Sunday, June 21, 2009

Rerouting to... Morocco! (And that's final)

Well, it turns out we're not going to Barcelona with Olav and Mona this year, we'll take a rain check on that, and so, we started to do some thinking. Should we go back to the St. Petersburg plan? (We'd like to see it during summer, since we froze our butts off last time when we went there in February!) Or should we visit Italy? Or...? Or...?

Astrid came up with a very good idea, namely Morocco! We're going to make this trip on a tight schedule and a tight budget (of course, we don't really use a budget, because we're light years beyond budgeting). So here's the deal:

  • Fly as cheap and fast and early as possible (OK, not too early) to Malaga, Spain.
  • Go to Algerica by bus or train - it's about an hour from Malaga.
  • Take the ferry to Tangier, Morocco.


But first, maybe a visit to Gibraltar? We could stay at Emile Hostel, 30 minutes walk from the border and 100m from Casemates square, the heart of the town.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Up next: Barcelona!

Yahoo! (As in yahoo! and not search engine!) We're going to Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, Spain! This time, we'll be traveling together with Olav and Mona, and we've decided to make it a low budget trip. So, what are we going to do? Let's start planning...

Catalonia
Wiki Catalonia

Barcelona
Wiki Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia, a magnificent cathedral which has been in construction since since 1882
www.sagradafamilia.cat

Montserrat, a Benedictine monastery built on a worn and torn limestone mountain, provides a view to the Pyrenees, Barcelona, and even Mallorca on a clear day
http://www.climb-europe.com/spain/RockClimbingMontserrat.htm

In vino veritas...
Torres
Cordorniu located in Sant Sadurni D’Noia (Penedes)
Caves Colomer
Freixenet cava bodega (near Sant Sadurni, there are more wineries in Sant Sadurni)

Train schedule
This is the official Renfe train company home page - which is crap, unfortunately
www.renfe.es
Better google it... Here's an example
Vilafranca del Penedès by train