the artificial line between what was , is and still has to come

is it not more than just an artifical line , the turning of a year. a gentle reminder that time is progressing. But i have my own solution: make plans, be spontaneous, go with your instincts

so i know already today that 2008 will be just great

happy travels my friends

Toon

What's in a name

 

I had my name spelled in already so many different ways, but this one beats it all. On Monday morning when i fly out to Reading i always arrange a pick-up service since getting to the office otherwise is almost impossible.

In general there is a nice gentlemen waiting in the arrivals hall with a piece of paper with your name on, and it was no different this morning. Or maybe it was. I looked around and could not find the guy, as a last resort i called the taxi company and they friendly requested to stay on the line.

At the same moment i was standing in between the guys with all the little papers, waiting for the guy at the other end to talk to the driver. A phone rings just next to me and suddenly the guy talking next to me echoes through the phone .....  My driver was standing just next to me but with this name tag:

One can only say: Happy travels letters of this world

Toon

Look me in the eyes ...

 

Sitting in Redmond in the US to have meetings with all my Conference call voices and the numb bouncing e-mail signatures ... but you know what; there is a face from which the voice is coming and there are hand that type the messages: they are humans.

It has been such a pleasure to see all the people with whom i work with face to face. Not only to put a name to the voice or e-mail, but also to have a sense for the type of persons they are.

It is sometimes strange that by analysing the non verbal communication you get to find out more about the way you best can work with people and how i can improve on the interactions with them.

Ok i admit, i'm rather outspoken from time to time which might set-off people when you only talk to them over the phone or only read the mails, but now i know they also have a better view of what kind of person i am.

so for me it are happy travels, not because of the journey over or being in the US for two weeks, but for the fact i'm on a journey with and towards my colleagues.

so happy travels my friends

 

Toon

Information overload ..

 

found this video through a colleague from Microsoft - Jeroen verkroost. I reviewed it several times to let it sink in ...

but at the same time i put this into perspective. What do we do with all this information ? Have a look at an example gladly provided by Stephane Croix, and old colleague at Sony Ericsson

 

The question is no longer on how we structure the information, but how we make sure people at least take the effort to take the information available into their brains ...

Happy travels

 

Toon

Crowded house ...

 

We decided to invite our friends before the end of year madness starts. Our house was nice and full with 10 adults and 9 kids , a nice gang.  Everybody was asked to bring something along, we made sure we had the wine, the drinks and pancke brunch for the kids ...

It was a nice relaxed atmospher, guess the old days of parties and overloading with wine are over, guess we are all a bit wiser and calmer now. But coming to think of it, we realized we did not do this enough ... After the last left we started looking into our mental diary and made a little list of all the people we really call our friends on the left and all the dinners we had the last year , and know what ? We hardly came to 5 , 6 overlaps ...

Seems our lives are filled with social activities with people you know, but not prese call your friends . A lot of my dinners where with work colleagues, and bless them, i enjoyed all of them with great pleasure, but where is the timeslot for my friends ... Yes we come across them on market day in Mechelen or one evening at the theatre, but sitting down and also enjoying a moment of silence ...

So here i go with a resolution for 2008 - yes i agree a bit early , but it needs some sinking in, and i want as many of you doing the same - we will invite at least once a months our friends over for dinner.

For the rest the week-end was packed with running to music schools, band rehearsels and school party ... too nice to be true . But in between i could not resist the desire to get on the bike and just feel the winter cold flowing over my hands, arms, chest ... Maybe a prelude of what is slowly taking shape in mind mind and dream: a trip through cold places ...

For now: happy travels

 

Toon

The teaser video ...

 

i just love the music ... i wished the band became popular ... that would be a laugh

feel free to play the game and give me your thougths

The changing face of adventure travelling ... why McGregor and Boorman ruined it ...

