italy - at sea - home

our ferry in venice was a bit late so we dont know if we will reache patras on friday in time to be able to drive to our ferry from pireus on friday night at 19:00, we will see !

we were early in ancona and left after fuelling shortly before 15:00 (greek times) so maybe we will reach patras in time.

the boat is nearly empty, so we sit and relax and eat and drink in our warm cabin, drink a cup of coffee in the bar ...

once in a while taking toffie outside for his nescessary WC outings, trying not to let him fly away in the strong winds on deck!

we arrived on time (13:00) in patras and went along the corinth bay with continuously improving weather. a clear blue sky and temperatures around 15 degrees accompanied us at the bridge across the corinth canal (isthmus), where coşkun was able to help a fish survive, that stayed on the bridge when it had went down under the water just before we arrived there, by throwing it back in the sea.

just after 17:00 hours we arrived at the harbour of pireus (peiraias) and checked-in on the bluestar 2 that will bring us to kos tonight, it happens to be the same boat (and the same cabin) as we had a year ago travelling from pireus to chios that time!

a full moon accompanied us on quiet seas.

now drinking coffee in kos, in a place with internet (at last!) waiting for our afternoon ferry to bodrum. temperatures are very nice here, 17 degrees. 

back home it is 10 degrees inside and the heating is not working! and it is weekend, so we have to wait until monday to find somebody to help with our heating system!

venezia arrivederci !

today we went from venezia punta sabbioni to venezia fusina under a clear blue sky; the weather was nice but turned very cold in the evening.
our minoan ferry will not start in trieste but in venice, we got a message that it changed from 1-1-2017 on and the boat will come to the new terminal in venezia fusina.
a positive surprise but everything is brandnew in this corner of venice !

we went there and saw that the office will open at 22:00 hours!

so we went driving and walking in the vicinity (happend to be ca sabbioni and malcontenza) and after many coffee stops we had a (surprisingly expensive but nice) diner at a trattoria (which opened at 19:30) near the terminal.

venice islands

today island hopping day in the laguna of venice :

burano (colourfull & lace), murano (glass), san michel / cimiterio (cemetary) and lido.

italy venezia

today we went with the ferry to the center of venice.

first we visited san marco, rialto and the canal grande.

and we walked through the streets and admired the canals, houses (ca), people (ladies in fur) and toffie looked at his type of living beings.

to be able to be inside the ferry (vaporetto) toffie had to wear his special mouth piece.

we hopped a bit around with the ferries and then returned to san marco.

italy veneto

in cold but beautiful weather we drove from our appartment near como to our appartment in venice punta sabbione today. passing milan we tried to see something of the centre, but that was not so easy because to find a parking place near the inner centre, near the places to be seen, proved impossible.

 

in punta sabbioni / cavallino treponte we drove around and did some shopping, which was astonishing cheap, and then went 'home' to prepare our diner. 

italy

we left a grey, clowdy and cold konstanz, but the weather was still dry (the forecast is snow coming in the afternoon) so we had a comfortable drive today.

we started with -5 and sometimes -6 but after zürich the sun was coming and after the gotthard pass the snow was gone, the scenery was green again and the temperature started to rise to +3, not much but in the sun it was nice.

we looked at the many lakes we were passing by and had a coffee stop in como.

 

then we drove on for some 20km to the small village where we will stay tonight. and after check-in in our lovely appartment in luisago andrate we went to eat in the surprisingly excellent ristorante da pino in cucciago.

schaffhausen & stein am rhein

the weather is getting colder but with next to nothing snow or rain. from our room in hotel centro in konstanz near the station, we can just see a little bit of the bodensee and the blue sky.

today we will go sight-seeing in schwitzerland. first we go to schaffhausen, where the rhein makes a jump : 

rheinfall with some waterfalls.

we looked at the water, had a walk around and a cup of coffee, then we went to stein am rhein.

 

 

in stein am rhein there are very many objects to make a picture of, all houses are special here. but it is icy cold (now in the afternoon approx. -5) so after a quick walk around and a nice quiche with coffee and tea we go back to konstanz.

frauenfeld & winterthur

 

 

in a snowstorm we went the short stretch to frauenfeld and there first had a look at the old house where the dadak family lived and then at their primary and secondary schools.

 

 

when we went to the centre the sun starthed shining.

then we went to winterthur to the house of okan & ciğdem and their young girls, who were mostly playing in the snow of their backyard.

 

after some telephone calls we learned that old friend nevim lived in the same house as before so we went back to frauenfeld to visit them.

donaueschingen & konstanz

 the weather forcast changed constantly, so we did not wake up in a white world and there was no rain or snow; it was dry and there would be snow in the afternoon.
so we took off early and went to the black forest (schwarz wald), and our first stop after some windy high roads, was in donaueschingen, the place where the danube is born.

 

we had our coffee in a typical german bierstube (fürstenberg) and looked at the donau quelle.

 

then we went down to konstanz on the bodensee, where we had a lot of time to look around the town, the shopping centre and had a ride with the bus (in the snow) which are free during our stay, because our hotel centro gave us tickets.

and ... we walked shortly into kreutzlingen (switzerland), easy because the border is just 50m from our hotel and open now, so gönül reentered switzerland after sooo many years, and we remembered other times when it was not so easy and very expensive for coşkun to do this!

 

and we ate nice fishes at fisch & fröhlig.

colmar

through a white winter landscape we went from belgium to the alsace in france,

in colmar we checked-in in our hotel and walked through the romantic altstadt.

 

2016 - 2017

after very fast and happy days in zeeland we started with our return journey on 2-1-2017.

bye bye jeannette and weidezoom!

first we had to show turkey near sluis to our family and we visited there also the nice family that made a nl-tr  museum of their house !

then we went on to bruxelles, 

where we walked around the groote markt and had a look at manneken pis (christmas version).

and then we went on in cold and foggy weather to leignon / ciney half an hour south of namur / namen, where we stay in the nice b&b les cresses and had a chinees diner from fa lay!