By Janita Le Grange, South Africa We left early on Friday morning for the 380 km drive to Thabazimbi to visit my grandparents and attend their annual festival. We planned a few stops along the way, starting with Hartbeespoort Dam. General Hendrik Schoeman had a vision, a pocket full of ambition, and a pile of…
Nathalie tries to fly to Accra via Edinburgh. You won’t believe it: we couldn’t take off for Edinburgh on Tuesday! There was a total air traffic control blackout in the UK due to a system failure—or maybe a cyberattack! Over 1,000 flights were cancelled, and Cléa and I were among them. So, it was back…
Monica sends us a few snapshots from Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard — one of the northernmost permanent settlements in the world. Roald Amundsen is still here. Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first person to reach the South Pole, in 1911. In 1926 he also flew over the North Pole aboard the airship Norge. Ny-Ålesund was part…
By Frank Peters. We came to Lyon because we had to. There was a hospital appointment for my wife. That was the reason for the trip. But before any of that, there was the hotel. My entrance was dramatic. I needed a bathroom. Immediately. The receptionist pointed me in the right direction, and that was…
Sent to you this week by Martin, from Kassel in Germany. Probably one of the ugliest buildings in Kassel hosted an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s machines. Entrance was free—I had to go. I could get a glimpse of his inventive streak at close quarters. These were replicas, not the orignals. But still, the fusion…
Wuppertal, Germany. I had seen pictures of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn before, but standing underneath it is something else entirely. It opened in 1901, which means people here were travelling through the city in a suspended railway two years before the Wright brothers made their first powered flight. Somehow, after 125 years, it still looks slightly…
Welcome to Monica’s 2026 European Trip. As you know, Monica lives in Adelaide, Australia and she and her partner are in Europe to visit family & friends in Germany (Monica) and in Scotland (John). Frankfurt am Main. Germany. We start in Frankfurt. At the ‘Hauptwache.’ The little Baroque building in the photo was built around…
This week’s Pineapple Postcard comes from Lyme Regis in Dorset, one of those small English seaside towns that seems to have accumulated far more stories than it has any reasonable right to. It sits on the Jurassic Coast, where the cliffs and beaches expose an extraordinary geological record and the area around Lyme is particularly…
Hoorn is a historic harbour town in North Holland, beside the Markermeer. It grew from a small settlement on the water and received city rights in 1357. Its old centre, harbour and former trading buildings still show how closely the town’s life was shaped by ships, fishing and international trade. My final postcards take us…
