pierreo

Peru Episode 2: Cuzco and the Sacred Valley

Posted on 21 June, 201524 November, 2015 by pierreo

We arrived in Cuzco in mid-afternoon and by the time we settled into our hotel (right next to Plaza De Armas) and met our tour leader Holy for a quick orientation chat, it was already dark. We decided to go for a stroll and discover the immediate neighborhood around the hotel. We also wanted to scope out several restaurants in the area and decide where we would eat.

Near the hotel, we saw our first Inca Wall, down a narrow pedestrian street. Little did I know when I took this picture that somewhere down the wall on the right there is a 12-cornered stone – we found it later…

A little further, in the square in front of the Monasterio Hotel where we will be staying later, there were school children hard at work rehearsing a dance routine. We saw several such events in the next few days and were told that it is not unusual for classes to organize something special for “Mother’s Day” which would be celebrated on the second Sunday in May.

Plaza de Armas – the central square in today’s Cuzco (actually it was already the central square in Inca Times too).

Before dinner, we had a drink in a cafe overlooking the Plaza; Cuzco is surrounded by hills and one of these is visible on the left. In the distance, a statue of Christ (similar to, but smaller than the one in Rio) seemed to float above the city like a ghostly figure.

The next day, Bee and I explored the city on our own. We first stopped at an attraction that is not in any of our guides as it was only discovered and developed a few years ago. Right in the centre of Cuzco, the remains of several Inca houses have been discovered. The site is called Kusicancha and I was able to find very few references to it even on Google search! The church in the background is Santo Domingo, part of the Qorikancha Complex which we will visit later with our group.

Continue reading “Peru Episode 2: Cuzco and the Sacred Valley” →

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Travel

Peru Episode 1: The Amazon Forest

Posted on 6 June, 2015 by pierreo

Bee and I recently came back from a great trip to Peru. We stayed there for three weeks and had wonderful experiences everywhere we went. We had more adventures at some point than we had anticipated (more on that later) but all in all it was a wonderful trip.

I will separate the trip in reasonable bites so that I do not bore anybody with endless photos and commentaries. It will also allow me to issue these blogs more regularly, rather than all at once at the end.

After a 30+ hour trip, we finally arrived in Puerto Maldonado, near the Brazilian and Bolivian borders, on the East side of the Andes and smack at the Western end of the Amazon Rain Forest. We left the office on Friday evening at about 18:30 Brussels time and flew to London, then Bogota, then Lima and finally Puerto Maldonado where we were met by the representative of the Riserva Amazonica, one of the resorts situated along the Rio Madre de Dios and where we would be staying for three nights. The is probably the least typical Peruvian portion of our trip; it is a first introduction to the Amazon jungle for both of us.

After a short bus ride from the airport, we boarded a small boat for the final leg to the resort. You got to admit that Bee still looks good on the boat after 30+ hours of travel!

Just next to where we boarded the boat, there was the one and only bridge across the Madre de Dios River. Nice bridge, the same colour as the Golden Gate bridge, and similar construction. Puerto Maldonado is only 250 m above sea level (the lowest by far we will be on this whole trip) and much closer to the Pacific Ocean (only 600 km) but the Rio Madre de Dios flows into the Amazon and eventually to the Atlantic Ocean, more than 2600 km away. For the mathematicians out there, this is equivalent to an average slope of only 0.01% for all this water to flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

The sun was setting as we motored towards the resort. With storm clouds in the distance, it made for a nice combination.

We decides to start our trip in Puerto Maldonado as it was expected to be the most relaxed part of the trip. This would also give us a chance to recover from jet-lag. When we arrived at the resort, we were told that tomorrow’s activity would start at 6:00 AM, with 5:00 AM breakfast; we thought “No Problems, we will be awake at 3:00 AM anyway” so we immediately signed up.

We started by crossing the Madre de Dios river and ran into many cranes, flying overhead and nesting in the tress. On the picture on the right, the crane is actually landing, but not on the nest that is right below it – it continued to float past it to another hidden nest further down the tree.

On the river bank, we saw a small crocodile and I caught a kingfisher in mid-flight – it is actually the same as the one on the branch on the right.

Continue reading “Peru Episode 1: The Amazon Forest” →

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General

A Carpet of Flowers in the Hallerbos

Posted on 25 May, 2015 by pierreo

A strange coincidence of unrelated events led us to one of the most unbelievable walks I have done near Brussels!

