Hi, welcome, and nice to meet you

we’re Manon and Thijs, and chances are high that by visiting this site, you already know us. In case you don’t, nice to e-meet you. We are a couple from The Netherlands, living in a river town close to the historic city of Utrecht. Manon works in consultancy, focusing on governmental topics relating to crime and mental care. Thijs started freelancing in 2023, focusing on interim management and transformation in Tech and Product companies.

This is our personal website. We use it to publish photo collections from the traveling we do, so we can share (audio)visual impressions from the places we’ve visited with those we care about.

If anything, we try to avoid the beaten path. We don’t do packaged tours or resorts, try to stay in locally owned places, and tend to avoid tourist destinations to the best of our ability. The world is rapidly getting smaller, and with mass tourism on the rise, risks losing authenticity.

Hence, what we like the best, is being out there in nature, doing multiday trekkings, traveling through the back-country, going off the beaten track, staying in smaller locations, and meeting interesting people. It gives us a lot of joy and brings different perspectives on life. Unfortunately, that also comes with a (carbon) footprint. I’m inclined to publish some thoughts on that topic as a blog post later.

The blog and photoblog part is maintained by Thijs, and serves as a (federated, through WordPress plug-ins) self-hosted variant of social media, as well as a digital archive for myself, a place to share and reflect. Feel free to drop me a message, and ask questions. We hope you enjoy the site.

Manon & Thijs