Conveuropean

Last weekend a very nice colleague of mine invited us over to have dinner at her place and to “spicy it up” she proposed to go to the Bamberg Seilpark, around 10 km away from Solothurn, in the Jura mountains.. I have seen these rope parks before in Switzerland but this was the first time I attempted to get into an climbing harness, clicked my safety line and climbed on the trees overcoming a different set of obstacles. I went as far as my shoulders let me go but my colleagues were very brave and successfully attempted the black circuit, full of really high challenging obstacles. In this picture you can see my brave colleague when she was about to swing on the monkey bars some 20 meters above the ground!. Chapeau.

In september last year we spent a couple of days we spent In Istanbul. It was a massive sensorial experience from every aspect: watching the diverse people walking in the streets, admiring ancient buildings such as Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, smelling the spices blending in the bazaars, hearing the call to the prayer many times during the day coming out of the minarets, feeling the sun bronzing the skin, sipping a tea next to a pistachio baklava and enjoying a grilled sea bass at a nice restaurant in the Sultanahmet area. As you can imagine there are plenty of mosques in Istanbul. Everyday when we were taking the tram to the city center we were passing by the Eminönü station and staring at the new mosque. One of the evenings after dinner I had the chance to get a nice shot of the this mosque from the other side of the Galata bridge using a long exposure.

Last Saturday we went to Europapark, a “Europe” theme park located in Rust, Germany. I wanted to celebrate my birthday there because I really enjoy the thrills you get riding a nicely designed rollercoaster. We were lucky with the weather because we had a sunny day that allowed us to enjoy even the water related attractions. The park was relatively crowded so we had to wait in line for most of the rides, but those seconds when you are rushing through the sky upside down made it worth it. The Blue Fire is probably my favorite ride with all the fast ascend, descends, inversions, turns and loops. I always finish with a green face and dizzy but extremely happy!. This time around I missed riding the Silver Star that you can observe in this picture, but that’s going to be first, next time I visit the park. bis bald Europapark!

I just came back from a short break in Turkey and even if only spent a week in the republic founded by Ataturk, I had the opportunity to get a positive first glimpse of the country. We had a wedding in Izmir and we stayed for a couple of days in the city, but while we were visiting a bookstore we found out the ancient Greek/Roman city of Ephesus was not so far away, so the day after we took a train, traveled to Selçuk and we walked the 4 kilometers to get to this archaeological site. The day trip was worth it because we got the opportunity to visit the different parts of the complex including the beautiful library of Celsus that you can observe in this picture. This library was built in honor of the Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus and he is buried there in a sarcophagus underneath the construction. it’s definitely one of the most amazing tombs I have ever seen!.

Last weekend we had a first glimpse of the future autumn since we climbed with a couple of friends to the peak of Rigi Kulm, also called the “Queen of the Mountains”, through some foggy weather and the temperature dropped to around 10 degrees. Unfortunately we missed the view from the top but when we were walking down the sky clear up slightly and we were able to get an idea how amazing was the view. When we were walking back to Goldau after a nice descend through the forest we were welcomed by a nice view of its twin town Arth, with the Zug lake. I’m not 100% sure but I think that is what I got in this picture. Rigi is definitively a nice walk, but prepare your calf muscles!

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