PeteNL's VirtualTourist Home Page

"The difficult departure from Mum lies behind me. Our house and the image of her standing at the window, is something I carry with me as a symbol of our happy reunion on my return. A last waving of a hanky, once more looking back, and then the eyes are fixed on what lies ahead...
A laughing (bright), sun-filled day welcomes me, I really feel as a traveller, who wants to advance to unknown countries, powerful and brave and full of exploring-fever! Why would it be such an absurd idea, to discover France on bike? Dangers are everywhere, and whenever I leave for the mountains Mum is never at ease either. But I have to move on, I am like a restless migratory bird, who can never stay at home during holidays..." (translated from German).

These words I cherish!! As a motto when travelling (... restless migratory bird...), but most of all because they were written by my late father, as an introduction to a picture diary of a cycle trip in his youth...... in 1931!

P.S. Always keep an eye on the road signs, know where you are going! Are we there yet?

Hi to you all! We both love travelling, and know how important a good preparation is to any trip. So, we are happy to share any travel experience and advice with you.
We will remain busy building these travelpages, there are actually quite a few more places we've visited then the ones featured now...

We're open to any questions, especially to Netherlands (where we live), Latvia (another of our homecountries), Ireland (a favourite), Austria and Germany, where we visit frequently, and mostother countries we've been. More to come, anyway!

So what can you expect on my travel pages? Some images from around our former home town, and previous places we have lived. Or where we were passing through, for work or otherwise... The most recent (partly) work related trip was to Romania and Poland last autumn, and Austria this Christmas. From tha last trips we have only uploaded a few pics so far though.

But let's have a look at the weather first, before we start our virtual trip...

Small as it is, the Netherlands have a lot to offer... Flowers, windmills, historic places, events - but also a varied landscape with a lot of... water!
And what's not known to all tourists - just go into the countryside, to other villages and towns away from Amsterdam, to see another country than you would expect from "Holland".....

Our recent ones are all in the region/province of Gelderland where we live, for example on Wageningen, student town with links for both of us. Or De Steeg, with its nice nature walks. Here are also some more recently added pics and tips.

In Buren we went to see the fruit trees in blossom. Both in 2006 and 2007, in Lathum we celebrated "Ligo", Midsummer eve Latvian style, and found out about a local tradition called beerfishing!! And nearby Apeldoorn is a nice location for trains, palaces, VT-meetings and (other) monkeys.

Tirol in Austria, especially the Upper Inn valley in and around Fendels has been a holiday resort for me and my family from my early age on. Great for hiking, skiing and various daytrips (to neighbouring Engadin/Switzerland and the Vinschgau area in Italy, or beyond), or just to enjoy great mountain scenery thoughout the year...

Some time ago we had the first small Fendels VT-meeting there!
Here you'll also find another recently updated page and travelogues.

Ok, the signs picture is already from Ireland. Actually it's on the Beara peninsula in the Southwest, favourite corner of the green isle (near Dursey Island). So no more pics here, there are quite a few on the above mentioned and other pages, like the ones on the Caha mountains and the Skelligs!

There is also some more on "our" other external homepage from the Claddagh, the Dutch "Friends of Ireland" club. The events featured there are Dutch, but the links and other information are definitely about Ireland! This site has recently been renewed and should be updated more frequently.

Another homecountry, B's home until 2001! We enjoyed a great trip to Latvia and the Baltics (W's first) in the summer of 2002, and now return frequently. Here are some first impressions. More's starting to build on our Kuldiga, Sabile and Sigulda pages, and yet more to come on Latgale and other regions...

Riga is starting to compete with the Netherlands for having the best score of VT-meetings for us, 3 "real ones" up to now (July and November 2005, February 2006). Though the number of participants to the Dutch meetings we were in are still outnumbering those in Riga!

Also worth a visit! In Estonia, besides the capital Tallinn, we also visited Saaremaa with its great island scenery in 2002! And recently we visited Tartu(2005), where we were kindly hosted by Lee and her family on a short stop, from where the trip continued into Scandinavia.... adding Finland, Aland, Sweden and Norway to our map of Europe!

And let's not forget Lithuania, especially the Kuronian Spit near Klaipeda! Or "big" neighbour Russia, where we were several times on a project visit (Kaliningradskaya Oblast, recent page), or Poland, on the way there, where we visited both for work and on holidays.

Starting with a travelogue on my father's historical cycle trip to France, we'd like to write some more "special" pages, in albums or travelogues. For example, on (museum) railways in Europe. First glimpses of what you can expect are on our Meiningen and Graubuenden page.
Please be patient though, we'll need more time for this! :-) Especially now we are more and more busy with our own consultancy business, and have mving plans (again), our time on VT is limited...