Austria pictures

Vienna's Rathaus with screen and seating for film festival

Z and his Tichy ice cream

Spices at the Naschmarkt in Vienna

Abbey in Melk

Schloss Schonbrunn Vienna

Traunsee

Wien - Part 2

We visited Vienna’s amusement park Prater because the box-car ferris wheel, the Wiener Riesenrad, was recommended and recently featured on an Amazing Race episode. This amusement park is great because they don’t charge you an entrance fee and you just pay for the rides you want to go on at the actual ride; you don’t have to buy a bunch of ride tickets. The park has a large number of rides, games to try and win prizes and of course plenty of places to eat. When we got there we found a new ride, opened just over a year ago, that we thought would be much more fun and give us a better view of the city. So instead we opted for the 117 metre high Praterturm, the world’s highest chairoplane ride. This ride cost $5 Euro each and was worth every cent. The first time we went on the ride, the weather forecast was predicting rain and sure enough just as we got to the top we felt a rain drop, then another, then a few more and suddenly the sky opened up with gigantic raindrops (I’ve never seen raindrops this large before, they were like raindrops on steroids) and we were stuck at the top of the ride getting soaked. This rain shower didn’t stop for some time and we ended up getting soaked through to the skin by the time we reached the U station so we could head back to the hotel to dry off and change. Thankfully I wasn't the one wearing a white shirt that day.

On that one rainy day, the rain let up a little but stuck around until well in the evening. After drying off and changing into dry clothes and sandals because our shoes were also soaked through, we set off to ride the tram which took us to the museum quarter. Here we walked around looking at the fabulous architecture and reading about some of the history of the buildings in our guide. We decided to go to one museum and were glad we did. We had seen and heard a lot about this woman called Sisi and so we ended up at the Hofburg Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum. This museum gives an inside look to the life of the Empress Elisabeth “Sisi”, who didn’t enjoy her public life in the least and was obsessed with her looks. The Austrians still carry a love for the former Empress and you see her picture adorned on a lot of tourist merchandise. We found out the Empress loved ice cream just as much as we do. This museum houses an impressive Imperial Silver collection which really showcases the pomp and circumstance of monarchies and dignitaries. The museum was interesting and also gave us an opportunity to get out of the rain for awhile.

Vienna is rich in culture and is known as the birthplace of opera and the waltz. Everywhere you look there are posters advertising classical concerts. We went to see a performance by the Vienna Royal Orchestra who performed a compilation of pieces mostly by Mozart and Strauss. We managed to get tickets for $29 Euro each. The concert took place in a neo-Gothic Imperial Hall which had a very impressive architectural interior. There was a 10-piece orchestra and they were accompanied at times by two Viennese opera singers and ballet dancers. We were also treated to a performance by a Mexican Youth Choir who was in attendance that evening. Overall we were quite impressed with the concert and felt we got great value for the price.

The entire time we were in Austria, Z wanted to try a Sacher torte. This dessert originated in Vienna, so what better place than Vienna for him to try it. Even better we found Cafe Sacher, the home of the original sacher torte. This torte is basically a two layer chocolate cake with apricot jam filling in the middle and is served with a side of whipping cream. Z enjoyed his torte immensely while I ate a slightly overpriced, but well worth it fresh fruit salad. This salad was so fresh I had to wait about five minutes before it arrived.

The Naschmarkt is a place worth visiting. Here you find blocks of vendors selling everything from fresh produce, fruit, meats, cheeses, spices, teas to souvenirs. There were plenty of places to order food from and several restaurants lined the outside rows. A lot of the vendors were of Middle Eastern descent and a lot of the foods had a Mediterranean flavour to them. You could sample an endless supply of olives, and stuffed tomatoes.

The Rathus, city hall, is a very impressive structure as well. The Vienna Film Festival was taking place during our stay and there was a colossal screen set up in front of the building with chairs set up for people to view the free nightly movie. The plaza out front was lined with a large assortment of international food vendors. And in Viennese style, the meals are served on real plates and drinks served in real glasses. It was definitely a well run and classy event. There are tables in the plaza area to sit, or stand, and enjoy your food and/or drink. We enjoyed a sample of Greek food and I must say it was the best tasting chicken slouvaki I’ve ever had. We also tried an Austrian Ottakringer beer. We had the Radler, which is a mixture of 50% beer and 50% lemonade. It was refreshing, but the taste was a little unusual; not bad, just not something we’re accustomed to.

