We reached our destination Benalmadena, and are spending here some days together with family members. They have friendly shown us the environment.
First day made a trip over the mountains along small roads to town Ronda which has been built on both sides of a 100 meters deep gorge.
Second day we made a trip to Nerja and visited the caves, Cuevas de Nerja. The caves had been populated in prehistoric times and there are paintings from those times.
Arrived to Madrid on the day of Fiesta Nacional, Spanish national day. Most of it you could feel in the local train between Figueres and Barcelona. The Spanish minded Catalans from the small villages were travelling to demonstration in Barcelona with Spanish flags. However, in Madrid you hardly could see any signs of the national day, except plenty of people around due to long week-end.
We arrived to the Atocha station in Madrid. It is a beautiful building, but it is also a place where nearly 200 persons were killed by a terror attack 2004. Because of that the biggest railway stations have now strict security checks. That is what we learned at the Barcelona Sants station when we tried to rush to the AVE train towards Madrid, due to late arrival of the local train. We managed, but at the last minute.
Madrid is a mecca for an art lover, and even if you would not be, it is worth visiting the great art museums . We used one day in Prado seeing old paintings of 15th and 16th centuries. Twice we had to use the servings of the cafeteria at the ground floor. At the next day we had a little bit shorter time in Reina Sofia, which had mainly art from the 19th century. We first went to see the Guernica, Picasso’s famous painting ordered by the second republic for the Paris world exhibition 1937. The civil war ended first 1939. There was also a film of the civil war shown opposite to the Guernica painting. It had some similarities to the Finnish civil war that has been remembered this year when 100 years have passed.Several questions arouse to us, and luckily we could get answers later in the afternoon when visiting a Finnish Spanish family. Then we learned that it was Luftwaffe, that bombed the Guernica, as Hitler was a friend of Franco. We also learned that Spain did not participate the second world war due to that friendship.
When travelling with light packages, you have to use time for some everyday issues like washing your cloths.
It also takes time to buy the obligatory seat tickets on big railway stations, that happened earlier to us in Spain and again at Puerta Atocha. First you have to find the place where you can buy the advance tickets and then reserve at least 1-2 hours to line up for them. The waiting time you can use for trying to find from where your train is going to leave. Some stations are very logical and easy to find, but like Atocha the trains are leaving at two levels and you cannot see the number of the rails before passing the security check. So ask and ask and ask.
In the second afternoon we had lunch with my goddaughter Sanna and her family. Now they were three instead of two, last time I visited them. Saul had made excellent Paella and flan for the desert. We could also taste his cousins home made coffee liquor.
Good Bye Madrid this time, our journey continues to Malaga and Benalmadena.
Or actually we are in Northern Catalonia, Figueres is a town of Dali’s birth place, and his museum is the greatest tourist attraction here. The journey with a slow TER train through rainy northern coast of Mediterranean took five hours. Train change was at Port Bou, which was almost a former railway station. A big building, but no information of trains. The French train arrived to the other side of the building and on the other side of the station building was standing one train without any signs. But as it was the only alternative we jumped in. New railroads and stations have been built for the fast TGV and AVE trains. The TER train passed between the ocean and the marshy land, similar to Camarque, but due to a heavy rain much sceneries could not be seen.
Our hotel in Figueres is a small family run Hostal Barretina. The host does not speak English, but he translates speech using internet application. One small mistake was translating fish to a dog in Finnish. First we wondered a little, is he really serving us dog meet, but then we understood pescado is fish and the species of the fish was dogfish, and it tasted good.
The Dali museum was a very positive surprise. Earlier I had only seen the surrealistic works, but in the museum we could see the whole spectrum of his works.
This happened in Nimes and Avignon. Climbing on the steps of the old areena, 180 BC, with an audioguide telling stories of the gladiator fights, and after that getting absorbed in the historic museum of Nimes.
In Avignon the medieval times were present in the huge palace of the popes. French king moved the pope to Avignon early 1300 and towards the end of the century there were even popes both at Avignon and Rome at the same time. This palace makes you think the great power of the catholic church and its riches and the politics.
