Laura Libricz's Blog, page 20

Castle Coburg #Germany #History

Veste Coburg www.coburg.de

The Veste Coburg

Today we’re riding on a regional train from Nürnberg. The journey takes an hour and a half and costs 20. We’re feeling quite fit, the weather is perfect, so we take on the half hour walk from the train station in Coburg up to the fortress, The Veste Coburg.

In the 11th Century, the hilltop above Coburg housed a monastery. Over the generations, the buildings underwent exstensive expansion the walls were fortified. Today the fortress houses a...

St. Stephen’s Cathedral #Germany

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Situated in Lower Bavaria where the river Ilz and the river Inn join the Danube lays the city of Passau. Built on the highest point in the old town is the St Stephen’s Cathedral.

St. Stephan’s as we see it today was built in 1668 after a devastating town fire destroyed the late gothic cathedral that stood here before. St. Stephen’s is well known for the impressive pipe organ, built in 1733 by Joseph Matthias Götz. It was considered the world’s largest organ unt...

The Thirty Years War #history

The Winter King and the Queen of Hearts

Today I’m over at Cryssa Bazos’s blog and we’re talking about a few of the many intricate events of the Thirty Years War and the profound effect on European and English History. Many of the later English Civil War leaders received their training during this time. It’s not an easy subject to narrow down into a blog post.Read more.

by; after Balthasar Moncornet; Unknown artists,print,1620s?

About Cryssa Bazos

Cryssa Bazos is a historical fiction writer a...

The Tanners’ Lane #travelgermany

Weissgerbergasse – Nürnberg,Deutschland

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Photo courtesy oftourism-nuernberg.de

The Weissgerbergasse is a street in the old town in Nuremberg, Germany. It means Tanners’ Lane in English.It is the inspiration for the Tannery Row, a setting in the opening scenes of the historical novel, The Master and the Maid.

This medieval street was named for its inhabitants, namely the Weissgerber. They were tanners who specialized in a tanning process using salts...

The Herbal Market Part 2 #herbs

You can find The Herbal Market Part 1here. Adding freshly-picked sage, rosemary, lavender and basil to the cooking is a must for every good meal. Fresh peppermint ice tea augments any summer afternoon, just like warm peppermint tea made from leaves dried in the summer with honey eases a cold winter’s evening. These plants are also cultivated on a large scale to satisfy the demands of a modern market. In the Aisch River Valley, at the base of the low mountain range Steigerwald in Francon...

The Herbal Market #herbs #plants

Using herbs and spices to refine foods, to soothe body and mind and to heal has a history further back than the written word. Enthusiasts still collect wild herbs and, with the guidance of a qualified consultant, identification can be fun and rewarding. Traditionally herbs and spices were cultivated in monasteries, where the monks and the nuns studied the value of herbs for healing purposes. Many of these plants are readily available today and can be grown in any home garden. On a larger...

An Ancient Curse #flashfiction

The White Witch by Ian Daniels

Sybille sat behind the ancient willow tree. One side of the tree was brown and decayed; the other full of lush grey-green leaves. Its trunk had been split by a lightning bolt one night in the spring when sudden rains had flooded the village. Sybille peeked around the tree’s wide girth.

She saw a young woman struggling on foot up the path towards the forest. The young woman fell to her knees, tried to crawl on all-fours then stood again. She cupped her...

#bookrelease The Master and the Maid

Laura tried to do the “right thing” and study something useful, but she spent all her time reading German literature. The result is the richly textured, Heaven’s Pond Trilogy, set in Bamberg, Germany at the time of the Thirty Years War.

Allentown, Pennsylvania—May 5, 2016—Blue Heron Book Works, LLC is pleased to announce the publication of Laura Libricz’s first novel, The Master and The Maid, the first book in The Heaven’s Pond Trilogy. Ms. Libricz will be signing her book on Friday, June 10...

Magic Me a Meal

Today I’m over atGirl-Who-Readsand we’ve cooked up something for you:

What’s for dinner tonight?

Have a look in the pantry, see what you have, what you’re hungry for, and throw together something delicious. There’s a German idiom for just this situation that goes: schnell ein Essen zaubern! And that more or less means: magic me a meal! Let’s go back to the 17th century, specifically in Franconia, Germany: read more…

Walpurgisnacht #witches #history

What comes to your mind when someone mentions the 8th century? Could it be the introduction of the triangle harp by the Picts in Scotland? Or maybe the reign of Charlemagne, King of the Franks. Or the popular epic poem Beowulf, which could be as old as the 8th Century? Or marauding Vikings invading the coasts of Europe? Or of the Bendedictine nun and English missionary to the Frankish Empire Walburga, later to be canonized on May 1, 870, one hundred years after her death?

St. Walburga was bor...