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Author: Hanneke

I started my first blog when I left the Netherlands (my home country) for an internship in Alaska in 2004, to keep my friends and family updated on my adventures over there. Little did I know it would be more than 13 years before I'd move back to the Netherlands! I spent a year in Toulouse (France) before starting a PhD in meteorology at the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UK) in 2005. That's when I started this current blog, first in Dutch but I soon switched to English. I really enjoyed life in the UK, and was actually planning to stay there after my PhD, but "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans" and I ended up moving to Tromsø in Northern Norway in 2009. Tromsø is a photographer's dream, surrounded by spectacular mountains, with the light ever changing from the midnight sun in summer to the dark days compensated by aurora-filled nights in winter. I learnt Norwegian and got a job as a weather forecaster - I got thrown in at the deep end, doing radio interviews and speaking with fishermen with way-too-strong dialects straight from the beginning, before I was anywhere near fluent in Norwegian :D I survived though, and slowly started to do some research on the side. I got more and more involved in research projects and in August 2015 I moved 2000 km south, to Oslo where I started working 100% as a researcher. A year after moving to Oslo, I met Michiel at a music festival in Brussels :) and we started to travel very frequently between Oslo and Rotterdam, where he lives. You can't do that forever though, and I soon realized I found the perfect "excuse" to finally move back home, something I had been considering many times before. So since July 2017, I'm living in Rotterdam! I'm actually taking some time off before finding a new job, and I'm looking forward to lots of adventures in the near future - so stay tuned!
Rail Journey through Switzerland Part 1: Luzern

Rail Journey through Switzerland Part 1: Luzern

My dad is crazy about trains, he is always watching documentaries about train journeys on tv – most of them filmed in Switzerland. My mum is not that interested (“all these trains look the same” 😉 ), so I always told him that I’d take him on a train journey after his retirement. He retired last year, and a few weeks ago we boarded a train from Amsterdam with destination Basel! I originally wanted organize the trip all by myself, but my dad found a perfect trip in a brochure from a train-travel agency which included all the places we wanted to visit, with all hotel bookings taken care of. Easy!

Our train to Basel was delayed, but they caught up on the lost time during the journey. We traveled first class and had a compartment all to ourselves – luxury! The journey went smoothly, and before we knew it, we were in Luzern! We checked in to our hotel, then walked to the centre to see if we could catch a boat trip with our train pass. We found out that the pass was valid on all crossings, and a roundtrip was leaving in 5 minutes – perfect! It was really nice to enjoy Lake Lucerne from a boat, in beautiful sunny weather.

Luzern from the boat View during our boat trip

After 2 hours we were back in Luzern and we walked to the old town to have dinner. It’s really pretty… with the famous bridge and a lot of decorated old buildings.

The beautiful old town of Luzern The famous bridge in Luzern

After a really nice pasta meal outside, we walked back to the hotel in beautiful evening light. What a perfect first day!

The bridge in the evening light View from the bridge itself

The next morning we borrowed bikes from our friendly hotel, and set out to explore more of Luzern. It was a quiet Sunday morning and we stumbled upon this open-air concert near the water…

The promenade along lake Lucerne A free outdoor concert on Sunday morning - how nice!

We had lots of fun people-watching!

The concert was a perfect place for people watching :) this old man dancing on his own was so cute Love her style! I am always amazed by stylish old ladies where everything matches - from blouse to handbag to socks ;)

After a while we continued cycling along the lake, until we came to the Swiss Museum of Transport. I had been there once before and was really impressed, so I thought my dad would enjoy it too. We both did, and we spent the rest of the day at the museum. It’s huge, and has lots of exhibitions on trains, boats, cars, bikes, planes… whatever you can think of really. We even got to test drive electric bicyles and an electric car (wow, so quiet!), and pretend to be a weather forecaster on tv… hey maybe I should become a weather forecaster when I grow up 😛

Playground at the museum, in the background a whole building covered in traffic signs My dad the weatherman

The next day the weather had changed to rain and low clouds. We took the Golden Pass Line to Interlaken. A lot of the trains in Switzerland have these huge windows, it’s really nice to have such an open view.

