Picos de Europe, 8-9-2009

Yesterday we travelled a far distance all the way from the Algarve to Salamanca. We only stayed one day here before travelling North for our visit to the National Park Picos de Europe. We are on a campsite in the mountains now but the temperatures are still very high. Yesterday we had a record 41 degrees Celsius in the Eastern part of Portugal, close to the Spanish border. Our tipi tent is doing great and we hope to enjoy a nice gorge hike tomorrow (morning) before moving back North from Thursday.

Love you all and stay happy, healthy and........in touch!

Leslie & Frans

Algarve, 6-9-2009

Today is our last day on the sunny cost of Algarve. We spent our time on a little (and quit) campsite not far from Cabo St Vincente, Europes continent most Southwestern point. It is really relaxed here and we only realised it more after we made a drive to Lagos and Portimao where the big tourist industrie is blooming! Tonight we go to a little music event in Villa Bospo about 8 km from here and than tomorrow we will start heading back home. In a direct route that covers about 2500 km so I guess we will take a couple of days to be back. We love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Love :)

Frans and Leslie

Madeira, 30-8-2009

Yesterday we arrived on the beautiful island of Madeira after a 2 hour flight from Lisbon. We are staying in a really nice cottage on a vineyard high above the blue ocean. So, no camping for 6 days but living the luxurious life haha. We got our selves a little car that just makes it up the very steep and windy roads here and yes, driving here is an adventure on it´s own! Today we went to a secluded little beach village that only can be reached by a 200 meter vertical elevator that is build against the cliffs! The reward when you are down however is there. Fruit trees all around, a little beach cafe and banana trees everywhere. We could hardly believe that they could construct a tiny little elevator on the face of a cliff like that! Last night we enjoyed a good meal in the garden of the master-house of the quinta. We got free access to Internet here so I am sure I will write some more before we leave the island on next Friday.

tata

Frans & Leslie

Lisbon, 26-8-2009

After a nice drive down the fly Costa with stops at the little chocolate town Obidos and the beautiful city of Sintra with its Moorish Palaces we ended up on the campsite in Lisbon last night. We found a beautiful spacious spot for our Tipi in the woods with lots of shadow and no neighbour visible. Today we will explore the city and we do have an extra day tomorrow as well before we flt over to the island of Madeira. We will keep you posted.

Love

leslie and Frans

At the Portugese Costa

Hi everybody,

After spending a week in the dusty and rough North of Portugal, we moved South last Saturday. We ended up on a very Portugese campsite just about 15 km North of Nazare. The campsite is busy, very beach-like but the people are friendly and the food in the local restaurant is great. We managed to pitch our tipi somewhere in between some trees and some other tents but at least we got a good shadow which is important with the high temperatures in the daytime. Yesterday we spent our time on visiting the local beach and the city of Nazare that looked like the capital city of Portugal right now! The Portuguese holidays will end at the end of this week so I guess campsites will be a little bit more quit by that time! At this moment we are in the city of Leiria, a student city with a big castle on top of the central hill. Tomorrow we will make an effort to visit the city of Fatima that is about 30 km from here. From Wednesday we will move on further South to Lisboa where we possibly will stay a few days before flying over to the Island of Madeira. We hope to give you an update before we fly out on Saturday the 29th of August. Bon Dia

Frans & Leslie

Porto 19-8-2009

We did a good travel from Holland all the way to the North of Portugal. It took us only 3 days and that did include camping on the overnight stays. We ended up on a very secluded little campsite in the middle of an old vinyard called Quinta del Rio. Th owner is Dutch and very helpful. He actually rents out Tipi tents so our new tipi really fits in. We have the best spot on the ground with even a private outdoor shower that runs hot water in the daytime (not my choice but by the high temperatures in the daytime haha). Yesterday we went for a little kayak trip on the river that runs next to the campground. Two of our neighbours joined in so we had a party of 4 exploring the rapids of the river until ending up on a little terrace for the very needed drinks. Today we spent walking around in the city of Porto which is about an hour drive from our campsite. This morning we already enjoyed a glass of white port (I did not know that existed) with a little meal. The weather is great and in the middle of the day actually too hot (around 35 degrees Celsius) but the evenings are cool and last night I was enjoying the perfect view on the starry sky from our hammock next to the tent. We hope you are all doing good. Stay happy, healthy and....in touch !

Summer thoughts

It has been a while since I updated our BLOG. This is not because nothing happened, it is just because I was busy at work and I also communicate by means of Facebook now which is definitely a more interactive way of communication with friends than a BLOG! Anyhow, since my sailing trip in the beginning of May, we both have been busy.

It started with Leslie’s niece Victoria coming to stay with us for 2 weeks after spending 3 weeks teaching English in Sweden. Of course her visit was spent in visiting some of the well-known highlights in Holland like Amsterdam and not to forget the spectacular Boxtel area. A little bit more rare was a visit to Giethoorn in the North of Holland. This little town is surrounded by water and the main transportation still is using a boat. We camped on a little farm campsite about 30 minutes away from the town centre and as we brought our own boat, it was very easy to go around, shop and eat out in one of the many little restaurants.

