Tag: Germany
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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,
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THE WUPPERTAL SCHWEBEBAHN
‘Whopper-what?’ I asked. My new German friend, Volker, tried to share his hometown with me. ‘Wupper-who?’ I just couldn’t pierce through his thick accent so I pulled out my phone and brought up Google Maps and let him zoom in. ‘Wuppertal!’ I finally realised. ‘Never heard of it.’ Volker explained it was one of the
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WEBERT. OLBERODE. ANCESTRAL HOME.
‘What’s your mother’s maiden name’? How many times have I had to answer that question? ‘Webert,’ I answer. But for most of my life it was only a name. A name I knew nothing about. And a name my mother knew little about. A few years ago I got bitten by the genealogy bug and
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THE ADAM REUNION. FIVE METRES OF FAMILY TREE.
Wolfgang Adam pulled out a long tube of paper and began to roll it out over three tables. He rolled and rolled and rolled until he uncovered a maze of photos, boxes, names and lines. I walked over and tried to comprehend what he had unveiled. ‘Here you are,’ he said. Wolfgang is the fifth
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VALE TIM
Today, former deputy prime minister of Australia, Tim Fischer, passed away after a 10-year battle with leukemia. He was a rare breed of politician who just doesn’t seem to exist these days. After he left politics, Tim pursued personal interests and fortunately for the organisation I work for, the Crop Trust, one of those passions
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AMPELMANNCHEN
Not much of East Berlin remained intact after reunification. The West invested billions to rebuild the infrastructure. But when the German administrators suggested that all pedestrian crossing signals adopt the signals used in the West, the East Berliners kicked up a fuss. There was no way they were going to give up the beloved ‘Ampelmann’
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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
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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
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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
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