Things to Do in Europe

Some 300,000 protected date palms rustle above ancient Elche (Elx), the legacy of 6th-century Phoenician gardeners, though the city is older still. They line the banks of the Vinalopó River, along with Elche's most magnificent buildings.

Far removed from the golden sands and azure waters of Lanzarote’s principal beach resorts, the coastal landscape of El Golfo harbors one of the island’s most unique geological areas. A rare  example  of  an  ancient hydro-volcano,  a  combination  of  volcanic  eruptions  and  sea erosions have imprinted the shore with a half-moon shaped crater lake, Lago Verde (Green Lake), separated from the sea by a stretch of black sand.

In 1934, a jeweler by the name of Leonard Dahlen rented his shop to the National Socialist Party, better known as the Nazis. Officially, the building was repurposed as the Nazi Documentation Center, but the Nazis soon set up the shop as the headquarters of the Gestapo, the party’s secret police. Its basement made room for cells and torture stations, where a parade of the regime’s victims - Jews, Roma, homosexuals and other political enemies -  were imprisoned and treated savagely for the better part of a decade. Miraculously, when most of Cologne was destroyed during the Allies’ bombardment, the EL-DE Haus remained completely intact.
Today, the building is a memorial to the victims of the Nazi’s fascist regime.

In 1981, the government opened the basement to the public and in 1987, the Nazi Documentation Center was also opened, permanently featuring an exhibit detailing life in Cologne under the National Socialist government. Part of the exhibit features the testimony of a Communist sympathizer and resistance fighter named Martha Mense, who was held for five months and interrogated there for the crime of printing anti-Hitler literature.

While the subject matter is certainly grim, the museum is one of two German museums to  have won the European Heritage Association’s prestigious Best in Heritage award, a prize given only to select museums.

A small corner of Barcelona's Cuitat Vella, or Old City, El Born lies just south of La Ribera, close to the city’s coastal ports. With its narrow streets and historic squares teeming with cafés, El Born is full of character and a perfect place to escape the bustle of the city’s more touristy areas.

The tree-lined Passeig del Born is at the heart of the district, casting off its origins as a medieval jousting arena in favor of a modern shopping and nightlife hub, presided over by the imposing façade of the gothic St Mary of the Sea Cathedral. A cosmopolitan blend of locals and tourists fill the square’s many tapas restaurants, cocktail lounges and chic wine bars during the evening hours, making it the perfect place to unwind after a day’s sightseeing or catch up with friends in some of the city’s most fashionable haunts.

El Born also houses some of the city’s key attractions, most significantly the Parc de la Ciutadella, or Ciutadella Park, a 74-acre park centered around the striking Catalan Parliament building and fronted by the impressive Arc de Triomf. Barcelona Zoo is also part of the park, home to around 7,500 animals including dolphins, orangutans and snow leopards. The streets also harbor a collection of fascinating museums including the Picasso museum, devoted to the iconic Spanish artist; the Textile Museum, which pays tribute to the area’s humble beginnings as a textile manufacturing site; the unique Mammoth museum; and a Chocolate Museum.

With its peculiar stacked rocks and knobbly karst towers, the otherworldly landscape of El Torcal is one of Spain’s most unique natural landscapes, formed over 150 million years ago, by the movement of tectonic plates beneath the ocean. Now a protected nature reserve, El Torcal’s unusual terrain is celebrated both for its remarkable geology and its diverse wildlife, and the rocky landscape is home to around 700 different plant species and a colorful array of nesting and migratory birds. 

The gorgeous old Moorish town of Ronda is high in the foothills of the Sierra de las Nieves and was occupied by the Phoenicians and Muslims before the Spanish re-conquered Andalusia in 1485. It teeters precariously atop the El Tajo Gorge, with jaw-dropping views across the rugged countryside, and is one of the few towns in the world to be split in two by a ravine.

The rocky, sheer-sided limestone cliffs of El Tajo Gorge plummet 390 ft (120 m) to Guadalevín River far below and at its narrowest it is only 225 ft (68 m) wide. Over the millennia the river has carved out this massive canyon as it is fed by snow melt in spring. Three bridges span the gorge and the biggest of these is the triple-arched Puente Nuevo, which was built in the late 18th century. It has become one of the most iconic images of Spain.

Start an exploration of the gorge from the pathway that leads down behind the tourist office in Plaza España, just on the north side of the Puente Nuevo. There are shallow steps down into the gorge and clearly marked miradors (viewpoints) all along the way. In places the path is steep and uneven but the spectacular views, both across the gorge and back up to the Puente Nuevo, more than compensate.