Travel
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San Isidora Cemetery
In Denmark many do not care that much about their dead family members, mostly used way to deal is to cremate and to place the urn in the unlisted graves. Easy for the left-back, no grave to take care of and no on-going obligation. Further it’s budget friendly. Taking a trip – especially to Catholic countries – it’s another situation. Graves are serious business, now and especially in the past. Over the year my wife and I have developed a routine of visiting grave-yards where ever we go. This time it happened in Madrid where we visited San Isidora Cemetery. Some of the grave – especially the older ones –…
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Malmö – The new parts of the city
The old harbor with the post office and station at the end of the left pier, conversion from industrial harbor to recreational harbor has been going on for years. And also two new areas are growing Bo01 and Varvsstaden (Shipyard city) with the signature building Turning torso. The area around turning torso is build with diversity in appearance, some low family houses and some arrays with flats in several stories. But, its as if turning torso always pops up above it all Lot’s of cafes and restaurants are found in Bo01, and yes of course others than the primary guest can forage on the scraps. The part of the city…
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Dance Show in Kandy
Traditional dances are a part of the attraction in Kandy, so if you haven’t seen on before Kandy is a good place to see one. There are different places near the temple of the sacred Tooth. The show we attended included a final section with fire eating and fire walking.
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Sigirya
Sigirya Fortress or the Lion Rock is an amazing attraction that attracts quiet a few visitors, both foreign and Sri Lankan. The fortress is built on the top of a rock that raises approximately 200 meters above the surrounding plain. It’s built around 455 AD by King Kashyapa. Think about climbing the rock by using only footsteps carved into the rock and probably some scaffolding in order to carry bricks an other materials to the building site at the top. Later staircases have been applied. of course we couldn’t see the view from the fortress to the plain. And did not expect to be able to view the fortress from…
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Cooking Class in Kandy
One way to get into a country’s culture is to learn about their foods. What ingredients is used, how are they used and are there any special handling of the food. Of course you can learn a bit by asking at the restaurant where you are eating. But a much more intense and thorough way is to join a cooking class. Many places cooking classes are offered by restaurants, in Kandy we found “Best Kandy Kitchen” which is not a restaurant. It’s a Sri Lankan family who provides cooking classes in their home. Before starting cooking it was like home, you need to go shopping. We went with the host…
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Dambula Cave Temple
There is something special large structures and sculptures, especially when they are created in times before mechanized aids were applied. It’s simply amazing that cultures before ours also were capable of creating massive installations. The 5 temple caves in Dambulla is no exception from, even though the caves them selves were created by nature, the murals and all the statues were man made. Entrance to the caves is places ~160 meters above the surrounding area, where the parking lot and ticket boot is located. Going up on a stone and concrete stairs, mostly it’s with even steps. But some steps are not well maintained and can be slippery when raining.…
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Wilpattu National Park
This is the biggest and oldest of the Sri Lankan National parks. This means lesser congestion of safari vehicles than is reported from Yale. The morning we entered the park I counted 15 cars in line for entry – when the park opened at 06:15. To enter the park you need to hire a licensed vehicle with a driver. We hired a Toyota Hilux with 6 seats mounted on the cargo bed and a metal canopy – it also had tarpaulin sides to roll down in event of heavy rain – but if it’s done you can’t see much. You shouldn’t expect the driver to be English speaking, he might…
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Street art in Buenos Aires
Traveled to Argentina in November 2022 among other to experience another tour around to see street art in Buenos Aires. Street art is every where in the city, of course more in some areas than others. Some of the time we just watched it while walking along the streets. But we also went on an official tour with BA Street Art They are active in getting more official recognition to the street art and in commissioning pieces to more walls in the city.
