Author: thomas

  • Bergen, Norway

    Bergen, Norway

    Bergen is Norway’s second-largest city, after Oslo, It’s the gateway to several very scenic fjords at Norway’s Atlantic coast, but it is a very pleasant place to spend a few days in itself. The fish is fantastic, my best salmon ever. There is a mountain with great views, reachable with a short cable car ride.…

  • Oslo, Norway, 2022

    Oslo, Norway, 2022

    Oslo, like all of the Skandinavian capitals, is a beautiful, well-organized, friendly, exceedingly civilized, and restrained city. Nobody has anything to prove here. It’s a pleasure to stroll through the avenues and streets, enjoy the sights, and relax. They still have a king and queen; their park and parts of the palace are open to…

  • Marseille, France

    Marseille, France

    I spent about two and a half years living in Marseille, at the Mediterranean coast, at the boundary between the Côte d’Azur and the Côte Bleue (which both mean blue coast). Beautiful place, We had no time to hike in the Calanques, the Côte d’Azur’s most stunningly beautiful limestone min-fjords in the mountains at the…

  • Luberon, France

    Luberon, France

    The Luberon is a hilly region in France, southwest of the French Alps. It is stunningly beautiful and captures everything you have read about France except the Eiffel Tower. Very green, ancient villages built from rough rocks, cobblestones, flowers, Lavender. We spent two days traveling to the villages of Lourmarin, Saignon, Roussillon with its ochre…

  • Avignon, France, 2022

    Avignon, France, 2022

    There hasn’t always been a single pope. On occasion they couldn’t agree who gets the hat and ended up with multiple popes fighting each other. During this period, from 1309 to 1376, when they had up to three popes and they clearly couldn’t all be in Rome, Avignon was a papal seat for seven successive…

  • Hiking on Tenerife

    Hiking on Tenerife

    There really are remote places on Tenerife. One is around the Taganana mountains in the northeast. Getting there isn’t easy – a bus from Puerto to San Cristóbal, then an hour-long taxi ride up the mountains. The taxi ride was ridiculously cheap so I had to over-tip. The forest is occasionally steep and rugged, with…

  • Tenerife, Orotavo, 2022

    Tenerife, Orotavo, 2022

    Tenerife is a island, one of the Spanish Canary islands, off the Atlantic coast of Morocco. In March, northern Europe is cold, but the Canaries are always warm. Corona isn’t quite over yet so I still don’t want to leave the EU. The south and east coast of Tenerife are very touristy, but the north…

  • Malta 2021

    Malta 2021

    Malta is an island in the Mediterranean sea, between the Italian island of Sicily and the African coast. It is a member state of the EU. Its location was strategic, it controlled trade between the western and eastern Mediterranean. It was under the control of the order of the Knights of Malta, which were involved…

  • Breslau 2021

    Breslau 2021

    Brelau is in the south of Poland, and rivals it’s more well-known, and much more crowded, neighbor Cracow. Since 2016, when Breslau was culture capital of Europe, a “culture train” connects Breslau to Berlin, with presentations and talks on the train, so it’s easy to reach. Breslau has been completely restored since my first visit…

  • Little Venice

    Little Venice

    Another sunny weekend in the winter 20/21, in Little Venice. That’s a neighborhood in the east of Berlin, just east of Berlin’s largest lake, the Müggelsee. It’s called Little Venice because it’s built on a system of canals, all houses have direct water access. It was unusually cold this year so most rivers and lakes…

  • Winter 20/21 in Berlin

    Winter 20/21 in Berlin

    The winter in Berlin was unusually snowy. We normally don’t get much snow, or when we do, it melts quickly. This year winter looked exactly like winter is supposed to look like. The photos are from Grunewald forest, one of largest and forested parks in Berlin, between the Havel lakes and the western suburbs. At…

  • Boats in Spreewald

    Boats in Spreewald

    Spreewald (river Spree forest) is a large region in Brandenburg, southeast of Berlin. The river Spree widens into a maze of small rivers and canals in the forest. There are a few villages where small hand-rowed boats run tours, or kayaks are rented. It’s incredibly scenic and calm. Most families here have lived in the…

  • Cycling Saale-Unstrut

    Cycling Saale-Unstrut

    Saale and Unstrut are rivers in Sachsen-Anhalt, a few hours southwest from Berlin. The main city is Naumburg, best known for its Unesco-listed cathedral. From here, the countryside with its vineyards and numerous castles can be explored by bicycle. We even brought a tent to extend our range.… Read the rest

  • Beelitz Heilstätten

    Beelitz Heilstätten

    Southwest from Berlin, a short train ride away, is the town of Beelitz with its Heilstätten hospital. It’s like a lost place, except that they have built a skywalk over it and do tours. Trees now grow in buildings and on partially collapsed roofs, and much of the facilities are open to the public. In…

  • Szczecin/Stettin 2020

    Szczecin/Stettin 2020

    This blog is about traveling in Asia, but Corona makes travel abroad impractical, as my difficulties escaping Bangladesh have demonstrated. So I’ll be traveling in the EU for a while, where I cannot get stuck. First was Sczczecin (German: Stettin) in western Poland, close to the Baltic Sea. It’s a pleasant city, beautifully restored yet…

  • Bangladesh 2020

    Bangladesh 2020

    I have visited most east Asian countries, but not Bangladesh. Dhaka, the capital, is the most crowded, busy, and poor place I have ever been to. The old town is a maze of winding alleys, packed with colorful rickshaws and crowds of people. It was so crowded in some places that I could not move,…