hidden europe 33

Out of place, but not out of mind

by Nicky Gardner

Picture above: Rodin’s statue ‘The Burghers of Calais’ (photo © Tpungato / dreamstime.com).

Summary

So why does a statue of Rocky Balboa stand in a small town in northern Serbia? And why did citizens of Mostar (in Herzegovina) decide that a statue of Bruce Lee could unite their troubled town? We take a look at statues that seem improbably out of place.

hidden europe 33 / People / By Nicky Gardner

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Editorial hidden europe 33
Editorial

By hidden europe

Borders always make us think about who we are and what might lie on the other side of the frontier. To paraphrase Fernand Braudel, when we slip over the border, we change. We are suddenly foreigners. And that's a theme we play with in several articles in this issue of hidden europe.

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Orbiting Birmingham
Feature

By Nicky Gardner

Birmingham's Outer Circle bus route is a veteran among urban bus routes, dating back to the nineteen-twenties. How many Brummies who ride the Outer Circle realise that this is Europe's longest urban bus route? Probably very few. But this extraordinary bus route provides a wonderful kaleidoscope of Birmingham life as it makes a great orbit through the suburbs of England's second city.

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In search of a new role: the port city of Szczecin
Feature

By Nicky Gardner

The shipyards in Szczecin once built some the world's finest and fastest passenger liners. But today the cranes are silent, and the city of Szczecin is struggling to define its role in modern Poland. The Baltic port city is a gritty place, and all the more interesting for that.

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Border assets: travels on the frontier
Feature

By Nicky Gardner

Borders have become something of a rarity in modern Europe. We can now travel by car from northern Norway to the Mediterranean without ever once having to show a passport. Political frontiers have faded, yet cultural frontiers remain. We reflect on the role of borders in Europe today and note how erstwhile lines of division are now recast as assets for the future.

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Close encounters: Brittany
Feature

By Patricia Stoughton

The church enclosures of Finistère are spectacular pieces of architecture, marking progress from the material world (the village beyond the church) to a more spiritual realm. Patricia Stoughton has been exploring the far end of Brittany to unravel the symbolism and stories of the enclos paroissiaux (parish closes).

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Cologne’s subterranean chandelier
Hidden histories

By Duncan JD Smith

Urban explorer Duncan Smith escorts us on a journey below the streets of Cologne to see the city’s well-appointed sewers.

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Europe by Rail: Balkan images
Railscan

By Nicky Gardner

hidden europe editors Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries showcase a new book which they have edited. Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide for Independent Travellers was published in March 2011. This well-established title from Thomas Cook Publishing now has a very new look, and here the editors present extracts from a Balkan rail journey that features in the book.

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Cast in stone: the island of Rømø
Message in a bottle

By Nicky Gardner

The Danish island of Rømø is full of reminders of its erstwhile connections with the whaling industry. There are fence posts made of whalebones, and the skull of a whale stands beside the main road across the island.

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Scotland: fast ferries
Ferryscan

By Nicky Gardner

Kintyre Express, the shipping offshoot of Scottish bus company West Coast Motors, has an ambitious plan to create a new fast ferry link between the Mull of Kintyre and the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland. We take a closer look.

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Out of place, but not out of mind
People

By Nicky Gardner

So why does a statue of Rocky Balboa stand in a small town in northern Serbia? And why did citizens of Mostar (in Herzegovina) decide that a statue of Bruce Lee could unite their troubled town? We take a look at statues that seem improbably out of place.

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More than small change
Money matters

By Nicky Gardner

You probably would have no very clear idea what currency is used in Nagorno Karabakh, no indeed whether you need to tip the barber next time you stop off for a short back and sides in deepest Chechnya. We ponder the knotty business of currencies and reflect on tipping etiquette.

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Porto Santo: a desert island?
Special spaces

By Nicky Gardner

The North Atlantic island that was once home to Christopher Columbus is a mainstream tourist destination. But that did not stop Europe's media from inventively recreating it as a remote desert island to make a good news story.

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Crossing the lagoon
Snippet

By hidden europe

The Stettiner Haff or Szczecin Lagoon is one of Europe's unsung water bodies, a vast area of shallow saline water that is home to many birds. Seasonal ferry services cross the lagoon in the summer months, allowing travellers to explore this remote area on the German-Polish border.

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Girls on the bridge
Snippet

By hidden europe

A line of red and green Russian border-posts skirt the Norwegian Parliament building in Oslo. Politicians turn and look, as do casual passers-by. It is a quiet reminder that Norway really does share a common land border with Russia.

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By ferry to Russia
Snippet

By hidden europe

There is one very good reason for travelling by ferry to the Russian city of St Petersburg. For a short stay, ferry travellers are generally exempt from Russia's otherwise strict visa rules. So no surprise perhaps that St Peter Line, which already operates ferries from Helsinki to St Petersburg, is now adding new routes from Stockholm and Tallinn.

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Preview hidden europe 34
Preview

By hidden europe

A look ahead at hidden europe 34 which will be published on 15 July 2011.

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hidden europe 49: Feature

The Hills of Western Serbia

by Laurence Mitchell

Feature

There are many visions of Yugoslavia's past. Laurence Mitchell visits the hills of western Serbia to learn how heritage and history fuel the imagination. It's a journey that starts and ends in Uzice and takes in the famous Sargan Eight narrow-gauge railway.

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hidden europe 53: Snippet

Boat-shaped Graves

by hidden europe

Snippet

Lozenge-shaped graves, fashioned in the form of a ship, are a distinctive element of Bronze Age visual culture on the Baltic island of Gotland. Do these unusual graves, known as 'ship settings' have a deeper cosmological meaning?

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hidden europe 52: Snippet

Faking Bruges

by hidden europe

Snippet

The legacy of Leonid Markelov, who in April this year stood down from the position of President of the Mari El Republic, lies in the oddball architecture of the republic's capital city of Yoshkar Ola.

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