This is a long distance footpath along Dutch Basilica: Catholic churches that have given special meaning because of their architecture, artwork, extraordinary services. The route covers the Catholic areas in part North of the Rhine; this part of the Netherlands is mainly protestant, Catholics are a minority in this part, except in two regions: Around Utrecht, and the the Twente region – the province Overijssel used to be an extension of the diocese of Utrecht.
The route is not signposted, we used the booklet and I downloaded the GPS tracks. We walked this route in 21 stages between September 2013 and March 2015, not in sequence but we did cover the whole route, depending of facility of return trip (by public transport or, in some occasions, by bike). Our dog at the time accompanied us on these walks. Images and tracks cab be found here
Category: Travels
Travels = anything that is usually planned, takes over a week, and is often further away than a few hours drive.
Walking Madeira
As spring is said to be (one of) the best periods to visit Madeira (“The Flower Island”) we went there in second half of April on a 14-day trip.
But as elsewhere in Europe, it wasn’t the best of springs: cold, wet and windy. Nevertheless, it wasn’t that bad on the island, so we could do some nice walks along the “Levadas” – canals that transport water from the lush Northern side of the island to the dryer South. Laboured long ago by the first Portuguese settlers, these canals follow the contour of the mountains and all have some form of footpath along them for maintenance. So great for easy walking. At least, most of the time. But there are troublesome stretches (or wet ones) as well.
Someone told us “Madeira is flat” :). Well, that holds once you are along the levada, but to get there requires climbing – by foot or by car – and sometimes it means quite a gain in altitude.
Despite the outlook, most of the time the weather was nice for walking – just one occasion we were trapped (more or less) by a hail storm and severe winds, on another location just severe winds, but given the location it wasn’t much of a surprise.
I tracked most of the walks and took pictures on each of them – in this environment it means collections to be stitched because of either wideness or height of the view (or both).
Lahn Wanderweg (2013)
In fall of 2013 we walked the western part of the Lahn Wanderweg – a long distance footpath between the Westerwald and Taunus regions along the Lahn river; rather close by, occasionally further off (and therefore, on higher grounds) but not as far off (or high) to call it a ‘Steig’ – such a path usually follows higher grounds.
We camped in Diez, and started the tour from Limburg an der Lahn, walked along the river to Lahnstein, on the Eastern shoulder of the Rhine – opposite Koblenz. This took four days – and the remaining two we did two more sections, East of Limburg. This way, this walk covered the whole part of the river that runs from East to West. The remainder runs from North to South, and will be covered another time.
Part of the route between Limburg and Lahnstein has been covered earlier – the area, anyway.
The whole route has been tracked and imaged.
Morocco 2013
In 2012, we planned a tour through Morocco’s High Atlas: walking through the mountains in a group, with aguide. But that trip was canceled by the tour-operator due to a lack of participants.
This year, we found a trip to Morocco with another operator, and no matter the number of travelers: that trip would be executed, with an English speaking local guide. He would lead us over the Saghro mountains – an area created and formed by volcanic activities, and into the Sahara, both rocky and sandy environments. Walks of about 6 hours from one location to the other, where the luggage was transported by mules of camels, we would stleep in tents – or, in the desert, in open air.
Normally, it is quite warm in May, but this year temperatures were modest, and due to the amount of wind, it was well bearable: temperatures around 30 degrees in the Saghro and about 35 in the desert – considered mild conditions.
In the Saghro we could walk 6 hours with some stops underway, but in the Sahara we walked for 4 hours to a place with lots of shadow, and we would take a siësta for a few hours, to avoid the hottest time of the day; after that, it would be a walk of 2 hours to the camp.
In between, we visited the Todra gorge, but that was somewhat disappointing: the original gravel riverbed, once suitable for four-wheel drives only, is now fitted with a concrete road to allow more traffic to the inland beyond the gorge; needed for the local economy, but it spoils the wildness of the area – and allows more and more ‘traders’ selling their stuff to tourists like us.
After all trekking, we spent the last four days in Marrakech – the first day in a large hotel outside the old city, as part of the trip itself, and the rest in an original old-city house – a riad – that has been restored and converted to a hotel.
Of course I tracked all walks, and some of the intermediate rides (by our own bus), and took a lot of pictures.
Austria, 2012
In 2012, the summer holidays were planned to be spent in Marocco; traveling with a group for two weeks: walking the High Atlas for about a week, staying in hostels and private homes in villages, and the remainder a stay in Marakech. It required at least 10 travellers, but that number wasn’t reached so the trip was cancelled by the organization. They are not to blame, it was a know risk, though unlikely.
But it happened, so we had to look for an alternative.
