Office buildings, car dealerships, fast food restaurant and retail outlets line up for five kilometers on both sides of the road that leaves Frankfurt to the east. The Hanauer Landstrasse seems to have nothing to do with a historic route. But then again, you can find one of these traces of the past: Hidden between …
Starting an adventure on your own doorstep is something very exciting. With my Via Regia project I was able to do just that. As a warm-up to the Frankfurt to Leipzig route, I walked through the Rhine-Main agglomeration from Mainz to Frankfurt in search of an old long-distance trade route. The Old Mainz to Frankfurt …
What does a centuries-old road through the heart of Germany look like today? This is what I want to find out in the next couple of months, when I walk from Frankfurt to Leipzig on a route that is known as the Via Regia. History of the Via Regia For centuries the Via Regia was …
The Nachi area of the Kii Peninsula in Japan has a long history as a place of worship. Let’s see how a waterfall, a holy tree and a Buddhist temple are part of this unique pilgrimage destination together with the Nachi Taisha, the Nachi Grand Shrine. The Nachi waterfall is among the highest in Japan …
Frankfurt’s central location within Germany made the city into a transportation hub and a place to early medieval times. It was the site of an important annual fair and the place where the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire met for centuries. Today, Frankfurt is part of the Rhein-Main agglomeration of more than five …
In its 2015 session, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee added four routes to the World Heritage of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela. Among them is the Camino Primitivo from Oviedo to Santiago. This is the way the first pilgrim – King Alfonso II. – reached the grave of St James 1,200 year ago. …
Would you go to northern France to search for Roman Roads? Maybe you should. Eight roads meet in the small city of Bavay. They are known as Chaussée Brunehaut and survived the centuries since the Romans built them I learned about Bavay during research on the first weeks of the First World War for my …
In less than four weeks the TGO Challenge 2015 will be underway! I have talked about it in my preview already. Today I want to focus more on the route that I will walk from the West Coast to the East Coast of Scotland. My idea for the challenge is to follow historic paths through …
The Holy Week and the Easter celebrations are at the center of Christianity. The events around death and resurrection of Jesus happened in and around the old center of Jerusalem and their locations can still be found today. One of the focal points is the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Suffering, that describes Jesus’ last …
The Kii Peninsula in Japan is the location of a remarkable network of old pilgrimage trails known as the Kumano Kodo. Apart from the Camino de Santiago (St. James Way) in Spain, these are the only pilgrimage routes that received World Heritage status. History of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimages The hilly area of the Kii …
