Category: Culture

Posted in Culture, Travel

Northern Italy – Part 1

Posted on by pierreo

In September, it already seems like that was ages ago, I went on a 2-week trip to Northern Italy.  The first part of the trip gave the first opportunity my car has had to “stretch its legs” – I went down the German Autobahn from the Belgian border to the Austrian border towards Innsbruck.  Even with the traffic, there were opportunities to see how well it performs.  I discovered that at 220 km/hr, my fuel consumption goes up significantly, over 8 liters per 100 km!  When the road was clear, I would cruise at 180-190 km/hr, very comfortably and therefore I made it to Innsbruck in the early evening.  Even though I had driven through the city once or twice, I had only stopped there on a dark wintry day in 1969, the first time I drove with my parents back to Belgium for Christmas.  This time I had the opportunity to visit this very nice city a little bit.  The old quarter is very pleasant and from the window of my hotel, I had a great view on the Olympic Ski Jump, used in the 1964 and the 1976 Winter Olympic Games.

One of the reasons for me to stop in Innsbruck was to have the opportunity to do the ‘Old Road’ on the Brenner Pass between Austria and Italy.  There is now a highway and a tunnel that by-passes this road that did not exist in 1969.  I did not want to do this after driving 1000 km so I did it first thing in the morning.  There was not a whole lot of traffic and therefore I had good fun.  From the border, on my way to San Daniele in the Friuli, I decided to detour via Cortina D’ampezzo, coincidentally host of the Winter Olympic Games in 1956.  It seems that I was touring the Old Continent’s classic winter locations!  During a walk above the town, I caught a glimpse of the Ski Jump from the earlier Olympics…

I also had beautiful views of the valley and mountains around Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the most glamorous ski destinations in Italy – at this time of year, it is a sleepy little town, especially on a cold and cloudy September day.  This is the top of the Cable Car that takes visitors into the main ski area.

I took a short walk and found an even better view further along the path.

The town of Cortina is completely surrounded by mountains.  It is hard to get to as there are only a few, small roads heading there.  So I had a lot of fun driving in and out of it as well.  A closer look at the town itself.

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Posted in Culture, Sports

The “Engineer’s” Cycle Ride

Posted on by pierreo

At the end of June, I went on a great cycle ride with a few friends.  I did not tell them exactly where we were going, other than the starting point, but I knew that, like me, they would be fascinated.  I had not been able to plan the weather, unfortunately, and so it was cold and we had a littl;e rain, but fortunately nothing serious.  We started riding along the Canal du Centre, which soon branched into two section, the old canal and a new canal that was built in the early 90’s.

I have borrowed photos from my friends as well – not all photos below are mine.

As I said, the weather was not great, but we were still having fun.

In order to build the new canal, engineers had to ‘improvise’.  They could not necessarily follow the lay of the land (a canal needs to be rather flat!) and so there were places where they had to build a canal-bridge over streets and other obstructions.  Here is the larger of these bridges.  It is nice to notice that technology can co-exist with traditions: there is a shepherd watching a flock of sheep grazing on the side of the pond below …

The first major stop of the ride, and also the reason why the new canal had been built: The new Ship Elevators at Strepy-Thieu.  These are now the highest such elevators in the world with a height of 73 m; as a comparison, the world’s highest standard locks are on the Irtysh River in Kazakhstan and are 42 m high (the 6 Gatun Locks at the end of the Panama Canal only lift ships a total of 25.9m).  I had recce’d the ride in March, when the weather was a lot better and took this photo.

We approached from the other side.

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A short Break in Budapest

Posted on by pierreo

The long week-end of 15 August gave me and a friend a perfect opportunity to go spend a few days in Budapest, a city she had never seen and where I had only been very briefly.  We left Brussels on Friday evening and therefore arrived late at the Hotel, which was right in the middle of the Castle District in Pest.

There is a fantastic view of Buda from Castle Hill and this is also a way to orient everybody who knows the city … The parliament Building is at the far left, behind the Chain Bridge.  The St Stephen’s Basilica is at the center of the picture and there are several cruise ships moored on either side of the river – this was not the case when I went there in 1995 (or at least I do not remember these at that time)

Early Saturday, I had booked a city tour.  I find this a very good opportunity to go around the main attractions of a city, with plenty of opportunities to see more of them in the days to come.  What I had not told Bee is that the tour would be on a Segway.  There were 4 of us on the tour and we spent the first few minutes learning how to manage the Segway.  Bee was very amused while ‘others’ were learning – or is that a nervous smile?

She did learn quite easily (most people do) and off we went on a 4 hour tour.

I needed to practice standing on the Segway with “no hands” so that I could later take pictures.

Photo by Bee

We had a great local guide (on the left in this picture) and we stopped several times for her to explain the history and local culture.  Here we are along the Danube, across from Castle Hill.

