After seven months of excruciating job hunting, I finally had a new contract in my pocket with Konica Minolta. With one month free before I would start working again, I decided to grab the moment and treat myself to some serious scuba-diving in southern Egypt. Since it was still off season, prices were incredibly low, so I ended up in one of those mega tourist ghettos in the middle of the desert.

Marsa Alam? It basically does not exist… Just an ultra modern airport, surrounded by resorts in the middle of the desert, about 200 kilometers from the Sudanese borders! “No risk” of getting in touch with the local population. There is a kind of settlement 30 minutes from the resort to accommodate the employees. During this week, I actually never touch the local currency: everything there is paid in Euros.

There were a few ot...
Egypt

We spent 17 days in Mali during Christmas 2005 & New Year 2006. Although we had only a bit more than two weeks to visit this huge country, we managed to see most of Mali’s major attractions.

After spending the first night in Bamako and being eaten by mosquitoes we flew immediately to Timbuktu. Covering one leg of the trip by plane saved us a lot of time. Ignore what travel guides say, flying is a good alternative in Mali.

Though tour books kept repeating that this place is a simple town on the edge of the desert living off its myth, we really enjoyed Tombouchtou (Timbuktu). Most likely because we had enough time to adsorb the city’s flair and secondly we did not expect too much. There is no tarred road anywhere in town, which makes it a quiet place despite the trucks racing through the city center causing the omnipres...
Mali

Since our first trip to Senegal left such a strong impression on us, we decided to discover more of this country, this time heading north for 12 days over Easter in April 2004. We only stayed one night in Dakar, at the Hotel Al Afifa, in our opinion the best deal in town. Then we immediately headed for St. Louis, the old colonial center of the very first French administration, with a Taxi Brousse. There we treated ourselves to the Hotel Cap St. Louis, a very pleasant place and a heaven of quietness on the Langue de Barbarie for an absolutely acceptable price.

Besides from being lazy around the pool, we spent a lot of time discovering St. Louis in depth, partly a beautiful old colonial city, UNESCO World Heritage Site, partly a typical African modern city. Especially the Market on the “other side of the river” is remarkable, “...
Senegal

To do a Safari through some of the most known National Parks in the world is the experience of a life time!

After arriving in Arusha, near the Kilimanjaro, we toured the northern national parks of Tanzania for one week: Lake Manyara, the Serengeti, the N´gorongoro Crater and Tarangire.

On the flight to Tanzania, we anxiously wondered if we would get to see plenty of wildlife, elephants, zebras and wild beasts, not talking about lions, rhinos or cheetahs. Well, what a surprise, after our arrival. The number of animals was sheer overwhelming. Since it was the right time of the year we also got to see lots of newly born zebras and wild beasts staggering around on their skinny legs.

Zebras, wild beasts, giraffes are a common and universal sight but they still didn’t go unnoticed even after a week. So were large he...
Tanzania

Our plan was just to relax in a very nice hotel for one week and return back to work full of energy. And so we did at least the first two days of our stay, enjoying lazing around the pool with a good book!

Then we started thinking about what we were missing and rented a car. Our target was the oasis in Tozeur, the salt lake Chott Djerid, the caves of Matmata (the site where Star Wars was filmed) and the Colosseum in El Djem. Due to a major sand storm we had to give up on our plans to travel Tozeur, but we managed to see the rest.

Tunisia

Istanbul definitely deserves more time than just an extended weekend. Of course, the Blue Mosque (Sultanamet Camii), the Aya Sofya (Church of Divine Wisdom), the Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar are high on anybody’s list. These impressive sights could easily be visited in a few days, but there is much more to explore.

A must-do is the ferry ride along the Bosphorus waterway, which is twisting 30km north to the Black Sea. It represents more than anything this city’s unique character, where two continents unite, east & west, by two bridges. Here along the Bosphorus, the past neighbours contemporary Istanbul in the most obvious way.

The boat sails past huge palaces, picturesque mosques and ancient castles, built by the Ottomans to prevent support reaching the besieged Constantinople. But the further away the boat mov...
Turkey

We traveled through Vietnam from July 18th to August 18th 2003.

First we stayed a few days in Ho Chi Minh City at a friend’s place, visiting the city and discovering the Vietnamese cuisine, which we found extremely delicious. From Ho Chi Minh, we explored the famous and really spectacular Cu Chi Tunnels dug by the Vietcong during the American War as it is called in Vietnam.

A two days tour through the Mekong Delta took us through villages surviving on cottage industry like 200 hundred years ago in Europe, producing noodles, toffees, etc ... A busy river life and the floating markets make this a distinct and attractive destination. Unfortunately it rained a lot, more of a drizzle but still unpleasant and it disrupted the trade on the river.

Then we flew to Hoi An, definitely one of the highlights of the trip: a...
Vietnam

We spent 17 days in Cuba starting December, 20th 2003.

Of course our travel started in magic Havana. We did not understand the hype about Vedado but definitely enjoyed Havana Viejo & Centro.

Then we took a taxi to Viñales in the west, the very highlight of the trip. This is a small village with a fantastic flair in the middle of tobacco plantations surrounded by a breathtaking landscape. We stayed in a “casa particulares” with a lovely family that provided all meals for us. It was so much better compared to the restaurants in town and so much that it would feed a whole family. Nightlife was awesome, first people would go to a certain bar to have a drink, at 10:00 pm a band starting playing in the bar across that very bar and everybody moved dancing Salsa, Merengue, ...

