Category: Travels abroad

  • 2017 October, visit to Vienna

    Our annual music weekend this year was to Vienna, October 5 – 8. I have a special liking for churches and waterways, so here are some pics (the river Donau/Danube isn’t really blue, when we were there, it was green). Some time I would like to go on a river cruise between Bratislava, Vienna and […]

  • Porto in September 2017

    I had some few days in Porto, 2 – 7 September. The cause for the visit was the annual EAIR conference for university faculty, managers and administrators in Europe.  Never been to Porto, or Portugal before, but may well come back! Porto lies along the winding Ouro river, with its steep banks and impressive bridges. […]

  • The Green Zone

    Last morning here in Madagascar, at least for this time. Reading the last pages of Paul Theroux: The Last Train to Zona Verde. Zona verde is Portuguese for green zone. Writing from Angola in 2011, Theroux refers first to the green Africa, Africa out of the congested, slum enveloped, polluted cities. But on a deeper […]

  • Workshop finished

    The last day of the workshop. One of the main themes was learning outcomes from study programs, that is, what should the student know and be able to do after finishing a Bachelor program, or a module of a program, or a Master program? So what was the learning outcome from the workshop? For me, […]

  • Market day in Fianarantsoa

    Tuesday is market day here. I went there to find some spices and may be vanilla. Several streets, a whole section of the town, had been converted to an open air market. One street had only used clothes and shoes, long rows full. Other streets had farm products. Potatoes, green pepper, carrots, bananas, mangoes, beans, […]

  • Another influence on Malagasy society

    Madagascar is unique in several ways. One is that there is only one language for the more than twenty million people living here. On mainland Africa south of Sahara, Somalia is the only country that can compare in this respect. And in most countries in the world, several languages are spoken, by different ethnic groups. […]

  • Evening in Fianarantsoa

    It is six o’clock p.m. The churh bells just rang, calling for evening mass in the Catholic churh on the hill above us here. Three churches are visible against the skyline. Churches are a prominent feature of every town and city in Madagascar. There are many different denominations, the Catholic is probably the largest in […]

  • Fianarantsoa

    I have reached the destination of the journey! Fianarantsoa, or Fianarantso/Fianar as they say here. The meaning is: a good place to learn. The 250 km trip from Antsirabe took seven hours, but we arrived well before dark. The road leads through wide valleys with rice fields and small villages with thatched houses built from […]

  • One year later

    The first picture, with the fantastic scaffolding was taken November 2012. Now, one year later, we can see the result. The intended outcome of the process!

  • Logis de charme

    Charming hotel! About 15 small cottages spread around a lush garden. Will stay here until tomorrow morning. Then we continue to Fianarantsoa.