyrenees, the mountain range that separates Spain from France, La Rioja is split in two regions that have one thing in common. Together, they constitute Spain’s most prolific wine-producing region.

The history and setting of cities like Tallinn and Riga, Latvia, and their tourist-friendly prices, offer ample reason for a visit, especially for U.S. servicemembers stationed in Europe.

Some servicemembers and retirees will no longer be able to use an Armed Forces Recreation Center in Garmisch following a recent review of the center’s reservations policies, the military said Tuesday.

Trier, Germany, sits comfortably in the midst of Western Europe, minutes from Luxembourg and close to France, all European Union members. Sharing the euro, the town’s 105,000 residents share a regional sensibility with their neighbors