Abrau Dyurso Champagne

Since 1870 champagne is produced in the area of Abrau Dyurso, about 30 minutes drive west of Novorossiysk city centre. The area was chosen because the climate there is the same as in the champagne area in France.
At noon I was picked up from the hotel by my SGS colleagues Tatiana, Svetlana and Sergey to drive to Abrau Dyurso for a visit of the champagne factyory and tasting of their wines!

We made a guided tour of the museum, caves and modern factory that was rebuild in the last 20 years by new owners. At the end of the tour we arrived in the wine cellar and tasting area where Tatiana, Svetlana and I had the pleasure of tasting 7 different types of Champagne. Poor Sergey could only watch us as he had to drive us back to Novorossiysk.

We also made a walk through the gardens between the caves and the lake in the strong winds that were blowing from the mountains. We enjoyed the sight of the lake and the shores in autumn colours as well as the various structures of modern art in the park.

Then Sergey drove us around the lake and up in the mountains on the south west side to the beach on the coast of the Black Sea. It is obvious from the pictures of the deserted beach that the summer season is over, as we also noticed by the strong cold winds. Nevertheless it was a nice trip and I loved the sight of sea and mountains coming together.

Click here to open the photo album with all of this day's pictures.

Novorossiysk hike to mountain ridge

This Sunday I hiked to go up to one of the mountain ridges on the north east of Novorossiysk to get a good spot overviewing the city, harbour and bay. The route was taking me past the SGS office so I could verify the time it would take me to walk to the office. It took me just over 30 minutes on Friday to get to the hotel and I am planning to walk to and from the office in the week to come.
Althoug the roads to the office trough the harbour and industrial areas are not particularly interesting to walk I enjoyed it by taking pictures of some harbour activities and the SGS Office; located near the 'S' on the map below.

After passing the office the road started to go up slightly and more when I left the main road. At first I was having a bit of trouble finding the road to the track leading up the mountain that I had seen from my hotel and walking towards the mountains.

It turned out I started a bit to far north but trough some side streets I managed to find the entrance to the track. All my usual gadgets were useless: my iPhone was giving a proxy error (thanks Vodafone) and if I found a map on the internet it was only showing main roads. The 2 bookshops that I had entered did not sell any paper maps.

Then the steep and tiresome climb up the mountain started. Lately I had only been hiking in the Dutch flatlands and that was noticable! When I reached the plains that I had noticed and marked as my target I found out that I could not have gone further anyway: the mountain behind it was a huge excavation as I had also seen on some ridges to the south!

But the result was what I was hoping for and thanks to the DoubleTake software on my MacBook I am very happy with the panorama picture shown above (click in it for a larger size page).

Click here to open the photo album with all of this day's pictures.

Novorossiysk, city and coastal hike

After a week of working and long travels by airplane and car I was ready for some physical excersize and fortunately I think there is no better way to explore a city, habour and coastal area than by hiking.

The red 'H' on the map on the right shows the location of my hotel and from there I walked through the market and parks of the center to the navy cruiser marked with 'C' in the harbour.

On my way to the harbor I first walked over the market at the beginning of the main street. That is where I noticed that the locals were not really familiar with tourists taking pictures as you can see on some of the photo's where they are really watching me.
The park as a separation between the lanes of the main road is very nice but could be better if there were no cars on the road! Apart from the obvious unhealthy exhaust gasses I also did not like the noise of all the traffic aound you.

There were quite a few statues and monuments I came accross; the obvious ones to honour statesman and other famous (local) persons but unfortunately due to my lack of the Russion language I had now idea why they were there. The eternal flame remembering the soldiers killed in the second world war was quite obvious and I watched with interest a group of young people rehearsing a ceremony.
For the same reason of not understanding the language I decided not to visit the old Soviet cruiser. Also I enjoyed being outside in nice weather and among people on a nice wide walking area (boulevad) along the harbour and bay to the South. I could see a structure in the far distance that seemed to be rising out of the water and decded to see if I could find out what it was. It turned out to be another concreete monument in rememberance of the last centuries 2nd World War; the 'W' on the map.

From the monument I continued south east on a small strip of land into the Black Sea and then over a small dam back to the shore near Aleksino on the map. That was a good poit to start my return, partially via different roads then I came and was lucky the the rain only broke down when I was enjoying a late lunch on a covered terrace!

Click here to open the photo album with all of this day's pictures.



Click here to open the photo album with all of this day's pictures.

Moscow, Krasnodar and Tuapse

After leaving Amsterdam late on Saturday night (Oct 27, 2012) I had a 2 hour delay on Moscow Sheremetyevo airport due to snow. A new experience in my travels!
When we finally left I slept most of the 2 hour flight untill the flight attendents told me that we had started the decent to Krasnodar. When I opened the sun screen of the window I saw a beautiful sunny countryside below us.