During the second week of Victoria’s stay we went over to the island of Terschelling to enjoy the so-called “Oeral festival”. This is an annual theatre and music festival with performances all over the island, indoor as well as open air such as in the dunes, on the beach or in the forest. We experienced the best weather ever and also because of the great atmosphere we definitely stayed not long enough. We decided to come back next year and try to stay the whole 9 days!

At the end of June Leslie went over to the States to fulfill her caretaking tasks for mom and also to visit the children and grandchildren. Her stay appeared to be very nice and fruitful and just last weekend she returned safe and sound back to the Netherlands. During her stay in the States, I basically worked while my colleagues enjoyed their family holidays. I also found some time to work on my photo’s (scanning old negatives to finally have my photo archive all digital) and finally to visit some friends in the Belgian Ardennes for a weekend.


Tata

Leslie & Frans

Sailing adventures

As you read this I still might enjoy a great sailing trip to the Baltic Sea around Danmark. Today, May 15th, we went from the little Island of Venjro to the neigbour island Femo. We had rather a stormy wind against us during the couple of hours out on the ocean but right now we enjoy the tranquility of this island. Yesterday I heard that Fuji still does not want to fire me so for a couple of months I am safe (I guess). I will return home in about a couple of days while the boat and its owner will continui for 4 more months around Danmark and Sweden.

The city of Tilburg 200 years old

Last Saturday evening we went to the centre of the city of Tilburg to enjoy the spectacular celebration of being a city for 200 years. Ywo friends of us, Marianne and Tonnie, joined us on this very busy event. An absolute highlight was the performance of the French drumming group "Company Transe Express" who did their, act hanging underneath a high crane at least 150 feet above the crowd. For us this was absolute the highlight of the show but also the Dutch band Racoon, the French percussion group "Commando's Percu" with their breathtaking fireworks and the techno lasershow by three DJ's was definately worth coming for!

Tina Turner

Last weekend we went to the spectaculair concert of Tina Turner in the netherlands. As we were hoping on a good view from the field, we did go in time bringing us in a waiting line for approximately 3 hours. As soon as we were allowed into the Gelredome Stadium, we had to run towards the inner secluded ring in front of the stage as the stewards close off this area after it is declared full to prevent accidents by "crowd-pushing". From here on we had to wait for another 2 hours until Tina decided to start the show actually 15 minutes before the official start. And what a show she gave. It is almost unbelievable to see a 70 year old diva giving that amount of energy for almost 3 hours!!! We could watch it all from abouth a 30 feet distance close. The show was great, the dancing was great, the lighteffects were great, the continuity of the show was great and ofcourse Tina was great. From this blog we can only share a good photo of here when she performed her song from the movie "Mad Max beyond Tunderdome". It was anounced that a worldwide distributed DVD will be produced from the 2 Dutch shows, so we hope to see it all back in the future!

National Geographic

SOOOOOO COOOOOOOL!!! One of my photo's was choosen by the National geographic photo community for publishing in the Dutch/Belgium March issue. It is a photo that I took in 2004 in Namibia when visiting Sossusvlei in the middle of the Namib dessert. The photo shows a secluded valley where once water runned through during the rain season but that was cut off by shifting sanddunes 900 years ago. The trees in the photo are almost petrified caused by the hot and dry climat. This spot was also used in the opening scene of the movie The Cell with Jennifer Lopez being a profiler in a kidnap case. So I feel honoured that this photo was choosen for publication out of a zillion photo's that are sent to the National Geographic every year! To view the photo in detail, you can go to http://www.hiddenplanet.deviantart.com/ and than go to my main gallery and look under "Namibia".

Skating in Holland

On my first day back from the States I went skating on one of the many lakes in Boxtel to enjoy that long forgotten winter weather. Temperatures were around -2 Degrees, so I guess it was not so bad. As this was a sunny Sunday afternoon, I was accompanied by a zillion kids and their parents on skates and using sledges to have fun.

Back to the cold counry

Today I will fly back to the netherlands to start work again on Monday. Reading the online newspapers I know it is still cold over there and that I most likely will be able to participate in a skate tour on Sunday (I have not skated on nature ice for more than 5 years!!). It will be a big difference with the warm georgia climate though. So I packed some extra warm fleece with gloves and a hat to be prepared when I touch ground tomorrow morning. Leslie will stay in the States for a month extra to take care of her mom.

A short trip to Savannah

Last Friday we travelled from Athens towards Savannah to "deliver" Isobel back home before her school starts at Monday. The weather in Savannah is definately warmer than more inland and we also experienced the first nets flying around at the Isle of Hope Marina where we went to view Adams boat that is docked here. It is kind of sad that we only can stay here for three days but we have to go back to take care of Leslies mom in Athens. We will most likely drive over back to Athens somewhere in the late afternoon to end up there around 8 o'clock in the evening. We hope you all had a great "weekend after new years eve" and don't work to hard on the first working day in 2009 !!

Love

Leslie & Frans