One day we went around on horses, or donk...
Cuba

Heidi left Vienna on July 7th to catch an 11 hour flight from Amsterdam to Panama City. Impatiently waiting to finally set her feet on real ground after about 10 hours into the flight, the following announcement by the captain was rather disturbing.

No radar was working in the whole the country of Panama and all planes had to be guided down - one by one - “by hand” (!!!). Heidi’s immediate inquiry produced an easy enough explanation - the air controller will talk to the cockpit crew and thus direct them to find the runway. The flight attendant added that this happens all the time. Heidi did not let go and wanted to know how often she had personally experienced such a situation. Well, twice, in the life of an experienced life attendant. This did not really take away Heidi’s worries. Her imagination was running wild and she pic...
Panama

No other place in the world stands more as a synonym for the atrocities of the Nazi regime and for the extermination of the Jews than Auschwitz-Birkenau. Being in Cracow, a visit to this place, now a UNESCO World Heritage site is a must - a tough one though.

In the very beginning, Auschwitz was a concentration camp for political opponents and prisoners of war. In 1942 the site was extended by the Nazis to create the biggest and especially the most “efficient” of all extermination camps, Auschwitz II Birkenau, a place only dedicated to the mass-murder of Jews from all over Europe. It was also in Auschwitz that SS Officers first tested Zyklon B, the poisonous gas used in the “final solution”, after an “efficiency test” on a several hundred Russian POWs.

About 1.5 million Jews, the vast majority from Poland and Hungary, ...
Poland

Doing a Home-Exchange, does this mean anything to you? The system is rather simple: you exchange your apartment / your house with someone else during your vacation: you live at this person’s place and your exchange partner comes to stay at your place in the meantime.

There are many advantages in doing this: (1) You pay nothing for accommodation during your vacation and enjoy a nice apartment or a beautiful, comfortable house. (2) You do not have to eat out three times a day, and usually you exchange cars.

How does it work? (1) On www.intervac.com you can “advertise” your apartment / home and define what you are looking for. There are many such organizations; Intervac is the oldest one and the second biggest, as far as we know. (2) You contact the persons whose offer might suit you and you work out an agreement. We oft...
Canada

It was most stunning to discover San Francisco without a cloud in the sky! During my former travels there, I only experienced cold & fog, fog, fog … This time, I simply enjoyed walking around the different districts, the Mission, Ashbury Haight, Twin Picks with a stunning view over the city and Pacific Height and its steep hills. A special treat was the Castro District on St. Patrick’s Day, an incredible experience.

Most unbelievable was getting a good view of Golden Gate Bridge completely clear of fog and clouds, something I had never experienced. After taking 250 photos, it was time to enjoy a great “Fusion Sushi” restaurant with our friends Alan & Maureen. Back in 2001, we exchanged home with this lovely family and kept in touch ever since.

Another highlight was Big Sur, to walk on deserted, endless beaches partly ...
United States

What about the vacation itself?

After several exhausting trips through three continents and a busy schedule, we decided to retreat for our summer holiday to a less hectic place and exchanged homes with a family in Carnoux en Provence, five kilometers away from busy Cassis on the Cote d´Azure. After visiting this famous holiday destination once, we were just happy to be able to go back home to a quiet, grand home where we enjoyed our tasty meals on the terrace overlooking the sea away from the crowds and heat.

This spacious home with a gorgeous swimming pool was all we needed. It was located up on a hill, with an airy terrace and a view of the Mediterranean. Gilles’ brother came down from Paris for a week. We kept ourselves busy shopping at the local markets, preparing tasty dishes from ultra-fresh vegetables and fruit...
France

What about the vacation itself?

Our stay in Venice was a non-simultaneous home-exchange: Giuliana Bondi and her family stayed at our place over Christmas / New Year 2006, when we were in Mali and we went to their place in July 2006, when they where on vacation in the mountains.

This exchange made us the temporary residents of a “porta sola”, a small house in Cannereggio, near the old Jewish ghetto. This area was definitely off the beaten tracks and our most memorable experiences were having breakfast at the local cafés and evening drinks in neighborhood bars with handsome waiters remembering your favorite drinks from the day before.

Heidi together with her friends Andrea and Claudia had a whole week to slowly explore this very special city, Gilles only three but nevertheless was touched by its magic. There was...
Italy

During our Round The World, we travelled to Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile & Uruguay but bypassed Colombia, since we were not sure about safety travelling overland. We deeply regretted it, when we listened to the first enthusiastic reports from travelers arriving from there. So we used the next possible opportunity to make up for that mistake and traveled Colombia intensively for 45 days in July and August 2009.

Our main destinations were: Pereira & Salento - Popayan, Tierradentro & San Agustin - Neiva & the Desierto de Tatacoa - Bogota - Villa de Leyva, San Gil, Barichara & Bucaramanga - Medellin - La Guajira - Santa Marta, Taganga & the Parque Nacional Tayrona - Cartagena. Unfortunately we had no time to go to the Pacific Coast and missed out on scuba diving with baby whales. The Amazon we never intended...
Colombia