In Krasnodar I was picked up by a company driver who spoke a few words of English but he was very friendly and eager to tell about his country and the places we passed. That made it a pleasant 3 hours drive to Tuapse in the VW from his boss the branch manager. Trying to understand each other with simple words we drove through a beautiful mountain range to the Black Sea cost.

Although I had not slept much I left the hotel immediately after check-in around 4 pm to explore the little town with a nice square and the harbour.

Due to some operational changes it turned out that Tuapse was not the best place for me to stay with only limited users and activity. Therefore we decided that I would move to the regional head office Novorossiysk on the Wednesday late afternoon. One of the nice things in the Tuapse office was the kitchen where the team was served lunch every day by the SGS cook who prepared a vegeatable dish and the famous Russian Borsch soup for me on my last day!

Palm Jumeirah

The Palm Jumeirah is a man made island in the shape of a Palm Tree to help solve Dubai's beach shortage and double the amount of beachfront hotels. It is now the home for people living in apartments on the Trunk and in residents on the Fronds (Palm leaves). To protect the island against the seas a 11 km long Crescent was build around it. The Crescent houses the hotels and can be reached through a 6 lane tunnel at the tip of the Palm Tree island or via the monorail.
The numbers in red on the Crescent on the map of the Palm Jumeira in the photo album indicate where the next 8 pictures were taken.

Hatta and Fujairah

After the visit to the Palm Jumeirah Alexey and I drove to the Hajar mountains and Hatta. The road runs partly through Oman and although my guidebook claimed there were no checkpoints we did pass two of them and were asked for our passports!
As Alexey did not have his with him we were prepared to turn around at the first checkpoint but then another guard said we didn't need them to go o Hatta and let us go through. At the second checkpoint they almost let us go when I waved my passport but then they asked about Alexey's ... after a strange look as he did not have one we were aloud to go through ...

In Hatta we walked up the hill to an old watchtower and enjoyed the views and nice weather. After a visit to the heritage village and the old fort we decided not to challenge our luck at the border checkpoints again but go through the mountains to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman and stay in the Arabian Emirates.

We both enjoyed the sights on the 'mountain' roads. The landscape being like on the moon with hardly any vegitation except in some of the valleys. In Fujairah we walked a bit on the beach and then found our way back to Dubai.

East coast: Dibba and Khor Fakkan

The United Arab Emirates are located on the eastern side of the Arabian peninsula between the Persian Gulf in the west and the Gulf of Oman in the east. To the north and south east it is bordered by the Sultanate of Oman and in the south is the border with Saudi Arabia. The coast in the west is flat with salt plains and sand (desert) whereas the coast in the east is made up by the Western Al Hajar mountains.
Those mountains and the east coast were the destination of my trip on this day.

The first stop was shortly after reaching the mountains near the city of Masafi. There was a ´Friday Market´ (that is actually open all days) where carpets, plants and trees as well as fruits are traded. The carpets traditionally were hand made from Persia (Iran) but nowadays are factory made.
After a short stop and walk I continued my journey to Dibba.

The mountains in this area are grey with only some green area's in villages (Wadi's). However I did enjoy the scenery and tried to show some of it in the pictures I took. When I reached the border town of Dibba I found my way to the seaside road (Corniche) and parked the car to walk along the seaside. I actually did this in two different places.
Dibba looked a bit deserted apart from some people going to Oman, the fisherman on the beach and the man on their way to a mosque..

From Dibba I followed the coastal road south to Khor Fakkan. There are several beach resorts in this area, apparently a place favoured by the (expat) people of Dubai.
In Khor Fakkan I came across a nice and lifely beach with view on the container terminal. That is where I made my second long walk of the day and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

After Khor Fakkan I continued south and had a few short stops in Fujairah and finally Kalba. There I decided to return to Dubai. The (new) mountain road from Kalba to the west was a pleasure with nice sceneries while crossing the Al Hajar mountains. Unfortunately it was impossible/forbidden to stop at the nice places to take photo´s. After passing Al Khari the landscape changed into (reddish) sand dunes again.

Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim beaches

South of Bur Dubai and the Dubai harbers the neighbourhoods of Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim are located along the Gulf coast, about 14 kilometers from the Jumeirah Mosque to the Madinat Jumeirah resort. The Jumeirah Road that links these two places runs parallel to the coast about 2 blocks away. On this road several nice small shopping malls can be found, mostly visited by the inhabitants of these neighbourhoods

Just before the Madinat Jumeirah resort (coming from the north) the Burj Al Arab rises up from the sea. This 7 star hotel looks like a mast and sail of a sailing boat. Next to it, on the shore is the luxurous Jumeirah Beach hotel.

The Madinat Jumeirah resort is like a city build in supposedly Arabian architecture. Sand coloured buildings with numouroous wind towers build around some smal winding canals that holds a souk, shops, restaurants and 2 hotels. It was worth seeing it at night time with the lights and terraces where a drink and/or food can be enjoyed.