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Street Art in Barcelona
Like any other big city Barcelona has a scene for Street Art. I went with the local street art tour for a walk through the “El Raval” neighborhood, starting at the Museum of Modern Art Barcelona and ending the tour at the “Jardin de tres Xemeneies”. A nice 2 hours walk accompanied by a guide with insights into the local street art scene and access to a hidden gem of a closed city park. But some of the pictures here is not from that tour but can be found in the Barrio Gothico Painted in relation to the marking of that it is 50th years since PP died Stencils and…
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Sea lions and Elephants
Peninsula Valdes will provide you with a whole plethora of animals to watch – variations along the year on species and locations occurs. In November it seems like everybody are in place. From Puerto Piramides you have easy access to the roads on the peninsula, however it’s primarily gravel roads so driving slowly is mandatory both for comfort and safety. Some animals can actually be reached by foot from Piramides as there are Sea lion colonies just a few kilometers south west of the city. The water around the colony at Punta Piramides was crystal clear when I visited. Allowing to see the Sea lions and birds both above and…
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Birds on Peninsula Valdes
Birds are found every where, some are very similar all over the world. Think you can find the house sparrow at any place on the globe, but other species are specific to the local area. Visiting Peninsula Valdes has given me the opportunity to see birds that I’m not familiar with. A new bird to me was the Southern Giant Petrel. A rather big bird that seems to be liberal about what to eat. At fist glance i was convinced that i had spotted a Laurus Marinus or Great Black bag gull, but the Kelp gull living on the southern hemisphere looks very similar, but it is a different specie.…
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Whale watching
To me whales have always been exotic animals, I cannot reach the and see them during my daily life. Sometimes with a good portion of luck I can see their smaller cousins the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in Danish coastal waters, but bigger whales are very rarely visitors to Danish sea. So getting to a place like Peninsula Valdes where real big whales sometimes can be spotted from the coast or from a boat is amazing. So we got us places on a boat that could take us out into the Golfo Nuevo, where female and cubs of the Southern Right Whale should be spending the late spring in November.…
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Peninsula Valdez, walking along the beach
My trip to Argentina have taken me to Peninsula Valdez, which is located at the Atlantic coast of Argentina around 42 degrees south and 64 degrees west of Greenwich. So in the middle of November the time of year is at late spring. This means weather can be a little cold but also nice & warm and rather hot, in our 4 days at the peninsula we experienced all. The main attraction for Peninsula Valdez is it’s wildlife and especially the whales. I took a stroll along the beach on the first morning. Starting out about high tide, where everything was covered with water, and the beach was narrow –…
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Buenos Aires – Jardin Botánico Carlos Thays
When visiting big cities you from time to time might need a break from all the noise and crowds. Parks are often such a place you’ll need, here I have found a suggestion for a little quiet moment that also provides entertainment if you like sculptures and plants. The botanical garden in BA provides a collection of flowers and plants – which is the standard feature – but also a series of sculptures. Most of the sculptures are copies of classic artwork, but here copied by Argentinian artists, similar to what can be found around Europe where collections of cast plaster copies of statues are found. The day I visited…
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Red Deer in the Rutting Season
I spent a couple of hours in Jægersborg dyrehave to photograph the Red deer. Started the tour 1.5 hours before sunset and headed home about half an hour after sunset. This time of day provides the best chance to meet the deer, can also do it around sunrise.
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Hamburg
t’s the nearest big city to my home in outskirts of Copenhagen. It takes around 4 hours to drive there, so for a short vacation or long week-end it’s doable. Even though Hamburg was blasted to smetherines during the WWII it has been rebuilt, and historical part have not just be rebuild with 1950-60-70 architecture, but have reinstated the former architecture, an example of this can be seen in Speicherstadt (ware house quarter). But Hamburg was not only being rebuild, it was also being expanded with new buildings and it is still under construction. To experience the city I recommend to get the Hamburg Card. I provides access to all…
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Røsnæs – the most western point at Zealand
Røsnæs is a small peninsula and forms the western point of Zealand. The look of the landscape is quiet different from the Copenhagen area. First of all it has hills and along the coastline you find a variation of steep cliffs and flat beaches – with some stones. The climate is affected by being surrounded by the sea, almost like an island. The result is that the peninsula is one of the areas with the least rain in Denmark also it experience a slightly higher average temperature. The area provides a good variation of paths and roads that is suitable for a hike. On the site Røsnæs rundt, the site…
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Myanmar – situation in 2021
I travelled in Myanmar in 2013, 2015 and 2016 when the Burmese people was optimistic about having a brighter future with democratic ruling. When we prepared for our first trip we were told not to discuss politics and don’t show images on Aung San Su Kyi, because it could cause problems for the Burmese we talked with. We were surprised that the taxi we took from the Yangon Airport has several pictures of the Lady posted around in the car. Thought all our journeys we have met friendly people warmly welcoming visitor to the country. We tried to chose privately operated hotels, transportation, restaurants etc. in order to support individuals…
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An hike in the cradle of Danish industrialism
