Russ McBee

A couple of years ago, a friend (whom I'll call Mike, because that's his name) and I spent a few days in Prague. It's one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. It's also perfect for exploring on foot. Startlingly, most of central Prague's medieval core is intact (despite all those years living under Communism), which means it's very dense ...

Dad and I have been to Maastricht, The Netherlands a couple of times. For both of us, it's become a favorite destination. The city is chock full of stuff to see, it's medieval core is largely intact, and there aren't that many tourists around. It's ideal as a vacation spot. On Vrithof Square in Maastricht, two churches sit only a few feet from ...

Of all the wars in recorded history, World War I stands out as the most idiotic. It was completely preventable, it was fought for no good reason, and its unfinished business led to the rise of the Third Reich. One of the bloodiest battles of that awful war took place in the countryside surrounding Verdun, France. From February through December ...

A friend and I visited Greece in November 2004, a couple of weeks after the Presidential election. Since the election dominated the news in Europe just like it did here, we heard the same question over and over from the locals: ''What do you think about the election?'' My answer was always the same: ''I'm not happy about it.'' Their ...

In February 2005, totally on a whim, I went to Paris by myself for the weekend. I left Knoxville on a Friday afternoon, arrived in Paris Saturday morning, and returned Monday afternoon. The weather was brutally cold, and I was exhausted after I returned, but none of that mattered. I was in Paris, and I was going to see and do the ...

In 2003, my Dad and I stayed for a few days at a wonderful hotel in Luxembourg called the Hotel du Moulin. Tucked away in a quiet corner of eastern Luxembourg, the hotel sits in a gorgeous, isolated valley below the ruins of the medieval castle of Bourscheid. The location is idyllic; the hotel is a peaceful, well-run haven perfect for a few days ...

In September 2005, I spent a week by myself in the Swiss Alps. Although Switzerland is indescribably beautiful, I had enough near-death experiences on that trip to become convinced that the country was trying to kill me -- not the adorable Swiss people, mind you, but the land itself. One such incident involved a near heart attack on a cable car ...

By some miracle of history, Prague's medieval core has survived largely intact. Invasions, foreign dominations, wars, and half a century under Communist rule all passed with the city's ancient fabric more or less undisturbed. The Old City district (Stare Mesto) sits on the east bank of the Vltava River and begins more or less at the end of the ...

In 2003, my Dad and I took an epic three-week trip across Northern Europe, including a week in Copenhagen. Our hotel was a couple of blocks west of Copenhagen's central train station, pictured here (Københavns Hovedbanegård, and please don't ask me how to pronounce it). Less than one block east of the station lies Tivoli Gardens, and another ...

I have tons of photos, several thousand of which are online here. I think I should do something with them. I'm going to start a regular feature called Random Photo, in which I pick one photograph and blog about the scene it depicts. All of my photos currently online are travel-related, and most of those have some kind of architectural element as ...