The bicycle is clearly one of the identity traits of the Netherlands, as are their canals, windmills and tulips. The flat terrain, with hardly any slopes, and the fabulous infrastructure available for this ecological means of transport, makes it the ideal land for cyclotourism. Following is our selection  of four itineraries for discovering Holland from a healthier perspective, both in terms of environment and fitness.

Route Through Amsterdam

A comfortable, entertaining way of touring the Dutch capital is by emulating most of its inhabitants and pedalling through it on two wheels. Riding comfortably along the city’s streets poses no problems, as Amsterdam is fully cycle-aware and caters specifically for bicycles. You should, however, be mindful of the rules governing the use of cycle lanes and cycling areas; otherwise, you are more than likely to be on the receiving end of a reprimand.

In addition to getting about the historic centre in search of landmarks, we recommend you head for Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Forest), where you can indulge in nature to the full. Located four kilometres from the centre, this huge park acts as the city’s green lung and leisure area. Take note!

Tulip Route

The best way to enjoy spring in Holland is by pedalling through the countryside carpeted in tulips. The most spectacular sightseeing period is in April and May, when the tulips come into flower. This route, which starts and ends in Amsterdam, will bring you into contact with nature in all its splendour. It runs for 305 kilometres and lasts 8 days, taking you to such towns as Gouda, known for its cheese; Delft, famous for its blue ceramic; Leiden, the birthplace of Rembrandt, and Haarlem, where you should make a point of visiting the museum dedicated to the painter, Franz Hals. The highlight of this itinerary is Keukenhof. This huge park, regarded as one of the most beautiful in Europe, is located between the towns of Leiden and Haarlem.

Windmill Route 

Another iconic landmark of the Netherlands are its windmills, which also have their own bicycle route. The point of departure and arrival is Bunnik, located next to Utrecht, and the itinerary involves covering 200 kilometres in six days. The high point of this trip isKinderdijk,a polder situated at the confluence of the rivers Lek and Noordt which is drained by a system of 19 windmills built around the year 1740. The route will also take you past Dordrecht, one of the oldest cities in Holland, and Gokum, set amid some fantastic scenery.

North Sea Route

The North Sea coast has some beautiful spots that make a cycling getaway well worth your while. To see it in all its splendour, we propose an itinerary of under 50 kilometres, running from The Hague to Zandvoort, which affords some beautiful sea views and takes you past lovely beaches.

You can obtain maps of these and many other routes, with details of each itinerary, from the Dutch Tourist Board. Book your Vueling here and venture through the Netherlands on their star means of transport – the bicycle.

Text by Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

Images by Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên, Mandie, Tarod

The Bauhaus School – from the German bau (construction) and haus (house) – was probably one of the most important and revolutionary driving forces in the 20th century in the fields of art, design and architecture. In the short space of merely 20 years, a team of inquiring artists and architects, influenced by the social movements of the time, managed to overturn the prevailing way of conceiving art and architecture and their relationship to society. Their achievements include laying the foundations for industrial design, graphic design and modern architecture. What’s more, they even put forward and saw implemented an alternative educational model which was ahead of its time. A host of figures succumbed to such innovation and each contributed their grain of sand, including Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Marcel Breuer and Lyonel Feininger.

A good way of taking stock of that brilliant past, which we are now so indebted to, is by visiting two cities where the movement was based –Weimar and Dessau.

Weimar – The First Steps

Weimar was the first of three centres of Bauhaus activity. No wonder, then, that this city had already been the hub of the German Enlightenment and a meeting place for intellectuals. The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius, who took his first tentative steps in the Haus Hohe Pappeln, a school of arts and crafts designed by a pioneer of modernity, Henry van de Velde.

The only building in the Bauhaus style still standing in Weimar is the Haus am Horn, built in 1923 and designed by Georg Muche, a painter and lecturer at the Bauhaus. The building was designated World Heritage of the 20th Century in 1996.

Located in the Theaterplatz is the Weimar Bauhaus Museum, a moderately sized venue devoted to the Bauhaus. A much more spacious centre is due to be inaugurated in 2018.

