|
Suddenly
it's one of the three best months to tour Europe [the others are June and September] but best to avoid
far North Europe for a bit longer. The weather is likely to be excellent
[though it could go totally wobbly of course, no guarantees in this
business], and the big crowds are at work/school/college. Gather
ye rosebuds while ye May!
Map
of Europe | European
Walking Tours | Europe
Tours | Europe City Guides | European Pictures
Festivals:
Italy:
Feast of San Nicola in Bari, the Feast of San Gennaro in Naples,
the Festival of Snakes in Abruzzo.
France:
Cannes Film Festival. Actually that's a bad thing unless you're a film freak.
Chaumont Garden Festival - thirty wonderful and sometimes wacky
show gardens around a perfect chateau [castle], every year 15 May-19
October.
Italy,
Florence, Maggio Musicale
Fiorentino - Italy's oldest music event focuses on opera, ballet
and concerts.
England:
Isle of Man TT [motorcycle] Races, May/June.
London, Chelsea Flower Show
- 11 acres of the UK's [and arguably Europe's] best flowers and
gardens event, with plenty of original, even wacky ideas.
Glyndbourne Festival Opera [in a Stately Home outside London], late
May-early July.
Netherlands: Tulip season.
Czech
Rep.: Prague Spring International
Music Festival.
Austria:
Vienna International Festival
from mid-May to mid-June; a wide range of arts, especially music,
naturally, but also dance and theatre, sometimes challenging pieces,
all set in magnificent buildings.
Italy,
Vogalonga in Venice - hundreds
of small, manpower boats race 30km, finishing in the Grand Canal.
Greece,
Athens
Festival - drama, dance and music in the 2,000 year old outdoor
Odeion theatre at the base of Acropolis Hill. Location, location.
Also see European
Festivals or Arts
Festivals for suggestions, information and
dates.
For
sightseeing/culture in reasonably comfortable weather conditions:
Spain
[especially Barcelona, Seville,
Cadiz, Granada, Cordoba, Madrid]
Portugal
[esp. Lisbon,
Sintra,
Evora]
Italy
[esp. Florence,
Rome, Siena,
Genoa,
Pompeii, Amalfi, Sicily]
Croatia [esp. Dubrovnik, Hvar, Zagreb, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Trogir]
Greece
[esp. Athens,
the Peloponnese peninsula, Meteora,
the
islands]
France
[esp. Paris, Ile-de-France, Loire
Valley, the Alps, Burgandy, Avignon, Arles, Riviera]
UK
[esp. London, Windsor, Stonehenge,
Dorset,
Stratford,
Oxford,
York,
Lake
District, Edinburgh].
Ireland
[Dublin, Kilkenny, Wexford]
Belgium
[esp. Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp,
Bruges, the Ardennes]
Switzerland [esp. Berne, Zurich, Lucerne, Vevey, Zermatt, Jungfrau, Lake
Thun castles]
Netherlands [esp. Amsterdam,
Keukenhof Gardens, Delft, Barrier Dam, Leiden]
Austria
[esp. Vienna, Land Salzburg,
St Wolfgang, Mutters, Portschach, Bad Aussee]
Germany
[esp. Berlin, Potsdam, Munich,
Berchtesgaden, Bamberg, Heidelberg,
Lubeck]
Netherlands
[esp. Amsterdam, Keukenhof,
The
Hague, Delft,
Barrier Dam, Leiden].
Hungary
[esp. Budapest, Szentendre,
Lake Balaton, Eger]
Czech
Rep. [esp. Prague, Bohemia
province, Karlovy Vary, Karlstejn castle]
Poland [from mid-May, esp. Krakow, Tatras Mountains]
Russia,
St Petersburg
Denmark [esp.Copenhagen,
Ribe, Arhus, Mons Klint, Egeskov Castle]
Norway
[esp. Oslo, Bergen, Risor]
Sweden [esp. Stockholm, Vadstena,
Visby, Oland]
Finland
[Helsinki]
Romania
Country Pictures:
Austria | Croatia | Czech Republic | England | Finland | France | Germany | Greece | Iceland | Italy | Monaco | Netherlands
[Holland] | Norway | Portugal | Russia | Spain | Sweden | Switzerland | Turkey
City Pictures:
Amsterdam | Aix | Annecy | Arles | Athens | Avignon | Barcelona | Berne | Biarritz | Brighton | Budapest | Cadiz | Cannes | Canterbury | Edinburgh | Eze | Florence | Genoa | Grasse | Lausanne | Lisbon | London | Lucerne | Madrid | Malaga | Menton | Monaco | Montreux | Nice | Paris | Prague | Seville | Siena | Rome | Venice | Vevey | Vienna | Zurich |