Enjoying the panoramic view on the Golden Pass Line Sometimes it felt like you were passing straight through peoples backyards

According to our itinerary, we should stay on the train until Interlaken, our destination. We decided to get out at Brienz though, and see if we could cross from there to Interlaken by boat with our train pass. It was raining heavily when we arrived, but when we came out from the supermarket where we bought lunch, it was dry and we went for a walk along the lake while waiting for our boat.

A statue on the shore of Lake Brienz Lake Brienz seen from Brienz :)

We were in luck: the next boat to depart was a steam paddler – the DS Lötschberg. With our first class tickets, we had the top part of the boat all to ourselves. It was a beautiful crossing, and the sun even came out at times. The colour of lake Brienz is truly spectacular!

My dad on the paddle steamer The colour of the lake was so pretty!

My dad spent most of the time inside though, where you can look through a large hole in the floor at the steam engine in operation…

Steam engine at work Steam engine at work

It’s so relaxed to travel by boat – we really enjoyed it. After arriving in Interlaken, we waited until the DS Lötschberg departed again, so we could get a photo from the shore 🙂

The view from our (covered) seats on top... what a way to travel :) The DS Lötschberg on its way back to Brienz

Stay tuned for part 2 of our Swiss Railway Journey: Interlaken 🙂

Tverrfjellet on a Rainy Day

Tverrfjellet on a Rainy Day

This weekend it rained, and rained, and rained… Luckily not as much as it did in the border region (further inland), where they got more rain in one day than they normally get in all of July – 60 mm! Lots of rivers flooded, you can see a photo series here. In Tromsø we “only” got 23 mm, but that was more than enough 😉 On Sunday we were really fed up of the bad weather, and when it looked SLIGHTLY better, we decided to go hiking.

Of course the rain started halfway through our drive to the start place, and it was very windy too. It took some courage to finally leave the warm car 😉 but we managed to drag ourselves into the rain and wind and up the mountain. The first part was tough because of the weather and the steep terrain, but once we reached the first top (Tverrfjellet has two), it finally stopped raining. Even the wind calmed down a bit, which made the rest of the trip a lot more pleasant 🙂

Paul on top of Tverrfjellet The cairn and impressive clouds View towards Sessøya

Paul tried to fly his kite, but there was either no wind at all, or it was too turbulent Tverrfjellvatnet, still partly frozen

Quite a different view from my two previous trips to Tverrfjellet – once on a nice summer day and once on a clear (but dark) winter day, but it was still beautiful! I’m a bit of a good-weather-hiker but in Tromsø the summer has very variable weather and you can’t always have it all 🙂

Northern Norway at its Best

Northern Norway at its Best

Last night we drove to Sommarøy where we climbed Ørnfløya, a ti-på-topp peak which is only 160 m high but possibly has the best view of them all 🙂 It was our third visit to Ørnfløya, but this view never gets boring!

The small lake near the top of Ørnfløya Panorama looking at Sommarøy (far right) and Brensholem (on the left)

Panorama of Brensholmen, the ferry just departed towards Senja (the island in the background)

Afterwards we decided to have a cup of tea on the beach that we spotted in the panorama above. A really nice place, and it was sheltered from the wind too.

Old cabin near the beach Lovely beach at Brensholmen

Unfortunately the mosquitos are quite active lately, so after a while we got fed up of getting bitten and we decided to drive home. We didn’t get very far though, as the views were just TOO beautiful and we stopped for another break in the scenic little village of Bogen.

A jetty at Bogen, taken at about 23:00 This is truly Northern Norway at its very best... (almost) midnight sun, the fjord like a mirror and the only sound are seagulls and the splashes of jumping fish

It was such a beautiful evening that you just don’t want to go home – I really wished we had a tent with us, but unfortunately we both had to work the next morning 😉

Paul on on the jetty View from the jetty... I just couldn't stop taking photos!

A panorama image of Bogen…

Panorama of Bogen

We came home at half past midnight, but evenings like this are worth a lack of sleep 🙂