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Suddenly
it's one of the three best months to travel just about anywhere
in 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 guarentees 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 | Travel Directory
Europe
Festivities: see European
Festivals or Arts
Festivals for more suggestions, information and some precise
dates.
Italy:
Feast of San Nicola in Bari, the Feast of San Gennaro in Naples,
the Festival of Snakes in Abruzzo.
France:
Cannes Film Festival.
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.
For
sightseeing/culture in reasonably comfortable weather conditions:
Spain
[esp.Barcelona, Seville,
Granada, Cordoba, Madrid]
Portugal
[esp. Lisbon,
Sintra,
Evora]
Italy
[esp. Venice, 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. Geneva, Zurich, Lucerne, 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]
European
Country Pictures:
Austria | Croatia | Czech Republic | England | Finland | Germany | Greece | Iceland | Italy | Monaco | Netherlands
[Holland] | Norway | Portugal | Russia | Spain | Sweden | Switzerland | Turkey
European
City Pictures:
Amsterdam
| Athens
| Budapest
| Edinburgh
| Florence | Florence | Genoa
| Lisbon
| London
| Madrid
| Paris
| Prague
| Rome
| Venice
| Vienna
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