Ferry Trip through Italy

Cypress, chestnut, pine and oak trees surround the picturesque village in the Tuscan hills near Siena. It threatened to fall like so many abandoned mini - villages somewhere in Italy, all the ravages of time a victim.
The "saviors come from South Africa - and had bought for the love of picturesque Tuscany and Venice is not only a mansion, but the whole village to bring the medieval stone structure around a castle gradually back on track. " We always wanted to have something in Italy," said Joy recalls. So it's good that Max is a banking expert.
Of Liguria in the northwest of "Bella Italia" to Sicily put German, Swiss, Dutch, British and especially Americans in recent years hand on to the light, and with financing in the back to fulfill the sweat of their the Mediterranean dream on Ferry Belfast to Liverpool .
Just as the 2, who had traveled from London to Italy again to leave before then they made nails with heads. The restored it is now firmly in the Anglo-Saxon hand, presented on the Internet in English only.
" It looked like a sleeping beauty, covered with ivy," he describes how it looked in it 18 years ago when they bought the mini - village. After tough negotiations, then they made out of the chaos over the years right. " What else do you need more than money, which is patience," adds Joy. After all, had in the deserted town where they had fallen in love, hardly a house nor a roof salvation. So much expert help was needed for years on the Ferry Belfast to Cairnryan Timetable. Country break in boom times had charming little villages, back many times with an already shaky castle or a fort in remote valleys or on mountain slopes inland. Most were then marked Italy freaks who then with other infectious energy. As in the 450 - strong village in the Ligurian Airole. There is now a third of a proud homeowner foreigners, German, Dutch and French contribute to a cosmopolitan Europe in the mini format.
Crisis or no crisis here, 2012 4600 foreign families bought houses in Italy, and rising, gave the fixed. The " Italian dream " still exists. The company Costa will be driving their new cruise ship, the famous Grand Voyager, in the Red Sea from the coming winter. The ship is still under construction. The renovation will amount to just over 2.5 million euros and give rise to a total of 416 cabins like Ferry Liverpool Belfast




.
Due to political and economic problems in the neighboring countries of the Red Sea this year was largely shunned by shipping companies. As it currently still is no constant booking rates, many providers have their cruises redirect. Now - night en unrest - everything is back to normal and enjoy the old routes. The ship to the whole 2012 season are deployed there. it was deliberately chosen this ship, since it with a passenger capacity of "only" 927 passengers on a ride through the Red Sea poses much less risk.

Language barriers and hieroglyphics in Russia

Only as Jochen turned directly to him, with a shrug and many gestures of helplessness and confusion made it clear that he wanted just in the Metro, the uniformed man opened up the side entrance him under a Russian snarl. Managed. Why don't you just so? Sweat bathed and completely down with the tyres we reached the Metro and fell grateful as a result.
In the course of our stay, we should use the Metro more often. But if you think you got a lesson from this experience, which should be reassured that he is wrong. Second appearance in the St.Petersburg Metro: I can do it without any significant difficulty through the turnstile, but jerk together when I heard wrenching pipes in my back that probably known me.
Please do not! Not again. I turned around and saw again hang my companion at the hub. It kinda smells like bad karma. But now something more alive and with the necessary serenity he mastered the situation this time far sovereign. And I can assure that all other Metro trips without incident by providing went. So far.
While we in the meantime hearty laugh at the anecdote with the Metro, so we stumbled on an another, far more serious problem: the language barrier. In a country that had arguably the hardest to suffer German barbarism and the decades long under the heel of the Communist State one can hardly expect to find many friends with German or English.
Well, a certain affinity of language which he showed also on our Ferry Liverpool Dublin discount trip is now more or less pronounced among youth, but for the older generation to talking in front of a wall. Way be pitiful, but just the switch operated around train stations, Metro stations, and other places by some tourist relevance of representatives just this generation.
Unfortunately also the Cyrillic typeface is not much help in finding the right words or places. Although you can do the letters slow to decipher, but by "Reading" I would dare not to speak in this context like in 2016 Ferry Liverpool Belfast .
Nevertheless we had so far not starve or die of thirst and sleep on the street. Somehow it comes clear. Not with hands and feet. But at the same time it is a good school for what still lies ahead. Beyond the Urals, there will be hardly any better with the English language skills of the people and what's the font, also guaranteed easier in China.

