A virtual tour round the EU

As you probably know (and if you didn't, my last two blog posts do rather give it away), here in the UK we are having a referendum in June on Britain's membership of the EU - are we in or are we out? Now I have quite a lot to say on this subject and I could quite happily blog away for the next three months about the pro's and cons of Britain's membership, but you know what? Most people would find this all really boring and I'd probably alienate what few readers I might have. So I decided to do something a bit different.

Copyright European Union, 2016

My plan is to - virtually - tour round as many EU countries as I can before the referendum, to learn about each of the different countries, the people, what it is like to live there. I say virtually - I'd love to visit them personally but sadly not going to happen  (although I'm going to one in a couple of weeks, one is better than none).There's so much information available online - from fact files to tourist guides, online reviews to municipal websites. Thanks to Google, it's even possible to virtually walk down streets with its Streetview service.

Because I can't decide which ones to start with, I'm going to cheat and work my way through alphabetically. For now at least. Which means first up is Austria.

Please let me know what you think - tell me  what you like and what you don't - anything you'd like more of. If you've got any experiences or tidbits, please do share them in the comments section.

Progress so far

Austria - Vienna and Salzburg, coffee shops, ski-ing and The Sound of Music. I look at the history of the place, food, it's place in the EU and I also investigate my first random town in the EU, Kapfenberg.

Belgium - Beer and chocolate! There's a lot more to Belgium than that though, read to find out more. I also take a look at the town of Ohey.

Bulgaria - A place steeped in little known history, with possibly the most exciting historic culture you've never heard of. Also find out about the most villainous city in history.

Portugal - A place full of surprises. From city to country it is such a varied country. From a fascinating history to Fado and great culinary delights to boot. Written just after I returned from a trip there so full of local colour.

Croatia - A country in the former Yugoslavia, there's a city built within the remains of a Roman Emperor's palace, a fabulous walled city used as King's Landing in Game of Thrones, and much more.