In late November, winter came to Switzerland. Of course, we were warned. But one Wednesday, everything was sunny and autumnal in Basel. Then, on Friday morning, it had all changed. More than 20cm of snow had fallen on the Thursday evening and night, transforming everything, as the photos of my local Kannenfeld Park show. I…
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Last year, in 2023, I took part in a 100km walk in Belgium. It was called the Dodentocht, or Death March. Every year, some 13,000 people start that walk, with about 9,000 finish it. I was one of them. But I was determined that this would not be a one-off event, a flash in the…
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The prospect of a railway line from the city of Cork to the town of Youghal (pronounced Yawl) was first proposed in the early 1850s. For some years, there was little progress, but the line as far as Midleton was opened in November 1859, followed by the remainder of the route to Youghal a few…
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Through most of September, I was out of Switzerland, and unable to get back t following Suvorov’s route. But with the coming of October, I was back in Switzerland and anxious to get back to following Suvorov’s route. At the end of September 1799, Suvorov was in Altdorf. But the French had confiscated all the…
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A few days later, I was back on the trail again. The train brought me to Göschenen early in the morning. I stepped off the train and started walking immediately, heading northwards and down the valley. I suspect that the route taken by Suvorov follows closely to the road, but the trail is very much…
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Following my diversions to the Niesen and the Schilthorn summits, I got back to my plans for walking Swiss trails in August. My planned third trail for 2024 was the Via Suvorov. Before going on to talk about the trail itself, it is important to take a look at the background. Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was…
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After Niesen, there was one other mountain on my “must do” list for this summer: The Schilthorn. This mountain features in the James Mond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, where it the headquarters for the evil villain Blofeld. As a result, it gets a steady stream of tourists, nearly all of them going there…
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With the Chemin de Jura and the Via Jura behind me, I decided that it was time to take a break and to reach a couple of summits. One that was recommended to me was Niesen, a massive pyramidal mountain near the Thunersee. I decided to take it on, and set a date. Unfortunately, things…
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After my journey to Tavannes in late May, it took a while before I was able to get back on the trail. Sometimes life intervenes to interrupt our plans, and that is what happened. Other activities kept me busy through the rest of May and all of June, so that it was mid-July before I…
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Just a couple of weeks after reaching Moutier on the Via Jura, I was back there on an early morning in late May to get back on the trail. I set my target for the day as Tavannes. I had walked from Moutier to Tavannes once before when I was walking the variant of the…
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Walkingman 