General Archives ⋆ The Passenger

August 9, 2024August 23, 2024

Hard to reach

Andorra is potentially the country in Europe that is hardest to tick off your travel wish list. It is just a tiny country with under 80,000 inhabitants on 468 km² in the Pyrenees between Spain and France. There is no airport and no railway station, your best chance is to fly to Barcelona or Toulouse and take a bus ride into the mountains which lasts 3-4 hours. It is a bit unusual that the capital city Andorra la Vella is so complicated to reach but the trip through the mountains is very scenic and well worth the effort.

July 4, 2024July 31, 2024

Bear Country

The province British Columbia has the abbreviation BC, but these two letters can also be read in a different way: as Bear Country. That’s what British Columbia is. When hiking on Vancouver Island or up to the Yellowhead Mountain there are typically two potential threats: cougars and bears. While cougars and wolves are mostly shy and invisible, you’ll meet bears quite frequently; black bears more often than grizzly bears. On Vancouver Island alone there are around 7,000 of them and knowing how to react and which precautions to take is a must.

July 3, 2024July 31, 2024

Sailing

Well, the ferry boats between Vancouver and Vancouver Island are powered by natural gas and not by the winds – but nevertheless they speak of sailing between mainland and island. There are different routes but the most important ones seem to be the one going from Tsawwassen south of Vancouver to Swartz Bay (for visiting Victoria) and the one from Departure Bay (a well chosen name) near Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay; the perfect arrival point for a trip through the Sea-to-Sky community via Squamish up to Whistler.

July 1, 2024August 3, 2024

CAD

Currency of Canada is of course the Canadian Dollar (CAD, $ or C$). It is divided into 100 Cents and exists since 1871 when it became the first uniform currency for all Canadian provinces. There are coins for one and two dollars, as well as cent coins mostly showing wildlife of Canada. The banknotes from five to 100 $ currently show Canadian innovations from elements of the ISS and trains to insulin. The issue is that you’ll probably won’t get to see them as Canada has gone cashless nearly everywhere.

May 31, 2024June 23, 2024

Pit Stop

Every year the eyes of the world turn to Monaco for the Formula 1 Grand Prix when the fast cars race through the narrow streets of the city and pass along the Casino as well as the Port Hercule. But Monaco as one of those microstates in Europe, fully surrounded by France, is always worth a visit. It is reigned by prince Albert II, became independent from France in 1489, has 40,000 inhabitants (thereof 8,000 citizens) and can be considered one of the safest places in the world with one policeman and -woman per inhabitant.

May 31, 2024June 4, 2024

Respectueux du climat

When I had given myself the mission to visit my hitherto unseen European microstates (Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Andorra) I immediately thought that this should be possible in an eco-friendly manner. Reaching Liechtenstein with Deutsche Bahn and SNCF was hassle-free, but the trip to Monaco was a very long one with many things that could go wrong. I tried it anyway.

May 16, 2024June 25, 2024

Cruising

Millenium bridge seen from ferry boat, London

Visiting London also means visiting the river Thames. I’ve spent many hours at its riverbank, crossed it endless times via bridges and using the Greenwich foot tunnel. So far I hadn’t taken the opportunity to go by boat on the lifeline of the city which is an easy pleasure: you don’t need to find a commercial tour operator, there are ferry boats that you can use just like any other means of transport. You can just tap in and out with your credit card and it doesn’t cost a fortune.

April 17, 2024May 20, 2024

Rand

Traveling the touristy areas of South Africa means that you can pay everywhere by credit card and you don’t need cash (except for tipping and car park guardians) – that’s nice, but you would miss out the beautiful South African banknotes decorated with different animals and having Nelson Mandela on every single one of them. It is in use since 1961 when South Africa changed its status from being a British Dominion to a fully independent republic.

March 22, 2024March 25, 2024

Eschede

I’ve been using high-speed trains in Germany very often and always felt secure. Travelling by train is one of the most secure means of transport and there are many technical measures that ensure this, including the European Train Control System (ETCS), dedicated allowances to use a railway track as well as automated braking the train if the train driver is not responding or the train too fast. When travelling by car you have a 164 times higher risk to get injured than in a train. But even a system like this can never be 100 % secure and we all had to learn that on June 3rd, 1998, when the most severe accident of European high-speed trains happened close to a small city in Lower Saxony.

March 22, 2024March 22, 2024

Bergen-Belsen

The horror of Bergen-Belsen evolved over time. First, this place located between Celle and Soltau was a military training ground, then it became a camp for prisoners of war from France, Italy and the Soviet Union. From 1943 on the SS turned parts of the camp site into concentration camp; some of the Jewish inmates were planned to be exchanged against Germans detained outside of Germany, others were transported further on to extinction camps. At the end of the World War II concentration camps close to the battle zones were evacuated and tens of thousands were brought to Bergen-Belsen. Overall 38,000 humans died on this soil while the concentration camp was operating. Unfortunately around 14,000 died after the liberation because of illnesses and bad supply.