Austria is also known for its wines and what better way to end our stay than a trip out to a Heuriger (wine taverns). We read about these in our guide and thought it would be fun to experience. We took the tram towards the outskirts of Vienna to an area called Nussdorf. From there we walked a couple blocks before we started to see the wreaths which indentify a Hueriger. We stopped in at Schubel Auer Heuriger, a 300-year old family run winery. As you enter through the gate you walk up a cobblestone path to the wine garden which had picnic tables and chairs, umbrellas and trees; there is also indoor seating, but we chose to sit outside. It’s like being in someone’s back yard. It was quite busy when we arrived and we didn’t have a reservation, but we found an empty table and shared a wonderful ½ litre of red wine. These wine taverns generally offer new brews which are made on site, so we’re not exactly sure of the name of the wine we had, but it tasted great nonetheless. What a wonderful way to end our stay in Vienna.

Wien - Part 1

Vienna is definitely a big city and you get that sense right when you arrive. Thankfully the city has a great transit system that gets you wherever you want to go with relative ease. The U-Bahn is fabulous; the stations are clean and bright; the trains run on time and are quite modern. The stations are also all well signed. My favourite line was U2. We bought a 72-hour transit pass, for about $14 Euro each, which allowed unlimited travel on the U-Bahn lines, buses and trams. Vienna’s transit system goes on the honour system, but if you get caught without a valid ticket, it’s a $70 Euro on the spot fine.

We felt safe walking around the city and in the underground and while it’s always important to be mindful of your surroundings, we never in the least bit felt we had to be overly cautious. Even a taxi driver, who immigrated from the Philippines 20 years ago, said he moved here because he felt it is the safest city in Europe. The city is generally pretty clean as well. There are plenty of public toilets around the city, including in the U stations, which are clean and stocked with required supplies; some required payment of 50 cent Euro while others were free. It’s definitely a different culture here with what I would describe as more respectful values in place. You were promptly greeted when entering a store and service in general was just better. We also noticed that alcohol can be consumed openly on the streets and you didn’t see a bunch of people walking around drunk. It’s quite the contrast from home.

We stayed at Hotel Imlauer, which is a contemporary, modern hotel. It’s located a short train ride from the central Vienna core and the U station was about two blocks away. The hotel even gave us a nice welcome note and small gift for our honeymoon. It was a great hotel for the end of our European tour.

Again, we chose not to visit many museums because of limited time and we wanted to see the city, not artifacts and artwork. We took the train to Schloss Schonbrunn, the former summer house of the Imperial family. When we arrived there were children’s choirs from several Asian countries performing in front of the palace. They were there for the World Peace Choral Festival. The surrounding gardens were immaculately sculptured. There are Roman ruins and sculptures all around the grounds. The grounds appear to be a popular running spot for locals. You get some really good city views when you walk to the end of the gardens where you find the Gloriette structure.

St. Stephen’s Cathedral is an impressive, gothic church built in the 1100’s. This gigantic church was undergoing some restoration, but the “wrapping” was a picture of the part of the church it was covering, so you really did get to see the whole building. Inside the church was beautiful with dramatic high ceilings and lovely artwork.

We walked along the main pedestrian street in the core of the city. This street was filled with buskers performing their various talents. This street had plenty of shops where you could spend all your money or restaurants and cafes in case you were hungry. One thing about Vienna, you’ll never go hungry in this city. You could even get take away seafood chain called Nordsee, but Z said his box of shrimp wasn’t that good.

We had a lot of other great tasting food, including a meal at a restaurant called 3 Hacken Magazin. We read about this place on another traveller’s blog who raved about the traditional Austrian food. So we tried it out and agreed that the food was great as well as the ambience. We arrived just before the evening dinner crowd, so we managed to get a table without a reservation, but apparently it is recommended to make a reservation for this place.

