About me
„20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the
things you didn´t do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.“
(Mark Twain)
Traveling has always fascinated me. Perhaps it is because my parents, my sister Steffi and I have always been traveling like tramps in our summer holidays. Our Volkswagen Beetle (later a Volkswagen Passat) was packed, the roof rack loaded and then we went to former Yugoslavia and later to Greece every summer during the 70ies and 80ies. Most of the time we camped in the wilderness or slept under the open skies.
It was my mother who taught me to read a map and the best part on these tours was to sit in the passenger seat with the map of Greece in my hand, steering my father to the most remote places (where perhaps there could be super empty beaches, a cape or something similar). More than once we had to turn back because the road was too bad or it just ended in the middle of nowhere. In all my travel reports you will read about this desire to travel to remote corners of the world, where as few tourists as possible go.
Most of the time I am suffering from the greatest wanderlust and while I'm on a trip, in my mind I am already planning the next one. That's something I really enjoy tremendously.
What fascinates me most while traveling is to see new cities, landscapes, learn something about foreign cultures, countries and the people who live there. During these weeks, or even months, you are free, you can enjoy nature and let yourself drift. You can do whatever you want and you only have to worry about the journey itself. Which sometimes can be quite stressful. But I like this kind of stress.
Whether it is the search for a suitable camp site, the question of how to refill your water supply or how to get food e.g.
Nowadays, I prefer to travel by bicycle. On one hand you´re not going too fast and roar through the countryside like if you´re traveling by car, but still reasonably quickly to get from A to B, on the other hand you can still take so much luggage that you can sleep comfortable in your own tent and don´t need an accommodation. With the bike you get much more in contact with the locals compared to traveling with a motorhome. When you see something beautiful, you just stop and admire the scenery.
Also you can help yourself with repairs at the bike, except you experience a broken frame or some of the spikes break. It is cheaper and last but not least you´re doing something for your fitness :-)
I also love to capture my experiences and adventures in pictures and diary. If I´m reading in my travelogue from the first big trip (10 months 1988-1989) now, I'm right there again, and it seems to me, as if it all just happened yesterday. Right now this report is still not online, because I have to adjust it, scan the pictures e.g. If interested please drop by from time to time.
I hope these pages can awake your desire to travel, give some ideas, or simply be a nice pastime for reading.
Dear Reader,
I hope you like my articles and I wish you much fun browsing through it. Please feel free to give me feedback.
Maybe I can take away the fear of traveling – even to unknown and unusual countries.
But not only is traveling the main topic of my pages, but also to the art that my father Kurt Merk has created during his life.
Like me, my father loved to travel and enjoyed the light oft he south in Tuscany, southern France, Greece and Egypt. Under this light, which is really special in the south, he enjoyed painting a lot. Most of the beautiful pictures were created there.
Unfortunately, he passed away in 2012 and left a huge amount of paintings, prints, books and postcards to my sister and me.
A great heritage, but also a great responsibility, because we never will be able to hang all these paintings.
Since 2012, we already have organized three exhibitions and we will certainly hold some more.
Everything you can see here under "Art Kurt Merk" is for sale and waiting for a customer.
THIS IS MY TRAVEL-BLOG
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