2018-04 Italy – Sicily

Originally my plan was to take my motor home and travel to the Delta of the River Danube in Romania. But I was not sure about opening times of Camping Sites in April and became nervous to explore uncharted territory on my own. Therefore a better known and also very attractive destination got a chance: Sicily. In hindsight I should have taken more time for all sections of the trip: driving down, around the island and back up. I did it in about nine days. 3+3+3…

Day 1, 14.04.2018
Haag to Cesenatico

Day 2, 15.04.2018
Bari

Day 3, 16.04.2018
Onto Sicily

Day 4, 17.04.2018
Palermo

Day 5, 18.04.2018
Arigent

Camping near Syrakus

Day 6, 19.04.2018
Syrakus

Farewell Sicily

Day 7, 20.04.2018
To Bolsena at Lake Bolsena

Day 8, 21.04.2018
Siena, Florence, Malcesine

2017-10 Spain – Andalusia

As Andalusia was high on the bucket list for a long time, we decided to try a group tour with a bus and travel guide. A full inclusive program including the flights to and from Madrid, the bus tour and all accommodation and entry tickets. It was a good idea. You go to so many places that organizing this all on your own would have been a major exercise. What a journey.

MADRID

CORODOBA – MESETA

CADIZ

SEVILLA

SETENIL DE LAS BODEGAS

GRANADA – ALHAMBRA

TOLEDO

MADRID

2012-08 Scotland

I lived in the UK in Birmingham and Oxford from 1996 to 2002. I visited Scotland twice during that period. In 2012 it was time to go back with my wife Ingrid. Scotland has so much charm, charisma, history, culture, traditions, countrysides from another universe and much more. The attentive reader might discover, that I returned again in 2019.

We started in Edinburgh, took a rental car and went up north.We visited Inverness and Loch Ness, some coastal beaches, castles and a whisky distillery (Glen Fiddich). The detailed route and sequence of events has been lost in the fog of time 🙁

Day 1, 17.08.2012
Edinburgh

Day 2, 18.08.2012

Day 3, 19.08.2012

Day 4, 20.08.2012

Day 5, 21.08.2012

Day 6, 22.08.2012

Day 7, 23.08.2012

2011-08 Italia

In the middle of 2011 we were not sure where to go for a holiday. Rather spontaneously we opted for a round trip through the middle of Italy: Apulia – Basilikata – Campania. We flew to Naples and got a rental car and headed eastwards.

Day 1, 17.08.2011
Canosa di Puglia and Castel del Monte.

Day 2, 18.08.2011
Towards Alberobello

Day 3, 19.08.2011
Martina Franka and Matera

Day 4, 20.08.2011
Amalfi coast

Day 5, 21.08.2011
Transit day

Day 6, 22.08.2011
Pompeji

Normally I am too stingy to take a tour guide. In this case the person which approached us was German speaking and quite a nice guy. We had no regrets, the opposite, we would not have gained that amount of insight.

Day 7, 23.08.2011
Isola Capri

Day 8, 24.08.2011
Capri – Napoli

2010-11 Valencia

In November 2010 Ingrid and I were invited to test drive an new model from the vehicle brand Chevrolet. They tend to choose attractive locations. This time it was Valencia in Spain and they stuck to their routine.

Day 1, 24.11.2010

From a first short stroll and bus tour.

Day 2, 25.11.2010

Day 3, 26.11.2010

Day 4, 27.11.2010

2010-11 Egypt

Not only for their pyramids Egypt is a fascinating topic but also for the exciting history of organizing the state around the periodic flooding of the Nile. I read that the Egyptians immigrated from the area of the Sahara desert which was a most fertile land and full with lots of wildlife long long time ago. But when the climate changed and dried up and eroded the land, the people were forced to look for new resources. They found it along the River Nile.

A few more mystical stories increased my fascination about Egypt. One is the connection between the people of Israel and them from the report of Jakob and his son Joseph and his 11 brothers. Joseph being sold to slave traders and progressing in Egypt from the prison the the first adviser to the Pharao.
The other one is of Pharao Amenhotep who declared the many gods of Egypt as obsolete and proclaimed a new “singular-God” faith. This god was represented by the sun (Amun) and one of his prayers could have been from the Bible. The priest cast had big problems with that new religion (similar to the Jewish priests who rejected Christ). After Amenhotep’s death they managed to reverse the Egyptian society back to the traditional gods. Amenhotep’s son was Tut-Ench-Amun, who died in his younger years.

So far so good. Now I would like to invite to our River-Nile-Cruse from one historic site to the next.

Day 1, 07.11.2010

Temple of Queen Hatschepsut

Transfers on the River Nile

Temple Ruins of Karnak and Luxor

Day 2, 08.11.2020

Day 3, 09.11.2010

Upstream to Dam of Assuan

Day 4, 10.11.2010

Abu Simbel

Day 5, 11.11.2010

The Pyramids

Day 6, 12.11.2010

Kairo

2010-05 Italy, Austria

The five villages (Cinque Terre) at the Italian West Coast attracted me for quite some time. Ingrid was there before and was my tour guide. We returned via the Lago Maggiore and the province of Vorarlberg to Haag. We traveled by car.

Day 1, 13.05.2010 – Cinque Terre 1
Day 2, 14.05.2010 – Cinque Terre 2
Day 3, 15.05.2010 Portofino
Day 4, 16.05.2010 – Milano
Day 4, 16.05.2010 – Lago Maggiore
Day 5, 17.05.2010, Feldkirch, Bregenz
Lindau – Germany

2009-12 London

In September 2009 I returned from India after living there as an expatriate for BMW. I was longing for more time for cultural activities and always fancied the museums of London. On Dec. 5th, 2009, we flew over for a long weekend and visited 7 or 8 museums in that 4 days.
The photos are in chronological sequence, the exact places might have escaped my memory 🙂

First a stroll around the inner City with e.g., St. Paul’s Cathedral from Sir Christopher Wrenn.

In Salvatore Dali’s permanent exhibitions are about 200 originals from the grand master. Not allowed to take pictures, sorry.

The following examples are from different museums, amongst them Tate Modern. Always exciting to see ancient statues and pieces of arts and crafts which demonstrate just unbelievable craftsmanship long before our time.

From “ordinary” London walking around and home to a flat which belonged to a good friend.