Doing something again for the first time after a long and painful break tastes sweet, nearly as sweet as the first kiss that you are receiving from That Special Person In Your Life after a long period of separation. It is therefore only right and proper to treat such sweet returns to the habits and…
So it’s back to lockdown in Europe again, or to “reconfinement” as the French say with their cruel sense of precision and aversion to euphemisms. Not all countries have – like France – already gone back to a full regime of curfews and isolation, but most look sure to follow. We are currently in Sicily,…
This is a first for the Easy Hikers: in this post, we will not tell you where we went for our walk. Not because this is some sort of game and we want you to puzzle it out, but because it does not matter. The scene for your autumn walk is everywhere and anywhere –…
Bucket lists are all the rage. You care to find out all about the 1001 Things To See in Outer Mongolia Before You Die? I am sure there is a book or a website somewhere to take you from the World’s Largest Yurt to the Genghis Khan Toenail Museum or whatever. Does anybody ever use…
Travelling, in some ways, is a lot like learning. Done properly, they are lifelong preoccupations. You cannot acquire all the experiences that can be made out there any more than you can find out everything there is to know. And what is more: the mere attempt is a fool’s errand. Much better to paraphrase Socrates:…
Grenoble is the great survivor among French cities. Founded 2000 years ago as a small Gallic settlement around a bridge across the river Isére and relatively difficult to access to this very day (being surrounded by mountains on three sides), it learned to prosper and grow in size and importance by betting on the right…
The High Alps are the best the European countryside has to offer. They are one of Europe’s last genuine wildernesses, bearing only the lightest touch of human hands, majestic and of a sublime beauty. But as always with great beauty, there is a catch. The Alps are not just playing hard to get, they actually are. Hikes on…
The past is a foreign country, as even people know who have not read “The Go-Between” (or seen the movie). But whereas the opening statement of L.P. Hartley’s novel refers to past habits and customs (“they do things differently there”), one can just as easily apply the phrase to the looks and the structures of…
In the final instalment of our Sachsen-Anhalt Trilogy, we will tell you what to do and where to go for a scenic and interesting walk in the state capital of Magdeburg. Magdeburg does not sit in the first row of popular German city destinations, not even in the second row, but chances are that most…
For a federal state that few people outside of Germany have ever heard of, Sachsen-Anhalt has more than its fair share of UNESCO World Heritage sites. There are, to begin with, the sites connected with Martin Luther and the history of the Reformation: Eisleben where he was born and, above all, Wittenberg where he lived…