2024 Switzerland – Austria – Czech Republic June 19, 2024 at 8:28 pm
Back to the land of milk and honey to celebrate the marriage of Martin and Nina
2022 Switzerland September 1, 2022 at 8:11 pm
Hot summer days in Florida – time for a trip to Switzerland – Hanging with my best peeps – Alpine forests – Glacier lakes – Summit climbs – and further on in the brochure in small lettering “hottest summer on record”.
Leaving out of Gainesville at a reasonable time – Priceless
Smooth travel – even got to catch up on missed Disney movies
Arrival in Brunnen – Lucerne Lake region – Central Switzerland – so beautiful we almost emojiied
Best Peeps – Martin and Nina – here we are waiting for our mystery cocktails
Stoos area – overlooking UrnerSee – we were amazed at the variety and abundance of wildflowers even up above the treeline.
Yep – conquered this peak even before lunch
Just cause I like this filter
Postcard perfect views in all directions.
Hope their painter is paid on salary.
Mistakes where made – Lessons where learned 😉
View from the beach in Brunnen
Conquered some boat rides around the lake
Neighborhood ornate church
Pretty sure this is where the Ref sits – making sure you don’t pick your nose
One of the early realtors
Of course – lots of train rides – – my favorite
Top of Europe – Jungfrau – 13,420 ft – SO COOL
Yep – navigated public transport to get to the top – all by ourselves – no additional oxygen
Aletsch Glacier – 14 miles long – receding unfortunately – – maybe next time – golf course
Pretty sure there is a pile of tourists somewhere down there
So amazing we gotta see it again
Some beautiful cities to balance out the nature
Some ambitious Swiss people thought it would be a good idea to climb a mountain in the dark and watch the sunrise for Swiss National Day – (Independence day)
Some breathtaking views
A hike in the east side of the country – 5 Glacier Lakes
Other worldly landscape up there
Again – So many flowers
This is how we properly end a strenuous hike
One of the owners of Noble Blood Tattoo – St. Gallen – my buddy Simon
Lookin Good – Classic
The one day we didn’t dress alike – needed a picture
End of a wonderful vacation – reliving memories and making new ones.
Costa Rica 2021 September 13, 2021 at 5:53 pm
Pandemic ain’t stoppin us
2020 Getaway – Mountains and Beach November 1, 2020 at 8:20 pm
A week in Blue Ridge mountains and a cooldown at Fernandina Beach
Borderline Perfection December 4, 2019 at 8:47 pm
Kauai 2019 – Some pre-holiday island travel for Theresa and I was just what the doctor ordered.
Puerto Rico – 2019 June 23, 2019 at 7:58 pm
2019 Colombia March 27, 2019 at 9:06 pm
Colombia – Summer 2018 July 8, 2018 at 7:00 pm
This trip was for the purpose of finding a location for my buddy Dominik to buy or lease for the development of a youth hostel. He settled on an area located near a lake in the mountains outside of Medellin.
General location map – I had no idea Colombia was as far north as Nicaragua
Arrived in Medellin – taxi ride to the lake
ManMade lake +/- 74 km^2 created in the 1960’s – 2000 meters above sea level
View from Galeria hostel – beautiful everyday – water was warm enough to swim in and clear enough to see the bottom around the edges
Random nicely landscaped yard
One of the town squares in Guatape’ – apparently there is a sale on bright paint
Tuk Tuk decoration is serious business
Oh the optimism – nearly gushing
Meeting with land developer/realtor
Looking for the three elements – View of the Rock – Access to Lake – Near the Tourists
Possible place to rent – just too small and no much land available for expansion
How “not to” roof construction – of course the realtor says “absolutely no problems”
Typical home interior – hand made furniture – no heat or A.C. needed because the weather is great
Oh the disappointment – i can still hear his heart imploding – some properties should not be built on
Growing tomatoes – passion fruit is also a common crop
Mariposa
Native bees eating a bird of paradise – they also ate staghorn fern
World Cup 2018 – Colombia got pretty far and every game stopped the town
Awesome views
D and I thought we would go on a day hike to explore the coutryside on foot – this image shows that the mountains are first sprayed with herbicide before timber(pine) is planted
Wild orchids
D giving the international 1 finger salute which means all is good. We didn’t really know where we were going and as you can see the trail wasn’t really there as we hoped.
Interesting red moss
Again the 1 finger salute – this means we realized we walked all day and are not gonna make it to a road before dark. Luckily we brought cookies and gum and ear buds.
Thanks to U.N.I.C.E.F. and others poor planning we were able to stay in this abandoned school overnight since there was rain in the area we were super glad to have the shelter. If you look close you will see the concrete is covered in horse poop but none on the grass.
These guys were interested in the smelly white people. Wondering how we can eat just cookies for food.
By shear luck we survived the night and were back on the move before sunrise
If a strenuous hike and a night sleeping on concrete wasn’t enough we had to take a tuk tuk like 25 miles on a gravel road
We were so high up jackets were needed in the middle of the day
Next day we were on the road again – this time on some motorbikes
The countryside is so nice and green
Some of the roads were not too good –
Some real jungle and natural stream
Waterfall which we were able to swim in and cool off from riding
Another fun motorbike tour in the mountains
Mostly rural area
4 signs of heart failure
Lonely days in the mountains
Bandejas de Paisa – typical restaurant food
Super nice property with house – Casa Bonita Rosada
Optimism back to full – next is negotiations
Typical night in a hostel
Notice not all the pool tables have holes and there is a guy peeing on the wall
May have gone a bit too far on the checker color scheme
Fernando Botero – sculptor Medellin
Just cant look away
Fun for the whole family
Sweet amphitheater at the botanical garden – Medellin
So during the couple weeks that I was in Colombia with Dominik we visited about 20 properties and were brought around by a few realtors. Unfortunately there has not been any absolutes yet. Many contacts have been made and D will be in country for a few more weeks knocking on doors and getting feelers out.
Kauai – Hawaii – Spring 2018 March 27, 2018 at 9:03 pm
Location of Adventure
Summer 2016 Travel through Myanmar and Thailand October 10, 2016 at 7:41 pm
Brief summary:
During the summer of 2016 my buddy Dominik and I spent a month in Thailand and a month in Myanmar. During this trip we had to deal with a terrorist bombing, mudslide, earthquake and a wild cobra.
Travelling and interacting with Myanmar people was something that cannot be captured by words or pictures. Nearly everyone we encountered had an air of innocence regarding tourist scamming and had no harmful intentions. Transport information was not current and oftentimes wrong, so we engaged with the locals more than expected which turned out to have a wonderful lasting impression on us.
As for the food, it turns out that MSG is one of the food groups and oftentimes topped with oily noodles, though we managed to stay fed and somewhat healthy. Towards the end of our travel we had gotten the hang of what we liked and also how to avoid the MSG kicker for the most part.
I only have a few words about Thailand – great food and lots of fun –
Enjoy the pictures!!!!!!