Thessaloniki - Greece

Thessaloniki – Greece

Post published:21 February 2016
Post category:Europe Greece Southern Europe

Share it with the world

Thessalonike, half sister of Alexander the Great

Another weekend, and another city not been before. What else can I ask. This travelling bug is now reaching unthinkable levels to the case that since November last year, I’ve spent only one weekend in London without going anywhere, and the next time that will happen might be just the second weekend in April, unless I end up finding another good destination to go. Otherwise it seems it will be June for my next weekend without travelling. 7 months non stop yet I want much more!

Greece, I must admit is one of the greatest “unknown” in my travel bag. With so many hundreds of places to go, and so many beautiful islands, I’ve only been really few places to be honest, comparing to how many more I wish to go. But flying to Greece does not come cheap as other destinations. Well, it can certainly be cheap, but not when looking for precise days such as flying out there on a Friday evening or Saturday morning, returning on Sunday in order to avoid having to book holidays from work.

Thessaloniki is the second largest city in the country after Athens, but through history, it has been capital of many civilizations and empires, to the point of being a city larger in population than London by the 14th century when it was part of the Byzantine Empire. To give you an idea and brief knowledge, since its foundation in 315 BC by King Cassander of Macedon who named it in honor of his wife, Princess Thessalonike, half-sister of Alexander the Great; it has changed hands from Kingdom of Macedon to Rome, Byzantine Empire, Crusader Kingdom of Thessalonica, Despotate of Epirus (known as Empire of Thessalonica), Second Bulgarian Empire, Nicaeam Empire, Republic of Venice and for almost 500 years under Ottoman rule until 1913 with the annexation to Greece. (more…)

Share it with the world

Tarragona - Spain

Tarragona – Spain

Post published:14 November 2015
Post category:Europe Southern Europe Spain

Share it with the world

Capital of Hispania Tarraconensis

Just a week after being in Barcelona and Girona, we returned but this time with the main objective of spending Saturday sightseeing another city we’ve not been before: Tarragona. This is one of the great advantages of flying to Barcelona, and it’s that the entire autonomous region of Catalonia is filled with history and sights everywhere, hence it’s a perfect place to keep returning year after year. Not only to be with my Catalan friends, but also for going together to the many places around. After all they are also great guides since they’ve been many times before in these cities.

Tarragona was in our agenda for a long time. It is one of the few Spanish cities where so many Roman remains can be visible and integrated in the new city that constantly grew since the fall of the Roman Empire. Nowadays the ruins of Tarraco are listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. I can only recall the city of Merida, in Extremadura, as one of the best examples in the whole of Spain for the largest amount of monumental structures greatly preserved from the Roman times.

Once again as it was last weekend in Girona, the city is not too big and it is perfect for a day visit. Majority of tourist are day-trippers from Barcelona or the coastal resorts, and so we were coming for the day from Barcelona where we had our hotel. I cannot imagine however, any longer in the city should be your plan only stay here as you will end up with nothing else to do on your second day. (more…)

Share it with the world

Girona - Spain

Girona – Spain

Post published:7 November 2015
Post category:Europe Southern Europe Spain

Share it with the world

Iberian and Roman Gerunda

One of the yearly commonly weekend trips to Barcelona that we tend to do around October – November, but finally this time and after being so many times in Barcelona we though it was long due the visit to the many other cities and places nearby. To start this weekend, Girona. As for the weekend after this that we will return again to Barcelona, it will be Tarragona the main sight, and so until the next year already when we will book further flights to Barcelona to most likely keep touring around the beautiful region of Catalonia with the countless sights and places to visit on offer.

Girona lies to the north of Barcelona 100 kilometres and it is the last province within Spain, south of the Pyrenees mountain range, before the direct border with France being Perpignan the first large city in France at only 35 kilometres farther north. Conquered by the Moors and reconquered from them saw in turns between the 7th and 10th centuries becoming afterwards one of the most important Jews centres in Europe, finally expelled in 1492. Its legacy can be still seen today as one of the major tourist attractions in the city, the Jewish ghetto, the best preserved in Europe.

