On the way back from Verona we stopped for 2 days for a quick visit in Merano. The landscape around is beautiful and the city used to be pretty famous back in the 70s/80s, due to a relatively modest micro climate in the valley and it’s thermal waters. You can still tell from many picturesque buildings and hotels but unfortunately, the city has put on some patina since then (just trying to say it in a polite way).
One of the advantage of living in Munich is that it doesn’t take us long to drive to Italy so we occationally do it over long weekends. In German there is even a saying that, Munich is the Northern most part of Italy and Milan is the Southern most part of Germany, meaning that Munich or Bavaria has quite a strong connection to Italy, and the other way around.
We love coming down for skiing in the winter and for some city trips during summer time because the weather is always nicer and the foods are always better in the South ;-).
Barcelona is one of the cities that “have it all”. The beach, the mountain, city life, art scene, cultural activities, Gaudi (!), and a very famous football team on top. We spent the first half of our trip exploring the city itself. We headed out everyday with no plan and ended up doing a tons because there’s always something going on at any hour of any day. We loved walking around just to admire the beauty of old buildings (and imagine ourselves living in them), we loved sneaking into some art galleries that seemed to be forgotten by the crowds, we loved trying out whatever dishes that looked so yummy that the people at the next table had ordered, we loved the close distance to the beach, and we loved the 28-degree-weather in June.
But the best thing about this trip was probably the three days we spent on two-wheels in the Pyrenees. The mountain roads were almost empty so J had the most fun speeding up. The scenery was beyond gorgeous and the villages we stopped by were even more charming. It was one the few trips we had absolutely nothing to complain about.