Dessau – The Boom

In 1925, Walter Gropius was forced to close the school in Weimar for political reasons, but he received the necessary support to move it to Dessau. Fortunately, in the case of Dessau, there are lots of buildings that have survived to the present, including the school itself, regarded as a masterpiece of European rationalism. When preparing the groundwork for your tour of the various Bauhaus landmarks in the city, we recommend you browse this website to check the times and to book your tickets, as not all the areas are admission free.

Bauhaus Building (Bauhausgebäude).The work of Walter Gropius, this is the most emblematic of the Bauhaus constructions. Built in 1925 and 1926, it is made up of various interconnecting volumes, each with a different function. Building work involved the use of industrial techniques and a striking feature of the design is the glazed frontage.

Masters’ Houses (Meisterhäuser).Located near the school, this ensemble of four residential buildings was home to the masters: Gropius, Moholy-Nagy/Feninger, Muche/Schelemer and Kandinsky/Klee. Their interiors are open to the public, except for that of Gropius, which was destroyed during the war.

Törten Estate. The work of Walter Gropius, this ensemble of 300 houses was built in 1920 in the south of Dessau. Commissioned by the City Council, it is a prototype of a housing estate and was intended to act as a model for social housing.

Kornhaus. More playful in design, this restaurant and pub overlooking the river Elbe was designed by Carl Fieger, a draughtsman in Gropius’ practice.

Berlin was the last of the Bauhaus centres, where it was located from 1932 to 1934. However, the rise of National Socialism would put an end to this brilliant core of creativity and innovation, driving it to other countries, but the mark it left has survived until the present.

From Leipzig it is an easy train ride to both Weimar and Dessau, where you can steep yourself in the Bauhaus. Check out your flight here!

Text by Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

Rabat is a little known destination and one not much frequented by tourists heading to Morocco. This is precisely one of its major attractions – the chance to enjoy its monuments and spots full of atmosphere, minus the stress associated with other cities like Marrakech, Casablanca or Fez.

The city lies on the mouth of the river Bou Regreg, on the Atlantic seaboard, and is a curious blend of the old and new. The old medina and the city walls contrast with the new city, home to the country’s administrative facilities. It is not overly big, so you can see it all in a couple of days. Following is a selection we have made of the essential sights to see when visiting Rabat.

The Hassan Tower – Splendour Cut Short

The Hassan Tower is one of Rabat’s major landmarks, the unfinished fruit of the city’s greatest age of splendour. In the 12th century, Sultan Yaqoub al-Mansour decided to build the largest mosque in the West, to which end he commissioned the same architect who had designed the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, and La Giralda of Seville. Unfortunately, the sultan died before the mosque had been completed, and construction work came to a halt. The most striking architectural feature is the minaret with its geometric designs. It was scheduled to be 86 metres high, but only 44 metres were eventually completed. The rest of the complex comprises the columns built to support 21 naves.

Alongside this ancient mosque stands the Mausoleum of Muhammad V, where the remains of the Alawite monarchs, Muhammad V and Hassan II, were laid to rest. Built between 1961 and 1971, it is a commendable example of contemporary Moroccan architecture. The project was assigned to the Vietnamese, Vo Toan, who successfully captured the essence of the country’s architectural and decorative tradition.

In Search of Origins – the Chellah Necropolis

The Chellah is a fortified precinct located some 2 kilometres from Rabat. Its interior houses, among other things, remains of the Roman city – after the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, they were the first to settle the area. Preserved in this early urban nucleus are the remains of the forum and temple of Jupiter. There are also vestiges of the early Islamic era. In the 15th century the precinct was reconverted by the Arabs into a necropolis, and features remains of tombs and a mosque.

The Kasbah of the Udayas – Rabat’s Magical Corner

Rabat is well worth visiting, if only for a tour of this walled quarter, made up of labyrinthine streets full of houses painted blue and white. The Kasbah was built in the 17th century by the Udayas on a cliff sited on the south bank of the river mouth to defend the coastline from a possible Spanish invasion. This is evident in its fortress-like character, with numerous battlements and lookouts, which now make excellent viewpoints for sightseers. In addition to wandering through the streets, soaking up the atmosphere in all its corners, you should take the chance to visit the Museum of the Udayas, located in the Andalusian Gardens, which boasts one of the finest jewellery collections in Morocco.

