Category: 2017-2020 Rhineland
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ALL BY OURSELVES.
I finally got that long-awaited gin and tonic. Or rather three gin and tonics. The Qatar Airways flight attendant keep bringing them to me. Maybe he sensed the cloud of stress above me, the mild stench of anxiety surrounding me or the furrows of worry on my face. With each G&T all of those emotions were replaced with just one: relief. We are on our way home to Australia. After three months of living in limbo with the constant fear of not getting home as the Australian Government played with our…
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THE BAVONA VALLEY
Nothing beats having a local guide and during our visit to Ticino, Switzerland’s southern Italian-speaking canton, Padma and I were spoiled by having our friend, Hans, show us around. Hans took us up north from his home near Locarno to the Bavona Valley and brought us to the base of the 100-metre Foroglio Waterfall. Padma and I didn’t object when Hans asked if we wanted to hike to the top of the falls. After some sweat and toil we reached the top and followed the crystal-clear Calnegia River through rocky terrain.
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ON THE TRAIL OF MARTIN LUTHER
Padma and I look at a different kind of map these days when planning our travel destinations. Instead of maps with tourist attractions we look at the map showing the incidence of COVID. And after studying the map we could tell that the former East German states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt had very low rates of COVID infections. So we packed the car and embarked on a roadtrip. But we did have a mission in mind. We wanted to explore the old stomping grounds of arguably the most famous German –…
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THE RETURN TICKET
Three years ago today, I got a bit emotional as I bid farewell to the family home and friends of 22 years. Joseph and I were en route on an epic father/son adventure to the Georgian Caucasus Mountains and after that I was heading off to an even greater adventure – a new job in a new country, all sight unseen. If you gamble, you either win or lose. Three years ago, Padma, Joseph and I gambled everything we had. We sold our beloved home in the Adelaide Hills, packed everything…
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WE’RE NOT KARNEVAL PEOPLE
Karneval has once again arrived in Germany; and once again Padma and I have tried to avoid it. The partying, the drinking, the craziness, the costumes … it’s just not our scene. Maybe we’re just fuddy duddies. So when our neighbour sent a text and asked if we wanted to join them at a Karneval parade, Padma and I instantly went into ‘think up of a good excuse’ mode. Padma started typing our apologies and then abruptly deleted the message. ‘No,’ she said. ‘This year we’re going to make an effort.’…
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ON TOP OF THE (GERMAN) WORLD
Last Sunday was one of those frigid, yet super clear days that only seem to come around a few times each winter. We were showing Padma’s brother’s family around and were staying with our friends Karl-Heinz and Hiltrud Linke in their little village of Illerbachen. As the sun rose on a very frosty morning, Karl-Heinz pointed to Germany’s highest peak, Zugspitze, from his kitchen window. With visibility like that we just had to head for the summit. Upon arriving at the base of the mountain in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (the site of the…
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DROP IN IF YOU’RE IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
Just a few weeks ago I received an email from a genealogist in Switzerland. He found a 1928 photo I posted online of some distant cousins in Wisconsin and wanted some details. I sorted out his enquiries and he was most grateful. He said ‘If you’re ever in the Bernese Alps, drop in.’ I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the ‘if you’re ever in XYZ drop in’ invitation or how many times I’ve said it. I rarely take up the offer and people rarely take up my offer. But…
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RESEMBLANCE AFTER 36 GENERATIONS?
Joseph, Padma and I travelled with our German friend, Volker, to pay our respects to our ancestor in Aachen, Germany. Charlemagne – or Charles I, the Emperor of the Romans, the King of the Lombards and the King of the Franks – was laid to rest in 814 in his imperial capital city of Aix-la-Chapell, now known as Aachen. Joseph is the 36th great grandson of Charles. It’s true. I can actually chart our ancestry to Charles via my grandmother. Charlemagne loved the spas of Aachen and spent his winters there.…
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TYROLEAN TREATS
You know, I’m not going to go into my usual long-winded essay with this post. Just going to share some pics of some of the most spectacular mountain scenery we’ve ever seen. Padma and I extended the German Reunification Day into a long weekend and set up camp at a guesthouse in the Austrian Tyrol village of Ehrwald, at the base of the Zugspitze. Some might say we had crappy weather as it rained a lot, but we thought the mountains looked even more majestic shrouded in low lying clouds.
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