Day Trip from Paris The Chateau de Fontainebleau Located approximately 30 miles south of Paris, the Chateau de Fontainebleau is probably the second most famous castle in France. The contrast to the undisputed champion, however, could not be starker: Versailles is so famous because it perfectly captures the personality of its “first owner”, the essence of…
What to See in Germany While I don’t think it is slanderous to call most, perhaps all, of its cities ugly, Germany’s old industrial heartland of the Ruhrgebiet is still a great place to visit. Mainly for two reasons: One, the Ruhrgebiet landscapes are nearly always interesting and can, occasionally, be downright idyllic – something that people…
Easy hiking in Germany Meet the Lake District of the Ruhr A few weeks ago, we travelled all the way to the Mecklenburger Seenplatte in Germany’s “Far East” to experience a near-Scandinavian blend of beauty and bleakness. This week, we discovered that we could have had all of that much closer to “home”. Well, nearly…
Hikes near Paris It was just after our picnic lunch on the Carrefour de Denecourt when Mrs. Easy Hiker started to sing the praises of hiking in the Ile de France, thanking the Hiking Gods for making all local trails so conveniently flat. She hadn’t quite finished her sentence when we went on a steep…
Hiking Trails near Paris Hiking the Marais of Misery You may have heard about Paris, Texas. Today, I will take you a little further east, into the swampy lowlands of the Essonne river, straight into the bayous of Paris, Louisiana. But first, we have to take the train into the Deep South of the Ile…
Where to Eat in Germany German Culinary Institutions part II, and today, we’ll take you one notch up to a proper restaurant. (No offence, Profi-Grill, I still love you.) This one is a few kilometres down south from Wattenscheid to Cologne, hub for many a trip to hiking trails in Western Germany. German Culinary Institution…
Where to Eat in Germany A German Currywurst is a treat One great joy of hiking in countries (or regions) other than your own is that it gives you the opportunity of sampling the delicacies of the various local cuisines. And of establishing that one man’s “greasy spoon snack” is another man’s national dish. National dishes,…
Hiking in Germany The Coalminers Trail There are two things you should know about the Muttental Mining Trail, east of the Ruhrgebiet, Germany’s old industrial heartland: Firstly, for nearly all of the trail’s 9 km, you would never think that you are in the middle of what is essentially a city of 7 or 8…
Bricks in Buildings Architects in most European countries have always considered bricks second rate material, i.e. inferior to stone. As a consequence, there are fairly few “prestige buildings” across Europe – churches, palaces of the high aristocracy – that are made of bricks. The exception to this rule is the extreme North of Germany (and…
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…