Ten Overlooked Gems in VS .NET

Drawer DataMatrix in VS .NET Ten Overlooked Gems

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Making discoveries in England and Ireland Going to off-the-beaten-path museums in Paris Heading to the woods in the Netherlands and Austria Finding solitude in Ostia Antica and the Venetian Lagoon Discovering a whole country Spain! or just a little hamlet

his chapter lists ten unforgettable places where you can avoid the tourists and see some cool sights to boot Some of these recommendations don t appear elsewhere in this book, but all are within easy striking distance from the major cities, and we let you know where to begin your journey in each case

Okay, so it s not entirely unknown, but compared to Stonehenge, just 20 miles to the north, Avebury (% 01672-539-250; wwwnationaltrust orguk) receives perhaps 5 percent the number of visitors Believe us, a prehistoric circle of stones feels much more mystical without throngs of camera-toting tourists posing around it But the relative lack of crowds is not the only thing that makes Avebury so special The Avebury circle is absolutely huge; you even find a small village built halfway into it, with a pub, restaurant, and fine little archaeology museum And unlike at Stonehenge, you can actually wander around amid the stones Buses leave regularly from Salisbury station for Avebury For details on getting to Salisbury (and Stonehenge), see 10

Almost everyone flocking to southeastern Ireland heads out of the main town of Killarney to ride around the famed Ring of Kerry Far fewer know that, just one inlet to the north, the road looping around the Dingle Peninsula has the same sort of fishing hamlets, village pubs, ancient

ruins, and stunning vistas as the Ring of Kerry, but with almost none of the crowds Getting to Killarney from Ireland s big cities is easy For details on visiting Dingle Peninsula, see 12

Everyone piles into Paris s Louvre and Mus e d Orsay and with good reason But Paris has more than 145 other museums, many of them unknown to the average tourist At the beautiful little Mus e Rodin, 77 rue de Varenne (% 01-44-18-61-10; wwwmusee-rodinfr), castings of Rodin s greatest works fill the rooms, while his Thinker ponders in the lush garden Or you can search out the Mus e National du Moyen Age (Museum of the Middle Ages), 6 place Paul Painlev (% 01-53-73-78-00; wwwmusee-moyenagefr), installed in the remains of a bathhouse built almost 2,000 years ago during the city s Roman era The Marais s Mus e Carnavalet, 23 rue de S vign (% 01-44-59-58-58;

wwwcarnavaletparisfr), is dedicated to the history of Paris The Mus e Marmottan Monet, 2 rue Louis-Boilly (% 01-44-96-50-33; www marmottancom), on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne woods, houses

Monet s Impression, Sol Levant, the painting the title of which was taken to coin the term Impressionism And don t leave out the Mus e Picasso, 5 rue de Thorigny (% 01-42-71-25-21; wwwmusee-picassofr), or the Mus e de l Orangerie, just off place de la Concorde (% 01-44-77-80-07; www musee-orangeriefr), with its 360-degree painting of Waterlilies by Monet For more about the Mus e Rodin and Mus e Picasso, see 13

At this large national park outside Arnhem, you can borrow a bike for free and ride around the park s many roads and trails, exploring a microcosm of the many environments of the Netherlands, from sand dunes to forests to meadows to formal gardens Make sure that you stop into the Kr ller-M ller Museum, a fantastic and underrated gallery of modern art in the middle of the park It features more than 270 works by van Gogh and hundreds of other works by 20th-century and contemporary artists, plus one of the most beautiful outdoor sculpture gardens in the world For more about the park, see 14