The city of Nancy

Dearest friends,


This week we passed through Nancy, in the North of France. Compared to last week, where we were passing through the South and visited cities such as Orléans, Nice, Bordeaux and others, it was quite chilly in Nancy. But, look at it from the brind side: that's again a reason for doing some shopping! :) We very lucky because we found some enormously big shopping malls!


I am going to tell you something more about the city of Nancy, not the arrondissement. (Just to meak clear)

Place Stanislas by night! What a sight!

The city is known for its world heritage buildings: The Place Stanislas (named after the king of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and duke of Lorraine Stanisław Leszczyński), the cathedral of Nancy, the Triumphal Arch and the Place de la Carriere (which are fine examples of 18th century architecture), further there is also a major botanical garden in Nancy, the Jardin botanique du Montet, if you want to take a walk.


Nancy also possesses many museums, but we didn't have a lot of time for visiting them, too bad! 
As Nancy is only a couple hours driving from Ghent, so if I'm feeling like visiting a museum when we're back home, I know just the place!


The European University Centre is also located in Nancy, France. Bordered with the countries of Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg. The European Centre is a historical institute for European Studies. It was created in 1950 and it celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2000.


Nancy is in the heart of the four European main cities: Brussels, Frankfurt, Strasbourg and Luxembourg, a very strategic place.


The trip from Paris to Nancy was very smooth, because Nancy is very well served by the high-speed train line called ‘TGV East Europe’, which connects the city to Paris in less than 1:30 hours!


So, this was it for this week


Bye mates! Take care


xx
Marlies

BONJOUR PARIS !

Aaaaah! It’s time to discover Paris!

We have been here before, but we did not had the time to visit everything! So now we will do our best to visit all the other monuments of Paris! We are looking forward to it! J

                                                                      PARIS BY NIGHT

First, I’ll give you some extra information..

Paris is the capital and also the largest city in France, which metropolitan area has a population of more than 11,800,000. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of Île-de-France region.

Today, Paris is considered to be one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in Europe. The name Paris derives from that of its earliest inhabitants, the Gaulish tribe, known as the Parisii. The city was called Lutetia, during the Roman era of the first to the sixth century.

Paris has the typical Western European oceanic climate which is affected by the North Atlantic Current. Over a year, Paris’ climate can be described as mild and moderately wet.In summer, temperatures are usually warm and pleasant, between 15 and 25°C. Each year, there are also some days where the temperature rises above 32°C.
In spring and autumn, nights are average mild and fresh.
In winter, days are cold but generally above freezing with temperatures around 7°C.

Now it’s time to visit this wonderful city!

Yesterday evening, when we arrived, we decided to point out our route, because we had to plan our three days in Paris. The first day, we will start with Avenue des Champs-Élysées. There are some lovely and posh shops, so I think we will spent some time over there. When we walk along this Avenue, we will pass ‘Place de la Concorde’ and ‘Jardin des Tuileries’ to end at  ‘Musée Du Louvre’.
I have never visited this big museum before, so I hope my mates will go inside with me, today.

                                                            PLACE DE LA CONCORDE       

                                                              JARDIN DES TUILERIES

The Louvre Museum is one of the world’s largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and also a historic monument. It is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1 arrondissement. Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19^th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 m².

                                                                LOUVRE MUSEUM

So, this will be the first day. I hope we have enough time! The second day, we will visit the other side of the city, namely Montmartre, the highest point in the city. I would like to see ‘The Moulin Rouge’, because I really like the movie! J We will also pass by ‘Basillique du Sacré Coeur’, that’s a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The huge basilica is built from 1876 – 1914 and has a height of 83 meters  and a width of 85 meters. When you stand in front of the ‘Sacré Coeur’, you have a great view onto the city, you can also see the Eiffel Tower, it’s amazing!

The third and also our last day in Paris, we will visit the Eiffel Tower and ‘La Défense’. The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower of 324 meters, located on the Champ de Mars. The Tower is the tallest building in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world. It is built in 1887 – 1889 by Gustave Eiffel and has become a global icon of France.

      THE EIFFEL TOWER                                                           LA DÉFENSE

PARIS WAS AMAZING ! I really recommend you this fantastic city! I wish we could stay here another three days, but we have to move forward with our trip!

Sunny kiss, Charlotte!

