It has been a year, and I am missing my friend Bruce La Rochelle. He died one year ago today of smoking related cancer. We never did say goodbye. Bruce was the one who encouraged me to start this blog. I had been a somewhat regular contributor to his. He chose not to tell me […]
Sometimes important dates creep up on you. I just realized today is Valentine’s Day. Actually, I did remember yesterday, early in the afternoon. Which made it too late to buy my wife a card – on Wednesdays the only place in Sulzburg where I can buy a card closes at 12:30. I don’t recall seeing […]
I had a post planned for today that you will never read. That is the drawback when you choose to write about current events. That post was about the latest investigation by Canada’s Ethics Commissioner into the Prime Minister and his office. I was going to comment on the nature of the scandal (involving interference […]
Germany, as anyone who lives here can tell you, is a land of rules and regulations. It is a minefield for newcomers who are going to make some minor transgressions of laws written and unwritten – and you can be sure your neighbors will tell you after the fact. When I saw this sign though, […]
For a history junkie Europe can be agony. There is simply too much to take in. We were in Breisach, where the idea was to enjoy a sunny day with a walk along the Rhine, and maybe check out the cathedral that we had been told was worth a look. Too easy though to get […]
I try to keep my promises, even if it takes a while. Last July (I think it was) I promised you that at some point I would get inside the church in Britzingen that I had been told is one of the most beautiful in the region. Every time I was in the town, it […]
One aspect of the military cemetery in the hills above Colmar and Sigolsheim that I hadn’t considered before was just who fought in the Second World War battles to liberate France. I guess that is a bit of Canadian blindness on my part. Canadian war cemeteries, or at least the ones I have visited, have […]
Every so often my wife and I walk over the hills to the Black Forest town of Staufen. There’s a cafe there she likes, and the five kilometre walk is a healthy one. Whenever we walk down the main street I see signs commemorating the date Allied forces bombed Staufen during World War II and […]
The national cemetery in the hills above Sigolsheim, France, contains the remains of several thousand soldiers who died in the Battle of Colmar which ended on February 9, 1945. The tombstones are a sobering sight. I have been to Canadian war memorials in Belgium and France, so standing on this hill is not the first […]
Ever hear of the Battle of Colmar? Neither had I, and when I was younger I used to read a lot of Second World War histories. One of the great things about not having an agenda when you travel is that you are open to unexpected discoveries. You don’t have to get back on the […]
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