Changsha Stopover

Changsha has been in recorded history for over 4000 years as a large inland city of southern China. Lying along the Xiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze, it is now the capital of Hunan Province and a major commercial center. It’s increasingly a stopover destination for some of China’s airlines, including Hainan Airlines, who operate a hub and international gateway at the airport. It’s quite practical to hop on the Maglev Rail, transfer to the Metro, and head downtown. Mao Zedong, who was from Hunan province, was a student here who then formed the local Communist Party cell in the 1920s.

Orange Island. You can head over the Juzizhou Bridge to Juzhou Park, an island in the middle of the Xiang River. The bridge has pedestrian access although you have to watch out for the electric scooters that whiz by the pathway. China has banned internal combustion engine scooters which is good for the environment but removes the ability to hear them coming up from behind.

Once there you can see a restored temple and palace complex.

Old City. Changsha was caught in World War 2 and the Civil War so sustained a lot of damage. A stretch of the medieval city center is preserved along Taiping Street between Renmin W and Jiefang W Roads. It’s a bit touristy but worth a look along your walking route. Further north, you can also visit the Kaifu Temple, by the Kaifu metro station on Kaifusi Road.

There are various hot and spicy Hunanese offerings along the street, as well dry ice suspended local fruit.

Crawfish are popular here – usually boiled in a spicy soup.

Yuelu Mountain Park. Located on the west side of the river and accessed via the Yingwanzhen or Xihu Park metro stops, you can go for a walk in the forested Yuelu Mountain. https://goo.gl/maps/wGgrvwUmX2gfwSnF9 There’s also the Yuelushan cable car if you can’t be bothered to walk https://goo.gl/maps/P9LsA7KT6Yp6rHw79

Logistics. Central Changsha is easy to access from the airport for your stopover. Take the Maglev at the airport station to the South Railway Station and then transfer onto the Metro – allow about 45 minutes each way. The Wuyi Square stop is central enough. You could also head up to the Martyr’s Park stop for some greenery.

Restaurants. Huogongdian (127 Pozi Jie) is a longstanding popular place (Mao ate here while fomenting revolution and liked the braised pork if that’s your thing). If you are closer to the Central railway station, you can visit the Wuyi Dadao branch at 93 Wuyi Dadao. For my part, I found a busy multi-story food center immediately southwest of Wuyi Square on Wuyi Avenue. This can be a good option in many Chinese cities and there are five levels of restaurants to pick from with Hunan cooking featuring.

Dog Ownership Poster, Changsha Metro

Suzhou: Canal City

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Suzhou was one of the major cities of classical China, founded around 500 BC and developed amongst the canals of the Yangtze River delta. Located by the Grand Canal, which ultimately reached as far north as Beijing, it was a major trading center by the time of the Southern Song Dynasty (10th-13th centuries). It’s only 100 km west or about 30 minutes by train from Shanghai and is a good day trip. The old city and its traditional gardens are within a fairly defined area within the 16-kilometer long city wall footprint, and so you can walk it in a few hours and use Suzhou’s excellent metro to get around easily.

The medieval layout and many of the gardens, bridges and temples within the fortified wall boundary are well preserved, so it’s quite a good place to get a feel for classical China. Suzhou was important enough to be sacked by a northern army in 1130 and again by the invading Mongol army in 1275. Many of the gardens were wrecked after Japanese invasion during World War 2 and restored in the 1950s.

Suzhou can easily be covered in a day trip although there are plenty of good hotels in town and some sites outside the city wall if you chose to overnight it. The main railway station is a roughly 30-minute walk northwest of the old town, or you can take the metro which will deliver you to the south side along Ganjian Road.

The Humble Administrator’s Garden. Suzhou has almost 70 preserved classical gardens that were developed between the 11th and 19th centuries, mostly by scholars who attempted to reflect natural scenes together with pavilions and temples. At 5.2 hectares, the largest of these is The Humble Administrator’s Garden, was built in the early 1500s by a retired magistrate and poet, and is structured around a set of lakes and pavilions. Go early if you can as it does get popular.

Other gardens inside the old town that are worth considering include the Lion Grove Garden, based around rock formations, the Lingering Garden and the lake-heavy Garden of the Master of the Nets. Suzhou’s gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage site and their comments are worth reviewing before you go: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/813/

Pingjiang Lane. While most of Suzhou’s streets have been converted for vehicle traffic with their canal paved over, Pingjiang Lane is an original canal-lined thoroughfare dating from the Song Dynasty and periodically set with medieval-era stone bridges. Despite the density of tourist-focused snack and souvenir shops, it’s worth a stroll along its mile.

The sidestreets off Pingjiang Lane have a pleasant laid back feel and they are worth exploring out to the original medieval city wall. The 19th-century Couple’s Retreat Garden at the east end of Daxinqiao Alley is also worth a detour.

Shantang Street. Another well-preserved street, the 9th-century Shantang Street is located northwest of the city and runs almost 4 kilometers towards Tiger Hill, a 30-meter high forested rock outcrop and that contains the 10th-century Yunyan Pagoda. The 9th-century Shantang Canal runs parallel and a number of old stone bridges cross the canal. You can either head for the northwest corner of the old city or get off at the Shantang Jie metro station.

Suzhou Museum, 204 Dongbei Jie. Just west of The Humble Administrator’s Garden, the museum is a great way to understand Suzhou’s 2,500-year history, inside a building designed by IM Pei, who was raised in pre-war Shanghai and who drew inspiration from the gardens at Suzhou.

Panmen Scenic Area. Located at the southwest corner of the walled city and convenient to the Nanmen Metro Station, this park area features a range of medieval structures such as the 2,500-year old Panmen Gate, Wumen Bridge, the 250 AD Ruigang Pagoda and Wuxiang Temple, as well as a 300-meter walkable section of the medieval city wall.

Logistics. The western side of the old town is about a 30-minute walk from the railway station; upon exiting the south side of the station, you’ll see the canal and some restored imperial buildings and a bridge just east to take you over.

Metro. The Hangzhou Metro is an excellent way to get to and from the main railway station. As to cab and ride hailing alternatives, note that Uber does not operate in China – you can try the main Chinese provider, Didi Chuxing, but check online for the latest as far as obtaining an English version of the app.

Rail. China’s high-speed rail system is comfortable, fast, cost-effective and well worth trying. The two main issues you should factor in include the high passenger volume it manages in a country of 1.4 billion people, and the airport-style security requirements at rail stations. Particularly if you are planning a day trip, this means you need to factor in time beforehand. Many trains are 100% occupied so unless you don’t mind a “standing” ticket, you should book in advance: trip.com is a useful website. Secondly, you will need your passport to buy or (if bought online) pick up your ticket, after which you will go through a security check (including baggage x-ray) where you will present your ticket and passport. The ticket is scanned again when you enter the platform via the boarding gate. If you book for a certain departure time, there will be a specific departure gate that usually open about 15 minutes pre-departure. Particularly for Shanghai, if you allow 15 minutes to buy or pick up your ticket from the ticket office queue (there are self service machines with only Chinese language access), 15 minutes to enter the station, pass security and navigate to your gate, and then assume you get in line at the gate 15 minutes pre-departure, for your first time I would allow arriving at the station at least 45 minutes pre-departure. At post-journey arrival, at the larger stations you are sent through a separated (from the departures) arrivals level and put out into a pre-security area.

Hongqiao Railway Station Main Departures Hall

Your Chinese Language Skills. Lack of Mandarin Chinese language skills is not much of an issue; all public signs are bilingual Chinese/English – even the metro ticket vending machines have an “English” button on their touchscreen displays. Since China’s schools have had English language training from about 8 years of age for some time now, English is more commonly spoken to some extent. However, you should still either pick up a basic language guide or go to the many Mandarin Chinese language Youtube offerings in advance of the trip.

