Category: travel
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Visiting Yorkshire and – new book!
After the fraught journey to get to Leeds, I settled down in my hotel and started the week’s busy programme of book and family events. First up was meeting writer Carmen Radtke, who was on the blog a few months ago with a post about Australia and missing brides. We spent the afternoon on the…
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Train travel in middle England…
My journey from N.E. Switzerland to sunny Leeds didn’t start well. I arrived at Zürich Airport well on time, only to see DELAYED in large letters beside my flight. Ah, well. I’d allowed two and a half hours between landing at Luton and catching the first of three trains – where I had reserved seats,…
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Wild Orchids in Switzerland
A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I went out in search of orchids… wild ones. Close to the Switzerland-Germany border, there’s a tiny place called Bargen. It’s known for being the most northerly village in the country, and also for its nearby woodland orchid trail. I have to confess I’d never heard of…
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Christmas Swiss-Style
So what’s the difference? Quite a lot, especially if you believe in the magic of Santa Claus. He doesn’t come to Switzerland, you see. But let’s look at the entire festive season, starting with Advent. (We’ll ignore all the Christmas decs etc shops start putting up in October/November.) The first Christmassy thing in most homes…
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Spooky old house revisited…
Back in the nineties, I spent a week with a friend who had just moved to Biddenham. It’s a good area for a visit from Switzerland – Bedford just a hop down the road, and Cambridge and London less than an hour away. I made the most of my UK shopping and culture week. One…
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An old book and some new/old friends…
I was in England over the weekend – a flying visit from Zürich Airport to London Luton, and it was my first-ever Easy Jet flight. I was pleasantly surprised – my knees didn’t touch the seat in front, there was an empty place beside me both ways, and we took off and landed punctually. From…
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Home is… (complete in your own words…)
Home is where the heart is, traditionally. Nowadays, opinions differ. Home is where your other half (and presumably also your heart?) is? That’s a bit dangerous, imo. Home is where your favourite armchair is? Nope. My favourite armchair is a sofa, but I’m planning the next one already. Home is where the corkscrew is? Now…
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Over the sea to… Friedrichshafen
Our lake – Lake Constance – is huge. 536 square kilometres, to be exact. Standing on the banks on a misty day, you can almost imagine you’re gazing out over the Atlantic. The photo below was taken from the Austrian end, and shows Germany on the right and Switzerland disappearing on the left. Last week,…
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Up the Scott Monument…
Every time the boys and I go to Edinburgh, someone says, ‘Shall we go up the Scott Monument?’ We don’t often – sometimes it’s shut, sometimes the weather isn’t suitable, and then there’s that narrow spiral staircase with 287 steps to the top… You need to be at your best for that. The Scott Monument…
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Reichenau…
…is a tiny island on our lake. It belongs to Germany, and over the centuries has been home to over 20 churches and chapels, though only three remain. Last week I went there with a couple of friends – the original plan was to bike round the island (only 11km), but as it was well…
linda huber 