Category Archives: Diary

Close to the border, the Franco-German Garden

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Saarbrücken straddles the river Saar up against the German-French border, and this part of the world has been much disputed by those two great European powers as the Saarland passed back and forth depending on the movements of history. After the Second World War there was much discussion about what to do with this little wedge of territory, and it was only at the end of the 1950s that a decision was finally made and Saarland became the 10th state of the Federal Republic of Germany.

To mark the occasion, and in the spirit of friendship between the two nations, the Franco-German garden was built, a stone’s throw from the border. The park occupies two valleys; one named in memory of the victims of the infamous Battle of the Spichern Heights in Franco-Prussian war of 1870, and the other for the mill built by Teutonic knights in the Middle Ages. Continue reading →

A song for the road

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This morning I am taking a train to the Saarland, that little corner of Germany tucked in between France and Luxembourg. After that we move on to Paris for a few days and, who knows, we might pass the route I took on a rickety old bus during sixth form college between Leyland and Florence. That was a long journey, sitting two rows from the back and drinking vodka mixed with warm, flat orangeade with the cool kids from foundation art… Some of us studying History had somehow tagged a ride on this little tour to Tuscany, and whilst the Art students spent their days wandering from one gallery to the next, the rest of us were pretty much free to explore the streets of Florence and see what kind of mischief we could get up to.

We were pretty well behaved. This song was part of my soundtrack of that coach journey, and I can distinctly remember sitting on the bus at the Swiss border as rain hammered against the window listening to Glory Box, knowing that we were about to travel through some of the most spectacular scenery in Europe and that we would see absolutely none of it because it was the middle of the night. This is a theme of my travels, as I also managed to take a night bus from Dubrovnik to Trieste along the legendary Jadranska Magistrala – the Dalmatian coastal road – a journey that I now know to be one of the truly great road trips anywhere in the world. I have travelled it since, but the first time I did it I was sitting bolt upright in an uncomfortable seat, only darkness beyond the window, watching Rocky I, II, III and IV dubbed into Croatian as the night passed agonisingly slowly.

New posts might be a bit sporadic whilst I am away, but I will see what I can do – Paul.

Sunday by the seaside, Whitby

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Jasmine Salmon on an off-season jaunt to the North Sea coast:

Whitby.  Wintery, wild and windy.  Doesn’t sound too promising, but when you’ve got two children under the age of four with cabin fever – and possibly harbouring chicken pox – a two hour drive to the coast seems an attractive prospect.

And in fact many would argue that Whitby is at its best in January.  Devoid of tourists, the weak winter light and grey skies add to the dramatic atmosphere of the North Sea coast and fossil-rich cliffs, with the headland topped by the gothic architecture of the ruined Abbey and surrounded by the bleakly beautiful moorland of the North York Moors National Park. Continue reading →

A walk in Neukölln, Berlin

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Photo diary from Thursday 12th January 2012, taken very much under grey skies. Julia showed me around her kiez – along busy roads crammed with second hand electronics stores, internet cafes and takeaways – through the old Rixdorf village long subsumed by the city, and across some patches of green, either sculpted on the whim of industrialists or built upon the rubble of Second World War bombing raids. More photographs after the jump, and keep an eye out for a more detailed report on Slow Travel Berlin at some point in the future… Continue reading →

By the Weißer See, Berlin

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We take a Sunday walk around the Weißer See, at the heart of its near-namesake neighbourhood of Weißensee, to the north east of Berlin and a short tram ride from the popular and supposedly hip neighbourhoods of Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte. The cultural centre on the edge of the park that leads down to the lake looks as if it has seen better days, like the area as a whole, but there is no denying the small but important role this corner of Berlin has played in the city’s cultural history. During the early years of cinema, the Weißensee Film Studios produced a number of legendary films, most famously The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The Antonplatz – the central square of Weißensee – once boasted no fewer than eight cinemas, such was the influence of the art form on the neighbourhood. Into the 21st Century, only one remains. Continue reading →

New Year’s Day, Berlin

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(Photo: The Panke river on New Year’s Day)

As this is Germany it is a peculiarly organised form of chaos. On New Year’s Eve the locals (and the rest of us, but mainly the locals) launch the city’s debt-worth of fireworks into the sky, filling the night air with an almighty racket and a thick cloud of gunpowder-tinged smoke. The next morning the pavements and any open spaces are filled with the debris of last night’s celebrations, but some householders are already out on the street, sweeping it away from the pavement into piles for the binmen to collect. Continue reading →