Category Archives: All over the place

Meer plaatsen bezoeken -> meer leren -> meer mens

La Palma

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La Palma!This weekend we will again be visiting one of the Canary islands. This time we visit La Palma. The locals call the island ‘La bonita’, which means the pretty, so it promises to be a nice island. La Palma is a much greener island compared to Gran Canaria, so there will be lots of forest, but also caves and volcanoes. I am quite curious.

If you are interested this is our itinerary (a PDF). To be able to view the PDF you will need the following information/skills:

  • the password you need to use: ’14puntallana’
  • you will need to be able to read Spanish.

We have already visited Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuerteventura and after this weekend also La Palma. What remains are the islands Lanzarote, El Hierro and La Gomera.

Scotland 2009

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We've seen Nessie!It took quite a while, but now you can finally view some of the pictures from our holiday and tour through Scotland.

We enjoyed our visit to Scotland a lot. We saw a lot of castles, very nice nature, a few hairy cows, little postcard towns, people playing bagpipes, etc.

We also learned a few things. Clearly there is a need to check your bill before paying in any restaurant or bar. The last few days of our vacation we started to check every bill we got, because my partner was fed up with the errors that we had noticed. Our check lasted a few days and resulted in 80% wrong bills which in every case had a few euros to much. The bills were never to low. After informing there was always some error that had been made without intent, but it happened so much it was obvious something was going on.

Leven in een Spaanse soap

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Zo af en toe maak je toch wat mee, zoals vorige week. Een vriendin van ons heeft een tijdje geleden haar relatie op de klippen zien lopen. Een paar weken later verloor ze haar baan en daarna besloot ze (uiteraard na goed overleg) voorlopig haar intrek te nemen in onze extra kamer. De hele huisraad werd verhuist en nu staat ons balkon vol met spullen. Van extra messen en vorken tot een opblaasbare kano.

Ach ja, als we op die manier iemand kunnen helpen is dat natuurlijk geen probleem. Deze huisgenoot ging echter deze week op een kleine zeilvakantie. Lekker varen met een groot jacht. Ze zou maandag weer terug naar huis keren, maar lijkt nu van de aardbodem verdwenen.

Ammer, Bar, Lucas en ErwinOndertussen kwamen een aantal vrienden uit Nederland op bezoek in het zuiden. Gezellig bijna iedere dag naar het zuiden om te genieten van het lekkere weer, de tapas, te spelen met de kleine en iedereen weer even zien. Erg geslaagd en na dit bezoek kan ik in ieder geval zeggen dat de uitdrukking ‘Lekker weer‘ een geheel nieuwe betekenis heeft gekregen.

Tegelijkertijd hebben andere vrienden hier in Las Palmas net een huis gekocht. Dat moet gevierd worden, maar wanneer… Dit hebben we maar even uitgesteld.

Ook tegelijkertijd is een andere vriendin op bezoek uit Indonesië. Haar relatie loopt ook op de klippen en een paar dagen verblijft ze in de kamer van de meid die toch aan het zeilen is, met haar hele hebben en houden in onze woonkamer (gelukkig niet veel).

Al met al een erg drukke week dus. Wel erg leuk om al de hectiek mee te maken en dat na een tijdje alles weer lekker zoals het oude is. Misschien is het toch helemaal niet zo’n slecht idee om eens verder uit te zoeken of we hier onze entrepreneur-schap op een of andere manier kunnen uitbuiten met een huisje of excursies voor vakantiegangers.

Agualand

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Agualand!A lot of years ago (I think I was 6 or 7 years old at the time) I visited agualand again. Agualand is a waterpark on the south of the island. I somehow remember it was a nice park, but it was a lot smaller then I remembered. I think all the attractions were exactly the same as almost 30 years ago. The only thing I did not remember from my previous visit as a little boy were the burning hot stones you needed to walk across to get to the slides. Also the park closes very early. Around 6 o clock the visitors were asked to leave the park.

It was a nice visit and I was happy I brought some sunscreen factor 50, because there was very little shadow in the park. The entrance fee was quite high, 20 euros if you provide a discount ticket worth 6 euros. These discount tickets you can get everywhere, for example in a lot of supermarkets. The part is fun and it is worth a visit. Be sure to bring flip flops that can get wet! You need these to walk to the slides and not burn your feet.

Scotland, here we come!

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Scotland!Our planned vacation time is coming closer and closer and this your we are sticking to Europe. Our plan is to pass by Spain and Holland for a few days each and then on the 30th continue to Edinburgh, Scotland. In Scotland we plan to explore the country in about a week. Just to get a feel of things. Of course we’ll stop by Lock Ness and see if we are lucky and catch a glimpse of the ancient monster.

