The field of Euro dreams - Europe, Travel - The Independent

The field of Euro dreams - Europe, Travel - The Independent: "The previous summer, I had spent some time in the lovely Hungarian town of Sopron. Its history is as intricate as anywhere in central Europe. As the Roman city of Scarbantia, it lay astride the Amber Road, an important trade route between the Baltic and the Adriatic. As either Ödenburg or Sopron, depending on whether the Austrians or Hungarians were in charge, the city prospered in the Middle Ages. Sopron had the good fortune to be just out of range of the Turks' 16th-century excursions into central Europe. Its Gothic and Baroque core survived the squabbles between the imperial powers."