On the recommendation of a friend, we went to an ice cream store called Tischy. Now, had we not gone to Italy before Vienna, I’d definitely say this was the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. It’s a very close second in my books. The ice cream is rich in flavour which just explodes in your mouth. I had hazelnut and vanilla one time and hazelnut and strawberry another. The strawberry tasted like I was eating real strawberries and the hazelnut was to die for. I could have lived on this if I was allowed. Z will attest to that and I think he could have too. The flavours he had were absolutely fabulous as well.

The Romantic Road to Vienna

That's not me making up the title, there is actually a route called the Romantic Road which takes you from Salzburg to Vienna through many beautiful and quaint villages and towns.

We rented a car for the journey between Salzburg and Vienna and if you have time, this is the way to travel because you have a lot more freedom on where you can stop and what you can look at. Before leaving on our trip, we received a map of the Romantic Road which was mailed to us from Austria after requesting it over email. This map provides not only the driving route, but also points of interest along the way and this is how this part of the trip was determined.

From Salzburg we drove to Bad Ischl, a charming little town and our base for a couple days as we explored part of the Salzkammergut region. Here we took the Katrin cable car up the mountain, taking about 12 minutes, and did a short hike to Katrin Cross. I'd classify the hike as easy, but there were a few places with many stairs to climb. Reaching the summit at Katrin Cross was worth it. The view of the Salzkammergut region was incredibly breathtaking. The scenery was fantastic for as far as the eye could see; we saw views of many little towns, Wolfgangsee and Traunsee - a place we visited later on. It's really hard to describe by words the view from the top.

From our base here we also visited Hallstadt which is famous for its salt mine. We took a guided tour of Salzwelten, which is the world's oldest salt mine. The tour itself was really good, our guide did a good job of providing the information in both English and German. We also had lunch here at the Brauhaus (Brew House) which had its outdoor seating along the lake.

Some of the other towns/villages we stopped in around the region included Bad Goisern, where we found a grocery store where we found some great items for our future road trips; Traunsee was a very beautiful lake and had a neat little church perched up on a hill; Gmunden was a bigger town and here we visited the Seeschloss Ort (Sea Castle) which is apparently a popular wedding venue. We drove up the Danube River to Kerms. Along the way we found countless apricot orchards and vineyards. Kerms is also a bigger town and here we enjoyed some ice cream, espresso and wine from the Wachau wine region. We had wine at a wine bar situated along the main pedestrian street in Kerms and it was fantastic and incredibly well priced; we each enjoyed a glass of wine and the total bill was only $5.70 Euro. WOW!! Could never find such a deal back home.

We also stayed in a town called Melk, about an hour outside of Vienna. The main, and only, attraction in this town is the Abbey. This is one of the world's most famous monastic sites. It was founded in 1089 and is located above the town. It's a really short walk up the stairs to the entrance. We did an unguided tour of the abbey buildings which were quite spectacular. We also got to see the library, which houses over 100,000 historical books and manuscripts, and the church and garden grounds. A small market was set up the day we were leaving and we ended up buying some fresh apricots for the road. Boy did they ever taste great and we regretted not buying more.

Driving around Austria was relatively easy with the help of a GPS, which we were advised was a must have. The roadways are built for driving and at times I think Z wished he were on a motorcycle instead. Drivers stay in the right lane and only use the left when passing, what a concept?!?! Trucks also remain in the righter most lane, again what a concept!! The route we took was amazingly scenic and well worth it. We would have missed so many breathtaking views, scenic and quaint towns had we taken a train instead. This was definitely the way to travel to Vienna.

Salzburg

From Venice we took a bus to Villach, Austria and then hopped on a train to Salzburg. Total travel time was about 5 hours and we passed some very beautiful scenery along the way. Entering Austria we caught great views of the Alps and small villages on the hillside. We’ve entered Mozart and “The Sound of Music” territory.

We stayed the Mercure Salzburg Kapuzinerberg. This hotel was conveniently located about a 15 minute walk from the Old Town of Salzburg. We were given one of the recently renovated new rooms. The hotel again was quite nice with the room being very spacious. The carpet had a musical design in it and was quite fitting. Breakfast was included and was absolutely great with a large selection of food. They also offered the option to have breakfast delivered to your room, which we did the morning we were leaving.