After Scotland we return to Holland where Ana will stay only a few days and I will stat a little over a week. Enough time to catch up and visit friends and family.

Our planning:
26 June Las Palmas -> Madrid
29 June Madrid -> Amsterdam
30 June Amsterdam -> Edinburgh
8 July Edinburgh -> Amsterdam
19 July Amsterdam -> Madrid
19 July Madrid -> Las Palmas

Cursus spaans

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Al weer een paar maandjes ga ik maandag en woensdag middag twee uurtjes naar de Spaanse les. Ik zit dan in de klas met een Duitser, een Belg, een paar Polen en een grote hoeveelheid Aziaten. Vorige week was een tussentijdse toets en de resultaten waren best aardig.
Luisteren: 25/25
Lezen: 23/25
Praten: 22/25
Schrijven: ? (hoor ik maandag)

Goed, het is het basis niveau, maar het ziet er naar uit dat ik over een paar maandjes (in juni is het officiele landelijke examen) officieel een beetje in het Spaans kan communiceren. Hierna volgt het medio niveau.

Pyrenees and the south of France

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Pictures of Spain and France!After our visit to Egypt we visited the Pyrenees during a nice trip by car. From the Spanish side we drove over to the south of France and after visiting a number of sites we returned to Spain. Our trip took us past towns like San Sebastian, Pau, Lourdes (yes!), Gavarnie and Bayonne.

The food in France was absolutely delicious. We visited very typical France restaurants with very good food and equally good wine. We saw a lot of nature and made long hikes the the wild, enjoying nature at its best. In Lourdes I got quite a lot of water (you never know) and afterwards we visited the snow. A lot of pictures of this trip can be found in my Spain/France album.

Egypt pictures

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Ana riding a camel!Finally online, our pictures of Egypt. A lot of ancient ruins, temples, a lot a lot of hyroglyfs, a few piramids and some pictures of the river Nile including proof that I swam in the Nile.

In the end we did not really select the best pictures but posted almost all pictures we had. Don’t freak out if you suddenly notice we posted around 700 pictures.

Egypt

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Egypt proved to be a very impressive place. It is incredible to see the constructions they made 5000 years ago. Huge temples and gigantic pyramids and at the same time precious jewelry with incredibly small details. If make you think twice about the world of ‘progress’ in which we are living.

We started of with a boat cruise over the Nile. A very nice adventure but with a very busy schedule. A lot of days (I was unable to sleep a lot) we got up before sunrise to go on an excursion to visit yet another piece of history. It was nice to see hieroglyphs had been carved in almost all the stones. All around 3000 to 5000 years old, joined here and there by names and dates of about 100 or 200 years old. ‘Piet was here 1843’. I was able to restrain myself and did not add my name to this part of history.

After the cruise we spend a few days in Cairo. The city was very very crowded. There are more people living in Cairo than it the entire Netherlands. In the city center it is always busy. You can clearly notice that the local Muslims don’t really have a positive attitude towards non-Muslims and tourists. Especially girls and woman suffer because of this. They get regular pinches in the ass and get touched at every occasion by the hairy Muslims. As a tourist you should not return the favor with a totally covered Muslima because then they cut of your hands (or so they say).

It was quite an experience! We planned on a lot of excursions from the start, and this was maybe overdoing it a little. A lot of excursions were really very nice, but there were a lot where commerce was clearly on the mind of the Egyptians.

If you get the chance you should definitely visit Egypt. However, if you don’t like chicken and rice be warned because there seems to be little other food available. We made around 700 pictures which I’ll have to look through, so be patient.

Gui-gui

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Guigui!Last weekend I spend on the Güi-güi beach. A nice little beach in the middle of nowhere. We went there on Saturday morning and made the return trip on Sunday morning.

The big advantage of this beach is that it is almost deserted. The reason is simple: you need to walk for two and a half hours to get to the beach. Around one and a half hour is spend climbing a big hill and then you spend an hour going down towards the beach.

The beach is quite nice. The water is very clear and the surroundings are breathtakingly beautiful. Still it is quite a lot of effort you need to undertake. There is no shop or anything near the beach so you need to bring everything along; water, beers, a tent, towels, sunscreen, everything.

The route: Drive to Tasartico. In Tasartico the road changes from asphalt to dirt and stones. Following the path you reach a little parking place that will fit around 3 or 4 cars. This is where the path starts. First cover your body with sunscreen and then just follow the path. After a hike of about an hour and a half you will reach the top of the hill. Quite a hike and you should rest a little on top, before starting the descend. The way down made difficult because the path is covered with loose sand and little pebbles. Quite dangerous because you slip very easily. When you finally arrive the only thing left is to feel happy and proud of the hike you just did. Finally you can start enjoying this little piece of paradise.