On Friday evening, I finally checked my hiking shoes to make sure that they were up to our upcoming trip to Peru and the Inca Trail. They are 10 years old and so due for replacement. One still looks perfect, but the sole on the other is starting to come unglued. So I decided that is was probably better to buy a new pair of hiking shoes. It will hurt to get rid of a pair that served me so well for so many years!

On Saturday, I went to one of the top Hiking and Adventure Stores near Brussels and started discussing about new shoes. I settled on Meindl Shoes – they fit and felt great. As a parting thought, the salesman, who had been really helpful suggested that I should at least try them out once before going on my trip. I indicated that I was planning to go to the Forêt de Soigne, a large forest just outside Brussels. He suggested I should go to the Hallerbos, a smaller place, but with spectacular wild flowers. I thought that might be a good idea, since I had never been there before.

On Sunday morning, one cousin of mine posted on Facebook the following link:

http://epanews.fr/profiles/blogs/le-mystique-bois-de-hal-en-belgique?s=1#.VTFgLncXj8h.facebook

I was stunned as this was the same woods that I was planning to go to. The best thing about it is that further links got me to a map of the place, with a recommended walk to see the best of the wild flowers.

So we went!

And – as they say – the rest could be history!

The photos really do not do justice to what it really looks like.

As I saw horses in the distance, I tried to duplicate a painting by Magritte, but reality got int he way.

Everywhere you turn, there was a carpet of purple flowers. I can understand why this is famous – even though before that day, I had no idea it existed.

Here is a close-up of the flowers – little bells. Continue reading “A Carpet of Flowers in the Hallerbos” →

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Travel

A wet week in Provence

Posted on 12 April, 2015 by pierreo

In November 2014, Bee and I took advantage of the 11 November holiday to spend a week in Provence.

Part of the reason was to spend some time with my parents who spend a lot of time there; part of the reason was also to get away from the bad weather in Belgium and discover a region of France that we did not know well.

Unfortunately, we hit the worst weather week in Provence for a long time. The weather had been generally bad all over Europe for most of the summer (see also my recent blog entry on the Dolomite in August 2014) but we were particularly unfortunate.

Our first “Road Trip” was to Moustier-Sainte-Marie, the Gorges du Verdon and finally Grasses. We skipped the Lac de Sainte-Croix as the weather just did not allow us to enjoy it.

Moustier is renown for fine pottery and ceramic. There are many workshops, some mostly with ‘tourist’ good, others with very nice ceramic. The town has also maintained its medieval atmosphere and is built on such a steep slope that a lot of streets are still impractical with a car. We walked around town until it started to rain a lot harder and ducked into a local restaurant to escape from getting really wet.

We ate at “Les Santons” (www.lessantons.com) and had a very nice lunch.

After lunch we drove through the top of the Gorges du Verdon, France’s Grand Canyon. There were very nice views, unfortunately not very photogenic, so I decided to experiment. I did not have my big camera, so I took my first panorama using my Samsung Phone. Here is the result.

It is not bad, and quick and easy, but not quite the same as the results I am used to when I use my big camera and I then assemble the photos using Photoshop. It is clear that the one shot facing the sun was more exposed than the others and the camera was not able to correct entirely for that.

I also took three photos of the mountain facing us and assembled those in Photoshop and here are the results.

Much better from a blending point of view. So I will have to be careful in the future if I want to use the ‘panorama’ feature of my phone.

From Les Gorges du Verdon, we went on to Grasse, the World Odor Capital. We stopped at the Fragonard Factory where we did a very nice tour of the facilities. Fragonard sells their own perfumes and Eau de Cologne in totally plain containers, as opposed to some of the other companies who sometimes spend more on the bottle than the perfume! Fragonard is also one of the few remaining “Nose Schools” in France. Students are trained to recognize some 300 different odors and the “Experienced” nose can tutor up to 12 students at a time. We saw the ‘school’ room, but class was not in session.

We had spotted a few potentially good restaurants on Trip Advisor, but all of them were closed when we were there. We stopped at La Voute for dinner and had a good meal there.

