When living in Athens for about 5 weeks in 2017, during our last weekend we made a trip to Hydra, one of the Saronic Islands. It was only for the weekend, but it was an experience in relaxing & unwinding, chilling & … frankly: sweet idleness! Hydra is a harbor is a harbor w/ a fortification, a small natural harbor … w/ a sprawling promenade … lots of cafés, restaurants, bars … lots of small…
We – my better half & I – went to Athens (Greece) in 2017 for work & pleasure as well as exploration & enlightenment. Our adventures – we’re dealing now w/ exploration & (maybe) enlightenment – started w/ approaching the Acropolis of Athens, the centre of classic Greece. „Approach“ means coming near to the Acropolis, walking around the Acropolis … & taking a lot of photos from afar. Next step on our agenda was to…
We made a trip to Agde. Agde is a small town in Southern France near the Mediterranean Sea at the mouth of the river Hérault. The city was founded about 550 BC by travelling Greeks broadening their zone of influence. Later came the Romans … and then all the others dreaming of conquering the area and establishing a new empire. Finally in the 5th century Agde became a diocese and in 872 a cathedral was…
It was cold. It was March & it was cold. So my better half & I set off to Algarve in order to escape the bone freezing temperatures at home. We found a breathtaking, endless, wide-stretching beach, blue skies & happy white clouds … & temperatures of about 15-20° C. (Of course the sea was far to cold w/ 14° C or so for any swimming … we don’t originate from Arctic regions!) … and…
This is the well, the source of cold water – today at the very same place as about a millennium ago. We are in the labour courtyard of the Abbey of Fontfroide (fontfroide meaning cold well). Once this was the area for producing everything the abbey and its inhabitants needed for independent living – if food processing, livestock depot, butcher work, blacksmith services … In 1093 some monks decided to live in this spot, a…
Summer & Stockholm – the best combination to dream of!Imagine a classic Europen city w/ beautiful buildings & houses from the last century – all neat & restored, a city on islands w/ water all around & hundreds of ships moored at the waterside … We went to Stockholm as tourists & did all things tourists like to do – under a blue sky & a warming sun. We did quite a lot of planning…
The sky above Béziers is blue – really blue. Deep blue. With some nice fluffy white clouds … We are now living in Sérignan, a village near Béziers, and one of our first trips we made to Béziers. We found a beautiful city – whatever you imagine when dreaming about Southern France. There are some Grands Boulevards as I like to call them. The photo above shows the impressive buildings that line up along the…
We are now in Sérignan, in the Département Hérault. We left Carcassonne end of April to continue our travels in Southern France somewhat more eastward approaching the Mediterranean coast. Sérignan is a lovely village with a rather old centre characteristically proud of a central place and lots of narrow alleyways, small and high village townhouses … Around this centre there is a belt of modern houses, more spacious, more gardens … As you see the…
Whenever the weather now in spring is fine – i. e. blue sky & lots of sunshine – my better half & I like to make a short trip to an interesting spot near our home in Carcassonne. Unfortunately the weather is very shifting – from a fine day to a day filled w/ storm & rain showers overnight. There are lots of spot worthwhile to be visited around us especially lots of castles, churches,…
We made a trip (resp. some trips) to Toulouse from Carcassonne. It’s quite easy: take a SNCF train to cover the distance of about 100 km within 42 min. So you are transferred from downtown Carcassonne (i. e. La Bastide) to downtown Toulouse. One of the striking features of Toulouse is La Garonne flowing mightily, but smooth like a mirror straight through the city. Some impressive bridges control the traffic e. g. the Pont Neuf…
Leaving „Megalopolis“ Bangkok we entered Cambodia & stayed in Siem Reap, the city near the Angkor area where you’ll find the largest religious site worldwide surrounded by lots of temples … ruins … more ruins … Sometimes we felt like diving into an archaeological adventure – well: not like Indiana Jones of course, but there were some sites & moments … Compared to Bangkok’s golden Buddhas there are only Buddhas made of stone in Angkor…
Bangkok – a megalopolis: people, traffic, business, shopping… & lots of temples! Visiting Bangkok on our trip to & from Cambodia in 2017 left us awestruck concerning the beauty & the splendour of Buddha’s temples. Our main impression: there are golden Buddhas – everywhere! These long rows of Buddha statues reside in Wat Pho lining the walls around a courtyard around a temple.
About mid of March when returning to Southern France from a short trip to Germany we made a stopover in Lyon. We had a whole Sunday for discovering Lyon resp. a small part of it. We stayed in a hotel near the main station, Lyon-Perrache, which is located on the peninsula between La Saône and Le Rhône. We didn’t walk southbound towards La Confluence, a modern and stylish quarter (as I read …), where La…
We are still in Southern France in the region of Carcassonne … Saissac means – first of all – Le Château de Saissac resp. the medieval fortifications i. e. the ruins of it. (You may walk the site – unfortunately we went on a weekday when it was closed. So we’ll come back soon.) The ruins are surrounded by a village as ancient as the site – and furthermore there are some sorts of more…
We made a day trip to Narbonne. (To be honest: we made 2 day trips to Narbonne during the last weeks … there’s quite a lot to see & to visit or just to relax at the Canale de la Robine.) The main landmarks are the unfinished cathedral Saint-Just et Saint-Pasteur and the adjoining Palace of the Archbishop. From the channel you’ll only get a view of the towers. Another very interesting landmark is the…