Category — places

16-18 october 2009 A swift 3.5 hours away from Barcelona by the new fast train, Madrid is not what I expected. Had imagined a yellow city in a deserted landscape, donno why, maybe from looking at the yellow color on the map in central Spain. Yet what I found was a monumental, green city, busy, [...]

13 October 2009 The most “visible” of the Barcelonean geniuses is no doubt Gaudí. Because you can admire his work from the outside (as well). Probably the most…different architect that ever lived. He took the Jugendstil in fashion during his time and just ran away with it, to completely new territories. The easiest way to [...]

12 october 2009 We left at 5am, dark, 7-8 degrees Celsius, and reached sunny Barcelona with some 20 degrees. The easiest way to get to the centre from the airport is via the blue bus, which left us at the University, not far from Hostal Central. Very well located, 5 minuts walking from Plaça Catalunya, [...]

End of September 2009 As I was heading towards the car I thought it was strange it doesnt react to my remote opening attempts. “The remote control battery must be done”, I thought. Turns out the car battery was done. Shit. I had all the luggage with me, was heading to meet O. in Munchen. [...]

September 2009 Troyes (read: “tro’ah”) was one of the nicest surprises this year. On the way back from Champagne I stopped just to check it out, had no idea what to expect. Had read that it has an interesting old town, but I didn’t expect… this: I had read there are old wooden Fachwerkhäuser, but [...]

September 11, 2009 I had no idea that Mr. Moët invented the champagne drink, sometime around 1743 on a Wednesday. Or that Mr. Chandon was his son-in-law. Or that the black Pinot Noir grapes give white juice, unless you leave the shells in the mix. I didn’t know much, but I learned a lot visiting [...]

eluded us. There were flags in the city, but when we arrived there was nothing special going on, except lots of tourists around. But to start with the beginning, we did a “classic” tour by now, through central Switzerland, Einsiedeln, where we can still not take pictures inside, but we arrived right before mass, which [...]

August 22 Since S. was based in Basel, we decided to check out Van Gogh, since he had a concert in town. Nice, not all songs, but some of the hits were on, plus some songs I didnt know but liked. I didnt even ask if pictures are allowed, I guessed no. Van Gogh has [...]

The medieval festival in Sighisoara 2009 will remain in history as the “sus mainile” event. Participants will know what I’m talking about. The narrow streets of cobbled stone (and other improvised pavement types) were host to a diverse group of friends which resulted in an extraordinarily fun melting pot of personalities, moods and cultures, united [...]

The third and last part of the long-week-end-in-Southern-France trip was in Italy. The coast from Menton to Genova is in the Liguria region. After visiting Menton at the French border, I crossed to Italy and stopped in San Remo. Wasn’t too impressed till I found a passage to the heart of the old town, right [...]