German by passport, home where I feel most alive
I fell in love with Hamburg. Nope, it wasn’t love at first sight.. only several years after my first visit it clicked between us. Sort of like being good friends for a while, keeping in touch every now and then, never losing the connection even if not seeing each other for some time and then comes that one day, when time and place are just perfect – crash, boom, bang! Hooked. Continue reading “Hamburg meine Perle”
It’s not a myth.. women are different to men. Probably in most aspects of life. I count travelling in, too. I think it’s safe to say that our travelling behaviour is very different compared to that of men. Yet, it feels like all aspects of a journey have been designed by men and are not women friendly at all. Continue reading “When Women Travel”
I just did it! I just went ahead and booked 3 nights in Budapest. All alone. There were two possible options of friends (living in Europe) who were thinking of joining me but in the end couldn’t make it. However, I told myself, if I wait for others to go with me, I’d wait forever – I guess that’s the downside of being single. On the other side.. if I think about it, my ex loved his TV shows or his sports (on TV mostly) too much to make a move on the weekend anyway, so it doesn’t really matter, I guess.
Anyway, I bought a mini travel guide called: “10 things to do in Budapest”, studied the map of Budapest to choose the best located hotel, booked a flight and had anxiety attacks for a few days before I left. Continue reading “Solotrip to Budapest”
A probably once in a lifetime opportunity was presented to me when I received an (almost) all-inclusive invite to the St Moritz Gourmet Festival 2016. One of Switzerland’s master chefs, Reto Mathis, who I had the pleasure of flying to South Africa for an event we sponsored last year, is the president/chairman of the above mentioned gourmet festival and invited me as his guest of honor to his event. Continue reading “St Moritz – Top of the World”
Wow! Bern was one of the surprises of our trip to Switzerland. Such a gem. So underrated.. or rather not known. It is a truly beautiful city. I’d like to come back and explore more of it, as we basically only spent half a day there. Continue reading “Welcome to Bern – the Swiss Capital”
My confession: I don’t know how to ski. I never even made it to a proper skiing resort for a holiday. I have always been the type of holiday maker that would rather chill in the sun by the beach than being active on the slopes ( to add: in the cold). Up until very recently. Continue reading “Saas-Fee: a magical winter wonderland”
The 24th September marks “Heritage Day”, a public holiday in South Africa. So, this year I decided to take the opportunity and go away for a long weekend. Why not Namibia.. It is close enough (so we thought at least) and since Namibia’s history is somewhat connected to my German heritage it was a good ankle why to chose it. Continue reading “Namib Desert: the land God created in anger – so they say”
Recently, I was thinking a lot of how we used to spend our holidays when I was a child. It seemed so easy. No social media, no pressure to make it to the most exotic destination, the best hotel or the most adventurous tours. Airplane tickets were way too expensive, even within Europe and especially for a family. The norm was to pack your car and off you went to the mediterranean coastline. Some of my friends went to France or Italy, we went to Spain. Camping was what most families did. Continue reading “#throwback to how holidays used to be”
I made it! To Zanzibar and to my first holiday on my own. The latter was both a conscious decision and a coincidence at the time of booking. For some time, the thought of going on a holiday just on my own with as many books as I can possibly pack was evolving in my mind. When I received the newsletter with this amazing Zanzibar offer, I just couldn’t resist and no one was available to join me.. so I booked a nice looking holiday resort, I downloaded 5 audio books and I left! Continue reading “Zanzibar – The Spice Island”
Yesterday, the second part of our trip to Switzerland was aired. I had the pleasure of accompanying the Cheeky Media crew to Zürich to shoot for their amazing tv show The Man Cave. I am definitely not a person who enjoys the spotlight, but this was actually a lot of fun. Lunga is a hottie, charming and made it very easy for me.
Zürich is a great city and definitely worth a visit. Very expensive though, like the whole of Switzerland I suppose. Lunga reckons he’ll own a flat in Zürich downtown within the next 5 years. I believe in him. He is an ambitious young man and he’ll definitely achieve a lot over the next few years. He is just at the beginning of his career.
