Next month I'll be visiting the cities of London, Berlin, Munich, Prague and Budapest to give a few talks and meet with some of our allies.

While I'm in those places I'd love to also see cool things and meet good people. I'd welcome any suggestions you may have for cool places I should go, interesting projects I should check out, policies or programs I should know about, even groups or people who would be fun to meet.

Thanks!

Well, obviously you should visit the Science Museum if you're going to London.

Other cool places include the Tower of London and the Canary Wharf.

Posted by: Ben Goodger on August 22, 2006 3:36 PM

Among other things the Jewish museum and the holocaust memorial are worth visiting in Berlin.

Posted by: Rezwan on August 22, 2006 4:40 PM

Berlin ideas
www.droppingknowledge.org
Sept 9-11th in Berlin
Check it out
Roof top of Parliament is fantastic and a boat tour on the Spree worthwhile. Try see the light bulbs in Parliaments cafateria. Kreutzberg is great.

London The Gate restaurant in Hammersmith offers a great vegetarian meal.

Posted by: dana S on August 23, 2006 12:29 AM

Got any details of your talks yet? Are any of them open to the public?

Posted by: Richard on August 23, 2006 1:33 AM

Yeah, what talk/s are you giving in London?

Posted by: Mark Simpkins on August 23, 2006 1:39 PM

Yes, are the talks in London open to the public? It would be great to attend one.
In my opinion great places to visit in Prague are the Zizkov TV tower and the communism museum.
In Budapest they have a wine festival in September at the castle on the buda side which is very good (try the sweet Tokaji Aszu), also there's the liberty monument up on Gellért Hill which is worth a visit and just along the top of that hill there's an excellent restaurant looking out across the Danube.
And don't forget when in London, spend a bit of time in Camden Town and Covent Garden.

Posted by: Helen Rule on August 23, 2006 4:37 PM

Will you have copies of your book also? Would be nice to meet the author/editor in the flesh!

As for London, ignore the main tourist sites, unless you haven't been before... I'd suggest instead walking around some neighbourhoods and markets that have personality and culture.

Camden Town is a decent start, and I'd also recommend Spitalfields, Columbia Road and Borough Markets.

Too bad you're not here this weekend... there's the Notting Hill Carnival, reputed to be Europe's biggest street festival.

Posted by: Steve Wong on August 23, 2006 6:45 PM

Alex:
I hope you can visit Ufa Fabrik in Berlin.

http://www.ufafabrik.de/en/

Posted by: moddemeyer on August 23, 2006 11:25 PM

Alex --

Dana Meadows was for many years the shining light of a group called The Balaton Group that met each September at Lake Balaton in Hungary. There must be great local contacts in Budapest. If Alan Atkisson doesn't have some to suggest, call Diana Wright, the publications director for The Sustainability Institute in Hartland, VT, who was Dana's research assistant for years. Dennis Meadows at the University of New Hampshire still participates, I think. Balaton folks would be thrilled to have you there.

Posted by: Ted on August 24, 2006 9:54 AM

Thanks, Ted. I'm actually going to Hungary to speak at Balaton...

Thanks to all for the good suggestions! Please keep 'em coming.

Posted by: Alex Steffen on August 24, 2006 10:28 AM

If you ever want to watch how concentrated activity can transform a dingy street into a vibrant and fun market for just a couple of hours, go to the Columbia Road Flower Market, just above Spitalfields in London, on Sunday afternoons before 2 pm.

The Pergamon Museum in Berlin is a cool, old-fashioned, and just plain wonderful museum that recreates the past into spaces.

Posted by: David Hsu on August 24, 2006 1:58 PM

When your in London, you should check out the London eye, and the Swiss Re building, 30 StMary's axe i think, its an amazing building, in my humble opion.

Posted by: Gavin on August 24, 2006 2:20 PM

Go see the agricultural museum out by the Heroes Plaza and National Art Museum in Budapest. Catch a concert in the Liszt Hall at the Academy of Music (I timed my trip to Budapest to see Muszikas). Ride the Yellow Line subway to the Heroes Plaza, the oldest subway system on the Continent. Take a walk the length of Vasci Utca, the pedestrian shopping street, from the old market (good street food on the second floor) to Vorosmarty Ter. And have some poppyseed cake at the cafe as I did once to remember my father.

Posted by: gmoke on August 25, 2006 8:23 AM

Alex. Come visit live|work. http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/004609.html

I am in the New York, but we would love to have you for lunch in London. Email me and I can set up.

And the Design Council RED team open house will interest you

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/mt/red/

Posted by: Tamara Giltsoff on August 25, 2006 4:30 PM

come visit us at solarcentury! i work there a couple of days a week at the moment. would be great to show you round
www.solarcentury.com

Posted by: joy on August 28, 2006 12:26 PM

Here are some Prague tips: Letna and Stromovka park. Troja and Zbraslav chateau. Tea house at Masna in the Old Town for smoking hookah. Vegetarian restaurants Country Life at Melantrichova in the Old Town and Bona Vita at Wenceslas Square. Row boats at the Vltava (near the Zofin island). Divadlo Ponec for dance (http://www.divadloponec.cz/program.php?lang=en).

Posted by: jeff on August 29, 2006 5:37 AM

Mike's Bike Tours in Munich is great. Mike and staff are down to earth, friendly, and very helpful. Not all of their tours are by bike, either. I did a great day trip with them to Neuschwanstein Castle, which was by train, bus, and then foot. They made my trip to Munich my favorite stop in Europe.

http://www.mikesbiketours.com/

Posted by: Natalie on August 29, 2006 1:00 PM

London and Berlin? There's another country in between: The Netherlands a.k.a. Holland.

Actually I'm living in the North of Holland, in the province of Groningen. Over here there's good stuff like Energy Valley, but that's all kind of up market.

I'm just a plain person, currently unemployed, but with a vision to work in a bright green way, somehow.

Anyway, have a good journey and I hope there will be more Dutch stuff here! My ecological footprint is rather low, I don't have a car and I walk a lot.

Take care, Alfie (H. Wolt)

Posted by: Alfie on August 29, 2006 3:32 PM