Tag: TRAVEL JOURNAL

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2016 Travel Journal – Days 17,18 and 19

There and back again!

Day 17 – QI lunch on the terrace

As many of you know I normally do not watch TV, and certainly no quiz shows. But there is an exception – it is a BBC 2 show hosted by Stephen Fry called QI (‘quite interesting’). All episodes are available online on YouTube. It is a great combination of British humor and many interesting facts about ‘all-sorts’. I watch episodes on my iPhone 6 Plus when I have a bit of spare time.

One of the pictures below shows my delicious ‘QI lunch’ on the terrace of my parents’ house in Germany – with poopy seed rolls, Bündnerfleisch (dried Swiss meat), Emmentaler cheese and Fleischkäse (traditional German lunch meat), followed by some of my mum’s superb poppy seed cake.

Day 18 – Last day in Europe

Today was my last day in Germany – tomorrow morning I will leave from Zurich, Switzerland, to South Africa.

I spend a bit of time in the town of Bad Saeckingen, having a look at the cathedral and the old wooden bridge crossing the Rhine river. I grew up in this area and I went to school there for nine years – a long time ago 🙂

PS: My today’s flight to South Africa got cancelled. Now I flying on a day-flight tomorrow morning – which I am looking forward to – seeing Africa from the sky during the day 🙂

Day 19 – Over the African continent

I enjoyed my trip over the African continent. I departed Zurich around eight in the morning and I landed after dark in Johannesburg.

This very good flight marked the end of an excellent Europe trip. As every year the highlight was seeing all my family and friends (and gaining a few kilos while having many excellent lunches and dinners). Thanks!

Picture marked with a * were taken with my iPhone 6 Plus or my iPhone 5s

Over the Caprivi strip …
* QI lunch …
From the wooden bridge – Bad Saeckingen – the border between Germany and Switzerland …
* Inside the cathedral …
* The organ …
A Bad Saeckingen town wall tower …
The Fuchshoehle – a beautiful old building with a delicatessen store run by friends of mine …
* Waiting for my plane at Zurich airport …
* Takeoff from Switzerland …
* A glimpse of the alps …
Over the wing …
Over the Sahara …
* Many colors …
* Many patterns …
Sunset …
* Back at home after crossing the continent (the long way) …
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2016 Travel Journal – Day 14, 15, 16 & 17

Keep travelling …

Day 14 – The wet weather did not stop me enjoying my day at the Zoo in Arth Goldau, Switzerland, which features many indigenous species. And on the evening of the same day I was invited by good friends to a superb dinner at their home. We started with pate de foie-gras de canard with brioche and Austrian red wine salt, followed by an Asian vichyssoise with five spices duck breast. As the main course we had thinly slices veal filets with port wine tomato cream sauce and lentil pancakes and we finished the meal with a rhubarb sorbet, rhubarb vanilla yoghurt timbale, chocolate covered strawberries on a strawberry coulis, accompanies by grand mangier and cherry amaretti. A night to remember!

Day 15 – My yearly visit to the Zoo in Basel, Switzerland, which is located in the center of town; this zoo is providing a beautiful oasis to relax.

Day 16 – On the way to meet more Swiss friends in Sempach, Switzerland, I stopped at the Schloss (Castle) Heidegg. It is a beautiful place in the middle of a vineyard with an amazing rose garden. The large collection of roses was started after a visit of Germany’s first post-war-chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, in 1951. He remarked during his visit at the castle, that a place as beautiful as this should have roses!

Good friends, who have recently visited me at Thanda, invited me for an evening at their home in Switzerland. Their house is one of the most spectacular and most unusual private places I have ever visited. It manages to be very modern, but very comfortable at the same time!

Day 17 – After a few days travel I now am back at my parents place in Germany. Heavy rains all day make me very envious (as we could use all this water at home in South Africa), but I enjoy sitting on the covered 🙂 terrace, having a drink and reading a book.

Snooze @ Zurich Zoo
Architecture @ Zoo Zurich
Muuh @ Tierpark Arth-Goldau
Observed @ Tierpark Arth-Goldau
Lick @ Tierpark Arth-Goldau
Quiet trains in Switzerland
Superb dinner with friends
Collect @ Zoo Zurich
Meet @ Zoo Zurich
Touch @ Zoo Zurich
Rest @ Zoo Zurich
Teeth @ Zoo Zurich
Danger @ Basel Zoo
Amazing @ Basel Zoo
Close-up @ Zoo Zurich
Schloss Heidegg
Rose Garden @ Schloss Heidegg
Rose Garden @ Schloss Heidegg
What a door! @ Schloss Heidegg
The Alps
What a home!
View from the terrace
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2016 Travel Journal – Day 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13

A few more exciting days in Europe. I visited the Zürich Zoo, I enjoyed Gregorian Vespers Chants and beautiful architecture at the Einsiedeln Abbey, I had more excellent lunches and dinners with friends and family, and I have visited my ‘2000-2007 home town’ of Zofingen in Switzerland over the weekend.

Enjoy the images – more to come!