As you know  i just started planning to go from Brussels over Beijing to Bangkok, still considering to take the journey home ont he bike or just load the bike on a ship / aircraft to fly over to Brussels. Maybe the safest option since the foreign policies of Mr Bush towards his so-called "axis of evil"  has made a possible return over Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran to Potentially Syria and back to Belgium almost impossible.

But back to the start of tha planning. I have been reading a lot about adventure travelling and the do's and dont's on these trips, watched a number of video's and browsed the web for tips and tricks. One thing is for sure: I'm not the only one dreaming of it and will not be the only one who finally gets to realize his dream.

But there is a little thing that nags in me : am i not too late with my trip. Has the world not become a village and does the adventure of going around with a bike not been tried and tested for too many times. Have Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman not killed the possibility for support of a solo trip and broken the romance around adventure travelling.

You might ask yourself, what was wrong with Ewan McGregors and Charlie Boormans Long way round and Long way down. Well yes they did it to raise awareness for Unicef project, but how do you feel if you know they had a crew of more than 20 working on the full project (www.longwaydown.com), get the nicest material for free, are being babysitted by a producer and a director and i could go on and on and on ....

 

I admire what they try to do, but can not rub off the negative connotations and impact it has on other people trying to do the trip. I from my side will need to cough up all the costs, when stuck i will be stuck with a nice Nissan pulling up to help me ....

I guess i will have to come up with a better idea on how to run the expedition, maybe connect it to a social networking idea .... don't know yet, but ideas are welcome.

And for Mr McGregor and Mr Boorman thanks for selling the soul of adventure travelling to the highest bidder in your celebrity world.

For all the others: Happy travels

Virusses and virals

 

My god a cold really has got me this time ... never thought i would be so under weather from a damn cold. But well , i maybe exaggerated a bit with the sunday afternoon walk in the beautifull Mechelen Nature reserve.

But on the one hand the virus is keeping me not away from the lastest stuff i have been working on.: Free your buddy. A fun way to explain to people that now your Messenger buddy does not longer need to be enclosed inside your computer but can use his mobile to chat with you any place he or she wants .... Check it out on www.freeyourbuddy.com

In a way i'm very happy with the results because it is moving the bar a little further on where an ingredient software can stand out of the crowd and makes the experience come first, before even ever thinking about the hardware.

But the litle vanity in me is even more happy with the teaser video that was produced by the agency . Put on the speakers and listen to this wonderful tune ... if only this could become a little hit in the UK i would be dancing the samba on the polar ice :-) .. so go out there and make it a hit ....

but for this you will have to play the game :-) ... if you need clues, just send me a mail ...

Happy travels in these short days ....

the wrong book to read ...

does it really exist, reading the wrong book, or is it just me trying to convince myself that I should not be reading the book I’m reading right now.

what is it that i'm talking about. well, some time ago I read Jupiter’s Travel, a transcript of Ted Simons travel around the world in I guess it was 1973. He packed his bags and set off on his Triumph to go from London down to Africa, cross the ocean to Latin America, up to North America, crossing to Australia and than heading back over India to Europe again. Not that Ted was so experienced as a bike rider, but he described in full color the dream I was chasing before I went to Morocco ....to experience from close by other cultures combined with a true sense of freedom, to break away from my comfortable habitat and to feel, smell and see cultures that seemed in a way so close by but at the same time far away ....

He gave a new sense to motorcycle traveling, not the sense of achievement, but the sense of experience to ride on your own and to be open to others ... Although I was also very much charmed by the adventure of Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman on the Lond Way Round, they could never reach the level of adventure of Ted since they were supported in a whole different way ... They had 2 support vehicules, technical support, financial backing, sat phones and all the bells and whistles one could imagine .... Ted did it on his own, scraping the funds together and solving his own problems without being able to rely on a home crew of 5 people doing the admin work and 4 guys following you in case something went wrong ...

Now our dear Ted, who left in 1973 when he was 42, did his trip again, but now in 2001 as a 69 year old veteran .... and again , although he tried , the material backing and support was minimal ... nevertheless he did it, fueling my hopes that is still could do my trip ... (read his story on www.jupitalia.com) ...

