India is a diverse country with a population of 1.4 billion people (2022), that is close to 18% of the world population. The people are known for their rich culture, traditions, and hospitality.
India has a variety of religions, over 2 million temples, 22 official languages, many ethnic groups, each with its unique customs, traditions and cuisine. India is also known for its vibrant festivals, such as Diwali, Holi, and Durga Puja.
During my trip in the south west part of the country in October (2023), I was very fascinated by the characters, colors and scenery. Meet some of them here:
Day1:
Flight KLM to Schipol Airport. Sprinter train to Centraal Station. Smart that we could use our Visa card as travel pass on the public transport. Checked in at Eden Hotel. Nice hotel with good location. Small shop for snacks and drinks, bar and pool table (free).
Walkabout: Dam square, Anna Franks house/museum (did not go inside) and much more in the neighborhood, Dinner at De Nachtwacht
Day 2:
Breakfast at the rooftop restaurant Blue with nice 360 degrees view over Amsterdam.
Walkabout: Cool gallery AbrahamArt Gallery – Museumplein with RijksMuseum, Van Gogh and Stedelijk Museum We didn’t enter any of the museums, viewed the exterior. Headed to the Heineken Experience for a tour, a visit at the bar and their rooftop bar with very nice view and beer cocktails.
Dinner at a small and very good Thai restaurant, NK Thai Noodles close by. We asked for the dishes made Thai mode – Quote from waitress: “are yo sure?” 🙂 – It was spicy and tasty.
Finished the day with an evening stroll to the Skinny Bridge and play some pool.
Day 3:
Brunch at the The Lobby, nice restaurant at Hotel V. Looked around the nice Joordan district and walked towards Wester Park to visit Amaze, an audio and video “museum”. In groups of eight you walk through a maze of different audio and video installations to finish in a big warehouse style room sitting on “fat boys” (big pillows) watching a light show on the walls and on the pillars accompanied with (loud) electronic music.
Took public transport back to the city and had a look at Red Light District – “no pictures please”.
Passed the Rembrandt museum, Had a good burrito at a small Mexican take away restaurant.
Day 4:
Great omelet brunch at Omelegg, very popular and good, recommend it. Expect to wait in line outside, no booking,
Theme of the day was rooftops. Started with a visit to Luminair, Fantastic view over Amsterdam. Continued to Nemo Science Museum that has a kind of park on roof, Crossed the harbour with a small ferry (free). Walked pass Adams Tower and had a peek at the Eye film “museum”. Visited De Ceuvel, an award-winning, sustainable planned workplace for creative and social enterprises on a former shipyard, The craft beer from the local brewery was good 🙂
Continued to Straat, a “museum” in a warehouse with some great street art. Amazed by the detail and size of some of the art work, fantastic! There was quite a heavy “scent” of spray paint.
Dinner at Ribs Factory, close to the hotel. Evening walkabout – the cocktail bar Luminair, night version, Great night view over the city. Next stop on the “cocktail rooftop bar crawl” was Malabar Cocktail bar also with great night view over the harbor and city.
Day 5:
Revisited Blue for a brunch with a view. Checked out the LEGO general store with some fantastic LEGO builds. Went on a Canal tour. Passed a French Fries shop with 3! security hosts to manage the line. Walked around Vondelpark where we saw the only people on bikes wearing helmet, 3 persons, the only ones during the whole stay! Very nice park with a brewery in the middle where we tasted the local brew.
On the way home we dropped by The Flying Dutchmen Coctail bar where some of the locals had their after work drink. Finished the day with dinner at Wagamama located across the street from the hotel. Then some backgammon at the hotel bar.
Day 6:
Checking out, Breakfast at Omelegg. Short break at the Centraal Station that is “under construction” for the next many years before heading to Schipol…
21-28 August Mickey and I visited the Greek island Limnos (Lemnos). The island is the 8th biggest in Greece, located in the center of the Northern Aegean sea.
We travelled with Apollo and stayed at Porto Myrina, Powered by Playitas. The hotel had a lot of different sport activities included in the price. At some activities you could just up show at the set time, others you should sign up for. We tried Yoga, Padel, Scuba diving, kajak, SUP and did a lot of laps in the pool.
Tuesday we did a 12 km hike to the “Antenna hill”. Beautiful 360 degree view over the landscape from the top:
Wednesday we experience “extreme weather conditions” where there came a SMS warning!
Spent the day playing backgammon and visit the fitness center:
Thursday we hiked up and around the Castle of Myrina, that could be considered as one of the most resistant and best fortresses in Greece:
Friday we rented a car (“jeep”) and drove around the island to see some of the sights – A dessert. Sand dunes (and a tank) at Gomati beach.