Peacock @ Zurich Zoo
Egyptian Vulture @ Zurich Zoo
Peacock @ Zurich Zoo
Flora @ Zurich Zoo
Red Panda @ Zurich Zoo
Male Indian Lion @ Zurich Zoo
Masoala Rain Forest @ Zurich Zoo
Giant Day Gecko @ Zurich Zoo
Panther Chameleon @ Zurich Zoo
Scarlet Ibis @ Zurich Zoo
Einsiedeln Abbey
Einsiedeln Abbey
Black Madonna @ Einsiedeln Abbey
Flower shop decoration in Zofingen
Wedding Carriage in Zofingen
A ‘virtual FIFA football’ tournament – no corruption 🙂 at a mall near Zofingen
My favorite cheese store in Zofingen
The Thut fountain near Zofingen’s city hall
Smiling in the rain (in a Swiss army poncho!)
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2016 Travel Journal – Day 6, 7 & 8

A special day in Germany, celebrating my dad’s birthday. Three days with many lunches and dinners joining family and friend, and two short visits to a small zoo near Lucerne and a wild game park near my former home town of Zofingen in Switzerland.

Enjoy the images – more to come soon!

Very cute …
Very shy …
Very curious …
Very still …
Very observant …
Very sleepy …
Very white …
Very focused …
Very ‘Summer’ …
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Getting There – 2016 Travel Journal – Day 3 & 4

These are a few pictures taken with my iPhone 6 Plus from my window seat on the airplane – Johannesburg at night and Switzerland at dawn.

Switzerland
Johannesburg O.R.Tambo Airport
Johannesburg Departure
Johannesburg Departure
Sunrise
Over the Alps
Sun and Clouds
Snowy Mountains
Landing approach

… and a quick selfie on the plane before I went to sleep! – 10 hour and 30 minutes flight directly from Johannesburg to Zurich, but no time difference 🙂

Before departure
Before departure
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An iPhone travel journal – EXTRAS

I have only published one iPhone image per day on my travel blog. Some of you have asked me if these are all the pictures I took. Well, here are some of the EXTRAS.

Today, I will be flying back to South Africa. I am a bit sad of leaving Europe and my Family already, but I am also looking forward to getting back to South Africa and home to Thanda. I am planning to return in May 2016.

I hope you enjoyed this short travel blog, which turned a bit into a ‘great eating in Europe’ blog :-). It was interesting to work exclusively with my iPhone 6 Plus. It gives one a lot of freedom (not carrying a lot of equipment and having great editing tools instantly available), but it also showed me the limitations. A good experience.

I will post the last pictures of this trip this afternoon!

Autumn Colours
Autumn Colours
Zofingen, Switzerland
Sempach, Switzerland
Sempach, Switzerland
Oberteisbach, Germany
Autumn Colours
Autumn Colors
The Moon
A 1954 Radio – For the Football World Championship
Oberteisbach, Germany
Oberteisbach, Germany
Flowers
Form the car, driving in Germany
Another Cow Portrait
Cows Stables
Restaurant Rebstock, Germany
City Hall, Laufenburg, Germany
Cows on a Field, Germany
The Muenster in Bad Saeckingen, Germany
Organ, The Muenster, Bad Saeckingen, Germany
My favorite dessert – not a light affair 🙂
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An iPhone travel journal – Day 8

Tuesday – German “Wildlife”

I thought a German cow would make a nice “Wildlife” image on one of my travel blog days. My younger brother and I went for a drive into the Black Forest this morning to find a suitable subject. I really like this portrait of a young cow, which I shot on our trip.

For lunch we met up with our parents to eat one of my favorite dishes in a traditional German restaurant: Rehruecken mit Spaetzle, Rotkraut, Preiselbeeren und glasierten Maroni (Rack of venison, small dumplings, red cabbage, cranberries and honey-glazed chestnuts). For desert we had another favorite of mine called ‘meringue glace’ (Vanilla ice cream with freshly whipped cream and very light meringue from the Swiss Emmental).

And after another relaxing afternoon I went for an early dinner (a German sausage salad) with a friend in Bad Saeckingen. In case you think that this trip is a bit of an eating-marathon, then I would say that you are correct – but I enjoy every minute of it 🙂

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More to come …

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An iPhone travel journal – Day 7

Monday – A gloomy travel day

Back to Baden-Wuerttemberg. We left Bavaria mid-morning and it took us over six hours to get back home. Long traffic jams around Munich – cars not Elephants this time 🙂 – and a lot of fog along the way made for a longer than usual drive. Now we are back home for a relaxing evening.

I took this picture during the drive – not a very photographic day 😦

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More to come …

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An iPhone travel journal – Day 6

Sunday – A Family Day – past and present

Today was a true family day. In the morning we visited an aunt and uncle of mine before we had a family dinner in a traditional Bavarian restaurant. Then we met with two uncles, one aunt, seven cousins and their families on the Catholic cemetery in Teisbach to remember all our dead relatives, of whom most were buried in this place. We then had afternoon coffee  and dinner with the uncles, aunt and cousins before we retired to our hotel for the last night in Bavaria.

On the way to the cemetery I took this picture of a Rapeseed field. I love the colours.

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More to come…

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An iPhone travel journal – Day 6

Sunday – Wolpertinger

This morning at breakfast I had an incredible sighting in the Hotel Raeucherhansl, where we are staying during our trip to Bavaria. I got a shot of this rare animal!

Seriously :-), the Wolpertinger is a mythogical hybrid animal in Bavarian folklore, which supposed to inhabit the alpine forests of Bavaria. This specimen was definitely man made and quite scary looking. Bavarian Halloween Special!

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More from day 6 later on …

 

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