I'm gazing at the map of Asia that decorates my wall in the living room ... dreaming along the yellow lined that marks out a trail : Brussels - Beijing - Bangkok - Bombay and back .... wondering if I ever will put this into reality ... but who cares in a way ... the mind travel along the marked line already fills me with the feeling of achievement, just daring to dream about the adventure ...

so in a way no, reading the wrong book is not possible ... its just that the books confronts your current reality with your aspirations ... it is merely the bridge between reality and the daydream that makes it scary ....

Happy travels

A room with a view . . . .

This is the third day in warm sunny golden brown tuscany . One could not wish for a better view opening the window in the morning . . . . . . And my god we did not even mention the food . Maybe the taste buds are on holiday ar well but it such honest simple food with very nice wine . . . And now for the riding part : just perfect . . . We discussed yesterday about our constant search for perfection . . Well i do not have to search anymore . . . The rides are smooth and fluent . . . Like dancing tango with the road and the surroundings . . . So as always : happy travels my friends . . .

jazz, friends and a party

Well this is how your house looks like when you participate in an event called Jazz@home (www.jazzathome.be). put alway all the furniture and open up your house for some strangers ... i always loved the concept of open houses and just letting people in .. even if it are complete strangers. The atmosphere was vice nice and relaxed and i must admit the music played was super. for the jazz lovers amongst us: www.ananke.be, a trio with the youngest the composer ... just brilliant. no wonder some of the great are playing with them from time to time ... i bet you that in the coming years you will be hearing from time

saturday was also good and coloured ... for the opening of the cultural year in Mechelen people were invited to a long table sreving spaghetti . your entry ticket: come as a group of 4 and bring a pot of sauce ... how beautiful it was just to sit there with friends and strangers .... i hate to use the words but: we should do this more often ....

the party afterwards was intense, never moved that much as that evening. so i decided no more gym for , i get my physical work out at the parties. i guess a rythm of 2 work outs a week is ok to start with :-)

on the home front Lauran is finally released of her cask .. my god almost 10 weeks of plaster is not a joke of a 12 year old. but now everything seems to working properly again ... both of them started music school so in a couple of years you will see an invite for a concert of RandeL .. just made up the name of their band (Riens and Lauran) .. Riens on drums and Lauran on Sax ....

Agnes and i decided to take a short break and go with the bike to Tuscany. We are waiting till all tourist left Sienna and will be going there the week of October 15th. We are putting the motorbike on the nighttrain from Dusseldorf to Verona and we have already mapped out a nice tour .... Verona to La Speinza / La Speinza - San Gimigiano / San G - Montalcino / Montalcino - Firenze / a day in Firenze / Firenze - Verona ..... the diet start onces we're back ... i can already taste the fresh pasta and the wonderful wines ... the strong coffee .. the scenery ... will keep you posted on the trip ...

by the way ... just thought of it . I've started dreaming about the next big big big trip .. i called it the tripple b trip ... from brussels to being to bangkok .... what do you reckon ... worth a try. it would be something to do usch a thing, i have set the timeframe of within this and 5 years , but only the planning is already making me very very happy ... Agnes thinks i'm crazy but i told her she needs to get her license so she can join ....

in light of that i must say that i was on one of my flights browsing through some articles i downloaded and i re-read. You can find it on : http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html ... i guess i will always stay foolish and hungry for the next big thing ... along the same lines i find it very refreshing to listen and watch to the video's on www.ted.com, a tip i gto from Agnes .... if you would ever doubt something or want to get inspired by something , browse around and take your pick.

well time to close and to wish you all happy travels .. oh by the way for the ones who know ben from Mediacatalyst .. check out his travels on benanddebsyearoff.blogspot.com .. they are living the dream ...

