Category Archives: Family

“Away With the Fairies” – The Legend of Doon Hill and Robert Kirk

As a child I spent many, happy summer Sundays sailing on my Dad’s boat at Loch Ard; a scenic forest-fringed loch, located in the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park within the Trossachs region of Scotland. In 2002, this area became part of Scotland’s first National Park, Loch Lomand and the Trossachs, … Continue reading

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Summer Alm Adventure

We spent the last couple of weeks of August exploring the alpine valleys, forests, lakes and villages around the Karwendel Alps on the border between Bavaria and the Austrian province of Tyrol. The alpine meadows in this part of the … Continue reading

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Nature’s Children

Keeping kids amused in the summer holidays can be a chore but you don’t need to fly your 4-year-old half way around the world to Disneyland to have fun; forget theme parks, computer games, TV and all the organised attractions … Continue reading

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Seeking the Good Life: In the Karwendel Alps

It used to be that virtually all my “holidays” involved being on a mission of some kind or other; whether it was exploring a new part of the world by bike, going on a mountain trek or on a badly planned kayaking adventure in hostile weather conditions. … Continue reading

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Getting the Children Back into the Woods

 On Nature Deficit Syndrome and how to avoid it: “I want to climb the mountain with YOU Daddy…”, my 4-year-old daughter Zoe urged determinedly as I  gazed upon the inviting summit of Herzogstand somewhere off in the bluey middle distance and mentally put myself … Continue reading

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Mosel Less Travelled

Everyone knows about the Romantic Rhine; stereotypical landscapes of half timbered villages clambering up steep, vine bedecked slopes, crowned with dramatic medieval castles. These landscapes inspired a whole generation of 19th Century romantics, poets, travellers and artists including Byron and Turner. However the little … Continue reading

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