Items18The creator’s order
  1. 1GhentGhentGhent has the canals and guild houses of a postcard town but the energy of a university city, so the Graslei quays fill with locals and students on any warm evening, not just tour groups. Since its 2017 circulation plan pushed through traffic out of the center, the old core is easy to wander…0
  2. 2LjubljanaLjubljanaLjubljana's old center is largely closed to cars, and the banks of the Ljubljanica river are lined with café terraces that stay busy well into the evening. Architect Jože Plečnik shaped much of what you walk through, from the two pedestrian spans he added to the Triple Bridge to the Central Market,…0
  3. 3BergenBergenBergen packs a lot into a short walk. The wooden Hanseatic wharf of Bryggen, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, sits a few minutes from the Fish Market at the head of the harbor, and the Fløibanen funicular takes about six minutes to reach Mount Fløyen for views over the city and fjord. Food…0
  4. 4San SebastiánSan SebastiánSan Sebastián turns dinner into the evening's entertainment. In the Parte Vieja, the old town, the custom is to move from bar to bar ordering a pintxo or two at each, so nothing needs booking and nobody minds a slow pace. Days split between La Concha, the beach that curves around the bay right by…0
  5. 5PortoPortoPorto is steep, so every walk comes with a view. The Ribeira riverfront tumbles down to the Douro, and crossing the double-decker Dom Luís I Bridge brings you to the port wine lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia for an afternoon tasting. Start a morning at the Bolhão Market for fish, cheese and flowers,…0
  6. 6StrasbourgStrasbourgStrasbourg's old center sits on an island ringed by the Ill river, and that Grande Île has been on UNESCO's World Heritage list since 1988, so the best of the city is one easy loop. The Gothic cathedral and its astronomical clock fill a morning, the half-timbered lanes of Petite France fill the…0
  7. 7Freiburg im BreisgauFreiburg im BreisgauFreiburg is a university town on the edge of the Black Forest, and its rhythm is set by the Münstermarkt: from Monday to Saturday, up to 130 stalls fill the square around the minster each morning with produce, flowers and grilled sausages to eat on the spot. Small stone channels called Bächle run…0
  8. 8SalzburgSalzburgSalzburg's compact old town sits between the Salzach river and the cliff crowned by Hohensalzburg Fortress, so a weekend falls naturally into fortress, cathedral, Mozart's birthplace on Getreidegasse and long breaks in the coffee houses. The lanes get busy with day-trippers by midday, but the…0
  9. 9BaselBaselBasel is the pick for a summer weekend in the water. On hot afternoons locals float down the Rhine through the middle of town, clothes stuffed into waterproof swim bags, and four small ferries with no engines, pushed across by the river's current alone, link the two banks. On a rainy day the…0
  10. 10MaastrichtMaastrichtMaastricht feels more Burgundian than Dutch: long lunches, café terraces spilling onto the Vrijthof square and a food culture closer to neighboring Belgium's than to Amsterdam's. Boekhandel Dominicanen, a bookshop fitted inside a former 13th-century Dominican church, is worth an hour even if you…0