Our home base was in Avignon for three nights. We staid at the Ibis budget hotel. Although the rooms are very simple, but the bed and breakfast are good, and those are the only ones we need as we are moving around whole day.
Freiburg calls itself an ecostadt and you can see here plenty of solar panels, people use bikes and the town has good tram connections.
We live in a small and friendly Gasthaus Waldheim near the Forest. A few kilometers of the gasthaus is a seilbahn up to the mountains. This morning we decided to use half a day at the mountains to get some exercise after sitting in the train.
Freiburg is old town like Leipzig and it has also an old university. However to me it feels more touristic than Leipzig. The centrum is a limited area and because of that you get the feeling that there are plenty of people around all the time in down town area. An interesting sight seeing was the big cathedral. Its building had lasted 300 years, so hope they sometimes will finish also that Cathedral in Barcelona.
Our next target is Avignon at the French side. Again it was really difficult to get the obligatory seat tickets to TGV although I tried to make the reservations right when we arrived here. All the decent times were full and finally we have a very complicated plan with several changes, first train leaving at 07.04 . Hope the morning trams are in schedule, so we can catch the train. But that is interrailing. Many people in Germany are saying bad things of Deutsche Bahn, but you can always jump in to the train, even if you do not have a seat reservation. So for an interrailer it is a heaven. In France seat tickets are obligatory in many routes, and they even have a reduced quota reserved for interrailers.
Started our trip on October 3rd the day of reunification of Germany. Pekka my husband is my travelmate this time.
We did not stay long in Berlin, but headed towards Leipzig, a former DDR city. Leipzig is a city of about the size as Helsinki, it is an old city of book printing, university, fairs and music. Bach and Wagner had strong connections to Leipzig. We also liked the structure of the city, several parks and forest areas, most buildings were from the early 1900 different styles. For an interrailer it was interesting to see the largest railway station building in Europe.
Trondheim is a lovely wooden town where I have visited during my working years often. This time I continued with a ferry to Hitra Island and further to Fröya island where several old colleagues met for a week-end meeting. At the end of the meeting we made boat trip to outer archipelago, Sula island. Some of our group were real bird watchers so we managed to see several sea eagles and other birds.
I have always dreamed of overnighting at this sailing boat and here I am now. My cabin is with three bunkbeds but so far I am the only one here.
A new experience today was aqvarels of Lars Lerin at Liljewalchs museum. I did not know him beforehand but a friend, Liisa took me there. They look like photographs but in a pleasant careless way. Second target was lunch in Nordiska museet and third coffee at Fotografiska.
What was new in Stockholm:
1. Tram, a new shiny blue tram with a conductor to check your tickets
2. Rush of bikers, as the cycling routes are not so good long double queus of bikers were waiting the lights to change.
3. Slussen under construction. It was a bit difficult find your way among contemporary stairs and sidewalks.
You may wonder why I do not have more photos in this post. This wordpress only accepts photos smaller than 2 Mb, and I have not found a way to reduce the size with this phone. I do not have my big camera and computer with me this time.
Now I am packing and the ferry leaves this afternoon taking me to Stockholm. This time I am planning to make the Scandinavian tour by train. A seven day interrail ticket has been waiting in the drawer since last day of December. The campaign for reduced price tickets ended then.
These beautiful shoes I decided to leave away anyway, although one party is waiting. Weather forecast has promised over 20 for at least 10 days, except in Trondheim archipelago. Do I need jeans or are shorts and a woolen sweater enough etc and always you have too much. This is the dilemma of packing.
We stay in a motel by the highway 2, that crosses the whole US. This looks like the ones in American movies, you would expect to have a bottle of whisky with you.
This area has strong history of mining and logging, but the mines are now shut down. Most probably this is where Trump did get his supporters when he promised to open the mines, but nothing has actually happened or will happen. Luckily our hosts did not believe in him.
Except many Finns, other Scandinavian, Polish and Italian, who came here, the area has also population of Native Americans. They live in reservates and enjoy some priviledges like selling alcohol and cigarettes without taxes. They also have Casino.
Our hostess LeeAnn did show her art work and and gave demonstration of Taj Chi at her studio.
