Before we would take off touring the world, Gilles had to get his diving license and Heidi had to refresh her knowledge. The most pleasant and quickest way to do this is surely the Red Sea, because it is rather close, not that expensive and offers great diving spots.

We decided against the ever growing resort town of Sharm el Cheikh and chose Dahab, one hour to the north. When arriving and leaving from Sharm el Cheikh we discovered that ten out of 12 check-in counters were for Russian tourists, the immigration officials greeted us in Russian! Even the shop owners knew the basics, it was an amazing sight.

Dahab was the perfect place: the city itself is small and quiet with great restaurants and shops. The staff at the Diving Center, Extra Divers, was helpful, competent and familiar with local affairs. Dues to the seaso...
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

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

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

In 1993 / 1994, Heidi spent an unforgettable and formative year at Georgetown University. A few years later Gilles invited her to return to this city, where she had enjoyed an exciting year amidst great people. Heidi is still in contact with most of them and so this visit turned out to be THE reunion.

Georgetown is one of the most scenic areas in Washington, DC, a prestigious neighborhood to live in and the home of many politicians and moneyed people. DC is famous for its museums, thus we visited its latest hype, the Museum of Native Americans, excellent!

Since Gilles had never been to Arlington Cemetery we also spent half a day there. Though Heidi had been there three times she was still impressed, all these people who died for questionable causes are remembered at last in dignity!

One of Heidi’s former house...
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