Visas and Visa-Free Transit. You usually require a visa to enter China, however certain areas, including the greater Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, permit visa-free entry for transit purposes (i.e. traveling between two different countries) with up to 24, 72 or 144-hour visit periods, for citizens of 53 countries. Here is a useful summary of the conditions and you should check latest conditions with the Chinese Embassy or a visa service before you go: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/tour/visa/free-transit-144-hours.htm

Hangzhou: Don’t Hesitate to Irrigate

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Hangzhou was one of the seven capital cities of classical China, and was an imperial capital between the 10th and 12th centuries. Located about 180 kilometers southwest of Shanghai, it acted as the southern outlet of the Grand Canal Waterway, which was constructed around 600 AD to connect imperial China, and which reaches as far north as Beijing. Hangzhou is a popular domestic visitor destination featuring the medieval-era landscaped West Lake, with forested hills and tea plantations to the west. Marco Polo visited in the late 1200s and liked the place. The Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta visited around 1345 and stayed in the Muslim quarter. Kublai Khan invaded in 1276 at the head of the Mongol Army, overthrowing the Southern Song Dynasty that had used Hangzhou as its capital since 1132.

The West Lake

The fresh water West Lake is quite atmospheric with various historical sites and the forested hills off to the east. It will tick all your classical China boxes with mist-shrouded forested hills, pagodas, water lillies on the lake, landscaped garden islands, medieval temples, and at least on the east and north sides, large crowds. It is about a 12-kilometer circuit if you walk round the shore, although there are two causeways that provide short cuts. The lake was originally dredged in the 8th Century by the Tang Dynasty Governor (and noted poet) Bai Juyi, to provide a stable water supply, with many of the islands and causeways from the 10th-11th centuries, and many temples and gardens dating from the 16th-17th centuries, built for the aristocracy of the day. It gets quite busy around the east and northeast sides but the crowds thin out the further away from town you go.

West Lake

There are various temples and pavilions by the lake, such as the 13th-century Buddhist Yuewang Temple, off Bishan Road on the north side. This commemorated Yue Fei, a general who served the Southern Song Dynasty. Further west is the Lingyin Temple, which also leads you into the forest park area. You can also head north inland to Baoshi Hill, which hosts the 10th century Baochu Pagoda. This small hill park facing the northeast lakeside is quite close to the city and so gets crowded; if you stay near the northeast corner of the Lake, it is a candidate for a short early morning walk while the air is fresh and the crowds are lighter.

Yuewang Temple

Luijin Bridge and Pavilion

Hangzhou Forest Park

A slightly more ambitious exercise is go for a hike or bike in the forest park to the west of the Lake. A few key areas in the north of the park include the (fairly busy) Lingyin Temple (http://en.lingyinsi.org), built in AD 326, destroyed and rebuilt multiple times and still an active Buddhist temple. The temple is about 4 km west of the northwest lake corner, reached along Lingyin Road leading into Lingyin Branch Road. It is one of China’s major temples and is surrounded by hundreds of medieval Buddhist stone carvings. There are also the Three Tianzu Monasteries, the first dating back to about 600 AD, in the hills surrounding the temple. You could also continue west from there up the almost 2 km trail to Mount Beigaofeng (https://goo.gl/maps/15d858TKdyVuXvxPA), which is the highest peak (314 m) in the park.

Moving further south, you could head to the Nine Creeks waterfall area on Erlong Mountain, reached via the Yangmei Mountain Road (https://goo.gl/maps/YcABD78MWKY8U65NA). There are well-regarded if touristy tea plantations in the area (look for the Longjing or Meijiawu tea plantations), and Hangzhou’s tea and spring water are claimed to be a good combination. You can stop at the Longjing Dragon Well Village for a cup. A few trail suggestions are here: http://en.gotohz.com/homepage/whatisnews/201605/t20160511_141796.shtml

Wushan Scenic Area and the City God Pavilion

Overlooking the old town from the south is the forested hill and religious sites of the Wushan Scenic Area. The temple area contains the multi-story City God Pavilion and a series of smaller temples.

This area is also a good starting point if you want to head west to explore the Hangzhou Forest Park starting from the south side. The view from the top level of the Pavilion across the forest hills and the lake is impressive, albeit a bit grayed out with the smog.

There is an extensive model of Hangzhou at the time of the South Song Dynasty in the ground level of the Pavilion. Hangzhou is believed to have been the most populated city in the world in the 13th century, with around 1-2 million inhabitants.

Medieval City

Hangzhou’s old town sits just north of the Wushan Scenic Area and can be accessed by the Ding’an Road Metro stop. It is mainly bounded (east-west) by Hefang Street in the South and Ding’an Road in the North, and (north-south) by Huaguang Road in the West and Nansongyu Street in the East.

Nansongyu Street

Hefang Street is pedestrianized and a bit touristy, but a good starting point. Gaoyin Street runs in parallel to the north is a good place to get lunch at one of it’s many restaurants and food stalls, that also line Shiwukul Alley and Zhongshan South Road towards the hill. Nansongyu Street is a tree lined former medieval roadway that has also many 19th and 20th century buildings from Hangzhou’s growth as a commercial center.

Nansongyu Street also has an interesting mosque – Arab traders worked in Hangzhou from the time of the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) and the street was developed with modern office and commercial buildings in the 19th and 20th centuries as Hangzhou’s economy grew.

Logistics. I stayed at the Deefly Lakeview Hotel at 2 West Huancheng Road, on the northeast side of the lake which worked out quite well, as it was 5 minutes from the lakeside and under 10 minutes to the Fengqi Road metro station.

Longyou Road Night Market

Airports. Hangzhou is served by Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, located about 30 km east of the city. While many people entering Zhejiang Province will fly into Shanghai, it is worth considering as a point of entry or exit and falls with the transit visa eligibility, discussed later.

Metro. The Hangzhou Metro is an excellent way to get around the central city area east of the Lake and to access the main railway station. Note that the metro stations are quite large and also have a security check (including bag x-ray machine). As to cab and ride hailing alternatives, note that Uber does not operate in China – you can try the main Chinese provider, Didi Chuxing, but check online for the latest as far as obtaining an English version of the app. Logistically, note that all metro entrances have a security checkpoint (with baggage x-ray so don’t carry a bag unless necessary) before the ticket barriers.

Bikeshare. Bikesharing is popular and well-established in China, and Hangzhou has a good level of providers. This could be a good option if you want to explore deeper into the forest park area.

Rail. China’s high-speed rail system is comfortable, fast, cost-effective and well worth trying. The two main issues you should factor in include the high passenger volume it manages in a country of 1.4 billion people, and the airport-style security requirements at rail stations. This means you need to plan your journey and factor in time beforehand. Many trains are 100% occupied so unless you don’t mind a “standing” ticket, you should book in advance: trip.com is a useful website. Secondly, you will need your passport to buy or pick up your ticket, after which you will go through a security check (including baggage x-ray) where you will present your ticket and passport. The ticket is scanned again when you enter the platform via the boarding gate. If you book for a certain departure time, there will be a specific departure gate that usually open about 15 minutes pre-departure. If you allow 15 minutes to buy or pick up your ticket from the ticket office queue (there are self service machines with only Chinese language access), 15 minutes to enter the station, pass security and navigate to your gate, and then assume you get in line at the gate 15 minutes pre-departure, for your first time I would allow arriving at the station at least 45 minutes pre-departure. At post-journey arrival, at the larger stations you are sent through a separated (from the departures) arrivals level and put out into a pre-security area.

Hongqiao Railway Station Main Departures Hall

Craft Beer. Craft beer has reached China, or at least it’s more expat and overseas travelled populations, and it’s worth trying. The Midtown Brewery, located in the Shangri-La Hotel at 6 Changshao Road does a great job with the West Coast standards.

