Pokétrip with Herman
So, when I went to Paris in December, I caught quite some Pokémon. Herman, a colleague of mine also plays the game, so we thought it’d be nice to do a Pokémon Go roadtrip.
Just like the experience in Paris, Pokémon Go really brings you to new places. On a large map, we looked for small towns which had some Pokégyms. These are locations where you can battle and leave some of your strongest Pokémon to defend them. The longer they hold your gym, the more coins you can collect.
This brought us to some really nice cities we had never heard of before. Anyway, here are some pics.
Winter in Gelderland
Gelderland is probably one of the most beautiful places in the Netherlands. There’s lot’s of nature and some really old towns.
So what does it look like when snow falls down on our heads? Amazing! I took my car out for a ride just to discover so much awesomeness. Here’s some pics, enjoy!
Hannover trip with Victor
Victor and me really like to travel. So when I got a car, we decided to plan a roadtrip. And here it finally was! We didn’t have much time, but hey, a 2 day trip would prove to be great fun.
During this trip, we found a lot of nice places. We quickly found an abandoned factory building which gave us some really cool shots.
After that, we drove, stopped in a lot of small places, had dinner and then crashed in Hannovers most shady hotel ever.
When we woke up, it was Christmas morning. We left quite early to find an old steamengine which they had turned into a restaurant. We did a live broadcast on Facebook, whished everyone a mery x-mas and headed off back to the Netherlands so we could be with our families and celebrate.
But halfway home we saw an abandoned military base on our map. We decided to check it out. When we got there, access was really easy. There was already a hole in the fence, so we could just hop in, easy as that.
Anyway, here are the rest of the pics, abandoned base included. Enjoy!
Photography trip to Paris
One thing I really love to do is going on a phototrip. Most of the time, these are one-day roadtrips, but sometimes it’s for a longer bit.
This time, I tried something different. I went to a small town 20km from Paris, and took a metro to the capital of France where I stayed for five days. My plan? Well, just walk all day, catch Pokémon since I now have mobile internet throughout Europe and take photos until all my batteries are empty and memorycards are full.
Sigma 12-24MM ART
Just a couple of days before this trip, I bought Sigma’s new 12-24mm ultra wide lens, from their incredible ART-series. This lens is specifics-wise pretty similar to it’s predecessor, except the diafragma. The F4.0 is usable over the whole focal length, which isn’t the case with it’s cheaper brother. And the photos? Incredible. I was amazed how sharp the photos are!
The lens is pretty heavy though, so it’s not for the fainth of heart. After three days of walking, I actually started to feel my wrist starting to hurt a little. But it’s no surprise. Three full days with a 2kg camerakit in one hand, mobile phone in the other. I’m also mostly holding the camera up, and take photos of course.
It’s something to keep in mind since I’m quite a strong guy.
Apart from that, Paris was as amazing as I remembered it. It was weird to walk through the city alone, since I’ve always went either with my family, friends or girlfriend. But walking alone also has it’s positive sides. You have way more freedom and it’s a great way to clear your mind. Think about things you normally don’t find time/space for. So yeah, in some way you could see a trip such as this as a form of meditation I guess.
Pokémon Go!
So, going on a trip like this with internet available “like at home” also made it possible to play Pokémon Go. The game which makes you walk the streets and catch virtual Pokémon (Japanese for pocket monsters). Most people who I tell I was playing Pokémon first ask me why I would be playing a game, looking at my mobile device like a “millenial zombie” instead of enjoying Paris’ views. Well, I understand but the truth is a lot better. Within Pokémon Go there are a lot of Pokéstops to be find. You need these in order to get items you need to catch Pokémon. These Pokéstops are mostly located at really cool locations you’d normally ignore. So thanks to this game, I’ve actually seen a lot of cool things I’d otherwise never find. This awesome wall-piece is a great example of such a location.
Another great advantage of having internet on your mobile device is your map. It felt really weird looking at groups of tourists figuring out where they were on a large paper map. For me, I just looked at my phone, saw the blue dot (me) and tapped on the screen where I wanted to go. I instantly see the quickest route and save heaps of time by doing so. More time to actually see stuff, or chill out in a nice Parisian café. And trust me, they are nice.
Anyway, enough talk! Here are some of the other photos I shot during this trip. Enjoy!
Random roadtrip with Camilla
What’s more awesome than doing a roadtrip? Doing a roadtrip with a great friend. Camilla just got back from her internship at Malta a day before we headed out. But that didn’t stop her.
We started by going to Altena in Germany. It’s a nice small town in between some seriously high hills. You could call ‘m mountains I guess. It has a beautiful castle and some nice forrests around it. From there, we just started randomly driving whatever felt good. And we found so many nice places.
One of the coolest places we found, was a very old ruin of a castle. The most awesome thing was, it felt like we were discovering the place! Barely any modern stuff around like signs or bins. Good stuff.
After that we drove off over one of the higher mountains in the region, just to see this amazing view.
After that, we rode down just to find more awesome things. Take this bus for example where we had dinner!
We ended up in a nice hotel, and the days after were seriously cool. We saw a lot more cool places, met nice people and we ended up Couchsurfing for the second night. These people were really friendly and it actually inspired us quite a bit.
The next morning, we woke up bloody early to see the sun come up. Anyway, it was sooo foggy, so we ended up seeing the fog become brighter. But we never actually saw the sun. Ah well, still a pretty cool moment.
Anyway, here are the rest of the pics. They all have a story of their own, but if I’d type everything I’d want to type I would end up writing a book. As always: Enjoy!
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ABOUT ME
I'm a blogger who likes to travel, take photos, write stories about my adventures, do bicycle trips, model and print 3D, create websites, create video's, play airsoft, watch Formula 1 and much more.
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