We determined rather quickly that Salzburg is not a late night city and didn’t find much open after 6pm. We walked along the Salzach River on our way to the Augustiner. The Augustiner was founded in 1621. It’s a beer hall with several different sitting rooms, most were non-smoking. You can also buy food from different vendors in the hallways. Your beer is served from a wooden barrel into a stone mug and you go to one of the rooms, sit on wooden benches, drink beer and socialize with those around you. There were mostly locals present when we arrived on a Friday night and we just sat at one of their tables. Children were also present with their parents.

The next day we walked around Salzburg in the rain. We walked through Mirabellgarten, which was built by archbishop prince Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau for his mistress in 1606. These gardens and its palace are a popular wedding venue and in fact we saw three separate brides while we were there. Some scenes from The Sound of Music were also filmed here.

Along the Salzach River, we found an artisans’ market where you could buy homemade items such as tablecloths, handbags, jewellery, knickknacks, and many other things.

We made our way through the Old Town, stopping at Mozart Plaza and the Salzburg Dom Cathedral. Unfortunately the cathedral was closed because they were setting up for an outdoor concert the next day. We didn’t know this before we arrived in Salzburg, but Austria’s most renowned classical music festival takes place from late July to end of August. We have scheduled our trip a little differently to take in some of the concerts had we known this.

The Hohensalzburg Fortress provides incredible panoramic views of Salzburg. This fortress and castle is situated right in the city atop Festungsberg Mountain. Construction on the fortress began in 1077 and it has quite the rich history to it. We opted to take the funicular up and down because of the rain. Once inside, you can take an audio walking tour, included in the ticket price, which takes you through a few wings of the castle and provides you with descriptions of the various rooms and what they were used for. It was rather informing and worth doing. The rest of the fortress is open for exploring on your own.

With Austria being the home of the famous Von Trapp family and The Sound of Music, we couldn’t help but end our stay in Salzburg with The Sound of Salzburg dinner show. This show was great and included a selection of songs from The Sound of Music as well as Austrian folk songs. It was a great way to finish off our stay here.

A little more of Cinque Terre with pictures

Before posting some pictures of Cinque Terre, I want to expand my post on this lovely day trip we took. I wasn't feeling the best when I wrote the original entry and feel I left out some key details of the hike we did from Corniglia toVernazza. We did the hike in just over an hour and I'd classify it as a medium difficulty hike. It was up and down along the hillside and sometimes it felt like we were on nature's stair master. We saw stunning views of the countryside, ocean, and towns from most everywhere along the way. There were lots of vineyards along the way and I got to see my first olive groves too. At times we were walking on pathways that when looking down from were nothing but cliff. It was probably one of the best hikes I've ever done and would recommend it to anyone travelling to the area.

Monterosso del Mar

Approaching Vernazza

Nature's stair master

View along the hike, Corniglia in the background

Looking back at Corniglia

On the way from Corniglia to Vernazza

Manarola

Along "Lover's Path" to Manarola

Sestri Levante Pictures

Sitting, watching the waves crash

Biking around Sestri Levante

View from hotel roof top patio

Bay of Silence

View from the pool towards the bay

View from the hotel room

Venezia

From Sestri Lavante we took a train changing in Milan and then on to Venice. I have to say the train system throughout Europe is fabulous. You can get just about anywhere by train, it's really convenient. Our total travel time was about five hours. We arrived in Venice in the late afternoon. Venice is definitely an interesting city. It's always been a place I wanted to see before it "sinks".

Venice is a city built with a maze of streets on a maze of canals. It is made up of 117 small islands. Without a city map it's easy to get lost and even with one it can be challenging to navigate around. Thankfully Z has a really good sense of direction and an amazing ability to read maps and figure out where he is, so we didn't have too much trouble.

Right outside the main train station, we bought 48-hour passes for the vaporetto, which allowed unlimited usage during this time period. The vaporetto is Venice's public waterbus service which gets people around the city. It was quite convenient and can also get quite packed so we usually ended up standing along with most other passengers.