Visas and Visa-Free Transit. You usually require a visa to enter China, however certain areas, including the greater Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, permit visa-free entry for transit purposes (i.e. traveling between two different countries) with up to 24, 72 or 144-hour visit periods, for citizens of 53 countries. As such, you could arrive at Hangzhou Airport and depart out of another approved international gateway such as Shanghai or Nanjing airports. Here is a useful summary of the conditions and you should check latest conditions with the Chinese Embassy or a visa service before you go: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/tour/visa/free-transit-144-hours.htm

Shanghai’d

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Shanghai – China’s largest city and its principal port, located at the mouth of the Yangtze River delta. Shanghai’s heritage is very mixed given its role as a major trading city, especially as China opened up to international maritime trade in the 18th century onwards. Much of this was forced on the declining Qing Dynasty mostly in the mid-19th century by Western powers via the “Unequal Treaties,” which remain a sensitive point to this day. The expulsion of the various foreign occupiers in the 1949 revolution and subsequent relative isolation of the city through the 1980’s by the victorious Communist regime preserved much of this environment.

Shanghai Business District – East Bank of the Huangpu River

Like many large commercial cities, it’s a fascinating place to visit with plenty to see, and is an excellent base for other China travel. The main issue is that you need to obtain a China entry visa, although in certain cases you can obtain up to 24, 72 or 144-hour transit visa exemptions.

Huangpu Neighborhood

Shanghai’s main city area is centered around People’s Square, a large park that also holds some museums, with largely residential districts to the west and the business district to the east. The eastern area is bordered by Shanghai’s famous Bund waterfront on the Huangpu River, with a concentration of unspoiled Art Deco era buildings that is hard to find except in other cities that grew rapidly in the mid-20th century, such as Detroit: https://wp.me/p7Jh3P-nP

The Bund

Shanghai’s layout reflects the two main 19th-20th century foreign settlements – the International Settlement (to the UK and USA) in the east along the riverfront (largely in the eastern part of the Huangpu District); and the French Concession, which runs to the southwest of People’s Square along Huaihai Middle Road and the northern part of the Xuhui District. Just south of the former International Settlement and next to the river is the old city, that was originally a walled city and which remained separate from the International Settlement to the North.

You could easily spend 3-4 days in Shanghai and find plenty to do, especially if you have never visited mainland China before. There are some pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods within the former French Concession area such as the rather upmarket Xintiandi and Tianzifang areas. The old city (start at Yuyuan Garden metro) is south and east of Renmin Road and includes some isolated archaeological remnants and gardens. Here are some ideas of in-town things to do, as well as some area side trips that I’ll write about later.

The Shanghai Museum (People’s Square – south side). If you want an introduction to Chinese history and culture, the Shanghai Museum is equivalent to a national art museum. You can get the various imperial dynasties – going back over 2,000 years – outlined in your head through the extensive watercolor, pottery, currency and other collections. I have always wondered how much of China’s historical artifacts survived the Cultural Revolution in 1966, and notably some of the material came from overseas Chinese collectors. The museum is closed Mondays and has free entry.

There is interesting transitional currency with late 19th/early 20th century bills.

The Bund and Art Deco Shanghai. Manhattan on the Yangtze: Shanghai has a high level of preservation of its buildings from the late 19th through the mid-20th century, and was a major commercial center of East Asia for the first half of the 20th century. You could be downtown in a US city that grew around that time. There are plenty of online offerings for historical tours to understand this – see below, but book ahead. China had been dealing with invasion by Japan since 1931 and Shanghai was attacked by the Japanese in 1932 and then again in 1937, being occupied until 1945.

The main business area is located northeast of People’s Square towards to the Bund, with many of the major buildings lining the Bund. If you want to pick one place to see, the Peace Hotel, originally opened as the Cathay Hotel in 1929, has an impressive Art Deco ground floor area.

Eating Around. Without getting into the usual street food obsession, Shanghai Chinese cooking works very well if you are after something light and casual, and there are plenty of formal restaurants covering the main cooking styles of China. The Shanghainese post-revolution diaspora has meant that many Shanghai specials have worked their way into the Chinese repertoire. A few key types include:

Xiao Long Bao – Soup filled dumplings, usually pork or shrimp, but vegetarian options are common.

Shengjiang Mantou – oh yeah. Soup filled dumplings with a flakier pastry shell, fried around the base.

Hongshao Rou – braised pork belly. A favorite of Chairman Mao apparently, although there are varieties nationwide.

Jiaohua Ji – beggar’s chicken. Stuffed, marinated and roasted in a paper shell.

For the most part, restaurants catering to the local crowd often offer picture menus where the menu is in Chinese. The various city shopping malls usually have a restaurant level – these are usually quite good in Asia as they are clean, bright and air-conditioned, and not at all the usual chain debacle you get in the West. Some that are worth a visit include:

Da Hu Chun (11 Sichuan Street, Huangpu) – full range Shanghai classics.

Di Shui Dong (56 Maoming S Road, Jing’an) – Hunan specialty.

Din Tai Fung ( Jing’an) – actually a Taiwanese chain (whose founder fled China in 1948) featuring Shanghainese specials and known for it’s xiao long bao, but a good entry-level restaurant with a simple menu.

Lao Fan Dian (Fujou and Juixiaocheng Streets, Huangpu) – another Shanghai standard.

Lin Long Fang (10 Jian Guo Dong Lu or SML Center, Huangpu) – great local mini chain.

Nan Ling (1238 Yainan Middle Street, Jing’an) – more formal Shanghai classics.

Shanghai Grandmother (70 Fuzhou Road, Huangpu) – multi-level family style offering.

The French Concession. The French Concession is a more residential, retail and green area, largely north and south of Huaihai Middle Road as it heads southwest from People’s Square, which provides contrast to the more urban/shopping/office focus in the Huangpu/Bund area east of People’s Park. It is also close to the Jing’an temple, which is worth a visit. It has a more relaxed and leafy atmosphere, in part because the French built wider, tree-lined streets. As mentioned earlier, the Xintiandi (aim for the metro station of the same name) and Tianzifang (southwest of the Jianguo West and Sinan Roads intersection) areas are good walking destinations.

Jaywalking on Julu Road

Dance Evening at Xianyang Park

The Jing’an Temple. The Jing’an temple, northwest of the French concession with a metro next to it, is well with a visit, centered around a great hall with a seated Buddha. There has been a temple in the area since 247 CE, and one on the current site since 1216; it burnt down in the 1970’s and was rebuilt in the 1980’s so is quite new, although various artefacts, such as the medieval Hongwu bronze bell, date back a ways. There is a good park just south of the temple to take a break and admire the greenery.

Walking Tours. Shanghai’s sights are well distributed around the neighborhoods and there isn’t a concentration of major points, so a walking tour can be useful. Here are a few and of course Tripadvisor has a selection:

The Shanghai Historical Society focuses on the 19th and 20th century and their walking tours are here: https://www.historic-shanghai.com/events/

Shanghai Walking Tours: http://shanghaiwalkingtour.com/english/walking_tours.html

Culinary Backstreets is food focused: https://culinarybackstreets.com/culinary-walks/shanghai/

Side Trips. There are a few cities in the Yangtze delta that are worth visiting, such as Suzhou and Hangzhou, about 30 and 60 minutes away by rail, respectively. You can always look for a bus or tour service, although rail is good option, connecting into the metro at both cities. Suzhou is a compact medieval city better suited to a day trip, while Hangzhou and it’s famous lake and forested hill park are more for an overnight stay.

Suzhou

Closer in is the canal town of Zhujiajiao, located in the western outskirts of the city facing Lake Dianshan, at the metro stop of the same name.

Logistics. I stayed at the Mansion Hotel (Xinle and Xiangyang Roads, Jing’an) and the Jing’an Campanile (425 Wulumuqi North Road), in the French Concession and Jing’an areas, respectively. Both have proximity to the metro which is worthwhile here. The Mansion Hotel is a one of a set of smaller hotels restoring pre-war Shanghai mansions, here designed by French architects in 1932 for a Shanghai syndicate leader and opened in 2007.

Airports. Shanghai is served by two airports – Pudong (PVG), the newer principal international gateway located east of the city on the coast; and Hongqiao (SHA), the original secondary airport located west of the city. Both have Metro stations and are about 60 and 45 minutes from People’s Square respectively. Pudong is also served by a fast (300 km/h) Maglev line to the Longyang Road Station in the eastern suburbs. This may save you some time although as you will have to change to get to the center it may be simpler to just use the metro.