Last four days of the first week in France (Leen)

Dear family and friends, after a wonderful week in Italy we are now staying two weeks in France, which is situated close to home. I would like to go to Belgium and visit you all but unfortunately this is not possible. Despite that I am missing you so much I am having a great time with my group members Charlotte, Lieze and Marlies.

From Thursday until Sunday we are going to visit several cities in central France.

Thursday 31 March: visiting Tours

Today we are visiting Tours, the other days we are also going to visit Blois, Orléans and Auxerre.

Tours is the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department. It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Tours is the largest city in the Centre region of France, although it is not the regional capital, which is the regions second-largest city: Orléans.

“Saint Gatien's Cathedral” is the Roman Catholic cathedral which was built between 1170 and 1547. It has been a classified as “Monument historique” since 1862. The total length of the cathedral is 97 meters and its width is 28 meters. Its treasures are the organ, which was donated by Archbishop Martin de Beaune in the 16^th century and the tomb of the children of Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany, who died as infants.

Around the church, on the north side a small cloister is built. This cloister is known as the “cloître de la Psalette”, in reference to its function as a school of psalms (religious chants). On the south side of the cathedral stands the former archbishop's palace, which was built in the early 18^th century, and which has now become the “Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours”.

It was an interesting day, certainly when we visited Saint Gatien's Cathedral because it is very breathtaking, like most cathedrals in France.

Now we are going to a restaurant and have dinner, afterwards we are going straight to bed because tomorrow we are leaving for Blois.

Good night and sleep tight –xx-

Friday 1 April: visiting Blois

We slept in a nice B&B in Tours yesterday evening but today we had to get up early because we had to go to Blois, which is about 40 minutes driving.

Blois is the capital of Loir-et-Cher department and is situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Tours and Orléans, which we will visit tomorrow.

Blois is known for its beautiful countryside, its temperate climate and its refined way of life. The main sights here are the famous “Château de Blois” and the 18^th century stone bridge spanning the Loire. The “Château de Blois” is a Renaissance château which was once occupied by King Louis XII and it is located in the centre of the city. It also comprises several buildings constructed from the 13^th to the 17^th century around the main courtyard. Its most famous piece of architecture is the magnificent spiral staircase in the François I wing which is brilliantly decorated with gold, carved pillars and stained glass. This château is unique in the Loire and because of that Blois is often called the “Versailles of the Renaissance”.

Notwithstanding it was a day filled with history about the city, which I normally do not like, I pretty enjoyed it because I have learnt a lot of new things that I did not know before. I am also looking forward to tomorrow when we will visit Orléans.

Good night everybody ! –xx-

Saturday 2 April: visiting Orléans

As we told you yesterday we are now going to visit Orléans, a city in north-central France, about 130 kilometers southwest of Paris. It is the capital of the Loiret department and of the Centre region.

Today we visited the “Le Parc Floral de la Source”. This park is a French garden situated to the south of the River Loire, in the “La Source” neighborhood. With more than 150,000 visitors in 2007, it is the most visited site in Loiret. Therefore the park has been awarded the status of “Jardin remarquable” by the French Ministry of Culture and the national council of parks and gardens.

In 1967, the “Floralies internationales d'Orléans”, which was held in the park, attracted 2,300,000 visitors in six months. The global budget was more than one million francs (152,618 euro). From April to October the city became the world capital of horticulture thanks to the 330 exhibitors and 700 producers from 11 countries. To house successive exhibitions they especially constructed 13,000 m² of glasshouses.

I must admit that it is indeed a wonderful park thanks to its beautiful flowers, trees and gardens.

Now we are going to enjoy our dinner and we will post another message on our blog tomorrow.

Have a nice evening! Lots of tots!

Sunday 3 April: visiting Auxerre

Auxerre is a commune in the Bourgogne region in north-central France, between Paris and Dijon. It is the capital of the Yonne department and it has a commercial and industrial centre, with industries including food production, woodworking and batteries. Auxerre is also world-famous for the wine produced in the neighborhood, including the renowned Chablis.

Before we explored the town we asked for a map at Auxerre Tourist Office. There they gave us a free map which we used to follow a route that shows the highlights of Auxerre.

Historically seen, the town owes its position to its importance on the river, and also on the once important trade route between the Mediterranean and the North Sea.

The best way to get a perspective of the churches in Auxerre is by walking onto the main bridge across the river. The “Pont Paul Bert” offers a very good view of the Auxerre’s 'skyline'. From here you can see three main churches the Church of Saint Peter, the Saint Etienne Cathedral, and the Saint Germain Abbey, which runs from south to north.

