Sunday in the Tiergarten…
Sunday afternoon in the Tiergarten.
A group of four shirtless guys sit on the grass, smoking pot and rolling a soccer ball in listless circles.
Writer, Explorer and Travel Philosopher
Overshadowed by Nuremberg’s Dark Past
August 1, 2018 by 2 Comments
The unfinished Nazi Party Kongresshalle…
Nuremberg was once one of the wealthiest and most important trading centres in medieval Europe. And between 1050 and 1571, it was the closest thing to a capital under the Holy Roman Empire, seat of the imperial Diet.
Exploring Bamberg’s Unique Beer Culture
July 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Bamberg: Germany’s biertown…
My friends called Bamberg “biertown”, and I would soon discover why.
We took the high speed ICE train down to this beautiful town in northern Franconia a couple weeks ago. It’s less than four hours from Berlin-Südkreuz to Bamberg, but I’d never been to Bavaria before.
Coasting With Jonathan Raban
July 9, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Coasting by Jonathan Raban
In 1982, Jonathan Raban bought a wooden two-masted sailing boat and circumnavigated England in a slow, wandering, unhurried way.
He called this manner of travel “coasting”: moving along with the tide, letting the wind decide the direction of travel, and living “on the shifting frontier where the land meets the water and the water shades into the land.”
Travel Lit and The Mark of the Eland
July 4, 2018 by Leave a Comment
I always find something amazing in the travel lit section…
My last London day was a short one. We had a flight to catch that evening, but there was still time to shift the scope of my trip back to books.
On A Weekend Crusade
July 1, 2018 by 6 Comments
The Blurred Crusade — live, electric, and in its entirety…
The centrepiece of this packed London weekend I’ve been telling you about was two days of music with The Church at Bush Hall.
I travelled by thought with The Church long before I ever set out on the road for real.
Visiting One of My Travel Inspirations
June 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
A mausoleum fit for an explorer…
We had a packed agenda on this 3-day London trip, but as luck would have it, there was a two hour window of free time on Saturday morning.
Talking Travel Writing at The British Museum
June 23, 2018 by 1 Comment
The British Museum
I flew over to London last weekend for a packed 3 days of events.
It was good to be back in one of the world’s truly great cities. My last visit was in 2016.
How Potsdam Shaped the Cold War World
June 12, 2018 by 2 Comments
The Cecilienhof, site of the 1945 Potsdam Conference…
I haven’t written a new blog in ages. Working on a book has kept me close to home this past year.
But I took an afternoon away from my desk last week to check out an exhibit on the painter Max Beckmann at Potsdam’s Barberini museum.
I Had an Art Attack in Dresden
March 12, 2018 by 2 Comments
A Communist mosaic on the Kulturpalast reminds us that this was East Germany
My other reason for visiting Dresden was the art.
We stopped at the Albertinum on our first day in town to immerse ourselves in contemporary art, from the Romantic period to the present.
