Month: June 2017

Tourism

Island in the Sun: Tenerife

For the final leg of our long April trip, we decided to go a more traditional spring break route, finishing our adventure waaaay south, and on an island to boot. But before arriving in paradise, we had to take a train from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to the airport in Brussels, Belgium. We were delighted with how easy (and fast!) international travel proved. No advance reservations needed, even. After arriving in Tenerife’s southern airport, we drove our rental care about 15 minutes to our beachside Airbnb apartment in Médano Beach. Tenerife is the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands. Politically, the

Continue reading
Tourism

Double Dutch 2: Rotterdam

If we visited Amsterdam for the tulips, then we definitely went to Rotterdam for the pinball. We also encountered surprisingly modern architecture. While Amsterdam retains its historic credentials, Rotterdam looks very different because the Germans bombed it in 1940 during World War II. The city has since recovered, and today it is Europe’s largest port. We also enjoyed the small, historic section of the city that was not hit by bombs and thus remains preserved. Our train ride into Rotterdam was short and uneventful, with a gray spring landscape broken up by shocks of color. We found our boat hotel

Continue reading
Tourism

Double Dutch 1: Amsterdam

We came to Holland in the spring for the tulips. Isn’t that VEIRD??!? Of course, we crossed canals, we took in history, we visited a famously colorful district, and we sought out interesting food and drink. But we really did come for those tulips. Still, we were eager to return to the city after a honeymoon layover there almost four years ago – 18 hours wasn’t enough! But first… a trip to the Borriana/Les Alqueries train station in the strong midday sun. As with many trips before and after it, we celebrated our arrival at the Valencia airport and clearing security with a

Continue reading
Barcelona / Tourism

Barcelona 3.2: Gettin’ Sagrada

During our third visit to Barcelona, we finally saw one of the most iconic symbols of the city: La Sagrada Familia. Although we also discovered the works of another master architect during our April trip, we just couldn’t let a visit go by without seeing something created by our favorite Catalan modernist, Antoni Gaudí. And boy, was it something – many people (probably most) consider La Sagrada Familia his unfinished masterpiece. Construction of La Sagrada Familia, or The Church of the Holy Family, began in 1882, and Gaudí took over the project a year later. Even though he was completely devoted to

Continue reading
Barcelona / Tourism

Barcelona 3.1: Scaling the modernist Montaner

A flimsy pretense was all we needed to schedule a return trip to Barcelona for the first weekend of April. We’re game pretty much any time, but when Dreamer found out a friend was performing comedy there the coming Saturday evening, the decision was easy. Our first two trips of Barcelona were quite heavy on the works of Antoni Gaudí, the most famous person associated with Catalan Modernism. While we did devote some time to our favorite whimsical architect (which we’ll tell you all about in our next post), we also discovered another master, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, who designed two modernist gems eventually designated

Continue reading