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Continue reading →: Salzburg to Lake Garda
I shall draw a veil over this journey. Speranza performed beautifully but we had bad luck with extreme weather, heavy traffic, road works and some kind of massive incident on the A12 in Austria that caused a delay of over an hour. We were stationary for all that time in…
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Continue reading →: An extraordinary day in Salzburg
Over morning coffee, Babicka and I decided to do a city tour by bus. After yesterday’s downpours we didn’t fancy a day seeking shelter. When we got to the tour company, we were upsold to the Original Sound of Music Tour. As well as seeing the same sights as on…
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Continue reading →: Salzburg
Things almost got fraught in Prague today. I might have known something was amiss when Babicka said she would get up early to finish her packing. When I presented this morning, ready to leave, she announced that the packing regime for the trip was "simply impossible" and presented a larger…
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Continue reading →: Prague at last
I set off from Ansbach at 0815 am after an excellent German breakfast. The journey to Prague was predicted to be three hours and forty minutes. I was hoping to arrive in time to have lunch with an old friend and didn't fancy my chances of parking near the restaurant.…
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Continue reading →: Germany!
I missed a friendly, exuberant email from my French mechanics last night. The work was finished at 9.30pm and the car was ready to collect. I woke early and was happy to read it. I’d booked an Uber for this morning. I was downstairs, checked out and waiting when he…
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Continue reading →: A quiet day
As planned, today was laundry day. I went out in the morning with a bag of washing, rather than my camera backpack. I was apprehensive about having the right coins and so forth, but remarkably the local laundrette had central wireless control for all its services, complete with contactless payment. The…
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Continue reading →: Les violons de l’automne
I studied French at A level fifty years ago. The only lines of French poetry that have stuck in my mind all those years are these; Les sanglots longs des violons de l’automne blessent mon coeur d’une langeur monotone. It’s from Chanson d’automne by Paul Verlaine, who was born —…
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Continue reading →: More Metz
Fair play to the AA. They extended my hotel booking as promised and confirmed by text message. I was happy to be spared a wait on the line to their call centre and headed out earlier than I’d hoped, Today I was less fortunate in my choice of breakfast café.…
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Continue reading →: Metz day #2
“Breakfast near me” typed into Google Maps this morning yielded several better prospects than yesterday’s mediocre fare in my hotel. I was delighted with my choice — a brunch spot favoured by young French families. The only disadvantage was it made me feel old! Polite young children sang along quietly…
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Continue reading →: Metzing about
I put the automotive issues to the back of my mind today. It's the weekend in a country that still celebrates it and there was no chance of any update on Speranza anyway. I had some online duties to perform first thing and then headed down to breakfast – slightly…
THE LAST DITCH
Your blogger
Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.
Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.
He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that
“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”
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The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
I’m sure there are a few fire and brimstone types they could have had instead of a woke woman. Putting…