Michael Bengel

This book is part of the publisher series Lesereisen ("reading journeys") by the Austrian publisher Picus Verlag. The series contains many, many books on different places in the world, all of them feasible travel destinations, and each book containing essays or short reports about the place written by one contemporary author. I like this series a lot and although it is not my aim to collect all of the books, I often buy books about places I have already traveled to or plan to visit in the near future.
This book is about Wales and while I liked it, it fell a bit behind others I have read before. There are thirteen essays/reports that all have previously been published in German newspapers and magazines.
The essays range from descriptions of activities and places to more historic overviews. Of course, my favourite ones were the one on Hay-on-Wye - the town of books! - and the one on Welsh writers, which was mostly about Dylan Thomas and Roald Dahl. I also liked the chapter on Bodnant Garden because I loved my visit there in 2016.
All in all, I enjoyed reading this, but I would have liked a bit more emotion and a bit more enthusiasm for Wales and the places featured in the book. The reason for this is probably that I enjoyed my two trips to Wales a lot and while the author seems to be fascinated with Welsh history and trivia, I think he should have included more about the sheer beauty of that country and the kindness of the Welsh people - at least that is what I experienced.… (más)