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Joyeux Noël & Bonne Année!
Veselé Vánoce a Šťastný Nový Rok!
Merry Christmas & happy New Year!
Feliz Navidad y prospero Año Nuevo!

Always interested to discover the world, I proposed my services when I heard about a request to transport to northern Italy a series of scientific instruments. This contract gave us the opportunity to extend our journey crossing some nice spots 🙂
Half day at work, all started at home, with a heavy loaded car (counting with over 150kg of luggage). First stop in Brussels to pick up Denisa after her class and… on the road again for a 3000km 5 days trip.

650km later, crossing a part of Germany, we arrived in Ulm, our first stop, mostly motivated by the research of a bed; the city did not catch much our attention despite some few historical spot and an interesting bikeways organisation.

All started early the second day when crossing the German-Austrian border and we entered the Alps crossing the country, first east to Innsbruck then south to Italy. What an incredible moment, the sun and the blue sky revealing breath taking landscapes one after one keeping us looking more at them than the road (hum hum 😉 ). It is an amazing time which we could only advice to all nature lovers.

Crossing the Italian border was synonym of starting the descent, which last for a couple of hours to Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliette) and, finally, Ferrara where we were expected at the university to deliver our parcels. Released of our mission, we started our journey in direction of the Adriatic’s beauty: Venice not without taking the time to discover Ferrara, its castle, cathedral and downtown.

Italy has this unique particularity to host amazing spots everywhere 🙂

Due a late arrival in the Doge city, we did not move former than the land and the camping, located on the cost with a view on the islands. The time to set our tent, to enjoy the view, we have entered the camping restaurant to get server the thinnest pizza ever!

When reading about the city, it was underline the bad quality of the food and the permanent cheating behaviour of the locals out of the Italian standards. We confirmed.

We woke up with the sun to fetch our Vaporetto (bus boat) to the city and there started the immersion in time. Indeed, despite that, some of the city has been renewed and other parts should, this is an amazing labyrinth of little streets, crossed by canals, opening on gorgeous places in an unmatchable frame.

Our first target was the Saint Marc square with its tower, its cathedral, its clock and its pigeons :-). Gliding along the Grand Canal to the arsenal before losing ourselves among the little street not facing funny position where only boats could have moved forward 🙂

After a day, getting along this romantic city and passing hundreds bridges, we took back the Vaporetto to our camping where we took our car to find a better restaurant 😉 Mission accomplished with a tasty pizza in a Friendly frame!

A second night under the tent later, we are on the road again in direction of Salzburg, Austria. Once again, with the pleasure to cross the Alps, this time in a lower altitude where large spaces covered by pebble are ready to welcome to melted water in spring. It is still so amazing!

Salzburg welcomed us with a blue sky and the sun, much welcome for this city at the edge of a hill counting with one of the largest castle on his top… Unfortunately, the time to go through the traffic and park, a heavy fog took it out of reach. However, this didn’t affect our joy to walk along the old (but refreshed) downtown of the mother city of Mozart… you cannot miss it 😉

A couple of hour later, we are on the road again direction Munich, Germany! Once again, we started by taking possession of our room, before seeking for a restaurant in the neighbourhood. We, funnily, arrived in an empty Iranian restaurant.

A long recovering night after, direction downtown to discover this city and its highly decorated city hall and to enjoy the local “light” food. Nevertheless, time passed and it was for us synonym of taking back the wheel direction Luxembourg where we just took some gas before the last hundreds kilometres to home after 5 days and 3000 km.

It is time now to go back to our usual way of life… until our next adventure 🙂

Answering the kind invitation of Salomé, a Portuguese friend, we’ve decided to take the opportunity of Denisa’s holidays to jump for a weekend to the Scottish capital 🙂

A city trip in Europe is often starting the same way: squeezed in a non-stop-talking flight carried by Ryanair… you understand what sardines are suffering.

