When you visit a new place, you come across new foods and dishes. I thought I would share some recipes for these, and also some for old favourites from home.
Vanilla Crescents (Vanilkove Rohlíčky)
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Perníčky odležet (Czech Gingerbread recipe)
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Nakládaný hermelín (Cheese marinated in chilli and garlic oil)
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Tinto de verano – a Spanish summer drink!
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Summer fruit dumplings (Knedliky)
In our area of Germany, which is relatively flat, any place with some hills gets named after Switzerland (in German: Schweiz). And so we have places such as Märkisches Schweiz, Mecklenburgische Schweiz and Sächisches Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland), which I wrote about previously. The Elbe Sandstone mountains with their wonderful rock formations formed by ancient seas extend across the border of Germany into the Czech republic, an area that was thus named by the Germans “Böhmisches Schweiz” (Bohemian Switzerland). In Czech it is called České Švýcarsko (Czech Switzerland). Continue reading
Here you can read more about our travels in countries in Europe and Eurasia, listed in alphabetical order. As we live in Germany, our travels in Germany are rather over-represented, so I made a separate page for our travels within Germany which you can find here.
Exploring the calderas of Azores
Canary Islands – Fuerteventura
The nativity scenes of Třebechovice
České Švýcarsko / Czech Switzerland
Brno, the second largest city in Czech Republic
Biking in the Moravian winelands of Czechia
Meeting Santa at the North Pole (Finland)
From Cote d’Azur to Gorges du Verdon
Roadtripping from Czech Republic to Slovenia and Croatia
Summer roadtrip from Germany to France
So you love the great outdoors? Here are some of the blog posts I’ve written about nature, hiking, biking, swimming, skiing and other sports.
The Disa hunters: exploring the top of Table Mountain
The Bavarian and Austrian Alps
Multi-day trail in Namib-Naukluft national park
The Thomas Tucker Shipwreck Trail, Cape Point
Battle of the Seelow Heights and a walk near the Oder river
Hiking in České Švýcarsko/Czech Switzerland
Snow hiking in the Harz mountains
Two late-winter hikes in Brandenburg
An introduction to city biking
Brandenburg bike rides: Fürstenberg/Havel to Templin
Brandenburg bike rides: Potsdam to Brandenburg an der Havel
Biking in the Moravian winelands of Czechia
Cycling from Berlin to Poland in 1 Day
The Spree cycle trail (Spreeradweg)
The last stage of the Spree cycle trail (Spreeradweg)
The Elbe cycle trail (Elberadweg) – Magdeburg to Havelberg
Cycling from Havelberg to Waren (Müritz)
Watersports and beaches at Müggelsee
Kayaking at Müggelsee/ Neu Venedig
Canoeing in the Rheinsberg lake area /Müritz National Park
Camping and canoeing on the River Havel: Fürstenberg to Burgwall
Canoeing on the Spree river: Hangelsberg to Erkner
Canoeing on the Havel river: Pritzerbe to Hohennauener See via Rathenow
Cross country skiing in the Harz mountains
More cross country skiing adventures in the Harz mountains
Cross-country skiing in the Czech Republic: Hejnice/Smědava
Snow sports in the Czech Republic: Bedřîchov
Cross country skiing in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains)
March – Wildlife in the Garden
Notes from the Czech countryside – June, the red month
We enjoyed a long, warm and golden autumn this year, but finally the rain came, followed by strong winds, and now the trees are bare again. It made me sad to see them at first, knowing that it would be many months before we would see them coming alive again. Once the leaves had fallen, the temperatures dropped rapidly, and we have even had some light snow already. Before we get too far into deep, dark winter, I wanted to share some photos of our glorious autumn season. To start with, here are some photos from a bike ride we did in Naturpark Barnim, a big nature area in Brandenburg near Berlin. We started at Karow and followed lovely cycle paths all the way to Eberswalde. Brandenburg is really the perfect place for cycling. Continue reading