Metro. The Shanghai Metro is an excellent way to get around the city. You can purchase a range of passes at the airport station or at any of the station customer service centers. Apart from individual tickets, there are 1- and 3-day passes or alternatively you can just buy the Shanghai Public Transportation Card which starts at Y100 and includes a Y20 deposit refundable on return of the card. Note that the metro stations are quite large and also have a security check (including bag x-ray machine). As to cab and ride hailing alternatives, note that Uber does not operate in China – you can try the main Chinese provider, Didi Chuxing, but check online for the latest as far as obtaining an English version of the app. Logistically, note that all metro entrances have a security checkpoint (with baggage x-ray so don’t carry a bag unless necessary) before the ticket barriers.

The Shanghai Metro is Extensive

Rail. China’s high-speed rail system is comfortable, fast, cost-effective and well worth trying. The two main issues you should factor in include the high passenger volume it manages in a country of 1.4 billion people, and the airport-style security requirements at rail stations. This means you need to plan your journey and factor in time beforehand. Many trains are 100% occupied so unless you don’t mind a “standing” ticket, you should book in advance: trip.com is a useful website. Secondly, you will need your passport to buy or pick up your ticket, after which you will go through a security check (including baggage x-ray) where you will present your ticket and passport. The ticket is scanned again when you enter the platform via the boarding gate. If you book for a certain departure time, there will be a specific departure gate that usually open about 15 minutes pre-departure. If you allow 15 minutes to buy or pick up your ticket from the ticket office queue (there are self service machines with only Chinese language access), 15 minutes to enter the station, pass security and navigate to your gate, and then assume you get in line at the gate 15 minutes pre-departure, for your first time I would allow arriving at the station at least 45 minutes pre-departure. At post-journey arrival, at the larger stations you are sent through a separated (from the departures) arrivals level and put out into a pre-security area.

Hongqiao Railway Station Main Departures Hall

Shanghai has four rail stations, the more central Shanghai Rail Station, Hongqiao (out west near the airport), the South and West stations. Note that the ticket office at the central station is in a separate building across from the main entrance. At Hongqiao, the ticket office is post-security in the main departures hall. The ticket offices are typically busy however the lines move quite fast.

Rapidly Moving Ticket Line, Shanghai Train Station

Stuck for a Gift? The First Food Hall (720 Nanjing Road East) is worth going to for a one-stop that covers Chinese products. A four-storey supermarket and food court, it has the feel of something from the Communist era and so is worth going to. Nanjing Road East is the main shopping street, pedestrianized east of People’s Square.

Craft Beer. Craft beer has reached China, or at least it’s more expat and overseas travelled populations, and it’s worth trying. Not surprisingly, the main providers are mostly in the French Concession area and you should focus on:

Boxing Cat Brewery (82 Fu Xing Road West and (under refit in July 2019) 521 Fu Xing Middle Road. My favorite I have to say, with the very floral and moderately bitter Sucker Punch pale ale, the very solid TKO west coast IPA and the excellent King Louie imperial stout.

Liquid Laundry (Kwah Centre 2/F, 1028 Huaihai Middle Road). Gastropub owned by Boxing Cat and with a solid beer menu including other beers and their own line. Good pale ales and IPAs.

Shanghai Brewing Company (15 Dongping Road). Decent craft beer selection.

Stone Brewing Tap Room (1107 Yu Yuan Road). Not entirely local as the San Diego area brewery expands globally, but worth supporting.

Visas and Visa-Free Transit. You usually require a visa to enter China, however certain cities, including Shanghai, permit visa-free entry for transit purposes (i.e. traveling between two different countries) with up to 24, 72 or 144-hour visit periods, for citizens of 53 countries. Here is a useful summary of the conditions and you should check latest conditions with the Chinese Embassy or a visa service before you go: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/tour/visa/free-transit-144-hours.htm

Georgia: Yup, That Georgia

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Georgia is a crossroads nation of almost 4 million people that sits between Russia, the Stans, Iran and Turkey and is a branch of the Silk Road. Georgia was founded as a single independent kingdom in the 12-13th centuries, which is often referred to as the Golden Age. Not many countries get to have an epic chivalric poem of 6,648 lines that defines their country’s heroic destiny, but Georgia does: The Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli, written around 1200. However, Georgia’s fate was also to have to deal with large adjacent Iranian, Ottoman and Russian states until finally absorbed by Tsarist Russia in the late 18th century. Georgia had a subsequent but brief period of independence starting in 1917 before being occupied by the Soviet Union in 1921.

Georgian Parliament Building with Demonstration

It’s a brilliant country to visit, with a very diverse geography contained in a relatively confined area, from its Black Sea Coastline in the west, the Caucasus mountains in the north, and a desert border to the south and east with a 8,000-year old wine country in between. This trip covers journeys to Tbilisi, north to Kazbegi at the Russian border, and finally east to the wine country and south to the monastery in the rocks, Davit Gareja.

Tbilisi. Some orientation from the Narikala Citadel, Tbilisi’s long standing fortress. looking north towards downtown Tbilisi. The old town is pretty much where the hill rolls out below, and further north from the old town is the mainly Soviet-era city center that starts at Rustaveli Avenue (named after the renowned Medieval-era poet), which is Tbilisi’s main avenue going north, loaded with Tsarist- and Soviet-era buildings.

Here we look east towards the new cathedral in the background and the Metekhi Church (c. 1280s) in the foreground, over the Mtkvari River, that flows from the Caucasus south into Azerbaijan.

Tbilisi has a combination of traditional Georgian building styles, Islamic influence, Tsarist and Soviet Russian, and more modern development post-independence. If you have a couple of days, you can have a pretty full itinerary between the old town, the usual museum/early medieval church/fort combo, pretty great restaurants and a very interesting wine culture. I visited in April when the weather was cool and pleasant. You can also bathe in the sulfur bath Hamams located in the Maidan neighborhood, dating from the 1700s and still very much open. Pushkin visited. The city has many hot springs. There are two worthwhile museums in town, the National Gallery (Rustaveli 11) and the Museum of Georgia (Rustaveli 3), which has some pretty stunning pre-Christian gold artefacts.

Traditional Georgian houses line a riverbed, before the Tbilisi Central, or Juma Mosque, built in 1895, and the hills beyond. The mosque is unique in that both Sunni and Shia muslims can pray together.

There are plenty of traditional balconied wooden houses, which provide relief in the dry hot summers.

More Russian-era housing is evident, much of which is in need of some upgrade.

There are plenty of neighborhood upgrade programs going on. Much of old town Tbilisi is being progressively renovated by the city to revitalize the older central areas.

Tbilisi’s Tsarist-era opera house has eastern touches that you’d expect from colonial administrators attempt to evoke the atmosphere of a country that they are already in.

You should try the local mineral water which has lots of fortifying chewiness. I liked Borjomi, which was reportedly Stalin’s favorite non-alcoholic beverage, but wouldn’t kick the Nabeghlavi out of bed either. I declined the Stalin desk flag souvenir at the time but now regret doing so. Stalin, Georgia’s most famous son, whether they like it or not, was born in Gori, a small town west of Tbilisi. His birthplace was made into a museum and can still be visited.

North to Kazgebi along the Caucasian Military Highway. The first road trip out of Tbilisi was north to Kazbegi in the Caucasus Mountains. The first stop is at Ananuri, a chapel overlooking a lake. The main buildings are from the mid-17th century although the watchtower is from the 12th.

The main road north through the Caucasus to Russia is the two-lane superbly named Caucasian Military Highway, that continues to Vladikavkaz in Russia. Here is an ex-military GAZ truck passing by for atmosphere. Basically anyone going north to south goes over this road, that started as a horse trail at the dawn of time and has improved into a pretty rough in places blacktop.

Heading north, the Caucasus mountains take form as you increase altitude.

And the sovbloc cars keep on coming.

Finally you hit snow conditions – in April.

There are plenty of barrier-free hairpin turns and happy grazing roadside cattle to support concentration.