Nevertheless, landing at Edinburg was the nice moment to meet with Salomé after a long time :-). It was also the moment to swap from international English to Scottish. It is pleasant to practice the root of a language instead of its basic version (despite that English remains a basic stupid language 😉 ).
After a long talk and a short night, we’ve started the day to chill along the city to downtown and its gardens, old building, castle, etc. without losing the opportunity to enjoy some local dishes for lunch.
The afternoon brought us within the Scottish museum (free of charge like most of the places) and for a nice trek to a hill giving a unique spot on the city, the lagoon and further.
The weather was complaisant -for the city/country- it was lightly raining and we had the opportunity to observe some corners of blue sky.
The second day took us back along the city stopping here and there on our way to the botanic garden. The evening being dedicated to a Ceilidh -a Scottish party- at the main student house, dancing square dances with a large number of students 🙂 so fun.
Unfortunately, we had to shortcut, taking off early morning back to reality.

See ye for our next journey!

Preface

Following the Belgian tradition, the choice of the honeymoon destination was fully the responsibility of the groom keeping it as a surprise for Denisa till the wedding day.

However, not to make a mistake, I went through a little questionnaire with her. What I remind of this exercise was to keep water as an exception, providing any cruise, but, first of all, to avoid pyramids and,
therefore, Egypt… which I was foreseeing as a possibility.

Looking around the world, skipping the Caribe and Indochina thanks to the weather, keeping in mind a programme of about one week due to time restriction and striking out all the countries where one of us went or that we could jump to for a city trip but willing to make this journey unique and amazing, I quickly arrived to my final choice: “Jordan” and its key spot: “Petra”.

For once in my life, the trip was fully arranged by an agency, we just had to follow the guide.

It was worth to make it 🙂

But, let me count you our odyssey… Once upon a time…

Day 1: AMMAN – AJLOUN – JERASH – AMMAN

Landed in Amman at 4am from Brussels via Roma; our journey started by a short night :-).

Nevertheless, a few hours later we managed to wake up ready to discover this unknown land and all its faces.

All started by meeting our guide and our driver, who joined us all along the trip and to realize that we’ll spend a certain time in this car going from spot to spot.

Indeed, Jordan’s main spots are spread around the country and, despite good road and reasonable distances; a lot of time is spent in transports.

We began by the discovery of Ajloun, former fortress in the north of the countries and Jerash, one of the largest preserved Roman town in the Middle east counting with a long columns alley and a series of well “preserved” edifices (thanks to the weather… and to the restorations).

This first day was also the time for us to face 2 realities: we will not see any clouts during our stay, the temperature moving between 35°C and 45°C with a big sun, and we’ll have to be careful, all the meals being made of tasteful buffets counting with many fresh dishes 🙂

As the night short, so was the day and we came back at the middle of the afternoon to our hotel, ready to enjoy the swimming pool and recover from our previous night.

Day 2: AMMAN – MADABA – MONT NEBO – KERAK – PETRA

The second day was synonym of moving from Amman to Petra, without letting aside the opportunity to stop to some nice spots along the road.

All started in Madaba and its enormous ceramic map covering the territories from Egypt to Syria.

Not forgetting the sources of the monotheist religions, our second stop was made at Mont Nebo, where Moses saw the Promised Land and, finally, we discovered Kerak and its dominating castle on the king road.

The journey to Petra leaded us through the desert and along the dead see.

The journeys by car where synonyms of incredible views over the different landscapes covering this land: mainly the desert and the mountains. From north to south, two main road exist; one, the king road, crossing the dessert for centuries on the way from Riad to Damacus; one, the Dead sea road, chilling around the Jordan and the Dead see (the border to Israel) from Tiberian lake to the Red Sea).

We rest in the evening enjoying the panoramic view of the sunset over Petra.

Day 3: PETRA

This day was fully dedicated to one of the world new seven wonders: Petra.

Petra, more than the Treasurer, most famous building shown in all book and many films, is a huge complex built through the ages which welcomed till 30000 inhabitants. It is spread within the mountains and count with many temples and tombs dig in the rocks but also of some constructions (mostly from the roman time).

