March 2019 saw me in my new home city in Central Germany and a year on we are living in a time of a pandemic. Covid Home – Letter One – Letter Two – Letter Three – Letter Four – Letter Five – Letter Six – Letter Seven A year ago (March 26, 2019), I went… Continue Reading
Latest in: History/Life – Geschichte & Leben
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A road cycle ride south of Göttingen took us through an area that had born witness to the ravages of one of Europe’s most savage wars. In spring like weather, we pedalled out to Jühnde on what we thought would be tarmac only, but we took a shortcut and therefore rode a big chunk of… Continue Reading
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Almost every area will have something that has been abandoned with some long since forgotten and rubbed away. On this short gravel ride, we passed two lost villages, at Kerstlingeröder Feld and Omborn. The first was badly hit during the Thirty Years War (which devastated the German speaking states) and what was left was then… Continue Reading
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With weather forecasts saying that we were in for another summers day I wanted to do something a little bit bolder just in case we plunge into the darkness of winter next. I elected to ride to the Grenzmuseum Schifflersgrund near Bad Sooden-Allendorf on the Hessian-Thuringian border. This would take me past iconic places that… Continue Reading
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We rode mostly on the road linked together with gravel sections to the southern geodetic meridian stone placed on top of a hill by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1819 at Friedland. The gravel climb up along an old pilgrim’s route was leg breaking (20% in places) and we felt quite dizzy by the time we… Continue Reading
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We took a steady road spin out to the Hanstein Castle this day and we rode out of Goettingen along the A38 cycle path (the place to catch so many local riders) past Friedland, across the old East German border and then onto rolling country roads to Rimbach. The cobbled climb up to the castle… Continue Reading
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Two 430 metre hills dominate the approach to Goettingen from the south east and upon each a castle was built. We spun out along a mix of gravel, cycle paths and road, which included my favourite the Kopfsteinpflaster Carrousel to seek out the Burg Alte Gleichen (castle). Just after the carousel we approached the Alte… Continue Reading
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Determined to chill out this ride and not push on we stopped (on a long climb) to look at something we had spotted during the spring from the road when the lack of foliage had revealed a stone urn at the village of Appenrode. It looked like the type of stone urn that you often… Continue Reading
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I was trying to think when was the last time I pinned a number on? It must be 2006 when I raced at the lost Eastway Cycle Circuit (bulldozed under the 2012 Olympic Velodrome in 2006). Looking back it was the process of putting a number on your back pocket or doing it for another… Continue Reading
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We followed the line-of-march of the US First Army through Göttingen and we rode adjacent to the Leine River to Bovenden where the 3rd Armour fought off a Nazi Panzer counter-attack in 1945. Just a few kilometres from Bovenden is Lenglern, this is a rather generic German village where old farm houses and a sombre… Continue Reading
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Putting names and a history to people who are or were; immigrants, migrants, aliens, expats, exiles, refugees, asylum seekers or emigres, I believe can go some way to fight the use of such English terms to degenerate or even de-humanise our view of people. I am an immigrant, a privileged one as I am white,… Continue Reading
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The letter from the Zoll said that on pain of fees, taxes and fines we must collect a parcel they had held from us for over a week. We had ordered an item from a German company, via a German website and paid in Euros, but the vendor had sent it straight from the USA… Continue Reading
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Or following in Grandma’s footsteps and German Castles are just not ‘hard arse’ enough. My image of castles was formed by visiting Wales where large and imposing castles were built to express power, deliver military dominance over and the subjugation of the Welsh by the English. Also ‘hard as nails’ castles built by the Norman… Continue Reading
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Apart from the Baltic Coast few Central Europeans have access to the sea, therefore being from the UK it is a very odd feeling not to be within even a 100 kilometres of a beach or sea in a landlocked Goettingen. So what to do? Central Europeans visit the lakes and there are many to… Continue Reading
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I scream und Erdbeere (road to Duderstadt) Duderstadt was once linked by a small railway to Goettingen (Die Gartetlbahn); sadly this service which ran from 1897 was closed in 1957. Our gain is that almost all of it is now a cycle path that can be used with other cycle routes to carry us the… Continue Reading
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We think we might pedal far and heroically but history tells us what suffering, travel and hardship really is and which at times can be beyond understanding. A visit to the Museum Friedland as part of my June 15 ride to Friedland. Personally, I am an (Cycling) Immigrant. In Transit Migration and immigration are part… Continue Reading
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A short ride from my new home town is a place that played an amazing part in post-World War Two life – it was at the Friedland Transit Camp that millions of displaced people, POW’s and refugees travelled through. It was near the small village of Friedland that the US, British and Soviet Zones of… Continue Reading
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A ride to the now defunct Internal Border. Every location has an intrinsic value and the landscape can be dramatic or even supine and a ‘back-water’ can have a story to tell, if often a little more prosaic than some. Additionally man’s intervention in the landscape can be dramatic (or traumatic) and with the passage… Continue Reading
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Mayday is a public holiday in Germany and like most public holidays and Sundays retail life slows almost to a halt and it all seems a bit old fashioned compared to the 24/7 shopping fuelled frenzied lifestyles (and endless sales) which seem the norm in the UK. Except, even here in Germany there are those… Continue Reading
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Around the globe most of the land is owned by just a few people and this affects how much access we have to it. I’m not a believer that land is somehow French, German or English and for me talk of sacred soil is weird and somewhat nudging on nationalist fanaticism. What I believe is… Continue Reading
