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Kystruten

This year, we finally made the trip that we had been talking about for many years: take the “mail boat”, commonly known as Hurtigruten, along the Norwegian coast, all the way from Bergen in the south to Kirkenes near the Russian border, way beyond the arctic circle.

We traveled on Havila Capella, which is one of four identical ships operated by this new competitor to the Hurtigruten company which have operated this service for many decades.

The highlights included going through the famous Geirangerfjord (a bit rainy though), exploring Trondheim with its impressive cathedral, getting close to sea eagles with their 2.5m wingspan, visiting the North Cape on the island of Magerøya … and of course just seeing the many different landscapes as the ship sailed past them.

Photos are here.

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More red wine and foie gras

This year, we revisited some of the places we had enjoyed on our trip to the Dordogne area in 2004, and explored some new places as well.

The first week, we slowly moved east, from Arcachon on the Atlantic coast to Bergerac on the western end of Dordogne. The second week, we had a fabulous vacation home in Sarlat-la-Caneda, and explored the area around that.

In Bordeaux, we were impressed by the “Bassins des Lumières” multimedia art exhibition located in an old submarine bunker.

While in Saint-Émilion, we got an interesting guided tour at the Trocard vineyard, where they produce, amongst other labels, the Château Franc La Rose, which is a Grand cru Saint-Émilion

On the way to Sarlat, we visited the Château des Milandes, where Josephine Baker used to live. Apart from the castle itself and the exhibition which tells the story of her life, there is also an impressive show that presents birds of prey, including eagles and owls.

We knew we wanted to revisit the farmers’ market in Sarlat, where you can taste and buy lots of local products: cheeses, sausages, foie gras and wine.

One good way of exploring the area is in a rented canoe, floating down the Dordogne river near La Roque-Gageac.

We had a fabulous apartment in Sarlat, called Le Loft Exceptionnel — and exceptional it was indeed. A medieval house, a living room with open rafters holding up the 4m high ceiling.

From Sarlat, we made a day trip to the Gouffre de Padirac, a 40 km long cave. Another day trip led us to another cave, the Gouffre de Proumeyssac, which is famous for its large stalactites and stalagmites.

Photos are here.

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The sunniest part of Denmark …

… is the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, where we just spent a week. Easy to get to, via the ferry from the German port of Sassnitz, not too crowded in late August and early September, lots of thins to see and do.

We stayed at a vacation apartment near Gudhjem on the east side of the island, and explored other parts of the island from there. The whole island is only about 40km long …

What did we enjoy most? A daytrip to the even smaller island of Christiansø, a 1h ferry ride away, and you can walk around that entire island in 1-2h.

We also discovered the workshop of one of the very few people who still know how to make indigo prints, and build the printing templates from brass nails and pearwood. He has no website, but there is a Youtube video (in Danish) that illustrates the technique.

Some photos are here.

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Australia revisited

On our first trip to Australia, we visited the “big and famous” sites: Sydney, Barrier Reef, Uluru (a.k.a. “Ayers Rock”), which are stunning and deserve all the attention.

This time, we wanted to experience different parts of Australia, less well known, at least for non-Australians like us. Pictures are here.

Little did we know that some of the sights we enjoyed would be destroyed a few months later, in the terrible bush fires of 2019.

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¡Viva Espana!

Another summer, another trip to the Iberian peninsula. This time, we started again in Portugal, one week on the Algarve / Costa Vicentina, same location as the previous year.

Then we ventured into Spain for a week. As always, there is a gallery of photos.

First stop: the city of Jerez de la Frontera, which is where “sherry” gets its name from. We visited two sherry “bodegas”, very different styles: Gonzalez Byass is a big operation on an “industrial” scale, with a slick guided tour and factory outlet, good to learn some basics about how sherry is made. Then the complete opposite: Bodegas Tradicion, a small, boutique bodega, started only 20 years ago, focused on quality.

Continue reading “¡Viva Espana!”
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Portugal 2017

After many trips to France and Italy, we wanted a new culture, new architecture, new food, but the same good weather — so we decided to go to Portugal for a change. Pictures are here.

We spent the first week on the Atlantic coast, in the south-west corner of the country, called the Costa Vicentina, had a vacation home in Salema. We went on a dolphin-watching tour that promised a 95% probability of seeing dolphins … but we were the other 5% 🙂 … and then we saw Orcas, very rare!

The second week, we drove north. We stayed in a former monastery in Evora (Pousada Convento Évora), explored the city, and the last night found a lovely restaurant: Tábua do Naldo.

Next stop: Coimbra, where we visited the famous university with its historic library (didn’t see any bats, they are supposed to live in there). Another great restaurant discovery: Passeite, Taberna do Azeite, where they use olive oil for everything, including the desserts!

On the way to Porto we drove along the Douro valley, where the grapes for Port wine are grown.

Last stop: Porto and the town across the river where Port wine is made, Vila Nova de Gaia.

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A weekend in Venice

We went to Venice for a long weekend, for my birthday – to the City of Decay, how appropriate. More pictures.

This year, my birthday coincided with the 150th birthday of the Italian nation, so I woke up to a military brassband and many speeches from Italian officials.

We got lost several times while walking through the city, but that may be the best way to explore the city, and there’s beautiful spots everywhere, which make you forget that you’re surrounded by millions of other tourists.

Cynthia wore a red raincoat all the time, but because she hadn’t seen the famous 1973 horror movie (“Don’t look now”, in German: “Wenn die Gondeln Trauer tragen”), she thought nothing of it …

We stayed at the Hotel Colombina, very close to San Marco square, and rode up and down the Canale Grande on the vaporetto, the “water bus”.

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Australia!

This was our biggest trip ever: three weeks in Australia (… and 24 hours travel time just to get there).

After I attended the RE’10 conference, Cynthia came over (traveling all by herself from Zurich via Singapore to Sydney), and then we traveled together through Eastern and central Australia.

Of course, there is a photo gallery.

We spent the first few days in Sydney – where the locals said there was more rain than ever before at this time of year.

From Sydney, we flew 1200km north to Hervey Bay and took the ferry to Fraser Island, a 75mi (130km) long sand island, which is large enough to have tropical rainforest and freshwater lakes on it. Since my lovely wife had conveniently forgotten her driver’s license :-), I had to do all the 4WD driving along the sandy inland tracks: speed limit 30 km/h, and you’re really not tempted to drive any faster than that. We stayed at the Kingfisher Bay Resort, a really nice hotel, which consists of many little buildings, designed to blend into the forest.

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Como fan tutte

Well, luckily not everybody did come to Lake Como this weekend – in fact, the place was almost empty. Pictures are here.

Cynthia’s friend Kim was supposed to come visit us, and we had planned a long weekend in Italy, but the volcano with the unpronouncable name nixed all flights, so we had to go by ourselves.

Not much you can do there: hang out at the lakefront, ride on a boat, have dinner – but it doesn’t bother you, because the surroundings are so beautiful: the snowcapped mountains in the distance, the lake busy with sailboats and ferries, mostly empty in April.

We stayed in Bellagio, a small town in the middle of the lake, full of arts & crafts shops selling local silk and leather products.