Corfu - Greece

Corfu – Greece

Post published:19 April 2015
Post category:Europe Greece Southern Europe

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Island of Phaeacians

Finally managed to find a great deal to another Greek island, something that usually is “mission impossible” due to the sky-high flight fares all around. Does not really matter when in the year we look to any Greek destination other than Athens or Thessaloniki where prices to both are acceptable; for anywhere else it seems to always be high season somehow. That’s the only reason why our trips to Greece are coming slower than we wished for, where there are so, so many destination in our bucket list that it’s our big challenge. Perhaps a cruise through the Aegean Sea would be the most appropriate, but for now let’s keep jet-setting.

Although Corfu was not in our agenda at first instance, it is always a great welcome to be able to get somewhere not been before now that incredibly, we are starting to kind of run out of flight routes across Europe! As crazy as it sounds, but it’s a truth. Nevertheless, with that countless cities across 5o countries that form the continent, it is always difficult to run out, especially when returning to plenty others eager to see more.

The city of Corfu has been inscribed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Old Town clearly gives you the idea on why, with the beautiful Venetian Italianate buildings; clear reminder of the past when the island formed part of the Venetian Empire. But this is not all, the British when they took control of the island also left their legacy with Georgian and Victorian constructions. After the first impressions in the island you will not feel this is part of Greece after all, only because of the language.

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Jerusalem - Israel

Jerusalem – Israel

Post published:24 March 2015
Post category:Israel Middle East

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The City of David

Continuing on our tour in Israel, we move onto the tourist destination number one in the country. One of the oldest cities in the world. Considered the holy center of the three Abrahamic Religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. A city where continuous fight has never stopped through the curse of history. Palestinians claim it as their land, while Israelis do the same. Sacred for over 3000 years to Judaism, for 2000 years to Christianity and 1400 years to Islam. Three religions colliding with each other in a rather small piece of land.

It is believed Jesus was brought here after his birth, and that the Last Supper took place at the Mount Zion at the same building housing the tomb of King David. It is also also place where the crucifixion took place at the Calvary, known as Golgotha.

Although not unanimously approved by all nations, it acts as the capital of Israel, yet there are no embassies in the city as all are located in Tel Aviv instead. And then is Palestine that also claims the city as their territory, considering it the capital of the State of Palestine. Not far from the city you can see the separation walls built by Israel in order to control the border and land of each of the territories acting as a security measure too between the ever conflicting nations. (more…)

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Bethlehem - Palestine

Bethlehem – Israel

Post published:23 March 2015
Post category:Middle East Palestine

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Bithplace of Jesus

After already spending the day before sightseeing in Jerusalem, we planned in between a half day visit to Bethlehem. A city impossible to miss while visiting Israel, although I should say in this instance, Palestine since the city is already at the other side of the border. Yet not a country fully recognized by all nations and ever disputed with Israel. Anyway, geo-political and politics as overall is something I don’t like to discuss in my blog. My purpose here is to give you an overview on culture and architecture on the most easy, simple and reasonable way.

Although a cute small size city, it boats a huge history. Destroyed several times, rebuilt even since. From its origins as a Canaanite city around 1400BCE, to Israeli, Judean, Roman, Byzantine, Muslim, Crusader, Ottoman, Egyptian, British and Palestinian.

But for what people know it much better is for being the birthplace of Jesus. As such, this is pilgrim destination number one for the Christian world. Everywhere around the city is site of a biblical event, some of the major places you will find described below. You cannot miss those, they are the must does in the city; although nothing can top the Basilica of the Nativity for obvious reasons. Expect many groups of tourists in constant transit, while long queues build up to enter the Grotto of the Nativity. You need to be smart to have your perfect picture and what is now the trend, a selfie with the Silver Star. (more…)

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Masada - Israel

Masada and the Desert of Judea – Israel

Post published:21 March 2015
Post category:Israel Middle East

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The last Jewish holdout to fall to Rome

On a rather unplanned and unexpected free extra day that happened out of miracle; well, I confess, because of having nothing else to see and do back in Tel Aviv as we saw everything in just one day (and even less!), this was the best that could have happened in the trip. Masada. Although I heard of this place before, I did not even think of it nor remembered when i planned the Israel tour. Too short time and too much already in the agenda. But was thanks to my friend who reminded it to me that If any some spare time, we should not miss the chance of getting here.