The next Road Trip took us to Les Baux-de-Provence, a small town in the Alpilles that has become an artist community. Just outside of town there are abandoned stone quarries which are now used for sound and light shows called “Carrières de Lumières” (www.carrieres-lumieres.com). Every year, they have a different show that runs roughly from March to December. The show last show in 2014 was on Klimt and Vienna. Images are projected around the whole quarries while beautiful music plays and it is definitely worth the visit.

We had lunch in Baux and then went to visit the Castle, which as per custom sits at the very top of the village.

The view is quite spectacular, but again, the weather was not really good enough for good photos. I likes better the view of the ancient town from the castle

Continue reading “A wet week in Provence” →

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, Culture, Travel

A Week-End in Murano

Posted on 5 March, 2015 by pierreo

Bee and I go away each year for her birthday. In 2014, I surprised her by signing us up for a walking (trekking) tour in the Dolomite mountains of northern Italy, something she had said repeatedly we should do. That trip was already published on my blog last month.

Our trip started on Sunday from Venice and since there is a late flight from Brussels to Venice, we decided to leave after work on Friday. We would arrive very late, in August, at the airport and I did not want to have to fight the crowds in Venice itself. Looking at the Vaporetto Line from the airport into Venice, we noticed that the first stop was in Murano, and thus decided to stay there instead. It would give us one full day and one half day to wander around before we had to meet the rest of the group. We did not go to Venice itself at all on this visit.

Early Saturday, we started to explore Murano, which I knew a little from my previous trips to Venice and always enjoyed. However, the previous visits were fleeting since I was staying on the ‘main’ island and I was looking forward to spending more time, and especially the evening in Murano as well.

Throughout the island there are glass statues, or monuments from local artists. I particularly like the contrast between the very modern Glass Comet (the sculpture is called La Cometa di Vetro by Simone Cenedese) and the 19th century clock tower built on the foundations of a much older 12th century church steeple, long gone along with the church.

Around the corner, we ran into a lovely old house – what I like most about Murano is that it still has a human scale and feels suburban compared to Venice. This old house is surrounded by a garden and a majestic garden gate – you would not see something like this in Venice any more.

The back of the Chiesa dei Santi Maria e Donato (Church of the Saints Mary and Donato) – this is one of the oldest churches in the Venice lagoon, originally built in the 7th century with known restorations in 9th and 10th centuries, possibly some even later. Known for its 12th century mosaic floor. It houses small bones from St. Donatus of Arezzo and larger bones from a ‘dragon’ that the saint is reported to have killed.

The back of the church has a definite Moorish look, and so do the decorations inside.

The garden in the back of the Glass Museum gives a good view of the Campanile of Santo Donato (short name for the church above!)

A typical canal in Murano – this is suburbia – there is a three boat porch in front of every house – sorry, no cars. Continue reading “A Week-End in Murano” →

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Travel

Hiking in the Dolomite

Posted on 22 February, 201522 February, 2015 by pierreo

Bee and I had been talking about a trip like this for several years. I had thought about it ever since I had seen a picture taken by a friend of a refuge with mountains in the background. I took essentially the same picture on the trip I will be describing here.

This was my 5th trip with Wilderness Travel and was another fantastic experience. We had a group of eight people with three guides, including Giuseppe whom I had already met on my first trip with Wilderness in Slovenia. Giuseppe was joined by Leila and Sean so we had three experienced guides (with two vans) to help us on this trip. It was great to have that flexibility given the weather that we encountered on some of the walks.

We met the group at the airport in Venice and quickly got into our two vans for the drive to the first stop of the day – for lunch half way to our first real destination. We stopped in the small town of Vittorio Veneto, at the edge of the Alps in an old water mill converted into a restaurant and had a great meal outside even though it was somewhat cold for the season. We then continued to Passo Giau where we would spend the first three nights of our trip at the Rifugio Pass Giau.

As soon as we arrived, I recognized where we were. The mountain with a flat top in the background is quite unique – this is a similar view to the picture who had made me want to be here – thanks Bill.

The was also the view from our bedroom at the Rifugio. Sean and Leila have stayed here many times and therefore know the owners quite well – it is like being welcomed into somebody’s house!

Cannot have a view of the Alps without a cow here and there! The weather was not great, and was not going to be great for the whole week so we had to contend with a very heavy sky, not making the pictures as spectacular as they could have been. But when the sun did shine, we were rewarded with spectacular scenery.

The contrast between light and shade can also enhance the view at times.