Much of the old centre of the town is now a region of protected development. There are attractive squares where you can take a rest in a cafe, which are joined by narrow medieval streets and a lot of attractive ancient houses.

I must say that Auxerre is a pretty town which is towered over by the cathedral, and by several churches. Although I also must say that it does have as well some less attractive parts that have not yet been renovated.

The first week in France has been great so far and I hope that the other week will be the same or maybe even better!

Cya tomorrow ! -xx-

First three days in France (Lieze)

Monday 28 March 2011

Hi everybody!

Today we arrived at the next country of our trip, which is France. We chose Nice to be our first stop because this beautiful city is only 30 kilometres away from the Italian border.

Nice is the capital city of the Alpes Maritimes department and also the second largest French city on the Mediterranean coast. So it is quite an important city!

As it is a very popular destination for tourists, we had no problem finding a place to have lunch. There are little restaurants everywhere and we chose to eat at “Chez Pipo”, a very pleasant little place at the port of Nice. The menu was so elaborate that is was difficult to make a choice, but eventually I picked a salad Niçoise, which is named after the city Nice. It was really delicious! I really love the French kitchen, which is known for its use of olive oil, fruit and vegetables.

After lunch, we decided to visit the port of Nice. We first went to the Garibaldi square, in the middle of the port, and we were immediately charmed by its beautiful architecture! The place is named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian hero who was born in Nice. It’s a pity you can’t visit his birthplace.

After our visit to the port, we went… shopping! Nice has some very beautiful shopping centres where you can shop for hours! But we didn’t want to spend all afternoon inside a building, so we also visited an open air market, which is typically French. At the market, you find clothes and food but especially souvenirs of the city.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach of Nice, enjoying the beautiful weather.

Lieze

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Bonjour!

I’m already completely adapted to the French way of living and today we continued our visit of Nice.

In the morning, we visited the “Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret”, which opened in 1928. The museum is, as the name already tells, especially dedicated to the work of Jules Chéret. But next to his collection, the museum also houses work of other artists. The museum is rather small, but the collection of art is so beautiful! There are even some ceramic pieces, made by Picasso! At the museum, there were information boards at every piece of art, so it was a very interesting visit.

After our visit to the museum, we had a quick stop at the Botanic garden of Nice but then, we had to leave for Bordeaux. Around 1 p.m., we went to the train station of Nice to catch our train of 1.30 p.m. It is quite a long trip to Bordeaux and when we arrived, it was already 7.30 p.m. Fortunately, we easily found a youth hostel to spend the night so we still had some time to go for a short walk. Because it was already dark, we couldn’t see much of the city. I’m extremely looking forward to tomorrow to start our tour of Bordeaux!

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Hello every one,

Today we discovered BordeauxJ The city is the world’s major wine industry capital, so you can imagine that it’s a very important city for the economy.

Bordeaux has over 10,000 wine-producing “châteaux” and an annual production of about 850 million bottles of wine! But it’s not only the wine which makes Bordeaux important for the economy. There’s also the company “Laser Mégajoule”, one of the most powerful lasers in the world, and about 20,000 people found a job in the aeronautic industry at Bordeaux.

But of course we’re especially interested in the wine, so we visited a vineyard today. There, we got a lot of information about the production process of wine. Afterwards, we could taste three of three best wines and we had the opportunity to buy their products in a little shop at the vineyard.

In the afternoon, we had a quick stop at the “Basilique Saint-Michel”, which is located at a very colourful neighbourhood. The basilica has a very sharp and high tower which you can climb. I’d loved to do this but unfortunately we didn’t have the time. We had to leave Bordeaux in time to reach our next destination.

I’m really looking forward to discover the other cities of France!

Lots of love

Lieze

Visit to Milano

Milan, the utopia for shopping-lovers! As you will expect, I was really looking forward to visit this city.

When we arrived the plan was to take the Linate airport bus to the airport where we knew the Crowne Plaza operated a free hotel shuttle to their hotel where we had booked a room for 3 nights. This worked well and we checked in at the hotel around 5pm. We put our bags in the room and went  searching for a supermarket and a restaurant for dinner. After plundering the supermarket we found a great little Italian restaurant, called ‘Il Cedro’ in San Donato Milanese, where we enjoyed a large fresh pizza. Back at the room we slept almost directly, exhausted from another busy day with another to follow tomorrow.

