Travel podcasts for city break fans. All the historical and cultural background you need to enjoy your visit.
Episodes
Wednesday Jul 13, 2022
Wednesday Jul 13, 2022
There might be fewer 'must-sees' in the western half of Berlin than further east, but they are winners: a glorious park which began life as a 16th century royal hunting ground and is today the green heart of everyone's Berlin; and a fascinating church, rebuilt after the devastation of World War II, combining the remains with a beautiful new church, forming both a memorial of reconciliation and a modern place of worship. Oh, and the city's very classiest department store. We guide you round the area and fill in the history and culture which will enhance your visit.
Useful links
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/tiergarten
https://www.berlin.de/sehenswuerdigkeiten/3560160-3558930-siegessaeule.html (Victory Column)
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/kaiser-wilhelm-memorial-church
https://www.zoo-berlin.de/en
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/berlin-tourist-info-centres
https://www.germany.travel/en/home.html
City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!
Check our website to find more episodes from our Berlin series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk
We love to receive your comments and suggestions!
You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk
And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
A wander down Berlin's most elegant street, Unter den Linden, to see its baroque splendour, its iconic buildings - think cathedrals, the opera house and the poignant war memorial, the Neue Wache - and maybe visit a museum or two on an island which is packed full of antiquities and art. Here is a little history, plus lots of tips on how to make the most of a day here in the heart of Berlin.
Useful links
https://www.berlinerdom.de (Berlin Cathedral)
https://www.staatsoper-berlin.de/en (The State Opera Unter den Linden)
https://www.hedwigs-kathedrale.de (St Hedwig's Cathedral)
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/neue-wache-memorial (War Memorial)
https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/museumsinsel-berlin/home (Museum Island)
https://www.humboldtforum.org/en (Humboldt Forum)
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/berlin-tourist-info-centres
https://www.germany.travel/en/home.html
City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!
Check our website to find more episodes from our Berlin series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk
We love to receive your comments and suggestions!
You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk
And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
On a first trip to Berlin you'll probably head straight for the Parliament or the Brandenburg Gate. We're doing the same, and handily, they are close together and near to lots of other top sites. We bring you a little history to explain why these two iconic monuments represent everything dear to today's Berliners - lessons from history and the freedom enjoyed in the capital today - and explain what to look out for when you visit.
Reading
Berlin, the Story of a City by Barney White-Spunner
Useful links
https://www.bundestag.de/en/visittheBundestag
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/berlin-tourist-info-centres
https://www.germany.travel/en/home.html
City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!
Check our website to find more episodes from our Berlin series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk
We love to receive your comments and suggestions!
You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk
And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!
Wednesday Jun 01, 2022
Wednesday Jun 01, 2022
There's nowhere like Berlin. A turbulent history, an unrivalled cultural richness, green and modern and laid back all at once, truly a city break destination with plenty for everyone. Here is an overview of the series, offering some geographical, historical and cultural details to set the scene for the remaining 19 episodes when we will tour all the main sites, telling you the stories behind them and bringing them to life.
Reading
City Lit Berlin edited by Heather Reyes Berlin, A Literary Guide for Travellers by Paul Sullivan and Marcel Krueger
Useful links
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/berlin-tourist-info-centres
https://www.germany.travel/en/home.html
Wednesday May 18, 2022
Wednesday May 18, 2022
A tour of Edinburgh through the eyes of the travellers, poets and novelists who captured its essence. London, compared to Edinburgh, wrote Charlotte Bronte, is as 'prose compared to poetry.' Well, we bring you lots of both, from centuries past and right up to the present day.
Useful links:
City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!
Check our website to find more episodes from our Edinburgh series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk
We love to receive your comments and suggestions!
You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk
And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!
Wednesday May 04, 2022
Wednesday May 04, 2022
A chance to dream of wonderful Scottish produce (think highland beef, Scottish salmon, raspberries), to unravel some mysteries (What are rumbledethumps? Or clootie dumplings?), to discover what’s in Scotch broth and what Burns wrote in his ‘Address to a Haggis’ and to reminisce about a proper Edinburgh afternoon tea in the 1920s. We may even mention the deep-fried Mars bar.
Useful links:
https://foodanddrink.scotsman.com
https://www.johnniewalker.com/en-gb/visit-us-princes-street
City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!
Check our website to find more episodes from our Edinburgh series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk
We love to receive your comments and suggestions!
You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk
And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
A tour of Edinburgh's galleries and a chance to get to know some of Scotland's best-known artists and paintings. That includes portraits of royalty and Enlightenment thinkers, plus the great and the good from more recent times: Sir Chris Hoy, Ian Rankin, Muriels Spark and Gray. We also cover Scottish landscape painting and scenes from rural life in the past: Pitlessie Fair, Neil Gow, (18th century touring fiddler extraordinaire), an ice-skating vicar and The Monarch of the Glen.
Useful links:
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/scottish-national-gallery
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/scottish-national-portrait-gallery
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/scottish-national-gallery-modern-art
https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/city-art-centre
https://www.rct.uk/visit/the-queens-gallery-palace-of-holyroodhouse
https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/georgian-house
https://www.rbge.org.uk (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh)
City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!
Check our website to find more episodes from our Edinburgh series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk
We love to receive your comments and suggestions!
You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk
And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!
Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
Not an episode for the faint-hearted! We have collected together a host of Edinburgh's stories on witches, grave-robbers, spectres and apparitions. Is it the 'majestic gloom' of Edinburgh's dramatic setting? The dark unknowns of the Old Town's tenements and wynds? Or the city's long history of violent murders, plagues and hangings? For whatever reason, Edinburgh is known as 'the city of ghosts' and here is a selection of the tales which explain why.
Recommended Reading:
Ghostly Tales and Sinister Stories of Old Edinburgh by Alan J Wilson, Des Brogan and Frank McGrail
Useful links:
https://greyfriarskirk.com/visit/kirkyard
City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!
Check our website to find more episodes from our Edinburgh series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk
We love to receive your comments and suggestions!
You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk
And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!
Wednesday Mar 23, 2022
Wednesday Mar 23, 2022
'It's impossible to live in Edinburgh without sensing its literary heritage everywhere' said J K Rowling and that's why we need a second episode on Edinburgh writers. We bring you the 15th century William Dunbar, writing 'The Thistle and the Rose' for the wedding of James IV and Margaret Tudor; and Ian Rankin, who says each of his novels is 'another piece of the jigsaw that is modern Scotland'; and everyone in between.
Reading
Book Lovers' Edinburgh by Allan Foster
Useful links
https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/writers-museum
City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!
Check our website to find more episodes from our Edinburgh series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk
We love to receive your comments and suggestions!
You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk
And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!
Wednesday Mar 09, 2022
Wednesday Mar 09, 2022
Edinburgh was the first city to be designated a UNESCO City of Literature and whole books have been written about its writers and their legacy. The city's Writers' Museum is dedicated to 'the big three', Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Here's a rundown of the life and works of each, plus ideas for where else to 'find' them in Edinburgh today. Enjoy!
Useful links
https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/writers-museum
City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!
Check our website to find more episodes from our Edinburgh series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk
We love to receive your comments and suggestions!
You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk
And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!