hidden europe

Duncan J D Smith

travel writer and urban explorer

Duncan JD Smith

Having worked for many years in the publishing industry selling other travel writers’ books, Duncan J. D. Smith decided in 2003 to start writing and illustrating his own. As a self-styled ‘Urban Explorer’, travel writer, historian and photographer he has embarked on a lifetime’s adventure, travelling off the beaten track in search of the world’s hidden corners and curious locations. He has so far traversed three continents in search of unusual places and people, from the bunkers of Berlin and the islands of Croatia to the deserts of Jordan and the spice farms of Zanzibar. His European findings are being published in a ground breaking series of guidebooks – the Only in... city guides – which have been designed specifically for the purpose. Volumes on Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg have already been published, with Cologne in preparation.

Duncan divides his time between England and Central Europe, and is a member of Travelwriters UK, and Writers & Photographers Unlimited. Find out more about Duncan and his work at www.duncanjdsmith.com.

Duncan has written the following feature article for hidden europe:

Cologne’s subterranean chandelier

Budapest: beneath the Hungarian capital

Vienna: beneath the Austrian capital

source: http://www.hiddeneurope.co.uk/hidden-europe-author-duncan-j-d-smith

Latest additions

Diverted via Paris

Remember the ash cloud in 2010? It had a silver lining in making stranded travellers think creatively about the journeys they wanted or needed to make. And similarly with the seasonal doses of wintry weather that play havoc with rail schedules across the continent. When we left London mid-morning yesterday, we thought we were pretty sure to arrive in Berlin by late evening. Little did we imagine that our roundabout journey would lead us to Paris (just in time for an early supper by the Gare de l'Est), nor could we foresee to be many hours later on a train full of skiers returning from the Swiss Alps to Hamburg and later breakfasting in the company of wild deer in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Across the Dardanelles

Çanakkale is a mere dot on the map, but mere dots in distant lands so often turn out to be bustling cities. And thus it is with Çanakkale, a seaport and fortress town on the east side of the Dardanelles. Çanakkale is a community of more than 100,000 people. Choose your vantage point on the waterfront with care, and you will be rewarded with fine views across the water to the great fortress at Kilitbahir across the west side of the Dardanelles.

Frisian waves

We map our way around Europe using antique guidebooks, just as we map our way through the year using long-obsolete ecclesiastical calendars. So we are in a small minority of Europeans who happen to know that today, 16 January, was long observed as the Feast of St Marcellus. Quite what happened to St Marcellus we don't know, but it seems he was ousted from his January perch by this or that papal reform sometime in the last century.

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Wonderfull train journey through open white landscapes - here and there dotted with deer.
6 days, 11 hours ago

Arrived in Hamburg Altona at 9.30. Now on ICE for final destination Berlin.
6 days, 13 hours ago

Just arriving in Hannover after a good night's rest on the Paris to Hamburg Sleeper. Looks like a cold and crisp morning.
6 days, 15 hours ago