General Archives ⋆ Page 2 of 52 ⋆ The Passenger

October 3, 2026October 2, 2026

I see a mountain

Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital and principal port, grew from a Spanish military settlement founded between 1724 and 1730 to control the strategically important Río de la Plata and resist Portuguese expansion from Brazil. Its original name was San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo, while the settlement gradually developed around the bay and its fortified old town. The city’s walls were built in the eighteenth century but demolished in the nineteenth, leaving the Ciudad Vieja and the surviving gateway as reminders of its colonial beginnings.

October 2, 2026

Peso Uruguayo

The peso uruguayo (UYU), usually written as $ or $U , is Uruguay’s official currency. The present peso was introduced on March 1st, 1993, replacing the nuevo peso at a rate of 1 peso uruguayo for 1,000 nuevos pesos. It is divided into 100 centésimos, although centésimo coins are no longer commonly used.

September 16, 2026September 16, 2026

Garte

The river Garte is a small, approximately 23-kilometre-long tributary of the Leine in Südniedersachsen. Its name gives the Gartetal – literally the Garte valley – its identity, and the river is one of the defining features of the landscape around Gleichen, east and south-east of Göttingen. It rises near Weißenborn, close to the Thüringen border, and flows westwards before reaching the Leine south of Göttingen, near the area east of Rosdorf.

August 30, 2026August 30, 2026

Nachtwanderung

After completing three Mammutmarsch events earlier this year – in Leipzig, Hamburg and Nürnberg – I was already familiar with the particular mixture of endurance, organisation and camaraderie that defines the series. Those walks had been useful preparation for climbing the Brocken later in the year, but the Nachtmammut Ruhrgebiet offered an entirely different experience: this was the only genuine night walk among the events I had attended.

August 29, 2026August 29, 2026

Taxiteller

A Taxiteller is a substantial German takeaway dish, usually consisting of chips topped or served alongside currywurst, a portion of gyros, tzatziki, onions and often mayonnaise. Recipes vary from one snack bar to another: some replace the gyros with döner meat, while others add extra sauces or salad. It is best understood as a generous combination of familiar Imbiss favourites rather than a strictly standardised recipe.

August 16, 2026August 17, 2026

Cyclassics

The Cyclassics in Hamburg are one of Germany’s best-known road-cycling events, combining a WorldTour professional race with mass-participation rides through the city and its surrounding region. The race began in 1996, quickly gained prestige, and has since become a major fixture in Hamburg’s sporting calendar.

August 9, 2026August 11, 2026

Velorace

The Velorace in Dresden is a city-centre cycling event that has been held since 2013 and has become a fixed part of the national racing calendar. It grew out of the wider Saxon cycling tradition and has steadily developed into one of the best-known mass-participation races in eastern Germany.

July 25, 2026July 29, 2026

Böseckendorf

Along the quiet rural road between Böseckendorf and Immingerode, memorial stones stand with a restrained yet powerful presence. They are arranged in a simple formation beside the roadside, modest in scale but unmistakable in meaning. Rough-hewn stone slabs bear an inscription and dates. The surrounding landscape – fields, hedgerows, and the gentle undulations of the countryside – creates a stark contrast to the heavy history these stones represent. Nothing about the site is ostentatious; its strength lies in its stillness and the way it invites reflection.

July 17, 2026July 17, 2026

India or Italy?

Our journey did not begin in Italy, at least not in spirit. It was meant to take us far beyond Europe, across continents, towards Sri Lanka via India – a trip we had carefully planned and eagerly anticipated. Yet, as so often happens in travel, events beyond our control intervened. Air India abruptly cancelled our return flight to Europe, citing kerosene shortages and price surges linked to escalating geopolitical tensions following Donald Trump’s confrontation with Iran. The airline’s decision was shrewd: by cancelling only the return leg into the EU, they avoided compensation obligations, while effectively forcing us to abandon the entire itinerary.

July 11, 2026July 11, 2026

Three languages

Alto Adige, or South Tyrol, is a fascinating region where languages and cultures overlap in a way that feels both Alpine and distinctly Mediterranean. Three languages are officially recognised: German, Italian, and Ladin. German is by far the most widely spoken in everyday life, especially in towns and rural areas, while Italian tends to dominate in the larger cities such as Bolzano. Ladin, a Rhaeto-Romance language, survives in a few Dolomite valleys and adds another layer to the region’s cultural richness.