Hi! I'm Elena! Welcome to my travel blog Creativelena.com.
For me, it is all about “life-seeing instead of sightseeing”: Join me as I create, eat & live my way around the world. Curious?
*Check out my book, “The Creative Traveler’s Handbook”, for learning more about what we mean by creative travel. Travelling means the world to me, makes me fit for everday life and sometimes, I trust, also calmer on the inside. Read this blog with a smile, share what you love and remember to check back regularly: After all, when was the last time you did something for the first time?
The landscape around me has changed. I can no longer see the “Romantic Road” stretch as far as the horizon, flat as it was before in Nördlingen, around Augsburg or Landsberg. Rugged mountain ranges have given way to straight lines. The gently rising Alpine foothills bring a smile to my face. Mountains always make an […]
Würzburg, Wertheim, Weikersheim. The names of the first towns on the Romantic Road in Southern Germany are catchy. The Tauber Valley, which connects them, deserves to be called the “Lovely Tauber Valley” thanks to its beautiful river meanders. It is also well signposted, the “Romantic Road”: From Würzburg to the Allgäu, it is one of the […]
“Würzburg is sooo beautiful … Enjoy Würzburg and the wines of Franconia”, my travel friends advise about my short stay in Würzburg. As part of the “Romantic Road“, the Franconian town is surrounded by countless romantic vineyards on the Main river. I take to visiting “Vinothek Wohlsein Weine” with their goal to introduce younger, smaller […]
Did you know that the earliest signs of spring can be found in the very (north)East of Austria, in the Pannonia plains of northern Burgenland, near Lake Neusiedl? That as you travel here and stay in one of its cozy accommodation units (either B&B or hotels), you will receive the so-called Neusiedler See Card offering you many attractive […]
Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria at almost half a million inhabitants, is a Balkan star rising. Forming part of a trend that sees “Europe’s second cities” gain in popularity, it may well steal the show off its capital neighbour to the West, the city of Sofia. In my last post about Bulgaria, I […]
Going for a morning walk right by the river Sava, looking downstream just as it joins up with the Danube. Not too much of a difference with my home town near Vienna really, judging from some of the scenery around here. All too often, I feel reminded of the “great history” that separates as well […]
This town. Great vibes and good food. Plus the odd corner, district or street that has yet to see its “coming of age”. Novi Sad, you’ve honestly fascinated me in a way that I haven’t felt for a long time. And who would have thought: Discovering a creative (wool) art studio inside the town’s main fortress?! Glancing at […]
Attending TBEX Travel Bloggers Exchange conference in the small town of Killarney, about an hour west of Cork? Honestly, “a good excuse” to finally add an independent road trip around South-Western Ireland again after what has been more than twenty years! I remember last leaning over the Cliffs of Moher as an eleven-year-old, travelling there with my family. This time, […]
Morning mist lifting, we can see Admont Abbey rising like a beacon from the dark forests surrounding it. Some of the best views of this precious Baroque jewel in Austrian cultural history, including the world’s largest monastic library at well over 70.000 books on display, is from Hotel Spirodom in Admont. Would you believe that some […]
What comes to your mind when you see the hashtag #EuropeTour ? Social Media tells me that more often than not, people get back to us thinking that our European project for the sustainable development of cultural tourism in rural areas is more like a travel agency. Funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme, our aim is, however, […]