Going around the site took us 7 hours under the sun but every corner is bringing its surprise and makes it worth to make.  But better than words, you are invited to discover the pictures in our gallery 🙂

Day 4: PETRA – WADI RUM- AQABA

Another pearl of Jordan is the desert at Wadi Rum, enjoying the colours of the sand, the constructions in the rocks and the rides in an empty land. Despite that the best way to enjoy it is to spend a night over, what we couldn’t do, we had a nice time and didn’t miss the camel ride (1^st time ever for Denisa) enjoying 45min under the sun :-).

The day finished in Aqaba, standing in the Red Sea and doing some souvenirs shopping in the souks. As most of the evenings, we also enjoyed to refresh ourselves at the swimming pool.

Day 5: AQABA – DEAD SEA – BETHANY – AMMAN

Waking up with the sun, this day brought us back to Amman a few hundreds kilometres back to north. On our way, we’ve stop in a Dead Sea resort centre to discover this curiosity of floating over salty water. It’s pretty funny to be sitting feet and hands of the water 🙂

After a couple of hours in the water, we jumped into a pool to get off the salt and moved to Bhetani, bless spot for the Christians, where was made the christening. The place was close on arrival, but some exchanges with the entry guy and the site was reopening for us.

To note, since our second day, Ramadan started resulting in having all the restaurants empty, the sites closing earlier, etc. Together with it, Jordan peak seasons for tourists are before and after the heat of summer. It didn’t impact us much; at the contrary, it just emptied the different places and allowed us to enjoy them fully out of the tourism masses.

Day 6: AMMAN – DESERT CASTLES – AMMAN

After the north, the south and the west; came the east and the direction of Iraq. From Amman onward, it is just made of a sandy and rocky dessert with, time to time, some small cities and, along the journey, some castles. After a morning dedicated to discover the Amman historical fortress and the roman amphitheatre, we took the road to discover some of those desert castles. Discovering interesping places and facing some questions about their utility when being in the middle of nowhere 🙂 We also faced some small sand twisters.

Day 7: AMMAN

Here came our last day in this country, ride of our driver and guide, we decided to take this time for us, resting some in the morning and going downtown to visit the souk in the afternoon.

It was also synonym of stepping out from the touristic paths and meeting the people in the street.

And finally came the night and our transit to the airport for the journey back home the head full of sun and souvenirs 🙂

We are grateful to everyone who participated in this trip and allowed us to discover this beautiful country.

Happily ever after 🙂

PS: Don’t forget to take a look at the gallery 🙂

Willing to celebrate our wedding out of time and reality, we have set a small first honeymoon to the eternal city: Roma.

Writer comment: we are on board, flying back to Belgium, it’s the perfect time to tell you about our odyssey.

Kindly dropped at the airport on Monday 7^th March 2011 early morning, the week  raised together with our landing at Campino airport, a bus and a metro later, we were exiting Termini station, main city hub, and facing our first door to history with the Terme di Diocleziano. Just around the corner, landing to another historical spot: Piazza della Reppublica; there it is, Roma is not counting with history; Roma is history. There is no blanks, no empty spaces, each quarter, each street reveals its surprises. Roma is the city of excess, the things are not big, they are huge, the quantity is not high, it’s unlimited, the non-respect of the rules is not an exception, it’s a fact 🙂

It’s interesting to note the difficulty to make the difference between the different periods the mix being permanent.

After a stop at the hotel to drop our bags, the time came to discover one of the new 7 world wonders: the Coliseum and next to it, the Palatine Hill and the Forum, center of the roman life for centuries. The words to describe those spots, as the following might miss in reality such those places are amazing and their density is high, we invite you to discover them in our photo gallery… or in live 🙂 (in which case, we recommend the Roma Pass… the best way to shortcut the long queues).

Happy of this meeting with history but tired of the short night, we jumped to our hotel to set our room and discover the in-room Jacuzzi as the honeymoon is also a time to relax and spend time together ;-).

Nevertheless, the evening was well loaded, fetching the metro back to Coliseum, to enjoy the building by night (but why where there ads and not those beautiful normal lights!???), walking along the vio dei Fori Imperali to the Piazza de Venizia and the impressive …., chilling to the master piece which is the Fontana di Trevi (from Tre vie, the 3 roads),  sliding along Quirinale, the President palace, crossing the Piazza della Repubblica and the termes to arrive to a little restaurant close to our hotel.