Extraordinary lava formations at Falacro and drove on some dirt roads – great fun! and might be the best sight of the day. A salt lake at Aliki, that was not white but muddy due to the rain storm.
Had lunch at the surf beach Keros. Should see some windmills at Kontias but probably also due to the storm, the path up to the windmills was closed. Many of the roads was very narrow, especially through the villages:
Saturday we did a 14 km hike to “The Church without roof” (Church of Panagia Kakaviotissa). This Greek Orthodox Church was built by refugee monks who fled to the mountain as early as around 1,416 AD and is one of its kind in the world.
The track towards the church we choose an alternative route that Google maps marked as a path. In reality there was not much of a path, only the ones the sheep and goats had made. We used Google maps as a compass to help us keep on the right track. An exciting adventure.
Hiking back from the church, it was more or less roads and “the beaten track” all the way back to the hotel.
Myrina is the capital and main port of Lemnos and counts on 4500 inhabitants. The settlement stretches around two beautiful bays and between stands the imposing Venetian castle surrounded by massive formations of volcanic rock.
Visitors are charmed by the old neoclassical mansions, Ottoman buildings and fountains, traditional houses, narrow streets and modern constructions that compose the setting of Myrina. Along the waterfront lie plenty of restaurants and traditional taverns.
22-26 January 13 present and former colleagues from NNE spent at Saalbach-Hinterglem, Austria, for some days of skiing. The trip was planned for taking place last year but cancelled due to a virus. We were all looking forward to the trip but there was some uncertainty and anxiety up to the days before departure. The Danes needed a negative PCR-test (max 42 hours old). It was enough with a third booster shoot for the Swede but needed proof, train ticket, that I just arrived from Malmö the same day.
We travelled with Northlander and stayed at Skinetworks Hotel Pinzgauerhof in Hinterglem. Perfectly located close to the lift Reiterkogelbahn, ski rent Heil’s and after ski Goaßstall.
Friday and Saturday before arrival it was snowing. Sunday it was a little bit cloudy, Monday-Wednesday it was Kaiserwetter!!
14-21 of October, Mickey and I visited the small beach resort Agia Marina, Crete, not far from Chania. We travelled with TUI and stayed at Atlantica Caldera Village, room no. 212 with a great view from the balcony, overlooking the village, sea and the island Agioi Theodoroi, a nature reserve inhabited by the Kri-Kri goat.
Here follow some stories and pictures of what we did during our stay, enjoy.
Walkabouts:
Beach walk Agia Marina – Palatinas, 8 km.
Hill walk Agia Marina – Cave Nerospilia, 8 km. (the cave was closed)
Beach walk Agia Marina – Chania, 11 km.
Chania is the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast and consists of the city itself and several nearby villages.
On the way we had a break at Iguana Beach and passed Abandoned Graffiti House,
In Chania we walked along the Venetian Port, where we had lunch. We took the bus back to Agia Marina.
Bus day to Elafonisi:
Monday we went on a bus trip to the beach Elafonisi. The trip went via the gorge Topolia and a stop at Cave Agia Sofia (Wisdom of God) before we reached Elefonisi.
Here we spent a couple of hours walking around, swimming and relax on the beach. Elafonisi is an island when the tide is high and famous for it’s pink “sand”, that actually is seashells. Since many tourists have taken the sand with them home, there isn’t much left. The authorities have strengthen the rules and set high penalty for removing the sand.
Many thanks to our guide Joanna, who told many good stories about the culture of Crete and the scenery we passed through.
Beach walk at Elafonisi, 2 km.
Rent-a-car day:
Wednesday we rented a VW Up from a local travel agency, Beyond Travel, on the main street in Agia Marina.
The journey: Agia Mariana – Gorge of Imbros – Hora Sfakion – Frangokastello – Giorgioupoli – Kourna Lake – Agia Marina.
The gorge of Imbros is the second most popular gorge, after Samaria. for walkers on Crete. The gorge of Imbros was the main route through which Allied Forces evacuated Crete in late May 1941 after losing the Battle of Crete. Close to 20.000 troops (mainly New Zealanders, Australians and Brits) headed from the North of the island through the gorge of Imbros to Komitades and Hora Sfakion where they were due to be picked up by ships and taken to Egypt. About 13.000 made it onto ships. The rest were made prisoners by the Germans or escaped to the hills. There is a monument in Hora Sfakion commemorating these events.
