Utrecht Travels

.....so today I visited that friend I mentioned earlier. He lives in Gouda for about a year now, so it became time to finally visit him.
But first I drove for a while in my car without airconditioning when temperatures were hitting a tropical 30 degrees Celcius. Not real fun, as it's just to hot to be honest. I decided to drive through the Dutch polders, more specifically the Alblasserwaard, a typical Dutch lowland area, with pictoresque places, canals and people enjoying a good bike ride or canoing that same canals. Of course, lots of windmills wich make the perfect postcard complete. It is just about half an hour from Utrecht and every day when I drive to work in Breda, I pass this area by just a few kilometers, driving the highway. Basically, it is a very small area between the cities of Utrecht, Gorinchem and Dordrecht, south of the city of Gouda where I went afterwards. First I had to cross a small river by boat, where people were having a good time on some very small beaches. After the crossing which probably took 2 minutes, it was jus a 15 minute drive before reaching one of the best known historic cities in the Netherlands, Gouda. Just like other cities as Edam or Alkmaar, it's known internationally because of its cheese and this is exactly the thing you see when walking across its small but beautifully presevered historic hart, with a central square and the town hall right in the middle of it. Also Gouda is just about half an hour from where I live, but I hadn't been there my entire life!
After a great meal and some refreshing drinks I turned home again. I had a great weekend, being a traveller in my home city and home country. Maybe I should do this more often.....but tomorrow there is work again to be done first.
Cheers! Michael

Sometimes you forget things. Not to say though that Mr. Alzheimer or Mr. Korsakov has paid a visit, it's just a way to speak. Sometimes you forget to really appreciate your own environment and surroundings. I travelled a fair bit during the last 5 or 6 years since I have enough time and money to see the world. Whether it's Australia, Africa or Cuba, the world is a beautiful place to visit and comparable to a book: if you don't travel you only read one page.
But today I really enjoyed being a traveller in my home city. I have been living in Utrecht for about 12 years now since I started my study here. That first year I found my way around the city, knowing places, visiting certain areas interesting for travellers from all over the world. But later on, it is just the city you study in, partying and finishing the same study so you have something to hold onto in life. Afterwards, you start to work, buy a house and like I said earlier, see this massive and fantastic planet earth.
But again, today I actually became a traveller at home. As the other half of my small family is in Prague right know and coincidentally the Dutch enjoyed one of the first true warm and sunny days today, I decided to just walk around the city, from my house, for the whole afternoon. Ok, I had a quick break for some cappucino and a glas of water (hey, it was warmer than I was used to!) but apart from that I just walked and kept on walking. True, Utrecht is more beautiful on a warm and sunny summerday, but any time of year is a good time to visit and enjoy the old canals and wharves, dotted with boats of all sorts (waterbikes, yaughts, tour boats), the windmill, the Dom tower, church and square and the small hidden backstreets and small squares. Combined with numerous terraces where people enjoy a good whitebeer. I must have taken at least 50 photos today, some of them to be uploaded later, so be patient dear reader...
As the Dutch summer is finally here and is going to reach another high tomorrow with temperatures up to 30 degrees, I might just fit in some other places nearby. I got a friend in Gouda......

Well everybody,
This will be my final travelblog of this trip.
The last couple of days I have seen more Inca temples than I needed to see actually. But Machu Picchu is really amazing though. It`s not the ruins itself but the stunningly beautiful setting it is in, surrounded by high mountains, peaks and a very green and lush vegetation. Butterflies, birds and other colourful animals surround you, as well as some orchids.
You can just sit up there for hours and soak it all in, trying to imagine how people lived here, and more important, how they build it. Discoverd relatively recent in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, it now is one of the most characteristic icons of south america and probably of the world. And visiting it is surely worth every penny or minute of travelling.
After Machu Picchu I also visited the Sacred Valley between Cuzco and Ollantaytambo, with more Inca temples in for example Pisac and Ollantaytambo itself. Although again very impressive and set in a mountain background, it`s the same as with asian temples....after a couple you have seen it actually. And of course, because there is so little known about the Inca period (they did not have any writings useful for scientific research), part of visiting the sites goes together with insecure theories and lots of `we think` and `possibly` quotes. So history goes along with rather vague theories, which of course makes you wonder a lot more and keeps it a secret as well. And maybe that is the real charme of visiting this Inca area, not knowing all the details about their history.
And saying this, I thank you all for reading and some for their comments on my travel blogs.
Cheers, Michael.

Hey,
2 days ago I arrived on what should be a comfortable 6 hour bustrip from Puno. Unfortunetaly, me and some other travellers were put on a very basic and slow bus full of peruvians and even more full with their stuff. Some people even asked me and others to put away some of their stuff, because on the road there are checkpoints and people need to pay tax for that....? Now, that`s strange for just a domestic bus ride isn`t it?
Well, all in all it was some experience and later that day I finally arrived in Cuzco, probably the oldest inhabited city in South America.
In contrast to that horrible hostal in Puno, I know stay in a decent place close to Plaza de Armas.
So what about Cuzco? Well, it`s a very welcoming and lovely place to walk, visit some (rather boring) museums, the beautifully decorated cathedral and other churches and plazas. But actually, after about 2 days I am glad to visit Machu Pichu and the Sacred Valley the next days.
Cuzco isn`t that big, most churches look very much alike (same building style and colour) and I am really getting tired of people who want to clean my shoes, sell me postcards, drag in me into restaurants, asking for money, or sell me stuff that they imported from Taiwan. The city does seem to absorb the tourists quite well on the other hand.
Maybe I am just staying here as a starting point for Machu Pichu I don`t know, but it certainly is not nicer than the former places I have been to during this trip. Actually, since Uyuni most cities are rather boring and I liked Buenos Aires, Colonia, Salta or Tupiza better. Also the landscapes in northwest argentina and southwest bolivia were more beautiful. So yeah, probably I am just here to visit Machu Pichu.
More about that to come in the near future....cheers, Michael.

Hi,
The last couple of days were nice as usual. On sunday I took a bus from La Paz to Copacobana at Lake Titicaca. The sky was clear and after spending some time in a sunday morning traffic jam in El Alto, the famous la pazian suburb, the mountains above La Paz showed all their beauty. Snow capped peaks towering more than 6000 meters high above the city is really an amazing thing to see. These mountains stayed with me for the whole trip and you could still see them rising out of the water at Lake Titicaca near Copacobana.
In this little hippies town in Bolivia I had my lunchbreak, before heading to Puno in Peru, also at Lake Titicaca. Copacobana is really nice, it even has its own beach, although less inviting at this altitude than the beach with the same name in Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately I did not have time to spend some days here, because in less than a week I have to fly home again. That´s why I switched buses in Copacobana and headed for Puno. The main reason to go here, was to see the floating islands of the uros indians. More important than fishing, nowadays tourism is their main income. But actually I didn´t find it too crowded with people and the fact of the floating islands themselves is really unique in the world I guess. So my half day trip up on the lake was really ok and the sun even at een altitude of 3800 meters made it comfortable as well.
Cheers from Peru, Michael.