Westwards travel highlights 2023 – the year in review

It is this time of the year again when we look back on our life and travels during the last twelve months. It was the first year after the Corona pandemic when our guidebook and tour-guiding work went back to a normal pre-corona level. Several outdated guidebooks urgently needed revisions, and we also did a long research trip for a new guidebook on the Canton Bern in Switzerland. Work kept us busy throughout the year. Therefore, we did not have as much time for independent travel as we had hoped for. Among the highlights of the year were our meetings with old friends in Egypt, Japan and Switzerland (and of course in Germany).

***this 2023 travel review blog post contains affiliate links of our guidebooks***

Some travel Statistics for 2023

• Altogether we spent 212 nights away from home – this is roughly 58% of the year.
• We visited nine countries (apart from Germany, where we live). Only one of them was a new country for us – Serbia!
• 9 nights on public transport – namely three nights each on buses, trains, and planes
• 35 nights in our beloved Hilleberg tent
• We went to see several new UNESCO sites: Abu Mena near Alexandria, Wadi al-Hitan in the Egyptian desert, the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht, some prehistoric pile-dwellings in Unteruhldingen, the watch maker town Le Locle in Switzerland, the monasteries of Sopoćani and Studenica, and Felix Romuliana in Serbia. And Isa also went to the old pilgrimage route of the Kumano Kodo in Japan for work.
• 10 flight legs – still too many
• 4 guidebooks published (Egypt, Japan, Outdoor Adventures in Germany, Uzbekistan)
• 18 blog posts published
• one article about us in the German newspaper Tagesspiegel

January – Egypt

The first trip of 2023 brought us back to Egypt for a guidebook update. As always, we enjoyed the Egyptian sun, the food, and the friendly people. We also caught up with a lot of friends and work contacts and managed to visit the two UNESCO sites that we hadn’t seen before – the El Mena monastery near Alexandria and the whale fossils in Wadi al-Hitan in the Western desert.

Wadi al-Hitan, the Valley of the Whales, was one of the absolute highlights of our travel year. At Wadi-Al Hitan researchers discovered fossilized whales with hind legs. About 50 million years ago the whales developed from land-based animals to ocean-living mammals. The Western desert of Egypt was then covered by the Thetys ocean! So, while the area is now a desert far from any sea, at the time these early types of whales lived in the lagoons close to the coast, occasionally still coming ashore. Today you can see fossilized whale skeletons lying in the desert there.

We also tremendously enjoyed a day trip sailing on a Dahabeya along the Nile with Johanna and Mohammed from Sail the Nile . If you want to go on a Nile trip but are reluctant to go on a big cruise ship, the smaller Dahabeya might be right for you. A Dahabeya is a traditional two-masted sailing boat. Until the 1870s they were the standard for Nile cruises and over the last few years their numbers have increased again. Different from the bygone days they are towed by diesel-powered tugboats if there is no wind. And the comfortable cabins on board provide electricity too.

February to March – Germany and the Netherlands

Back in Berlin we spent the better part of February with desk work. We wrote up the Egypt research for the guidebook and worked on the new edition of a Japan guidebook by the German publisher Trescher. The Japan guidebook was published in May and the Egypt guidebook in July.

At the end of February, we spent five wonderful days in the Netherlands, a country we have not yet travelled much. In Utrecht we went to see an iconic piece of modern architecture: the Rietveld Schröder House. In Leiden we finally visited the Siebold Museum, a memorial museum to Philipp Franz von Siebold, who spent 8 years in Japan during the 19^th century. We also enjoyed some time in Delft and in The Hague.

A very short trip brought us to Bern in Switzerland for a boisterous birthday party of an old friend.

March to April – Japan

The cherry blossom season is always the main season for us to travel to Japan as tour guides for German groups. After three years of travel restrictions due to the Corona pandemic it was the first time that we could conduct these tours again. One of the tours led Isa to the spectacularly atmospheric pilgrimage sites of Kumano Kodo. The ancient pilgrimage routes are part of the Kii Mountains UNESCO World Heritage complex.

Another highlight of the trip was meeting up with our friends from Studio Kuu in Tokyo after the enforced Corona travel ban!

May – Germany

Returning to Germany briefly for a family event – Isa’s mother turned 85! – we prepared our next book projects. In between we found time for some exhibitions and a trip to Bitterfeld. This small East German town was an industrial centre of the GDR, and we visited the highly interesting Industry and Film Museum Wolfen. Don’t think of movies now – they produced the non-digital films that were necessary for analogue cameras.  Most of the quite complicated manufacturing process had to be done in in the dark to avoid exposure. Bitterfeld is also a great place to explore lost places! We did so on two geocaching adventures with friends from Berlin. This was not only great fun but also yielded some eery photos.