Our trip to Kassel

We left Le Havre quickly and settled down in the near Honfleur to eat. A small harbor town with sailing boats bobbing in place and a good selection of good restaurants as well. Here in Honfleur, the atmosphere was cozy enough for a family reunion. Since my parents had unfortunately can not come, instead they let us bring a couple of bottles of domestic beer , which we now reverently emptied. Then we just put their heads together and decide together to do is insert a stop on the way home and to stay in Lille, near the Belgian border on the cheap Ferry Rosslare Cherbourg.
We sat in the car and enjoyed it , let us chauffeur with full bellies. You could sit back and enjoy. It was wonderful to be able to witness how three adult Europeans with plenty of passion but surprisingly little success trying to bring the navigation device to show us the right path. We learned quiet areas in Normandy know , now know what " locked track " in French is, and that the VW camper van, the latest generation of does not capitulate ago by meltwater flooded roads. There was again a princely meal , at the latest " crème brulée " I almost cried with happiness , and that we then wildly talking late into the night penetrated the hotel's bar and wine stocks decimated , also was not without emotional outbursts from. Later I checked the Ferry Newcastle to Amsterdam offers.
Slightly wrinkled next day we found ourselves in front of our face- a , and the third by counting yielded the desired final number and then it was already happening. Shortly afterwards woke me peer , we have Belgium and the Netherlands soon now behind us and were nearing the German border. The air was cold and damp , the sky is gray, what the heck. I smoked one after the other two butts and put the rest of the trip , whether it was clever , so many people to tell them that I wanted to stop crossing of the German border and looking at Færge Frederikshavn Gøteborg offers.
Every sign , every village and every known vorbeizog the corner I watched with a mixture of astonishment and raptures. Then came Kassel , we drove off the highway and directly available to Hercules , the symbol of our home town , overlooking the town and the castle perched in the mountain park of Kassel and everything on and in a dignified backdrop bidder.
There we wanted to shoot our last trip photo, from there we wanted to welcome Kassel and let us welcome from Kassel. We stood there , with the camera peers mother bustled around us and called us instructions on how we should be. That they could not see us at all, would be a miracle. The fog enveloped the Hercules and the traditionally belonging to scaffolding , the city was not to be seen. Finally a normal weather , we were back at home. But was also time.
Then I brought the mountain holter to the station. For me, the journey was not over yet, I wanted to celebrate Christmas with my sister in Frankfurt , in the circle of my family. Full of anticipation for my sister, my parents, especially my two nephews , of which I had never seen one since he came into the world during the trip , so I went into the travel center and sought to buy me a ticket. Full of anticipation, too, that I now had to speak in tongues no more that a friendly and competent staff would make the final meters of my trip around the world quickly and simply me. I went in , three switches are open only one was occupied by a customer.

First time in China

Cycling through the multi-ethnic Yunnan Province in southern China. The“China -by- Bike" - tour, which I did in 2010 for the first time, has captured my heart immediately, because on this tour are not the big spectacular sights on the plan, but we dive deep into the province and the life of a minority. Over it goes to endless tea plantations, which run in the low mountain ranges of the mountains. We overcome a climate divide and then dive into the subtropics, in Jinhong we encounter colorful minority life and tropical plant diversity and Ferry Newcastle Amsterdam.
In Kunming we experience the vibrant life of a Chinese metropolis, see the monastery lived Yuantong Chinese Buddhism and the promenade Cui Hu lake with Chinese and Chinese women who enjoy the first warm days of the year. Music is played, and danced driven sport.
The next day we start early in the Stone Forest. The UNESCO protected bnaturwunder is one of the main attractions in the province, even for Chinese tourists. The flood with noisy merriment the front part of the park. Together we emerge little ways in ravines between the stone pillars in an enchanted land and expect hibnter each bend the appearance of mythical creatures and fast Ferry Dover Calais.
In the evening we board the overnight train to Dali, the ancient royal city on Ohrensee. Here we also make our wheels star clear and explore the city and its surroundings. On narrow roads, it goes through rice fields from village to village until a small market town. Spectacular is the view from the temple to the three pagodas, which are reflected in the lake and form a magnificent backdrop to the mountain trains which are many months in the year still covered with snow and fast Ferry Dover Dunkirk.
After we left Dali we reach the area of the Yi minority in Weishan we stay in the old town with wonderfully preserved wooden architecture and climb a holy Taoist mountain to its summit are 12 great small scattered monasteries. Especially the lack of tourists and the peace and serenity of the small Ensiedeleien, let the traveler feel the power of this natural religion associated.
Our route leads off the beaten path by small river valleys. Tropical Rainforest change with terraced landscapes where rice and vegetables are grown. Even before we reach the Pu'er tea town we cycle through endless tea plantations. Over the hills and mountains as far as the eye can see, nothing more to see than the rich green of the tea plants in the spring and there is so many opportunities to taste a cup of the infusion and us to the idiosyncrasies and peculiarities of the Pu ' he trusts to make teas.
On the way to Jinhong we stay in a great hotel on a misty mountain in the middle of a forest reserve and have a day later also domesticated the opportunity to see wild elephants with luck. The last days are spent in the minority of Dai and Aini, and can relax and enjoy a festival promenade on the banks of the Mekong River in Jinhong before we fly to the metropolis of Shanghai. Here we have left before we take the high-speed Maglev train with a top speed of over 400 km / h back to the airport a day for sights and shopping.