We enjoyed several different areas of Venice during our stay. Wondering around the Ca' d'Oro we found a restaurant for dinner our first night there with a great outdoor patio. Afterwards we made our way over to Piazza San Marco. This square is the largest in Venice. There was an outdoor concert with the Philharmonic and Opera happening, so access was limited to the area by the Basilica. We stayed for awhile to listen to the concert, but I'm not a huge fan of opera so we didn't stay too long. Instead we walked away from the square towards the canal and found a restaurant with a live band consisting of violin, bass, piano and accordion and their music suited my taste much more.

With the city being built around the canals, it shouldn't be a surprise, yet it was still quite the sight to see water ambulance and water police boats. The city didn't strike me as unclean as some have described it. We had no trouble communicating in limited and broken Italian with a lot of English. In fact, in all the places we visited in Italy we got by mainly with English and found the people to be rather friendly and hospitable.

Venice does not have a shortage of restaurants or gelato shops. In fact we probably averaged at least one gelato a day and usually the serving consisted of two flavours, in some cases three, but no one was keeping track Z. My favourite flavour turned out to be hazelnut with tiramisu a close second.

We stayed at Hotel Al Ponte Mocenigo, which opened in 2005. It's a smaller hotel consisting of only 18 rooms. It was quite a neat place and we got upgraded to a bigger room which was a nice treat. The room was very ornate with silk feeling material on the walls. The hallway walls also had exposed brick and I couldn't quite figure out if it was built that way or not. Our room was actually located in a separate building from the main hotel and had its own separate entrance. To get there originally, we had to walk down this extremely narrow street. The hotel had a delightful breakfast and could be enjoyed on a small outdoor patio.

We got to witness some of the sinking problem walking along the Grand Canal in the afternoon. The water was spilling over onto the walkways. We also witnessed the same thing at the Basilico di San Marco when we visited it during the day. Where we stood the night before, now had several inches of water and we had to walk over a makeshift small bridge to enter. I could not figure out where the water was coming from because it's not situated right next to a canal. The area from which we exited the Basilico was also slightly emerged in water. The interior is very ornate with gold ceilings and beautiful paintings. We learned that it has been rebuilt three times. As a woman your shoulders must be covered and you can't wear shorts. This was strictly enforced and I had to pay $1 Euro for a paper shawl to cover my shoulders.

The area known as Rialto has a great open air market with tasty cheap fresh fruits and vegetables. There are also plenty of shops selling a wide variety of items. I ended up buying an Italian leather purse for what I thought was a good price, $18 Euro.

We made our way to Venice's Lido. Here we found a boulevard of shops, restaurants and gelato shops. At the end of the boulevard is a great sandy beach that stretches for 11 kilometres. Here we also got to test out the waters of the Adriatic Sea. The water was very nice and refreshing and while we didn't have our swim gear with us, walking along the shoreline was quite lovely as well.

Our hotel informed us that on the day we had to leave, there would be a general strike which meant that the vaporetto's would not be operating their regular service. This was not a huge deal because we had to make our way to the bus station, which was about a 15 minute walk from our hotel and it was not too difficult to find. The bus station is called Piazzle Roma and from there we had to take a People Mover (a short skytrain-like ride) to our bus which was taking us to our next destination, Austria.

Milano pictures

La Galleria

Dinner at Cafe Milano

On the Duomo rooftop

Stained-glass windows in the Duomo

Barcelona pictures

Fruit stand at La Rambla market

Beach in Barcelona proper

Plaza de Catalunya

La Sagrada Familia church

Barcelona streets with many offshoots to explore

Arc de Triomf

Canet de Mar

Sestri Lavante & Cinque Terre

From Milan we took a train two and a half hours southwest and stopped in a quaint town called Sestri Lavante. This coastal town is situated on the Liguria Riviera. We stayed at Hotel Helvetia which is about a 10 minute walk from the train station. This hotel is seaside and Z booked us a fabulous seaside room with a balcony overlooking the bay. What he didn't know before booking this room was that the sound of the surf crashing on the shoreline is my top favourite sound. We stayed three nights here and each morning got to enjoy a wonderful breakfast spread on the outside patio. It doesn't get better than that. We enjoyed some lounging time on the outdoor deck and also enjoyed a cool dip in the infinity pool at the hotel.