Hora Sfakion is a small village with a main harbour front of tavernas, two minimarkets, a butcher, and a bakery. There is a quiet local beach immediately west of the village, and several pebbly beaches nearby. Hóra Sfakíon has a variety of tourist accommodations: rooms, studios, and apartments. The local economy is based on tourism, fishing, olive-oil production, and sheep and goat herding.
28 May – 1 June, 1941, British and Australian forces was evacuated from this bay after passing the the gorge of Imbros.
Frangokastello is a castle and scattered settlement on the south coast of Crete. The castle was built by the Venetians in 1371–1374 as a garrison to impose order on the rebellious Sfakia region, to deter pirates, and to protect Venetian nobles and their properties.
Returning to the north coast, Mickey found an alternative way on Google Maps. A small winding road with around 25 hairpin turns. I admit I was little nervous driving up this road. Very steep, narrow, no crash barrier, parts of the road broken and fallen off on one side, stones and rocks fallen on to the road on the other. Glad we didn’t meet any cars…
Due to the narrow road and suffering from a little bit anxiety, I “forgot” to take photos of the beautiful scenery. Found this picture on Google Maps.
Credit: Wolfgang Johannes
Formerly a small fishing village, Georgioupolis is more of tourist town now. The town square is surrounded by outdoor seating. The 9 km beach is the main attraction of the area with the church of Agios Nikolaos on the islet with the same name. Here you also find a small harbor at Turtle River, where you can rent different kind of boats to go up the river or out on the sea.
Nearby Kourna Lake is a popular excursion.
Kourna Lake is the only natural freshwater lake on Crete. It covers an area of 579 acres and maximum depth reaches 22 meters. The lake is a protected area as an important wetland with many species like moorhens, ducks, eels, snakes and a rare two-color turtle and occasionally herons.
Beach day:
A day spent at Gorgona Beach Club with sun, backgammon and bodysurfing in the quite big waves. Thanks to Director Alex and staff, for friendly and good service (and for use of your backgammon).
Restaurants Agia Marina:
These are the restaurants we tried. Dessert and raki served was the custom when paying the bill. “Raki is like Ouzo, but worse” – statement from a waitress.
Botonis – Grilled pork chops. The wood fired “globe grill” was standing in the restaurant
Neraida – Mixed grill, more than enough for two (got doggie bag for lunch next day)
Nostos – Ingo: Moussaka, Mickey: chicken gyros
Olivi – Both had very nice beef steaks with great “potato salad” (potato mixed with garlic, lemon and parsley)
Last summer I did the marked track and found the part on the old E6 challenging with quite a bit of high speed traffic with little or no respect for inliners (or bikers) and rather ruff asphalt.
This year I found out about Fyrleden, a detour that runs along the beach between Olofsbo and Glommen, very nice and beautiful views.
The other detour was to avoid the old E6. In Morup we crossed the old E6 and took the road to Tvååker. Much better asphalt and very little traffic and the few cars passing us took it nice and easy.
A very nice bike path started just outside Tvååker towards Träslövsläge. We had tailwind all the way to the coast :-).
After approx. 48 km we arrived to Varberg where we had after skate at Rolands Kök & Bar.
Respect to sister and friend who biked back home to Falkenberg, with face wind and some rain.
I took the train…
16 – 20 December 2019 I had the pleasure of joining the Munk family, Birgitte, Morten and Andreas, on a ski trip to Davos, Switzerland. We stayed at the very nice Sunstar Hotel close to Davos Platz.
SAS flight to Zürich – train from the airport to Davos with change at Zürich HB and Landquart. Approx. 2,5 hours.
Tip: Save some money on the return ticket by using the ski pass to Kloster and buy the train ticket starting from here. Disadvantage – you need to change train one more time in Kloster.
During the week it was only Parsenn and Jakobshorn that was open and quite a few lifts and pistes at these areas was closed. Don’t know if the reason was early in the season, lack of people, lack of snow (I think there was ok with the white stuff) or due to strong winds sometimes – maybe a combo… anyways, we got some really nice runs during the stay, both on and off the piste.
Conversation day one, after arriving at the top of Jakobshorn:
Ingo – “Note that I haven’ been skiing at all this year, I have an injured knee, still in rehab mode, I have rented skis I haven’t tried yet. Let’s take it easy the first couple of runs, on the piste.”
Morten – “No problem, we do that.”
After approx 300 m down a transport run…
Morten (stops looking over the edge, off piste) – “This looks nice, let’s try!”
Ingo – “What!!”
Morten – “Looks fine, let’s try. No problem, we take it easy…”
Ingo – “Ok, let’s try it but it’s against my will ;-)”
…and off we go. It was fun, went well but I admit, I was “a bit” nervous…
Saturday
Flight CPH – Madrid with a friend of Norwegian. Limited service on board. Good we bought a Joe and the Juice spicy tuna sandwich to go as “on-flight-meal”.
