D is for Domodossola This week, we are off for a few days of hiking in the northern Italian Ossola Valley (near the Swiss border), but before we put on our boots for the more “serious stuff”, we went for a brief walk through the town of Domodossola, our base for the duration of our stay….
Returning, after some time, to a place where you have been before can be an interesting experience Last week, we were back in Paris for two days after a two-year absence and, before that, a two-decade-long stint. We were surprised how much had changed in such a relatively short while around our former neighbourhood: the…
A multi-site exhibition in Nice celebrates the past and the present of France’s second most famous and most attractive boulevard The past is a foreign country, the novel “The Go Between” famously begins, and although we all know that “they do things differently there”, we are often insufficiently aware of the size of the gap…
… and when the twain finally did meet, two worlds collided – and two rival viewpoints of history. Two trillion dollars have been spent. This is not a trifling amount, even for one of the world’s richest nations. Still, East Germany – after 25 years of reconstruction – has preserved an Eastness about it which…
Half-German-half-Polish Usedom is used to playing second fiddle among Germany’s Baltic coast islands, but has a unique distinction Usedom is Germany’s sunniest spot. Talk about damning with faint praise, eh? But before any of you can accuse me of sneery sarcasm, let me point out that Usedom gets an almost Mediterranean 1917 hours of sunshine…
As seen on an iconic, world-famous painting – and by Kaiser Bill’s mother Ruegen is Germany’s largest island and one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. Unsurprisingly, considering the German love for hiking, Ruegen also has a dense network of hiking paths, all centred on the 140 km long Hauptwanderweg – the “main hiking path”…
Scenic landscapes and a historical monument on the beach promenade of Rügen, Germany’s largest island It may be a truth universally acknowledged (at least across that section of the universe where English is spoken) that Binz Means Heinz. In modern Germany, Binz means beach It has always stood for sandy beaches and seaside fun –…
The German city of Stralsund is the gateway to Ruegen and Usedom in the Baltic Sea and before you set out for a hiking trip on either of these two fascinating islands, you should take the time to explore what is in many ways the most interesting of the great German Baltic sea ports. We…
More places to discover on our walk through the land that time forgot. Villages along the Italian Riviera In our last post, we took you down the Riviera memory lane from San Lorenzo to Santo Stefano. Today, we shall hike further down the coast, passing through more villages along the Italian Riviera that have become…
From Imperia to Bordighera, there is a stretch of Italian Riviera villages that have become unstuck in time All the small coastal towns between San Lorenzo al Mare and Santo Stefano look as though they had retreated into a time capsule, a little like the New England hamlet in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village”, with…