The town is not too large and can be easily explored by foot. We had access to bicycles through the hotel so we also chose to use those one morning and ride the bike path along the waterfront. The town as ample restaurants, shops and plenty of gelato shops. We just can't get enough of the gelato. I tried two sorbet flavours as well...peach and melon and they both tasted like I was eating the fruit itself. So good. They really know how to scoop the gelato too so that you can enjoy both flavours, or all three is that's what you order, at the same time.

Setri Lavante seems to be frequented mostly by Italian and other European tourists, though we had no trouble with finding English menu copies at restaurants. It was a great base for our excursion to Cinque Terre.

We spent a day exploring Cinque Terre, which are five villages on a rugged portion of the Italian coastline. These villages and the surrounding hillsides are part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a heritage site. The cost to enter the park and each village is $5 Euro per person. You can walk from each village to the other, except that when we got there, one of the paths between two villages was closed due to landslides. We took the train from Setri Lavante to Riomaggiore, the village furthest away. From there we walked to Manarola, which took 10 minutes. Unfortunately the next path was the one closed, so we hopped on the train to Corniglia and then hiked to Vernazza. The hike took us just over an hour and was absolutely stunning. The views from the cliffs we hiked along were breathtaking. From Vernazza we could have continued hiking to the last village, Monterosso al Mare, but it was getting later in the day and we wanted to enjoy the beach at this village so we took the train instead.

The beach at Monterosso al Mare was packed; it's a very popular place in the summertime. We found a place and rented beach chairs again and Z went in for a wave crashing swim; I wasn't feeling up to it, but did step in to test the water. We ended the day with a great dinner at a restaurant overlooking the water. What a great ending to a perfect day.

Milano

From Barcelona we flew into Milan, Italy and spent the day here. Italy, the home of gelato, vino, gelato, pizza, gelato, tiramisu, pasta and gelato. OK, yes there appears to be a liking for gelato.

Our hotel was located a short walk from central Milan and was called Hotel Canada. Again, I liked it for the name and Z for the great reviews. This hotel was quite nice and we had a good sized room. Breakfast was included and it had a very good spread of cereals, fresh fruit salad, pastries, toast, cheeses, and meats. Z really liked the fact that he could order a cappuccino with breakfast. We arrived early in the afternoon and were greeted at the hotel by the front desk clerk who was a Mr. Bean look-a-like. He even had some Mr. Bean tendencies which were quite humorous.

After checking in we walked into central Milan because we only had the one day. We quickly found the Duomo, Milan's cathedral. This magnificent building is the fourth largest cathedral in the world. It took six centuries to complete. It is absolutely stunning. The interior is massive and has incredibly beautiful stained-glass windows. We paid $6 Euro each to walk up about 200 stairs to the roof top. The views of the city from there are amazing and definitely worth the cost.

After exploring the Duomo, we came upon the Galleria which is a mall filled with high end stores. In the Galleria is a great gelato shop called Savini and this is where I tasted my first authentic Italy gelato. I've been hooked ever since and am not sure I can go back to eating ice cream or gelato back home. OK, who am I kidding I can't give up eating ice cream, but it will never compare to Italian gelato.

Just outside the Galleria is the world renowned opera house, Teatro alla Scala. This theatre was inaugurated in 1778 and recently received a face lift. The interior was beautiful, very "posh". Unfortunately the theatre was dark the evening of our stay, but we could only imagine how wonderful a performance would sound in there.

We also made our way to Castello Sforzesco, a castle situated in central Milan. This castle now houses several museums and art collections. Before ending our day, we had a lovely dinner at Cafe Milano situated along the main pedestrian street. Once again we sat outside for dinner and enjoyed the opportunity to people watch. Dinner consisted of a tasty pepperoni pizza and steamed vegetables on the side with tiramisu for dessert. It was a great start to our stay in Italy.