Toon

... mechelen is having a party ...

just at my door :-) .... Yesterd today is Maanrock, a yearly free festival with mainly belgian artists> Most of them will not ring a bell, but i do encourage you to check out groups lik Magnus, Daan, Vibe la fete, Tom Helsen en Sioen. They are really really good and for once my son and i agreed on the subject .. although at 00:30 he thought the party had lastet long enough for him and he forced me to retreat to our home that is basically in the middle of the action :-) (festival food the whole week-end , i feel i need a detox next week)

it felt good to have the mind set to ,music this week-end without the ability to think about anything else ... although there is loads to think about . For instance: i entered my last year before i'm turining 40 :-). i passed my 39th birthday last wednesday very silently . In a way i always felt i would have a problem turning 40, butnow it is getting closer i really start minding less and less and less ....

other things on my mind are the burning desire and feeling to get my hands dirty and really take the chances of jumping in the restaurant busines from the deep end .. add to this the book of Che Guevara : The Motorcycle Diaries and some opportunities to get me back into the wacko exciting creative world ... what can i tell you: my brain is in overdrive ...

it is keeping my thoughts very lively on al fronts ... because why do we not follow our dreams ?

happy travels

it ain't over till it's over

no no no .. i refuse to believe the holiday is over. but we do not have much choice :-). tomorrow is another day that makes that it is again time to get down to business.

but not yet, this moment is here to last a little longer, review the days that passed away and just sit here with a smile over a nice holiday.


it's all about being just your silly self and inventing new ways to make a fool out of your self


it's all about starting early with making nice cocktails and rediscovering old games and beating the old man to it


it's all about just taking a tour in your hometown and see the beauty of it ...

it's all about anything you want it to be for the time you want it to last ...


happy travels

Toon

... the beauty of taking the day

the way it comes.

Ok, we would have loved to go away somewhere, but in a way this holiday is very nice at home. Lauran is still not really mobile (Jamie and Sandy: thanks for the advice and Serge: yes it works :-)) but we are able to do some work in the house.


Simple things like sorting the picture and laughing your but off with all the pictures when you were 16 and looked like a background singer of an obscure popband. The 80's made me look so Footloose :-). or just finishing off the Riens his room, doing the final painting and just taking the time as it comes ... also seeing three generation working on the finishing touches of the room was just wonderful ..

far away of the so called important decision and intelligent reports we have to write.... it felt so good to hear Riens and Lauran saying goodnight and talk about the very nice day they had ... I gives you the feeling to start dreaming without holding back. what about a family restaurant :-)




anyhow , happy travels

.... quick quick ... slow slow ...

ok ... I'm in a rush here , i'm counting down towards the holiday. But this holiday will be a very slow one: Lauran broke her leg, more specifically her shinbon.

My god i never felt so bad the last for such a long long time. They say that if your own kid is in pain, you as a parent feel the pain in quadrupple ... well i felt bad , she had to stay more than a week in the sofa with an open plaster to let the swelling go away. On Monday she received her fixed plaster cast, but it is coming almost to the hip and her leg is bend. On top of it she is not allowed to walk on the plaster cast for the coming 5 weeks ....

If any of you have some good advice on what we can do to make her life easier and make her smile again : advice is welcome.

The plans for hiking in Scotland or biking in Normandy are off, it is sunny Mechelen we are aiming for.

Happy travels my friends

... The habit of flying ...

you know i love flying and that i'm a bit addicted to having a busy schedule .. hoping on the first flight to a country, staying as long as i can and taking the last one back .. but i learnt my lesson this week.

Monday evening flight from London to Paris delayed with 2 hours, was only in the hotel around 1.30 at night. Next day last flight back from Paris to London: cancelled .. had to find a hotel and booked the train to London. In bed at 2 out at 5 to catch the train ...

Than friday .. i said to myself no way i will be fooled, i will be home at a reasonable hour , take the 18h25 flight London to Brussels ....

and what: cancelled.