A visit in the Thanh Long Opera

Lot and built especially great because monuments are also always give special monuments. In the coming years, for example built in Ha Noi, a new opera that the country or the city or who must necessarily always give the millennial anniversary and because of size and because of monument and beauty, etc. are. Renzo Piano to design with eyes closed dreaming on the shores of West Lake, the Ministry agreed to its design, the foundation is already done with fast Ferry Cairnryan Belfast.
Not the Ha Noi Opera would not, nope not at all. The city has one of the most beautiful opera houses in Asia, a true to scale miniature of the Paris Opera. A plant of the most cities can only dream of in this region. Renovated, well established and centrally. Not necessarily small, considering that you can get to almost all events easily maps, there is no real talk stage and no real opera and also can find no national or municipal or other orchestra, which would use the space Permanently that one would have to think seriously about the short term and an extension on fast Ferry Cairnryan Larne.
It does not matter. The city is large and has a really interesting design an opera for a large city, - so that it is permanently visible - will be just about 100 meters high, about 3500 people playing offers space and a total area of 22ha near claim on the west bank of West Lake or will dominate.. in addition to the New York Met, the Paris Opera and La Scala then counts the Thanh Long Opera to the big opera houses in the world. We are happy to indulge the friendly town this artwork, but we treat it the transport systems, w ith which you can get there, the energy production that will help you spot the part reasonable and the major cultural events like haunted by 3000 and more people are and look at fast Ferry Dublin Holyhead.
And is built up mostly unfortunately, because speculative investment funds, mostly so-called private equity funds from the shadows of the world financial system, like moving on the bow wave of price fantasies in the emerging markets, getting ready for investment with high leverage as well as high-risk and always ready to nimble jump when the wave hits hard on the shore and the whitecaps seep.
The majority of real estate investing is from so-called offshore - funded centers. These are“ low regulated“ ( a wonderful word for a lawless state) tax havens, where normally tax- evaded black money washed ashore from all kinds of strange shops, washed and re-arranged. Rightly nobody believed in the Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Iceland or far-sighted captains of industry or world heroes of the service industry.
Such investors, companies with their offshore mailboxes are rather short-term oriented, just speculative in her clique together again when reality takes hold of the imagination and the dreams are over. The dogs bark, the caravan moves on, as the chairman of a Augsburg-based private equity branch of the“ industry“ Has once formulated so pretty. Only the empty cans, a cold fire and a pile of dirt left behind, how could complement loose.

