The sea … In May we decided – on the spur of the moment – to have some beach days. Where to go? Nearest seaside to our home is the North Sea coast with its vast sandy beaches. So we surfed the Internet for some nice flat in one of the small villages near the coast. We found a holiday home in Egmond aan Zee in North Holland (NL). Approaching North Sea beaches in spring…
Last year, in 2023, we travelled … living in Southern France and Northern Spain. A recent summary is to be found here!) Since October we are back in Germany … now living at the foot of Michaelsberg with its monastery (dating back to 1064 & closed in 2011). We started flat hunting and found a new home. Then the real work started: renovating & painting, ordering to deliver our container with our furniture and everything…
The South … The Mediterranean Sea … (Photo above: Sérignan Plage) Last year, end of December my better half and me started a long trip into the South i. e. Southern France and Northern Spain. We had shut down our house (a rented spot) and packed everything in a big container to chill in a storage facility (of course after having cleaned up the spot where we lived for more than 20 years – try…
This is the famous Le Pont d’Avignon – although the original name is Le Pont Saint-Bénézet. Also originally the bridge crossed 2 arms of Le Rhône and a small island in between – today only 4 of 22 arches are left. The bridge ends at the fortification wall – still complete – encircling Old Town Avignon at one of the gates heavily guarded in the past. The walled city is undisturbed disregard any new buildings resp.…
As you already know my better half & I stayed in Bali for about 3 weeks. We made our home aka base of operations in Ubud. The photo above shows the view from our terrace. … & below there is a view of Ubud’s street life: scooters, cars, more scooters, lost tourists on narrow foot-walks … Well … I estimate that there are at least 5 – 10 scooters per car. Ubud: what is all…
In October 2019 we went for 3 weeks to Bali & enjoyed each day of our holiday. We stayed near Ubud in a gorgeous small resort & started day trips all over the island from our basecamp. We visited temples & even more temples & rice terraces & beaches & of course Ubud … It was a holiday for relaxing & chilling out nevertheless fully packed exploring Bali’s culture. Most impressive? I think Bali’s temples…
When living in Castelldefels we liked to got to Barcelona – as you already know. It’s only about 30 min by suburban train into the heart of Barcelona … and some minutes more on a metropolitan train to La Sagrada Família, this monumental modern basilica. It’s impressive – simply impressive! I’ve seen lost of cathedrals & basilicas – maybe I’m somewhat obsessed with these constructions. Most of them going back to the Middle Ages, always…
Voilà – the cathedral of Tarragona, a monumental building! When taking this photo I was on top of the ancient wall erected by the Romans near the Circus Maximus of Tarragona. When walking in Old Town Tarragona and beyond you’ll find quite a lot of relics of the Roman age sprinkled all over the city. Our visit to Tarragona started with walking into Old Town to the cathedral. It was one of these very hot…
Look: what a blue sky! When comparing this brilliant weather beginning of September in Wroclaw with the almost always grey sky and the rainy mess outside now, i. e. beginning of October, I only can sigh and long for the next holiday trip. This post is about Wroclaw, our last stop in Poland. Let’s start with the market square, one of the largest market squares resp. city centers of all these old cities with long…
Another day in Barcelona … We had decided to walk La Rambla and maybe go missing in Barri Gòtic. Both parts of Barcelona we had touched so far, when out & about for other destinations in this vast city. La Rambla is a broad boulevard, about 1.3 km long, lined w/ trees. Like a snake it winds through the ocean of buildings starting at the seaside until Plaça de Catalunya. You may read that it…
Now it’s Krakow: on our trip in Poland from Warsaw to Krakow to Wroclaw I like to give you some impressions of Krakow with this post, especially about cathedrals & churches & chapels … There are lots of them in Krakow – believe me! Churches are everywhere. Poland’s people are catholic – more than 90% of them. All churches, all cathedrals etc. are beautiful, splendid and well preserved even if several hundred years old. Krakow…
Corona times are poor holiday times. Any trips abroad get somewhat difficult. Nevertheless after a spontaneous weekend near Maastricht we had further plans. Beginning of 2020 we decided to go to Poland during June or July – Corona made us postponing this trip into September i. e. we started end of August. What did we do? We took the ICE train to Frankfurt airport, boarded a flight to Warsaw, stayed in Warsaw, took a train…
Sitges is a small town south of Barcelona – as well as south of Castelldefels where we are living at the moment. There is a densely populated area of houses and alleyways towards the Mediterranean Sea which opens here & there to seafront & beach. The beach isn’t some sort of stretched sand affair like in Castelldefels, but there are some adjoining bays like the one the next photo shows. Let’s forget the beach area…
Nice in December: for our annual pre-Xmas trip in 2018 we made it to Nice at the gorgeous Mediterranean coast with a blue sky, a glinting sun … a deep blue sea with whitecaps – no German December feeling (grey sky, rainy, snowy, icy …) at all. Only far, far away we located snow covered mountains … We pitched our virtual tent near the famous seaside promenade just at the entrance to the old city…
We are still in Northern Spain – now our home is at Castelldefels in the area of Greater Barcelona. There’s a suburban train which takes us in about 40 min to Barceloneta with Barcelona’s Port area i. e. part of it. It was one of these magic days with a magnificent blue sky … when we made our way from the train station Estació de França to the Transbordador Aeri del Port aka Barcelona’s Port…