What's up

April was too hot, May is too wet. But we still manage to have a day without rain and what could be more satisfying than hiking among gorgeous wildflowers...

 

 

Oh, and after many years (twenty, thirty ... who knows) the local sailing club organised a regatta in the city centre. Optimists :-)

The kids were cute, though.

34 km!

During the second world war, my hometown was encircled by barbed wire. As a symbol of remembrance, a wonderful walking path has been arranged that follows the route of where the wire used to be.

Every year in the first weekend in May, a traditional recreational walk takes place, 33 kilometer long (34 this year due to a detour). About 15% of the city's population participates in one way or another, and this is just amazing.

I never really thought about taking part - until about two weeks ago. I loved the idea and today I did it. The full circle!

Do I need to say my legs hurt?

Arco, again...

I've tried to count the number of times I've been to Arco (Lago di Garda).
I can not.

Despite being there so often, we still manage to find places we've never been to. Or take photographs of the same old thing in a different way. That's one of the reasons why we keep coming back.

 Castello di Arco

  
Sentiero panoramico da Busatte a Tempesta

Monte Baldo

The after-party

Returning home from a journey isn't quite the end yet. One still has to sort all the photos, the tickets and postcards, maybe even make a Google Earth visualisation of the tour ... send the photos to other participants!

It's about time I start finishing my Lycian journey that I did in May.

But it's not an easy task!

Just what I needed!

I'm not being lazy and therefore not posting ... on the contrary, I've been travelling!

:-)

What a difference ...

...  three years make!

Three years ago I was leaving my footprints in the deserts of Jordan, now I'm leaving my footprints in my hometown.

So different and yet so similar.

... and Wave Goodbye

Wave Goodbye to my old pair of pairs of shoes!
If you know me, you must know my old Tevas. I have two pairs and have worn them since... 1997? simply because these are THE most comfortable, useful, multi-purpose, April-October shoes. They are literally falling apart but I'm not throwing them away just yet as the new ones aren't as perfect as the old ones were.


These shoes have been on five continents, I've walked in them in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean, Yellow and Red, Dead and Med Sea and probably some more I cannot even name, crossed several rivers and lakes, climbed mountains, walked on the snow and in the deserts. I wish I knew how many thousands of kilometers I've walked in them, but there surely were quite a lot.

And you can imagine my surprise when I found a VERY similar pair of shoes in a museum in a remote village in the middle of High Atlas mountains in Morocco:


I should add that when I was in Morocco, mine were exactly the same colour as these ones in the museum. I have, however, washed mine recently. Anwyay, it will be strange to have a different sun-tan pattern on my feet after fourteen years...

Arabic writing

Well, Faux Arabic writing. I've spent quite some time figuring out how to write something that would look like Arabic without being Arabic. I think I managed it quite successfully.





I definitely fooled my cousin, who started reading the text from right to left (-:

My absence is excused!