On the ship to Asia

No one speaks, all the screaming. From the speakers penetrates Nirvana " Come as you are... " which unfortunately hits the nail relating to the present clientele on the head. A new concept is born : Tourism for the toughest, or in short chunks of tourism (and I think wistfully of my flowery bank robber back ). Posters on the walls with funny sayings on the Vietnam War : " I love the smell of my hand in the morning", to a figure that reflected his hands to his face, and the signature. Compared with a spell that stunned me: I was on good Ferry Dublin Holyhead last summer.
With a snap of his fingers slipped into the parallel universe : A half hour we wait to be asked by the waitress for our needs. She speaks not only fluent in English, but also understandable winds routinely through the tables and stoically the fuss of drunken tourists chunks. Starved as we are, we ordered Tuna sandwich and chicken sandwich and wait another half hour onto the " food" k
In Ha Noi, we endured the siege tormented by service forces against which we had to defend every half empty glass und have eaten almost every dish. In the three -minute intervals we interrupted the conversation with a slightly exasperated " No thank you " in the direction of the above professional helpfulness - and now that you can us to total ignorance alone, it's us again not quite : Always wants the man nothing and everything at the same time like Ferry crossing Holyhead Dublin.
The shrieks of the female chunks increases until the two crossed C: Seeking eye contact with the Vietnamese motorbike taxi drivers who camp around the entrance of the bar, stretched out on the seats of their scooters, laid her head on the steering column, with a toothpick between his teeth against leaning against the wall, and their faces are peaceful, their colors muted : these are real people.
I think, and because I look too long, one of them comes strolled to the table, but do not want to talk about Confucian values awareness, but asks if I have a bit of money for his collection of foreign banknotes give him : Of course : in his view, I differ in nothing from the other dairy cows : gin and tonic in hand, tuna in the face, his pockets full of dollars. My sudden longing for Ferry crossing Dublin Liverpool comes back.
In the morning a noise painting the window : " Hoi " like " Peaceful Community " hot, but not when the garbage trucks come with 200 decibels plays her pesky Asian junk melody - and hardl, I have to laugh : It has strange significance when garbage trucks are like a carnival procession. - Ha Noi was big and loud, but it knew the sound proof windows.
Hotel with swimming pool, where even begin four female chunks with a slack water polo game during breakfast. At the next table guy from Kiel, three - day - bearded Super Tourist sitting in front of a loud permeability cross-legged on his chair at the breakfast and lectured about the virtues of South Vietnam. Now it is time to pull himself together : This is here done everything for us, chairs with long legs, English signs on the shops, bicycle rental, beach café and My Son Tour - it is assumed to displace the culture shock, without further fighting for to be chunks. Resistance is futile anyway. I am setting up in my head a censorship authority whose task henceforth to be to prevent brooding about tourism again strictly.

Family trip to Australia

It's time. Our long journey has come to an end. We wistfully look back on the past 15 months. But not only with sadness, as we slowly begin to realize what has brought us this trip around the globe as it has shaped us and changed. It seems impossible to take stock of this long time. But we want to at least try to highlight some of the highlights in the best tradition of our interim upshots like in London.
Expand his own horizons - a goal that many travelers write on the flags. But what is behind this common phrase? This can probably only one answer for themselves. In our case, it meant primarily to gain an insight into other, for us to date foreign cultures. What better place to argue about whether it's even possible at all to throw an adequate view of the individual crops in the relatively short time that we stood in most countries. Or even dive into this and understand it. However, I would venture to say that we sometimes succeeded quite well.
Even if only in part. Primarily, the many encounters with interesting people contributed significantly to the fact that we often learned more about the country and its people and their history and culture, as each guide us could convey. And it does not matter whether it is such a diverse country like China, where thousands of years of culture meets an absolute boom of the modern or a country like Australia, with its relatively young culture. Whether one can be of a Buddhist monk in Cambodia to explain the genesis of his religion, attends the funeral ritual of a High Priestess in Indonesia or listen to the stories of an Australian hitchhiker - gave us these encounters the deepest insights into the culture of a country and new Ferry crossing Holyhead Dublin.
The lesson we have therefore drawn for us is: just go with open eyes, ears and hearts of the world, even once to take a look off the beaten path and not to shy away from other people in contact to contact. Of which one is still learning the most about a country. And for us, we can say with complete justification that our horizons have been expanded considerably.
A significant contribution to this broadening of horizons has made our culinary curiosity and openness. We met travelers who preferred to make himself at the end of the world in search of an American fast food restaurant, because as you know at least what you get. But you really want to know ? We think no! Therefore, our trip was certainly a culinary tour of the country in which we have some - tried food - let's say exotic. We were always careful to eat typical of the country and old Ferry crossing Harwich Hook of Holland.
We shied away from little and were in most cases for our openness rewarded. We went to where the locals ate what were mostly small street snacks with questionable hygiene standards, particularly in Asia. But mostly we found here the best diet The stomachs accustomed quickly to the exotic nuclei. From the first one to two days, during which the rebels digestive tract, can one not be deterred. That's part. It does not even have to try every animal that crawls and flies, as well as an ordinary chicken, fish or vegetables can be prepared in such a different and delicious ways that put us on a regular basis in amazement. And let the water 'mouths us.