Tegernsee, Bavarian idyll
Many clichés apply to Lake Tegernsee. It is idyllic, enchanting, sophisticated, tranquil and – difficult to translate – urbayrisch (original Bavarian). Lake Tegernsee was formed towards the end of the last great ice age, when a huge glacier carved a depression between the mountains. This later filled with water. Lake
Altenburg
The successful general and ingenious state administrator, whose portrait can be seen here in a window of Altenburg Palace, became regent of the newly created Duchy of Saxe-Gotha in 1640 in the middle of the Thirty Years’ War. His church and school reforms earned him great merit. Immediately after his
Once upon the time in Zaire
At the end of the eighties, I lived for some time in Central Africa in Zaire, a country that is now called DR Congo. The infrastructure was very run-down then (and probably still is today). Therefore, it was hardly possible to travel through the country by land. But I was
Kazakhstan, Mausoleum of Karakhan
In the south of Kazakhstan, on the Talas River near the Kyrgyz border is Taraz, a major city of the Jambul province. Dating back more than 2,000 years, it is one of the oldest cities in Kazakhstan and in 2001 UNESCO recognized its status as a World Heritage Site. The
Tianshan, Mountains of the Sky
The Tienshan is a high mountain range in Central Asia with a height of up to 7439 m. It stretches over the territory of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The landscapes are diverse and include gorges, high peaks and glaciers, but also wetlands, grasslands and steppes. In 1983, I