Writer comment: I take a minute to enjoy the Alps, always beautiful from the sky.

Believe it or not, we were back to the Jacuzzi in the evening 🙂

After some rest and a large breakfast, the 2^nd day started as it finished, walking 🙂

From the hotel to the Borghese gardens, passing by the Porta Pia, were we relaxing time enjoying to place. A stop at the Piazzale Flamino, in way of the Pizza Spagna and its famous steps, a quick look by day at the Fontata de Trevie on our way to the Pantheon and its world unique dome, the Piazza de Venizia (by day), the Piazza de Argentina to finish at the Piazza Navona where was held the Roman Carnival set around the Commedia del’Arte. I would be incomplete if not mentioning the tasty ice-creams enjoyed together.

Willing to assist to the main part of the Carnival on Piazza del Popolo, we walked back to it crossing twice the Tiber river the time to visit the Palazzo di Giustizia, the Plazza Cavour (under reconstruction) and the August Memorial.

Despite our idea to stay to the end of the animation to enjoy the firework, we took the metro back to the hotel, the Jacuzzi and a restaurant in the neighborhood (btw, do you know that putting shampoo in a Jacuzzi generate an interesting soap invasion!??? 🙂 🙂 🙂

The third day is the only one, targeting to visit the Vatican and Saint Peter’s basilica, we’ve accepted, after some haggling, a beater to convince us to join a group. This was a good idea which, despite a series of information about everything allowed us to shortcut twice 2 hours line.

Entering Vatican is, first of all crossing the border of the world smallest and possibly richest country (0,44km²), going around the museums is facing the finest pieces of art of all times, moving from palaces to palaces to arrive to the Chapel Sistine (which even Word dictionary knows) and the work of Michel-Angelo.

An interesting comment from the guide, among others, the romans respected so much the Greek culture and history that they never took them, but copied them… which is not the case with the others (such as Egyptian).

From the chapel, a back door is allowing the group (and only them) to enter directly the Saint Pieter’s basilica, the world largest church, and the square facing it; both being from another reality. When looking at them, the perspective is making them having human size… but when looking at human within the picture, they might not be the good reference 🙂  

A 5 hours visit later, we exit this holy country and transit to the Castel Angelo (unexpected association) to catch a bus back to Piazza de Venizia and one of the oldest museums in the world: the Capitol and its antique collections. On the journey back to the hotel, we made a stop at the Circo Maximo, a bit disappointing to see the largest roman monument nearly not existing anymore.

Understanding my wife comments about too long walks (oups 🙂 ), the time came to take the metro back to the hotel and our usual evening programme.

Thursday, the last day is already showing is head. Time to pack and to transit to the airport but not without enjoying a few last spots: the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, the Piazza Vittorio and the Basilica Santo Giovanni in Laterano, former seat of the Pope.

We are now flying back home where we’ll continue preparing our wedding and our next excursions around the world.

Ci vediamo tutti

Antoine

Bip bip, 8am, sun is rising in Belgium and so do we for one day not ordinary.
Indeed, today… we are getting married :-))))) and, despite that it is “only” the legal wedding with our direct relatives, this day will be grabbed in marble for eternity and over!
As every celebration day, all started by getting ready. 10 minutes for the groom, 1 hour for the bride 😉
Groom comment: browsing the picture you will see how incredibly beautiful is the bride (and how incredibly lucky I’m).
Once ready, we joined the rest of our families at the City Hall of Braine l’Alleud, not forgetting to get some flowers and some ivy for luck :-).
Following a Czech tradition, the flowers were offered to our parents kneeing and asking for their blessing… a surprise and a big moment of emotion according to their tears 😉
Without break, came the official ceremony nicely conducted by Chantal Vermissen and kindly translated to Czech by Olga.
It is not without happiness that we’ve exchanged our yes 🙂
To also thank Martin who, smiling and waddling, brought us our rings.
The rest of the day was spent to Antoine’s parents around some good food, some games and music.
Now, we are looking forward to enjoying our -first- honeymoon to Roma and to celebrating it with you in July 🙂
Antoine & Denisa