Near the Rifugio, there was a small chapel, as always called Santa Maria (or something) delle Neve to indicate that it is often covered in snow. They are usually dedicated to the memory of mountain guides who lost their lives doing what they loved to do.

We went on a ‘warm-up’ hike from the hotel in order to open our appetite for dinner. The Rifugio where we stayed is the first structure on the right and is quite a popular place at lunch and towards the end of the day, when people have finished their hike and are ready to go home. The crowd was thinning significantly as we were walking around. Continue reading “Hiking in the Dolomite” →

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Culture, Food, Travel

Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast – Part 2

Posted on 9 February, 20159 February, 2015 by pierreo

After 5 days in Naples, Bee and I moved to the relative tranquility of Sorrento, on the Bay of Naples, on the Amalfi Peninsula, and the gateway to the Amalfi Coast and Capri. We had ten more days to explore this part of Italy, rich in History, Art and Nature.

We went to Capri on our first day there – the weather forecast was not ideal for the week to come and we thought we wanted to take advantage of a reasonable day to explore the island.

Unfortunately, two cruise ships had arrived overnight, and all passengers from the ships were also going to Capri. Our ferry into the island was full and we could not get the return trip we wanted, so had a return earlier than we wanted initially.

Still, the day started positive – we booked a boat trip around the island, which included a visit to the Blue Grotto and wandered around the harbor while waiting for the departure. It was very interesting to see that even though this is a very touristy island, there are still people here doing traditional work, such as fishing out of small boats.

Here is a general view of the main harbour. On the side of the mountain in the background, you can see the first few houses of the second town in Capri called Anacapri.

Taxis on the island have been somewhat modified to cater to the expectations of local tourists. It is obvious that the maximum expected speed on the island is very low, or this type of roof on a car would not survive very long.

On the trip around the island, we first passed by the Blue Grotto. We were told that unfortunately the tide and the wave were too high to be able to visit the grotto that day. The entrance is very tight and it is often impossible to go through. However, it looks like some people are making it, so I am not sure if the boat captain was telling us the truth or not.

At the Western tip of the island, on Punta Carena, stands a very tall light house. It is critical to mark the entrance to the Bay of Naples where there has been a busy port for many centuries.

Again, we can see that normal life continues around tourism – this gentleman was fishing probably in the same way they were doing it 100 and 500 years ago!

Continue reading “Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast – Part 2” →

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Travel

Napoli and Amalfi – Part 1

Posted on 15 September, 201413 February, 2015 by pierreo

If it is not obvious already from the amount of time that I spend there, I love Italy. I have been there many times and every time I do, I come back more enchanted and convinced that I should come again.

In all my previous trips, I had spent a grand total of 3 or 4 days in the area around Naples, and all of that when I was 11 and 13 years old. I had memories of Paestum, Monte Cassino, Heculaneum and Castel del’Ovo. But these were very vague, and I was not sure what was what any more.

Bee and I decided to spend the time between Easter and May Day in and around Naples so that we could take advantage of two holidays. We arrived in Naples on 19 April, rented a car and drove to our hotel right in the center of the city. The hotel was situated on a pedestrian street and so had left good instructions of where to park. We found the parking and walked to the Hotel Il Convento. We had booked a room with balcony, at the very top of the hotel and it was very nice.

We went for a walk in order to discover the neighborhood. On Piazza Plebiscito (Suffrage Square), we saw this sight of a cruise ship leaving harbor. Naples and, as we will see later, Sorrento are major stops on the cruising Italy scene.

There was not much going on in the low town around the square, so we decided to go up with one of the old cable cars (Funicolare Centrale) up to the Vomero Hill. The car runs underground all the way up to the top of the hill.

We first went to visit the Castel Sant’Elmo, located right at the top of the hill and built by the Spanish in 1538, with spectacular views of the city and Mount Vesuvius just behind it. At first, I was not sure that it was Mount Vesuvius, as I did not remember the second “hump” on the side of the mountain, and all the photos and paintings of the volcano showed it more with the typical conical shape. However, comparing with the location of Vesuvius on the map, and when we went there, I can confirm that the big mountain just outside the city is indeed Mount Vesuvius.

Here is a wider panorama of the Bay of Naples. Vesuvius is on the left and then you can see the low hills of the Amalfi Peninsula. The last two dark spots on the right of the photo are the two hills of Capri – we had excellent visibility that day as the sun started to come down.

