Recently, we started to do quite a few and also quite long tours by bike. For this reason, we decided to test if we like long bike tours that span a few days. As we do not have real equipment for such adventures (yet), we arranged a two day test trip from Mittenwald via Bad Tölz back to Munich. Essentially, this is a part of the Isarradweg. There are GPX tracks available on the website of the Isarradweg. Read more

Well, it seems I have developed a certain faible for Paris. However, this time this wasn’t a conference trip with one free afternoon in town but a personal three day holiday. Yay. Special point of interest this time: the Louvre and more precisely: its Leonardo da Vinci exhibition. Day 1. Taking a little walk. 🌍 Picture location – Saint-Étienne-du-Mont 🌍 Picture location 🌍 Picture location 🌍 Picture location – Panthéon Read more

Munich has a couple of nice castles with nice gardens. The castle gardens of Nymphenburg are pretty cool as there is a lot of water and woods. Also you can walk from this area to the next castle called Bluthenburg, which is a small moated castle. 🌍 Picture location 🌍 Picture location 🌍 Picture location 🌍 Picture location 🌍 Picture location 🌍 Picture location 🌍 Picture location 🌍 Picture location Read more

I must admit that I started this trip with a lot of prejudices as I was a bit afraid of Mallorca’s reputation being a party island populated by drunk German tourists. However, it turned out that it is quite easy to get away from all this Ballermann stuff and the largest tourism centers. So you can enjoy a wonderful island with great mountains and almost Carribean-like beaches. However, you cannot deny that Mallorca is super touristic - so in this regard, this trip was just the opposite of the Azores journey earlier this year. Read more

Three years ago, we went to Franconia for a two day trip to Bamberg and Würzburg. Last weekend we repeated that idea. This time we went to Rothenburg and Nuremberg. People say that Rothenburg is one of the most beautiful medieval towns in Germany. So it is not a big surprise that there are incredible numbers of tourists (mostly from Asia). I personally thought that Rothenburg is nice but for some reason I was not too impressed. Read more

After visiting São Miguel, Faial and Pico, our last hop was already Terceira island. Day 12 This time we again took an aircraft starting from Pico airport. In case you are familiar with the Greek unit prefixes you know that “pico” stands for something pretty small. And Pico airport is by far the smallest airport I have ever seen. When we arrived, only a couple of firemen “were busy” having a break in the cafeteria and the security was not even open. Read more

After visiting São Miguel and Faial we took the ferry from Horta to Madalena, which takes about 45 minutes and costs only 3,20 EUR (1 person, no car). Pico island is home of the highest mountain of Portugal, Mount Pico, which is visible from more or less the entire island. Another characteristic feature of Pico are vineyards built on the volcanic and rocky soil. Day 9 Some rocks in front of the harbor of Madalena you pass with the ferry. Read more

Time for the second part of our trip to the Azores. After five days on São Miguel we flew to Faial, which is much smaller and feels even more … distant … to the “civilized world”. Day 6 The Azores have their own airline, called SATA, which connects some of the bigger islands using a couple of smaller turboprop machines. (Boy, these things are loud!). I was a bit afraid of the island hopping as I normally find airports quite stressful. Read more

This year we spent two weeks on the Azores, which is a lesser known group of nine islands in the Atlantic ocean about 1.500 km west of Portugal. A quite nice thing about the Azores is that the islands are not very touristic. Yet. There are no tourist buses, no cruise ships that spit hoards of retired people into the cities and no spots that are absolutely overrun. When you stand on Marcus square in Venice, you probably see more tourists than you will see when you travel the Azores for two weeks in sum. Read more

Two hours between arriving in Leipzig and having the first appointment gave me a bit of time to walk run around town. Quite nice there. Must return some day to visit the Völkerschlachtdenkmal and the Zoo. 🌍 Picture location – Behind Nikolaikirche 🌍 Picture location – Of cause somebody had to built that tent in front of the Alte Handelsbörse… Of cause! 🌍 Picture location – Thomaskirche 🌍 Picture location – Altes Rathaus Read more