Including 2 short stops it took me 5 hours t walk from my hotel to the Burj Al Arab. After a small dinner it was another 2 kilometers walk to the metro station at the Mall of the Emirates and then 20 minutes on the metro to the Al Karama station near my hotel.

Deira to Ras Al Khaimah

When I woke up the Friday February 17th, 2012, I could not clearly see the tall buildings about 6 kilometers away from my hotel. There was a strong southerly wind (Force 7 beaufort?) and a lot of sand from the desert was blown into the city. I was told it was a real sandstorm

It was good that I had planned to use the car today and drive north along the coast. The first city I passed after crossing the Dubai Creek via the Al Shindaga tunnel was Deira. A clear 'momument' of the financial crises that started in 2008 was the unfinished bridge to the Deira Palm Islands and off course the Palm Islands itself. Then I passed the Al Mamzer beach area between Deira and Sharjah that looked very nice but not on a windy day like this.

In Sharjah my 'seaman's heart' opened when I was in Port Khalid where I saw the Dhow's beeing loaded with a mixture of base materials (bags, wood) and finished products all stored on the dock.

The next stop was the old town of Umm AL Quwain with it's fortress but as it was Friday it was not open to public and after a short walk I continued to Ras Al Khaimah where I had a great walk on the Gulf beach and the walkway along the creek.

Wafi City and Creek Side Park

After a lazy day in the hotel doing some laundry, answering emails and reading I left in the late afternoon to visit the Creek Side Park on the south side of the Dubai Creek, about 5 to 6 kilometers inland.
I walked through the Al Karama souk where mainly cheap (fake) clothes are sold and operated by Indians and Pakistani.

As there are many main roads and highways in the area going to the Creek Side Park I had to zig-zag a bit finding my way by heading for the Wafi City Mall first.
This mall is build in 'Egyptian' style with lots of marble and pyramid shaped glass rooftops. The first thing I noticed was almost no public on a Saturday late afternoon; the crisis in this mall is not over yet. The mall also holds an 'Egyptian' souk that looked nice but had hardly any visitors or buyers.

I left the mall through the Raffles hotel that is build aginst the complex in the shape of a pyramid.

From there it was about 15 minutes walk to the closest gate of the Creek Side Park where I paid my 1 Dirham (about 20 Euro cents) entrance fee. As in other public places that I have been so far also this park showed a mixture of mainly Arab, Indian, Pakistani and Filippino inhabitants of Dubai. They all seem to enjoy these parks with their family and friends.

From the waterfront in the park there are nice views of the Golf Club on the others shore and the bridges lighted at night.

Bur Dubai and Dubai Creek

Exploring Bur Dubai, the neighbourhood where my hotel apartment is located on the south side, and Dubai Creek that separates Bur Dubai in the north from Deira.
The first thing noticed in January is the great weather for outdoor activities: temperatures of around 20 to 24 degrees Celcius, sunny skies and a light seabreeze. No wonder Dubai is visted by so many tourists in this season and I am going to be one today visiting old Dubai.

From the hotel it is about 10 minutes walk to the well known Burjuman shopping mall and then another 10 minutes to the Al Seef ferry station on the Dubai Creek. Then it is a nice walk in the direction of the sea along the Creek with Restaurant and Cruise boats.

On approaching the old city center the wind towers of the old Bastakiya quarter and the mosque are significant landmarks. Bastakiya was build in the early 1900's by Iranian merchants from Bastak. The wind towers were the first form of air-conditioning by catching the wind and funneling it down into the houses. From the Bastakiya quarter it is a short walk to the Al Fahidi Fort.

This simple fortress build around 1790 is the oldest building in town and was originally the rulers residence and government seat. It also protected Dubai's inhabitants in case of an attack.
Since 1971 it is the home of the Dubai Museum which is worth visiting to learn more about the history of the city and the traditional life in the city.

From the Dubai Museum it is just a few steps to the Dubai Old Souk with dozens of little shops in old buildings under a high wooden roof. There are also 2 'Abra' stations from where you can take a 5 minute ride (on an Abra) to Deira on the other side of the Creek for just 1 Dirham. You can also rent one for a private tour on the Creek.
For me it is another 20 minutes walk from here back to my hotel. An interesting walk through small streets with many shops first and then via Al Fahidi metro station and Al Mankhool road to the Winchester Apartment Hotel on Al Kuwait road.

Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall

Business Bay, also called the new downtown Dubai, is the area around Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall just east of the Sheikh Zayed Road. As in many other locations in the city the area is still under development but already it had the most highest sky scrapers then any other city in the world.
I took the Dubai Metro from Al Karama station cose to my hotel to the Burj Khalifa station.

I actually spend a whole afternoon in a shopping mall with various attractions that in 2011 became the number one tourist attraction in the world with, if I remember well, around 50 million visitors. That is more people visiting the mall then Disney Land!

The pictures and the comments I made about them probably say more than enough about this shopping experience..

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