Heart of Munich Tours
Looking for an experienced guide who provides a range of enjoyable tours in and around Munich? We recommend Heart of Munich Tours, whose founder, Jax, was a guest on our first two Munich Extra episodes. He offers lots of choice: city tours, a beer or bike tour, and a trip to Ludwig II’s castle at Neuschwanstein (‘the Disney castle’) For those interested in history, there is also a 3rd Reich History Tour of Munich and an accompanied trip to the nearby Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site.
Munich Extra Episode 01 (city tours, beer and bike tours, Neuschwanstein)
39 English monarchs have been crowned while sitting on this chair, commissioned for Westminster Abbey in 1300 by King Edward I. Mary Tudor, the fervently catholic queen crowned in 1553 declined to use it, rejecting it because it was the same chair on which her protestant half-brother Edward had been crowned. But Oliver Cromwell used it for his installation as Lord Protector in 1657, although it was moved from Westminster Abbey to Westminster Hall for the occasion.
Fascinated by the story of the last Romanovs, as covered in episode 07 of our St Petersburg series? If you’d like to do some follow-up reading, we very much recommend this blogpost from travelcultura.com, written by a St Petersburg resident, which suggests nine books on Russia’s last Tsar and his family. 
The Alcazar palace is the heart of Moorish Seville. When the 13th century Christian King Ferdinand conquered the city he found it so beautiful that he refused to destroy it and resolved instead ‘to die under its roof’. He became known as ‘El rey de las tres religiones’, the king of three religions: Christian, Muslim and Jewish.
The ‘A Traveller’s History of …. ‘ series is well worth a look: all the history knowledge that will enhance your visit, often with quotes and extracts from original sources. There are lots on countries and books on individual cities include Bath, London, Athens, Oxford, Paris, York and Venice. We found the one on Bath invaluable, both for its content and for the further avenues of enquiry which it opened up. A real browse and muse sort of book!
A subscription to The Florentine will bring the sunshine of Florence to your doorstep or inbox every month. News, events, art and culture, food and wine, it’s all there. There are literary reviews, in-depth pieces from journalists who’ve been out and about in the city or in Tuscany more generally, ideas on what to eat drink or see next time you visit. Plus an online bookstore offering fiction, non-fiction and their own bilingual literary review. Perfetto!
Wondering where to visit in Russia? How about St Petersburg, described by the Russian politician, Valentina Matviyenko as ‘a gem of world culture and Russia’s most European city’?
Can there be a more action-packed episode than the one on the Tower of London? It’s where one king prised the crown of England from another, where three young queens were beheaded and where two little princes disappeared for ever. It was also the site of a moving art installation to commemorate the centenary of World War One: ceramic poppies gradually added over a five month period in 2014, each one representing a British military fatality from the war.
Looking for the Belle Époque in Paris today? It’s right there, in the Opéra Garnier, the Eiffel Tower, the art deco trimmings at many metro stations, the Galéries Lafayette, the Toulouse Lautrec posters you buy as souvenirs ….. and it’s all explained in episode 08 of the Paris series.
Dick Whittington, Richard II and the Revolting Peasants, Samuel Pepys, Sir Christopher Wren, the Rothschilds ….. you’ll meet them all in our episode on the City of London.