Sitges

Day 3 was another beach day. This time we took a train a half hour south to a resort town called Sitges. This town had lots of charm, a beautiful old church and kilometres of coastline with the finest sand beaches. The beach that we ended up hanging out at for the entire day was called Platja De La Bassa Rodona. This beach quickly became my second favourite beach of all time; following closely behind Playa Varadero. We decided it would be worth renting lounge beach chairs for $5.50 Euro each. While this may seem a little silly, trust me when I say it was well worth it. It gave us a comfortable place to lie in the sun without getting the lovely fine sand everywhere. The water here I found to be slightly warmer than the other beach we visited. The swimming area here did not drop off as quickly as the other beach which probably factored into why I felt the water was warmer. We spent a fabulous day swimming, wave crashing and sun tanning. I enjoyed this beach time so much that I kept saying that we need to move to Sitges so I can just sit on the beach every day.

Before leaving on our day excursion, we stopped at the market at La Rambla and purchased some fresh fruit and nuts which we snacked on throughout the day. After grabbing a very late lunch, we explored the town a little and found ourselves witnessing two weddings taking place at the church.

Sitges was definitely a great way to finish off our short time in Barcelona. We almost didn’t make it there because prior to leaving on this trip we read about the area and I decided it wasn’t really somewhere overly interesting. Boy was I wrong.

Barcelona

Barcelona where the Sangria flows and the Paella is plentiful.

We arrived in Barcelona late in the evening and made our way to our hotel – Hotel Curious. I liked this hotel for its name whereas Z actually read the reviews and chose it based on those. This hotel is centrally located in an area known as La Rambla and was only about a block from the main street. La Rambla is the place to be; it’s a 1.25 km pedestrian boulevard lined with restaurants, bars, shops , flower stands and thousands of people walking around. There is also an amazing market where you can find everything from fresh fruit and fruit juices to fresh meats, cheeses, stinky sea food, candies and more. This street is alive from morning to the wee hours of the morning with people of all ages. Something that struck me as so different from back home was that you see little children out late at night with their parents and nothing seemed unusual about it here.

After our very long journey, Z figured I needed a little “down” time, so he found a great beach for us to hang out for the day. We took a train 1 hour north to a place called Canet de Mar, somewhat off the beaten track. The train ticket was inexpensive at $6.80 Euro round trip for the both of us. We were told that the beaches north of Barcelona had nicer water than in the city. We arrived in the town and found a lunch spot where we ran into a “local” originally from France who said that not many foreign tourists make it this far and she was surprised to hear English. This beach was worth the trip. While the beach itself was a fine pebble beach instead of sand, the water was absolutely great. The Mediterranean Sea was a little cool, but refreshing and great to swim in. The beach was not crowded whatsoever with only locals around. We spent the afternoon into early evening just chilling at the beach before the
clouds started to take over the sky.

On day 2, we walked around the city exploring different neighbourhoods and sites. Given our short stay, we purposefully decided to skip museum visits and instead take the city in on foot. This day wasn’t the best in terms of weather; it started out raining, but stopped as we started our exploration. As we stopped in at a little cafe and ordered our cafe de leche, the sky opened up and it poured for a good 15 minutes. Seems no matter where we
travel, we can’t seem to avoid the rain.

One thing about Barcelona that we both thought was great, is that every street you turn down there is usually something there waiting to be discovered. We found many neat plazas by just taking a turn off a main street and walking down what looked like an alley. There is no shortage of eateries in Barcelona and the selection of food is quite diverse. Eating outside on the restaurant patios is the thing to do and this allows for some good people
watching opportunities.

The city has a diverse mix of architectural styles ranging from Gothic to Modernisme to Contemporary. One of the biggest influences on the city’s architecture was Antoni Gaudi. One of his most famous projects is the still unfinished La Sagrada Familia, a church that when finally complete can accommodate 40,000 people. This is definitely a site to see, and while we didn’t venture inside due to the massive queue of people, the facade is truly spectacular and should not be missed.

This evening was capped off with a Flamenco show. For $23 Euro each, we were entertained by a live Flamenco show that lasted an hour. The show was spectacular and well worth seeing. We caught the early show, so afterwards with the evening still being so young we hopped on the Metro to go see La Font Magica. These famous fountains put on a spectacular light and music show in the summer (much like the water fountain show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas). The shows run every 15 minutes Thursdays through Sundays from 9:30 to 11:30pm. Again I was surprised to see the number of families out with small children watching the shows after 9:30pm. It was a great way to cap off our day.

