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A-Z In A Day: From Andorra to Zaragoza
There’s a proper mountain air feel to our last morning in Andorra La Vella, bright blue skies but crisp air, locals hunched in jackets and jeans as they make their way through town. From the window at breakfast it has the look of a Spring morning in the Alps and it’s odd to think that at the other end of our relatively short journey today temperature may be well into the 30s. It’s a couple of hours on the bus from Andorra to Lleida followed by an extraordinarily comfortable, and fast, train ride to Zaragoza. Sporting our backpacks and wearing our heavy hiking shoes, we suppose the taxi driver’s question…
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Days In A Small Country: Exploring Andorra
Andorra is the world’s 16th smallest country by area, and the 11th smallest by population, with only just over 75,000 residents in the whole principality. Such is the mountainous terrain of its 180 square miles that while only 1.7% of its surface is arable, there are 350 kilometres worth of ski runs. No prizes for guessing what is the biggest contributor to Andorra’s GDP then. One of the reasons we were looking forward to Andorra is that we don’t know much about it. OK, so we know that it’s one of Europe’s smallest countries, that it’s a mountain country high up in the Pyrenees with plenty of winter ski resorts,…
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Evoking Memories On The Spanish Costa
I open my eyes to find the first light of day creeping into the room; Michaela is still soundly asleep by my side. I turn to look out at the new day. Pale pastel shades of sunrise decorate the horizon with colours too delicate for the camera but pleasing on the eye. The rippled surface of the sea rolls gently towards me, kissing the shore below with a gentle, rhythmic swoosh which is more like a layer of peace than a layer of sound. Laying in bed listening to the waves. Surely one of life’s great pleasures. We couldn’t control our broad smiles as we got off the train and…
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Barcelona And Antoni Gaudi
“Who knows where the road may lead us, only a fool would say Who knows if we’ll meet along the way Follow the brightest star as far as the brave may dare What will we find when we get there” Lyrics from “La Sagrada Familia” by the Alan Parsons Project To visit Barcelona is to enter the world of Antoni Gaudi. What was he? Genius or nut job? Inspired or crazy? And what was his work? Flamboyantly brilliant or belligerently ostentatious? The bravest of designs or art for art’s sake? Inspired architecture or the world’s first Disneyland? Whatever your take on it, he still has everyone talking almost a century…
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Barcelona Revisited
Would it be appropriate to call it culture shock, leaving behind the vineyards, villages and mountains and being transported in a comparative instant to the international tourist maelstrom which is Barcelona’s La Rambla? Well it’s certainly a significant change of scene. The place is absolutely alive with people and activity in exactly the way we remember it, and Barcelona feels as joyous and energetic as ever. It’s a fairly long time now since either of us have been to Barcelona, and we haven’t previously been here together, so this is a reacquaintance with different memories for each of us. Some things have changed down La Rambla since our last visits:…
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Last Days In France: Down The Valley Of The Têt
Dark clouds sometimes gather over Le Canigou, the iconic mountain of the Eastern Pyrenees which looms over our village, and during one evening we catch the sound of distant thunder rolling around the towering giants, but Vernet-les-Bains stays dry. The last drop of rain we saw was when the heavens opened in Paris almost three weeks ago; the summer sun has been in charge since then. Our village of Vernet-les-Bains is so good, its beautiful mountain setting enhanced by the little square where Bar Chez Jean-Louis serves beer to weathered old guys endlessly puffing on cigarettes and the tapas bar next door gives us a little foretaste of the Catalan…
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Into The Pyrenees: Mountain Hikes And Marvellous Trains
After a run of apartments we’re now in a middle sized family run hotel in the beautiful Pyrenees mountains in Vernet-les-Bains, a quiet and ancient hot spring spa village nestled among the towering peaks. We arrive with the mountains basking in the glorious afternoon light of bright sunshine, then watch in delight as the evening casts the mountains as yet darker shadows against the darkening sky. Overnight, cool mountain air fills our room through the open door to the balcony – it feels so long since we felt cool air – and by morning the silent giants form a blurred jagged line in the misty light. Mountain views from a…
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Southbound Again: Wine Into Water
It’s getting pretty hot now. The dashboard temperature gauge blinks up to 37 on the drive back across country and we are hearing whispers of a Mediterranean heatwave which could at the very least break the 40 barrier in the coming week, so the vaulted ceilings and tall windows of our next apartment are a welcome sight. This place must have been a truly grand townhouse in its day. Built in 1735 and not converted to apartments until 1980, it’s our guess that the original owners, a family named Roques-Guilhem, had the 18th century equivalent of big bank accounts. The airy living room is a blessing: since leaving Paris two…
- Europe, France, History, Independent travel, Photography, Travel Blog, Walking, Wildlife, World food
Carcassonne And On: Wine, Music, Food, Wine…And More Wine
Walt Disney is said to have loved this place so much that he modelled the castle of Sleeping Beauty on it. Up there on on the hill it looks like everyone’s idea of a fairy tale setting, with its perfectly cylindrical turrets pointing upwards so precisely that it’s tempting to look out for Rapunzel letting down her hair or some other damsel in distress calling out for help in the hope that her knight in shining armour appears over the horizon. The damsels, though, are tourists, and so for that matter are those coming over the horizon. Carcassonne is a town of two halves however you look at it. The…
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Black Bulls, Roman Ruins And A Missing Ear: From Aix To Arles
It was a waiter in Aix who first gave us the idea. “If you love Aix”, he said as he put down our sparkling golden beers on the table, “then please go to my town, Arles. It is even more beautiful than Aix”. Well, it’s going to have to go some to achieve that, but maybe we should give it a go – why not? And so we hatch a new plan. Counter intuitively, all the websites tell us it’s quicker to make the journey between the two towns by taking one train down to Marseille and another back up country to Arles, which feels a bit like going from…