After the castle, we went to the Certosa di San Martino, located only 100 m from the castle. It used to be a Monastery, build in the 14th century and rebuilt in the 17th. A constructed view (180 degrees) of the cloisters inside the monastery – this is Chiostro Grande.

There are ancient carriages used by the former occupants of the Certosa – I guess the chief abbot was used to travel in style!

Continue reading “Napoli and Amalfi – Part 1” →

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Culture

WWI – In Flanders Fields

Posted on 4 May, 2014 by pierreo

In November, Bee and I decided to go visit the Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres and a few of the monuments around that area where battles were fought during WWI.

The museum is great, with a very good history of the many battles around Ypres. The area around Ypres was the only part of Bergium that was not conquered by the German Army during the whole duration of the War. The invasion was stoppped by flodding the fields around the Yser River and then everything was bogged down in four years of trench warfare.

www.inflandersfields.be/en is a very good site about the museum if you want to know more about it.

After lunch in Ypres, we started driving around and came about this WWI cemetery as we were driving by. This is the Menin Road South Cemetery with mostly British and Commonwealth soldiers. The whole area is dotted with small cemeteries. At the time, armies tended to burry the dead as they fell, into small fields. These were then reorganised and preserved after the war.

These are very peaceful places, even in the middle of the city, they seem to have an aura of themselves. We discovered that there are hundreds of these small cemeteries all over the area.

The Menin Gate in Ypres is a memorial to soldiers killed in the Ypres Salient and whose grave is unknown. 54896 names are listed on the walls and alcoves of the monument. The Memorial was dedicated in 1927 and is still the site of an annual ceremony on ANZAC day, on the anniversary of the battle of Gallipoli when Australia and New Zealand honour the memory of those fallen in foreign wars.

Below is a monument to the many Indian soldiers who participated and died in the many battles for Ypres. We were surprised to see an Indian flag in the middle of the city, up on the ramparts, so we explored a little bit closer. What a shock it must have been for these soldiers to leave India and end up in a muddy trench in rainy, cold Belgium.

Further along the old city ramparts, we saw the Ramparts Cemetery, near Lille Gate. It started as a French cemetery but in 1915 and 1916, welcomed mostly Commonwealth victims. At the end of the war, the French soldiers were removed.

Here is an example of graves from the Ramparts cemetery.

Just outside Ypres was an extensive set of trenches and caves dug up by the Yorkshire Regiment over many years of war. Some of it has been preserved in this secluded lot in the middle of a light industry zone.

Here is the entrance to underground caves. The old sandbags have been replaced with concrete imitations.

Bee is looking at the trenches, and just imagining what it must have been like after 10 days of continuous rain in only 5 DegC weather…

It was a good day of remembrance. We ended up in Nieuwpoort, having an excellent dinner before going home.

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Culture

Carnaval of Malmedy 2014

Posted on 13 April, 2014 by pierreo

I do not make it every years, but whenever I can I always enjoy spending the Sunday of Carnaval in Malmédy, in the South of Belgium, in the Ardennes. There is a very special celebration there each year, with some formal and traditional events, but especially a carnival parade with free participation from anybody who wants. This year was the 556 year that this tradition has existed. There are records dating back to 1458 – however, nobody can be quite sure how many parades there have been in total. It probably changed a little bit over the years too.

The Sunday celebration opens with the “Dance de la Haguète” – last time we came, we missed that as we were still having lunch, so I wanted to make sure that we saw it this time. We setup at the front of the crowd early and waited.

As I said, there is a lot of free participation to all events. Three teen girls, dressed as Pandas entertained us for a few minutes – they were obviously having fun.

The Haguète is a very colourful traditional costume. They must have been treated very poorly in the past, or in traditional lore, or legend … some time any way as their carnival “trick” is to capture the ankle of an innocent bystander with their wooden tool (not sure what it is called) and force them to apologise on their knees, before they are released. Traditionally also, a different society each year gets to open the parade with a dance. As you can see on this picture, some of them start very young…

There were a lot of people watching from every point of view. There was also a duo between the band accompanying the Haguète and the brass band on the balcony here.

As the parade was getting ready, we actually met the three clowns who get to open the parade. It is obviously a great honour to be selected for that job; as soon as she saw my camera, I got the best smile in the world! And we chatted a while after that.

Continue reading “Carnaval of Malmedy 2014” →

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