Europe For Dummies

Donald Olson (Chapters 1-11 and 15) is a novelist, playwright, and travel writer. His newest novel, Confessions of a Pregnant Princess, was published in 2005 under the pen name Swan Adamson. His travel stories have appeared in The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Sunset, National Geographic books, and many other publications. His guidebooks London For Dummies, Frommer's Best Day Trips from London, Frommer's Irreverent London, Germany For Dummies, and Frommer's Vancouver & Victoria are all published by Wiley. He also writes England For Dummies, which won a 2002 Lowell Thomas Travel Writing Award for best guidebook.

Liz Albertson (Chapter 12) worked as an editor for Frommer's Travel Guides for four years before making the leap to the other side of the computer as the author of Ireland For Dummies. When she isn't researching and writing, Liz spends much of her time in Ireland sitting in on traditional music sessions, fiddle in hand. She currently teaches fifth and sixth grade in New Haven, Connecticut.

Cheryl A. Pientka (Chapter 13) is a freelance journalist and a literary scout. She is the author of Paris For Dummies and co-author of France For Dummies. A graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the University of Delaware, she lives in New York when she can't be in Paris.

George McDonald (Chapter 14) is a former deputy editor of and currently contributing writer for Holland Herald, the in-flight magazine for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. He has written extensively about Amsterdam and the Netherlands for international magazines and travel books such as Frommer's Belgium, Holland & Luxembourg and Frommer's Europe.

Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince (Chapters 16 and 17) have written numerous best-selling Frommer's guides and are coauthors of Frommer's Europe. Porter is a former bureau chief for the Miami Herald, and Prince, who began writing with Porter in 1982, worked for the Paris bureau of the New York Times.

Hana Mastrini (Chapter 18) is a native of the western Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary who became a veteran of the "Velvet Revolution" as a student in Prague in 1989. She is the author of Frommer's Prague & the Best of the Czech Republic and co-author of Frommer's Europe and Frommer's Europe by Rail.

Bruce Murphy and Alessandra de Rosa (Chapters 19-21) are parttime residents of Rome. Murphy's work has appeared in magazines ranging from Cruising World to Critical Inquiry. An avid traveler since her first cross-Europe trip at the age of 2, de Rosa was born in Rome and has lived and worked in Rome, Paris, and New York City. They are the authors of Italy For Dummies and Rome For Dummies.

Neil Schlecht (Chapters 22 and 23) is a writer and cycling aficionado who has lived in Spain, Brazil, and Ecuador. He has worked in Spain as an English teacher, a consultant on social and economic development projects for the European Union, and as a contributing writer for a Spanish art and antiques magazine. He is the author of a dozen travel guides, including Spain For Dummies.

Vancouver-born Tania Kollias (Chapter 24) longed to travel since a teen trip to England to meet the relatives, and used a Frommer's guide for her first solo journey to Europe. A degree, four continents, and many journals later, she now lives in her father's native Athens, Greece, where she wrote the country's first comprehensive listings book for expats, edited the Now in Athens monthly for the 2004 Olympics, and still works as a journalist and writer. She travels in and out of Greece whenever she gets the chance.