Category Travel
Today it was time for Renegade Wife to learn how to ride a Snowboard. She actually tried a bit two years ago, but I doubted she would remember much. I know beginners often get tired easily, what with using muscles that normally don’t get much exercise and so forth, so we took it easy, and didn’t get to the slopes until around ten thirty.
The wife did remember the very basics and she managed to stand up, but it was slow going at first and she needed a long break every time she fell. Eventually though, she started getting the … Read the rest
I have promised my wife I will teach her how to ride a snowboard, but she was kind enough to let me go out on my own and enjoy myself the first day. So I got up bright and early and went out to rent some equipment. Like any ski resort, Niesko has plenty of ski rental places but I selectd one called Rhythm Sports because it seemed like they might have some higher quality stuff. Sure enough, with the premium package I got high quality equipment from Burton.
Geared up and ready to go I hit the slopes and … Read the rest
I’ve longed to go skiing for quite a while now so for this year’s winter vacation Renegade Wife and I decided to go to a ski resort. Since we live in Taiwan the best choice seemed to be Japan which suited me nicely since I’ve wanted to ski in Hokkaido for several years.
Today we set off to Niseko, one of the largest ski resorts in Japan. We flew to Sapporo then took a bus that trundled along the small roads for about three hours and we reached our Hotel around six in the evening.
It was much too late … Read the rest
Since we had seen most of the really worth while sights on Saturday we took it pretty easy on Sunday. Penghu is supposed to be a good place for snorkeling and diving but all the diving tours seemed to have closed for the winter, so I simply bought a cheap mask and snorkel from a sports store on main street and then we headed out to one of the many beaches.
At the far end, near some tall cliffs I found a nice area to explore. It was by no means as good as a coral reef but I still … Read the rest
The main island of Penghu is actually made up of three islands connected by bridges to form a large horseshoe. We live in the biggest town on one end of the horseshoe, today we decided to go sightseeing on the far end.
We started by heading back out to the little islet connected by the tidal road, and got there just in time to see the tide close over the road. That was kind of neat.
We continued out towards the far end of the island, stopping first … Read the rest
Yini and I decided to make this weekend and long one and travel to the small island of Penghu. We both left work early on Thursday then headed to the airport and we arrived here in the evening. Our original plan was that we would go to the even smaller island Qimei today, spend the night there then come back to Penghu the morning after. However, when we learned that the weather forecast was promising high winds and rough seas for Saturday, which might cause the ferry service to stop, we had to change our plans. Instead we joined a … Read the rest
Sunday was our very last day in Sweden but because we had several hours before our plane left we decided to make one last excursion in Stockholm. To make the most of it we left the hotel a bit earlier than normal and took the tram to Stockholm’s big outdoor museum Skansen.
We spent the morning and early afternoon walking around among the various old houses, farms and churches. There is even a small zoo with a few moose, seals, and Yinis favourite, brown bears.
Old house with thatched roof 
This old cart is pretty cool 
Yini’s parents posing in
Saturday was our last whole day in Sweden, so we planned to go to the archipelago. Our goal was to use the Hop On Hop Off bus to get to the pier where we could take the boat, but after waiting at the bus stop for a good thirty five minutes we found out the buses weren’t running properly, so we changed to the metro instead. When we got to the pier there was already a long queue so the boat got pretty crowded but still not too bad. We had a pleasant enough journey out to Vaxholm, the most … Read the rest
On Friday we took the Hop On Hop Off tour bus, hoping to see the city in leisure. This turned out to be a bit of a failure because the bus was exceedingly full. None the less, we got to old town around mid morning, and spent the rest of the morning walking around old town. Perhaps a bit too much walking for Yini’s dad but otherwise nice.
Random street in old town 
Another street view 
One of the churches 
Another church 
Old town central square
We also made a visit to the royal palace, I’ve never been inside before, … Read the rest
Thursday morning was spent preparing for our departure at a leisurely pace. We also rowed out to the little island nearby, and as we were landing I told Yini to take the bow line and jump ashore. From where I was sitting I didn’t see how far it was but apparently it was too far because poor Yini lost her balance trying to get over and fell in the water. Luckily neither her camera or her phone were damaged.
After lunch we packed up the last things, got in the car and drove to Västerås. There we split up, my … Read the rest