Category Europe 2025
Europe 2025 – Home and Recap
May 28 – 29 We filled up at breakfast the next morning and knowing we might not eat again until later that day, made some sandwiches to bring with us, thinking we would eat them during the two-hour bus ride to Barcelona. We checked out of the hotel and walked the half mile or so […]
Europe 2025 – Cycle Catalan Bike Tour, Part Two
May 22 – 27 After breakfast we set out for our third day of riding, hoping for the best and planning for the worst. Unfortunately, this was far from being a good day. Here is my Strava narrative: Another day of frustration as we keep being directed onto rutted and overgrown farm roads, heavily cobbled […]
Europe 2025 – Cycle Catalan Bike Tour, Part One
May 22 – 27 Early on in our planning for this trip we decided that we wanted to do a multi-day bike tour, a self-guided version like the one I did in 2022 in the Loire Valley. We initially focused on something around Lisbon or Porto, but once our itinerary became set and we knew […]
Europe 2025 – Girona, Part Two
May 19 – 21 As we paused on the Eiffel Bridge, we were able to fully enjoy that stretch of the river known for its Colored Houses. The river does more than split Girona in two, lining its banks are the famous-colored houses, stacked in ochres, pinks, yellows, and reds, their reflections doubling the spectacle […]
Europe 2025 – Girona, Part One
May 19 – 21 The next morning a somewhat complex, but in the end fairly easy day, of travel awaited us as we would fly to Barcelona International, take a taxi to the train station in town and then enjoy a 90-minute ride to Girona. Our desire to visit Girona was inspired by a couple […]
Europe 2025 – Majorca (Mallorca), Part Two
May 15 – 18 Leaving the area near the harbor we began walking back uphill towards the apartment, having finished the tour. We wandered around awhile until we stopped in at a small, but interesting site, the Arab Baths, one of the few remaining traces of Mallorca’s Islamic history. Thought to date back to the […]
Europe 2025 – Majorca (Mallorca), Part One
May 15 – 18 After seeing Beverly off to the airport, Francois, Joanna and I took our own taxi to Barcelona International for our one-hour flight on Ryan Air to Palma (Parma), the capital city of the island of Majorca (Mallorca). Our round-trip fare would run $332 which also included one checked bag and the […]
Europe 2025 – Barcelona, Part Three
May 12 – 14 Placa de Sant Jaume is set at the intersection of ancient Barcino’s main thoroughfares, and this square was once a Roman forum and is home to the he Palace of the Generalitat of Cataloni, an historic palace that for more than six centuries has housed the offices of the Presidency of […]
Europe 2025 – Barcelona, Part Two
May 12 – 14 Having finished lunch, we went outside and caught a taxi to take us closer to where the Picasso Museum (Museu Picasso) is located. One nice thing about Barcelona is that it is a taxi town. Uber does operate there but the black and yellow city taxis are ubiquitous, and can sometimes […]
Europe 2025 – Barcelona, Part One
May 12 – 14 Our final drive of the trip with Bev would take four hours or more as we needed to drop the rental car off at the Barcelona International Airport and then take a taxi into town and to our Airbnb, the Excellent Modernist Apartment, located in a nice neighborhood full of amenities. […]
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