We were lucky enough to have stayed at the Glockenhof Hotel. A prestigious Best Western Premier hotel with a prime location. Just a pity that we only stayed for one night. The room was huge, the bathroom too. Breakfast was delicious. I could have really stayed longer.
I hope to be back soon!
A few months ago I was introduced to a lovely woman. We have a common friend and were both invited over for dinner. German dinner – Maultaschen. It happened that we were sitting next to each other and naturally we started talking. As it turns out I followed this lady’s travel blog for quite a while already. Actually not only her blog, in fact all her social media accounts.
So it happened that I asked her if she’d be keen to join us (us as in Swiss International Air Lines) on our next media trip which I was about to plan. She was.
Two weeks back, we sent a hand full of journalists and bloggers off to Switzerland.
Read all about it here: The Incidental Tourist – SWISS feature or have a look at her homepage.
Just a pity that I wasn’t able to join… as I accompanied the TV crew a few weeks earlier, it was my colleagues turn to accompany this trip. Well, next time…
We created the #SwitzerlandwithSWISS – check out Instagram and Twitter to see, read and learn all about the great trip we organized together with Switzerland Tourism.
If you feel inspired, check out MySwitzerland for travel ideas. Switzerland is not only a skiing destination, it is also stunning and most beautiful in summer, no matter if you look for adventure like mountain biking or canyoning or just some picture perfect sight-seeing.
Finally I can post the video! A brand new TV show in South Africa is up and running and on TV for the 3rd week tomorrow. If you are a South African reader, you can watch “The Man Cave” on SABC 3 every Wednesday at 20h00.
Last week was the Ticino insert. Have a look at the clip.
Soon, there will be the second part of our Switzerland adventure with myself included:-)
It will be posted once it has been aired.
The City of Gold aka Johannesburg is creative. We might not have the best natural surroundings for bungee jumps, but we have the Orlando Towers in Soweto. An old power plant with two cooling towers, colourful decorated. I have driven past a few times already and I have seen it on various TV shows. However, actually being there is a complete different feeling and I feel something that the city can be proud of and advertise more to international visitors as well.
So, we were invited of the press launch of a new TV show (the same one that I took with to Switzerland). First time I drove to Soweto myself in my car – an experience I was more afraid of than necessary. Probably all the bad publicity that is still linked with Soweto (although the PR engine is doing a very good job to steadily improve Soweto’s image). There is a bar/ restaurant/ pub attached to the towers “Chaf Pozi” where we met and where the official part was held, where we got local food and from where the brave ones went up the towers. Chaf Pozi is quite an interesting place. Something, I can only recommend to all Jo’burger: just take a drive out on a Sunday, have lunch there, a drink and watch people jump. Such a viby place. Go with a bunch of friends and who knows maybe the one or other is even keen to jump….
Very recently, I had the pleasure to enjoy my work perks again: I was taking a TV crew to Switzerland. It’s not a holiday, it is definitely work but the fun part of my job. I get to meet amazing people, see stunning countryside, taste delicious dishes and experience new traditions, cultures and cities.
This trip took us to a part of Switzerland that I hadn’t been before: the Italian part of Switzerland, the Ticino region. We landed in Zürich and took a more or less 4 hours train ride to Bellinzona, the capital of Ticino.
Bellinzona was our base from where we could easily reach the more famous places like Lugano, Locarno and of course Ascona. Not only is Italian the common language, everything just feels Italian.. the streets, the cuisine, the people, the names, the atmosphere.. you name it.
Bellinzona is tucked away between the mountains. The highlights are 3 castles that used to safeguard the Alps. We stayed in the beautiful Hotel Internazionale & Spa which is very conveniently located right across the railway station and on top of the “shopping mile” in Bellinzona. A special THANK YOU goes to the hotel director and his team. They were all amazing and extremely helpful. We lost a bag with some camera equipment in the middle of the night and they really did their utmost to assist.
