Ghent was my favourite place in Belgium, even though I only visited on a day trip. Many websites extol its virtues nowadays and I agree. In fact, reading about it now I’d like to return and appreciate it properly. It’s…
Archives for May 2018
Admiring artwork in Amsterdam
Amsterdam was the very last place I went to on this solo trip around Western Europe so it felt good to be there. I was there for the better part of a week and I stayed in a YHA hostel…
Why is Bolivia’s Samaipata becoming so popular?
Samaipata is the jumping off point for the Ruta del Che which we couldn’t afford to do. Che’s last stand was in La Higuera which is about a four-hour drive away if you don’t trek there. There is an objective…
Is Santa Cruz one of Bolivia’s most underrated regions?
I think Santa Cruz is underrated as a city and as a region in Bolivia. I liked how it has a tropical feeling compared to all the high altitude cities that we had just visited. Once we got to the…
What’s so good about seeing Girl with the Pearl Earring in Den Haag?
I got the train from Amsterdam to Den Haag or The Hague but to be honest you could quite easy cycle there. I was just too worried about ending up in the canal. The obvious tourist draw is, of course,…
The misery of the wildlife trade in Iquitos
Daniel and I got a room in a hostel together and then looked around to book ourselves onto a jungle trip. We wanted to go on a really cheap trip so we went rogue and just hired a guide to…
Cycling the world’s most dangerous road in Bolivia
There are some highly dubious tourist attractions in South America as you will have gathered by now, and that is especially the case in Bolivia. The first of these attractions is the San Pedro prison in the centre of La…
The secret statues and tombs of San Agustin and Tierradentro in Colombia
Popayan Popayan is situated in the Valle de Pubenza and it is known as the La Ciudad Blanca (the White City). It is an enjoyable place to walk around, with cobbled streets, leafy parks and pavement cafes. My bus dropped…
Wandering the battlefields of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was on the 18th June 1815 and it was the fight that ended French Emperor Napoleon’s European Empire through military dictatorship. There were 250,000 soldiers from seven nations involved in the horrendous battle, one of the…
Fooling around during flooding in Florianopolis
We got stamped into Brazil at the border office and then we walked in the dark to find a bus stop. Steph was not very subtly shitting herself at this point and hiding her valuables in different crevices of her…
Kitschy fun on Salzburg’s ‘The Sound of Music’ tour
Salzburg was definitely the highlight of Austria for me, and that is because the hills were alive with the Sound of Music. We visited Mozart’s birthplace (gerburtshaus) which is in the historical centre. He was born in the house in…
How good is wildlife watching in Costa Rica’s Monteverde?
The area around Monteverde is classified as cloud forest as it is at such a high altitude that the tops of the trees are lost in the clouds. The MV Cloud Forest Biological Reserve claims to have 2.5% of the…