Features section is where Easy Hiker mulls on things other than but related to easy hiking
Here is something for your bucket list: Crossing Borders on Foot We are crossing borders all the time, more than any generation before us, but choose to do so in the most uncivilized way possible – most of the time above the clouds on our way from one identikit airport to the next. Trains and…
What is the worst enemy of a hiker? Not the cold: you can quite easily defeat the cold by wearing an extra layer of clothing – and by pulling your thickest sweater on top. It’s not the heat, either – there is an old and trusted weapon against hot weather, called “taking it easy”. It’s not…
Dirk has a Passion for All that is Wine The German wine-growing season is slowly reaching its climax: Bad Dürkheim’s Wurstmarkt, the world’s largest wine festival, has just broken a new attendance record (with nearly 700,000 visitors over two weekends), while many similar festivities still remain to look forward to. Today and for the rest…
The ZumStein vineyard in Bad Dürkheim is one of the oldest and one of the most modern in the Palatinate wine region. It has a long tradition of producing high-quality whites for clients in Germany and abroad (including some prestigious corporate ones), but owner Dirk Renzelmann makes it a point of offering more. A lot…
Still Day Dreaming of Adventures and Glory? Continuing, in a fashion, from where I left with my last post (the final item on my “Summer reading list about hiking”), here is something which is not directly referring to hiking – actually, quite honestly, it makes no direct reference to hiking at all – but which…
When you read this, we will probably be on our way, exploring the hiking trails, castles and vineyards of southwestern Germany on the invitation of the Rhineland-Palatinate Tourism Board. More of that soon. We will be away all of this week and try to keep you up to date as much as we can, but…
What is a Forest? Hands up everybody who spontaneously said “Something with a lot of trees in it.” Strange, isn’t it, how much we take certain things for granted without ever thinking much about them. Forests are there – because they have always been there, haven’t they? This is an idea that probably still…
The German Forest One more reason to go hiking in Germany’s forests: they may not be there for much longer. In 20 or 30 years, there will still be life in the German countryside, but perhaps not as we know it. In the 1980s, the German forest appeared to be on its last leaves. The…
Why I Do Not Like Hiking by Hugh Sluggard 1. Hiking is hard work I do not like hiking because I abhor physical and, indeed, challenges of any other kind. If it weren’t for the kids, I would gladly spend my holidays on the sofa, watching old episodes of Happy Days. Ah, the Fonz! They…
Day Trip from Paris Here’s What Hitler did in Compiegne One hour away from Paris lies the quiet provincial town of Compiegne where not one but two recent chapters of European history were completed. If the 30 Year European War from 1914 to 1945 was a drama in five acts, Compiegne was the stage of…