The highlight of our culinary excursion has surely been lunch at the Grotto Castlegrande. Main course was rabbit.. I guess if we hadn’t known, it’d been OK for all of us, but since we did, I am sure that not all of us really enjoyed eating rabbit. It’s a new country, new traditions and you just have to give it a try.
The rest of the trip was less exciting from a culinary point of view. We learnt that the Swiss/ Italians like to do Aperos.. which is basically meeting in a bar after work, get together, order drinks and therefore get finger food snacks for free. This is also where we ordered Tequilla shots and we got tall glasses full of Tequilla. In one glass were probably 4 shots of Tequilla. I must compliment the guys! They did well by finishing it. (That was the same evening we lost the bag with some of the camera equipment – no one sees the correlation though).
Lugano, Locarno and Ascona are just beautiful cities right at the water of different lakes. La Dolce Vita!
I made it back to Barcelona. Four years after my last visit. Same city, different sites, same story, different people. When reading through my last Barcelona post it seems a lifetime away. I enjoyed this time more. Must have been the company, I guess.
We stayed in the best location possible. Right on Las Ramblas, next to the Bouqueria Market. Perfect location to discover the city, especially the older part of town. I can recommend this hotel if you are looking for something not too fancy, yet modern, comfortable, clean and cute. Also, definitely book a room with a terrace which has a view over the market and going out to the back. I think facing the front would have been way too noisy. Las Ramblas never sleeps it seems.
The Cultural Part
What dominated this visit were “churches”, which is odd since neither my travel partner nor I are particular religious. I assume it was the architecture, the tradition, the history that fascinated us so much that we visited 4 churches. Not a lot at all when you start counting all churches in Barcelona, however not a bad turnout for us during our 3 day stay. If I told my family that I even went to Sunday Mass (in Catalan) they won’t believe me – I might need to add that I rarely go to church even on special days like Christmas and Easter. We did, in the Cathedral of Barcelona, an impressive gothic cathedral.
Then, there she was… the most stunning church I’ve ever been to. La Sagrada Familia. All the times I’ve visited Barcelona before, I didn’t feel the urge to go in. Assuming that the interior is just as busy and crazy as the outside. How wrong I was. The interior is the complete opposite. I have never experienced anything so calming, impressive and yet so humble than La Sagrada Familia. Goosebumps guaranteed. Gaudi intended to give the feeling as if walking through a forest made of stone. Walking between the pillars makes you aware of how small we actually are and at the same time how wonderful he world is and that we are part of it. It almost seems to be out of space, like being in an Avatar movie. Almost impossible to describe with words.
If anyone ever visits Barcelona, this is definitely a must-see! Just one recommendation: purchase your tickets online beforehand. Schedule your visit and save time walking around and queuing for tickets. In fact, this should be done for any tourist attractions in Barcelona (maybe even worldwide… the same happened to us last year in Berlin). We must have spent at least 3 hours of going from one site to the next just to end up buying online anyway. Continue reading “Back in Barcelona”
It is actually a waste of good experiences that we don’t take the opportunity to get away for a bit more often. Living in Johannesburg can really make you get stuck in this big city life. It is a shame because Johannesburg is actually the ideal location for a short getaway to the Bush. It doesn’t always have to be the Kruger. There are plenty of lovely game reserves just a mere 2-3 hours drive out of Sandton. I have spent the past weekend about 250 km north of Johannesburg in a province called Limpopo. The Game Reserve we went to is just outside of a small town called Vaalwater in the Waterberg. Situated on a hill overlooking the Bush. There is a main lodge where they serve all meals and you have a beautiful pool deck to relax and enjoy an amazing view. Then there are about 5 luxury tents scattered around the main lodge. Each tent hidden away in the Bush yet in close proximity to the main lodge.
Since I am not a camping girl at all (I need my own bathroom and preferably a proper bed), I was very much interested in staying at least once in one of these luxury safari tents. The experience was great. It is a tent, however it also feels like a room. Especially at night you definitely feel closer to nature than you would if you were in a house.
