Tag: travel

Finally, we also visited Genève. The weather was definitely better and we could enjoy the sun. We ended up in a district whose architecture was quite striking. So I decided to share 3 pictures.

After München, we also visited Zürich. Unfortunately, the sky wasn’t the most clear in most days. Therefore not having the best pictures I was wishing for. Nevertheless, Zürich keeps amazing me and being one of my favorite cities.

A selection of four photos from a recent trip to München. In the park, I played a bit with a long exposure, to create the soft waterfall effect. I was also extremely intrigued with the people surfing in the river. I might’ve taken a bit too many photos. I hope I didn’t make anyone uncomfortable.

Last month I had the opportunity of visiting Engelberg, in Switzerland. During this small trip, I spent some quality time with my coworkers and took some pictures. Below are my favourites. I had to include two trains, because… why not?

Last weekend, Christiaan and I went to the Christmas Market in Aachen. The first time I went to a Christmas Market was in 2019, in Zurich, during a work trip. Until then, I did not even know that Christmas Markets were a thing. Since moving to The Netherlands, I’ve been wanting to visit one of these magical markets, but, unfortunately, Covid-19 made that impossible. Fortunately, last weekend we made that wish come true.

Traveling to Aachen from Eindhoven was quite straightforward, except for the fact that the railways between Heerlen and Aachen were in maintenance for that weekend only. How lucky! Nevertheless, there were replacement buses from Arriva that brought us to Aachen quickly.

In Aachen, I tried quite a few food items that I’ve never seen before. Namely, reibekuchen 🥔, interestingly shaped, yet amazingly delicious, pancakes 🥞, as well as some flammkuchen 🧅. All of these foods were very nice, especially enjoyed the pancakes and the flammkuchen.

Of course, among all these food, we also had some glühwein, both red and white. I have never seen white glühwein before, but it was quite nice. I also tried eierpunsch, which is quite delicious. I would just turn the notch down on the alcohol amount on that one 😅 And, finally, we also had some nice hot chocolates.

There were all kinds of things in the market, even though I expected it to be mostly food. That was a pleasant surprise. I bought a few gifts for my parents. I’m sure my mom would especially love going to a Christmas Market like this. I’m now in the process of convincing them to come next year around this time. The problem with it is the weather and how cold it is. But, as I told them, as long as it’s not raining a lot, the cold can be well mitigated with good clothes.

Looking forward for future Christmas Markets 🎄!

Update: yes, the mugs say 2023 and not 2022. Why? I don’t know. If you do know, please let me know!

In September, I traveled to Italy with my partner. Here are some of the pictures I took at the time, finally seeing the light of the day. I took many other pictures, and it is very hard to choose what to show. Italy is such a beautiful country. We visited Napoli, Roma, Firenze, Pisa, Venezia, Bologna, Milano and Bergamo.

Now that I’ve crossed the English Channel (or Canal da Mancha, in Portuguese) by train twice, I must say that it was a very nice experience. From Rotterdam to London, it takes approximately 3h30m, including a ~30 minutes stop in Brussels.

However, I also have some notes that may not apply to everyone: (1) it would be much quicker to get a flight directly from Eindhoven that takes 1h to get to London, (2) the security and border procedures at Rotterdam are quick, (3) the security and border procedures in London are a bit slower, (4) you need to be some time in advance at the station, just like the airport.

Nevertheless, it was a good experience and I would recommend it! It’s much more comfortable than a plane and better for the environment. Unfortunately, it’s also much more expensive! If you buy it in advance though, it can be worth it!