And then once through the snow you coast down towards Kazbegi (or Stepantsminda) and the huge truck line waiting to clear the Russian border.

Kazbegi. I hiked up to the Gergeti Trinity Church (Tsminda Sameba) in Kazbegi, which was built in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Gergeti hike is a good day trip, although it can be done in half a day if you’re reasonably fit. To get to the church, you walk west out of town, cross over the Tergi River bridge and go through Gergeti village to reach the hillside tracks.

Gergeti village has traditional stone dwellings that look ready to deal with a long hard winter.

The effects of the war on a small Georgian town must have been significant, reflected in Gergeti’s Soviet-era war memorial.

You can cut up to the Gergeti church through the switchback vehicle service tracks until you find open hillside. It’s rather steep, although running shoes worked ok.

One the way up, looking east you can see the town of Kazbegi nestled in a bowl amongst the mountains.

The Gergeti church dates from the 14th and 15th centuries and is even more impressive when the surrounding mountains are in the background.

I then had to get back down the highway in the afternoon, which was as interesting as the ride up, with more whiteout and trucks.

The roads could be a bit rock-strewn, although the road was open and clear of snow.

I soon found that the periodic Soviet-era road tunnels lacked for lighting but not atmosphere.

And down into the misty wooded foothills.

The Wine Country and Signagi. From the Caucasian Military Highway, I headed southeast to spend the night at the Schuchmann winery hotel near Telavi. Telavi sits in the Alavani River valley, a major wine growing region. Georgian wine is worth a look, and Saperavi, a dry red, is usually obtainable overseas, along with a range of whites that include Rkatsiteli and Mtsivane. Georgia has been making wine for about 8,000 years, and still have a traditional line of production that involves fermentation in kvevri clay vessels. The following day, I continued east to the walled silk road trading city of Signagi, which sits on a high ridge overlooking the valley. Sighnagi was mostly built in the late 18th century, and was recently spruced up by the government so looks quite neat.

Signagi was protected by an extensive fort built in the late 18th century, that commands the Alazani River valley below to this day. It is huge and in pretty good condition, with a view northeast to the Caucasus range.

Davit Gareja. I made my way south to the cave monastery of Davit Gareja, just north of the Azerbaijani border amongst a set of rock formations. The original habitations, founded in the 6th century, were rock caves that then grew into a walled and towered monastery. The monastery is still active so be careful where you wander.

The monastery complex is a combination of cave dwellings, a large keep and chapel, partly surrounded by walls and towers.

Driving in Georgia involves a lot of unintentional tracks; this is the road in and out of Davit Gareja, which is best done in daylight.

Logistics.

Tbilisi airport is easy to use and a cab into town is quick (20-30 minutes) and reasonable. The airport rail gets you to Tbilisi Central Station (which is about 4km north of the old town however) in 40 minutes and connects you into Tbilisi’s Soviet-era metro, which is efficient and worth using within the city.

I stayed just north of the old town on the west side of the river, and was able to walk around for the most part. Whole sections are under redevelopment so don’t be surprised to find a lot of construction. Restaurants are excellent and I’d recommend (addresses are findable):

Barbarestan – good traditional Georgian food and more than the usual khachapuri (bread with a cheese center), although the kinkhali dumplings are great here.

Schuchmann – cellar restaurant, worth going to check out the different wines. Georgian grapes are mostly unique to the country. Their hotel is located in Kisikshevi with details at: http://www.schuchmann-wines.com/hotel/contact/

Samikitno – cafe-type Georgian, good for staples such as khachapuri.

Shavi Lomi – Georgian fusion in a subterranean venue.

There are plenty of wine bars in town given Georgia’s range of production – some worth visiting include Tsangala’s and Code de Vino. Some of the major wineries, like Schuchmann, Shumi and Mukhrani have their own wine bars in the old town.

Driving. Car hire is reasonable in Georgia and the roads are well signposted. The standard of driving and road manners was good. There are major freeways on the main routes that are good, but many of the secondary roads can be slow going given the terrain. Be aware that Georgia relies more on dirt tracks between significant communities than you may be used to in the west, so if you’re going between smaller towns the roads are usually fine but check the grade, just in case.

Rail. If you plan to head east or west out of Tbilisi, Georgian Railways are worth a look http://www.railway.ge/en/passenger-traffic/, and also provide international service to Yerevan and Baku. Turkish connections can be obtained via the border city of Akhalkalaki. Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan have recently cooperated on a passenger and freight route between Kars in Turkey to Baku in Azerbaijan, which involves a gauge change at Akhalkalaki.

Trogir: Split Petite

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Trogir is a small port city located on an island a bridge away from the Croatian coast, about 21 km west of Split. Inhabited for over 2,300 years and a recorded Greek and Roman settlement, Trogir was sacked by the Saracens in 1123 and built up by the Venetians from the 1400s, now having one of the best-preserved medieval/renaissance city cores in Europe.

Split gets the obvious attention, however Trogir is a smaller and more relaxed town, as well as being a handy layover destination if you ever change planes at Split airport, which is just 6 km away. Once you are done with the winding and shaded streets, and have circuited the shell of a Venetian castle – used for summertime concerts, you can dial it down further along the waterfront promenade. There are places to step in for a swim in the Adriatic – such as by the fortress.

The mainly romanesque Cathedral of St. Lawrence, built on the site of an early Christian cathedral destroyed in 1123, was largely constructed in 1200-1250 with the bell tower built later in the 14th-16th centuries, from which you get great city views.

It has a pair of Venetian lions guarding the ornate marble portal, which was inscribed as being completed by a Croatian stonemason in 1240.

Trogir is a good place to check out some medieval alleyways, soak up the sun on the waterfront, and observe the yachts in the marina. The 13th-century Venetian Loggia faces about as large a town square as you’ll see here, and a good place to hang out.

If you need to get a walk in, you can cross south over the Ciovski bridge onto the next island and walk west to get a view of the town and the 15th-century Venetian Kamerlengo Castle.

Logistics. The simplest way into Trogir from the airport is by taxi, and there is a regular bus service via the airport to and from Split. Croatia is on it’s own currency, the Kuna, so a visit to the airport ATM is in order unless you want to try using Euros, which are often accepted. The bus service to and from the airport (No. 37 bus – which also serves Split) that stops at the bus station on Kneza Trpimira just northeast of the main bridge onto Trogir island, Trogirski Most.

There are plenty of hotel options in the immediate area if you want to spend a night here, from the rather grand XII Century Heritage to smaller guesthouses like the Villa Sveti Petar – which is always a good way to get a sense of the place once the day trippers have moved on.

Ypres: The Salient

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Ypres (or Ieper) is a small city in Western Flanders that grew as a trading and manufacturing city in the medieval and renaissance eras. Destroyed by artillery in World War I, the mostly redbrick city and its medieval Cloth Hall, originally constructed in 1304, were restored in the 1920s.

Cloth Hall

It’s a nice town for a stopover although the main reason many people visit is that it provides as good a place as any to understand how World War I was fought. Ypres was militarily important because when the front lines formed in Autumn 1914, the Allied forces held the area around the town, in a salient that stuck into German lines. This meant that it was a useful launching point for offensives, and an area that the Germans were challenged to defend. The Germans sensibly dug in on the higher ground to the east of the town, creating a heavily fortified zone that included the ubiquitous trench lines interspersed with major bunker complexes called Stellungs. The town is surrounded by many military sites and memorials that mark battles throughout the war.

Ypres was always behind the lines, but well within German artillery range, and was flattened in the war. The town was restored to its red bricked medieval and renaissance glory in the 1920s, but there is a degree of uniformity in many of the houses that it hard to place until you realize that many of them were built at the same time.

The Menin Gate. Ypres’ main memorial is the rather imposing Menin Gate at the east town entrance, inaugurated by the British Government in 1928.

At 20:00 hrs (8pm) every evening, last post is sounded by two buglers from the local volunteer fire department, a practice that goes back to 1928 with an interruption in 1940-44. That event gets very crowded, so go at least 15 minutes before and work your way to the outer side of the archway if you want to get close to the bugles.

