Ancient Skyscrapers, San Gimignano

One of the most unforgettable travel experiences for me is to see and to be in one of the most beautiful city in the world... San Gimignano, in Italy.

we bought this painting in one of the shops in San Gimignano

The Luberon ochre hills in Roussillon

" Welcome to the Ochre Foothpath! "your's truly :) enchanted by the ochres foothpath but still trying to be funny ;)

Bremerhaven July 2009

Bremen - in front of the "Rathaus" (town hall ) stands the big statue of Roland, the symbol of the Hanse ( trade organisation ) of 600 or 700 years ago. This statue and the "Rathaus" are under world cultural heritage. The main square of Bremen and the cathedral and "Böttcherstraße" are really worth visiting.

Zoo Am Meer - Bremerhaven - First time in my life i saw ice bear or polar bear, penguin, sea lions, and other exotic animals. I don't know so much about these animals but seeing them in my own eyes is really a nice experience, and i think in this zoo they are well taking care of.

Klimahaus and Congress center in Bremerhaven

Klimahaus - ( climatehouse) is an expedition on the 8th degree east where Bremerhaven is situated around the world. The climate and environment on the 8th degree longitude in examples is shown in Switzerland, Sardinia (Italy), Niger ( Africa), Cameroon ( Africa ), Ocean to Antartic, then South Pacific in Samoa, Alaska and then back to Bremerhaven. We felt the climate of each country on that expedition. Very interesting! - in the "Klimahaus" they also show about expeditions to Antartic and how the climate worldwide was before, is now and might be in the future. It's worth visiting this place.

Nordsee in Dunen - is called "Wattenmeer" it's a world natural heritage because it's unique here and some parts of Holland coast. It's unique because the mud and small "rivers" in Wattenmeer are home of a lot of sea creatures which feed birds. Walking in the mud is also good for rheumatism and other sickness.

Hannover, July 7,2009 last day of our short trip. We watched Simply Red's concert. It's amazing hearing his voice live. The songs are excellent and he gave four "Zugabe"! (more) of his famous songs.

That's our short trip in some part of Bremen and Bremerhaven and the concert ;) thanks and see you again! ;)

by: maricar

Abu Simbel

This is the temple of HATHOR - the temple is dedicated to Queen Nefertari, Ramses II's beloved wife. In this temple, the statues of Queen Nefertari is surprisingly equal to Ramses II's statues. This is unusual because most of the statues and bas reliefs of the Pharaoh's wife we saw in Egypt are small and either at the back of the Pharaoh holding his knees.

the temple was found by chance by Swiss Johann Ludwig Burckhardt on May 22,1813. And the Italian Giovanni Battista Belzoni found out the upper part of the door way and the main door on August1, 1817.

Pharaoh Ramses II ruled for a long time and built a lot of monuments which are still exist. On the 60's in the last century, German archeologists and enginners moved the whole temple to it's present site, so it will not be under the water level of this new artificial lakes, created by the big dam of river Nile.

Abu Simbel - lies 280 kilometers south of Aswan and from the north of Sudanese border it is only 40 kilometers away. It was already 9 o' clock in the morning when we reached Abu Simbel. There we saw the great temple of Ramses II.

photos and informations by: maricar

Christmas greetings

Michael and me are thankful to God for all the blessings He had given to us,and to our family... we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! From us here in Wolfenbüttel, DE.

Maricar and Michael Budde

Kapadokya, Turkey

Merhaba! greetings from Turkey! :)

Our 15 days holiday and travelling in Turkey is finished, yes only 15 days. Because when we went to the Consulate of Turkey in Hannover, they told us Filipinos like me only get 15 days of tourist visa to visit the country, it doesn't matter where you live it's the passport you are holding, and they say Philippines also give Turkey only 15 days to those from there to visit our country, whew! ok, that's politics. We wanted to stay longer like one to two weeks more.

We flew to Turkey on April 28, 2011 at Hannover, arrived at the Ataturk International Airport, Istanbul at 4:00 in the afternoon ( Turkish time ). We didn't waste time, after arriving at the airport, we took the Metro train to the big "Otogar" bus station in Istanbul. In Turkey it's so easy to travel by bus, there are many bus companies, and the fares are cheap and the busses are good. We bought our tickets to Göreme, Kapadokya. Took us 12 hours through the heavy traffic of Istanbul to the mountainous regions of central Turkey. Next morning, we arrived at Göreme center at 8:00 in the morning.

