Kotor

Arriving into Kotor by night, dizzy from sharp turns around the shores of the narrow, fjord-like bay that winds inland from the Adriatic, I was puzzled to see a yellow halo hanging overhead. At daybreak, the mystery was soon solved: the ‘halo’ became gravity-defying fortifications slung down the steep mountainside behind town from a small […]

Orava Castle, Slovakia

Built in the thirteenth century in response to Tatar raids, this stunning castle has a colourful history, but, as tends to happen when Hollywood scatters its stardust, it is better-known as a film location. Various scenes from Nosferatu, the first-ever Dracula movie, were shot here in 1922, with castle exteriors doubling for Dracula’s Castle in […]