Posts filed under 'Activities'
A fun thing to do in fantastic Amsterdam if you have a couple of hours to spare and enjoy beer, is to do a tour of the Heineken Museum Brewery – www.heinekenexperience.com. The tour started in 2001 and is done in the former Heineken brewery which is now a national monument.
It’s great! They take you through the old brewery explaining their brewing method, show you videos detailing the whole brewing process and give you beer at the end of the tour.
November 29th, 2008
Here’s a little list of interesting activities in no particular order we think feature atop most travelers lists. They’re mostly active activities like sports as opposed to “passive” ones like museum, concert, play and gallery visits.
Top 10 Activities
- Relax
- Scuba dive and/or snorkel
- Visit Cultural sites and landmarks
- Ski/Snowboard
- Eat & Drink
- Walk/Hike
- Enjoy Local Entertainment
- Horse ride
- Tennis
- Golf
December 31st, 2007
The Thames, cuts through London it does!
When people think of London, invariably the Thames comes up. It’s fun to take a boat down the Thames. You can get a ticket and board your tour boat close to Parliament. The trip consists of a cruise down the Thames with a tour guide slowly talking you through all the major attractions on the banks of the famous river. Parliament, the London Eye, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London are a few you’ll see along the way.
At the end of your little trip that takes about an hour or two, you end up in Greenwich which is also quite nice. We always went for a walk in the beautiful park after one these little tours. It was fun and you can go check out the Greenwich Meridian at the top of the hill. You know … GMT … I’ve been on both sides of the Meridian, have you?
Enjoy!
P.S. You’ll be knocked-up for a tip as you leave the boat. Up to you really, can’t remember if I ever tipped the staff.
July 12th, 2007
We went to Istanbul a few years ago over the Valentine’s day weekend. February in Istanbul…it’s freakin’ cold! It’s a beautiful city and the Turks were very friendly and helpful bar the usual 1 or 2 locals anywhere you go in the world who try to rip you off or take you for a ride. That’s exactly what a cab driver did there so be careful with those crazy cabbies in their shitty little yellow cabs.
There’s quite a bit to see there,especially in the Old Town where the Mosques, Ayia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and other attractions are really fascinating. There’s so much history there. The apple tea, for tourists, is also quite nice when it’s cold out.
We took a boat ride along the Bosphorus. It wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world but it was kind of fun to see the nice palaces and buildings along the shoreline of a famous waterway. It’s worth doing if you are in Istanbul for a few days.
While there we also went to a belly dancing evening which was good fun. The dancers were clearly interested in the tourists from the richer nations as the American and Brit were constantly offered to come on stage and paid more attention to than we were. It’s for the tip at the end you see. Might be bigger, might not. Anyway, they fed us and danced for us and it was quite a nice evening. At the end though, the place turned into a strip club. Sitting there with my would-be wife, a waiter came to me after the show with a “free” entry card to the upstairs strip club. Dude, I’m attached or does that not bother you?? No big deal, we just laughed it off and even more so as we left when we realised the belly dancers were also the strippers. 🙂
Two jobs eh!
Go to Istanbul, it’s a great city!
June 15th, 2007
We went to Amsterdam a while back and enjoyed what this great Dutch city has to offer. We decided to go to a Live Show one afternoon and proceeded to select one from the many on offer in ther Red Light District.
In terms of price, they aren’t particularly cheap. Given that we were on a budget, it was quite an outlay for us and with the added sales pitch that there were actually 2 parts to the show and that a couple of free drinks would be thrown in as part of the deal, we opened our wallets and succumbed to the lure of lust and all that naughty stuff.
The venue wasn’t all that nice, it was kind of a grimmey bar/theatre with a large stage. The drinks, well actually, the half-drinks were sucked back in about 3 minutes due to their size and the show was sort of interesting, a banana featured, and then some guy got on stage and lay on his back while some ugly broad rode the crap out of him.
Anyway, it was interesting but I wouldn’t do it again. If you haven’t seen one and really want to, go for it. It is an eye-opener and will help you decide whether or not it’s worth the money and all the fuss. I’m sure there are much more interesting ones out there than the one we were party to but the price we paid for this one leads me to believe that a “classy” show is gonna cost you an arm and a leg.