Göreme, Kapadokya ( Cappadocia ) - a small town but very beautiful because of it's "lunar" landscape. We found a cave/hotel not far from the center, it's cheap, clean, the people are friendly and the food is excellent! The weather was not too bad that day, bit cloudy also sunny and bit cool because Cappadocia is located at 1,300 meters high from above sea level. Although we are bit tired from a long journey, our excitement to explore the place made us forget about tiredness.

We first look around the town and then, went straight through the landscape and mountains. First we visit is the National Park, with huge and giant landscapes, I call " Asparagus" because it looks like it. Wandering in this park, it was an unforgettable experience for us. The beautiful wild flowers make the landscape even more beautiful. It's recommendable to visit the country in spring, when the temperature is not high. We walked and walked up and down, on paths in this unique place, fascinated by the rock formations. Took so many pictures, and when we felt that our bones, legs, back and feet are really aching we said, ok, enough! :) Went back to Göreme town and found a nice restaurant and had a lentil soup with lemon juice and chilli powder, and "Ekmek" ( traditional bread in Turkey) then later relax in our cave room and had anice dinner later in the evening. That was our first day in Cappadocia, exciting and tiring.

the two famous leaning bell towers of the world

Pisa, Italy - "Torre pendente di Pisa" or the tower of Pisa is famous for it's magnificent architecture and unfortunately it was close since 1990 it is continualy leaning because of "shifting oil" so, no chance for us when are there way back May-June 2007. It was a wonderful experience to see this amazing tower.

Suurhusen,Emden - one of the main reason to come in this place is the bell tower of Suurhusen. It is now recognized as the most titled leaning tower in the world. Although it's not so famous and beautiful like the Pisa tower in Italy. Sorry about the constuctions site in the photos, please visit wikipedia for more details.

it's up to you guys which do you prefer? the Pisa or the tower in Suurhusen?

photos are taken in Pisa, Italy and Suurhusen, DE by: Maricar

Ardeche, Northern Provence

Ardeche, Northern Provence France - entering the "province" of Provence ( that's why everywhere in the world there are provinces named after this state in France) first we came to one of the highlights there, the Gorge of the river Ardeche. In millions of years this beautiful landscape was formed by water.

Pont du Gard

Pont du Gard - is a Unesco World heritage Site, one of the well preserved three - tiered Roman aqueduct, built around 19 BC to bring water to a near by cities like Nimes. We walked for about 400m from the car park and pay later when we went out, cost 14 Euro but there's no need to pay extra for the entrance. There are souvenir shops, restaurants at the main entrance before we reached the Pont du Gard. Thousands of tourists from all over the world like us are fascinated by this amazing ancient architecture. Olive trees are planted around the bridge and all over the place, on hot summer time people enjoy swimming at the river Gard.

Budapest, Hungary

the Fisherman's Bastion


at the back of the Parliament


the Chain Bridge over the River Danube


the Matthias Fountain in Buda Castle

at the front of the Parliament


a view of the city from The Fisherman's Bastion



the Chain Bridge at night


michael's shot of the Chain Bridge at The Heroe's square











Budapest - Frau Matilda our tour guide said and explained to us in a funny but interesting way about the history of the Hungarian people. In the 9th Century 7 tribes of people from the center of Asia out of any reason, (who knows?) immigrated and found this hardly inhabitat place. Some Slavek people had been living there. They came to this place which was called " Pest" means fireplace in Slavik and the word "Buda" means the same in their language. Their leader of the 7 tribes , Atilla, decided to settle there. For centuries they kept their identity, their language until today. In the 19th century, they became proud to have their own State. Being surrounded by powerful Slavik and German Empires, they became part of the Austrian Empire that time. Middle of the 19th century, they became more powerful and decided to be on their own State. In that time Architecht and Artists and organizers and Politicians decided to build their own Hungarian Capital, Budapest. So what we can see today it's not very old, only about 150 years old. In 896 these seven tribes arrived in what is now Hungary. Whatever we see the cathedral, the Parlament, Basilica are all build 96 meters high, for their thousands anniversary in 1896.



Budapest one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. The capital city of Hungary, Budapest is the country's center principal of political, historical, culture, transportation and more. The bridges over the River Danube is a wonderful scenery in the city day and night. We also visited the Parlament a fascinating architecture, the Fisherman's Bastion and the St. Stephen's Basilica.