The tiny Principaut de Andorra offered us two things: A change from the Mediterranean climate to the mountain surroundings and some... spa time!!!!

Impressively located villages between the mountains, it is a recommended destination even for the summer. We enjoyed mountain hiking (for our standards, ascending 500m altitude was an achievement!), breathtaking views from altitudes of 2500 metres! Nature everywhere! And, of course, there was some of the Principality atmosphere!

Life from altitude of 2500 metres!!

For quite a while during our trip, we were expecting the moment to get to Andorra. The reason?? CALDEA SPA CENTRE!!! Advertised as the biggest in Europe (probably correct), we went there two 3-hour sessions of spa: Saunas, Turkish Baths, jaccuzis, pools with water of 36 deg temperature... SOOOO RELAXING!!! And we also treated ourselves with a professional massage too!!!!!!

(Manos also dived in the cold 14 degrees pool, but only lasted 30 seconds, before rushing into the hot water pool!!!!!)

They seem to have a nice taste of humour in Andorra la Vella. We found teddy bears like this (in various colours) in many places in the town!

Barcelona wasn't that humit and hot as we were expecting. That helped us to see the city around! We also camped outside Barcelona, where it was really chilly at night!!!!!!!

What can one say about Barcelona? Attractions: Plenty. Architecture: First class. History: Abundant. Diversity: Plentyful!!

We stayed 4 days and they weren't enough! Even from day 1, we figured out that the name Gaudi means a lot to Barcelona. He was a genius really. We were lucky to decide to visit one of his projects: Casa Battlo (this house does NOT have a single corner... it resembles the nature, every single piece is astonishing, the roof, the facade, the Interior... even the loft!) >>>

More Gaudi structures (including the Park Guell, where Gaudi's excellence is demonstrated):

And La Sagrada Familia (or, Gaudi's unfinished project, that is being constructed for 100 years). This again is impressive. HUGE! Seriously big church...

Around Barcelona old city:

More Barcelona beauty:

Open air - escalators!!!!!

On 13/9 we hopped off the turistic bus to visit Camp Nou Museum. When we found out that there was a game that night, Barca-Racing Santader, we changed our plan!!! Oh yes, we were in Camp Nou, the biggest stadium in Europe watching Barca live!!!!! (Georgia needed some persuading!).

Catalunia History Museum was very interesting - and interactive too! >

On the teleferik (cable car) and at the Castle:

By the end of our visit, we were really aware that (most of?) Catalonians do not consider themselves Spanish. We had learned Gaudi's contribution to the city. We admired the Olympic Games area and we had also some time to walk across La Ramblas, the busiest street of the city!

(we forgot to comment on the homeless / beggars issue... but... okay.. no big deal).

The ICING ON THE CAKE: In the village (Alella) next door to our campsite, there was a WINE FESTIVAL!!! Which of course meant cheap local tapas and plenty of wines!!!! We appreciated it a lot!!! (Allelia is supposed to be famous for its wines, but we are not experts on this subject)

Okay here we have to list the negative things about Valencia (and Spain):

1) Toll roads. (applies also to FRANCE). THINK before you DRIVE on motorways! We spent as much in tolls as in petrol. Outrageous...
2) HUMIDITY. Way too humid, even in September.
3) Language. We had to be lucky to find a Valencian speaking English.... LEARN A LANGUAGE, VALENCIANS! Some seemed to know English, but preferred to reply in Spanish - so our dialogs ended up like them speaking in Spanish and us speaking in OUR language - Greek.
4) Turbulant sea. Too much wind and waves.
5) Driving (see below)
6) THEY DON´T SELL (AND DRINK) FRESH MILK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only long-last "derivatives"... Oh my God... No FRESH milk?????????? (This is for Spain, not only Valencia).
7) Expensive camp-sites for not as high standard of services as in Scandinavia.

Still, WE ENJOYED our 7-night stay!! There were plenty to see and do (yet we preferred the sea and sun most of the time hehehe). We stayed in El Saler camping, just off Valencia.

We got some tan eventually! The sea in all of the beaches around Valencia were most of the time too wavy, some days even red flags were raised. But there were endless and beautiful sandy beaches.