If this post offends you, sorry, but it was interesting and worth writing about.
May 19th, 2007
The Cape Winelands of South Africa are beautiful. The wines from the region are also excellent.
While in the winelands areas including Stellenbosch, Paarl, Constantia, Swartland, Durbanville and Franschhoek, a popular activity for both locals and residents is to go for a wine tasting or two at many of the top class wine producers. They are usually open to the public during the week, on Saturdays and some on Sundays. For a small fee, you can taste a few wines, whites, reds, ports, champagne – read Cape Classique, sorry, and decide whether or not you want to purchase a bottle or two from the estate itself. The grounds of the estate are often pristine, with mountain settings and great views. Some also have restaurants where you can enjoy a pleasant meal, a bottle of the estate’s finest and good company.
My wife and I go wine tasting occassionally, I don’t taste though cause I am driving 😉 . It’s a lot of fun, a great way to see the beautiful Cape Winelands and savour a glass or two of South Africa’s finest.
March 20th, 2007
We recently went to that crazy and popular city called Las Vegas in the desert of Nevada. It’s a fantastic place really, there’s so much to do there besides gambling it’s mind boggling.
One of them is flying over the spectacular Grand Canyon in a helicopter. There’s enough companies who do it and plenty of resellers selling these tours so look around a bit before you book. But seriously, it’s great. You get to fly around in a chopper which is a blast in itself, see the Hoover Dam, fly over the massive Lake Mead, see the spot where Thelma and Louise rode to oblivion and best of all fly over the canyon carved by the Colorado River and maybe even land in it!
It’s such a cool thing to do and the bragging rights will last you a lifetime! If you go to Vegas, how can you possibly give this a miss!
February 22nd, 2007
It’s been a while since I’ve last written here so let’s see if I can still type a little bit…
A couple of years back, my wife and I took a little holiday canoeing down the Orange River in South Africa through the Richtersveld. It was to put it simply, amazing. We had such a good time that I would love to do it again. The river is lovely, it flows nicely in the direction your paddling, the water is just the right temperature, the scenery is great, the river banks are comfortable and the night sky is fascinating. We’d recommend this trip to anybody who wants a bit of adventure in Southern Africa. The thing is, be picky about who you go with because it could ruin your experience. If you want to know which company was rubbish, just ask and I will fill you in on them.
Besides that, bring along your camera, plenty of water, some treats, plenty of sunblock, mosquito repellent and something to cover your upper body with like a rash vest so you don’t burn. You’ll have a great time and don’t sweat it, it’s not hard work at all and anybody, under the age of 80, should do it. If you’re 80 and fit, do it, but at your own peril!
Do it do it do it!
February 8th, 2007
One of the coolest races in the world is taking place currently. The Dakar Rallye. It’s a fantastic race with some real tough cookies competing against each other through some of the ruggedest and least forgiving terrain in the world. It’s really worth having a look at the mean machines and racers giving the race a go – www.dakar.com
I use to dream of competing in this race, not sure it will ever happen, but maybe one day, dreams do come true…Now to find the funding… 🙂
January 12th, 2007
It was a beautiful day here today but it made me quite sad to be reminded about an article that was recently published about the depletion and imminent death of our massive oceans. As a caring human being, I’m very worried about this, especially since it will probably happen during my lifetime. As a diver, it depresses me because pretty soon there might hardly be anything left to look at while I’m down there. As a potential parent, how is my kid ever going to learn to appreciate the taste of pickled herring on Christmas Eve when there isn’t any herring left to be pickled??!!
So what can I do? Well, I can stop throwing away garbage into the ocean, which I’ve never done and I can continue to shit on the pesky little Spaniard I once say throw a whole bag of garbage into the Mediterranean because it was kinda of fun to do it.
Before you chuck something into the water, out of your car window, into your sink or down the toilet, think twice please please please!
Before you start your car to go get yourself some lunch, do you think you might be able to walk instead?
And before you decide to burn that pile of leaves in your backyard, maybe you should think about a compost heap instead.
It’s up to all of us, nobody else is going to fix it for us!
November 6th, 2006
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