The weather was looking much better for day 3 so we decided another beach day was in order.

Pictures of Zurich

Waterfront property

Waiting for the train to downtown

In Old Town

Main train station - Zurich

Still on the way to Barcelona

The second stop on the journey to Barcelona brought us to Zurich for a fourteen hour stop over. Special note to anyone travelling with one or more significant layovers before reaching your final destination - make sure you check the weather forecast so you can pack your carry-on appropriately. It was HOT in Zurich with temperatures reaching 40C. We arrived around 6:30am local time and after getting ourselves organized somewhat we head out to explore. We left our second carry on at the left luggage spot in the main train station which conveniently is located next to the airport. For $6 Euro we left our bag there. We purchased an all day transit pass for about $13 Euro each and this allowed us to take the train into downtown Zurich as well as allowed us to hop on and off the trams. The train ride into downtown was about 10 minutes. Zurich has an excellent transit system with an extensive tram network. It's also a good walking city.

We got to the downtown area and the first thing I noticed was how clean the city is. It was already quite warm and it wasn't even 9am local time yet. We started off by walking down the main pedestrian area. Z had a great Zurich city guide app he downloaded and it provided several different walking tour options. As we started out, none of the shops were open yet, but I noticed many of the stores in this particular area were higher end stores. We found a bakery called Sprungli which is famous for it's macaroons. We had no choice but to buy some and give them a try. And boy we were not disappointed, in fact wished we had purchased a few more than we did.

We walked around the Old Town and admired the beautiful buildings and streets and read about some of the history on the city guide app. We took a short boat ride on Lake Zurich which was included in our transit pass. We found a lovely spot for lunch where we enjoyed our meal outdoors on the patio. We found that a lot of the restaurants offer a menu of the day - which is a set menu including a limited choice for an appetizer, main course and drink (sometimes a dessert is also included). Ordering the menu of the day is a great way to go because you get all this food for a price that is much less than if you ordered each item individually. I got to practice my German a little here as well.

I was quite impressed with Zurich. It's a beautiful city, but we did find that in general it was rather expensive. The heat and lack of sleep was really starting to get to me, so we head back to the airport to wait out the rest of the stop over before our evening flight to Barcelona.

On the way to Barcelona

The journey to Barcelona was longer than a direct flight might have been, but Z and I don't always like to do things the "normal" way. Our first flight brought us to Montreal with a day-long lay over. What to do in Montreal when you have about ten hours before your next flight? We didn't want to head right into the heart of downtown because we knew that traffic can be gridlock like we've never experienced and we didn't want to miss our flight. So we took an express bus to an area known as Atwater, previously researched by Z before we arrived. Here we found a a little market called Atwater Market. From there we strolled down to the river and took a short walk along it. It was beautiful out, a slight breeze which helped us endure the heat - with the humidity factor it felt like 40C. Considering our flight into Montreal was a red-eye, plus dealing with the time change and all the excitement of the day before, we were both rather tired. The pathway along the river is popular with cyclists, runners and walkers. There are ample places to rest as well, so we found a lovely park bench and took a little snooze. Feeling still tired after the snooze, I was in desperate need for more coffee, so we went into the bakery at the market and got coffee, a couple delicious salads and a croissant. This bakery is amazing. The pastries are all freshly baked on site and were extremely tempting. Using all the self control possible, I managed not to buy anything further. Z was just as tempted and was really eyeing the chocolate mousse dish. After I promised to make some when we get home, he also resisted the temptation.....for now.

Back to the airport for the next leg of our journey. So far, our home country visited and we, with that I mean Z, have had to use our language skills already - French.

A new lasting adventure

Yesterday marked the start of a new travel adventure. This adventure will take me a lifetime to complete and I look forward to every last minute of the journey.

It's been awhile since I was last on a plane and in a few hours I'll be off once again, bound for Europe. This special trip will see stops in Barcelona, Northern Italy and Austria. Still feel extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to such wonderful places. I'm looking forward to experiencing new culture, food and beautiful sites. My amazing partner is along for the ride and in fact he planned out everything, so maybe it's better for me to say that I'm along for the ride. I can't wait....it's like waking up early on Christmas morning with anticipation. Next stop Europe!!