May to July – Japan again

An extended research trip for our Stefan Loose Japan guidebook led us to some rural areas of Japan that we are particularly fond of. This book has several authors, and we cover the regions of Chubu, Hokuriku, and Tohoku, as well as the Southern islands of Okinawa. As we are in the fourth edition already, there were few places that we had not visited before. Among them were historical sites from the era of Samurais, such as Narai Juku and the new battle museum at Sekigahara. After years of deprivation, watching a live sumo match was amazing

Staying overnight in the House of Light in Tokamachi, a traditional Japanese Wooden house by the light artist James Turrell, was another highlight of 2023! At dusk and at dawn, a retractable roof opened in the living room and pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow lights illuminated the room. Watching the sky changing colour over the course of this colour programme was mind-blowing. If you want to stay at the House of Lights overnight, it is mandatory to make an early reservation. It is also possible to visit the house during the day (without the light show).

In Okinawa, the highlight of our trip was a kayaking tour to see the Sagaribana – flowers that only bloom at night. It was the first time we were in Okinawa at the right time of the year to see these flowers. The kayaking trip started at 4am in the morning. Paddling in the pitch-darkness only lit up by some flashlight, hearing the jungle noises and “looking for” the sweet smell of the sagaribana flowers was an incredible experience.

In June the guidebook „Legendäre Outdoorabenteuer in Deutschland“ by Lonely Planet was published. We contributed articles about the Hindelanger Via Ferrata, a trip on roller skis and a kayaking tour on the river Peene in Germany.

August to September – Switzerland

Barely returned from Japan, we left Berlin again for the Alps. For a new guidebook we went hiking, cycling, and sightseeing in the Canton Bern in Switzerland. While the famous Jungfrau Area (“Top of Europe”) was too touristy and crowded for our liking, we found some other unexpected pearls. Our favourite hike of the summer was a stage of the Via Alpina from Griesalp to Kandersteg via the 2778 m high Hohtürli pass. The route led through spectacular high-alpine landscapes and along impressive glaciers before reaching the deep-blue Lake Oeschinen.  

A more bizarre experience was an outdoor cheese fondue in a giant fondue pot at a sweltering 33 degrees Celsius. To our surprise this unusual gourmet hike worked out well: the cheese fondue was quite tasty even in the heat of summer!

It was also in early September that the new edition of our Uzbekistan guidebook was finally published. 

September – Austria and Liechtenstein

From Switzerland we went directly to Austria with a one-night stop in Liechtenstein, where we had spent a few days of fantastic hiking last year. In Austria we were again quite busy, now researching the update of our Tyrol guidebook. Due to the Corona pandemic, a lot of hotels and restaurants had closed for good or significantly changed opening hours. Nevertheless, we found time to visit another James Turell Skyspace in Lech, built high up in a breathtaking mountain scenery.

October – Serbia

In the latter half of October, we took time off to go on a two-week trip to Serbia, one of the lesser visited countries in the Balkan. Serbia was easy to travel and offered some interesting sightseeing such as the Palace of Galerius and colourful monasteries. Finding vegetarian food in Serbia was not too difficult and sometimes it was even tasty.

October to December – Germany

Most of the autumn, however, we spent in Germany where another spell of writing work kept us occupied. After all, those months of research for various guidebooks still needed to be transformed into text! To keep healthy, we went climbing indoors, and we also did a few excursions. In October, we spent a weekend in Halle, another East German town. Halle’s most important sightseeing spot is the State Museum of Prehistory with its famous Nebra Sky Disk. The small copper disk is about 3600 years old and the oldest known description of cosmic phenomena. It is part of the UNESCO “Memory of the World“ Heritage. In Halle we also went geocaching again, this time in a photogenic abandoned meat factory.

The absolute lowlight of the year happened in November when Natascha twisted her knee in an accident in the bouldering gym. She tore her ACL and meniscus, among some other injuries to the knee. Most of them will heal over time, but she needs surgery for the meniscus and the ACL – scheduled later in January. This means at least another two months of recovery time and intensive rehabilitation exercises. And less travelling in 2024.

December – Belgium

Over Christmas we went to Cologne to see friends and family, and afterwards took a detour to Belgium. For a few days, we explored Liège – great museums and of course waffles! – and Louvain-la-Neuve, a small university town not far from Brussels. Founded only 50 years ago as an entirely planned town, Louvain-la-Neuve is home to the Hergé Museum. Visiting this museum dedicated to the comic book hero Tintin was again one of the highlights of 2023. And we are now reading the albums again (in chronological order).

We are thankful for the wonderful trips in 2023 and are looking forward to 2024, Year of the Dragon!

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