hahaha – we just spent 3 hours cutting back on our travel itinerary, and eventually realized that we actually had one whole week more than we thought.
now we need to find something to do ;-)
Archive for the ‘travel’ Category
given the incredibly low long-distance-train prices1, i didn’t even stand a chance of NOT going somewhere by train in february.
in the end, mathias and i decided to go to france, not least in order to try and polish up our rusty language skills.
strasbourg is a nice little city near the german border, which has repeatedly changed hands between germany and france in history.
it doesn’t have an overkill of sights like the big cities, so we were able to enjoy some very relaxing days (as opposed to ireland, where i was the only driver – and i was a little stressed out in the end) visited some museums, walked around in the city looking for patisseries (pastry shops).
again: just a quick glimpse, more photos to be uploaded at some time.
[view photos: a trip to strasbourg]
- for example: innsbruck to salzburg (185 km): 12,60 €. salzburg to strasbourg (520 km): 29,00 € [↩]
it was a warm february afternoon when lisa rauterfield, stefan holzmannston, fritz macwachter and markus nolftonshire, took a plane to ireland with one common goal:
visiting clemens o’haider in limerick and distracting him from his studies abroad.
this book of pictures shalt provide a short insighte into their wondrous journey.
[view photos: a trip to ireland]
cute timbered houses, accordion music in the streets, fresh croissants and eclaires – just like in the movies…
i bid you fair greetings from the emerald island.
markus, fritz, lisa, stefan and clemens at the cliffs of moher, ireland
talk about an early start into the day: at 6:40 in the morning, we were already at the foot of dune 45, sossusvlei [G] – heading towards a good spot to watch the sunrise.
within just 5 days, it had become kind-of a tradition to watch the sun rise or set whenever possible. :-)
a sunrise in the red dunes of the sossusvlei was something very unique.
it was pretty chilly that morning, and we hadn’t been in namibia long enough to remember that it can get cold overnight. at least it wasn’t as cold as when two friends were there in 2006: they ended up trying to unfreeze the windshield using hairspray and a butane lighter…
even after sunrise, the view was still almost unbearably stunning!
we spent enough time up on dune 45 for all kinds of crazy photo motives (i’ll admit that i had prepared for that specific opportunity).
after breakfast, there was some botanizing (of course) done in the area, and then a hike in the dunes, to get to the actual sossusvlei salt-pan [G]. every few years, when there’s enough rain, it is transformed into a short-lived lake.
during our four-hour walk through the red dunes, we got a good impression of what “desert” actually stands for.
in the evening, we made a quick stop at sesriem canyon [G] and – naturally – took some extra time to watch the sun set.
[view photos: dune 45, sossusvlei, sesriem canyon]
[view photos: the botanical side]
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september 4th was almost entirely a driving day. on the one hand, that’s an “i’m hot and sitting in a moving box with at least 20 other sweaty people”-day, but it also means “i get to see a summary of the vegetation changes along a 300 km drive within a few hours.”
our route: swakopmund [G] – walvis bay [G] – kuiseb canyon [G] – sesriem [G]1.
we had a first encounter with quiver trees (aloe dichotoma), had a look at the flora around kuiseb river (or kueseb river), which is carrying water underground for most of the year, and finally arrived at sesriem restcamp in the late afternoon.
sunset was observed from this spot: [G] on elim dune, with an optional sip of red wine.
on the way back, most of us rolled down the dunes (it was completely dark by that time, and we had forgotten to bring flashlights), which is about ten times more fun than it sounds now.
a side-effect of this was, that the professors and maria ended up with all our backpacks, which they had kindly offered to carry down during our phase of extensive rotation. i don’t think they knew how many backpacks there were when they made the offer. :-)
[view photos: swakopmund to sesriem]
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- if you zoom in enough on that last link to google maps, you can see dark specks at the marked location. these were the giant shade-providing acacias in the middle of each tent pitch (see photos). [↩]
