The index of Europe.

Arriving

The continent begins before you land.

• From the United StatesThe Entry/Exit System is already at the border. ETIAS is not a thing you can buy yet. Land in the city where you mean to wake up.Ask Dexter
• From the United KingdomEurostar is a border that happens to be a train. Sleep near the station you arrive at, not at an airport you have already left.Ask Dexter
• Across the continent by railA pass is not a plan, and a reservation is not optional on the fast trains. Two bases beat six countries.Ask Dexter
• This websiteBriefings, an atlas, and Dexter. The pictures are the continent. The papers are how it fits together.Ask Dexter

Places of significance

Towers, bridges, a gate and a rock.

Eiffel TowerParisThe ColosseumRomeSagrada FamíliaBarcelonaBrandenburg GateBerlinThe AcropolisAthensCharles BridgePragueThe Grand-PlaceBrusselsThe canal ringAmsterdamBelém TowerLisbonSchönbrunnViennaThe DuomoFlorenceParliamentBudapestMilan CathedralMilanThe AlhambraGranadaThe wallsDubrovnikThe belfryBruges

Country

Cliffs, ridges, villages and a coast of five towns.

The Amalfi CoastCampaniaThe Cinque TerreLiguriaThe DolomitesSouth TyrolZermattValaisThe LuberonProvence

Contents

1. 01How Europe is actually arrangedA continent, a union, a currency, a border zone — four different maps that visitors keep treating as one.Continent · 8 min
2. 02A first ten days that leaves ParisFour nights in one city, then one other base — not seven countries and a blurred photograph of each station.Travel · 7 min
3. 03The railway, without the folkloreHow to buy a ticket, which names matter, and why a pass is not the same thing as a seat.Practical · 8 min
4. 04Borders, the Entry/Exit System, and ETIASWhat is actually in force, what is only a rumour with a payment page, and who this desk is not.Institutions · 8 min
5. 05Weather, coasts, and when to goA continent with a real winter, a hot south, and a calendar owned by schools as much as by the sun.Landscape · 6 min
6. 06Eating across the continentNot a list of dishes to collect. When people sit down, what the bill is for, and where a visitor should aim.Culture · 8 min
7. 07Museums worth the ticketWhat to pay for, what is free, and why four hours in one building is usually a mistake.Culture · 7 min
8. 08Cities you can do on footA short list of places where the hotel, the lunch and the monument can share a morning.Travel · 7 min
9. 09Paris without the queueA capital that rewards a neighbourhood, a river and a refusal to see everything. Four days is a start.Travel · 8 min
10. 10Italy beyond the three citiesRome, Florence and Venice are not the country. They are the front door, and they are already full.Travel · 8 min
11. 11Spain, in more than one climateMadrid is not Barcelona, and neither is the country. A peninsula with several correct answers.Travel · 7 min
12. 12The north, without collecting capitalsAmsterdam is the useful front door. Copenhagen is a different country. Do not staple them together to feel efficient.Travel · 7 min
13. 13Vienna, Prague, Budapest — by train, not by mythThree cities that share a railway and a reputation. They do not share a language, a currency, or a single long weekend.Travel · 8 min
14. 14Sunday, and the shape of a dayOpening hours, the long lunch, and why Monday morning is a bad time to discover a town.Practical · 6 min
15. 15France beyond ParisA country that is not a day trip from the capital, and not a single idea of food, stone or weather.Travel · 8 min
16. 16Germany, without the autobahn mythA federal country of cities, Sunday quiet, and trains that are more useful than the legend of a road with no limit.Travel · 7 min
17. 17Ireland, in the Union and outside SchengenA euro country you do not enter through the same gate as France, with a common travel area shared with Britain.Continent · 7 min
18. 18The Adriatic, without a cruiseWalled cities that are extraordinary at dawn and unbearable at the hour the ships empty. Sleep there, or do not go.Travel · 7 min
19. 19Cards, cash, and the conversion trickHow to pay without donating a percentage to a cash machine that offered to be helpful.Practical · 6 min
20. 20Further north than AmsterdamStockholm, the Baltic, and a capital on an island that is not a day trip from Copenhagen.Travel · 7 min