Category Archives: Landscapes Another year draws to a close… I find that the period of “limbo” between Christmas and New Year is a good time to reflect on the past: on the trials and accomplishments of the year that is finishing. This time in 2014, I wrote: “This last year has been a turbulent one: wars, acts of terror and insanity, […]  Bavaria. When I think of Bavaria, I think of buxom blond women in dirndls (traditional white blouses, laced bodices, full skirts and aprons), and moustached men in lederhosen (leather breeches). I think of medieval castles, charming villages, and beer in copious steins. But, it is also home to expanses of dark forests that stretch from high up in the Bavarian Alps down to the […]  The Spitzkoppe, meaning “pointed dome” in German, is a granite massif rising out of the flat Namib Desert – a plain of gravel and sand that extends to the Atlantic Ocean a hundred miles away on Namibia’s west coast. Part of the Erongo Mountains, Spitzkoppe is the remains of a gigantic volcano which collapsed more than a 100 million years ago when the ancient continent […]  After being tipped onto the tarmac at Hosea Kutako International Airport in Windhoek, Namibia, one night last month, the first thing I noticed – after the cold, mind you; it was still mid-winter in the Southern Hemisphere – was the sky. The sky was black, with very little ambient light. And it was full of stars: stars so close […]  Xiamen, an island-city on China’s southeast coast, has been ranked as China’s second “most suitable city for living” … as well as China’s “most romantic leisure city”, making it a popular destination for domestic tourists. It is reasonably accessible to foreign tourists, as well. Some time ago, while my husband was busy with meetings in a nearby free-trade zone, I […] |
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