YATTS

Costa Brava

2009-05-27T09:35:42Z

We stay in Tossa de Mar since 2 days, taking a rest after this long journey (all in all we drove about 4600 km). This place is very very romantic at night, expecialy in the area near the castle. There are a lot of restaurants, everyone looks nicer than the other. I could stay hours in the streets watching the people, mostly are tourists, most of them are french. Yesterday we went to the beach because the weather was fine. We weren't almost used to be on such a crowded beach. The next people stand at about 2 meters of distance while at Cabo de Gata or Conil or Lagos they where more than 200 meters far away. Not a big deal. Today we took the car and drove along the coast until we found a place called Calella de Palafrugel. We were very impressed by the flair of this small village (look at the pic). At first sight it seems like a small little fisher harbour with a very small beach beneath. But after having made a little walk we saw that it wasn't that small. So we took our beach clothes and went to the sea. Tonight last dinner for us. It will be a special one because today we have our 7th wedding jubelee. Hopefully nothing goes wrong (because of the 7th of course). Tomorrow the final step for this years holidays: the flight back to Treviso hoping that Margot don't forget to pick us up at the airport. I hope that you enjoyed our travell diary and I hope that you excuse all the mistakes I made writing in my homemade english. It was a kind of exercise for me and I will try to improve it in the future. See you next year with a new travellers blog, maybe from another country.

Costa Brava remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Long driving today

2009-05-27T09:35:22Z

Long driving today. There were about 900 km lasting and this morning we started with the willing of driving the most possible. The weather was good and the roads not too much crowded so, after making a short refreshing rest in Peniscola, we went to Tossa del Mar; a very lovely place at the Costa Brava. We will spend the last three days of our journey at the hotel Florida, nice stay, kind people. We knew it from last year. I will blog next days about this new stop and in the meantime take a look at the pic of the marvellous nice patio at the hostal Santuario what I took this morning after having checked out.

Long driving today remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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City of Almeria

2009-05-27T09:34:31Z

No beach weather today. The themperature is still high but the sun is covered by a thin leyer of clowds. This is the best weather for visiting a city: so we decided to drive to Almeria. The first we tried to find was the catedral. It was exactly like I remembered from TV broadcastings during the Semana Santa: a very old building behind a court of high palms. The church was very nice inside. The same way like the other big andaluse catedrals: a very nice altary, the choir seats in front of it and all around a lot of small chappels, everyone dedicated to different saints. I think that this church was restaured lately because the paintings were very colourful. We stayed there a long time. Is was very pleasant. After that we searched the arab castle:the alcazaba. We didn't know the way so, after asking two men from the street we reached ... the famous walls of Saint Cristobal. Maybe we didn't understand what the men said. They told only in spanish of course. Anyway we were very impressed by the view that we had of the Alcazaba from the distance. Then we really found the right way to it so finally we could visit it. As europeans we didn't need to pay the ticket (same way like Baelo Claudia some days ago). The first sector was a big park full of flowers and trees. The other two sectors were not yet ready and a lot of workers were around. All that was surrounded by the old walls of that old arab castle. All in all it was a pleasant visit. As a final step for today we made a short visit at the restaurant Mediterraneo in San Miguel because we were hungry and very very thirsty. Moreover it was not very far out our route. It was magical again. Like we recalled from last year. Tomorrow we will leave this piece of paradise. Who knows where we will arrive. The direction is Catalunia but 900 km in one day are a lot. By the way these day we made over 300 km driving around from beach to beach and the sum is about 3464 km so far.

City of Almeria remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Playas todo el dia

2009-05-29T08:28:18Z

Althought the car is not in the best state (see yesterday's post) we went looking at the beaches: could not be nicer. At first we visited the small village called Las Negras, too nice. After a short while we went further to the PLAYA DE LOS MUERTOS. There wasn't a way to reach it directly, so we had to walk 20 minutes through a rambla (that is a dried river) where I almost trampled on a snake; I HATE SNAKES. The beach was really great: endless. We stayed there a few hours. It was very hot, about 31 degrees. Thankfully we didn't meet more scary animals on the way back. You don't forget that all this is into a national natural park. Thereafter we went directly to the Monsul beach. We already went there yesterday but a strong wind was blowing: sand in every hole of the body. Today it was wonderful and therefore there were many people too. I plunged in the water more times and I cannot describe how nice the feeling was. A real blessing of God. This evening at dinner we will decide if we stay here a day more or if we leave tomorrow. My desire is to stay but we need to find a solution with the car: to rent a car is fun and easy till you don't have any problem. As soon a problem rises you are lost. Expecially with Europcar. This pic was taken at Los Muertos. You can see that we were alone. What could we ask more ?