The interior walls of the memorial list 54,896 missing soldiers who were not buried at the military cemeteries in the area, by regiment, rank and name. It’s worth noting that the British Army was very much a Commonwealth Army and soldiers from Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and Pakistan also are present here.

WWI in the west was one long stalemate until Germany’s economic collapse in 1918, with various offensives moving the lines back and forth in a futile and limited way that changed little except the number of dead and wounded. The Ypres salient experienced major offensives in 1914, 1915, 1917 and 1918, although Ypres stayed in allied hands throughout. Formally, the battles around the area are considered as:

First Ypres (Autumn 1914): German offensive and Allied counter attacks.
Second Ypres (Spring 1915): German offensive, including the first ever use of poison gas.
Third Ypres, or the Battle of Passchendaele (Summer/Autumn 1917): Allied offensive.
Fourth Ypres, or the Battle of the Lys (Spring 2018): German offensive.
Fifth Ypres (Autumn 1918): Allied offensive.

One way to understand the terrain is to get a guided tour, and this can be done by bike to get the best sense of the terrain. Equally, you can rent your own bike, pick a set of military memorials and cemeteries and navigate round them by smartphone map. The roads are excellent and even if there is no bike lane, Belgian drivers are usually respectful of cyclists. The cemeteries were usually located close behind the front lines and so map out where the fighting happened. The most notable in the area, Tyne Cot, was a field medical station located in a captured German bunker complex, that was converted into a major cemetery postwar. Before going, you could visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) visitor center near the Menin Gate https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/visitor-centres/ieper-information-centre

Ypres Salient Cycle Tour. The following is a clockwise route from the north and round to the east of Ypres, with about 38 km of moderate cycling, 10 or so stops and a break for lunch, lasting about 6 hours overall. There are many more sites that you can visit, so take this as a starting point.

Google maps link to provide navigation guidance at: https://goo.gl/maps/Aj6SSsbp2A9Lgfo89

The land is mostly flat, but you will begin to understand where the higher ground is soon enough. Key points along the route, identified in the map link are:

The Yorkshire Trench. Heading north along the east side the Ieperlee Canal, you first enter an industrial estate where there is a recovered section of 1915-1917 period British trenches.

Welsh Cemetery (Caesar’s Nose). Located east of the Yorkshire trench, this small cemetery for 1917 mainly occupied by the graves of Welsh soldiers, faces German positions that were just to the east in a salient called Caesar’s Nose. You’ll cycle along minor access roads to then go north and then northeast towards Pilckem Ridge and Langemark.

Welsh National Memorial. The Welsh Memorial is quite recent and memorializes the regiments of the Welsh Division that fought over this land. It sits on Pilckem Ridge, in the German lines just west of the village of Langemark, and was in the path of the July 1917 British offensive that included Welsh units such as the 38th Division. The Battle of Pilckem Ridge (July/August 1917) was part of the opening offensive of Third Ypres, that advanced allied lines until the German Spring 1918 offensive.

Langemark German Cemetery. Heading through the village of Langemark, you are in a key part of the German defenses north of Ypres. The cemetery was established over part of a bunker complex at the end of democratic Weimar era, in 1932, and has a very different feel from the Commonwealth cemeteries.

Heading southeast towards Passchendaele along Zonnebekestraat, you’ll pass the Canadian Army and Hertfordshire Regiment memorials – the latter indicating the furthest advance the unit achieved at Third Ypres in July 1917, before falling back. Passchendaele was a key terrain feature, which sat on high ground and was heavily fortified.

New Zealand Division Advance at Passchendaele. As you head towards Passchendaele you’ll pass the New Zealand Division Memorial at Roeselarestraat and further along on s’Graventafalstraat, there is a display that shows the New Zealand Division’s advance in July 1917.

You can then cycle up the road which was roughly in the middle of the route of the advance over mostly open ground. The farm and treeline are different now but the area had similar features in 1917 that crossed open ground.

Tyne Cot Cemetery. Tyne Cot was initially a casualty clearing station at the site of a German bunker complex, just south of Passchendaele, that was overrun by Australian and New Zealand soldiers in 1917. Its name was coined by British soldiers from Northumberland who remarked that German pillboxes resembled Tyneside cottages. It’s the largest cemetery in the area, with almost 12,000 graves and the names of almost 34,000 servicemen who had no known grave and who were not listed at the Menin Gate. There’s a good visitor center adjacent to the cemetery.

Heading northeast from Tyne Cot, you pass by the memorial at Keelarhoek and get on a trail that in places was a railway cutting used by the Australians in their advance on Passchendaele in October 1917, before entering the town.

Passchendaele is a good place for a break with a cafe in the center. The Moeyart Bakery (Statiestraat 3) is good for takeout if you just want to get something to eat in the square.

Polygon Wood. You then cycle south to Polygon Wood, which is just 8 kilometers east of Ypres and was repeatedly fought over. It was a Belgian Army training area pre-WWI that was held by the Allies in 1914, lost in 1915, retaken and then lost in 1917 before finally being recaptured in September 1918. The wood itself was blasted treeless in the war and was often a muddy morass lined with tenches and pillboxes, some of which remain in what is now a forest park.

There are two military cemeteries, Buttes New British Cemetery, which is principally for Australian and New Zealand forces with a New Zealand Memorial that sits on the butte, and the smaller Polygon Wood Cemetery, which is an irregular, front-line cemetery that includes a single German. As you leave via the south corner of the wood, you’ll see the memorial at Black WatchCorner, where the regiment helped stop the Prussian Guard’s advance towards Ypres in November 1914.

From Polygon Wood, you then cycle west back to the Menin Gate, along the Menin Road, which was a major supply route for the Commonwealth forces. What was once called Hellfire Corner, because of the incidence of artillery bombardment, is now a busy highway roundabout.

Logistics

Ypres is quite compact with the railway station about a 20-minute walk west of the center. There are a decent number of hotel options and I stayed at the Novotel Ieper (Sint-Jacobsstraat 15) which was fine as Novotels usually are. There are a number of solid Belgian restaurants in town, most of which are around the center. The Marktcafé Les Halles (Grote Markt 35) has well-prepared Belgian standards and a great beer selection, including some local breweries, and In ‘t Klein Stadhuis (Grote Markt 32) is a more traditional place. Depot (Menenstraat 18) is a more modern take on Flanders cooking.

It’s worth spending one night in Ypres, particularly so that you can start early and do a decent tour of the area. Having achieved that, it is only a little more than an hour by train to Ghent if that is a next stop, so it’s quite practicable to finish cycling by late afternoon and be in Ghent at a reasonable time. It is Belgium so there are great beer options, particularly Kaffee Bazaar (Boomgaardstraat 9), which has a superb local and national selection, and also Brasserie Kazematten (Bollingstraat 1), which also offers food. The Ypra Inn, just west of Menin Gate, is a good place to observe the crowds who gather for the Last Post.

There are a few cycle shops that will rent you a bike, including Chez Marie (Neermarkt 6) and Biking Box (Menenstraat 15). Go online to find the various battlefield tour operators of which there are plenty.

Dublin/ Dubh Linn

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Dublin – one of Europe’s great mid-size capital cities, with plenty to do without having to deal with a crushing metropolis. Established in the 9th century under the Norse-Gael Kingdom of Dublin, at the confluence of the Liffey and (the now underground) Poddle rivers, which formed a “dark pool” – hence the Gaelic name Dubh Linn. The Poddle now flows underground via Dublin Castle and a stone tunnel into the Liffey.

River Liffey

Dublin is a very cosmopolitan city with a strong component of EU citizens working or visiting and a largely Georgian and Victorian feel, in part owing to English/British control or occupation since the mid-1100s through independence in 1922. Being an island in the Dark Ages meant you had to put up with invaders. First of these were Norse raids which started in the 8th Century, followed by occupation such that the eventually assimilated Norse-Gael kingdoms became a dominant military and social force. The traditional neat dividing line between Norse and Irish dominance of Dark Ages Ireland is the Battle of Clontarf (1014), where Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, defeated the Norse-Irish alliance but lost his life. More recent historical interpretation suggests the transition between Norse and Irish rule of Ireland was more protracted; but either way, Clontarf today is a pleasant coastal suburb of Dublin.

