Palau

If you haven't heard of Palau, you're not the only one. It is a small island country in the Western Pacific. It is known for many reasons, for WII history buffs it may be the battle of Peleliu, for divers it's the Blue Corner, to biologist it's Jelly Fish Lake and for some it is the fact that the official currency is US dollars.

From the Mid-West it takes about 24 hours to get there and it's worth every minute.

Seventy islands is a protected sanctuary without access. This is great for the environment and the wild life as it is preserved for future generations.

Above picture was taken by Dan, who we met together with Tom.

Let's just say it: The diving is simply outstanding partially because there is a lot (did I say: a lot) of fish. 

It's not a fish here and there. It's fish everywhere.

There are schools of barracuda and other species and with a lot of food there is also plentiful of hunters, such as grey reef sharks. During our first dive in the Germain Channel we noticed quite a large turtle shell that looked like someone took a bite out of a hamburger. That could easily have been a tiger shark.

The boat ride from Sam's Tours to the dive site was always exciting because the captain chose a winding path between those mushroom like structures that were eroded close to the sea level.

While diving the Blue Holes our dive guide (Keith Santillano) shows us a Flashing Disco Clam, which is one of the weirdest living things I have seen so far.

One of the highlights was Jelly Fish Lake. The first encounter is somewhat intimidating since everyone learned that you shouldn't touch any wild life. So you dodge the first one, and the second one and so forth. The farther you swim, the more jelly fish you see and very soon there is no dodging anymore. You are surrounded and they touch you everywhere.

The island itself has so much to offer, be it kayaking, hiking to a waterfall or getting a history lesson.

On our last day we went snorkeling and we enjoyed lunch at one of the beautiful beaches reachable only by boat.

Rome

When you learn about the Roman Empire in school, you don't realize that today, the roman influence is still alive. People of Rome live their lives among roman ruins that have survived for over 2000 years and that is amazing.

It's not just the Colosseum, but all the other ancient artifacts that are just part of the city, like these columns.

Imagine that even Cesar saw these and hopefully was in awe as we are today.

Even as non-religious person, one can only be impressed by St. Peters Dome. It's a grand structure that was built on the backs of many people.

But is not just a structure that houses a museum among other things, it is artwork in itself and it contains a gazillion paintings that are part of the architecture. It's just beautiful and no picture can do it justice. One has to go there and experience it.

As if Rome wouldn't be enough culture, we rented a car and drove up to Florence.

And of course, when in Florence, one has to admire the probably most famous statue in the world, David. Michelangelo is credited with finishing this absolutely stunning piece of art in unmatched details from a single piece of marble.

But don't forget, David has always existed, Michelangelo has just remove the unnecessary marble.

Continuing through Tuscany we ended up in Milano, where we visited the mall and the Duomo. The details on the roof are incredible and I'm glad it's open to the public, otherwise it would just be lost to the birds and the environment.

Bonaire

Since Bonaire is one of the three islands off the coast of Venezuela, it's part of the Netherland Antilles and most important it is a gem for shore diving.

It's a simple concept: you rent a truck and with your own scuba gear you get your tanks from the resort's drive-through and then drive to the numerous dive sites any time you want. Let's say you want to see who's hunting at 2:00AM then you do what we did, you just do it.

The slave huts are a reminder of another time when not even the Europeans were disturbed by owning other humans.

They were freshly painted and stood out in the bare landscape, close to a still operational salt production.

During one of those night dives we encountered a box jelly fish that was just hovering in the water column as if it took a break from an interstellar journey. We spent quite some time with this "monster", partly because we were intrigued, partly because we tried to imagine how close we got to these tentacles. Are they dangerous to humans? What would happen? How would we do if we got in contact? If anyone has an idea what type of box jelly fish this is, please let us know in the comment section.

When night diving, it's good to know that the large silver fish that flies by you from behind is just a 6 foot Tarpon. They use your light beam to hunt for their dinner.

Curacao

 As Aruba and Bonaire, Curacao is a Dutch owned Island off the coast of Venezuela. It is the most industrialized island of the ABC islands.

We came here to scuba dive and stayed at the Curacao Habitat.

Downtown Willemstad at night, where European style meets Caribbean charm.

The underwater camera equipment was very primitive, which shows in the images we were able to capture. Besides moray eels, snakes, turtles and lobsters we saw stone fish, and flounders and other reef fish.

Diavolezza

On the way back from Venice, we wanted to do some hiking, because that is what people do when they are in Switzerland, right? So we drove over the Bernina pass and on the way down before reaching Pontresina we stopped and took the gondola up to the Diavolezza.

The view to Piz Palü and Bernina is just breath taking. The snow covered ridge is the famous Biancograt.

Bernina

From the Refuge Diavolezza we walked down to the glacier, put on the crampons, roped up and hiked over to the other side. The weather was perfect.

Piz Palü

After we enjoyed being alone in the mountains, we needed to hike up the moraine to the gondola station. The gondola would take us to our car in the parking lot down in the valley. Well, it turned out that the last gondola left already and it was barely 5:00pm, ok maybe 6:00, but still. Short of too many choices, we decided to hike down to the car and by that time it was completely dark.

Of course, we arrived in Pontresina without a hotel reservation and lucky us we found a cozy family own hotel with a kitchen that was about to close. With all of today's exercise we were felt we deserved a good local pasta dish.

What an adventures day this has been.

Venice

From Switzerland via Austria, we drove over the Reschen pass towards Venice. As you can imagine we were so excited to park the car next to the train station and heading over the island. By this time it has gotten dark and we were looking for a place to stay. Not having a reservation was our usual approach, which can be exhilarating and sometimes very surprising. Finally, we found a nice place to stay, the Hotel Cavalletto, Only the next morning we found out that the famous Piazza San Marco is located right behind the hotel.

Very quickly, we realized that getting lost is actually a plus. Even thought the street and canal layout is confusing, one can really not get lost. There are always piazzas, towers and bridges to see that lead you to other places.

It was such a great idea to come here and experience a true Italian icon.