A Japanese Garden in Duesseldorf
| |

A Japanese Garden in Duesseldorf

8000 Japanese citizens live in the German city of Düsseldorf and they built a little colony complete with a Japanese Garden in Duesseldorfproviding middle and upper management people of Japanese companies in the city with their home comforts with Japanese shops and Japanese restaurants. There is probably no other place in Europe where you find such a wide array of excellent Japanese eateries.

The Roadside Shrines of Northwest Germany
| |

The Roadside Shrines of Northwest Germany

Catholicism, in theory, is the same all over the world In reality, however, its practices are as different as a village in rural Germany is from Rio de Janeiro. Catholicism is probably best thought of as an abstract concept like “art” or “music” – certain basic rules are the same, but everybody creates something distinct…

The Pleasant Unexpected in Thirty Minutes in Kingsbridge
|

The Pleasant Unexpected in Thirty Minutes in Kingsbridge

Just a reminder that it is the “kindness of strangers” which makes it all worth while When does the hiking season begin? That depends very much on local specifics, on things like altitude and latitude: the weather, quite simply, but the season ends pretty much everywhere on the same date, and that’s when the clocks…

A Penitent’s Walk On the Sacred Mountain of Domodossola
| | |

A Penitent’s Walk On the Sacred Mountain of Domodossola

Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 15 sculpted stations of the cross on the Sacred Mountain of Domodossola provide a fascinating experience, even in the rain – or, perhaps, particularly so One thing you have to say for the Alps, they don’t do much by halves there. Europe’s highest mountain range has proper…

Lake Antrona – Sparkling Diamond of the Ossola Valley
| | |

Lake Antrona – Sparkling Diamond of the Ossola Valley

How to brighten up a cold, wet and miserable day in the Italian Alps. In the unlikely event that an extraterrestrial were to land in front of my house, driven by the need to find out what earthlings found so recreational by walking from one place to another and demanding the briefest possible explanation of…