Germany
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What to do in Wurzburg on a Cruise
While many cruise ship tourists who visit my city go on a guided tour, a few intrepid adventurers decide to go it alone. For these folk, I’ve put together a list of the best things to do in Wurzburg on a cruise. This post aims to give you a walking tour that you can do in a day easily, taking in the main tourist attractions, while giving you some insider tips of what to see in Wurzburg. You probably won’t have time to visit all the attractions on this list, so choose the ones that you want to see and wander past the others. Cruise Ports in Wurzburg Let’s set…
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The Bombing of Würzburg
In my life I have lived in many cities and villages, but the cities I consider “home” are the twin towns of Dundee and Würzburg. I was born and brought up in Dundee, and have recently returned to bring up my children here. I moved to Würzburg in Germany when I was 19 years old, to work as an au-pair for a year. On the day of my arrival, I met the man who I would later marry, but that is a story for another day. Today, I am thinking of the upcoming 70th anniversary of an event that almost destroyed the city, but instead led to its re-birth. While the…
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Rambling in a Biergarten
It occurred to me that lately I have done lots of ranting and campaigning on the blog, and not as much general rambling, reviews, and travel reports. It has become a bit too much Salt and not enough Caramel. I started to rectify this earlier today with a blog post about my new handbag and find myself wishing to tell you readers more about my life. It has been a busy couple of months. Moving to Scotland, receiving the offer to blog in Kenya, my first book contract, agreeing to host a workshop for Mumsnet about Social Media, writing for Salt&Caramel, Jump! Mag and more recently for the Gates Foundation…
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Desperately Seeking…
… a new home. Blog is a bit quiet at the moment as I am busy with move stuff. Seriously. Was I really excited about this a couple of weeks ago? Had I forgotten how much there is to organise? Currently trying to find out what happens with our cars, book hotel for the last week of our stay in Switzerland, look for schools in UK, and find a flat in Munich. That last one is the biggest stealer of time and energy, even for someone like me who loves to surf the property websites. In Germany a lot of rentals go through real estate agents called…
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Plätzchen Plätzchen
Further to my Advent Advent post, here is the result of our weekend baking activity. Lots of wonderful Christmas biscuits – called Plätzchen in Germany. The word Plätzchen (according to Wiki) comes from either the diminutive of Platz – round flat cake – or from the latin word placenta which means cake. Placenta means CAKE? Why had I never heard of this before? It makes sense though, because in Germany the placenta is called the “Mutterkuchen”. At the beginning of Advent, many families in Germany bake Plätzchen, often using old family recipes. My mother-in-law uses the same recipe for the Xmas Plätzchen as she does for the Easter biscuits, a…
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Daily Mail and German Bashing
I know I have promised to stop reading the Daily Mail. I even considered installing the wonderful Kittenblock as recommended by @ivan_jelical but this time it was my husband’s fault. To keep up with the gossip from his home country, he skims the Bild Zeitung daily. It is a populist tabloid belonging to the Axel Springer publishing house, read by almost 2.9million Germans and highly influential. (pic credit) Yesterday, he remarked that the Bild had an article about the Daily Mail and then he clicked on the DM website to read the article in the original English. “Bloody hell, it is even worse than the Bild Zeitung”, was his first comment…
