Earlier this year, the German word Heimat made it into the New York Times. Heimat means home, homeland, or place of belonging – straightforward enough, you might think. But these are not straightforward times, which is why the word made it into the New York Times, and why Germany now has a Heimat minister, and why… Read more Reflections on Heimat
Sneak preview! This is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of my book-in-progress. In it, you will find out about the true flatlands and the true meaning behind June Seventeenth, a beloved summer holiday of my childhood that turned out to have an sinister history. Maybe one has to grow up in a flat landscape to… Read more The True Flatlands, and the True Meaning of a Childhood Holiday
… a new video about the Green Belt. Even if you don’t understand German, you’ll see some of the 1,200 rare and threatened animal and plant species that find refuge there from the pressures of the intense land uses in the rest of the country. Brought to you by BUND, the organization that manages and protects… Read more For your viewing pleasure
For me, this has been a year of discovering small, almost hidden treasures: Rare birds, small towns, bobcats, mystery wetlands – off the beaten path and yet, right in the middle of Germany. I encountered these treasures on my expedition along and around the strip of land that once ran through the landscape like an… Read more Remember the good news stories
A story aired today on North Country Public Radio: Washington has ended a temporary residency program for almost 60,000 Haitians allowed to legally enter the United States following an earthquake in 2010. The affected Haitians will have to leave the U.S. by 2019. The program has also been revoked for 2,000 Nicaraguans and it’s unclear… Read more Meanwhile, at the U.S./Canada border…
The sight of the tiny village of Henneberg (population 613) in the light of the setting sun was lovely – a reward for the double distance I had covered that day. A bit like a Vermont scene, I thought, the way it sat there nestled between fields and pastures against a wooded hillside. But this… Read more “The bakery has closed forever”…but not the German Unity sculpture park
When the Berlin Wall opened under the pressure of protesters 28 years ago today, a wave of euphoria swept not only through Germany but around the world. Listen to my commentary on Vermont Public Radio on the disappearance and reappearance of borders since then.
I had learned by this point in the expedition that I should not even attempt to ride more than 50 km a day. A 30 km day yielded enough impressions, encounters, and food for thought to last for several more days. And then there were the hills, which were more like the Green Mountains than… Read more Roaming the Rhön Mountains, and lunch at the Bay of Pigs
Somewhere along my first breezy descent from Point Alpha to Geisa I had noticed that the numbers on the odometer were not moving. While the bliss of flying down the hill almost made the moment seem timeless, there was likely another reason. I checked whether the sensor lined up properly with the plastic sleeve that… Read more People of Geisa: Lessons from a bike mechanic
So I had promised to fill you in on my most recent “detour” a couple of weeks ago, when I spent ten days in Leipzig. I was there for the practical purpose of driving buses, but like my previous “detour” to Eisenach (for other practical purposes like bike repair), this was not really a detour… Read more The Peaceful Revolution
