The second in the series which presents the work of members of the Royal Geographical Society which analyses chapter by chapter, literary and historical references from some of Paddy’s key works.
This was presented at the RGS in the afternoon talk on 12 December 2012,”Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Appreciation by Alexander Maitland, FRGS”.
My thanks to the Royal Geographic Society for permission to present this.
Download a pdf of this document here.
Schloss Burg Rheinfels, above the town of St. Goar on the Rhine
There are a couple of updates from Nick on his After the Woods and the Water blog including some snippets about sleeping rough in some ruined Rhine castles.
He has been experiencing unseasonably warm weather. Whilst this is a good thing I do feel that he needs a few days of snow and ice to really experience how it can be whilst outside in Germany at this time of year. I have happy memories of sleeping in hay barns as a soldier in West Germany, cocooned by the hay which prevented my water bottle from freezing solid in the up to minus 10 degree temperatures! I also remember some wonderful views when the sun shone brightly on the snow covered ground making visibility in the daytime almost unbearable, whilst by night the reflected moonlight was a God-send when on night patrol without the benefit of today’s night vision aids.
Since his departure on 9 December we have heard little from Nick Hunt. He did post a short piece describing his departure from Hook of Holland on his blog, but since then silence.
However, it appears that Nick is making good progress and on 28 December he was in Bingen near the end of the Rhine. It was here that Paddy celebrated Christmas 1933 staying with an innkeeper and his ‘pretty daughters, who were aged from five to fifteen …’ (A Time of Gifts p53 in the John Murray paperback). This is pretty good progress seeing as Paddy had earlier taken a trip on a Rhine barge.
Skip over to Nick’s blog to read about one of his first walking days in Holland.
Stop Press! – open the comments section of this article below to read a further update from Nick as he tells us a little more about his walk down the Rhine. He is now at Heidelberg .. the Red Ox beckons (ATOG p 56 if you are keeping up!).
Patrick Leigh Fermor 