BELGIUM – When many people think of Liège, they imagine something like Charleroi, another Belgian town which is famous for its defunct industry and urban decay. But what they think is Liège is actually Seraing, a municipality made up of three industrial towns in the Meuse valley to the south-west of the city. The most…
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GERMANY – On another short holiday in Berlin (little knowing that I would move there a mere three months later), I decided to continue my exploration of the surrounding countryside. So I picked another random destination that looked nice on Wikipedia (Neustrelitz), borrowed my friends bike and took a train there. In contrast to my…
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GERMANY – Wuppertal (population: +/- 350,000), which as the name suggests, lies in the valley of the river Wupper, is a town I had long wanted to visit for two reasons. Firstly, “only” 40% of it was destroyed in WW2, making it good place to see what other towns in the heavily industrialised Rhine-Ruhr region (most…
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GERMANY – In August 2017, a friend of mine had to spend two nights in Cologne for his job. As his Airbnn was pretty big, he asked if I felt like a short holiday. And who would say no to a free holiday? I had passed through Cologne before, and thought I’d give it another…
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ROMANIA – While Cluj-Napoca is the most varied city I visited on this trip to Romania, and therefore my favorite, the most beautiful were undoubtedly Sibiu and Oradea. Sibiu is special for being a well preserved medieval town, but Oradea (the capital of Bihor county, pop.: 196,367), is special for another reason that I think…
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ROMANIA – Towards the end of the five hour bus ride from Sibiu, the bus turned a corner revealing a magnificent view of my next destination: Cluj-Napoca, which has 324,576 inhabitants, making it Romania’s second largest city. So, thinking of how to start this thread, the first thing I did when I had borrowed a bike…
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ROMANIA – A scenic six hour train journey from Timișoara – including a change in Arad, which I considered visiting as well – took me the 330 kilometers to my next destination, Sibiu, which I liked immediately on arrival, at about eight in the evening (I’m not showing these photos in the order I took…
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ROMANIA – Situated on the plain near the borders with Hungary and Serbia, Timișoara – where I arrived at the airport and spent two nights – is a university town of 320,000. It is called Temesvar in Hungarian, Timisvar in Serbian, and a variation on the theme in various other languages. Pictures made on 2017-07-16….
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BELGIUM – One Sunday, when it was exeptionally nice weather, I decided to cross one more town from my list of Belgian towns I haven’t visited yet: Borgloon. To do this, I cycled north along the N20 from Liège to Tongeren, where I turned west on to the N79 to Sint-Truiden. I didn’t make many…
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BELGIUM – A day trip to Sint-Truiden (FR: Saint-Trond), a town of approximately 20,000 in Belgian Limburg. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised, and that I liked it most of the towns in the region I have visited so far (Aarschot, Tienen, Hoegaarden, Tongeren, Maaseik and Hasselt, all of which I liked…
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GERMANY / LUXEMBOURG – A friend of mine was at a small festival on a campsite in the German Saarland for a weekend in May 2017, and I decided to go there by bike and spend the night. Day 1, 2017-05-26 I took a train to Luxembourg City, and from there headed mostly downhill to…
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GERMANY / POLAND – Most people have heard of Frankfurt am Main, an international center of finance, industry and transport. But there is another Frankfurt, which, even though no one has heard of it, is even more international by virtue of it being in two countries. I’m talking about Frankfurt an der Oder, which is…
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GERMANY – While on holiday in Berlin in December 2015, I borrowed my friends bike and started to explore the part of the former DDR (the former communist East Germany, for those of you who don’t know) just outside the city, starting in Brandenburg an der Havel. It was an interesting experience, due to both…
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GERMANY / THE NETHERLANDS – In the southern province of Limburg, on a narrow strip of land between the Meuse river and German border, lies the part of the Netherlands that somehow feels the least Dutch. I don’t know this region very well, and have gathered the photos of two of my rare visits to…
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BELGIUM/FRANCE – What to do on new year’s day? Party until 11 in the morning and sleep for the rest of the day? Visit family and friends? Go for a walk? Or why not go for a 1300 kilometer drive, along as few as possible motorways, and include as many as possible pointless detours? My…
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