Now sitting here in the airport trying to reach the people who need to be aware and thinking of again a wonderful to be developped: the alerter .... What is it:

my flights are in my calender
my calender is published on the web
I select the list of people who need to be informed of my whereabouts
if somethign happens like a delayed flight or what, the tool automatically sends a message to all involved

so who wants to develop this tool, i only ask 10% of all profits till 2020 :-)

Happy travels

Cannes .. the looser is ....

the great pretender ....

I love the Dove commercial for one thing: it highlights that authenticity is on the rise. But how can a brand be authentic to its users. Dove achieved that people in general start to think more in a way close to reality. It is giving people a meaningful alternative for the projected and distorted image portraited by media and marketing.

Authenticity & meaning .... two key words for tomorrows reality in marketing. Brands will have to start to accept that being perfect is more a negative than a positive. Web 2.0 is in someway a sign of people looking to work around the unidirectional messaging from them to us to an environment where you could share your view with people who you feel are putting meaning to your life or where the simple act of sharing put meaning to your life ...

So far 2.0 has been hijacked to transform itself to a narrowcasting machine of google ad words. Did you know that Google is storing your and mine data on their databases till 2019 :-) .... we are still accepting it and marketeers are still drooling over it, but what is the actual value to the users and how long will we accept this ..

for now i do not worrie about it, but it makes me think on how to be indeed authentic and meaningfull in the next wave of marketing ....

Happy travels


Toon

PS my son had his final results today from school: he's an A

.. the new communication style ...

I guess we can safely say that this time and age we have never been communication so much. There are abundant ways of getting touch with each other and the information coming our way is so massive that one could wonder what the impact is ...

Well taking the morning tube in London and spending time in a very big landscape office has made me draw one very big conclusion: we communicate but are forgetting to TALK ....

Take the test yourself ? unplug your ears of the ipod, get your nose out of the free morning newspaper, stop typing the SMS's or e-mails on your device and just sit on a a bus or an underground and try to start a conversation with somebody ...

get in to the office and sit down and have a look in the huge landscape to see all heads down, tapping away the office symphony ... not even taking the time to look up when somebody comes in ...

most frightening: a meeting or a conference call starts but not everybody is there yet. In the old days we would just talk a bit to get to know the background, discuss issues and share opinions . Today the GAP filler is the inevitable: put it on Mute or do some e-mail ...

Do not get me wrong, i love the new communication style, it allows me the advantage of like with this blog to saty intouch with all of you in a broader way. every Thrusday evening i'm out there myself reading the blogs of people i know and looking for new ones to enrich my views on the world ... Web 2.0 delivers on my hunger for information provided by people that i stangly enough trust ...

But at the end of the day i want to close the loop outside the virtual world. That is also one of the biggest challenges for us as digital marketers. Are we not too much focussed on the web part only.

Where do we close the loop and stay authentic with the people ... we know perfectly how to treat the people only, but how will we react when we are eye to eye with our customer - friend - family - acquintances ....

A challenge that i would like to take on that challenge to convince companies to make that step to go full circle. And that is full circle in more than just making sure they all use the same image, but that the experience is full circle ....

my friends therefor: MIND THE GAP but the positive and negative of this new communication style ....

let's create a viral ...

I love that phrase in the current marketing lingo .... maybe i'm just to anal when it comes to digital, but it seems that a lot of people are forgeting the fact that in a Web 2.0 world the viral aspect is the embodiement of the powershift to the users.

It are the webusers aka the customers that will create the viral, not the marketing people themselves. we can only do our best to make something with a viral potential or capacity ...

just a thought , i know i'm being a digital purist now but had to set that straight

enjoying the little ones

we enjoyed the long week-end very much ... it all started off with a night out with the best of the best ... what do you expect if you are having dinner with Dawn (MC project manager) and of course Olly (the best User Experience architect alive on this planet) .. all of this in the best surroundings of the Fifteen restaurant in Amsterdam ...

a smashing combination from my part, getting the best of cooking with the best of web ... of course the night was filled with many discussion on web and how to get from WEB 2.0 to WEB 3.0 ... ideas that certainly require some further investigation over some wine and by preference under a nice sunset ... to be continued ..

Saturday was recovery day for us , topped off with the latest play of Abbatoir Ferme, a local Mechelen theater crew that is rocking the boat ... artistically a very nice play, even superb i would say .. telling a story without words always has been my favorite, but i could not help to wonder why we always need to look for things so far deep down and beyond the normal reason .... as a counter measure to the high artistic values we went for a bike ride on Sunday, crossing the Ardennes and visiting the flee markets .... contrast between art and kitch or whatever you call it ...

today was running around to get the necessary bikes (yes Agnes needs some bike in Amsterdam to really feel integrated there :-) )... in the evening the real art .... a vernisage of 5 young artists , between 6 and 8 years old ...

it was so nice to get the explanantion of Ward on his art pieces .. it were all dreampeople that he gave a face, rushing through the gallery at the end he ran off continuing to play with his brother in the back yard ....

does one need more of a week-end ?

Happy travels

Toon

... it is time for ...

some action .... this very long week-end was packed with it:

1. getting serious in the hobby

thursday i had the pleasure and joy of cooking again for a group of people. my brother needed some help to assit him at a friends son first communion. ok, they already took a take away thing under the arm for the starter and the main course which i did not really like, but my god did we as a team (Agnes, my brother and Patty his wife) blow their sock off with the apetizers adn the dessert ...

veal in a crusty parmesan coat with salvia
foie gras on a bed of black peppers roaster pears
patoato with leek and salmon eggs
...
desert: gratinated sabayon with red fruits

this of course fuelled my appetite to have once my own restaurant here in Mechelen, maybe a dream that can become reality. i will need to find some venture capitalist to do the funding :-)

2. getting serious about my condition

started running this week-end with agnes and Lauran. Must admit i was the one trailing the pack and my body was aching all day the day after , definitely time to get into shape now i know that getting serious about 1 is requesting a fit condition

3. getting serious my commitment to global peace

i did it, i got my subscription to ello mobile (for everybody in belgium: go for it too; www.ellomobile.com). it is a virtual operator that allows you to let your heart speak. their complete profit goes to the project i selected: helpen to get water to villages in africa and fund mobile schools for kids in South america.

now i know where i will go for my next trip: go and visit the projects i have supported in Africa and south america.

My god life can be so simple on a sunday evening, let's see how i can get some steps closer to this all tomorrow

Happy travels my friends

Toon

The stones .. and i bet you they ain't rolling

well well well .. it has been a long time i had them, but there they are again: the kidney stones. My god did i pick the wrong timing for this. if they're not out the natural way (you know the moment you pee and it says 'ting'), surgery will be the alternative ....

being in the hosptal makes you feel very helpless and makes you realize you have to take somebodies word for it. Talking about trust. a guy puts a needle in your arm and connects it to some liquids and he just assures you that the pain will go away .... well it didn't ... so he got an injection needle out to give me the real stuff: please lay down because you are going to feel dizzy and be very fuzzy ....

i was already wondering: why do i need that : i already feel like that since a long time. He clarified to me that was the difference between the mental and the physical state ...

anyhow not being able to work in this place is a blezzing in a way, but also adds to the frustration that i'm feeling. I'm so impatient to get things moving and now my stones block my normal functioning ...

i hope my stones travel fast from my left blatter :-)

Happy travels my friends

Toon

I'm belgian after all ...

