The Athus factor

Summary

Never heard of Athus? It's a small town in south-east Belgium through which you must route if you wish to travel by train from London to Poland's Baltic coast for just €120 return.

hidden europe 67 / Snippet / By hidden europe

Suddenly there is good reason to change trains at Athus, a former steelmaking town in south-east Belgium. There are some small communities around Europe which have over decades assumed mythical status in the high theology of international rail fares. Some of these places are tariff points at or close to frontiers which were important in defining the building blocks which, linked together, allowed agents to sell through rail tickets from London to Athens or Copenhagen to Madrid. Yes, there was a time even in the pre-tech era when such things were possible. Vallorbe and Bellegarde were two such tariff points, both on the French-Swiss border.

As member with online access, you can sign in to read the rest of this article online.

Editorial hidden europe 67
Editorial

By hidden europe

In hidden europe 67, we go mountain hiking in Croatia's Kvarner region, ponder the relationship between mining and cultural heritage, take to the rails in Germany with a wonderful slow travel deal and discover a former Catholic seminary in the Braes of Glenlivet. We also visit both Hoek van Holland and Harwich and make tracks for an unsung delta on the Adriatic.

Read on
Učka and Ćićarija: Mountain hiking by the Opatija Riviera
Feature

By Rudolf Abraham

Guest contributor Rudolf Abraham takes to the hills above Croatia's Kvarner Gulf. There he discovers landscapes of rare beauty and some interesting reminders of Rijeka's recent status as a European Capital of Culture.

Read on
Rites of Passage: Hoek van Holland and the Nieuwe Waterweg
Feature

By Nicky Gardner

Hoek van Holland is a liminal spot, a place not quite of the land and not quite of the sea. We make time for a Dutch town through which generations of sea travellers have passed but few lingered.

Read on
City of the Golden Fleece: Batumi, Georgia
Feature

By Laurence Mitchell

Glitzy casinos and gilded statues tell of Batumi's ambitions to become the Dubai of the Black Sea. But the Georgian city curates an important cultural legacy as the supposed home of the Golden Fleece. Guest contributor Laurence Mitchell slips over the border from Turkey into Georgia to explore Batumi.

Read on
Landscape poetics: Along the Adriatic shore
Feature

By Nicky Gardner

The challenge in the flatlands around the Po Delta in Italy is to balance environmental interests in a fragile landscape with the needs and expectations of a growing number of visitors.

Read on
Conflicts of interest: Mining and World Heritage
Heritage

By Nicky Gardner

UNESCO's World Heritage List includes many citations which showcase former mining activities. The extractive industries have led to the development of some of Europe's most distinctive cultural landscapes. But the recent addition of a gold mining site in Romania to the list sparks tensions between conservation and economic interests.

Read on
An Essex backwater: Discovering Harwich
Counterpoint

By Nicky Gardner

The old town of Harwich, a port in the county of Essex on England's North Sea coast, is tucked away on the end of a peninsula. Maritime connections have shaped the development of Harwich. It's a place for sea breezes, rock oysters and watching the ferries come and go.

Read on
The last poet: Farewell, Pushkin
Hidden histories

By Nicky Gardner

The last of the Soviet Union's great ocean liners outlived the Soviet Union. The MS Aleksandr Pushkin made her first visit to Tilbury (in the lower reaches of the River Thames) in April 1966. For over half a century, this classic ship was a regular visit to Tilbury. Renamed the MS Marco Polo, she arrived in Tilbury the very last time in March 2020.

Read on
Blessings from Heaven: The journey to Scalan
Special spaces

By Nicky Gardner

We venture south, following Livet Water up into the Braes of Glenlivet. This area survived as an outpost of Catholicism in post-Reformation Scotland. At Scalan, on the lower flank of the Ladder Hills, a secret seminary trained priests in the 18th century until the time when a more permissive attitude to Catholicism meant that the Church could function more openly.

Read on
Changing places: Adaptive architecture
Design

By Nicky Gardner

Would you sleep in a former abattoir that had been converted into a hotel? Or a prison? Or an asylum? We look at how hotels cope with history, drawing mainly on a lovely example of a Dutch monastery which has been transformed into a striking hotel.

Read on
A chance to wander: Summer travels in Germany
Railscan

By Nicky Gardner

Never has the chance for just wandering come with so low a price tag. We take a look at Germany's summer travel bargain: a month-long rover ticket which costs just €9 for nationwide travels and even a few cross-border excursions into Germany's neighbours.

Read on
Adventures of the Jadran
Snippet

By hidden europe

The Jadrolinija shipping routes of yesterday saw sailings from Venice to Piraeus with half a dozen stops along the way. It was possible to sail direct from Opatija to Corfu or from Venice to Rijeka. We take a look at inshore shipping down the eastern shores of the Adriatic.

Read on
Branding Glenlivet
Snippet

By hidden europe

Rarely has a beverage gained such a boost from a royal namecheck as when George IV arrived in Scotland and requested a glass of Glenlivet. At the time, the distillery at Glenlivet was an 'under-the-radar' affair operating outwith the law.

Read on
The Athus factor
Snippet

By hidden europe

Never heard of Athus? It's a small town in south-east Belgium through which you must route if you wish to travel by train from London to Poland's Baltic coast for just €120 return.

Read on
Reading Celati
Snippet

By hidden europe

The Italian wordsmith Gianni Celati, who died in January this year, was not best known for his travel writing. It was for Celati a sideline in a career that mainstreamed on literature and culture. We take a look at some of Celati's work.

Read on
10000 steps
Snippet

By hidden europe

The EU-funded EXCOVER initiative reveals how lesser-frequented regions of the Adriatic coastline have real potential to alleviate pressure in tourist hotspots. One of the EXCOVER case studies is the Po Delta region of Italy.

Read on
Preview hidden europe 68
Preview

By hidden europe

A look ahead at hidden europe 68 which will be published on 10 November 2022.

Read on

hidden europe 67

The Athus factor

Summary

Editorial

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Heritage

Counterpoint

Hidden histories

Special spaces

Design

Railscan

Snippet

Snippet

Snippet

Snippet

Snippet

Preview

Pure theatre: homage to Lake Lucerne

Marking Time: New Train Services for 2020

An Essex backwater: Discovering Harwich