Author: pierreo

Posted in Culture, Travel

Florence at New Year

Posted on by pierreo

Ok, so I am a little behind.  I have been busier than usual since this trip in Florence at the end of 2012, but I am still within almost 1/2 year…

Bee and I decided to spend a few days in Florence and then a few in Chianti right around New Year.  I had just removed my cast and so needed the exercise.

An absolute “must” if you go to Florence is the “Firenze Card”.  You can get one for one or several days and it gives access to many musea, free use of public transport, but best of all, you can cut the lines at most musea and churches as if you had pre-booked your ticket.  A huge time saver.  While visiting the Uffizi Gallery one early morning, we discovered, through a window, this great view of the Ponte Vecchio – difficult to get this vantage point anywhere else.

One evening, I took a night shot from the other side.  Without a tripod, I had to place my camera on the edge of the other bridge and use my remote control to trigger the shot – 2 second exposure!

Still in the Uffizzi Gallery, we found a terrace, with a coffee shop where we had more unusual views of Florence.  The Duomo is so crowded in the middle of other buildings that it is not easy to get an overall view of it.

The Palazzo Vecchio is a different story.  It was so close that even with my wide angle lens, I was not able to get a good shot.  This is none photos stitched together.  The tower looks even thinner and flimsier in this shot, but I really like the whole ensemble.

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Posted in Food, Travel

Flash visit to Perth, Australia

Posted on by pierreo

I needed to be in Singapore for business for two weeks. During the week-end, Bee and I decided to make a quick jump to Perth to see friends I had not seen in over 4 years.  We arrived late on Friday night, actually very early on Saturday morning so we made a late start on Saturday.  We had lunch with Rajan, Julie and Georgia on the shore of the Swann River just to catch up on the last four years.  as it often is the case with good friends, it felt as if we had seen each other the previous week!

However, Georgia had changed a bit since the last time I had seen her…

We decided to have a pic-nic on the beach at Cotesloe – I had been there before, but never really had a chance to swim as I never came at this time of year.  We arrived around 5PM and had a quick swim first. The water was really nice and I felt refreshed.

We had a light pic-nic, with good wine! That is what we always did in the past too. Bee enjoyed the day.

and so did Georgia

Rajan had brought a special bottle of wine for the occasion.  We really enjoyed that.

Here is the full spread, with the view, Rajan and Julie

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Posted in Culture

Ardennes, then and now

Posted on by pierreo

During a recent trip to Arimont, Bee and I decided to stop at a recent addition to the local scene.

We discovered the Baugnez 44 Historical Center.  Here is the link: http://www.baugnez44.be/

It is a very well put together story of World War II with an emphasis on what happened in the area during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.

The museum itself is situated only 100 m away from the American Memorial in Baugnez, on the road between Malmedy and Waimes.

I did not have a camera, and the weather was not great, so I have had to borrow other people’s photos, for once…

 Photo borrowed from Wikipedia

This is the site where 80 American Prisoners of War were massacred by their German captors during the earlier phases of the campaign.  This event was recreated in the movie “Battle of the Bulge” from 1965.  This was not the only such war crime perpetrated by the German troops, but it caused the largest loss of American POWs lives in one incident.

Several soldiers survived the massacre by “Playing Dead” and their interviews can be heard in the museum.  The memorial itself is, as always, sober and peaceful.

Following the massacre, there was a trial in Dachau in 1946.  Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the subject:

In what came to be called the “Malmedy massacre trial“, which concerned all of the war crimes attributed to Kampfgruppe Peiper for the battle of the Bulge, the highest-ranking defendant was General Sepp Dietrich, commander of the 6th SS Panzer Army, to which Peiper’s unit belonged. Joachim Peiper and his principal subordinates were defendants. The Tribunal tried more than 70 persons and pronounced 43 death sentences (none of which were carried out) and 22 life sentences. Eight other men were sentenced to shorter prison sentences.

 

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Posted in Culture, Travel

Saint Petersburg – Russia

Posted on by pierreo

In August Bee and I spent a long week-end in Saint Petersburg, Russia. This is a place I had heard a lot about and it was several years that I wanted to come here. I just needed a good excuse.

On the first day we had organised a walking tour of the city, very useful to get orientation and see where the major attractions are.

We started along one of the many canals, the canal which formed the original city limits called Fontanka as it originally fed fountains in the Summer Gardens. Along the way, we ran into the current main building of the Saint Petersburg University.

Impressive building – it used to be one of the many palaces belonging to people who gravitated around the Tsar and his family.

Further along, we noticed this Church with sky blue dome and golden stars

There are churches and canals everywhere. This place is called “three bridges”.

This is Nikolsky Cathedral, actually built for Peter’s wife Empress Catherine I – the bell tower is well removed from the main building as is typical in Russia.

Here is the church itself, with typical pastel colors and gold domes

This is the Mariinsky Theatre, probably the best known cultural venue in Saint Petersburg where the Kirov ballet used to perform in Soviet times – now it has reverted to its original name and is known as the Mariinsky Ballet Company, still one of the best in the world.

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Posted in General

Season’s Greetings – 2012

Posted on by pierreo

It has become a tradition and therefore I feel obligated to continue what I started several years ago.

You all know by now that I am a fan of Calvin and Hobbes and I particularly like the different things that Calvin does with snowmen at this time of year.

There is not a whole lot of subtlety here.

Just a boy with a lot of imagination

To all my readers, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  All the best for 2013

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Posted in Culture, Travel

Iceland – Part 2

Posted on by pierreo

On the last day in Stykkisholmur, I decided to take on a boat ride on one of the local Fjord.

