Off-track

Summary

Route 45 in our Europe by Rail book links Sofia with Zagreb via Belgrade and Brod. That's just the route once followed by the Orient Express. It features in both the 1974 and 2017 versions of the film Murder on the Orient Express. But neither film was shot on location in the Balkans.

hidden europe 54 / Snippet / By hidden europe

The geography of the silver screen often has little bearing on reality. In the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express, many train scenes were shot in rural France and at one point where the railway parallels a road — an arrangement which suits film-makers — a clearly visible borne routière (milepost) helpfully confirms the location in the Doubs region of eastern France.

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Editorial hidden europe 54
Editorial

By hidden europe

In hidden europe 54 we feature a long-distance hiking trail in the Balkans, visit chess-mad Yerevan and spend a night in a castle in Austria's Burgenland region. We explore the art of salt harvesting in Lanzarote and combine our passion for wine and rail travel by reviewing some of the finest train trips through Europe's premier vine-growing regions. All this and much more besides.

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Peaks of the Balkans: Discovering the Lhasa of Europe
Feature

By Rudolf Abraham

The Peaks of the Balkans trail is a long-distance hiking route, in the shape of a figure-of-eight, which takes in some of the finest mountain terrain in northern Albania and adjacent parts of Kosovo and Montenegro. Rudolf Abraham describes how the trail opens up international frontiers in a region where crossing borders was until recently rarely easy.

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Checkmate in Yerevan: Meeting Armenia's Chess Whizz-Kids
Feature

By Emma Levine

Armenia is the first country in the world to include chess on the school curriculum. Since 2011, all children in Armenia aged six to eight have compulsory chess lessons. Emma Levine explores how the great game of strategy is part of the fabric of Armenian life.

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Vintage Views: Railways and Wine Tourism
Feature

By Nicky Gardner

What better way to survey some of the world's great vineyards than from the comfort of a train cruising slowly through a region celebrated for its fine wines? Ideally with a glass of wine to hand! We explore opportunities for rail-wine tourism in Spain, Hungary, France, Portugal and further afield.

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Lanzarote's White Gold: The Dying Art of Salt Harvesting
Feature

By Diego Vivanco

Guest writer Diego Vivanco takes us on a tour of the salt works at Janubio on Lanzarote, where Modesto Perdomo worked for over forty years. Now this industrial landscape is finding new life as a conservation zone where visitors can discover the Canarian art of salt harvesting.

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Wordcraft: A Wander through the World of Words
Perspective

By Nicky Gardner

New Nature Writing may not be so new after all. But it taps a vein of nostalgia, reasserting aspects of landscape and nature from which we have become detached by modernity. Whatever its history, a new cadre of nature writers are doing much to revitalise travel writing. It is part of a wider movement to rewild the English language.

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Remembering Paul: A Tribute to Paul Hadfield, 1941-2018
Words

By Nicky Gardner

We pay tribute to Paul Hadfield who died on 26 January 2018. Paul was an educator and a poet, a good friend and a deeply thoughtful man. He contributed to hidden europe on three occasions and as part of the tribute, we include a fourth poem by Paul in this issue.

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Reel Fun: Scotland's Mobile Cinema
On location

By Nicky Gardner

In the early days of the Soviet Union, the Bolsheviks used mobile cinemas as a vehicle for political propaganda. These days, Scotland also has a mobile cinema, but here the purpose is pure entertainment. Everyone smiles when The Screen Machine rolls in, bringing mobile cinema to remote, rural communities far from any modern multiplex.

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A Night at Burg Bernstein
Special spaces

By Duncan JD Smith

Guest contributor Duncan JD Smith conjures up the spirit of an Austro-Hungarian borderland when he visits Burg Bernstein - a fortified country house in the rippled hills of Austria's Burgenland region.

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Going Against the Flow: Taking the Unofficial Way to IJmuiden
Routes

By Nicky Gardner

We explore a secret road which crosses locks and sluices to give access to an industrial landscape on the coast of Holland. It's a rare opportunity to see how work is progressing on Europe's largest sea-lock.

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The Other United States: An Island Polity
Hidden histories

By Nicky Gardner

This is the story of the other United States, a territory which surely rates as one of the oddest polities ever to appear on the map of Europe. It had seven constituent states and existed from 1815 to 1864. It used the obol as its currency and its postage stamps featured the head of the English monarch.

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The Spinetta Report
Snippet

By hidden europe

In the future it may not be so easy to take the slow train from Sospel to Tende. Or from Clermont-Ferrand to Nîmes. Jean-Cyril Spinetta's February 2018 report to President Macron is not good news for regional rail routes in France. It may be overdoing it to call Spinetta the French Beeching - but the fallout from the report is worth watching.

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Off-track
Snippet

By hidden europe

Route 45 in our Europe by Rail book links Sofia with Zagreb via Belgrade and Brod. That's just the route once followed by the Orient Express. It features in both the 1974 and 2017 versions of the film Murder on the Orient Express. But neither film was shot on location in the Balkans.

Read on
On a Starry Night
Snippet

By hidden europe

To walk in solitude in the company of stars is indeed something special. It's a chance to attend to the beauty of the heavens. In the Austrian village of Großmugl, the 1500-metre long Sternenweg is a gift to stargazers.

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Preview: hidden europe 55
Preview

By hidden europe

A look ahead at hidden europe 55 which will be published on 11 July 2018.

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hidden europe 54

Off-track

Summary

Editorial

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Perspective

Words

On location

Special spaces

Routes

Hidden histories

Snippet

Snippet

Snippet

Preview

Conflicts of interest: Mining and World Heritage

The lost kingdom

Rites of Passage: Hoek van Holland and the Nieuwe Waterweg