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One of the most popular new breweries in town, Black Abbey Brewing Company opens its “fellowship hall” tasting room Thursday through Sunday. Have a seat at one of the communal tables for a bite of cheese, olives and meats while tasting your way through beers like The Rose, a belgian-style blonde, or The Special, a traditional monastic-style beer. Black Abbey’s brews also are available at many restaurants and bars in town.

This brand-new hotel next to the massive, newly opened Music City Center convention space is one of Nashville’s hottest places to stay. Opened in fall of 2013, it’s also in the heart of the action and within easy walking distance of Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the honky-tonks of Lower Broadway, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. But even if you never left the building, you’d find 800 rooms, five restaurants and live music spaces, a spa and rooftop pool deck.

Located in Munich‘s Altstadt, or old town city center, Schrannenhalle is a long, beautiful, wrought iron & glass market hall filled with gourmet food and wine. Originally dating to the 19th century, Schrannenhalle was recently rebuilt as an extension of the Viktualienmarkt. Sit down for a coffee, or a glass of champagne, after a long day of shopping, soak up the bustling atmosphere, and escape the cold in winter along with visitors and locals alike.

The Spacehall Record Store is THE place to go to buy new or used records in Berlin. With plenty of listening stations, you can be sure you’re buying quality music. The space-like interior features some comfy (if not odd-shaped) couches and simple but quirky touches of design. Check out the room in the back to find good deals on used records. Or if you want some novelty band/DJ T-shirts, try the section up front.

Continental Europe’s largest shopping department has been supplying well-heeled Berliners with fine foods and upscale fashion for over a hundred years. Eight floors specialise in different goods, but the two most impressive are the ground floor and its ‘Luxury Boulevard,’ which features stores by the likes of Chanel, Bulgari and Tiffany & Co., and the sixth floor’s food hall, where regulars and visitors alike can be found perched at the champagne and oyster bars. More modestly-priced meals and some impressive views can be found in the glass-ceilinged cafe-restaurant on the seventh floor.

This sprawl of green—132 acres’ worth—is an oasis for urbanites. The park’s centerpiece, the Nashville Parthenon, is a full-scale replica of the Grecian structure and a physical testimony to Nashville’s “Athens of the South” nickname. The park’s bandshell hosts Shakespeare in the Park and occasionally serves as the site of the popular Movies in the Park, but because this is Nashville, a free live music series called Musicians Corner dominates the summer programming. On Saturday afternoons from May through September, music lovers, families, and pets gather to enjoy an impressive lineup of musicians, as well as local food trucks and a beer garden. Recent performers have included Preservation Hall Jazz Band and local favorites Rayland Baxter, Cale Tyson, and Langhorne Slim.

On the east side of Tiananmen Square sits this massive museum, its dozens of halls filled with rare artifacts and antiquities. The exhibitions span Chinese history, beginning nearly two million years ago, with two teeth belonging to Yuanmou Man, up through 1912, the final year of China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing. The permanent collection has more than a million pieces, including bronzes, coins, porcelain and ceramic objects, tools, and even clothing. Especially impressive are the cases of jade pieces, many several hundred years old, which shine bright as ever. The museum can feel a bit overwhelming but, as it’s free, you can return as many times as you like, taking it in in more manageable bites.

With a history dating back to 1499, U Fleků is a Prague institution and the only brewery and restaurant in Central Europe that has been brewing non-stop for over five centuries. Beer lovers, backpackeres and tourists come from all corners of the world to drink their dark lager which is the only beer on the menu, made with all natural ingredients. The restaurant, serving traditional Czech and Bohemian cuisine – roast pork knuckle, garlic soup, apple strudel – includes eight beer halls (each with its own distinctive décor) and an inner beer garden that seats up to 500 people. Everyday U Fleků serves around 2,000 pints of beer. If you want to know more, they also have a brewey tour and a beer museum (reservations only) in the former malt house.

I would compare Marienplatz to the Grand Place in Brussels, but with a Bavarian twist. The square in Munich is almost as large, and its town hall just as impressive. A beautiful destination for lovers of architecture. While the square itself is a beautiful and lively hub, be sure to checkout the market nearby for authentic goods!

Searching for covered bridges and discovering their histories is one of the travel adventures I enjoy. While in New Hampshire, I armed myself with a good area map. The map had covered bridge icons which indicated covered bridge locations. New Hampshire #68 was the bridge for which I chose to search. We drove down highway 11A until we got to the Gilford Townhall. We were told by a near-by park ranger how to get to the bridge. His instructions were very clear: “Park at the town hall in the lot, and look to your right,and under some trees you will see the bridge”. I got out and there it was... a very pretty covered footbridge. While inside the bridge, I could hear the rushing water of the brook. I could see the trees, bushes, flowers, and water flowing over the rocks as I peered out of the latticework openings. The Gilford covered bridge is a single span footbridge (foot traffic only) that is a lattice wooden structure spanning the Gunstock Brook just north of the village of Gilford. The bridge was built in 1995 on the site of the first covered bridge that had been removed about 50 years ago. The name of the bridge is the Tannery Hill Gilford Bridge and it links the town center with town hall. I continue to search for covered bridges in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New England. See how many you can find in your trips and travel adventures.

A five-level emporium specializing in French luxury brands (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel), Le Bon Marché traces its origins to a stall run by a hatmaker’s son and his wife in 1852. The beauty department is under an Art Deco glass ceiling; the third floor features an extensive children’s department with toys, books and clothing. La Grande Épicerie de Paris, Le Bon Marché’s expansive and extraordinary food hall, is across the street.

Located close to the town hall, it’s known as the “Casa das Bifanas” (Bifana house) ever since it opened in 1978. In the menu you can find a lot of Porto’s and Portugal’s delicacies, but you have to try the house specialty: Bifana. It’s a pork meat sandwich, in which the meat is cooked in an incredibly spicy sauce. This sauce is the most important piece of the sandwich and its recipe a true hidden secret. I can imagine that it has tomato sauce, beer and ultra-powerful bell peppers. If you like spicy food then Conga is your place.

Whether you have time to kill while waiting for your train or you simply like architecture, Milan’s main train station, Stazione Centrale, is worth a walk through for its epic 20th-century architecture. Originally designed at the turn of the century, Stazione Centrale has beautiful, monumental Liberty and Art Deco ornament in its main hall and entrances, while the platform area is covered in a gorgeous rooftop of iron arches. If you have a few more minutes, the Stazione also has some great shops, a traditional Motta caffe, and one of the best newsstands in the city.

This 700 year old fortress lies nestled by the Oslo fjord, still quite imposing even though lots of modern buildings have shot up all around it. The remains of the Medieval Akershus Castle lies within the fortress walls, once home to Norwegian kings and queens. Complete with narrow winding corridors, dungeons, and great halls, this truly is one of the most important buildings in Norway if you’re historically inclined. The castle church is still used for services, christenings, weddings and concerts, and the whole fortress area is visited by thousands of people each year, perhaps proving that history still matters?

It might be the middle of the City, and it might be at the major concert hall in Honolulu, but Wednesday evenings are typically reserved for the Ward (aka Honolulu) Farmers Market. Tents go up, and local food vendors and farmers display their products with music drifting through the air. This farmers market is a great place to pick up some produce for the kitchen, grab dinner on the go, or try something new and different - like flavored butter from the only dairy left on Oahu, or farm fresh macadamia nuts, or locally made ice cream.