We were lucky to see several puffins and I was even able to photograph them flying (yes they can fly) and swimming

On one of the islands in the bay, I caught this woolly sheep in an apparent staring contest with a sea gull – this is not a Mexican Standoff!

This is the perfect season to raise chicks – or whatever young Cormorants are called. There were several nests with young chicks in them along the cliffs.

The specialty of this particular tour is that towards the end of the tour, they trawl the bottom for whatever lives there and let you taste what comes up fresh and raw! All that with a glass of wine too. It was delicious. I particularly liked the sea urchins.

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Posted in Culture, Travel

Iceland – Part 1

Posted on by pierreo

I do apologise – I have fallen behind (way behind) in writing these, but I will try to recover during the winter break and my forced stay at home…

In June, yes, six months ago, I went to Iceland for a week.  I had a great trip which started in the most convoluted flights I ever took.  I looked for different possibilities, but the best one was to go from Brussels to Munich then to Berlin and finally to Reykjavik, arriving around midnight local time, or about 2AM Brussels time.  The only redeeming factor for this flight was that it was cheap, and I only needed to pay 150 euros extra to fly business class!

I did check to make sure that the hotel near the airport where I was to spend the first night was still open at that time.  They assured me they were.  And I understood why – this is a veritable “rush hour” at Reykjavik Airport!  There were several other flights from Europe and the US which landed just before me, and several scheduled to land in the next hour.

I spent the first night near the airport then rented a car and drove towards Stykkisholmur, town where I was to spend the next three nights.

The road was picturesque and here is the first photo I took.

This is Hvalfjordur, a fjord – can you say that in Iceland? – near Reykjavik.  There is a shortcut via a tunnel, but I took the long way around the whole thing.

The weather is great – sunny and cool and I am just enjoying the fantastic views everywhere I drive.  The road (2 lanes, country road, but the only one going where I am going and no traffic) crosses a river, and I notice a man fishing in the rapids.

Iceland reminds me a lot of New Zealand – very wild, huge scenery, few people.  I think I am going to like this!

On the way, I stopped in Bogarnes, a small town with a famous museum about the history of Iceland.  Before going to the museum, I walked around town.  I am not quite sure what this was all about but must have been some party – there are also empty beer cans and red decorations all over.  I think it has something to do with the summer solstice as I arrived in Iceland on 23 June.

I finally make it to Stykkisholmur, where I will spend next three nights.  This is the largest town on the Northwest side of Iceland, one of the gateways to the Western Fjord area – I decided that was too far for me on this short trip.

The view from the harbour with a mountain strangely covered by a single small cloud.  I was at the view point for a while, and the cloud changed, but never moved from this positions. Strange!

A general view of Stykkisholmur with the harbour at the forefront and mountains in the back.  The strange building in the middle is the local Church – a stunning building that I will explore more fully later on.

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Posted in Culture, Travel

Scotland – Part 3

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This is part three of the Scotland trip – after the islands, we went to Inverness and the infamous Loch Ness, with a monster?

But first we went to Elgin and on the way stopped at an old distillery turned into a museum. Great visit, but boy was it hard to find… The Dallas Dhu Distillery was shut down about 30 years ago and has now been turned into a museum.

The nice thing about being a museum is that you can get closer to equipment, and even peer inside – this is where the hops are mixed with hot water before they are allowed to ferment.

They have restored and preserved several Fermentation tanks.

There are two stills, made of copper as always. Scotch Whiskey is double distilled to get to about 70% alcohol before it is aged. In some cases, we were told that the product of the distillation process has no flavour at all; all the flavour is gained in ageing in oak barrels. However, if this were true, why use high quality grains and water, and where does the “peaty” flavour of some whiskeys come from?

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Posted in Travel

Scotland – Part 2

Posted on by pierreo

With much delay due to a number of other activities, here is the second part of my recent trip to Scotland.

We took the scenic route from Skye to Scrabster, where we would catch the ferry to Stromness, on Mainland, in the Orkney Islands. It is not a long drive, but took us almost all day as we decided to stop whenever the view was nice.

We drove along the West coast, on a small windy road that was quite pleasant. Occasionally, the view got even better. There are ruins of a castle on a spit of land in the middle of a loch.

and there were nice flowering bushes in places as this is the end of spring.

Leaving Scrabster on the ferry – here is a view of the light house at the entrance to the bay. It looks like the keeper had a large wall-enclosed garden to take care of as well.

There were many birds on the cliffs as we were heading out. There were also many nests in the cliffs, but too far away for a good view.

We had a great day for the ferry crossing – bright and sunny but not too hot.

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Posted in Culture, Travel

Scotland – Part 1

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In late May, Bee and I spent almost two weeks in Scotland to take advantage of two holidays that occur close to each other. This meant that it only cost us 6 vacation days!

We left work after lunch and headed for Zeebrugge where we took the ferry to Hull with my car. I had been to Zeebrugge quite a number of times on a sailboat, but I had never seen the port from the higher vantage point afforded by a large sea-going vessel. It was also a very nice day, which made for a particularly memorable sight.

As we maneuvered to get out, two tugs stayed close just in case we needed help. This is looking back towards the yacht club, where I usually come from…

As we come out of the harbour, I realise that the visibility is particularly good. I can clearly see the high rise in Oostende and even the coast beyond it.

It is very difficult to show you the true effect that this view gives. Below is a view of the coast from Zeebrugge on the right all the way to the first barrier of the Delta Project in the Netherlands at the far left. You cannot really see that on the photo below – but trust me, it is there.

Here I have enlarged a few details so that you can see them better …

A container carrier coming into Zeebrugge offers a great opportunity for an artsy shot, against the sun that will start to set in a few hours.

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