The first thing in the morning we did was finding a tourist shop, so we could ask some more information about the bus-system in Milan. We found out that we could get a 3 Euro day tripper card that we could use on the subway, buses, trams etc around the region. Being quite an expert by now at reading foreign automatic ticket dispensing machines I quickly found the appropriate ticket type and paid 3 euro each for our "Abbonamento Giornaliero Urbano".

We immediately used our tickets to go to Duomo, an enormous church. Our mouths fell open as we got out of the subway and our eyes fell on the wonderful Duomo.

Quite a breath-taking sight!  From here we went to Piazza Mercanti and then up Via Dante, window shopping at the expensive Italian clothes. Is it is only window shopping, we didn't spend there much time, we decided that our next stop would be Santa Maria della Grazie, the home of the original ‘Last Supper’ painting created by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 1460’s. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to actually see it in real life as the tickets are sold out 2 weeks in advance! Too bad :(

For getting back to the hotel we took a city tour, by bus. This is a great way to see the city and it will save the feet!

Again it was a very exhausting day, so we went to bed early.

The next day we didn't do much of visiting, we went shopping, in the more payable part of the city off course.

See you within a week!

Kisses Marlies
xxxx

Italy, here we come!

Mmmmm! I’ve been looking forward to visit this country! Weather is always nice, I love it! J

We will stay only one week in Italy, so we decided to visit the most important places. We booked a hotel in the middle of Rome! I think it’s possible to visit this capital in three days.

Rome is located in the Lazio region of central Italy on the Tiber river.
According to Roman tradition, the city was founded by Romulus on 21 April 753 BC. The legendary origin of the city tells that Romulus and Remus decided to build a city.

This city only, has ca. 2,7 million inhabitants! That’s almost a quarter of Belgium, unbelievable! Rome’s metropolitan area is also the largest in Italy with some 4,2 million residents of Province of Rome.

We also found out that, in 2007, Rome was the 11th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. How amazing! The city is one of Europe's and the world's most successful city brands. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.  Monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are amongst the world's 50 most visited tourist destinations.

Rome constitutes one of Italy's 8,101 communes and is divided into 20 administrative areas, called municipi or municipalities. They were created in 1972 for administrative reasons to increase decentralization in the city. Each municipality is governed by a president and a council of four members who are elected by the residents of the municipality every five years.

Rome is also the national capital of Italy and is the seat of the Italian Government. The official residences of the President of the Italian Republic and the Italian Prime Minister, the seats of both houses of the Italian Parliament and that of the Italian Constitutional Court are located in the historic centre.

Rome enjoys a Mediterranean climate, typical of the Mediterranean coasts of Italy. Spring and autumn are mild to warm. In August, the maximum temperature is about 30 °C.

Rome is predominantly Roman Catholic, and the city has been an important centre of religion and pilgrimage for centuries, the base of the ancient Roman Religion.

Despite the fact that Rome is home to the Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica, Rome's cathedral is the Basilica of St. John Lateran, located to the south-east of the city-centre. There are around 900 churches in Rome in total.

Rome is a city famous for its numerous fountains, built in all different styles, from Classical and Medieval, to Baroque and Neoclassical. The city has had fountains for more than two thousand years.

Of course, the Trevi Fountain is one of the most famous fountains in the world. We had to throw a coin over our shoulder en than had to make a wish. Now I hope my wish will come true J !

Hear you soon!

Kiss, Charlotte

Our last days on the African continent (by Lieze)

Thursday 17 March

Hello everybody!

As Leen already told you, we started our last week on the African continent.

Today we continued our trip through Tunisia and we arrived at Kairouan, also known as “the city of 50 mosques”. After Mecca and Medina is this city in north-central Tunisia the third holiest city in Islam.

When we arrived at Kairouan, we immediately saw the strong and powerful minaret of the Great Mosque of Sidi-Uqba. And next to its impressive measurements, the minaret is also the oldest of the world.

As we are non-muslims, we could not enter the mosque but by looking inside the doorway, we could catch a glimpse of the marble columns! It is known that there are over 400 columns of marble and granite, but local inhabitant told us about a legend which says that it’s impossible to count them without going blind! Although it’s just a story, we wisely decided not to count them and we moved on to the medina of the city. In the souks are hundreds of little shops with souvenirs, spices and other food, but what you see the most is carpet shops. That’s not really surprising when you know that Kairouan is the oldest and most renowned carpet centre of Tunisia. When you see all those colours and patterns, it’s almost unbelievable that the carpets are handmade. You’d think that the creativity of the weavers is inexhaustible!

