Jul 19

In the air again

Fantastic weather over much of the route meant beautiful views during daytime (and also sometimes at night, over the Himalayas for example). We flew a (for obvious reasons) more Northerly route than normal, all the way along the Baltic Sea coastline, before setting a more direct course to Singapore.

Jun 06

Climbing the gorge in Стара река national park

Still too windy, so an adventure in the Стара река national park with our Slovenian friends. After climbing and descending about 1000 height-meters in 23 kilometers, another day in the outdoors was well spent.

Jun 05

Visit to ПЛОВДИВ

A sightseeing day to the second city of Bulgaria today: ПЛОВДИВ (Plovdiv).
30 minutes in the bus to Karlovo and 1.5 hours on the train brought us to our destination, where we were welcomed by a beggar with a walking stick that he used to hit people who ignored him… The rest of the city was nothing really special, but the icecream was good (as always in the Balkans).

The reason for our non-flying expedition was the weather: Far too much wind from the North…

Jun 03

Something different: Back to Bulgaria

A different day full of flying: after a flight to Sofia in an Airbus, a ride to Sopot in a Volkswagen, a beautiful and long evening flight under the paraglider, a landing in a field full of flowers and a real Bulgarian meal, another day is over.

May 28

Monaco evening rush-hour from the sky

A non-flyable day in the Gourdon area made us look for something else to do. A visit to Monaco seemed like a good idea. When, just after our arrival, a paraglider come in for landing on the Plage du Golfe Bleue, we tried our best to find him and get information. A ride-share to the top of Mont-Gros was easily negotiated (he and his girlfriend could now also make another flight, without one of them having to drive the camper down the mountain) and we were on our way up.

Flying above a busy city in rush-hour was an unforgettable experiance, just like flying out over the sea and landing back on the beach. A fantastic meal featuring maigret de canard and a one-hour drive back to Greolieres marked the end of a fantastic day.

May 25

Flying Gourdon

Second day flying in France: the Mediterranean Sea in the background, the high Gourdon launch in the front, the tiny landing area down in the valley below and me under the glider somewhere in-between.

Apr 29

First harvest from the dome

A fine greenhouse and a fine spring: first harvest of spinach, lettuce, rocket, paksoi, reddish and strawberries.

Dec 26

Erecting the dome

By next summer, this will probably be the most awesome greenhouse. Some parts were a bit stubborn at times, but we succeeded in putting up the skeleton! Now some reinforcement here and there, a door and a cover…

Dec 12

Train to Oceanside

Oceanside today, the end station for the Coaster train and far more relaxed than the big city. And I got to ride one of those huge AMTRAK trains!

Dec 11

Survived La Linea

After a 2 hour bus trip, the line of people waiting to cross the border to the USA was longer than I could remember from the way out. It was so long actually that it had a bend around the back since the street was not long enough… Luckily the sun was out.
After 3 hours I finally came out of the other side of the immigration building and was back in the well manicured United States of America. No more cars without exhausts, with flat tires or missing bonnets here. Everything so nice and clean. Also no fish tacos.
There was one interesting hiccup in the process by the way. One of the border officers had a look in my passport, looked again and again and made the following comment: “Someone has made a fuckup here, please go inside that building to get it fixed“. The customs people in Houston, where I had entered the country last week had accidentally put February 2013 in my passport as the latest exit date (even though I arrived in December 2013). I pointed this out inside the building, where the officer showed it to his colleague. Quote: “Some dickhead in Houston had the wrong year in his stamp“. They fixed it with a pen and put a signature next to it and that was that, I was welcomed back in.

Dec 09

Burrito to kill the hunger


After the exhausting day walking, a big meal was needed. Meet the burrito XL. Was it good? Yes, but not as good as the fish tacos.
Note: the bottle at the right is a standard-size beer-bottle.

Dec 09

Riding the local minibuses

A trip to La Bufadora today, a very rare blowhole at the coast some distance south of Ensenada. To get there, there are serveral options. I chose the most adventurous way: the local minibuses.
In hindsight, I think my Spanish is not quite at the level where I can comfortably get around on my own. In shops and restaurants (or in general: occasions where time is not an important thing to consider and the right words are eventually found) I am usually fine, but communicating in a moving vehicle that is about to speed past the intended but yet unknown stop is a different story. With the help of a Mexcan English teacher who happened to be on the same bus everything worked out allright (as it always does). Getting on the second bus was easy: walk along the road in the right direction and wait for a bus to come. The bus driver gently pushes the horn when he spots people at the side of the road. A simple gesture is all that is needed for him to stop and let you get on and enjoy the Mexican music blasting from the speakers.

La Bufadora itself was (as is to be expected from popular nature phenomena) not quite so spectacular. The water did shoot up a few meters and the thing made some noise, but nothing volcano-like. The high tide probably didn’t help either. This all didn’t spoil the day though, because the 22 kilometer walk back to the first bus change was along a scenic road and mostly beautiful.

Dec 08

Eating tacos with the locals

It took a little bit of observation time to figure out how the process of ordering, filling and eating of the tacos is to be done. Luckily, all customers already there were locals whose second nature seemed to be exactly what I came for. The meal of fish and shrimp taco’s was great and I learned some new lingo along the way.

Dec 08

Ensenada

A big walk through Ensenada today. The sun was out again, which made things so much more friendly. The city is easily large enough for a whole day of exploring. If they would clean things up a little more, the viewpoint would even be a pleasant place…

Dec 07

Baja California, into Mexico on foot

Into Mexico today, via the San Ysidro crossing in Tijuana. Getting in was easy, getting out will probably involve a lot of waiting… (I walked past the line in the other direction). The bus trip down to Ensenada had some great views and Ensenada has the smell of Mexican food everywhere. Unfortunately, it started raining shortly after arrival. Well, pouring is a better description. In the middle of a desert. Excellent…

Dec 06

The green sealion

Something the oceanographic community had declared impossible: Just when I wanted to snap a picture at La Jolla Cove, the green sealion came around the corner…

Dec 05

Fallen Star

On a short tour of the University of San Diego campus, we were taken up to the Fallen Star, a little cottage that was put on top of one of the university buildings in a not so straight-forward way. The whole thing is tilted so much, that you feel like you had a few too many the very moment you set a foot inside. A bizarre piece of art really.

Dec 04

The daily commute…

Walking to work in the morning. Not a bad way to start the day. Highest tide in many years today by the way, so walking on the beach was no option unfortunately…

Dec 02

The other side of the Atlantic

And then, after a door-to-door travel time of exactly 24 hours, I find myself at the sea side in La Jolla Shores, near San Diego in the USA. The trip was without glitches, but a 24 hour long day takes its toll: very glad to have this resting-day before the workshop…

Nov 27

A hiking day

With yesterday’s wind conditions in mind, and the wind-streaked clouds in the sky, I decided that today would be a day without flying. I hiked up the mountain in the hot sun. Views were beautiful. A day well spent.