Of Wonders And Wanderlust

Planning your summer vacation can be a hectic, nerve-racking experience. Transport has to be arranged, accommodation has to be sorted out, and then there's always the risk that the weather will turn ugly. Pity then our photo editors, Mike Bealing and Julius Domoney, who had to organize a half-dozen trips for this year's Summer Journeys double issue on the Wonders of Europe. And these were no package tours to Ibiza they were planning. As part of our summer extravaganza, Bealing and Domoney dispatched photographers to some of the wildest and most remote places in Europe: the top of the Aletsch glacier in Switzerland, the pristine Lake Baikal in the far east of Russia, and into Doñana National Park on the coast of Spain. "We agonized over which photographer would best suit which project, but the exhilaration of finally seeing the stunning photo shoots made this issue a real pleasure to work on," says Bealing.

For Helen Carter, who provided the vivid, lively design of the Summer Journeys special report, the end results were more than worth the effort. "The best part of the project was seeing all the amazing pictures," she says. "The challenge was to create the pages in a way that allowed the images to — almost — speak for themselves." Her only regret: not being able to trek across the Aletsch glacier herself.

Accompanying the lush photography in this issue are the travelogues of some of our more intrepid correspondents. They braved bitter cold, rugged terrain, hungry bears, swarms of mosquitoes — and in the case of Lydia Itoi, who sailed up the Norwegian coast and toured some of Europe's most wonderful restaurants for two separate stories, seasickness and overindulgence — to bring us marvelous accounts of the marvels they experienced. We also asked a clutch of distinguished contributors to share with us their favorite wonders. English author Peter Ackroyd enthuses about Smithfield meat market in London; tennis star Boris Becker about Munich's Allianz Arena; musician Julian Cope about the Orkney Islands off the Scottish coast; fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld about Versailles' Hall of Mirrors; and Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk about Selimiye Mosque.

Paris bureau chief James Graff, who explored the Aletsch glacier, took his adventure in stride. "I was lucky to have with me photographer Pascal Tournaire and guide Christophe Profit, who learned how slow I am when we went to the top of Mont Blanc for last summer's issue," he says. "In view of how warmer temperatures are reducing glaciers all over the world, I worry that the idea of walking on one might sound as remarkable to future generations as Lewis and Clark's accounts of the abundance of bison on the American plains sound to us today." The remarkable tales in this issue are reminders that wonders are all around us — and that we should handle them with care.

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