Nord Rhein Westfallen - 1

Finally I could surpass my lazyness and produce a post about my sabbatical stay at Dortmund in the German state of Nord Rhein Wesfallen (NRW). I arrived at the 7th November, a surprisingly sunny day, as shown in the first picture I took here:

(Wolf Gasthaus - my current place in a quite neighborhood close to the university)

The first weekend was also globally bearable and it was spent travelling to nearby cities, taking advantage of the free rides if accompannied by a student with a pass. So, Porkodi (PhD student) and me went to Bochum, Mulheim an der Ruhr, Dusseldorf, Wetter and Essen:

(inside the lovely city park in Bochum)

(in the same area, the attractive planetarium)

(The Ruhr as seen from Mulheim an der Ruhr)

From Wetter and Essen I didn't take any picture worth showing. From Dusseldorf, the capital of NRW, I have a lot of them. So it wil be the topic of the next post. Bis dann!

Miyajima / Hiroshima

To reach my last destination in Japan, Hiroshima, I took the famous shinkansen (bullet train) (in the image) in the morning. The ride was quite smooth, confortable and fast but surely also expensive.




Once in the Hiroshima station I left the luggage in a safe locker and took the tram and then ferry to the lovely island of Miyajima. I guess this was my favourite place in Japan. Temples and the famous red tori gate (next image) at the beach side, pleasant walks, plenty of vegetation and a kind of deers walking loosely on the streets. Went also for the ropeway through the jungle up to mount Misen peak where I could enjoy wonderfull views of the Interior Sea and the islands. It was really a memorable afternoon.

(red tori gate seen from shore at dusk)


(view from the top of mout Misen)

(this fellow followed me for a few minutes while I was having some snack...)

The next morning, before getting back to the Kansai airport in Osaka, went for a visit at the peace memorial park in Hiroshima. In this place we have no choice but to think over the 1945 event. The memorial is at the detonation place and the traces left together with simple imagination produced a deep sadness feeling. Earlier than planned I went away to the station....

(The atomic bomb dome, was right below the detonation at 800 m height. Somehow this structure was intact and left as was. Such an undignifying way to win a war!!)

Kyoto

I was in Kyoto for 2 very hot and humid days and these conditions made the mobility lower. Even so I could try some very japanese experiences such as relaxing in an Onsen (hot spring) after an exhausting day (in the following picture I'm preparing to enter the male's outdoor pool of vulcanically hot and sulfurous water). I really felt relaxed there in the company of some japanese. One of the rules is totally naked and clean before going inside the pool.

This (up) is a very nice spot with the restaurant terrace lights along the river. I could not find many spots like this one though, which could remind the tradicional Japan. One of the things I enjoyed was to take the philosophers walk, a very pleasant tree-and-water path with old houses, nice shops and many temples along the way.

(one of the shops along the philosophers walk)

(a friendly guy making the philosophers walk easier to a tourist)

Himeji castle

Ohayo gozaimass!!

Here am I for the latest news! At the fifth and last day in Kobe the conference organization took us to the superb Himeji castle which has never been taken by enemies, so carefull was its defense planned. We were guided to the top by someone who knows all the facts and it was very interesting. Everything was used as defense means even the toilette sink wastes which they used to throw on top of invaders. My advice however is to come to Japan on April-May since the Summer is perhaps too hot and humid and a relatively short walk like this visit made everyone exhausted.
Well, next stop at Kyoto!

Kobe after a good night sleep.

As I expected, some good moments in Kobe resulted after meeting two local couchsurfers (for those who don't know, these are people willing to help, show around or even accomodate travellers at their hometown). Yesterday evening with Shuichi I visited the Chinatown, the Harbour area (where a very interesting traditional Japanase dance festival was being held) and finally we had Japanese dinner (in a Izakaya restaurante, where you take off the shoes, seat at a low height table and order several dishes to share) where I even tried sashimi (sort of sushi without rice) though I'm not a fan of raw fish. Here are some pics:

(the dance festival at the harbor)

(after taking off the shoes at the restaurant, stored them inside a locker and kept the key)

(one of the delicacies that I tried)

Today with Aya I went for a visit to a Sake brewery and learned a bit about the drink and a lot about the related food such as apetizers or sake sweats and cakes in their shop. Thankfully I had Aya to explain me about everything on display at the shop since nothing was recognizable by the look of it. Could also try free sake samples, many different types, but in general this is a very smooth drink where the 16% alcohol is hardly noticeable. A very tasting and interesting lunch of Japanese food followed (watch the movie)



(sake)

(This had to shown in video. Part of the food was alive! can you see that?)

From Japan without sleeping!

Hello my friends!

This post is written in Kobe. A long journey to get here, started yesterday at 5 am in Porto and ended today at 9 am local and now I'm restraining myself from falling asleep in the hotel before the night comes. The temperature outside is suffocating (>30ºC) and the city around the hotel is mainly concrete, malls and a lot of busy people on the streets. However at evening I'll have a local guide, a couchsurfer, to show me around, and then more interesting photos should follow.

(view from my window)

(this pastry, which not that usual in Portugal, here is totally IN. I guess we're exotic people to their eyes. Also interesting, at the ATMs the foreign languages available are English and Portuguese?!!)

Innsbruck and Lucerne / The Alps

Innsbruck and Lucerne were the last two multi-night stops. Then it was time to get the direction of Porto and a after a few one-night stops (Lyon, Perigueux and San Sebastian) we finally arrived home!!!

I'm now in the process of selecting some photos of the Alps and the cities............be back soon.....

Rothenburg ob den Tauber / Romantic road

Rothenburg was undoubtably one of the highlights of this trip. Besides a considerable improvement in weather, the place, extremely touristed, made honour to its fame. It is a very well preserved medieval town (partially reconstructed due to the 2nd WW bombings) with an interesting history that we could get to know during the guided tour with the night watchman.
Maybe the pictures in this post may give an impression but seeing and feeling the real one is unmatchable.

(evening view)

(a typical view inside)

(the night watchman gathering people at the main square)
(night watchman guided tour)

Sauerland / Dortmund

The next stop on this caravan tour was at the lake Hennesee in Meschede, part of the beautifull Sauerland. The spot was chosen so as to be close to Dortmund where we met Porkodi for a deliver of warm clothes and of course to enjoy her company for a while. Also this is the place where I'm coming for a research period during my sabbatical relief to work with her and an international group of chemists. The city center is quite dull but I've been told that the Campus and surroundings are much more pleasant. Hope so!

Anyway, the main problem has been the rain and cold and so it's decided that the next stop will be in the south near Rothenburg.
(by the time I'm writting this post I've already been to and leave to Innsbruck). Will report asap.

Cottessen

Now I'm at Cottessen in Holland. It is very close to Aachen (DE) and Maastricht. The camping site lies in a wonderfull nature area and in fact this is was the major point of interest of this stage.

The belgian border is only 500 meters away and in fact the GPS insisted that we'd cross it through a bike road and we just folowed his will untill we found ourselves in front of a 1 meter wide bike road, 100 meters from Holland, and had no choice but unattaching the caravan and manually manouver to take the way back. Fortunately we had help from some guys (germans I think) that even spoked some portuguese as they own a house in Coimbra. Incredible how these unlikely encounters really happen!! After finally reaching the camping site using a normal road I took my bike and managed to find that road to enter Belgium. Biking these paths was such a delight!

Aachen and Maastricht didn´t really impress me (specially the later).