Playas todo el dia remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Car problem

2009-05-27T09:54:17Z

Something new for us today: all the times that we trawelled this way (fly & drive) we never had problems with the car. Today, suddenly, it beguns to produce a strange noise from the breaks. No light control alerted of some kind of danger or some damage at the car. Anyway I took the phone and called Europecar and explained the problem; a gently voice told me to drive to the airport of Almeria (40km away) and they would give me another car. So we went there but the girls at the desk were very sorry that there was no car of any class for us. We had a Mercedes, Class A, with 38000 km, and we were very satisfied with it until this problem rised. Tomorrow I will call again and again, hoping to get a solution soon. I hate to drive dangerous cars.

Car problem remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Arriving to Cabo de Gata

2009-05-27T09:32:10Z

After we left Conil de la Frontera we drove along the coast taking a short look at all the villages, some of that were very nice, like Barbate, others are also very nice but very dirty. On the way we visited the old roman site of Baelo Claudia near Bolonia. All the ruins are in a good state and it was possible to feel like the romans were living beneath the walls and the tempels of that little city. At that time there were up to 2000 people living there. After that we went to Tarifa. This is the southest point of Europe and with good weather you can clearly see Africa at the other side of the sea. The distance is only 14 km. Yesterday it wasn't clear enought so we only could see a mountain of Africa through the dust and the fog (look at the pic included). It was time to move on toward Cabo de Gata. We drove over Granada, Puerto de la Mora (1380 mt o.s.), Guadix, desert of Tabernas (what we want to visit one of these days), Almeria and finally San Jose to our favorite hostal: Hostal Santuario. We will stay here some days visiting some of the wild beaches in the National Park. Hopefully the weather will be good to us. This evening we will eat PARILLADA DE MARISCO for sure.

Arriving to Cabo de Gata remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Conil de la frontera - costa de la luz

2009-05-27T09:31:23Z

It's a very long time since we wanted to return to the Costa de la Luz, after a short visit some years ago. Finally it became true;and we were very surprised about what we found: the ocean is not as cold as in Portugal, the landscape and the beach looks very similiar to Portugal and the village of Conil is as lovely as Lagos. It's not to overlook that booth cities have had the same kind of story. I think that the only difference between theese places is that Portugal owns better restaurants, but I may be wrong.
We spent the whole day on the beach. Is was rather hot and pleasant and there weren't as many people as yesterday. The beach is endless, really. Very clean too. Many workers were there cleaning the beach in the morning; all in all yesterday it was sunday and the beach was full of families spending their weekend in the sun.
We like our stay very much. The hotel offers everything that we need, the kitchen is good and the people are very kind. We will take this place in our hearts for sure.
Tomorrow we will leave Conil and drive toward our main destination: Cabo de Gata near Almeria. On the way we will visit some places but I will write tomorrow about it.

Conil de la frontera - costa de la luz remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Costa de la Luz

2009-05-27T09:30:48Z

Leaving Portugal was not very easy for us: how long will last until we come back to this lovely place ? Hopefully not all to long. The only point that is sure is: we return as soon as possible. Our destination was Costa de la Luz, with a short kind of *touch and go* in Jerez de la Frontera. While driving into this city we noticed a lot of people very well dressed and many women and girls wearing the typical andaluse dress and so we thought: if we are lucky enought we will attend to a real andaluse *feria*, and so it was. After a long walk we came to the feira and could thake some interessting and colorfull pics, what will be published on Panramio soon; as soon we come home. All that horses, all that women with her nice dresses: all that mixed with a pint of sherry wine and a lot of crowd makes the feira become real. After having enjoyed the feira we drove on to Chiclana de la Frontera. This was a big new village built with golf in mind. Since we are not golf players we moved on to the next village: Conil de la Frontera. We found a room at the Hotel Garbì. It seems to be very confortable. We will see. Today we drove again about 500 km, totalizing 2540 km so far. Here I include two pics that I took this morning from our room. Enjoy too.

Costa de la Luz remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Lagos in Portugal, a piece of paradise

2009-05-27T09:29:48Z

Yesterday I couldn't blog because there wasn't credit enought on my phone. In the morning we decided to change our route and make e short visit to our beloved city on the Algarve in Portugal. The road, 470 km, passed by very easily and around midday (Portugal is one hour later than Spain, Italy etc.) we came to Lagos. We were very surprised to find our usual hotel completely renewed, different owner and a lot of other improvements. It didn't take much time and after a while we were on the most beautiful beach of the world: Dona Ana. The water was flat but very cold and moreover there weren't too much people. This magic day was crowned by a very good dinner at our usual restaurant: Don Sebastiao.
Today it blowed a strong and cold wind and so we went searching another beach: we found it at Praia da Mos: endless sand, few people, a marwellous sea. Whatever could we ask more ? We spent the whole day there and now we are looking forward to find a nice restaurant for the last evening in Portugal because tomorrow we plan to drive to the famous Costa De La Luz. Here you can see some pics of the Dona Ana that I took early this morning.