City of Gardens

Rabat is also known as the “city of gardens”, so make sure you stroll leisurely through and relax in one of them. Most noteworthy are the Nouzzah Hassan Gardens, located opposite the city walls, designed by the French general, Lyautey; the Jardins d'Essais Botanical Gardens, with exotic fruit, ornamental and Mediterranean trees, and Rabat Zoo, for those who fancy seeing animals, apart from plants.

Shopping in the Souq

The word souq, associated with tranquility, might sound like science fiction to the traveller in Morocco, but this is true of the bazaar in Rabat. With hardly any hustling by street vendors, you can tour the Souq in search of food, spices, craftwork, garments, carpets and a host of other goods.

You’ve noted everything you can see in Rabat, right? Take out a Vueling and enjoy a visit to this city.

Text by ISABELYLUIS Comunicación

Images by Jacopo Romei, SnippyHolloW, Fr Maxim Massalitin, Mustapha Ennaimi, Julia Chapple, Shawn Allen

The Esposizione Universale Roma, better known by its acronym, EUR, is one of those areas lying off the tourist track which would not fit any stock image of the Eternal City. No Roman ruins, Baroque churches, Renaissance palaces or narrow back streets – here you will find broad avenues set along orthogonal axes and a regular layout, and large buildings with simple lines that adhere to the Fascist model on which the district’s design was based, alternating with large, more recent constructions.

The district dates back to the nineteen thirties, when Mussolini decided to commission an urban expansion project on the south side of Rome in preparation for the World Fair of 1942. The idea was also to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Fascist “March on Rome” (1922). The project was originally known as E42 and some of the best contemporary architects were engaged, including Giuseppe Pagano, Luigi Piccinato, Luigi Vietti, Ettore Rossi and Marcello Piacentini, who was the head of the project. The assignment adhered to a design of Fascist ideological inspiration and combined rationalism with a simplified form of neoclassicism.

Work on the project was disrupted by the outbreak of World War II, while the 1942 World Fair was never held. Construction work on the buildings resumed in the fifties and sixties and the area was earmarked for a different purpose, which still holds true today, as it operates as a business district. In this respect it preempted similar projects in such cities as London or Paris.

The most alluring reason for visiting the EUR district nowadays is to see some of the original constructions and to appreciate the contrast they strike with the landmarks in ancient Rome. Among the most noteworthy buildings is the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, also known as the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro (Palace of Labour Civilisation) or Colosseo Quadrato (Square Colosseum), one of the most emblematic exponents of Italian Fascist architecture. Unveiled on 30 November 1940, it was purpose-built to host the Mostra della Civiltà Romana and was designed by the architects, Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto Bruno La Padula and Mario Romano. In the end, the exhibition was cancelled and the building remained derelict until 1953, when it was finally opened to the public. Ever since restoration work that lasted from 2003 to 2008, the building has housed the headquarters of luxury fashion label Fendi.

Another interesting example of Fascist architecture is the Palazzo dei Congressi (Palace of Congresses), designed by Adalberto Libera. The interior was decorated by Achille Funi and the Futurist artist, Gino Severini. Built from 1938 to 1954, it is now an exhibition area and also hosts congresses and other events.

Other buildings worth seeing on your visit include the Basilica dei Santi Pietro e Paolo, the work of Arnaldo Foschini, and the Palazzo degli Uffici, the only building to be completed before the war, which has an air-raid shelter inside.

Among the museums worth visiting in the EUR is the Museo della Civiltà Romana (Museum of Roman Civilisation), a colossal building which houses a stunning ensemble of model reconstructions of ancient Rome.

Book your Vueling to Rome and treat yourself to a tour of some of the city’s lesser known areas, like the EUR district.

Text by Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

Images by FaceMePLS, Sebastian Baryli, Alexandre Delbos