Category Archives: Vacation

Barcelona and the Pyrenees


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.

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Beach avenue with Columbo showing the way
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The beach

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market
Mercado de La Boqueria
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Sagrada Familia, impressive from the outside….
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…and amazing details from the inside
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no picture could do this place justice
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Amazing piece of technology that carried us around Barcelona and the Pyrenees – the license plate was a total coincidence
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P very cute :-)))
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Roadtrip
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Pyrenees landscape

hiking

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Monastery Montserrat
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The man and his machine
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Lunch break in the independent principality of Andorra

Vietnam ’12, Part 5: Phu Quoc


A ferry boat form Ha Tien took us to Phu Quoc, an island actually closer to Cambodia than to Vietnam. There are very few roads (in not too good conditions or even dirt roads) so the car drive from the harbor in the East to the Chen Sea  Resort in the West took a while.

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Chen Sea resort
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Our favourite sundowner: mango margarita at the pool
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My favourite: ca phe sua da

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View from our our beach bungalow
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Writing “The pool” is too much of stating the obvious but I have no better idea

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There are all sorts of gadgets for one purpose only: RELAX

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Fish market in downtown Phu Quoc at night

A one hour motor bike drive from the Chen Sea Resort took us to a great beach in the Southwest of Phu Quoc. There were only two small restaurants and very few people there. I really hope that remains for some time and no big resort will be built there!

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A beautiful white beach in the south-east part of Phu Quoc

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Perfectly looks like a celebrity shooting
Looks like a celebrity shooting
next celebrity shot
next celebrity shot
not so much of a celeb shot ;-)
not so much of a celeb shot 😉
best place for enjoying life
best place for enjoying life

One day we drove down town Duong Dong for lunch and got surprised by heavy rain that filled the streets within a few minutes. While J refused to drive back to the resort, life in the streets seemed to go on almost as usual:

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The rain continued and after a while we (or should I say P) decided that driving through the rain is not a big deal. At least, the rain was warm….. Driving on dirt roads in such weather conditions is actually a bit of a challenge!

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Water pearls
Flowers after the rain
Flowers after the rain