One thing we already thought about before, was a cycle tour along the Danube river, from Passau to Vienna. This is a flat route, down river so no climbing (at least, not much) that could easily be done in a week. We already had bought a booklet on the route and found enough places to stay overnight. So we decided to take make that ride, and would decide afterwards what to do next: it would be in the mountains anyway, but we hadn’t decided yet where to go: Vorarlberg, Tirol or Kärnten. We could decide later, based on location and weather.
So first: our cycletrip. It turned out easier than thought. Originally planned to last a week, we made it in four days, 60 kilometers a day being too little. Cycling along the river was so easy, fair weather and the wind in our backs, 80 kilometers a day was an easy target. Most trips tracked on GPS, and pictures taken at interesting points along the way, including the power stations. At end a day visit of Vienna – which is way too short. The trip back to Passau by train, after which we had time to pay that city a visit. Here you’ll find the images and tracks of this ride.
Next we put the bikes back on the car and headed South, to Zell am See, where we would decide wich mountain area we would got to next, Vorarlberg was considered too far away, so the choice was between Tirol (West) or Kärnten (East). That night we stayed in a hotel and decided to go East, the Maltatal, based on descriptions. The next day, we crossed the GrossGlocker pass and headed East. The remainder of the holidays we walked “valley of the thousand waterfalls” and visited the neighbourhood, including the highest barrage in Austria. The results of this decision – both images and tracks, are available here.
Germany 2011
This year, we made two short holiday trips to Germany.
In spring, we made a short break on the eastern slopes of the Sauerland. We stayed at a camping site in Barntrup and we made longer walks from the site, and from Bad Driburg; some of these are part of the Hermannshöhen collection of routes. The tracks have been recorded, and the tracks with the accompanying images can be found here.
In summer, we spent out annual summer holiday in the South of Germany, on the German-Austrian border.
Our first four days were spent at the Bodensee, at a comping site at Linday, quite close to the border. Here we rode our bikes and made boat trips to get to our starting point, or returning to the site. One of these trips lead us through three countries after crossing to Switzerland, and riding back along Bregenz (which is Austria…), we took the opportunity to transport our bikes up the Pfälzer mountain by cable train, and decended from there. Most tracks have been recorded, and the tracks with the accompanying images can be found here.
The fifth day we drove along the Deutsche Alpenstrasse to Berchtesgaden, parked our car there and walked a long distance way circling the Berchtesgadener and Salzburger Land; overnight we stayed at B&B of small hotel. This 160 km route, with a total ascend (and descend) of 5000 meters, took one week – over 20 kilometers a day, and, except for the last day, at least 500 climbing.
From this walk, all tracks have been recorded, and the images, and all tracks, can be found here. This also contains photograhps taken in and around Tittmoning on our way back home.
Note: My normal lens was broken, I could only use my larger lens, so I had to do a lot of combining and stitching, and the results are bigger tha ususal
Lake District
This year, we spent 10 days or our holidays in the center of the Lake District, to explore this mountainous region of Great Britain, and 2 days near Hadrian’s wall, north-east of Corbridge.
At the Lake District, we had booked at the National Trust Campingsite near the end of Great Langdale, west of Ambleside. Not too expensive, without facilities like a swimming pool or restaurant, and with just a small shop; but quiet and no more light than needed.Out first intention was to stay there for five nights, but since it was so central to the area, we extended our stay and stayed there for the whole period.
The area is famous for its possibly bad weather – being the wettest part of England. But we were lucky. Most rain fell during the first nights, after three weeks of drought – and temperatures were well below normal. At night, it was freezing cold – minimal, but still. But it all improved, and we had pretty good weather for walking: over the fells, following parts of the Cumbria Way on some occasions, and the last leg of the Dales way – whic is very different.
Of course, we did a trip on Lake Windermere and and had a ride in a steam-train form the Southern shore atr Lakeside to the seaside at Haverswaithe, and back. That day turned out to be the only day that rain would have been a problem while walking.
We also had a few very sunny days, and quite warm, so it wasn’t too bad at all.
The last days were spent near Corbridge, allowing us a visit to Hadrian’s wall and Newcastle, before we travelled back.
Of course, all walks have been tracked, and a lot of images have been taken – quite a lot form a panoramic view of the area. But when working in the images, the disk crashed and that means I may have lost the tracking data… But I was lucky to have a copy of the raw image files, a backup of what I’d done already – and the raw tracking data. These have now been processed, here you can find the images and tracking data projected on the Ordnance Survey edition of Mapsource, and Google Earth, as well as all tracking data in the usual Garmin, generic and Excel, comma separated formats.
