2008 started with a visit to Basel for the Fasnacht celebrations. Often known in Basel as "the three wonderful days" Basler Fasnacht is the most important date in the Basel festival calendar and one of the most popular celebrations in Switzerland. Indulging ourselves in Switzerlands tradition of Fasnacht celebrations, we also went to Liestal for Chienbäse in which a procession of fire is held in the Old Town of the city.

Over the years (since well before this site ever went online) I've travelled to most of the major tourist destinations of Switzerland. It was, therefore, a most pleasant experience to head out to the Kartause Ittingen - a former Carthusian Charterhouse in near Frauenfeld in Canton Thurgau. I don't think that the Charterhouse is especially well known outside Switzerland and we only found out about it recently.

We made our first trip of the year to Brussels in March. We flew into Brussels airport on the Saturday morning and spent half a day in Brussels itself before heading down to Luxembourg. I'd not been to Luxembourg for the thick end of 20 years, so was kinda looking forward to spending a bit of time there. I had remembered Luxembourg as being a small city and, in that at least, my memories were confirmed. Sadly, the weather didn't play ball and we spent the Sunday darting in and out of the rain which, literally, put a bit of a dampner on proceedings. We will most likely have to spend some time in Brussels later this year and will be reporting back then.

Over the Easter weekend, we visited Milan, Turin and La Venaria Reale. We found out about an exhbition about the House of Savoy the Palazzo in the print edition of the Financial Times which provided the impetus for the whole trip. We'd never been to Turin or La Venaria Reale before so a long weekend with an exhibition on was a good oppurtunity to visit. We later also found out that some of the works of Canova would be exhibited at the Palazzo Reale in Milan as part of a cultural exchange with the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

Later this year

For the first week in June, I will be in New Zealand for a family reunion. For this sadly short period, I will be based in the Taranaki region of New Zealand.

We will also be visiting Italy. My trip through Italy will be for several days. The first day will be in Milan. Then onto Florence for 4 days and then onto Rome for 5 days.

Travel plans beyond this year

During 2009 and 2010, we are currently planning trips to China and Easter Island respectivly to view the total solar eclipses. We're also giving consideration to visiting Jordan in 2009 but this is very much in the preliminary stages of investigation and planning. Should we go to Jordan, we will for sure be visiting the Jordanian capital Amman and Petra. Other places on this tour are still being thought about.

Bookmark this page

[ Delicious ] [ Digg ] [ reddit ] [ Facebook ] [ StumbleUpon ]