LATVIA | Riga Castle 

August 2025. We’re travelling to the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and more specifically their respective capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Are they interconnected by rail? Yes, but not in the most straightforward or userfriendly way possible. The Rail Baltica project should remedy this. Unsurprisingly though, this megaproject faces political and budgetary hurdles. It…

RAIL BALTICA | Baltic operators launch joint tender for regional trains

August 2025. We’re travelling to the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and more specifically their respective capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Are they interconnected by rail? Yes, but not in the most straightforward or userfriendly way possible. The Rail Baltica project should remedy this. Unsurprisingly though, this megaproject faces political and budgetary hurdles. It…

TALLINN | Estonian History Museum at the Great Guild Hall

August 2025. We’re travelling to the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and more specifically their respective capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Are they interconnected by rail? Yes, but not in the most straightforward or userfriendly way possible. The Rail Baltica project should remedy this. Unsurprisingly though, this megaproject faces political and budgetary hurdles. It…

SPARTACUS GAY TRAVEL INDEX 2026 | Belgium among safest destinations

Belgium has been ranked among the most LGBTQIA+-friendly destinations in the world in the Spartacus Gay Travel Index 2026, the annual global ranking published by Spartacus International Gay Guide. The country shares fourth place globally with Canada, Germany, and Portugal, confirming its status as one of the safest and most welcoming places for queer travellers. 

PARIS | Boulevard de Sébastopol – Tour Saint-Jacques – Institut du monde arabe – Le Remontalou – Coulée verte René-Dumont & Viaduc des Arts – Place de la Bastille – Rue Pierre Seel – Hôtel de Ville – Rue des Mauvais-Garçons – Place des Vosges

On Thursday 11 December 2025, six months after opening and one month after closing on 11 January 2026, I travelled to Paris in France for the ‘Le mystère Cléopâtre‘ or ‘The Cleopatra Mystery‘ exhibition at the Institut du monde arabe (Institute of the Arab World). An excuse to visit the Light City, even if it…

Leo Express now links Germany to Poland / Ukraine and ÖBB links Vienna to Trieste

Two major developments in European rail underline how international long-distance services are expanding both through new open-access routes and major infrastructure upgrades. Private operator Leo Express from Czechia is preparing its first move into the German passenger market with a trans-European service from Frankfurt to the Polish–Ukrainian border, while Austria’s ÖBB has launched a dramatically…