Dublin is very walkable and compact and you can cross the core areas easily enough. Here are a few ideas of places to go.

GPO Witness History Visitor Centre, O’Connell Street Lower. Located beneath the General Post Office, which the leaders of the Easter 1916 uprising used as headquarters, this is a good insight into the events leading up to and during the armed rebellion that led to Ireland’s independence in 1921. The post office was shelled by the British military, along with other parts of the city, and largely destroyed during the uprising and so this is a rebuild from 1929.

Dublin Castle, Dame Street. Dublin has been a major Irish city since the Norse invaders and the castle has been on its high ground location since the Dark Ages. The Norman invaders of England in 1066 then moved on to invade Ireland in 1169 and built a stone castle in the early 1200s, of which one complete tower survives above ground. The current castle compound is more of a Governor’s palace dating from the 18th/19th century and is now the Irish Government’s ceremonial center. It’s very grand.

As always, more fun can be had going below ground (guided tour only) to observe the original medieval castle wall and boat landing stages that would have fronted the River Poddle, with ground water still leaking up into the base of the excavation.

National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square West. The national gallery has a comprehensive Irish art collection from the 18th century onwards and a wide European collection. There is a great portrait section that captures a range of figures from Anglo-Irish artists to modern cultural icons.

Notable is a huge painting of the fair at Donnybrook, which has leant us the word for a fight or other disturbance.

St. Stephen’s Green. A large Central Park downtown, it’s a good place to grab a bench and a lunchtime sandwich and play at being an office worker. There are also various memorials scattered around amongst the well-tended flower beds, including this rather natural memorial to Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, the Fenian leader.

You can also walk a few hundred yards northeast to Merrion Square Park, opposite the house where Oscar Wilde grew up, where there is now a statue.

National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, Kildare St. Ireland has a rich archaeological heritage and the museum displays Bronze Age, Viking and medieval artifacts with plenty of context.

Trinity College, College Green. Established in 1592, Trinity College is Ireland’s oldest university and the repository for the Book of Kells, a 9th Century illuminated gospel book. It’s worth a detour to see where Edmund Burke, Jonathan Swift and Samuel Beckett studied. Book ahead online if you want to see the Book of Kells Exhibition in the library.

Little known fact: Samuel Beckett is probably Ireland’s most recognized 20th-century playwright, and worked as a lecturer at the Sorbonne in Paris at the outbreak of WW2. Despite being a citizen of a neutral country, he joined the French Resistance as a courier and was awarded the Croix de Guerre, but never really mentioned it. Samuel Beckett is also one of the few writers anywhere to have a warship named after them, an Irish Navy offshore patrol vessel.

LE Samuel Beckett

EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, Custom House Quay, North Dock. This is another innovative museum detailing the emigration experience and is particularly with a visit if you have forebears who came over, including a family history center for genealogical research.

National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street. The National Library has on ongoing museum on its lower level for important Irish writers; as of 2019 it has an excellent exhibit on the life and works of W.B. Yeats which is worth a visit. For some reason, Yeats sought research data from the Eugenics Society – which actually still exists, renamed, although while apparently membership peaked in the 1930s, its association with fascist ideology may have caused a subsequent decline.

Logistics. Dublin is very manageable and easy to get around with a very walkable central core. The airport is about 10 kilometers from the center, served by the 700/747/757 buses with a 10 euro fare each way. I stayed at the Castle Hotel on Gardiner Street which had good rooms and a solid breakfast.

F&B. There are excellent food options beyond traditional pub meat & two-veg, although those aren’t bad either. The area south of the river and east of the Castle, bounded by Trinity College in the east and St Stephen’s Green in the south, has a high concentration. Some good traditional pubs serving meals places are O’Neills (2 Suffolk Street) and Arthur’s Pub (28 Thomas Street), with L. Mulligan Grocer (18 Stoneybatter) and Delahunt, 39 Camden Street Lower, offering a higher end take on Irish food.

Given the strength of the immigrant community, there are plenty of overseas options as well such as Zaytoon (Persian, 15 Parliament St) and Admiral (Russian, at Marlborough and Cathal Brugha Streets). Obviously, the Irish pub finds it’s highest expression in Dublin and it’s hard to provide any great insights, although The Hairy Lemon (Stephen Street Lower), The Brazen Head, 20 Lower Bridge St, and Mulligan’s (8 Poolbeg St) are worth a visit. Live Celtic session music is common. Craft beer is making it’s entry into what is a well-served market and decent places to try Irish microbrews include The Brew Dock (1 Amiens St), The Beer Market (13 High St), and the Black Sheep (61 Capel St).

Paris through the Side Door

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Paris, center of global overtourism. Fancy going? If so, minimize your impact, use public transit and avoid getting sucked into crowded situations with your fellow visitors. Going off-season still helps but off-season isn’t as off as it used to be.

Let’s start with some basic ideas:

Try the East. Paris is organized into neighborhoods (the Arrondisements), sequentially numbered in a clockwise spiral. The 10th-11th are northeast and east of the center, running from around the Gare due Nord through Place de la Republique south to Place de la Bastille. These are regular neighborhoods with plenty of local amenities, great restaurants and good markets.

You’re also quite close to Gare de Nord, which takes you on rail routes north and is convenient for the train accessing Charles de Gaulle airport. You are also just east of the Marais, which is an interesting if post-hip windy medieval neighborhood, and a short metro ride south to the Left Bank areas.

Chez Janou, Marais

Place de la Republique gets it’s share of demonstrations and there is usually something going on. In 2015, it was piled with lit candles after the Bataclan terrorist attacks, in 2019, it was the turn of Algerian residents to suggest a change of their government.

There are plenty of good markets to pick up stuff in the neighborhood either for lunch in a park or to bring home – try the Marché Popincourt along Rue Richard Lenoir north of Rue Oberkampf; further south, the Bastille market along Rue Richard Lenoir north of Place Bastille; or just west in the Marais, the Marché Des Enfants Rouges, Rue de Bretagne, 75003.

The Metro is your Friend. The Paris metro gets you around the central part of the city in about 20 minutes – if you like to walk, and you should, just buy a 10-ticket pack for about 15 Euro at the vending machines by most of the entrances. In short, you don’t need to be near what you want to see. There are a lot of quirky and ironic posters to distract you around the metro:

Avoid the High Points. You can always save the Louvre, Eiffel Tower or Montmartre for another time, or never, but in doing so you avoid heavy traffic. Having said that, the Sacré-Cœur cathedral at the top of Montmartre is a funky pile, completed as recently as 1914, and you get a good view. It just depends how much you like tourist trams.

But enough of the caveated negativity. Here are some ideas of things to do.

Atelier des Lumières, 38 Rue Saint-Maur. A former 19th Century factory, the Atelier hosts great sound and light events. The Van Gogh exhibit running through 2019 is worth seeing, but book ahead, online. https://www.atelier-lumieres.com/en/home

Monsieur Matthieu, 101 Rue du Chemin Vert is a good place to get lunch nearby.

Gare Musée d’Orsay, 1 Rue de la Légion d’Honneur. If you want to see just one art exhibit, go here for the most comprehensive collection of 19th-20th century French art worldwide. It will likely be very busy although it appears to cool off mid-afternoon onwards. As ever, you can book ahead online.

Centre Pompidou, Place Georges-Pompidou. Easily sighted as a 1970s-era big square building with structural frames and mechanical/electrical systems placed outside the building, it houses the National Museum of Modern Art. If you are limited to just two art exhibits, make this your second. The Louvre isn’t going anywhere.

Grand Palais, 3 Avenue du Général Eisenhower. This hosts periodic exhibitions rather than being a permanent display. They can be pretty cool. The history student in me enjoyed Rouge – Soviet art and culture, which is running in 2019.

