Budapest

01/05/2014

Yesterday we arrived in Budapest in the afternoon and today we took advantage of our 24 hr travel card to explore the town a bit.

May 1 worker’s rally

Although the First of May festivities caused a little disruption on the bus lines, we managed to see the Jewish quarter in Pest and visit the Holocaust Memorial – in spite of the fact that the occurrencies are well reknown, witnessing yet again what happened makes you think. And it makes you realise how humans are an extremely stupid race and on the other hand they can be extremely cruel…

The Synagogue, Budapest

After that we moved back to the Buda side of town and we had a walk up to the Castle and its grounds. Altogether a nice day walking, taking advantage of the nice weather, and fuelled only by this morning’s breakfast ;-)

We are staying at the Rubin Hotel, we decided that it was just a little more expensive than a hostel, and it’s a 4 star hotel with swimming pool, spa, and all. We already took advantage of the pool, both yesterday and today, and we intend to use it evry day ’til Sunday :-)

Old and new in Budapest

Tonight there’s been the “meet and greet” event of the TGEU Conference, the main reason why we’re here, and we could get back in touch with a few people we know from all over Europe. We had dinner with a couple of friends at the hotel restaurant, which offers very good food.

Police car sirens and ambulance sirens in Budapest are really funny – they sound just like those childen toy ray-guns ^_^

(more pix: http://goo.gl/LHia8F)

A view of Budapest from the Castle

The Danube in Budapest

Finale Ligure

13/04/2014

This morning I followed a nice trail over Finale Ligure, well signposted and going to the top of the mountain, in the woods. Technical details on wikiloc (http://goo.gl/IPkTo9) and pix on Google+ (to be loaded).

my first encounter of the day...

I was on my own, so I could keep my own steady pace with some walking meditation here and there.

the trail

the inside of the old church

A short deviation along the main trail took me to the ruins of Castrum Perticae and to Saint Antonino’s church, closed, but you could glimps to the frescos still on the walls inside. It was indeed a nice spot for meditation, with stunning views over the valley below. You could just imagine hearing nothing but the birds when the road still wasn’t there!

Coming back to the crossroads, I kept following the Buddha’s eyes till I reached Pian Marino, where there is what looked like the remains of a collapsed quarry…

Buddha's eyes

collapsed quarry?

Meanwhile, the Climbing Bunch were somewhere on the facing cliffs going up and down. I could hear some climbers on this side from where I stopped for a short break, as it was starting to rain. I was quite protected by the trees, but after my apple I started to walk back…

The drizzle eventually ceased and I could explore a part of the track I missed before, to Brick del Frate – a plateau with some TV aerials and a satellite dish.
Once facing the open valley again, I saw some climbers on the opposite side, but they proved from another group and not “our” own.

In the end we even had a bit of sunshine. My walk lasted some 3.30 hrs and I could really immerse myself in nature. Immerse is quite an appropriate word here, since all the area was once part of the Ligurian-Piedmontese Ocean, so all these great cliffs were once underwater seabed :-)


 

finally some rest for my feet... vith a great view! :-)

Vallone Bourchet

26/01/2014

A great day out today! We went for a hike in the Vallone Bourcet, in Val Chisone – a snowy trail that elevated us of some 550m.

The day was windy and sunny, and we walked for nearly 4 hours, allowing plenty of time for pictures on the way :-)

We started well into the morning, our aim was to check if there were any icy waterfalls to climb, but actually the only snow we found was on the trail and on the mountain-tops… so, no luck for climbers there. After a couple of hours climbing up and taking pictures, we reached the village of Chezzalet where we stopped for a fruit and nut lunch :-D

The village is probably inhabited during the summer months as there’s a road that reaches it.

Prints…

After lunch we started on our way back – unfortunately there wasn’t the possibility of a round tour, so we had to retrace our steps.

Icicles

Climbing down we noticed some interesting ice formations in the melting…
Now I’m a bit tired, especially my back, but I really enjoyed our walk :D

  [link to the details: http://en.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=6026360]
[more pics: http://tinyurl.com/ox2rjgk - but you have to be in my circles ;-) ]

Mt. Pietraborga, Sangano

06/01/2014

Nice hillwalk on the Mount Pietraborga this morning, just behind the house (to which I’ll refer to from now on as “base-camp”). No need to move the car – feet only

The day was nice and sunny, and pretty warm too – although we went out with a thick fleece, we soon removed them as it was pretty ok to walk in our jumpers (Rosie had only a T-shirt, actually). We stopped near the top of our climb, which wasn’t the top of the mountain, though, and had a fruity break, where we also met a weird insect I had never seen before:



… and some weird vegetation:

a view from the top

the Alps in the distance

The trail was recorded on Wikiloc – details here: http://bit.ly/1aagImt

Snowy walk

05/01/2014

A nice walk in a tiny village just under the Mont Cenis, on the border between France and Italy. Very windy, but the day was nice  

Wind on the mountain tops!

After the short walk we joined a friend for lunch at his, in Susa.

A day out in Val Pellice

22/12/2013

A great day out! My wife and I went with some friends for a walk on the snow from Villanova (Pellice Valley) to Rifugio Jervis (mountain refuge), that was first thought of as a snowshoes outing, but, as it turned out, there wasn’t any need for snowshoes and we could easily walk up with our boots only.
Coming back down I actually wore my “city” crampons (a slip-on pair for ice patches you normally find into towns), and they somehow helped my descent.

Sun on the mountain tops

The walk was 6.5 km return with a difference of 550m up, from start to finish. It took us short of 2 hours going and about one hour for the descent.
We had lunch at the refuge, with polenta and stew, with krauts and peppers, plus a small slice of jam tart and a shot of serpillo – a mountain herb liqueur :-)

the Jervis refuge

Ice waterfall

Myself, on the way back

More pictures of the walk can mbe found here: http://bit.ly/1cLG86R

I’ve been very pleased with myself, as I managed the walk in good time, and above all, I managed not to over-eat :-)
This dietary regime I’m following is teaching me how to evaluate my meals, and I now manage to always leave the table satisfied but not over-stuffed :-D
I now reached 84.5k, which leave 4.5k to my final goal – I’m very happy, because I eat plenty, mostly vegan/vegetarian, and I do very little effort to stick to it. This time it seems I’m really getting somewhere :-)