The stream Mølleåen (Millers stream) north of Copenhagen is often referred to as the cradle of Danish industrialism. This caused by the fact that the stream has delivered power to mills since the 13th century. The mills has served as power sources for flour grinding, paper, gunpowder, cloth and clothing and metal ware production. Along the stream you can find paths that suitable for an easy hike. My wife and started from Fuglevad in Lyngby an early Saturday morning, walking downstream for about 4.5 km, crossed the stream and went upstream. Enjoying the historical sites and the nature along the stream. Even though you never are more than a few…
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Gribskov hike
Lock down might be gone, but currently everything has gotten complicated and planning requiring. You need to have a negative test – not more than 72 hours old – to enter a bar, restaurant, cinema, theater, museum. So don’t go by sudden impulse, only go if you have carefully planned. My wife and I are planners for the work life, but there it seems to end. We love to have a vague plan for the week-end and then in the last minute decide what to do. It does not correspond with regulation these days. So we have decided to do what we can do without planning. A hike in a…
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A hike around Bastrup Lake
Almost 11 months ago my office was shut down due to covid-19. I had taken to work from home a couple of days before due to a sour throat, so I just continued working from home. In between shop, cinemas, museums, theaters, malls and almost anything else has been subject to lock-down, reopen and lock-down again. In parallel we have be advised or commanded not to gather with others and crowds has been limited. To not going crazy from being locked up and not seeing anything my wife and I has taken on walking. 1 hour to 1.5 hour every week day we hike through the forests near our home.…
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Reersoe, it used to be an Island
At the west side of Zealand (Sjæland in Danish) you find a small peninsula called Reersø. Ending with an Ø indicates that it was named as an island. And sure enough it has been an island, but during the 17 century sediments in the bay between the island and Zealand made a connection and in 1852 a road was established on the isthmus. Now the island had become a peninsula. The attraction to my wife and I was that the area provides wandering routes – the clover paths – which can take you around the island and it can provide some nice scenery for a photo. So to entertain us…
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Visiting a Buddist temple
A year a go I woke up on a thin madras laid out on a tiled floor. It was pit dark, it was 4:30 AM and I was woken by the roosters in the village starting to crow, they new that the sun would rise within 1,5-2 hours. As you can imagine I was not in my comfortable bed in DK, I was in Phosim village in Laos near Savannakhet where I was visiting a Laos family. We had a guide with us because very few Laos village people speak English or European languages. After a short while I could understand from noises in the house that it was time…
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365 days ago
365 days ago I was not in my home-office, neither in the company office with all the colleagues. I was traveling through Vietnam and Laos for my annual long vacation. On January 4 2020 I was visiting Savannakhet in Laos. We had walk in the city and met with our guide for next couple of day. Our ambitions for the day was low due to hard traveling the previous night and day. To get to Savannakhet we had left Hanoi with the train on January 2 in the evening. Sleeping (or trying to) for 12 hours until we disembarked in Dong Ha, waited 3 hours for the bus and drove…
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I love to travel, but will I dare?
For years my routine around new-years eve has been, to go to the airport, travel to a remote location and stay away from Denmark for 4 weeks. This year I’ll do something different… The drill has been enter a plane in the early afternoon, plug-in earphones, order a G&T, watch some movies, have some sleep, breakfast and the I’ve been almost on the other side of the globe. Ready for adventure, however somewhat exhausted after about 20 hours journey as sleeping in planes is not one of my major competencies. But this year I’ll go no where for new-year. Most countries have restrictions on immigration, my travel insurance is not…
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Faxe Limestone Quarry
Almost 80 km from Copenhagen is a small town – Fakse (sometimes Faxe) – situated on top of a limestone quarry. I’ll not state that the town itself is worth the 45 minutes drive from Copenhagen, it looks like any other small town. But as limestone quarries are very few in Denmark it seemed like a must-go-there-sometime item to me. So when the first week-end of May 2020 seemed to provide som fair weather and my wife and I thought that we have seen our home enough during Covid-19 lock-down we went on tour. Geologist have traced the area 63 Mio years back in time. A time where it was…
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Savannakhet
Savannakhet or known under it’s official name Kaysome Phomvihane is the second largest city in Laos. It is said to have 120.000 inhabitants. Even though it’s large it seems small and quiet. I visited the town in January 2020, the dry season. We were told that it hadn’t rained since start of November and it was certainly dry. During the day temperatures was in the low 30’es Celsius, but as it was dry it was bearable. The city offers a few sights in the town The old quarter with old French houses Wat Wayaphoum Dinosaur Museum Historic Exhibition St. Teresas Church Mekong River So in the city you can take…
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December Light…
I’m not a fan of winter in the Nordic countries, temperatures will be dropping from comfortable to freezing and light seems to disappear. Currently sun will rise around 8:30 and go down again around 15:30, it should provide 7 hours of daylight. But the last 3-4 weeks the weather has not been helping the access to daylight, it has been heavy overcast and rain full, removing even more of the precious daylight (not full fairness to the weather, as there have been 2-3 days with actual sun light for some hours). I’m longing back to midsummer where there will be 17½ hours of daylight :-). To show the difference I…
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Madrid
On my way to La Palma I stayed a short while in the city of Madrid. Not a long stay, but I’m sure that I’ll go the for a longer experience in the future. Until then you’ll just have a few images.
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La Palma
Not so many words, but quite a few photos
