A friend came to visit Würzburg early in March before the coronavirus restrictions started, and we decided to take a day trip to Wertheim am Main, about 40 minutes away by car. Wertheim is in Bavaria’s neighbouring state of Baden-Württemberg, and is located at the junction of the Main river and its tributary, the Tauber. It is best known for its beautiful castle, which sits on a hilltop overlooking the rivers. Continue reading
Gambia is the smallest country in mainland Africa (that is, excluding the islands), and is completely surrounded by Senegal except for it’s Atlantic coastline. In March, an opportunity came up to go to the Gambia for work, so I jumped at the possibility. It was idyllic to come home every day after work to sit by the ocean under the palm trees at Leybato hotel.
My husband took leave and came with to enjoy a bit of sun, and after my work was finished we did some sightseeing. We explored Fajara, Serekunda and the surrounds, and then we did a two-day tour from Banjul, the capital, to Jajanbureh, formerly known as Georgetown.
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A visit to the mountain kingdom of Lesotho has been on my wishlist for a long time, and in early March we finally made it there, even if it was only a very quick visit. We were visiting the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa for a week, and as part of our visit to the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg mountains we took a day tour up Sani pass and crossed the border into the heights of Lesotho. Continue reading
On our long weekend in Ireland, people kept telling us we were blessed. “You’re here for the best weather of the year.” We were indeed lucky; our trip was only three days and we had three full days of warm sunshine and deep blue skies. A woman who’d brought her kids to play hide and seek in the ruins of an old stone friary told us that this could be their summer weather – it might not get better than this. Maybe they’d have another spell, but you never knew. People were sitting out along the river in Galway, walking through villages with ice-creams. We even saw a guy jumping into the 10 degrees sea one evening.
We’d arrived in Ireland at Shannon airport with a guidebook full of places we wanted to see, but only three full days to spare, so we asked our hosts along the way what they suggested and their great recommendations ensured we had a wonderful trip. Here’s what we got up to.
Germany is full of surprises, and I am continually finding out about new places here. Last Saturday has to rank as one of the best days of this year. We spent the weekend cycling on the Saale bicycle trail in Thuringen and Saxony-Anhalt, an area of vineyards, castles, ancient archaeological finds, medieval villages and beautiful countryside. Here it how it all began. Continue reading
The good thing about traveling for work is that sometimes I end up visiting places I might never have heard about otherwise. Last week I had a meeting in Ulm, and since I had not heard much about it before I was surprised how interesting and beautiful it was. Continue reading
About an hour from Prague are other cities and towns well worth a visit. We’ve made a couple of day trips to several of them. Two cities, Pardubice and Hradec Kralove, lie relatively close to each other, and not far from Pardubice lies the town of Chrudim. We visited this lovely town again this weekend and I thought it was about time I posted some photos of it. Continue reading
Approximately 90km from Berlin lies the Seelow Heights, where the last major defensive line outside of Berlin was situated towards the end of World War II. This area of countryside, woods and villages lies near today’s border of Germany and Poland, near the Oder and Neisse rivers. From the 16-19 April 1945, a battle was fought for passage to Berlin between 1 million Soviet soldiers of the 1st Belorussian front and 110 000 German soldiers. Between 20 000 -70 000 Soviet soldiers (according to different sources) and 12 000 German soldiers were killed, and victory was taken by the Soviets, leaving the road to Berlin open from the 19th April. By the 23rd April, Berlin was surrounded and the final Battle of Berlin began. It is estimated that more than 1 million German soldiers were killed as well as 100 000 civilians and 300 000 Soviet soldiers, and that approximately 100 000 women were raped. Within 2 weeks, Berlin was taken, Hitler committed suicide and World War II had come to an end. Continue reading