Petit Palais. Opposite the Grand Palais, and worth a pass through with free entry, and there is a good selection of mainly French art through the ages.

Musee de Cluny, 28 Rue du Sommerard. This is a medieval art museum, however the real treat is in the basement, to see some well-preserved 3rd Century Roman baths. Paris developed as a major city of Roman Gaul, but there are few significant remaining structures, in part because of constant redevelopment from the medieval era onwards, when there was less compunction about demolishing ancient buildings and re-using the materials. In contrast, Rome has a ton of preserved structures in part owing to depopulation after the implosion of the Roman Empire, not seeing its imperial level of about a million inhabitants restored until the early 20th century.

The Left Bank. The Left Bank, located in the 6th Arrondissement, is anchored by the Paris-Sorbonne University area and is a general place of residence for it’s prolific intellectual class and student population, as well as various literary migrants such as Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway, etc. It’s just a nice place to walk around. Most US-based literature undergrads will make a beeline for Shakespeare & Sons, a 1920s-era English language bookstore, so skirt round that. There are plenty of unironic specialty bookstores, many catering to academics on most subjects under the sun, whether it be run by Russian emigres pining for the Tsar or offering technical documents in Brazilian Portuguese.

Logistics

Paris has excellent public transit – walk for the view and then take the metro or the regional transit rail (RER) for speed. If you arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG), the RER journey is about 20 minutes to Gare de Nord for a bit over 10 Euro one-way. You can purchase a multi-day travel card although if you are walking a fair bit then a 10-pack of tickets (a carnet) is about 15 euro. RER and metro tickets are interchangeable within the (Zone 1) city area, so if you are planning to day trip out to Versailles or Vincennes, it’ll be a specific RER ticket. This website is helpful https://www.ratp.fr/en/

The Paris Pass. This is rather useful if you plan to cram a lot in a shorter visit, as it covers or discounts museum entry and the metro, as well as providing fast track entry to some of the busier museums such as the Louvre and the Orsay https://www.parispass.com/how-it-works/. There are also museum and attractions-only variants and it comes in 2, 3, 4 or 6 day versions.

Catering. No shortage of good places to go, obviously. Places visited in the east along bistro lines included Le Baratin, 3 Rue Jouye-Rouve; Chez Janou, 2 Rue Roger Verlomme; Bistrot des Vosges, 31 Boulevard Beaumarchais; and Café de l’Industrie, 16 Rue St Sabin. All had great French standards without being fussy about it. There are plenty of good West African restaurants in the area, including Le Village, 86 Avenue Parmentier and the Waly-Fay Senegalese Restaurant, 6 Rue Godefroy Cavaignac.

Craft Beer. This is now a thing in Europe and of course needs careful reporting. France is a little behind compared to the Italians but there are decent outlets featuring mostly French craft beer, in the eastern part of the city, including:

Le Fine Mousse, 6 Avenue Jean Aicard: Roughly translated as “beer froth mustache” this place probably has the best selection and overall space to hang out in. Their sister restaurant of the same name, which aims to pair food with beer, is nearby.

Hoppy Corner, 34 Rue des Petits Carreaux: Another comprehensive selection although a bit of a sweatbox in the main rear sitting area.

Les Berthrom, 35 Boulevard Voltaire: Excellent mostly Belgian draft selection with a great bottle menu and a kitchen available. A few non-Belgians on tap as well.

Le Trois 8, 11 Rue Victor Letalle: Smaller selection and a small space but worth a visit.

Express de Lyon, 1 Rue de Lyon: Belgian-focused with a food menu, right opposite the Gare de Lyon.

Ostend: On the Beach

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Ostend is Belgium’s prime seaside resort, dating from the first flush of post-independence national pride in the 1840s. It is a bit more workaday now, with much of the 19th century buildings demolished by war or more recent wrecking balls. The beachfront has fallen victim to developers of 10-storey apartment buildings, which appear empty of people, at least in March, to complement the wide, wind-blown off-season beach. Busier in the Summer, Spring is the perfect time to come and take a look.

There is plenty of marine stuff to see, including a 1930s-era sail training and scientific expedition ship, the Mercator, moored in the main marina opposite the railway station http://www.zeilschipmercator.be/en/mercator/.

Ostend is worth exploring if you want some sea air and are done with the crowds and renaissance quaintness of Bruges, just 30 minutes away by rail. The bracing seafront allows for beach time in the summer, but not at other times of the year.

Retreating Artists. Like many corners of countries, Ostend has it’s claim as an artist’s hideout, notably Marvin Gaye, who came here in 1981 at the invitation of Freddy Clousaert, a concert promoter, to recover from a period of drug abuse. One good way to get a structured walk around the city is to follow in Marvin’s footsteps with the city’s Midnight Love tour as he recuperated and wrote a few songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IpLIR8IImc Head to the tourist office to upload the tour https://www.visitoostende.be/en/marvingaye. The painter James Ensor was from Ostend and lived there for almost his entire life, and has a good display at the local art museum.

Mu.ZEE. The Mu.ZEE, Ostend’s contemporary art museum at Romestraat 11, is worth a visit as it gives good insight into an energetic period of Belgian art, with focus on artists such as James Ensor and Leon Spillaert.

Léon Spilliaert, Self-portrait.

The MuZEE is a good way to see some of Belgium’s often eccentric 19th-20th century visual art tradition which includes, for reference:

Rene Magritte (1898-1967), surrealist painter.
James Ensor (1860-1949), expressionist, surrealist painter. Liked Ostend and stayed there.
Paul Delvaux (1897-1994), occasionally surrealist but very dreamscapy.
Léon Spilliaert (1881- 1946), symbolist and expressionist painter.

The Atlantic Wall. Ostend was badly shelled in World War II, although heavily fortified against coastal invasion by German occupiers both in World War I and more extensively in World War II as part of the Atlantic Wall, which ran from western France to northern Norway. This section was one of the most heavily fortified, because the Germans incorrectly assessed the main invasion threat as being in the Pas de Calais area, just west of Ostend, when in fact the Allies did two things (1) conduct an extensive intelligence deception effort to confirm that belief, including running fake military radio networks and (2) invading further west in Normandy.

There is an excellent preserved complex, the Raversyde Atlantikwall, 6 kilometers along the coast southwest of town, which you can access in a 15-minute coastal tram ride. These fortifications are in good condition, in part because the war passed them by and they didn’t get flattened. Buy your out and back tram ticket and get on at the Marie Joseplein tram stop, getting off at the Raversijde Domein stop (not the Oostende Raversijde stop). You cross over the sand dunes by the steps and path just east of the stop; once over the dunes head east to the entrance: https://www.raversyde.be/en/atlantikwall

Depending on your level of interest, you can easily spend two hours roaming the well-preserved and restored battlements and bunkers, including a faithful recreation of the commanding officers’ cottage.

The Kursaal. Depending on the season, the Kursaal Casino, apart from being a fine example of post-war Belgian modernism, has an extensive concert program which kicks in towards summer, and their calendar is worth checking before you go, especially if you miss 80s Europop and other eclectic acts, including a Frank Zappa homage. https://www.kursaaloostende.be/nl/kalender Check out the Marvin Gaye at the piano statue – he performed here during his retreat.

Logistics. Ostend is quite compact as befits it’s 19th century origins, and the rather grand Victorian railway station is a 10-minute walk on the quayside east of the city center. If you finish your Belgian trip here, you can connect to the Eurostar at Brussels Midi railway station.

There are plenty of food options and the Apero Fish Palace at Nieuwstraat 5 is a great seafood place. Café Botteltje at Louisastraat 19 has a comprehensive and well-kept Belgian beer selection and also serves food. Mussels are a local specialty (with fries of course) and two places to go are the Het Mosselhuis on Nieuwstraat 14 and Kombuis on Van Iseghemlaan 24. There is plenty of apartment accommodation on airbnb and the central hotels are decent – I stayed at the City Partner Hotel Ter Streep on Leopold II-laan 14, which was fine.

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Logistics

Ostend: On the Beach