The top ten most festive markets in Europe have been revealed, with Kraków Christmas Market in Poland ranking in first position. Travel insurance experts at Quotezone.co.uk have created the 2024 Christmas Market Index to help Christmas loving travellers get the most for their money during the festive season. The index ranks ten popular Christmas markets across Europe based on how festive they are, using factors such as average temperature and snowfall in December, number of stalls and length of days the market runs. The index even measures the distance of the various Christmas markets to Santa’s home in Lapland, with those closer scoring highest in the ranking so that holiday makers can make it the ultimate European festive break – planning trips to visit Santa a...
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Worst European countries for pickpocketing revealed Recent data has revealed 87% of tourists feel like they have to take steps to protect themselves and their valuables from pickpockets while travelling. Travel insurance experts at Quotezone.co.uk have provided some pointers on how to stay safe from pickpockets in top holiday destinations. Quotezone’s European pickpocketing index revealed which tourist hotspots have the highest pickpocketing rates, with Italy, France and Spain coming out top. The research showed thousands of people have complained about their valuables being stolen when visiting iconic tourist attractions in Europe. These hotspots bring in large crowds which makes them convenient places for criminals to target unsuspecting holidaymakers. Pickpockets can move ...
Read MoreSometimes merry with fun fairs, carollers and ice rinks, other times nostalgic, Christmas markets have their roots in almost every European country over the festive season. Cathedral squares and historic lanes become giant light displays with decorated fir trees and canopies of fairy lights. Wooden huts offer a feast of edible treats and trinkets, from local cheeses to stocking fillers not usually found on the high street. One can plan a trip at this time of year just to visit the markets, which are easy to explore independently. Audley Travel have polled their Europe specialists to determine the top European Christmas markets to explore. The Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, Germany topped the list, followed by the Edinburgh Christmas Market in Scotland and the Bergen market in Norway....
Read MoreRecord-high winter temperatures swept across parts of Europe over the new year, bringing calls from activists for faster action against climate change while offering short-term respite to governments struggling with high gas prices. Hundreds of sites have seen temperature records smashed in the past days, from Switzerland to Poland to Hungary, which registered its warmest Christmas Eve in Budapest and saw temperatures climb to 18.9 degrees Celsius (66.02°F) on Jan. 1. In France, where the night of Dec. 30-31 was the warmest since records began, temperatures climbed to nearly 25C in the southwest on New Year's Day while normally bustling European ski resorts were deserted due to a lack of snow. A cable car is seen on mountain Jahorina in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina January 4,...
Read MoreCroatia has got the green light to join Europe's open travel zone, but Bulgaria and Romania were kept out because of opposition led by Austria over concerns about unauthorised immigration. From 2023, people will not have to stop for border checks as they pass between Croatia and the rest of the so-called Schengen area - the world's largest free-travel area seen as one of the main achievements of European integration. It will "shorten the journey and the wait, thank God," driver Nenad Benic said as he queued to cross the Bregana border point from Croatia into Slovenia on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Cars queue at the Slovenia-Croatia border in Dragonja, Slovenia. REUTERS/Stringer Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said he was disappointed and would apply to enter the zone again. "W...
Read MoreBritain shattered its record for highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid a heat wave that has seared swaths of Europe, as the U.K.’s national weather forecaster said such highs are now a fact of life in a country ill-prepared for such extremes. The typically temperate nation was just the latest to be walloped by unusually hot, dry weather that has triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and led to hundreds of heat-related deaths. Images of flames racing toward a French beach and Britons sweltering — even at the seaside — have driven home concerns about climate change. A man shields his eyes from the sun as he sunbathes backdropped by Tower Bridge in London, Tuesday July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Tony Hicks) The U.K. Met Office weather agency registered a provisional r...
Read MoreSouthern Europe battles wildfires as heatwave spreads north A heatwave sweeping southern Europe that has caused hundreds of deaths and huge wildfires showed some signs of abating on Monday but continued to move north, including towards Britain where authorities issued an extreme weather warning. Much of Europe is baking in a heatwave that scientists say is consistent with climate change and has pushed temperatures into the mid-40s Celsius (over 110 Fahrenheit) in some regions, with wildfires raging across tinder-dry countryside in Portugal, Spain and France. This photo provided by the fire brigade of the Gironde region (SDIS 33) shows firefighters fighting wildfire near Landiras, southwestern France, Sunday July 17, 2022 . (SDIS 33 via AP) Temperatures in some parts of souther...
Read MoreFires rage in France and Spain, UK gets first ever red ‘extreme heat’ warning Wildfires raged in southwestern France and Spain on Saturday, forcing thousands of people to be evacuated from their homes as blistering summer temperatures put authorities on alert in parts of Europe. More than 12,200 people had been evacuated from France's Gironde region by Saturday morning as more than 1,000 firefighters battled to bring the flames under control, regional authorities said in a statement. A view of trees burning amid a wildfire near Landiras, France, July 13, 2022 in this picture obtained from the fire brigade of the Gironde region (SDIS 33). SDIS 33/Handout via REUTERS "We have a fire that will continue to spread as long as it is not stabilised," Vincent Ferrier, deputy prefect fo...
Read MoreFirefighters in Spain and Germany struggled to contain wildfires on Sunday amid an unusual heat wave in Western Europe for this time of year. The worst damage in Spain has been in the northwest province of Zamora where over 25,000 hectares (61,000 acres) have been consumed, regional authorities said, while German officials said that residents of three villages near Berlin were ordered to leave their homes because of an approaching wildfire Sunday. Spanish authorities said that after three days of high temperatures, high winds and low humidity, some respite came with dropping temperatures Sunday morning. That allowed for about 650 firefighters supported by water-dumping aircraft to establish a perimeter around the fire that started in Zamora’s Sierra de la Culebra. Authorities warned...
Read MoreResearch involving palaeontologists from the Universities of Portsmouth and Southampton has identified the remains of one of Europe’s largest ever land-based hunters: a dinosaur that measured over 10m long and lived around 125 million years ago. Several prehistoric bones, uncovered on the Isle of Wight, on the south coast of England, and housed at Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown, belonged to a type of two-legged, crocodile-faced predatory dinosaur known as spinosaurids. Dubbed the ‘White Rock spinosaurid’ – after the geological layer in which it was found – it was a predator of impressive proportions. Illustration of White Rock spinosaurid. Photo Credit: Anthony Hutchings “This was a huge animal, exceeding 10 m in length and probably several tonnes in weight. Judging from some of...
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