As there are countless little alleyways in the souks it was very difficult to find our way back out, so when we arrived at our hotel, it was already getting dark.

After dinner, we decided to go to bed early because tomorrow, we’re travelling further to the north.

Friday 18 March

Around 8 p.m. we left Kairouan for Tunis. The plan was to drive immediately to the capital of Tunisia but when we were driving for about one hour, we passed Sousse. Because this is also a very famous city, we decided to have a stop. And what was meant to be a quick stop-over turned out into a visit of a whole day!

This “pearl of the Sahel” has a very mild climate (it was about 20°C at noon) so it was very pleasant to visit the city.

Although it’s a very touristic place and there are a lot of hotels and resorts, the city hasn’t lost its charms.

As there is a lot to do and we didn’t have much time, we had to make a difficult decision: either we would visit the museum and some well-preserved catacombs, or we would spend the day shopping (because here in Sousse, we found the first decent shopping centre in weeks!).

We all really wanted to go shopping but we found it a pity if we would ignore the culture of the city, which is also on the UNESCO-list of world heritage. That’s why we’d decided to visit only the museum (and not the catacombs) and to go shopping afterwards.

The Archaeological Museum in Sousse exhibits a very large collection of mosaics, masks and statues dating from the Roman occupation. And the breath-taking Head of Medusa seems to hold your gaze when you enter the building!

In the afternoon we went to the shopping centre and we couldn’t believe our eyes! We hadn’t seen such a shopping complex since the start of our journey and we all really enjoyed this shopping moment! Everybody bought some souvenirs and I found a beautiful water pipe.

But as we still had to drive two hours to Tunis (fortunately there’s a decent motorway between Sousse and Tunis!), we decided to leave about 4.30 p.m.

So this stop today wasn’t foreseen on our planning but we all loved it!

Talk to you soon,

Lieze

Sunday 20 March

Dear friends and family,

Today was already our last day in Africa! We’ve spent the last two days in Tunis and it was a very big difference with the other cities we’ve visited in Tunisia. We were surprised to see all the modern buildings, such as banks, hotels, conference halls… But of course there’s still an ancient part too and there you find the famous medina. It’s a bit like the one in Sousse but much, much bigger and more touristic.

But because of the political commotion of the last few weeks, there aren’t many tourists now. After Ben Ali, the ex-president of Tunisia abdicated, the agitation stayed because the demonstrators aren’t satisfied with the promises of the government. And next to politics, there’s also a humanitarian crisis. There are hundreds of Libyans who flee to Tunisia because of the revolt in their country.

As tourists, we noticed that the atmosphere is very tense. We also read in a newspaper that the crime rate has increased so we have to make sure that we keep our bags close to ourselves all the time. Not easy when you constantly want to take pictures!

Oh right, that reminds me of yesterday. We went to Carthage, where you find a beautiful Roman site with theatres, temples, baths… Ok, perhaps you might think that those old ruins are boring and ugly, but imagine that, between the ruins, there are palm trees waving and on the background, there is the bright blue see and mountains of the Andes! I can assure you that it takes your breath away!

Furthermore, we also visited the National Bardo Museum where we’ve seen a large collection of mosaics.

Today, we went to Sidi Bou Saïd. The houses in this picturesque village are completely painted in white and blue and it looks like a fairy-tale; there are numerous gardens with jasmine-flowers, which smell lovely!

I’d never imagined that central and North Africa could be so beautiful and I’ve seen a lot of places I’d never heard of before. And although there’s still a lot to discover here on the African continent, I’m really looking forward to continue our journey through Europe!

Bye,

Lieze

First three days in Tunisia

After two weeks of travelling in Algeria we are now going to Tunisia which is situated on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Nile Delta. It is bordered by Algeria on the west and Libya on the south east. The weather in the north of the country has mild rainy winters and hot, dry summers and the south is desert.

From Monday until Wednesday we are going to make a trip through the desert. As you know thousands of little animals and insects live at night so hopefully we will not be attacked or plagued by them in the middle of the night!

