A traditional felouka sailing into the sunset. Time to pick up our blog series about Egypt again. After sailing away from the temple of Edfu, we reached our halfway point: Aswan. For most of us this meant a little break from all of the temples, although the highlight excursion from Aswan is a visit to …
Last year, we went to the caves of Han-sur-Lesse in our home country (Belgium) and although I’ve been there several times before, I was surprised how beautiful they actually are. I can’t say we’ve visited many caves during our travels, but those in Han-sur-Lesse are really worth a visit! In retrospect, I also remember that, in …
Detail of the statue of Horus on the inner courtyard. The second temple we visited on our trip was Edfu temple. The cruise ship brought us to our new destination over night, which I found a very comfortable way of traveling. It’s not a cruise ship like the big oceanic hotels you see cruising the …
We visited the Italian island of Sardegna (Sardinia) in the summer of 2013. We combined our stay there with a roadtrip from our home in Belgium to the island (and back), passing through France, Switzerland, and Italy. Along the way, we visited a number of world heritage sites and every evening we stayed with a …
Despite its rather isolated position in the Mediterranean (together with Corsica), Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian) has a long history of human presence. First settlement occurred somewhere between 450000-150000 years ago, by people from Tuscany, by a landstrip via Corsica. The first significant Sardinian civilisation was the Nuragic civilisation, which existed between 1700 BC and 500BC …
Since we’ve returned from Sardegna (Sardinia) in 2013, and since we’ve bought a (Dutch) cookbook with recipes from Sardinia, we frequently make a Sardinian dish at home. Our favourite is definitely the outrageously tasty (but pretty high in cholesterol) “Malloreddus alla campidanese”, a primi piatti with shell-like pasta, called malloreddus. We brought some malloreddus home …
When you see numerous bullet holes in road signs… When you get stuck in a flock of sheep each time you go grocery shopping… When you see village walls beautifully covered with huge murals… When you encounter traditional (carnival) festivities or a shop selling the associated costumes… When you frequently come across round prehistoric structures, …
If there is one thing we learned from our visit to Trier last year, it is that the Romans have been doing some serious construction and city-building in once-Germania. A considerable number of German cities still contain original and well-preserved Roman architecture. The Romans’ never-ending thirst for conquering new tribes and annexing new lands eventually …
A young, happy me in the temple complex of Karnak. You can see the Hypostyle hall in the back (left). Back in 1999 I was in my senior year of high school. We could choose our senior trip ourselves. It had to be something educational, and the whole class needed to attend the trip. After some brainstorming, …
Sardegna (or Sardinia, if you like) is different. It is different from the remainder of Italy, that is. Islands always have that sense of uniqueness: you feel that although they are officially part of a certain country, they still have their own identity. For example, Guadeloupe has nothing in common with the rest of France, …
