vickygoestravelling

my journey to health and well being via exotic destinations

Tag Archives: Hermann Ungar


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Jerusalem: searching the Central Zionist Archives for clues

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The Dome of the Rock from the Mount of Olives

The three days in Tel Aviv fly and I have to move on to Jerusalem. I choose the train, cheap and scenic. Like all Unwins I am horribly early and mooch around waiting. When it comes to board, I am not surprised that no one lifts a finger to help me, despite my limp and large unwieldy case, stuffed with Christmas cake, shortbread and gifts for cousin Helen. The scenery on the trip is pretty, in an arid sort of way, fertile fields, recently tilled, orange groves and vineyards bordered by magenta bougainvillea, giving way to a steep ascent thorugh rugged hills, larches and conifers before levelling out on the Jerusalem plateau. I have arrived! Continue reading →


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Tel Aviv: on a mission to unlock the family secrets (1)

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I feel ambivalent about coming to Israel: I would never had considered coming here had I not learned about my Jewish ancestry. As a girl I was an avid boycotter of Jaffa oranges and supporter of Palestinian rights, and closed my mind to it – no doubt out of ignorance as much as anything else. But the discovery of two elderly cousins living in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem respectively has forced the U-turn in order to research my book, and also to reappraise my  opinions with an open mind. I am told Israel is not as one might imagine. So let’s see! Continue reading →


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Prague: in the footsteps of Hermann Ungar

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Prague Castle from Charles Bridge

Today, 25th October, my father would have been 93 and here I am in Prague, retracing his childhood haunts. I have asked a genealogist, Julius Muller, who has helped me trace my Prague relatives before, to accompany me on my trip today. In the research I am doing for the book on my Jewish family history, I came across the addresses where my grandfather lived as a student, as a young lawyer and then banker, and finally as a diplomat and family man when he returned to Prague after five years in Berlin. Continue reading →