Currently, the carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere are increasing faster than ever. The current carbon dioxide levels are close to the ones, which were calculated would lead to the melting of the ice sheet of Antarctica – with catastrophic consequences for the sea level. The changes are already worryingly happening in Arctic regions.[1] In…
Seven days Transalp. From Stuttgart to Lake Como by bicycle
“Not the pace but your personal focus directs your life.” This is the travel guiding credo of Sandy Steven Weckemann, nickname Sandweck. For him, who was born in Stuttgart, Germany, it is not interesting to see as many things possible but to undergo a inner journey, too. Nowadays it is easy to travel anywhere. But…
Warm Showers. Staying with locals during bicycle tours
There is a large selection of accommodation possibilities during bicycle tours. There is something suitable for everyone, from hotels to youth hostels over campgrounds or farm stays. The offers are plenty. Some people are also camping wild in their tents due to budget reasons or just for the adventure. On the contrary, to stay directly…
Slow Travel Blogs – A brief overview
Blogs are short-lived websites. The reason is that they are mostly operated by individual people without commercial interest. On their blogs, the self-declared authors publish different articles in chronological order to one main topic. About Slow Travel, one can find the by me often cited blog of the U.S. American Pauline Kenny, who invented the…
Slow Travel documentaries – The top three movies about alternative travel
The rising interest in sustainable, slowing down individual travel can be perceived in the success of movies about Slow Travel. Indeed, the movie makers don’t call themselves Slow Traveler, but they comply with the criteria. They select slow, eco-friendly transportation, differentiate themselves from mass tourism and get consciously in contact with locals. A surprising box-office…
Overtourism – The Tourists Go Home and Fuck AirBnB movement
Synchronized with the origin of the Slow Travel trend, a protest movement against mass tourism started. It’s also referred to as “Overtourism”, which marks a harmful excess. In the year 2014, in Spain, one of the worldwide most popular holiday destinations, the so-called Tourists Go Home movement emerged. Barcelona has yearly 9 million over-night guests…
Alpaca hiking in the Bergisches Land region
The Bergisches Land region offers verdant green hills, forested mountainsides, plenty of dams and glistening streams and rivers. The area, which is close to the cities Cologne, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal and Remscheid invites you to diverse nature experiences. A very special experience for the whole family is hiking with the curious but shy alpacas. Alpaca hikes…
The Green Belt – Experience German history by foot
32 years ago, on 09 November 1989, the German domestic border between FRG and GDR was lifted (called BRD and DDR in German). After around 40 years, the Germans were re-united and the wall was removed from the so-called death zone. Over the past decades, the former border became a tourist attraction in Berlin. Now…
Pro-Con: Is flying Slow Travel?
Flying to reach a holiday destination feels like a no-brainer for many Germans. Our passport gives us the greatest freedom to travel: much like the South Koreans, us Germans can enter 189 countries without a visa.[1] But are flights as a means of travel an option for much longer? While facing climate change and destruction…
Mongolia on Horseback
„A horse without a rider is still a horse, but a rider without a horse is just a human.”, as a Mongolian saying goes. [1] There are plenty of sayings from Mongolia that are built around horses – which shows how deeply rooted horse riding is in the Mongolian culture. The Mongols are descendants of…