From May through October 2010, the Bavarian village of Oberammergau will be staging its world-famous Passion Play for the 41st time. A milestone indeed, but all the more so when you consider that the tradition dates all the way back to 1634.

So you were hoping to finally celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on the Emerald Isle. Unless you’ve already put something into the works, or you have no financial constraints whatsoever, that’s probably not going to happen. Such is the price we pay for procrastination.

Here in Germany, Fasching has come and gone, although you can still
catch a “Laetare” carnival, those that occur the weekend of the fourth
Sunday of Lent (March 22 in 2009) in neighboring Belgium. So you may be
wondering what on earth could brighten your spirits in the days to
come. Well, those in the Heidelberg-Mannheim area can rejoice in the
fact that the first of the spring fests is kicking off this weekend.
The delightful little Bergstrasse town of Schreisheim hosts its annual
Mathaise-Markt, which runs March 6-13. While you’re on the Bergstrasse,

When it comes to Carnival, the German cities of Cologne, Mainz and Düsseldorf readily spring to mind. But it can also be fun to see how smaller places mark the day. Although my former hometown of Griesheim, just outside of Darmstadt, in Hessen, has no strong carnival traditions of its own, by riding my bike just over to the next village, not more than five kilometers away, I was able to witness a parade of over one hundred floats. There are carnival events aplenty; you just have to know where to look. (The town I visited, incidentally, was Büttelborn, and in 2009, its parade will be held on Sunday, Feb. 21, starting at 2:11 p.m.)

You have just a few days left to organize a special holiday with your Valentine. Throughout Europe, many places will be helping the hopeful rev of the romance by offering special packages for the weekend of Feb. 14-15, 2009. If the best deals and packages are booked solid by the time you get around to formulating your plans, you could always push the festivities back by a day and make the romance happen from Sunday to Monday this year. After all, for many of us, President’s Day is a holiday.

Here are some Valentine’s Day ideas to get you started:

Many travelers recognize the significance of the designation conferred by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO World Heritage sites are comprised of some 878 properties worldwide which form “part of the cultural and natural heritage that the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.” By meeting strict criteria pertaining to natural or cultural significance, some of Europe’s most obvious places are included on the list. It comes as no surprise, for example, that Cologne’s cathedral, southern Italy’s Pompeii, Athens’ Acropolis and the west Norwegian fjord landscape all make the cut.

Happy New Year!

Here we are, in the early days of 2009. What an appropriate time to check into what the various countries of Europe are promoting as their top events for the upcoming year. 

A good place to start for researching this topic is with the official tourist information agencies for the countries themselves. The Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory is a handy Web site to bookmark in order to easily find any given country’s official source of tourist information. Here’s a quick country-by-country look at some of the events you may wish to check out through 2009:

You might have put in long hours shopping for the perfect gifts for others over this Christmas season. That’s fun, but perhaps now you’re ready for some “me” time. Ease any trace of guilty feelings by buying something that’s been marked down to half price. Find the fabulous by venturing to Paris from Jan. 7, when five weeks of massive sales kick off.