Wish us good luck and after these three days we will write a whole report on our blog as we do not have any Internet in the desert.

Kiss from us all!

Hello darlings, we are back in the civilized world where we finally can have a proper shower and some normal food!

Off course you are all wondering how are three-day trip through the desert has been. Well so far this side of Tunisia has been fabulous! Before we could go to the Sahara (= desert) we were heading out to Tozeur, which is the gateway to it and we spent there our first day.

Tozeur is an oasis town, and contains a large palmary (= palm tree plantation). In Tunisia, you measure the strength of an oasis by the number of palm trees you can plant. According to the locals, this one possesses about 322-483 kilometers of area with 200,000 palm trees. The temperature in this city is normally very hot (± 37°C in July) and due to the heat everything shuts down in the afternoon and opens up again at night. But in March the weather is not too hot and not too cold or rainy. We could enjoy spending our time because it was about 20°C. Another important reason why we liked being here was because the people were really friendly, and the food was better than in the other countries. They serve French food and as France is bordered by Belgium we are a bit used to these types of menus.

Tozeur is also famous for its ornate brickwork. They build their buildings with some bricks sticking out, to form cool patterns and this gives a 3-dimensional look to the wall. Logically this is quite impressive! According to our guide Ali, this brickwork only exists in Tozeur and Nefta, a nearby town.

On our tour we also got to see some ruined towns. Ali told us that the Tunisians used to build their villages out of mud bricks which were perfectly safe, except when it rained. These people live in a desert so probably you think that it does not rain here. Well, that is not true: one day, in 1969, they had 12 continuous days of rain, and all the villages completely disappeared! Afterwards the population moved elsewhere, built more mud brick houses but a few years later this misery happened again! Eventually they learnt to use brickwork and now they do not worry anymore about the fact that rain will destroy their houses.

Today we could stay with a local family and they cooked a wonderful meal for us. We talked a lot and had some tea before going to bed. Unfortunately the beds were uncomfortable
because they were very hard, the mattresses were not like the ones we are used to! Nevertheless we slept well.

On our second day we headed out to see Ong Jemal (neck of the camel) which is a scenic part of the Sahara, and features a rather prominent rocky outcrop that looks like the neck of a camel, hence the name.
Actually there are quite a lot of camels in Ong Jamal and we got the opportunity to make a trip on them. That was HILARIOUS! When you want to get on that animal, he has to sit down; so he has to bow through his knees and then you can climb on his back in a saddle. The most funniest moment of all is when he has to get up again. First he bends forward but it is like you are falling off him and then suddenly he “jumps” on his hind legs. Then we were ready to leave but I swear, 15 minutes later we were still laughing because it was incredibly funny! We made a long trip and got to see beautiful places which are only accessible with camels or horses and not with cars.

When the evening was falling we cooked our own dinner in mess-tins, which was weird because we never did that before. Afterwards we placed our tents which luckily had mosquito nets, to protect us against insects.

On our last day of the three-day trip through the Sahara we went to Mos Espa. This was another big highlight as this is the place where several Star Wars episodes have been filmed.

Thankfully our guide was fabulous and gave us time enough to enjoy the amazing and breathtaking sights around us. We did not know that someone could talk so much about sand but he did and actually we must admit that it was very interesting.

When the night was falling we were a bit sad because it was our last evening in the desert and we had become friends with Ali and now we had to leave him. After having had dinner, we watched the beautiful sunset while toasting some marshmallows which Ali gave to us as a farewell gift to enjoy our last evening.

We had a great evening and are looking forward to the next cities we are going to visit.

See you soon!!
Leen -xx-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvZRHCz3PwE&feature=related
video of Luke Skywalker’s house in Star Wars

Algeria, I love it!

Dearest friends,

This week, we were travelling through Algeria (officially called "the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria", what a name for a country!). Algeria is bordered in the northeast by Tunisia, in the east by Libya, in the west by Morocca, in the southeast by Niger, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea.

One of the cities that we have visited is El Oued, also called the "pearl of the Sahara". It is a very picturesque town that attracks many visitors en tourists.. The architecture is one of the most fascinating examples of desert architecture in the Sahara. Desert architecture is a human solution on how to use air and let in breezes to the maximum so that the temperatures inside is reduced as much as possible.

Something very special about this town is that it is watered by an underground river, which enables palm cultivation and the rare use (for the desert) of brick construction for housing.