Driving in the city is an unforgetable experience. You are on a 5-lane road ending up in a 6-7 lane roundabout!!! and then trying to squeeze your car through the 2-lane exit... hahaa.

Valencia has many attractions! From the sandy beaches in front of the city, to the old town and the old towers (part of the walls), to the modern artistic area with magnificent structures (hemisferium, opera, museum of modern art, aquarium and stuff) designed by Calatrava. A must visit!

This sign (writen in Greek) is in the main train station:

Paellas and Sangrias... miam miam. delicious!!

And as Formula 1 fans, we of course drove on the streets where the new Valencian Grand Prix was held this year!! We even made a "virtual" pit stop (no there wasn´t anyone waiting for us to change the tyres...). Maybe one day, we ll be swimming in Valencia, and walking to the grand stands next door to watch Fellippe Massa and Ferrari!!!!

Georgia is waiting for tyre changing in the pit stops!!!

Last, a photo from our visit to Algemesi (a village near Valencia). On the Virgin Mary's birthday (8 September), they have big celebrations, with parade of traditional dancers and music - it is a street "party" for Virgin Mary's birth outside the church and on the streets. The highlight was the men-towers!!

A strange sculpture in honour of the steel industry of the past (by the way, Arcelor Mittal have their head quarters in Luxembourg):

We had the opportunity for some walking around the nature, as the city is built on hills and the forest is next door! Marvellous views from the top of the one hill to the other! And great weather for walking (at least the first of the two).

Here is a statue of the popular Duke of Luxembourg from the past:

We visited the popular casemates, which were part of the defensive system. Nowadays, there are remains of the old wall, giving us great views from around the city. The casemates were underground hiding places - big rooms and corridors within the rock!

In Luxembourg they already have three official languages (luxembourgish, french and german), but they all know english too ;)) (contrary to Spain, to be commented later). All in all a nice visit in a small city, with green areas, plenty of walking paths and spectacular views from all the high points!!!!

written by  ManosGeorgia on September 2, 2008 from Luxembourg, Luxembourg
from the travel blog: Europe trip 2008
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We went straight for the central square, which is a very large relaxing square overlooking the prestigious city hall. Walking through the narrow steets, suddently we found ourselves among PACKED restaurants with outdoor tables. Well.... WE HADN'T SEEN SO MANY LOBSTERS GATHERED IN A SINGLE STREET!!! It seems EVERYONE was ordering (nicely looking!) LOBSTERS for dinner...

Oh yes, we continued tasting the Belgian beers... next to an open air music festival. We sat outside for free, but the music was loud and we enjoyed it (until the rain started!). Plus we enjoyed a splendid fireworks display! On another occasion, we found ourselves eating and drinking beer (belgian, of course) for free!!! I guess it was part of the festival.

Not to forget, that we started FEELING THE SUMMER, with temperatures of up to 28 or 29 degrees!!!!!

Of course we walked around the EU commission and parliament buildings.

We also visited the Atomium. Well, this is an.... atom. But 260 billion (!!!!!!!!) times magnified! Impressive?

Last (but not least) we visited the museum and the (undeveloped until today) fields of the Waterloo Battle. Historical Battle, it was quite something to know you are standing on the fields where one of greatest Battles took place...

They have a good network of canals, everything is looking so matching with the scenery, so medieval, we also had probably the best guide to visit every secret of the city on a map we were given at the hostel. For example we saw the scalp of the old traitor that opened the gates to the enemy, the upsite down canon stuck on a corner into the pavement, we had marvellous pancakes stuffed with good portion of cheese and ham... Found the best place (cheap!) to taste a bunch of Belgian beers etc

Belgian beers... nice... (stilll prefer the Danish Jacobsen I guess).

So many things, so astonishing views on the streets, also inside the city hall, the churches etc etc. To our surprise, we found that in Church in Brugges, they keep Jesus Christ's blood, that was stolen during the crusades. We paid a visit of course. They seem quite religious, well, maybe they USED to be very religious, they have Madonna's scultpures at the corner of almost all houses.

