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 The White House Le Corbusier Built I am not a great fan of art museums – mainly because I have hardly ever learned anything from looking at a picture on a museum wall that I had not already learned from looking at a good reproduction in a book. Architecture, however, is…
A Visit to Au Vieux Campeur in Paris Let’s get this out of the way now. This is NOT a sponsored post. I have not received a Euro cent (or a penny) from Au Vieux Campeur in Paris, and not a free book or a free map either. In fact, the Vieux Campeur is…
Easy hiking in Germany I’m sure you will agree. To visit the mountains without getting to the summit of one is like traveling to the sea without dipping as much as your toe into the water. So when we recently visited the Harz mountains in northern Germany and had no time to climb the Brocken…
Where to Go in Germany An Old Peep Show Machine In the age before computers and video games, itinerant amusement parks in the 30s to the 50s were the place kids and adults could have some fun. At the end of our day hike on the Siebengebirge south of Bonn in Germany, we chanced upon these…
Day Trip from Paris Memories of Two World Wars The highlight of our day hike in Compiegne was the visit to the Musee de l’Armistice to view some of the relics of two world wars. Aside from the monument erected to honour the war dead, we saw relics of two world wars that were on display too….
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…
In Memory of Angelique Dumetz The day we chose to hike in Compiegne was perfectly sunny and hot as any summer day considering Autumn has already arrived. We were jauntily reaching the end of the first half of the trail when we saw, alongside the trail, this “tomb” or what we took as one. It…
Youth hostels have, for the past few years, working hard to edge into the lower end of the tourism market. But are they a viable alternative to discount hotels? How Hostels Compare with Discount Hotels I already posted a few lines here about European non-profit Youth Hostels in general, but on the occasion of our…