Adventures in Europe: Berlin, Germany

We're on our way back to Amsterdam (by train) to fly home tomorrow morning, but we had a great late afternoon and evening in Berlin yesterday.

Adventures in Europe: Hook of Holland, the Netherlands to Berlin, Germany

I have spent the last week cycling from the Hook of Holland to Berlin. I am blogging about the cycling at my cycling blog (https://cyclingedmontonian.blogspot.ca/), but here are some photos of places I stayed along the way, mostly along with my wife Diana.

Adventures in Europe: Amsterdam, the Netherlands

From Almaty I flew to Amsterdam via Istanbul yesterday. But, I am not going home yet. Instead, I'll spend a week cycling from Holland to Berlin. 

Adventures in Asia: Ile-Alatau National Park, Kazakhstan

Almaty is on the doorstep of an incredible mountain range, and the Ile-Alatau National Park is actually technically within the city limits. A municipal bus takes you from downtown up into the park and it's easy to get to several trailheads. Today I decided to hike up to Kok Zhailau.

Adventures in Asia: Almaty, Kazakhstan

As far as I am concerned, Almaty lives up to its reputation as a lovely city. From the train station I made my way to my hotel, where I left my bag. Then I headed up the cable car.

Adventures in Asia: Tashkent, Uzbekistan to Almaty, Kazakhstan

After a lovely few hours in Tashkent, I returned to the train station for my 18 hour train ride into Kazakhstan and to Almaty. I arrived in Almaty just after 10:00.

Adventures in Asia: Tashkent metro stations, Uzbekistan

Tashkent is well known for its beautiful metro stations, many of which date back several decades. This is the current metro system map I downloaded. 

I took photos in five of the stations. The train from Samarkand dropped me off at the Tashkent stop, so that is where I began.

Kosmonavtlar honours cosmonauts.

Chorsu, the stop below the Chorsu bazaar:

Alisher Navoi, which celebrates the 15th century literary work of the station's namesake.

And, finally, Pakhtakor, which honours cotton pickers (that's what pakhtakor means; by the way, Pakhtakor FC is a football club based in Tashkent, too).