Tuesday 17 February 2009

What I did on my holiday


Paul do Mar Madeira


My recent two week absence was due to a holiday on the island of Madeira. The wife persuaded me that we needed a break from living in a small village on the coast and doing nothing all day. So we went to a village of 800 people on the coast and sat around in the sun all day doing nothing. Just what the doctor ordered!

A hotel, three bars a couple of village stores and a splendid cake shop. Together with some very scary cliff walks that was plenty to keep me occupied for two weeks.
I had intended that I would have a complete break including no military history. However one of the books I packed was a rather good novel about Dracula.



Apart from being a very entertaining read, the story moved across Istanbul, Bulgaria, and Romania through several centuries and a beautiful landscape of forests meadows and castles.

As a result, I spent far too long pondering the geography of my imagi-nation.
I am now fairly clear that following the Thirty Years War Bohemia emerged as an independent state of some power. Her Eastern neighbour Moravia is a Bohemian client state, though an independence movement and religious differences cause a state of tension between the two. On Moravias Eastern edge is a mountainous and forested area which will be named shortly but for the moment can be called the wild wood.

The Wild Wood contains a shamanistic branch of ancient steppe dwellers. It also contains Serb Orthodox monasteries and some castles not completely unlike Transylvania. The geography of the wild wood is vague, indeed its almost a magic wood in that exiting it can bring the traveller into unexpected contact with the Russian and Ottoman empires in addition to an uncharted inland sea containing Venetian trading ports, and numerous pirate and other fleets.

I would have got more detail on this but I kept dozing off in the afternoons.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

My Dear Sir,

I happened upon your blog completely at random, and I would like to congratulate you on both the quality of your little painted soldiers and your style of writing. I find it heartening that gentlemen such as yourself still flourish. Please accept my warmest regards.

Bluebear Jeff said...

Your setting with the "Wild Wood" sounds wonderful . . . and I hope that you truly enjoyed your holiday (and, of course, it is always good to keep the missus happy).


-- Jeff

Peeler said...

Can't help but agree with the above comments, and good to hear you had an enjoyable holiday. Look forward to your future postings.

Hugh Walter said...

By shear co-incidence I spent some 15 hours in Bulgaria, exactly a week ago, the scenery driving from (and the following day - flying over) Sophia to Plovdiv was stunning, alas the same can't be said of down-town Sophia, which looks remarkably like Baghdad on market day!

Fitz-Badger said...

Sounds like a very pleasant holiday. Nice change of pace, huh? lol

I am intrigued and looking forward to learning more about the "wild wood". (for some reason "Uberwald" of Discworld comes to mind...)

tradgardmastare said...

Glad you had a good holiday and it is good to have you returned unto us. I await more of your project with interest...
best wishes
Alan

Bloggerator said...

It looks like a lovely spot Mr P.

Regards,

Greg Horne

My Word Verification: bastfuli n': a filling Italian dish.

Bloggerator said...

... then there was suthsac which does not bear close examination by a gentleman.

Then again...

GH

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Hello there John,

Sounds like your recent holiday was a success on all fronts then! Now, when might you have a map of your imaginary campaign to share?

Best Regards,

Stokes