I grew up in Europe, where the history comes from.

- Eddie Izzard

 

The 50 countries who host both the largest and smallest nations in the world.

  • Austria

    I really feel great in Austria, I love my home and Vienna is just the best place to be.

  • Bosnia and Herzegovina

    I am hopeful that no one will forget what happened in Bosnia.

  • Bulgaria

    Bulgaria is a fascinating, beautiful, difficult country, and I fell in love with it.

  • Croatia

    Croatia has been glorious - it's so beautiful, and I want to go back as often as I can.

  • Czech Republic

    The Czech Republic are coming from behind in more than one way now.

  • Denmark

    Denmark is like a secret little place with its own special language.

  • Estonia

    Creating a new country from scratch has given Estonia the license to imagine what a country could be.

  • France

    I wanted to get far away from those who believed in cruelty, so then I went to France, a land of true freedom, democracy, equality and fraternity.

  • Finland

    My favourite country is Finland because once you get to a certain point, you can drive for hours without seeing a single person.

  • Germany

    Germany has become a country that many people abroad associate with hope.

  • Greece

    In many ways we are all sons and daughters of ancient Greece

  • Hungary

    In Hungary all native music, in its origin, is divided naturally into melody destined for song or melody for the dance.

  • Iceland

    I would like to go to Iceland to see the northern lights.

  • Ireland

    We may have bad weather in Ireland, but the sun shines in the hearts of the people and that keeps us all warm.

  • Italy

    You may have the universe if I may have Italy.

  • Ladonia

    People love Ladonia because it is a system of government that they chose; it's not an accident of birth. We share a vision for the world that we want to build together.

  • Latvia

    Latvia!

  • Liechtenstein

    Why is America the last best hope of Earth? What if it's Liechtenstein? Or, worse, Canada?

  • Lithuania

    And finally, the bald man joined in, singing out the national anthem. ‘Lithuania, land of heroes…’

  • Portugal

    I’ve got two places I like to be. Portugal is one

  • Malta

    Malta is the only country in the world where the local delicacy is the bread.

  • Monaco

    I have found serenity at Monaco.

  • Netherlands

    The whole territory of the Netherlands was girt with forests.

  • Norway

    I want to travel. Maybe I'll end up living in Norway, making cakes.

  • Romania

    I can go on forever, Romania is so beautiful!

  • Russia

    Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

  • Serbia

    Serbia is open for business.

  • Slovakia

    I don't think falling in love in Slovakia is much different from falling in love in Tunbridge Wells.

  • Spain

    Barcelona is a great city and Spain is a great country to live in.

  • Sweden

    There’s something I love about how stark the contrast is between January and June in Sweden.

  • Switzerland

    It's tough to find a place not to like in Switzerland.

  • Ukraine

    I promise everyone who comes to Ukraine can see a beautiful country.

  • United Kingdom

    The four home nations that make up our United Kingdom are bound together by historic links. We have, and always will be, better together.

Read the latest European Adventures…

Iceland Sebastian Shaw Iceland Sebastian Shaw

Reykjavik

Reykjavik is a surprisingly busy city on the west coast of Iceland. Surrounded by black volcanic stone and yellow grass the city is striking. Arctic winds blow in from the coast, and Iceland is the third windiest place in the world. Houses are generally low with sloped roofs to avoid the ever-present wind.

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Ukraine Sebastian Shaw Ukraine Sebastian Shaw

Kyiv

The city has a strange character. Deeply religious with a number of well attended churches, old and incredible architecture vies with a a number of bland modern options and scattered throughout are futurist brutalist structures of incredible strangeness.

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Serbia Sebastian Shaw Serbia Sebastian Shaw

Belgrade

Belgrade, as it is not served by any low cost airlines, is spared the stag dos and hen dos that fill other eastern European cities. As such, it's tourism is lower volume and less crass. The city is served by a good network of Trams, which are surprisingly thiner than the average tram in other cities.

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Croatia Sebastian Shaw Croatia Sebastian Shaw

Split

Tiny winding streets with old buildings, hugely driven by city break tourism rather than the more sedate options are part of the character of Split. The small tight streets in the old town have lead to the adoption of motorised cards, like you may see in a warehouse for moving goods around.

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Lithuania Sebastian Shaw Lithuania Sebastian Shaw

Vilnius

Days are identified by Roman numerals. The city has a strong resonance with Rom, the history of repeated attempts to align with the Hapsbergs and the Pope have given Vilnius an affinity from Italy as well as this there is a stronger Russian influence than I have seen in the other Baltic states, they have a soviet influence, but less of the historic Russian.

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Hungary Sebastian Shaw Hungary Sebastian Shaw

Budapest

A beautiful city with some stunning architecture, sprawling does not do this city justice, it is in fact two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube, facing each other over the river.

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Estonia Sebastian Shaw Estonia Sebastian Shaw

Talinn

“Quaint” it is both quite small and very old, storybook streets of cobblestones and brightly painted houses. Tall towers of stone topped with red tiles. The old town is a lot like the outdoor museum in Oslo, a place of history. Toompea is this even more distilled.

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Finland Sebastian Shaw Finland Sebastian Shaw

Helsinki

Sprawling across islands, inlets, it is a big place. Architecture has a lot in common with Sweden. Moomins are everywhere, they are a prized cultural thing here. There is a level of indifference to the snow and Ice that Gothenburg cannot match.

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Germany Sebastian Shaw Germany Sebastian Shaw

Düsseldorf

Architecture is varied, but there is not much of the extremely modern glass around. Brickwork dominates and it feels that even new buildings are trying to fit in. The main exception is the area around the Rhine Towner, a needle standing tall and alone on the riverside and the various modernist buildings nearby.

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Norway Sebastian Shaw Norway Sebastian Shaw

Oslo

There is a huge amount of new building work complete, or ongoing in Oslo, so the city is losing some of its charm and certain areas like the ferry terminal are very ‘Canary Wharf’ in the impression.

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Italy Sebastian Shaw Italy Sebastian Shaw

Rome

Rome has the strong distinction of being home to two of the world’s most dominant religions/cultures; the Ancient Romans and the Catholics. Much of its beauty comes from the fact that for once the Christians repurposed rather than destroyed the architecture of the ‘pagans’.

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Spain Sebastian Shaw Spain Sebastian Shaw

Barcelona

Gaudi’s influence can be felt throughout the city, even though there are in truth only a small number of his buildings in a large sprawling city the influence of colour and shape make Barcelona an interesting city. Whilst it has many of the dull square buildings that infest major cities, it also has old churches in immaculate repair and colourful shapes and sculptures scattered through the city.

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