July 21 The trip to Greenland was ultratouristic. Even so, it was highly memorabile. A one-day trip, departure at 10am from the local Reykjavik airport with Icelandair, arrival after 2 hours in Kulusuk, Greenland (still 10 am given the time difference), time spent there till 1:30, and back. After waiting in the wrong bus station…
July 20 I decided to do a few “standard” trips. Touristy to the bone, but found it the optimal way to cover as much as possible in the little time available. Mass tourism, much like Spain and Turkey, with pickup at the hotel, transit to a bus, with a big group, travel to the “objectives”,…
july 19 2 a.m. Guesthouse Pavi, Reykjavik. A sign on the door – for checkin call danny at this number, at any time. I try to call – phone not working. WHAT? I try again. Phone still not working. Oh, no. Out of a Divine inspiration (thank you), I try the door. It’s open –…
It was 23:00h and dark at take-off in Copenhagen. When the plane was rising, I saw a faint sunset at the horizon. Wondered how it will be in Iceland – it was 2 hours behind. Hmmm… Then I fell asleep. … It is almost 2:00am, Copenhagen time, midnight Iceland time. I was woken up by…
The first time I had heard about Malmö was, of course, in footballian context, about their team, Malmö FF. The city lies just across the water from Copenhagen. There’s a huge bridge connecting the two cities over the sea. Unfortunately, I slept through the journey, so I didn’t see it properly. Landed, half awake, in…
Initially I wanted to go to Æroskøbing today, but I found out it takes 4 hours, one way, so I changed my mind to a trip to the North part of the Sjaelland island. First, Roskilde. In the former Danish capital I wanted to see Domkirke and the Viking museum. Domkirke is the church where…
Lonely Planet – Scandinavian Europe is one of the best investments made so far. It has almost everything I am anticipating of needing. An even better investment (as it was free) was the map taken from the hostel (Danhostel city center, for the record). It contains a 3 hours walking tour, nicely marked with main…
The most famous palace in Berlin does not lie in Berlin. But in Potsdam, but nobody worries, no matter how persistently it rains – maybe because Potsdam is the former capital of the Prussian empire, or maybe because the palace is called Sans Souci, i.e. “no worry”. Built by Friederich 2nd, a.k.a. The Great, a.k.a.…
Architecture is not the thing that knocked me out in Berlin. Probably the most historically battered big metropolis of the Western World is a relatively chaotic mix of styles, mostly modern and… construction site-ish, with oasis of old buildings in-between. What makes Berlin special though can hardly be captured in pictures. It is in the…
When saying “Würzburg”, I had absolutely no image forming in my head. Nothin. Emptyness. Grey spot. Not even blank, grey – no idea why. Well, it was a very pleasant surprise. The first sight after emerging from the underground parking lot was this church in this square from where I randomly walked along this road…
I heard about Hechingen from Ms. S and Mr. N, our hosts in München, who described it as an insider tip – the most famous Hohenzollern castle is at Sigmaringen, but this one, at Hechingen, is a hidden gem. And when I saw it from far away it reminded me of a book with germanic…
Since i was already at the airport, i thought of taking a quick look at the city. Asked Jane to take me to the centre, some parking closeby. And I emerged on the surface directly in the Schillerplatz, lively on a Sunday fresh fruit market. The big church on the left turned out to be…
Ottobeuren is a village in middle-of-nowhere-Bavaria. Jane found it only after we got an insider tip from our hosts in München, a while ago. Last week we checked it out again. It’s all about the monastery. Looks quite impressive from the outside but the bafflement comes inside, in both its height, width and detail. Some…
On the way from Stuttgart to München we stopped in Ulm. I knew there’s something about the church (Münster) in Ulm, but didn’t quite know what it was. On a first impression, it is tall, very tall. Wikipedia told us that it actually has the highest church tower in the world. (!). This one: Satisfied,…
Starting point of the journey was Paris, surrounded by rape fields, yellow checkerboxes visible at take-off After takeoff I fell asleep; when waking up to have a look outside, bang! Austrian Alps, probably in Tirol. Global warming, huh? Arrived in Bucharest, but idn’t spend much time – took off immediately to the mountains, where I…
Sechselaeuten is a traditional guild holiday in Zurich. Monday was free, and I took the opportunity to go check out the guild parade. Quite impressive, plenty of people attending, colorful costumes, good mood. More details about the holiday here. My photographic insights below. http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf And a small movie depicting a full guild parade: children, fanfare,…
On Sunday I went to the Zooh. Haven’t been maybe in 20 years. Find it depressing. However, this one was a pleasant surprise. Beyond the privilege to see some exotic animals I would probably otherwise never see alive, I was impressed by the research they are doing to improve the life of both zoo and…
Not much left to say, about the last day. The City Hall was among the last unchecked on the “must see” list, so we did. A “serious” looking building of red brick, not much looks from a distance, but interesting at a closer look. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for a visit, to see where…
The next morning, sun was shining, while temperature stayed around -3 C. Turns out last night’s light train was painted in blue and the central street was more crowded during the day but not everywhere Some of the narrow streets of cobbled stone were VERY narrow, while colofrul passages kept their charm. As did colorful…
The city is spread on several islands. A quick look, before landing Arrived around 7pm at the hotel, and went immediately out to „get the pulse”. To reach the old town, had to cross a bridge. To the right, parts of the city + full moon, To the left, a part of older town below…
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