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It has been the coldest and rainiest day of this trip, but we have been at least almost as brave as the Norwegians and not cared about the weather. The day started at the laundry and good breakfast, but then off we went. Munch museum, Vigeland Park with its statues, Nobel peace center, Grunerlökka and Oslo Mathallen were targets of the day. The Nobel Peace Center exhibition of this year’s price winners who are fighting against the sexual violence in wars was the most influencal experience. I listened the touching speech Dr Mekwege had given during the Nobel price seremony. There was also presentation of every peace price winner from the beginning of the 1900. This place was worth visiting really.

Mathallen in Grunerlokka area is both market hall and restaurant area also good for a Backbackers budget. Today we still have almost a whole day here in Oslo before our ferry to Fredrikshavn Denmark in the evening. Luckily they have promised little sunshine for the Ferry trip so we can admire the scenery of beautiful Oslo fjord.

We decided that 8 oclock train from Stockholm was too early and 3 pm too late for us, so we ended up taking a train to Göteborg. Slow local trains from Göteborg to Halden and Halden Oslo. Along that route I could see pulp- and papermills with familiar names to me. Saugbrugs in Halden and Borregaard in Sarpsborg. Big forests and forest cuts. We also passed the big lake Vänern that I remember from my early schoolbooks. Suppose these were also the areas where Gustaf Vasa ordered Finns to move around 1600, Finnskogarna.

Stockholm is so familiar and exciting for a Finn at the same time. Many others seem to have found that too, so many tourists we have seen today. We have enjoyed the sunny Stockholm, for the Oslo days heavy rains are forcasted.

The first thing after arriving was to buy the seat tickets to Oslo from the ticket office for tomorrow. Then I had to refresh again where the trains are leaving in that vast Central railway station.

Packing for mini interrail to Scandinavian capitals. This time travel mate is my granddaughter. Stockholm Viking museum is one of the first attractions. Have been following a new Finnish blog “Maata pitkin matkaavat”, where tips are given how to travel without flying. Many seem to make the seat reservations in advance, but we still rely that necessary seat tickets are available at station ticket office. After Stockholm we are heading to Oslo, Skagen and Copenhagen and back to Stockholm, Turku and train to Helsinki.

Malaga with its museums and tourist attractions  was our last target.  It is autumn here too, and it offered us some rain and thunderstorm.

We staid four nights at Pueblo Benalmadena, which is the original place of Benalmadena. It is still more authentic than the Costa, which is full of hotels. Our hotel had only one star, but the room was big and the breakfast was maybe best during whole our trip.

Just a pity that I have during these weeks adapted to the south European way of eating dinner late and cannot eat so much in the morning.

Now we are already back at Madrid and the trip continues towards north.

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.