Until today, I’d only seen the vastness of the salt flats on a flat TV screen. This experience had always piqued my curiosity – I yearned to see, feel, and truly understand these unique places. Today, that day finally came. On my way from Flat Top Mountain to North Schell Peak, I stopped at the…
Tag: sight
Madeira
Madeira surprised me with a storm and a bumpy landing, but it was a truly unforgettable experience. Respect to pilots. Everything else was smooth sailing, like the sensual charm of Portugal itself. Obviously, a few days aren’t enough to explore all the levadas (water channels), villages, restaurants, museums, and hiking trails. I believe it would…
South Korea
The journey from Seoul to Jinju aboard the train, cruising at speeds around 290 km per hour but capable of reaching up to 330 km per hour, serves as a prelude to the grandeur awaiting at Jiri-san. This majestic, ultra-prominent peak is the centerpiece of our trip, symbolizing the adventure and exploration that lie at…
Horse Statue Museum
Cruising down the highway towards Ulaanbaatar, a good 450 kilometers to go, a curious sight snagged our attention. A massive square monument peeked at us from the roadside, beckoning for a closer look. We heeded the call, and our curiosity was rewarded. This imposing structure, guarded by a vast 100-meter square compound, wasn’t your average…
Altai City
Altai city, nestled in Mongolia’s western embrace by the majestic Altai mountains, seamlessly blends tradition and progress. This bustling hub thrives on agriculture, animal husbandry, and mining, renowned for its premium cashmere and livestock products. As the heart of the Gobi-Altai Province, it boasts easy access via roads and a local airport. So, Altai city…
Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue
Feast your eyes on the Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue, towering at 130 feet as the world’s tallest equestrian metal marvel. Perched by the Tuul River, it not only honors the legendary Khan but also commemorates the legendary discovery of a golden whip at this very site. Oriented towards his birthplace, the statue reigns over a…
Doha
The flight from Manila to London passes through Doha. The stopover is too short to visit Qatar highpoint, but long enough to explore Doha in the evening. We leave the airport, find the metro, quickly learn how to buy tickets and are soon on a well-conditioned train heading into the city centre. We get off…
Philippines – quicksight
Like most countries in Asia, the Philippines is a lively, vibrant, and fascinating place. I won’t attempt to give a comprehensive overview but rather share some photos and memories that I brought back with me. Food lovers would need a considerable amount of time to explore the endless culinary possibilities. Nature lovers could spend a…
Manila
Welcome to the delightful chaos of Manila, where the urban landscape is an exciting tapestry of sights, sounds, and a thousand smells. The shopping malls here are so vast they could probably host their own Olympic Games, complete with different climate zones for each event. Road traffic is like the wildebeest migration in the Serengeti,…
Freetown
We have plenty of time to explore Freetown before our evening flight home. We visit Leicester Peak and then experience the lively city with its street food, markets, shops and traffic. We then head to a sandy beach to watch the locals catch fish with nets hundreds of metres long. After a quick lunch at…
Northern Sierra Leone
From Freetown Airport in Lungi, we drove north-east towards the city of Makeni and then towards the Loma Mountains. The scenery on the roads was very colourful and vibrant; every few metres there was a new story to tell and time flew by. It took us the better part of a day to get to Kabala…
Southwest Cameroon
After a few hours in the car, I cannot claim to have seen the whole of Cameroon. But I have a sense of what it is like in at least one small region. As in many African countries, the streets are very busy with shops, people, stalls, street food, farmers, cattle, police, military and petrol…
London to Vilnius
Flying from London to Vilnius with a very short stop in Warsaw, Airlines has a one hour delay and there was a high chance that I would miss my flight to Vilnius. There wasn’t much i can change while on the plane, so I relaxed, looked out the window and took some pictures of cities…
São Tomé Island
This island is very green, with a few sandy beaches, delicious food and friendly people, even if many of them carry machetes. Everything went very smoothly and easily in this tiny country. Hiring a car from the local hotel was a great experience; we got the keys at the airport and they asked us to…
Diogo Vaz
After descending from Pico de São Tomé, we had about half an hour before sunset, so we decided to explore the west coast with no particular destination other than sightseeing. We soon stopped at the beautiful beach south of the village of Diogo Vaz and enjoyed the colourful sunset. Rob climbed some sea stacks, the…
Lisbon to São Tomé
The journey from Lisbon to São Tomé is long, but the scenery is spectacular. The aircraft passes through Portugal and Spain before crossing the Mediterranean and entering Algeria. After flying over the Sahara, the route passes through Niger, Nigeria and a small corner of Cameroon before reaching the island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea and…
Berlin
Berlin is the capital of Germany and one of the most vibrant cities in Europe. It is home to a rich culture and history, with a wide range of attractions for visitors to explore. From world-class museums to beautiful parks and gardens, there is something for everyone in Berlin. The city also has a bustling…
Pergamon Museum
The Pergamon Museum and Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, Germany is a fascinating experience for the curious traveller. It offers exquisite exhibitions of antiquities from different civilisations and contains over twenty different collections such as ancient Middle Eastern architecture, classical sculpture, Islamic art and Roman mosaics. We choose to go to the museum instead…
Zürich
Long stop at the airport. I check out the nearby mountains and peaks that might be accessible at this time of year. Nothing really attractive, so plan B – sightseeing in the city. I buy a return train ticket and in half an hour wandering around the streets of Zurich. There are not many people…
San Jose to Newark
The plane took off from San José in Costa Rica and flew over the east coast of the United States before landing in Newark. Many places can be seen from the plane’s window, including Cuba, Florida, South Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. We also flew over parks, rivers, oceans, beaches and…