We really should start putting out posts about food because one of the many pleasures I get when we go hiking anywhere is the anticipation of trying a local delicacy. And I’ve tried some unforgettable ones. Oh, Food Glorious Food Jabuguitos and fried eggs for breakfast in Madrid (This one was a regular on the…
Hiking in Germany What is KONUS? Holidays are expensive things. For most families, they are easily the biggest item in their annual budget behind life’s essentials such as food, shelter and transport (such as the family car). Travel and accommodation make up the largest chunk of holiday expenses, but by the time the holiday starts,…
Churches – Europe is so full of them because, for centuries, they were the focal points of community life, much like football and baseball stadiums are in the modern world. If you go hiking a lot in Europe, pay attention to the architecture and see if you can you pick out the different styles of the Churches…
Barcelona has a Secret In the shadow of Barcelona’s Palau Nacional, near the former bullring of the Plaza Espanya, you can find one of the city’s best kept architectural secrets: Ludwig “Less is More” Mies van der Rohe’s celebrated “Barcelona Pavilion” The pavilion, one of the masterpieces of modernist architecture, was constructed in 1929 for…
Walking in Barcelona Architecture in Barcelona One of the great joys of walking through Barcelona is discovering the great architecture that the city’s grand boulevards have to offer. Whenever you look up on one of the main streets in the city’s grid-like “new town”, you will not need laser eye surgery to be sure to see…
French Riviera Walks How about this… … a short walk through the prettiest town in France, topped off by a visit to one of the world’s most famous gardens, with splendid views over the Mediterranean Sea throughout? Menton, in the extreme southeastern corner of France, combines the best of France – a downtown area of…
For once, Mrs. Easy Hiker and I are in total agreement: the most striking change that Barcelona has undergone since we last visited the city a mere twenty years ago is the rise in the number of people with an apparent interest in the works of (the architect) Antoni Gaudí. What is the Weirdest Thing…
Kurt Vonnegut says that unusual travel suggestions are Dancing Lessons from God So, of course, we could not decline the offer of travelling to Genoa, even if this meant that we had to change our carefully laid out travel plans at the shortest of short notices. The story is this: we had been planning to…
There can be no question about it: Midnight in Madrid – Magnifique! Some cities just are. When spotlights carve out individual buildings out of the darkness, leaving others in a haze of indirect light and shadows, we, the observers, lose some things (context, a certain degree of detail) and win others: mainly scale. Some cities…
Disastrous Days Out I have been silent about this day for a good reason, as you soon shall see, but since today, the last day of the year 2011, is the day for overdue confessions, here we go. Our plan was to walk on the new-ish “X18” trail from Ibbenbüren to Tecklenburg. We found the…