Last weekend we drove to the Alsace region in France and visited the area around Strassbourg, especially the Vosges Regional Nature Park in the south and north of this region. We visited the Caves of Han in Belgium, Strassbourg, Kintzheim, Munster, Gérardmer, Épinal and La Petite Pierre.
Last week on Wednesday 30 April we drove to France and stopped in Han-sur-Lesse in Belgium to visit the Caves of Han or Grottes de Han.
Five years ago today, on 28 April 2003, we did one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done. On this day we made a hot air balloon ride over Luxor and the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. Seeing the sunrise over the Nile was a wonderful experience. Here are some photos of this exciting journey:
Yesterday we visited Madurodam, the smallest town in the Netherlands. Madurodam is a tourist attraction near the Hague where typical Dutch buildings and landmarks are displayed at a 1:25 scale. Here’s a video of some of the things we saw:
This week we were in Florida and for New Year’s Eve we visited Leesburg for First Night. Leesburg, a small town north of Orlando that celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2007, is one of four cities in Florida that organize a First Night every year. There was live entertainment in 17 venues along the town’s charming Main Street, from 8pm to midnight.
I’ve updated and finalised our 2007 Year Book in our online Photo Album. Highlights of the year were our visit to The Gambia in January, where we saw 177 different species of birds, our holiday in the south of Spain, where we explored Andalusia and a part of Portugal, and our diving trip to Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt, where we had some wonderful dives in the Red Sea.
We saw seven different species of Kingfisher this year, 2007, in The Netherlands (‘IJsvogel’), Egypt and The Gambia! We saw most on our trip to The Gambia in January, and most of these were Pied Kingfishers (Ceryle rudis). These black-and-white birds are very approachable. They hunt by hovering over the water and then diving down bill first directly below to catch a fish. We found this one somewhere between the towns of Tendaba and Georgetown:
On 13 October 2007, our 7th wedding anniversary, we visited St. Catherine’s Monastery during our holiday in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. The monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is at the foot of Mount Sinai and is one of the oldest continuously functioning Christian monasteries in the world.
Earlier this month we spent a 10-day holiday at the Amar Sina hotel in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. We chose the Amar Sina because our preferred dive operator, Colona Divers, is located there. Online reviews of the hotel were mixed but mostly favorable. Here is my review of the Amar Sina hotel.
On 24 August, the day before we visited the Vogelfestival this year, we went to the city of Giethoorn, which is known in the Netherlands as the “Venice of the North”. We got an electric boat from the many rental companies and made a two-hour tour around the city and adjacent nature area and lake. There were many boats out on this beautiful summer day, and on the lake we found a boat selling packaged ice creams! There was a girl on a small barge and an Ola freezer selling ice creams to passing boats:
