Monday, April 9th 2018

After a good nights sleep I get out at about 9:00. The weather is gray, compared to the last two weeks cold and as I found out at the geocaching event, there is not so much interesting to do in the city. They are still in after-the-quake mode and I am not the museum loving type so I will take a walk through the city from geocache to geocache and hope I find some interesting places.

Empty chairs installation - one for every victim of the 2011 earthquake
Empty chairs installation – one for every victim of the 2011 earthquake

As I said before, the city lacks soul. All the building going on and finished lacks the feeling of something that fits together. There are a lot of quarters that are in use for temporary stuff, mostly parking lots. But there are also some neighborhood gardens. Many of the big streets have bicycle lanes which is great in a city that is flat like a pancake, but they could have done more. Everything is still made for cars. And so many churches…

The cathedral - until the earthquake hit
The cathedral – until the earthquake hit

After 2 hours walking and quiet a few geocaches I have breakfast in a small coffee shop. I heard the botanical garden should be nice so I go in that direction. All in all it will be 13 km walking today. The botanical garden is nice, but not much flowers at the beginning of fall. And now it starts raining. I walk a little bit further to a bigger shopping center. As everywhere you have the typical type of shops you get in every city. But there also is a cinema here.

Fountain at the botanic garden
Fountain at the botanic garden

As it is raining outside and I don’t fancy walking around in this weather I decide to buy a ticket for “A Quiet Place”. Special movie the way it is done. A SiFi/Horror mixture. Not bad.

When the film is over, it is still pouring outside. I make my way to Hell (a pizza shop close by) and have dinner. I don’t want to walk all the way back home, so I order an Uber to take me to the hotel.

A lot of things I have t charge for tomorrow. Train and bus the whole day. I hope for better weather as I am looking forward to the train ride. Let’ pack again and more to come soon.

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