Flo heiss sent me a very nice one

radio silence ....

is not a good thing in life ... it's been to quiet the last two weeks but i can blame the work for that and the fact we are franticaly trying to finish off riens his room....

somebody one day will have to tell me how to find the right balance in life between work and dreams ... i feel been sucked into my old pattern again of focussing really hard on work and loosing a bit the perspective i loved so much when i was travelling with my bike through Morocco ... feels now like a distant thing ....

getting used to the instant world is not a thing that you can do in a sec, feels like i need some course in fast reading and response .... i've put the bar quite high in wanting to be up to speed in two or three weeks, but reality is that it just takes a bit longer since the ratio amount of information and time is not fit into a 24 hour day ...

i rest assured, everybody told me that i should take the time to get my head around the initial phase since everything you take time for now is won in the long run .....

taking time now to say hi and tell you all that i still miss the old gang ...

happy travels

still have sand in my shoes

feels in a way already so long ago that i was on my trip, but still it is echoing in my head ... i still smell the morocan wood fires, taste the tagine, feel my heartbeat on the track ....

i changed the map in the living room for the one from Asia, but still need to make up my mind on where to go. Ulan Bator to Beijing seems like a nice challenge :-)

happy travels my friends

a secret reminder of your biking trip

My first days ....

well it's back to the real world .. today my first day at Microsoft and had my first part of the introduction. it's a bit strange of mving from a state where you only think about what destination to pick for tomorrow to what marketing plans to set-up for the coming year ...

all in all it feels good to be back into the IT industry with all it's buzz and excitement of technology. it will take some time from me to get my head around the new challenge, so you can imagine i'm really nervous to life up to the expectations ... but i feel i can count on a lot of people to help me achieve it ...

on the other hand in the back of my mind i can not stop thinking about the adventure i had and already feel the urge to start planning for the next trip ..

This is it . . .

The figures speak for themselves . . . I'm leaving all this behind to start a more normal life tomorrow : my first working day . . . Feel like a teenager again . :)

After the clean up . . .

Still adjusting to be in our own house . . . Checked my mails and snail mail : oh yes i'm back to reality with a bang . . . I promised myself to write a bit more about the Morocco experience for myself to make sure i do not forget the details . . .

Before clean up . . .

Home . . Home . . .

Taking my adventure to dream land . . . I dreamt about this trip for more than half a year . . . And i made it . . . Now tomorrow will be the start of something new, built upon what i experienced before . . . Happy travels and like they say in Morocco: inshallah . . . Toon

We received an offer . .

My bike and i received an offer to play in a movie . . . Spongebob squarepants the motorcycle story . . . My body and especially feet and hands feel like sponges . . . My butt is rather square and the motorcycle is obvious . . .

France is welcoming us . .

With some heavy rains . . . As if they want to wash away my Morocco experience . . . But i still have sand in my shoes to remind me of all small things i experienced . . .

Brothers in arms . . .

Also coming back from Morocco

These guys are coming back from Morocco as well . .

1200 renault 4 driven by students spend 10 days in Morocco for a humanitarian rallye . . . Nice guys and seems view had a lot of fun . . .

The change . . .

Olivetrees nicely lined up as soldiers for inspection, no more mules but tractors doing the labor, farms instead of shelters, roads with luxury 4x4's that never saw anything remotely close to a trail . . . . Yes i'm in europe again and it shows . . . . Haven't figured out what i like most . . .

Unfortunately i have no space left in my bags

On my way to Granada to change my tires . . . Now i really feel i'm going home . . .

From trail to track :) .

Taking a little walk in sebta . . . Just walking without being approached :) . . .

In the spanish part of africa . . .

Passed the frontier without paying one dirham of bribery :) . . . Just gmt the hang of it and now i'm leaving . .

Saying goodbye to Morocco

From the beaches near sebta . . . Strange to leave behind but also happy to get into spain . . . . I will leave a piece of me here to be picked up later on some other travels . . .

Contrast with the desert . .

Like mentioned . . .

Everything is different here . . It's much greener and smoother but feel that the people are more harsh . . .

Another gasstation . . .

People are also very different . . Even more western aspired than any other place visited . . .

Highway gasstations . . .

Must be on my way back . . . Mixed feelings . . .

Watching the sea

Everybody was very hungry . . .

To the bone . . .

Our lunch . . .

Fish directly from the sea . . . Cleaned and grilled in front ou our eyes . . .