(Note dd. 02-Mar-2011: Not all tracking files are available uet, some must still be generated)
Italy
It has been the annual holiday season for us: since the kids left school, we can plan our holiday in whatever month de desire. This year the trip went to Italy, via Germany and Switzerland – it turned out to be far cheaper than using the French Autoroute du Soleil. And May normally is a nicer month to go there – for the temperatures are still bearable, and most weeds are in flowers.
Our first target was Tuscany, to visit Florence and Siena, and enjoy the countryside. We stayed on a camping site North of Florence, and that meant passing this town to get South – a real problem if you’re not aquainted to the Italian way of signposting, and the wheeled wasps that overtake left and right. We got through once to visit Volterra and San Gimignano, but we decided not to try it a second time.
So, we didn’t do Sienna.
Second stop was in the North of Umbria at the Lago di Trasimeno, where we visisted Assisi – San Francicsus’ town. An easy environment, though quite touristic but since the town is larger than the two others we visited, the masses kind of disappear. We made a walk in the mountains, and visisted some little Etruscan towns in the area.
The third stop was near Venice, but here we could use public traffic (boat, bus, ferry, bus + boat) to get to the town within an hour. We did twice, and the third day we hired bikes to make a cycle tour on the main land.
All these days, temperatures raised from 25 C to 35 C within just over two weeks, and when we left for Luzern to have a few days of mountain-walking in Switzerland (we missed the mountains…), it was even hotter, but on the road, it dropped to a more comfortable value of 27. The next day, after a nice walk to a high point, we were lucky to get a lift back to the camping site: when we got out of the car, all hell broke lose. Second luck: our tent survived the heavy winds, a few ropes of the tarp loosened and all that was under it got wet. But no real damage has been done.
My camera has been damaged beyond repair during the hodiday, but Rita has one as well, so there are many pictures (about 650) and tracking datam availabe here
French Alps
This year’s holiday we headed for the French Alps. To start – getting used to the paths going up, on a higher than normal altitude – we hired an appartment near Chorges, above the Lac de Selle-Porcon. We stayed here for one week, and the next two were intended to walk the GR56 route around Barcelonette: the Tour de l’ Ubaye.
It turned out to be different – by requirement.
Normally, temperatures would be well above 20 C, dry and sunny normally, and all snow would have disappeared up to 3000m or thereabouts. This time however, things were different. There has been a lot of snow last winter – much more than normal, and spring has been cold, dark and wet – meaning that on higher grounds, above 1800-2000 m, it would snow, no rain.
The first week we did encounter the problems we could face in our tour: Snowfields that could not be crossed without special equipment; propably rain, thunderstorms and cold weather. Nevertheless, we got as high as we could on Charbierres, and conquered the summits of Pic de Morgon and Piolit. We visisted the towns of Gap and Embrun, the abbey of Boscodon and the barrage de Selle Porcon.
The second week we left for a camping site at la Fresqiere, about 10 km west of Barcelonette. To our luck, the hostess was Belgian and could help us in Dutch. She informed what huts were available: The first one was, the secons could not be reachjed by phone, and the third one was closed as a result of bad weather: a lightning strike had resulted in severe damage: no power, no water – and the hust was closed for the time being. But worse: it was virtaully impossible to get around on higher passes without equipment, according the host.
So we had to abandon our plans.
To our luck, the hostess did have nice walks that covered past of the route that we could do. And we did some, but the weather got worse: cold and wet, so in a few days we decided to break our holiday, get to Houffalize in the Belgian Ardennes for a few days and than head beack home.
All walks in the countryside have been tracked, and a lot of images taken. You can access them here. The index page also holds a link to the tracks. Both have been ordered by day.
Scotland
We always wanted to get to Scotland, and this time it was our schedule. We crossed the Northsea from Ijmuiden to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and drove over the A1, along the coast, passing Edinburg straight to Milngavie, just North of Glasgow, to have a day in Galsgow – the town of the architect Macintosh – and be at the starting point of out walk along the West Highland Way, to Fort William and the Ben Nevis, Britains highest mountain.
We started the West highland way but got stuck after two days in Rowandennan – because we didn’t plan anything in advance, there was no accomodation, and the bar that did have a “bunkhouse” in Drymen, had their bus broken down. It ended up getting back – by taxi – to Milngavie. That afternoon it began to rain, it rained the next day when we drove to Fort William – during which drive ded encounter the wildlife we liked (but only leaned when lightening up the photograph at home) – to stay on the camping site down Ben Nevis. Here we planned for that last stretches of the path, climb the Ben Nevis and set off by bus to our next starting point: Crainlarich. We made that last part of the path.
After that, we went into the Borders area, close to the border with England, to visit some ancient times, closer to Newcastle. We had to make it in time to catch the boat back.
These are the images – day-by-day – of this holiday. You will find tracks in .GPX and .CSV format.