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January 31, 2011March 27, 2018sarahnicho

On your bike …

byline

IT seems the theme of bicycles is continuing … this time in Oxford.

IMG_1287 (2)

Visit the Oxford website

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About me …

My name is Sarah and I’m a travel journalist writing features and news for a swag of Australian newspapers, magazines and websites.

This is my website, the place I post words and pictures gathered as I gallivant around the globe.

So enjoy the news, reviews, updates, random thinking and regular snapping – photos, that is – assembled here.

And hopefully you will find inspiration for your next trip far, near or here …

© Sarah Nicholson 2018

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What's new on Instagram ...

... meet ampelmann. . This jaunty fellow was the character on East German traffic lights telling pedestrians when they could cross - or stop on the red - and has become so popular he now has his own shop in several locations around Berlin. . This is the store on Lindenstrasser halfway between the Brandenburg Gate and Museum Island. . After the Berlin Wall came down studies were done to decide which symbol - the East German or West German - was more effective and the feedback was children responded better to the communist-era character. . So now the old East German ampelmann is popping up in more locations around Berlin including lots of spots on what was once the western side of the wall. . And the shop super cool selling everything from Christmas ornaments and coffee cups to children’s clothes featuring the both the green and red ampelmann. . . . #berlin || @visit_berlin

... the functional beauty of the Berlin underground station, this one the stop beside the Brandenburg Gate. . . . #berlin || @visit_berlin

... visiting one of Berlin’s famous places. . . . #visit_berlin || @visit_berlin

... the bygone beauty of the Heckescher Markt S-Bahn station in Berlin. . . . #visit_berlin || @visit_berlin

... admiring (East German) architecture a stone’s throw from the Hackeschermarkt station in Berlin. . . . #visit_berlin || @visit_berlin

... the Berliner Dom, an imposing structure when photographed from across the Spree. . . . #simplytrafalgar || @trafalgartravel

... a soy latte and apple tart at Coffee Fellows in Berlin. . It’s not the menu but the location that’s notable here as there’s something significant about enjoying coffee and cake close to Checkpoint Charlie just inside what was once East Berlin. . . . #simplytrafalgar || @trafalgartravel

... welcome to Berlin, back in one of my favourite cities for some serious exploring. . . . #simplytrafalgar || @trafalgartravel

... old Stasi surveillance photos, snapped secretly of people crossing the border between East and West Germany before the Berlin Wall came down, at the Stasi museum in Leipzig. . . . #simplytrafalgar || @trafalgartravel

... this might look like a very scruffy room stuck in a bad 1980s time warp. . And while your right about the 1980’s thing there’s actually a sinister story behind the decor. . This is a room inside Leipzig’s Runde Ecke, the former Stasi headquarters, in the heart of this Germany settlement. . The Stasi were the East German secret police, the ruthless and relentless force charged with keeping the East German population in line during the long years of the divided Germany. . When the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989 a force of locals stormed the notorious building to prevent Stasi files being destroyed. . That group not only saved the files that explained so much of what happened behind the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989 but have maintained the building much as they found it that first night. . So this dated decor is actually a Stasi snapshot showing what the much-feared headquarters looked like when thousands of agents were working at keeping the population under the Soviet thumb. . . . #simplytrafalgar || @trafalgartravel

... admiring architecture in Leipzig. . I have long wanted to visit Leipzig, the Germany city roughly halfway between Berlin and Dresden, because it played such a significant part in reuniting the divided country at the end of the Cold War. . Back in 1987 East Germans that had applied to leave the communist land and move to the west would attend “Monday prayers” in a Leipzig church. . They offered each other support, plotted and schemed, and even started printing anti-Communist material with the Stasi hesitant to storm a church chasing the agitators. . The movement grew in late 1989 and by September or October there were Monday demonstrations being held in cities and towns right around the old East Germany. . The movement gave East Germans seeking freedom the confidence to continue protesting at the end of an era where even telling a cheesy political joke could see you interrogated by the secret police. . While I was ready marvel at history coming to life in the places the protestors gathered — St Nicholas’ Church, the Runde Ecke which was once Stasi headquarters, Leipzig marketplace — I didn’t expect to swoon over the architecture. . But this German city, which fell into such disrepair during the 28 years the Berlin Wall stood it was considered to be the GDR’s most-polluted city for a time, is home a so many elegant abodes. . Art Deco, Art Nouveau and even Belle Époque structures line the streets around Peterstrasse with the neighbourhood I strolled looking as good as the day it was built. . Leipzig reminds me of Vienna and Prague, not a dishevelled settlement in a once-tired corner of the old Soviet sector. . And with so many addresses like this one, apartment buildings that remind me of the designs favoured by those creative that were once part of Vienna’s Secessionist Movement, I wonder if the influences of Gustav Klimt and his contemporaries extended this far from the Austrian capital. . Will be needing to google that... . . . #simplytrafalgar || @trafalgartravel

... looking across rooftops in Meissen. . . . #simplytrafalgar || @trafalgartravel

... and it’s not just the porcelain that’s lovely at the Meissen factory, look at this damask wall fabric in the museum. . . . #simplytrafalgar || @trafalgartravel

... did you know Europe’s oldest porcelain factory was in Germany? . Meissen’s famous porcelain has been around since the early 1700s with the factory’s museum showing a great collection of past products including these 19th-century plates. . . . #simplytrafalgar || @trafalgartravel

... found another building for my favourite-old-buildings file in Meissen. . This glorious and apparently-abandoned buildings sits in a main road opposite the porcelain factory perfectly lit by the low wintertime sun. . Meissen, which is about an hour from Dresden, sat behind the Iron Curtain for the long years of a divided Germany with that era obviously impacting on this weathered address. . Old, tired, neglected, and worn out but still elegant. . . . #simplytrafalgar || @trafalgartravel

What’s new on Twitter

You know you’re in the former East Germany when ... these little guys tell you when it’s time to cross the road.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 48 minutes ago
Eclairs for days at #KaDeWe’s glorious 6th floor food court, worth paying a visit to this iconic #Berlin department… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 19 hours ago
Soy latte and an apple tart at the Coffee Fellows right by Checkpoint Charlie in #Berlin ... something ironic about… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago

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