Oh and there is Michael Angelo's Madonna sculpture, which is really something for the Flammish city.

We also had a short trip on the boat. That was nice! Kind of romantic stuff, and great views of the city from the waters!!

And OF COURSE we visited the CHOCOLATE MUSEUM!!! In which after watching a demo of how they make the praline chocolates, we tasted them (and then we run out to find a chocolate shop to buy more... and more...)

We were extremely satisfied with our stay, we decided to stay longer and cut one day from our next stop (Brussels). Good choice. The photos below tell only a fraction of what we saw and experienced in Brugges....

This is a small-ish city by the River Rhein. Romantic walks and views by Rhein was the highlight (there we saw the boat-hostel, moored on Rhein!), but Arnhem had a few more things to see and do. Plenty - but seriously plenty! - of parks, green areas, lakes and other waters were there to walk and we did our best! Everything in a compact package, it was easy to walk around!

(Επισης, κατα τη διαρκεια της επισκεψης μας συνειδητοποιησαμε οτι το "Αρνχεμ" ειναι η πολη που ποδοσφαιρικα τη φωναζουμε "Αρνεμ", δηλαδη η πρωην ομαδα του Μαχλα η "Βιτεσε Αρνεμ" ειναι εκει!)

written by  ManosGeorgia on August 26, 2008 from Arnhem, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Europe trip 2008
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Hamburg is mostly a large industrial city like Oslo, however there are plenty of historical buildings around and the canals make it really cute. We had some delightful German beer in St Pauli (which is a small Amsterdam). Sorry lads, only very few english laggers are comparable!

The city centre is dominated by the impressive canals and the harbour. But the Hamburgers have something else to look forward to: The "Harbour City", which is due in the following years. A new city was being created, at the time of our visit they were carried out the infrastructure works (eg metro) and a few sky-scrapers. Really amazing project.

There is an annual sand sculpture "festival" with massive up to 4m high sculptures from sand, where we also enjoyed trying to build our own sculptures with little success... :)

There are cycle routes all over West Jutland, it is a relaxing area, we may have been the only tourists that could speak english (German is the language for this place, they where everywhere!!).

Μειναμε 2 βραδυα σε ενα καμπινγκ (οπου συνεννοουμασταν με νοηματα, επειδη δεν ξεραν αγγλικα!) διπλα στο Ringkobing fjord. Εχει μικρα χωριουδακια, ενα απο αυτα το Ribe ειναι το αρχαιοτερο χωριο Viking της Δανιας. Ηρεμια και γαληνη! Στους δρομους εβλεπες μονο αυτοκινητα με γερμανικες πινακιδες. Ειμασταν η εξαιρεση.

Πηγαμε σε ενα ετησιο "festival" με γλυπτα (4μ υψος) απο αμμο. Εντυπωσιακα κομματια. Ειχε και ενα μερος να δοκιμασουμε την τυχη μας να χτισουμε κατι, αλλα στεφηκε με εχμ αποτυχια.

From our visit to the (astonishingly for such a little village) large air museum by Ringkobing fjord - Georgia is playing with an old Scandinavian plane:

Odense is the birth place of Hans Christian Andersen and you can tell from everything, even the pedestrian traffic lights show his figure!!! We walked around his first neighbourhood, perhaps where he used to play kids games on the streets! We were also impressed by the Danish designers, they have some great home stuff, you can decorate your house with great pieces, but of course we dont have the money to buy anything :))

Το Odense ειναι η γεννετηρα του Hans Christian Andersen. Μεχρι οι Γρηγορηδες/Σταματηδες στα φαναρια εχουν τη φιγουρα του με το μπαστουνακι! Συμμαζεμενη πολη, περιεργα γλυπτα τριγυρω, περασαμε απο το σπιτι της γιαγιας του που γεννηθηκε και απο το σπιτι που εζησε τα φτωχα παιδικα του χρονια, φαγαμε και μπανανιτσα εξω απο το σπιτι του χαχααχχαα πεινουσαμε.

written by  ManosGeorgia on August 21, 2008 from Odense, Denmark
from the travel blog: Europe trip 2008
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