As this goes to publish, flight schedules on point, I’ll be ambling about the airport in Constantinople (something about that name…), Central Asia bound yet again, and I was reminded I still haven’t told you about the rock carvings in Kazakhstan’s Tamgaly Gorge. Now, Tajikistan will be the major player this journey. We will be […]
Hiking Qadisha Valley and the Cedars of God
Lebanon is a small country packed with sights and landscape of great variety. There’s winter and summer in one day (ski Mount Lebanon in the morning, chill at the Mediterranean beaches in the afternoon), there’s the bustling nightlife in Beirut, there’s jaw dropping remnants of ancient Phoenicia and Imperial Rome, there’s nectar from a number […]
Yet another day out Beirut: Byblos, the world’s oldest city?
Is ancient Byblos the world’s oldest continually inhabited city? Others make the same claim: Damascus and Aleppo in neighbouring Syria, Jericho in Palestine, also in the general vicinity. Byblos was founded 7 000 years ago. Some say 9 000, some say 10 800. Either way, people have lived and loved here for a long time. […]
Day out Beirut: Tyre
I’m in Southern Lebanon today; joined by 6 Brits and an American couple (the woman went to university in Beirut in 1964!) and our cheerful guide Pierre, all wanting to have a look at the Roman ruins in Tyre. Or Ksour, the city’s present-day Arabic name. We’ve driven 82 km south from Beirut, a picturesque coastal drive. […]
Park Musakowski: biking across borders
See the bridge here? It is one of several bridges in Park Musakowski/Muskauer Park, crossing the River Neisse. Perhaps that name sounds familiar? You may remember the Oder/Neisse line from history lessons in school: at the Potsdam Conference after World War II, on Stalin‘s insistence, the rivers Oder and Neisse were set as the border […]
Kinderdijk, the cat and the cradle
Holland; what image comes to mind? Tulips? Indeed. Wooden clogs? That, too. The sublime paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn? Most definitely. Windmills? Oh yes! And probably the Kinderdijk windmills, specifically. Can’t get a more classical Dutch image than this. And I’ll tell you a bit about this most Dutch of ingenuities, but first, a little […]
World at a Glance: Flemish béguinages, a 13th century women’s movement
A béguinage, what is that? Well, let’s begin with a béguine (come on, that was funny…) A béguine is, or rather was, a woman who dedicated her life to her god – but didn’t necessarily want to take a vow, or withdraw from the world. Who were these women? According to one theory, wars and […]
Welcome! I'm Sophie - writer, dreamer, negotiator, wanderer, mum - in search of the world's curious places. Mostly with my daughters, sometimes solo. The girls share their take on it, too.
- Chasing shadows in Czechia
- A Tale of Two Villas
- Gori: birthplace of the world’s most infamous dictator
- The Waterhead: A Boutique Hotel in the English Lake District
- The Four Seasons Hotel in Baku: Graceful and luxurious
- World at a Glance: Petroglyphs in Tamgaly Gorge
- Hiking Qadisha Valley and the Cedars of God
- Yet another day out Beirut: Byblos, the world’s oldest city?
- Day out Beirut: Tyre
- Park Musakowski: biking across borders
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Katrin: What a bizzare experience to have! Maybe the citiz...
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Anne-Sophie Redisch: Love unusual finds like this plantation. Thanks fo...
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Jeanette Brunet: I was in Edinburgh in August of 2015 for 9 days. W...
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