We stopped in many places, near the Parliament Building and near the Basilica, which we intended to visit later.

We also stopped in front of the monument ‘honoring’ the Russian Army who ‘saved’ Hungary during WWII and later during the uprising in 1956.  One of the buildings on this square is the US Embassy – that provides balance!

We finished the tour at Heroes Square – it is quite a long way from the center and therefore it was nice to do that on the Segway.  We were also able to test the speed of the machines.  I was surprised that mine was not that fast … is I tried to accelerate more, it would refuse, forcing the handle up and preventing me from leaning forward! I hate it when a machine tries to control what I do …

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Loire Valley – Episode 2

Posted on by pierreo

As I was saying in the previous post, after 4 days in Saumur, I moved to Amboise for the rest of my stay in the region. On the way, I stopped first at the Chateau D’Ussé

I then stopped in Azay-le-Rideau (8). This is not a Royal Castle and actually the person who built it paid with his life for it. He was Tax collector for the King, and apparently, not all taxes collected ended up in the Royal Coffers! It is one of the most picture-perfect castles, right in the middle of a small town.

Any angle that you look at it is special.

The pond and garden in the back offer even more striking views.

It also has some of the best interior decorations that I have seen. A bit more modern than others (I am not sure when pool tables were introduced) but quite interesting.

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Posted in Culture, Food, Travel

Loire Valley – Episode 1

Posted on by pierreo

As indicated in the last post, I spent a week along the Loire River in June.  It was a very relaxing vacation.

After a half day drive (I Left Brussels very early in the morning) I made it to Blois for lunch.  I walked around the town for a while before sitting down to eat in front of the famous castle (one of many…).  Here is the view of the old city with the Loire River in the background.

Here is another view with the beautiful cathedral

I went to visit the Cathedral which shows the typical Gothic style of the time it was built.

Actually, the current church is build on top of an earlier edifice, much smaller and in Roman style.

Part of the old church remains underneath the new one!

This is the back side of the Chateau de Blois (1)

And here is the view of the front entrance.  It is not very impressive from the outside, but a lot better once you get in…

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A flight over the Cher River

Posted on by pierreo

I recently spent a week along the Loire Valley.  During that week, I decided to take a hot air balloon ride.  I had initially planned to do this in the early morning, but got a call from the organising company telling me that the weather forecast was no good and that they suggested I go the evening before, to make sure I did get a chance.

I was at the appointed place for the meeting at 19:30 when the caravan of France-Montgolfières arrived with all the equipment.  The first vehicle obviously carries the basket while the second carries the balloon in that red bag that looks like an overgrown tomato – we will see more of that later…

I discovered that there were 12 passengers for this flight and that they could take as many as 16 in this basket.  They have a smalled basket in case they have 8 or less passengers…  This is more popular than I thought.

We loaded up into the two vehicles and set off for the departure point.  It is determined by the wind direction so that we leave upwind of where we want to go.

We unloaded the basket and set it on its side so that we could attach the balloon.  This is where we will be spending 1 hour in the air – there will be three of us into each corner section of the basket with the ‘pilot’ in the middle.

The balloon is rather large and tall when it is spread along the ground.

The fans will be used to inflate the balloon before it can be heated up with the gas burners.  Once everything was setup, we waited.  Thierry, our pilot with the blue shirt below, was concerned about regular gusts of wind which would have made the balloon difficult to handle.  Several times they released a small black helium balloon to see the wind direction and speed at higher elevation.  It was very consistent at all levels.

And we waited as the wind just would not die down.

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ZAMBIA and VICTORIA FALLS

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As I mentioned in the last post, we left Botswana and Kasane to cross the Zambezi River into Zambia and Livingstone.  However, even this can be an adventure.  We had no problems on the Botswana side to register our departure.  There was a very long line of trucks waiting to go across, but fortunately we were able to by-pass all that.  We were told we had a “private” ferry across and this is it…

This little boat is going to carry the ten of us plus all our luggage across the mighty Zambezi River which is currently in full flood!  I am not sure that Bob is convinced …

Here is the meeting of the Zambezi and the Chobe – additional current and eddies are caused by the two large rivers meeting.  More dangers for our little “private” ferry.

There are “real” ferries that cross here – this is the main crossing point between Zambia and Botswana but also Zambia and Namibia as there are no direct routes.

The landing on the Zambian side is like a large beach.  However, it is also filled with trucks coming and going.  It looks like a massive traffic jam and we are not sure how we are going to get out.  We are immediately assailed by souvenir sellers – funny, we did not have any in Botswana – here they are about as aggressive as I have know, not taking the first 20 “No’s” for a definitive answer.