Lagos in Portugal, a piece of paradise remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Merida full day

2009-05-13T21:39:56Z

We didn't know how nice Merida can be: full of monuments, all of them in a very good state, and moreover a very sunny and hot day. Among all of them, we were very impressed by the roman theatre. It's really a pity that the concert season didn't start yet: I think that it would be very great to attend to a concert in such an important place. Actually we are really tired of walking around to visit all those objects, they aren't located all close together. Anyway some walking is always nice and healthy as well. In a few hours we will go to dinner (any restaurant opens before 9.00 pm in Spain). This evening I think that I will drink a cup of wine or two, but not a bottle like I did yesterday.

Merida full day remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Finally Extremadura

2009-05-13T21:43:20Z

Today's activity: This morning we went to visit the main monuments of Leon: the catedral and the abbey of S.Isidoro. We spent much time in the last one because it was really very interesting. In the Pantheon there are burried 12 kings and 14 queens of Spain beside other important and hystorical people. Anyway the weather wasn't very promising and the themperature was rather cold so we decided to leave this city and drive towards south. So we drove directly to Merida: the most important city of Extremadura. This city is well known because of the roman ruins beeing there. We will visit all this tomorrow. Actually we enjoy the fine themperature and the nice weather and maybe a good dinner. After having drown 490 km today and 370 km yesterday, we are at 1600 km so far. Not bad.

Finally Extremadura remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Picos de Europa

2009-07-28T21:48:15Z

Today it was a very interesting and also strong day. After breakfast we visited Santander. The ancient part of the city is pleasant and so we enjoyed the crowd of it, beside the imortant monuments that we found, like the catedral and others. It seamed to be in Switzerland because all the banks, but only two steps away you could see all the poor people and the homeless living in this city. A very crude contrast. Thereafter we drowe to Santillana del mar. The name of the city is wrong because the sea is located 15km away from there. The city itself is very nice and romantic. If somebody is searching a nice place to spend their honeymoon then there isn't a better choice. In the afternoon we decided to drive towards the next destination:Leon. The route that we planned to drive was through the Picos de Europa National park. At first we went to Fuente De: there was a closed Parador, a closed cablecar and a small bar (open) where we eat something. After that we drove over a pass called Puerto de San Glorio: I never saw such a terrible road over such a steap mountain although my home is surrounded by steap mountains as well. Moreover the weather was very bad at that time and at the sides of the road there was snow standing there since last winter. Driving down from that kind of hell we passed by a lovely lake beneath rocks and stones but I cant remember the name at this time. Finally we arrived to Leon where we found a nice room at the hotel Paris. We got a nice dinner at a typical castillian restaurant, btw not too expensive, and then we went to sleep. ... what will happen soon. In the meantime you can enjoy a pic that I took from our room in Santander this morning.

Picos de Europa remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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First day. could not be better.

2009-05-11T23:55:20Z

Yesterday everything went fine: the transfer to Treviso, Ryanair was great as always starting without any delay and landing breaking the minute. The hotel we had (Hotel Salles Airport Gerona) was extremely nice and cheap at the same time, incredible. Anyway we took the bus to the city of Gerona and there we found a very nice litle restaurant where we eat aroz caldoso (a fish soup with rice) together with red wine from La Rioha: it's not easy to find the right words to describe how good and well-tasting that it was.
Today after breakfast we went again at the airport of Gerona to pick up the car that we reserwed sometime before. They didn't have a Seat Altea.Iinstead they had some others and among them we took thr Mercedess class A. Very nice and handy.
Then we started direction Santander. After a drive of 780 km we arrived at Santabder: very nice and lovely city. I will blog in the future about it.
So, this was a very long post.
More will follow the nex dayd
Stay tuned

First day. could not be better. remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Fever still rising

2009-05-04T12:59:54Z

Actually we can't wait to finish this stressful week and finally start our trip. I think that everybody noticed that the week before starting is one of the most stressful of the whole year, beside that one after you come back from holidays.
Many times I was swearing to myself to never go to holidays again.
The next year you don't recall anything about and so it repeats the same old story.
In the meantime we did a car reservation. They wrote Seat Altea or similar. We will see .

Fever still rising remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Finally decided where to go

2009-04-14T07:28:11Z

Here there is a map of the roundtrip we would like to make this year.
All the destinations are new for us, except San José at Cabo de Gata what we discovered last year. This is an amazingly nice area. We plan to stay there some days more than usual because we would like to see it in all its beauty and mystery: the desert.

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

Finally decided where to go remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Starting of the planning of this year's holidays

2009-04-14T07:21:15Z

Winter season is over, Eastern is over, what ever should go over before we can start to plan our next holidays ?

Nothing, at all !!!

This year I would like to blog about our vacations while being on the road and so our friends and our relatives can follow the going on of the driving and the visiting of the cities and of course the beaches.
I'm not sure if I am able to do it the way I would like and I'm not even sure if I am able to do it till the end. Maybe some comments of some places will fail.

So, the first step is already made. I hope that there will be many steps following this one.

Let's take a try.

Starting of the planning of this year's holidays remains copyright of the author fpizzinini, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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