El-Oued has a reputation of being a good place to shop, many of the products sold here, are not available in shops in other parts of Algeria. Carpets is one of the best buys, as well is leather Shoes. I have bought some delicious fruit over there.

It was such a nice town to visit! (http://lexicorient.com/algeria/eloued.htm)

Another town that we visited in Algeria is Djanet. Djanet is a charming laid back place, as close to the classical picture book of an oasis as it can be. There is nothing of special interest there, but that doesn't mean that it isn't worth while visiting.

It is a neat little town surrounded by low hills, with it's large palmeries, it looks very relaxing. This feeling is retained even after returning from a long trip into the deep desert, in contrast to most other saharan towns these days, that convey that 'return to civilisation' feeling with all the noise and polution.

 

 

 

In this picture you can see the market in Djanet, with local population. The local backery is open in the small hours before dawn, when most streks begin, so we could obtain fresh bread at the last minute of departure. Lovely!

 

So, this was it for this week.

I hope you are all well my friends!


Greetings,

Marlies

Second Week in Algeria!

MONDAY 7 MARCH 2011: VISITING DJELFA

Hello my friends!

Today we are travelling to Djelfa! This is the capital city of Djelfa province of Algeria. It has a population of almost 155,000 inhabitants and is situated between two cities, Bou Saãda and Laghouat.

Djelfa town is at a point of transition between the dry, steppelike High Plateaus of the north, with their chotts (intermittent salt lakes) and the Sahara. The town was founded in 1852 as a French military post on a geometric plan.

The city looks like we thought it was going to be. It’s very wide and flat. There was nothing to do over there, so we had the time to enjoy the nature while we were crossing the Sahara.

   

In the second picture, you can see 4 men from the local book shop. They were very nice and friendly and offered us something to drink, so we bought a booklet. There’s one little problem, we are unable to read Arabic ;-), but they were sooo nice to us!

That’s all we have experienced in this town, so I’ll write to you soon about our other visits!

See ya ! xx

TUESDAY 8 MARCH 2011: VISITING BOU SAADA

Good evening my friends!

Bou Saada means “place of happiness”. It’s a town and municipality in M’Sila Province, Algeria, situated 245 km south of Algiers. This city is traditionally an important market place producing and selling jewelry, metalwork, carpet and bousaadi knives.

There is also a textile mill in town. Even in modern times, Bou-Saada is an important trading post for nomads. There is also some national tourism during winter. Bou-Saada is well-connected with other urban centres by road. M'Sila is 70 km northeast, Biskra is 175 km east, Bordj Bou Arreridj 130 km northeast and Djelfa 120 km southwest. Bou-Saada has two quarters, the old medina (ksar) within the city walls with arched alleyways, and the French town to the south.

 This is the shield of the city.

I hope the next city is a little more interesting, because otherwise, I’ll travel forward instead of staying here in Algeria. It’s such a big country, but it’s so empty ! Although, nothing for me.

We’ll see what Tiaret brings us tomorrow!

Good night ! -XxX-

WEDNESDAY 9 MARCH 2011: VISITING TIARET

  = Tiaret, written in Berber ! 

Today we have visited Tiaret, one of the largest towns in the actual Algeria.

Population

 

Tiaret is a town of about 150,000 people, more than 99% are Muslim, located about 100 miles inland from the Mediterranean seacoast. Known variously as Tiaret, Tahert or Tihert, it is the main city in the province of Tiaret, an upland agricultural region in the Tell Atlas area of Algeria. The word "Tihert" means "station" in the local Berber dialect, and from ancient times Tiaret has been a station, or stopping place, for travelers, traders and armies.

Infrastructure & industry

 

A study by the University of Nice reported in 1992, significant areas contaminated by industrial pollution, and growing squatter settlements on the periphery.

The region is predominantly one of agriculture. There is a large airfield with a tower and terminal, at Abdelhafid Boussouf.

Politics

 

The province suffered massacres, killings, and bombings during the Algerian Civil War, though less so than areas closer to Algiers. The Africa Institute reported in a May, 2004 monograph that Tahert's more "arid and mountainous landscape has facilitated terrorist activities".

According to me, this city was the most important one, of the last three towns we have visited.
We have seen a lot, and we also went to a very good restaurant! (It's nice to eat something different than our Belgian food, but I'll really miss our French Fries!) ;-)

Keep following us, Belgians!

Kiss & Greetings!
Charlotte