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This weekend we went to visit family who live near Bonn in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany, which encompasses the plains of the river Rhine and the Mittelgebirge (small mountains/central uplands) which stretch towards Belgium, where they continue as the Ardennes. The lands on one side of the Rhine were colonized by Romans (the Cologne/Bonn side), whereas the other side was left to the local tribes after the Romans suffered a heavy defeat. Southeast of Bonn near the Rhine are the Siebengeberge, hills of ancient volcanic origin, formed by magma rising up beneath the surface and then cooling and becoming solid. Now as I’ve mentioned before, the usual practice in Europe is: if there’s a hill put a castle of top of it (it makes for a good lookout/defensive position), and indeed, you will find several castles and monuments on top of the many hills in the area. The rock of the area was also quarried, since the nearby Rhine made it convenient to transport the rocks, and used to build the massive Cologne cathedral, amongst other things. 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
Last time I was in Cape Town, fires were ravaging the mountains. It was early March, and for days the blaze continued, spurred on by strong winds and dry vegetation. Fynbos, the indigenous vegetation in the Cape, requires fire every 15 years or so as part of its life cycle (smoke causes many seeds to germinate, and fires clear away old and dead plants), but the extent of the fires was large this year and it was sad to see the mountain burning.
At the end of August I returned to Cape Town again and went walking with a friend at Cape Point nature reserve at the southwesternmost point of Africa, where we came across part of the area burnt by the fires. There are many great walks here, and we tried one I hadn’t been on before, the Thomas T Tucker Shipwreck trail. It was a cool and windy day, but hiking is great in most weathers, I love to see how places look different in different seasons. Whipped up by the wind, the ocean looked fantastic, and you could easily image how many ships met their demise. The peninsula wasn’t named the Cape of Storms by Portuguese explorers for nothing. Continue reading
Although it’s only been just over a week since our trip to Croatia, it feels like months ago after a busy first working week back in Berlin. In a city that seems to be in a decidedly autumnal mood, with lots of rain and chilly evenings, summer days at the coast seem a lifetime away. So this morning was a good time to look over our souvenirs from the trip. I decided to put them all together for another post in the travel memories and trinket series.
It’s always fun seeing what items other countries have for sale. In Croatia, many of the towns have the distinct scent of lavender, with all the lavender sachets sold. The climate on the coast allows many aromatic herb plants such as lavender and rosemary to flourish, we saw a lot of it growing wild, and on the mountain we also saw sage. Olive trees and fig trees were also common, and delicious figs, both fresh and dried, were easy to come by in the markets. Candied orange peel was another sweet treat available. There were also many people selling honey, both along the roadside and in towns, from many different flowers including lavender. A liqueur containing honey, called medica, was also available and we saw lots of bottles of it for sale in Primošten.
A big surprise was coming across the multitude of souvenir stalls selling their wares in the basement level of the palace of Diocletian. Amongst other things, jewellery and other objects carved of local stone were for sale. We found a stall selling products made from onyx and bought two little cups as well as some beautiful dice.
Our final souvenir we bought on our very last day in Croatia, in which we spent the morning on one of the pebble peaches swimming in the clear, green waters of the Adriatic coast. It was a huge beach towel on which a map of Croatia was printed. The reason we liked it is that during our road trip we’d been to many of the places on the map. Every time we use the towel we will remember our wonderful trip to Croatia, the beaches, mountains, ancient Roman ruins, fish dinners and lively towns.
Have you been to Croatia? Which were your favourite local products, and did you take anything back home?
Originally we had a hiking holiday in Slovakia planned, but due to some bad weather we decided to spontaneously head south instead to find some sunshine. Many Czechs and Germans go on holiday to Croatia, and we knew it had both sea and mountains, so it seemed like the perfect choice for a quick getaway. I’m a bit short on time to write these blog posts so decided to make some notes in the car – here is our road trip travel diary complete with Instagrams I made along the way – more photos to follow soon in a photo diary! Continue reading
