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Camino de Santiago, Pt 3!

Camino de Santiago, Pt 3!

In this final blog post about the Camino de Santiago, I’m just going to cover a few things that didn’t fit neatly in the first two blog posts. This is more of a hodgepodge of interesting details that I wanted to share about the walk and things experienced that are still in my mind.

One of the most defining experiences on the Camino is the dormitory living.  At many stops along the way, there are…

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Camino de Santiago, Pt 2

Camino de Santiago, Pt 2

In the first blog post, I talked about the importance of the people I met during the Camino walk but closely behind that were the amazing sights that I saw when walking for 5 weeks. For several reasons (people waking up in the dorm at 0530 was one!), I was up and walking almost every morning by 0630. While not my normal modus operandi, it did allow for some spectacular sunrises and misty…

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Camino de Santiago, pt 1....

Camino de Santiago, pt 1….

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve finished the Camino de Santiago, and it’s been very interesting the thoughts that I’ve had. Many friends have asked how I’ve felt afterwards and it’s very hard to explain the feelings that you experience during the Camino. A lot of joy, some pain, but some experiences you would never be able to replicate. I’ve had a hard time figuring out how I would do…

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Lakes and Peaks-Euro Style!

Lakes and Peaks-Euro Style!

At the end of the summer, I ventured off on my last road trip of the season, this time to visit the lakes and mountains of Italy that I hadn’t explored in the past and a revisit of the German Alps.  When I did my Italy country tour in 2014, I was too tired at the end  of the trip to properly visit the lakes region in northern Italy, so this was my first stop and I was not disappointed with the…

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Portugal and Basque Country, Part 2

Portugal and Basque Country, Part 2

In the last blog post, I was roaming the beautiful cities and countryside of the Basque country of Spain. Now we continue with Portugal.

  After having spent a few days enjoying the mountains of Northwest Spain, I had to race down to Lisbon in order to meet up with my UK friends, the Hash House Harriers. We spent 4 days in Lisbon with a little sightseeing and a whole lot of song and suds. Quite a…

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Portugal and the Basque Country - Part 1

Portugal and the Basque Country – Part 1

Another great trip wrapped up, this time headed Southwest. This trip focused on a new area for me (Basque country) and a return to a country that I visited 13 years ago, Portugal. Both distinctly different countries but each having their own charm. Here is a map of the route that I took. It ended up being 4,334 km (2,693 miles), almost completely on backroads as the toll roads were very expensive…

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Sleeklens Workflow Review

The introduction of digital photography has provided many benefits to include instant feedback, almost unlimited photo captures and photo processing software. However, one of the drawbacks, tied to the photo captures, is the massive amount of digital files that must be processed after the shooting session is completed. The time spent processing and working sometimes hundreds of photos in…

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Wellies in Scotland!

After Ireland, I jumped on the car ferry with my trusty VW camper and headed over to Scotland (which could be seen from the Irish coast).  Upon arrival, it was a deceptively beautiful day, sunshine and green everywhere. I proceeded to visit Edinburgh directly as I was going to run with the local chapter of the Hash House Harriers. Edinburgh was a beautiful city and a lot of fun to walk around and…

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Erin go Bragh...Ireland forever!

Erin go Bragh…Ireland forever!

I have been wanting to travel to Ireland for many years, especially since my father’s side of the family is from there and I had never been.

I also heard how beautiful the west coast was so finally I ventured out and visited Ireland and Scotland.

In this blog post, I’ll just cover Ireland as there was plenty to see. So let’s begin!

In Ireland there were a lot of ruins and lots of green so I…

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Viva Espana!

Recently returned from a mini trip down to Spain (or Espana as they say!). I had a meeting with my running/drinking club (Hash House Harriers) in Madrid and decided to extend the trip and explore the Aragon region in the northern Spain Pyrenees. The trip started off and a good note with the first night in the old town of  Ainsa. It is located in the lower mountains of the Pyrenees while still…

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Mini Euro Trip

With winter finally over, I was getting anxious to get out of the house and off exploring more areas. So into the van I went and headed off for Spain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, basically a mini Euro trip. Sounds like a lot but very achievable as each location is reachable within a day’s drive.  The first stop was down south to the northeastern point of Spain in the Catalonian region.…

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Cambodia Cruisin, Part 2!

Cambodia Cruisin, Part 2!

Last week’s blog highlighted the beautiful and very friendly people of Cambodia and now for the second half, I want to highlight some of the landscape and action scenes that I saw.

As I was flying into the country, I was really impressed to see the water, sun reflections and boat traffic. To me, this really stressed the importance of water to the people of Cambodia, as seen in the next 3…

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Cambodia Cruisin!

Well, took a quick detour on the European travel to Cambodia! An offer to travel across Cambodia by bicycle with 12 friends was too good to pass up and definitely lived up to my expectations.  The tour, mainly on back roads, consisted of approximately 60-80km a day with a Cambodian guide and two support vehicles, a great way to travel.

  Ice cold beer after a dusty trail!

While the scenery and…

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Poland Part 3!

In this blog post, I’ll wrap up my tour of Poland. After Warsaw, I proceeded north to the port city of Gdansk. Gdansk is famous for having started the Solidarity movement with Lech Walesa at the helm. I highly recommend taking a half day and visiting the Gdansk Solidarity Center. A very well done exhibit that helps tell the story of Poland’s break from Communism.

The Gdansk Solidarity Center with…

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Land of the Kiwis-New Zealand Pt 2

Land of the Kiwis-New Zealand Pt 2

And now onto the second half of the New Zealand journey.  We last left you traveling southward on South Island leaving Mt Cook National Park. It was on to Queenstown, NZ, a location famous for it’s adrenaline packed activities. We arrived at 1100 a.m. and immediately took off to climb Ben Lomond Peak, located next to Queenstown. While on the way up, we stopped for our packed lunch at the saddle,…

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Land of the Kiwis-New Zealand Pt 1!

Land of the Kiwis-New Zealand Pt 1!

Well after a long blog break (took a while to recover from the return trip!), it’s time to finally update the last stop on my Down Under tour. This was to the long awaited country of New Zealand, land of glaciers, coastlines, and volcanoes and Kiwis! During these travels, we split the accommodations between a tent, AirBnB and single rooms in hostels. Our primary means of transportation was a…

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Noosa Heads Pt 2!

Noosa Heads Pt 2!

In part II of the Australia roundup, I’ll talk about some of the places that we went to see. We spent a few days in Brisbane, a beautiful town with a nice riverfront walkway. Along that walkway, they have built a beach for the people, with imported sand and lifeguards. Really a nice free perk for the city dwellers!

    A beautiful beach located in downtown Brisbane

Closer to Noosa Heads, we did a…