Metro #10 from airport, change to #8 to Tribunal.
Checked in at Rentalis Gran Via Fuencarral, an Airbnb flat (didn’t know booking.com have airbnb). Small, nice and clean with fantastic location. It was a challenge finding the entrance since the notification from Booking.com didn’t have a street number. Called the host, José, that guided and greeted us. José liked Madrid very much and he wanted the guests to do the same :-). He explained and marked all the sights in Madrid on a map.
It was raining so limited walkabout. Dinner at the local Delisko.
Monday – walkabout theme “Getting High”, 16 km
Sunny and chilly. 4-8 degrees in the early morning! Mickey comment, “like being at a ski resort – clear blue sky, sun and cold”.
The host José marked some viewpoints on the map.
Started with Mimosa (Cava + orange juice) brunch at Brunch club – great brunch salad, Mickey Slamon wrap
First viewpoint – El Cortes Ingles – view to Schweppes building
Second viewpoint Endifico Espana – 360 Rooftop bar where Stephani served us rosado, birthday version :-).
Passing Templo de Debod on the way to third viewpoint, Teleferico de Madrid
Walked through Parque del Teleferico and passing Lago Casa de Campo on the way to Palacio Real and Catedral de la Almudena for viewpoint #four. Arrived too late, It closed at 14:30.
Dinner at restaurant La Cabana Argentina Mickey’s birthday gift to me 🙂
Mickey invited to cocktail bar – 1862 Dry Bar
Saturday: This year we tried the concept, Gladpack. All the participants in the pack should start and finish with the same time. We didn’t decide what time. We should start and finish all at a line next to each other (spontaneously, we did the same trick at the ½ marathon) . Everybody was rolling together as one group, helping each other – “GAP!!! – CONTACT!!!. We ended up being 9 participants and we all started in group “F”.
While waiting for the start, it started to pour down!!! The start was postponed 10 minutes.
The streets was VERY slippery. We managed to finish as planned and even picked up some other MCS members on the way. Personally, I enjoyed the race,even if the weather conditions was bad and I had promised myself never roll to this race when wet roads! It was a great Gladpack that did very well and thanks to everybody to make it great!
Saturday dinner at Glashaus. After skate party at Kosmos.
Thursday Departure 21 September together with Patrik, Lotta, Stefan and Robert. Gedser – Rostock ferry 17:00. Playing MIG where Robert is the unbeatable champ of knowledge. After checked in at Acama Kreuzberg, where most members of the Malmö City Skaters group stayed, we went for a drink at an Ethiopian bar/restaurant close by.
Friday
The Berlin Marathon Expo is located at Station, just down the road from the hostel, opened 11:00. Got the race gear, bib, chip etc and did some shopping.
After lunch at Parlamento Degli Angeli, a few of us went for a sightseeing trip on inlines where we passed The Wall and an Oktoberfest at Alexanderplatz, among other places.
Friday evening I booked table at Schildkröte for MCS to have some Schweinehaxe. Tasted very good but was quite huge portions and lot of protein. probably enough for at least two people.
Saturday
Race day. I got the pleasure to have a ride in Timo’s Mustang for some shopping. MCS lunch at Amici Amici, Scampi sallad and a glas of white wine, perfect prep.
After the traditional photo session in the courtyard at the hostel, we rolled to the starting area at Tiergarten. Another MCS group photo and deposit the bag. This year they had moved drop off location for the “luggage”.
As usual it’s great atmosphere and feeling at the start, AC/DC Hells Bells and count down. Started in group E with Stefan, Per, Sigal and Søren. The race this year was a fantastic feel good roll from start to finish, even had energy to sprint at the end. Stefan and I helped each other from start to the finish line.
Just after we finished, it started to rain. Most of the club members took public transport back to the hostel, Timo and I rolled back. It was VERY slippery and it was lucky it didn’t rain during the race.
After skate dinner at Amrit/Mirchi, very nice Indian food – Bombay mule cocktail and Sizzling plate with lamb and Tandoori chicken.
After dinner some of us went to Kosmos for after skate party and we met, among others, Bart Swings, the winner of the Inline Marathon for the last five years or so. Asked him to join on a group photo…(it’s the guy in the middle with white T-shirt).
Also had the great pleasure to meet the one and only Sebastian Baumgartner that was instructor at MCS inline camp this summer…
Sunday
Looked a little bit on the runners and finally got the chans to try the famous Mustafas gemüse kebab (usally always a VERY long line) before we went home…
Thanks to all participants that makes it such a great trip 🙂
