It is not my intention to belittle 2010, but for me it was kind of the B-year ... There was a lot of *Babies (of friends) * BALI! – summer 2010 *Ballet - didn’t I go to the Swan Lake at the Luxor? *Banks - weren’t they a lot in the news? *Bed: I spent some days sick in bed * BILBAO - Autumn 2010 *Burka ban (proposals) * BOLOGNA - New Year’s 2010/2011! *Boysenberry – the exception that confirms the rule ... What about Bali, Bilbao, and Bologna? Find below a random bundle of highlights: * @Bali - The Blanco museum, buildings for sacred doings (temples), beauty spas (massages), bars, burning (cremation), beaches, and bonanza. * @Bilbao - Bay of Biscay, Brilliant architecture, Bravo Guggenheim!, Basque (and bask) food, white bridge (zubizuri), and shopping ... read more

Hi there, How are you all enjoying the summer (or the winter for you guys the other side of the hemisphere)? Soon I will be back at work so I decided to update my blog before being immersed in my job tasks. What have I been up to the last 2 months? Well, I was in Portugal in July where I could enjoy the Atlantic coast of Alentejo, the region above the touristiest region of Portugal, the Algarve. The coast of Alentejo is lovely: there is no mass foreign tourism, and even for the Portuguese, the adherence is mild (except in August: where thousands of young people come to the Sudoest Pop Festival!). This is no surprise because the Alentejo region itself has low density qua inhabitants, so no highways give direct access to the coast. ... read more

... like the old book says ... Ok, I admit it, I am a little bit in a gloomy mood, I guess is not the best time to write my BLOG: God knows what I might end up writing!*(**) There is a time to look for something and a time to stop looking for it I guess. Sometimes it is right in front of us, but we are so in the look-for-something/ (more) mode, that we do not realise that the time to stop searching has arrived. But well, let me talk about less dramatic things. I went to the island of Bonaire! For who does not know, it is a diving paradise by excellence, and one of the A(ruba)-B-C(Curacao) Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean sea J Initially I planned to go to the island of ... read more

My autumn was anything but monochromatic: it was full of trips of many colours … and short sizes (mostly combined with work). I tasted a 4,5 euros (!) cappuccino at Thessalonica’s boulevard … of course I stayed there for as much time as possibly staring at the sun with my Silhouette sun glasses getting a return of my money in vitamin D stocks, while drinking the water that accompanied it. Talking about glasses: what do the Danish Queen Margrethe and Elton John have in common? They both wear Lindberg glasses! I visited Oxford, including Christ Church College, but remind me of dear Cambridge instead of Harry Potter (don’t say it out loud - after all you are only supposed to mention the 2 cities together when talking about Varsity competitions and alike) I also went to ... read more

Përshëndetje! (just learned how to greet in Albanian ;-) By definition it is summer, but there is not much of it to be seen in the low lands … except on 13th of April, the day of Rotterdam’s marathon, which had to stop after 26 marathoners were taken to hospital (fortunately the professionals had finish it already, so there were prizes to be hand over). I got though some sun in Portugal in May! I had the chance to ride in the new metro of Oporto, which goes till the airport! ( Nothing utterly especial, because that is how it should be – you may think- sorry to disappoint you but that’s quite some achievement, given that the equivalent has been ‘planned’ for Lisbon for the 98 Expo, and after almost 10 years, Lisbon’s metro ... read more