The Romantic Rhine

/ Rhine Gorge, Germany/
The Romantic Rhine

A place that I had never explicitly planned to visit was the Romantic Rhine, that is, the middle Rhine, which is defined as the region between Bingen and Bonn. The upper half of the section is particularly famous, known as the Rhine Gorge, a 71 kilometre long gorge formed by the constant glacial waters carving their way from high in the Alps into Lake Constance and escaping into the North Sea. The average elevation of the gorge is roughly 100 metres, making for some spectacular scenery. Adding to this are the 40-odd medieval castles built along this stretch, yielding an average separation of only one and a half kilometres between castles. The Rhine Gorge is a UNESCO world heritage site which has meant that the cities that line the gorge are kept pristine; however it has also meant that no bridges have been allowed to be built across the river, leading to practical difficulties. In any case, this area is everything that I think of when I think of Germany, I just did not know it before I went.

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Bordeaux

/ Gironde, France/
Bordeaux

May had rolled around and in 2014, this resulted in three public holidays falling on a Thursday. In France, this is equivalent to a four day weekend – it is a given that the Friday is also a day off, even though it is not an official holiday; on doit faire le pont. The first holiday was the first day of the month, and the Labour Day weekend was as good a candidate as any for a trip to Bordeaux. East-west train travel is somewhat problematic, so from Geneva, Mia would fly to Bordeaux and I would catch the first train of the day from Paris. This would provide sufficient time to see Bordeaux and the surrounding sights of Saint-Émilion and le dune du Pilat.

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Italy

/ Italy/
Italy

As our time in Europe always had an endpoint to it, we had made of a point of deciding the things we wanted to see. This had the benefit of allowing those among us with organisational inclinations to plan out a travel calendar over a year in advance. Being aware of one’s chosen destinations does come with a price however - the depressing cost of knowing many great alternative locations. To allow for some spontaneous travel then, we had left a few dates blank, notably on long weekends in case of further-flung trips. Easter was charging toward us and uncharacteristically we still had not decided where we were to celebrate crucifying people. We agreed that we would like to be somewhere that embraces the occasion and as we had no plans in the future to go to Italy, it seemed to be a fitting match; we were to have four days to see all we could. For practical reasons it was best to start and end in Milan, I wanted to see Florence and Mia proposed Venice. Handily, with the recently-completed high-speed rail lines around parts of the country, each destination was only three hours from the previous one. We had a plan and we were going to stick to it… religiously.

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Blaubeuren, Freiburg and Basel

/ Germany/Switzerland/
Blaubeuren, Freiburg and Basel

Once again, my work took me to Mainz, Germany. The winter was nearly over (in the technical sense) and by chance a friend from Australia was to be in Berlin for a conference, so we made plans to catch up. We had other friends in the south of Germany, so after some searching, we decided on a weekend trip to Blaubeuren; a small town with a big hole. Additionally, another opportunity for travel would present itself on my return to Paris: rather than head home directly, I would make a detour to meet up with Mia halfway between Geneva and Mainz and once again we would find ourselves in the Black Forest.

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Antwerp

/ Anvers, Belgium/
Antwerp

Doing a fair amount of travel, I am on all of the SNCF spam mailing lists, which is not necessarily a bad thing. For example, when the Thalys sale starts, you can be ready and pick up return tickets to almost any destination serviced by them for under 40€. Thanks to one of these sales, I found myself with a weekend in Antwerp, a city that to me at the time, aside from being a historically important place, was known primarily for diamond-trading and fashion.

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