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Continue reading →: Saxony: Railways and RidgesFor the last few days I have been in Saxony at the eastern end of the Harz mountains. There is plenty of good hiking and mountain biking here, as well as snow sports in the winter, though they are really well used by visitors, as it is quite a populated…
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Continue reading →: Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd
British Literature – Published 2024 The novel begins in 1960 with journalist / author Gabriel Dax flying back to England after picking up a scoop, by interviewing the Congolese Prime Minister when a series of strange coincidences begins; a woman on the plane is reading one of his books, his…
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Continue reading →: The Schwarzwassertal Nature Reserve and the Grüner GrabenI’m parked up for the weekend close to the summit of the Katzenstein mountain, which means cat rock, and is named so as the summit used to resemble a cat’s head. Thirty years ago though, after it was deemed to be in too precarious a state due to weathering and…
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Continue reading →: The Knockout Artist by Harry Crews
American Literature – First Published 1988 At one stage Eugene Talmadge ‘Knockout’ Biggs’s promoter boasts that the young boxer from rural Georgia has had 72 successive knockouts. It may be a correct statement but those knockouts are actually of himself. After a dodgy start in the sport his best friend…
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Continue reading →: Olalla by Robert Louis Stevenson
First published 1885 A young British officer, wounded in the Carlist civil wars that afflicted Spain in the mid 19th century, goes to an isolated dilapidated mansion in the mountains to recover. There he falls in love with Olalla, the beautiful daughter of a decaying aristocratic family. She slowly reciprocates…
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Continue reading →: The Bohemian Swiss National ParkI was based for two days and nights at the hikers’ car park in Dolní Světlá. On Tuesday I ate at the restaurant I had been at for a beer the previous evening. Goulash and potato croquettes with a couple of beers for just over ten euros. Earlier in the…
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Continue reading →: The Lusatian MountainsI started the day on Monday with a hike up to the peak of Špičák from Oldřichov where I was the night before. We were out early, just after 8, and back at 10:30 for coffee. I then drove about fifty kilometres west in a roundabout way, but roughly along…
To live more widely
supera superiora sequi
SafeReturnDoubtful is my alias.
Where is Andy?
I was so much older then…
Quote of the Week
Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, ‘What road do I take?’ The cat asked, ‘Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it really doesn’t matter, does it?’
Lewis Carroll
Safe Return Doubtful 