The city is filled with charm and history everywhere, with numerous important buildings and monuments of special mention the beautiful examples of Catalan Gothic architecture making it a great tourist destination. Most tourists who visit the city are day-trippers, either from Barcelona or from elsewhere along the coastal resorts, or even from the southern region of France like Perpignan. (more…)

Share it with the world

Pergamon - Turkey

Pergamon – Turkey

Post published:24 May 2015
Post category:Asia Europe Southern Europe Turkey Turkey

Share it with the world

One of the greatest cities of Antiquity

Yet again the turn for another of the great ancient cities in the world. Pergamon. Of Greek origin, then Roman as it’s the case for this entire region of Turkey, was of great strategical, knowledge and arts importance. With the steepest theater from the ancient times and once home to the 2nd largest library from the ancient world just after Alexandria, it flourished even further after the Pergamese people discovered a new way of creating paper-like since the administration of papyrus was cut off from Egypt. They named this newly created product pergamenum after the name of the city. This event was a complete success across the entire Roman empire as it meant breaking the dependency from Egypt’s papyrus.

But visiting this place did not come as a simple task on our agenda. Squeezing the time to probably a new limit that we have not done before, while changing upside down the original plans for this entire long weekend trip; we managed to get some room to visit this great ancient city. At only 100 kilometers to the north from Izmir, it was in our heads the days before flying to Turkey yet we preferred to stop thinking and letting it go with the flow. Still… the rush for doing everything possible to get to this place was too high to miss.

As commented on the previous travel guides for Izmir (Smyrna) and Ephesus, Pergamon is also one of the Seven Churches of Asia, known also as the Seven Churches of Revelation or the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse. Mentioned in the New Testament Book of Revelation, it is where Jesus Christ from the Greek island of Patmos instructs his servant Jon of Patmost saying: “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.”

(more…)

Share it with the world

Ephesus - Turkey

Ephesus -Turkey

Post published:23 May 2015
Post category:Asia Europe Southern Europe Turkey Turkey

Share it with the world

Best preserved library from the ancient world

Finally achieving one of my lifetime travel dreams; reaching the ancient city of Ephesus. Yet the truth is that I have way too many further travel wishes in the agenda, of course. Coming here was, after all, the main purpose of this entire trip, involving having to fly to Istanbul with an overnight stay at a hotel there, continuing the following morning with a flight to Izmir, and if following the original plan, today we would have been only visiting Izmir while the next day Ephesus. But since our dramatic change of plans on the go, this was brought forward to the very same day after a quick visit of Izmir. And the reason for such change? Well, quite a temptation being that near to Pergamon and not going! Check Pergamon travel guide for more information.

The city traces its roots to the 10th century BC, occupying the place of the former capital of the Kingdom of Arzawa, Apasa, that extended along the western areas of Anatolia. It became one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during Greek times, becoming a great power when the Romans took control over it after 129 BC.

Once home to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis, one can imagine how important and powerful the city might have been. Second in population and importance only after Rome, with glorious buildings and large public bath houses, something the Romans mastered at; coupled with one of the most advanced aqueduct system of the ancient world. (more…)

Share it with the world

Izmir - Turkey

Izmir – Turkey

Post published:23 May 2015
Post category:Asia Europe Southern Europe Turkey Turkey

Share it with the world

Ancient Smyrna

With what is called in the UK the Spring Bank Holiday of May, what was best than using this chance for a long weekend trip abroad in Izmir without the need to take any extra holiday at work from the yearly allowance, which is already getting to an end almost entirely used spread across the whole of the year. It is quite incredible having to reach the point where I can only rely in the few weekends left this year where I have no trips booked yet to go anywhere abroad! This is the narrow barrier I am between being a “full time employee and part time traveller”, although my friends and colleagues at work prefer to joke in saying it’s the opposite way around, “full time traveller, part time job”.

