Travelog for: Knopf

After a small rest for lunch we decided to check out some other paths through the reserve. The ticket is good for the whole day, so we planned another 2-3h hike.
We were all alone on small paths that were partially pretty steep and made aour way over a few small bridges to a view point from where one can see fromt he Gulf of Nicoya, which we just made out under the clouds to the central valley and volcanoes. Unfortunately you can see that the view in that direction was very much obstructed by clouds.
All in all we had great hiking weather, though. The forest grows so well because it's about 18°C here all year round with about the same high humidity level. We had a largely sunny and dry day, though, with nice warm temperatures. In a few places the fog made it dark and a bit spooky, though.
We passed over a hanging bridge a little below the canopy level. It was an amazing view but the bridge tended to swing a little bit and we had to take care not to fall. Look what a long way down it was!  We also saw some plants that are often featured on postcard of Costa Rica because they look like kissing lips. All in all we had a great day.
Tomorrow we are going to catch another bus and make our way down to the beaches of Guanacaste. We heard it will be HOT!

This week we are relaxing a bit, spending our days on the beautiful beach of Flamingo, being very careful not go get pulled out by riptides, and trying anything to avoid the heat and humidity.
At night it usually rains and the frogs make a lot of noise outside the doors to our hotel room. At the beach the howler monkey sometimes scare me with loud noises like a dog barking. They sit high up in the trees and eat fruit and leaves and are enjoying the sun. We also took small boat trips to other beaches, but everything got very wet so we couldn't take a camera.
Along the beach lots of little snails are lying in the sand and streching out their legs everytime a wave passes over them. It's funny to walk on them but can't really be avoided as there are so many.

To me one of the interesting things about travelling is seeing all the different money. I like the colorful Costa Rican Colones. 500 Colones equate to about $1. I especially like the see-through part of the 1000 Colones bill.

After a long journey we are back in Germany. I'm exhausted!

Emil and I are in a train going to Paris!

We took the metro and funiculaire up to Sacré Coeur Basilica. The metro exit has many steps! The weather wasn't that good but the colors fit the colors of Parisian rooftops. We walked a bit and went by the Moulin Rouge. Dinner and a show were too expensive for us. So we went shopping and bought some yummy macarons.

We bought a picnic dinner and took the metro to Trocadéro. As you can see it was foggy. We took our time enjoying the fountains and illumanation and crossed over the Seine to the Eiffel tower. We were just in time for the blinking lights that are on for 5 min every full hour in the evening. Unfortunately it started to rain and we had a wet way back to the metro.

Today Emil and I took the train from Paris to Fontainbleau castle. We had really nice weather with about 20°C and sun and were abel to enjoy the walk through the park and the courtyards. We saw the staircase where Napoleon said his farewells on his way to Elba, as well as his private rooms and office and other furnished rooms of the stale. We esp. liked the gallery of Franz I with the salamander (that looks to us like a dragon) emblem everywhere.

On Monday Emil and I did a typical tourist tour around Paris. We started out at the Eiffel tower (photo 1&2), strolled along the Champ de Mars, admired the bears designed to represent the different countries in the world (3), crossed over the Seine (5) to experience the traffic chaos that is the Place de la Concorde (6), looked along the axis of the city from the Louvre(13) through the Jardin des Tuileries(7-12), the Place de la Concorde to the Arch de Triomphe and La Defense, enjoyed the warm autumn day and just generally had a good time. We crossed the Seine again at the Hotel de Ville (14) and sat in the small park next to Notre Dame de Paris (15&16). We strolled through the Quartier Latin (17) and in the evening returned home via Metro like all those working Parisians.

We had some great galettes filled with egg, bacon spinach and cheese in the Breton streets of Paris. Yummy! But unfortunately so greasy that we didn't manage a serving of the sweet version for dessert.

On our last day in Paris we wanted to visit the Musee d'Orsay. We took the RER to the museum station, but when we got above ground we were directly in a mass of people with big flags and signs right in front of the museum. Apparently it was a demo of some sort and the museum was closed due to it. We fought our way through a row of police men in riot gear and the stalled traffic to the sidewalk along the Seine. We crossed a bridge with many signed locks along the bannister and deciced to join what was left of our time in Paris in the Jardin des Tuileries, sitting in the sun and reading and talking along with many tired tourists and Parians of break or students getting out of school for the day. After a picnic lunch we made our way to the Gare du Nord to catch our train back to Germany.

I am packing my bags again, tomorrow I am going to escape this sleet and enjoy the sun!

Here I am in the air. The flight takes about 4h.
(The date in the camera settings was wrong.)

Here we are in the garden of our bungalow. It's still early enough to go grocery shopping, swim in the pool and relax a bit.

In stead of taking the bus to the lighthouse of Maspalomas, or walking to the beach of Playa del Ingles, more often than not we opt to walk through the dunes. It's hard going up the dunes but so much fun sliding down the steep ones.