Category: Travels for Fun
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TWELVE STATIONS OF THE CROSS. ONE SUNDAY MORNING.
Last Autumn, Padma and I hiked atop one of the Seven Hills at Petersberg on the right bank of the Rhine. We saw a couple stations of the cross and I wondered if there might be others. I later discovered on Wikipedia that the Petersberger Bittweg trail begins at the bottom of the hill and has 12 stations of the cross which were constructed in the 17th and 18th century. But Wikipedia only had photos of nine stations. So I made it my mission to one day photograph them all. Today…
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A STUMBLE WITH A VIEW
Padma and I went out for a late afternoon walk yesterday in the forest near our home. I was focusing on some distant views of Oberwinter with its Rhine backdrop and managed to get my feet tangled in the thick leaf litter. Clumsy as I am I took a roll and ended up on my back. Rather than jumping to my feet I lay there for a moment. Padma showed concern and thought I had hurt myself. But instead I was mesmerised by a tangle of trees looming over me –…
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BACHARACH
Every night before retiring, I see a book sitting next to my bed. A book I use frequently to dream about my next adventure: the Lonely Planet Guide to Germany. The cover shows a little village with a dominant church on a river. After some map gazing I discovered the cover pic was taken just an hour or so south of us on the Rhine. The sun made a rare appearance this weekend and despite the frosty conditions, Padma and I drove to Bacharach to check it out. It was too…
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THE MOSELLE IN ITS AUTUMN SPLENDOUR
The leaves are still just barely clinging to the trees so Padma and I took a Sunday drive to get a last chance to see some autumn splendour. We drove an hour to the south of our home in Oberwinter to the village of Alken on the Moselle River. We parked along the river and hiked up through some remarkably steep Riesling vineyards to Thurant Castle where we got panoramic views both upstream and downstream. Clouds dulled the autumn palette but for one brief moment the sun did try to make…
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THE BATTLE OF VERDUN – A CENTURY LATER
As we turn our attention this weekend to the centenary of the signing of the armistice to end World War I, I look back at a visit that Padma, Xander, Joseph and I took this summer to a battlefield in France which proved to be the ultimate test of human endurance. The Battle of Verdun was fought for 303 days from February to December 1916. It was the largest and longest battle of the First World War on the Western Front between the German and French armies. Estimates vary but range…
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ZEELAND
There are more bicycles than people in the Netherlands so we decided to do as the Dutch do and jump on some bikes during our stay in the Zeeland province in southwestern Netherlands. Xander, Joseph, Padma and I hired some bikes and cycled along paths to Veere, a village on the Lake Veere. The lake was separated from the North Sea in 1961 and is one of many projects the Dutch have constructed to protect themselves from the sea. For the first time I rode an e-bike and as we headed…
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PAYING RESPECTS TO OUR COUSIN
General George S. Patton Jr commanded the 3rd Army of the United States as they victoriously entered Nazi Germany during World War II. He remained in post-war Germany but was killed in an auto accident while going out pheasant hunting near Heidelberg just months after the war ended. He wanted to be buried with his men so he was laid to rest with 5,000 other American soldiers at the Luxembourg American Cemetery near Luxembourg City. Old Blood and Guts is my eight cousin, once removed. We both descend from a Huguenot…
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BACK TO OSLO
We left Ålesund early, the road tracing islands and bridges south through a familiar rhythm of ferries and tunnels. By late afternoon we rolled into Bergen, parked the car, and traded steering wheel for cable car, riding the Fløibanen up to Mount Fløyen. From the lookout, the city spread out in orderly colour—Bryggen’s timber fronts, the harbour, and the enclosing hills. The next morning we committed to rail, boarding the Bergen Line east to Myrdal, a high, wind-scoured junction. There we changed to the famous Flåm Railway, a steep descent through…
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418 STEPS OVER ÅLESUND
We reached Ålesund in the late afternoon after driving south from Kristiansund. The route followed the outer coast, linking islands by bridges and ferries, including sections of the Atlantic Ocean Road (Atlanterhavsveien), a stretch of infrastructure built to keep communities connected across open water. The journey itself was a reminder of how dependent this region has always been on the sea. On arrival, we went straight to Mount Aksla to break up the day. My sister Jenni, Padma and I climbed the stone steps from Byparken, a climb of more than…
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