This trip was anyway, planned a while ago in November last year, and the fact that the main flights were a return with BA to Istanbul was on purpose especially bearing in mind these were in Business Class. So what made the difference for us to get those flights and not any cheaper option?. Easy answer in this case: retaining the Silver membership status (Zephyr) with the One World Alliance. And the trick is this: there are still 3 destinations having sort of a loophole in the amount of tier points and air miles you would collect, being Helsinki, Athens and Istanbul. So a flight to Istanbul in Business Class will give you the same miles and tier points as if it would be a long haul flight, this is, double.

Since we’ve already been to Istanbul before, then we though this could be a great occasion to get to Izmir with the main idea of reaching the ancient city of Ephesus, and Pergamon too as our original plans changed and we managed to squeeze it in too. The good side of it, the internal flight between Istanbul and Izmir with Pegasus Airlines was really cheap, balancing the total cost for all flights after all. And with so many frequencies between both cities and many competitors, flying is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to reach Izmir, unless you are in an overland tour or other cities nearby while in Turkey. (more…)

Share it with the world

Perpignan - France

Perpignan – France

Post published:17 May 2015
Post category:Europe France Western Europe

Share it with the world

Villa Perpiniano

Losing the track on how many trips we’ve done so far since January, not to mention absolutely nonstop week after week with some longer than just a weekend here and there. The “scary but exciting” side of this is to think ahead on the ones yet to come! This year has gone absolutely crazy, but on track to beat all records. I cannot even cope in creating these travel guides more or less at good time, not even on the smaller word doc “use-and-throw” guides I create to keep me in line knowing where to go and what to see to the places I travel, which I create prior of writing a final travel guide after the trip in my blog.

So here is for the first trip to France this year. A new destination that was in our viewpoint for a while and now finally we found a great deal with Ryanair; Perpignan. But as usual, the rule of thumbs works in here too, whenever is low season, get your hands quickly to grab some bargains in flights, those tend to go too quickly making no sense anymore to book such destinations for double and triple the price. Probably that’s why we kept postponing Perpignan until we found the right fare we would pay to come here.

The city is not “truly” French, in the sense of the word. In fact, it feels one of the less French cities in the whole of France. The reason for this is for Perpignan having acted as the capital of the newly formed Kingdom of Majorca by James I from 1276, back in the times when this region formed part of the Spanish Empire. It lasted until 1642 with the Treaty of the Pyrenees, and 17 years later in 1659, Spain ceded it to France.
(more…)

Share it with the world

Cagliari - Italy

Cagliari – Italy

Post published:4 May 2015
Post category:Europe Italy Select by Continent Southern Europe

Share it with the world

Sardinian: Casteddu

Taking advantage of the early May bank holiday and as such giving us a little bit more time at the destination than the usual weekend trips, we decided to book well ahead (and thankfully because this destination popped up at a great price with British Airways, much cheaper than with any other airline) the beautiful Italian island of Sardinia. A very large island in fact where my original plan was starting in Cagliari where our flight lands; then onto the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Su Nuraxi, and end the trip in Olbia in the northern side of the island. Unfortunately due to the long distances in the island and because you will need a bit longer than a day in Cagliari if you want to fully enjoy it, there was no time to drive all the way to Olbia. That will be then for another trip in the future.

Cagliari is the capital and largest city, and the most historical in the island. With traces of being inhabited for over 5000 years from the Neolithic till today, the amount of history can be felt in every corner and at the many sights all around the city.

The city in any case is of medium size and you could potentially visit in one day. Since we had to postpone for another trip the visit to Olbia, we decided to enjoy more time in the city and worked very good. You should therefore plan your stay accordingly and unless you want to just stay here (which is already good enough specially if mentioning the nice 8km long Poetto Beach), then consider visiting other places around the island. There are countless destinations to go to.

(more…)

Share it with the world