We are soon stuck in the middle of large truck and parked cars in our air conditionned mini-bus – comfy, but not going anywhere.

We are not alone in that situation and one enterprising man from South Africa has decided to find a way out.  He is the one facing the bus.  He got us to back off a little, so that the big white truck next to us could also move and free his car.  After that, the truck was able to advance enough so that we could also pass and we moved into Zambia proper.  We are now making progress towards Livingstone, the large city nearest to the Victoria Falls, which is about one hour away.

We crossed through Livingstone and headed towards the fall.  For a while now, we are seeing the plumes above the trees indicating where the falls must be.  Just before we turn off the road towards the hotel, we get a quick glimpse at the Zambezi about to disappear over the falls.

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Botswana 4 – Chobe Riverfront

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Our last day in Savute – we have another long day of driving ahead of us (actually, for us it is just a long day of riding and taking pictures – Stanley and Bata have to do all the driving) before we arrive along the Chobe River at our last camping stop of the trip – this part of the Chobe National Park is called the Chobe Riverfront.  However, as on previous occasions, we spend the first few hours of the day exploring the area that we are leaving, just in case there are things to see there.

And we are not disappointed.  We quickly spot a Secretary Bird perched on a tree – we had not seen that before.

It is the first time that I noticed the ‘flash’ of feathers around its head which it seems to control for effect.

We also run into another large group of zebras

A little further we noticed two cars stopped at the same place – this is usually a good sign.  Just as we pulled up, we noticed a
leopard walking in the tall grass.

It then went into a bush and I thought it was all over.  However, if two bounces, just as I was taking its picture, it ran up
the bush, scaring some birds that were relaxing on the top branches.

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Botswana 3 – Moremi and Savute

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We spent two nights in the Moremi Game Reserve, the largest reserve in the Okavango Delta. We were back in our tented camp and back to getting up at 5:30 for a very early start.

It is amazing that the sunrises here are just as spectacular as the sunsets! We are staying on the side of a large pond and it is totally calm this early in the morning.

We immediately spot a pair of cranes

and soon after that a spoonbill – he actually mischievous…

We watch him as he fishes for small organisms in a water hole

We were so busy looking at the spoonbill, admiring the way he fishes that we almost missed another animal quietly approaching. However, the spoonbill knew what was going on and he alerted us when he started looking around. There is a Hyena going home after a long night of hunting.

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Botswana 2 – Okavango Delta

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As I mentioned in the last post, we moved from the desert to the top (North side) of the Okavango Delta. I had heard a lot about it in various Nature Documentaries and was fascinated by the thought of a huge river that opens up into a delta yet never reaches the sea. The water that flows from the tropical forests of Angola, rich with flood waters from the rain falling there, penetrates into the soil and evaporates before it can reach any major body of water. In Maun, where this journey started, there used to be two seasons, the dry and the wet, not because of rain, but because of the water from the delta. Water would flow for 6 months than stop and another six months later, would come back. There was wild celebration each year when the flood waters reached Maun again.

Things have changed about 6 years ago, I was told, as a result of the earthquake which created the “Boxing Day” Tsunami in December 2004 in the Indian Ocean. The Great Rift Valley, which cuts Africa in two and extends all the way into Zambia and Botswana is actually at the other end of the same tectonic plate that disappears under Indonesia at that end of the Indian Ocean – it is not, therefore, totally unrealistic that such a huge event at one end, had a small consequence at the other. Since then, rivers that had not flowed in 30+ years have started to flow again on a seasonal basis and Maun has seen more water than usual. There have been changes to the Chobe River as well, but I will get into those later, when we visit that area.

We arrived at noon and after lunch, some of us went on a boat trip to the Hippo Pool – I wonder what animals we will see there…

This is an African Darter. It took me a long time to remember the name (I am not sure why) and to also be able to recognize the difference between the Darter and the Cormorant – not until some one explained it to me clearly on a boat trip on the Chobe River. As Darters and Cormorants are often seen together, at first I was not sure which was which, but this is definitely a Darter – it spears its fish and therefore has a long, sharp-end beak.

We saw an Fish Eagle surveying the land. Soon after I took this picture, it flew away, majestically…

We were slowly travelling in small canals, with all sorts of grasses and reeds around us, especially papyrus. The water was very calm in most places (not really flowing) and the reflection of the grass in the water was almost perfect at times.

We ran into the same Fish Eagle just minutes later, in another tree. It has caught a pray and was eating it as we watched.

We eventually arrived at the Hippo Pool, and agreed that it deserved its name. There were at least 6 large groups of hippos in this one area. We observed this mother and baby just a little remote from the rest and were told that this is probably a male baby and the mother needs to protect him from the alpha male of the family …

A “Darter Tree” – no, they do not grow on them, but seem to favor this particular tree.

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