The reserve doesn’t offer the Big Five (lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards and buffalos) however, a game drive is always an adventure. Just looking at the scenery and being in the bush is already a great experience for me. At least we saw giraffes, actually a whole family of 7, we saw a bird eating a snake and we saw a stunning African sunset and sunrise. The rest of the time was well spent on the amazing pool deck, either at the pool or with a drink by the fire.
The lodge also offers a Spa. It is just a small walk down the hill and you’ll find a very peaceful and refreshing Spa area. I spoilt myself with a facial, but could have easily spent a whole afternoon there.
If someone wants to book – here are their details: Bushwa
I can highly recommend if you are looking for a weekend getaway not too far out of town or if you are arriving from overseas and don’t want to stop over in Johannesburg but you also don’t want to take a long drive to the Kruger after a 10 hours flight, Limpopo Province is a great alternative to the Kruger. There are Game Reserves that also offer the Big Five. Welgevonden being one of them.
It’s almost the last day of 2013. Time to make those New Years resolutions and wishes, I think. Or maybe not? I skipped them last year and it turned out to be a great year.
From a travels perspective Berlin and Lake Como were the two highlights that left the most memorable impressions in 2013. Each of them for different reasons and I am just extremely grateful that I was able to experience those destinations and moments.
In 2013, I left a lot of money at the duty-free shops at the airport and I am more than ever convinced that it is a myth that they sell the stuff cheaper than other shops. Yesterday nevertheless, I went to a shop downstairs at Frankfurt Airport (Schengen area) and bought myself a leather jacket that was on my wish list for a very long time. When going upstairs again, I had to go through passport control again and I saw on the slip that I was able to claim back VAT.. (only because I bought it in the Schengen area of the airport and there no duty-free shops actually exist). So, that’s another goodie that 2013 had in store for me: I needed a new passport and finally my official residence is in South Africa with the benefit of being able to claim back VAT for any purchases made in Germany or anywhere else. Not that there will be a lot of purchases, looking at the recent devaluation of the ZAR against the Euro. And if this devaluation continues, I am seriously going to consider to skip any European destination next year…and with this I come to my resolutions for 2014.
Visiting at least 3 new places in 2014:
going places, experiencing new challenges, leaving my comfort zone, being active.
This could be anything from a Yoga holiday in Bali, to a mountain bike tour across Mallorca, to hiking in South America..
Even though the Euro is so expensive, I’d still like to squeeze in a city trip somewhere in Europe even if it is just for one night. Especially since the long haul flight is paid for if it is a business trip to Frankfurt, which is after all the heart of Europe.
Saving money
I am aware that this is the standard NY resolution. My goal is to save up enough money throughout the year, so that I can take a three-months sabbatical December next year through to February. I’d spend this sabbatical in Cape Town. Just three months, doing only what I want, not thinking of any work related problems.. waking up, going for a coffee at Giovanni’s, then to the beach and working on my tan, every second day a hike up Lion’s Head to keep fit. Working on some creative ideas in the afternoons and posting on this blog more regularly.. What a dream..
I know it looks like number 1 and 2 are hard to combine. Nevertheless, one needs to have goals, right? And usually, things turn out differently anyway.. I am wishing all of you the most of success and luck for your goals to become reality in 2014.
Much love
D.
No, not my wedding:-) This can wait… I’m in no hurry at all (if at all). One of my best friends was getting married and they couldn’t have chosen a more romantic location than Villa Passalacqua at Lake Como in northern Italy. No wonder I was looking forward to this dream wedding for the past six months.
All dresses packed (yip, it was a four-day-wedding – so a girl needs at least 4 dresses plus 2 back-up dresses, different shoes for every dress and so on). So, packed as if leaving for a 3 weeks trip off I went for 5 days. The start couldn’t have been any better: I met Jim in the plane! Continue reading “Lago di Como – a dream wedding”
Confessions of a Traveler 