Not only this worked great, but also the route we took to get there. We did only know about 3 possible routes. One we discarded immediately merely because it crosses through Palestine in quite a disputed area, but the other 2 we only selected the shortest one. Glad this was the choice! From Arad, were both of the routes lead to Masada, one avoids the Judea Desert and goes towards the Dead Sea where one of the entrances to Masada is. The easiest route and easiest access via the cable car. But the other enters the Judea Desert and crosses incredible beautiful scenery, and offers the best view of the entire Masada and the Dead Sea from far and above. As I will also remind you below under the transportation section, do not hesitate in choosing the route you want to drive. This is for sure your best bet.

Although there are day tours that leave from elsewhere in Israel, most common from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem of Bethlehem, those are of higher cost than if renting a car instead and specially if you are more than one person travelling. Driving in Israel is easy due to the good road network though a bit chaotic in the cities. Masada after all is just that, the ancient fortification, something you can see in 2 hours no more, therefore that making the trip worth it coupled with something else which is even along your way, will give you a wider look to this region.

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Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee - Israel

Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee – Israel

Post published:20 March 2015
Post category:Israel Middle East

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Named after Roman Emperor Tiberius

Squeezing to the limit on an already extremely busy non-stop day we managed to somehow leave Nazareth with just enough time before the sunset and make a quick visit to Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee. And all thanks that we had a rental car we were able to do this as otherwise depending on public transportation would have been probably impossible to visit everything in just one day, unless visiting just the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth and nothing else and quickly leaving the city for the Sea of Galilee as unfortunately most of the organised tours do.

At only 40 kilometers to the north east of Nazareth it’s a quick and easy drive there. For us this was more of a “we must reach this place so we can say we’ve been there” just because of the Biblical means, rather than a properly pre-planned excursion, although a much realistic reason was our incredible shortage of spare time. I would have preferred to have had enough time to spend a whole day circling the entire Sea of Galilee, that’s for sure.

Although much of the ancient city was destroyed years back in natural disasters as earthquakes and flooding from the Sea of Galilee, the little that remained (apart from religious constructions) was razed in 1949 over objections of who owned the houses. Saying this, do not expect to see a beautiful city unfortunately. And even on the last years there has been a better track of preservation and reconstruction projects, there is not much from the original Roman, Crusaders, Ottoman and newer eras. Instead, ugly large hotels aligning the main promenade and some historical buildings behind. (more…)

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Nazareth - Israel

Nazareth – Israel

Post published:20 March 2015
Post category:Israel Middle East

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Home of Joseph and Mary, the childhood home of Jesus

On our second stop for this tour around Israel, we visited the historic and biblical city of Nazareth combined with a short visit to Tiberias, the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River which are barely 40 kilometers farther to the east of Nazareth. 140 kilometers would be the total farthest distance to drive between Tel Aviv and the Sea of Galilee. We knew our overall time in Israel was meant to be very really compressed in visiting as many places as we could fit but thankfully we did something very good out of it by renting a car for the whole duration of our stay in Israel, which in turn, saved us from what would have been otherwise, countless hours spent waiting for trains, buses, and local buses to move around in the cities.

Nazareth was for us a first glimpse about how biblical the entire country is. Something we would experience everywhere from this day across every of the places we visited afterwards. It is literally on every turn we did, there was a place believed to be site of any of the events in the life of Jesus if talking about Christian Catholics, and the same for Jews and Muslims. In any case, this is pretty much the sense of coming to the “Holy Land” after all, and even if you believe or not, or whatever the religion you might believe it is well worth the trip.

Nazareth is a medium size city what makes it great for a day trip from wherever you are in Israel (of course unless you are by the farthest destinations as those around the Red Sea). But coming here from Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem of Bethlehem is what almost every tourist do. (more…)

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Tel Aviv - Israel

Tel Aviv – Israel

Post published:19 March 2015
Post category:Israel Middle East

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The Old New Land

Finally the moment we decided to go to Israel came. It has been for some years now in our “near future plans”, but was always been postponed on behalf of other destinations, mostly price related. I have to say flying here is not the cheapest, specially if having to do it on some sort of precise dates in order to coincide with any bank holiday or weekends in between to expand the stay, and more important, having in consideration that flying on Friday or Saturday would mean an extra cost for being stranded at the airport with no other transportation to the city than over expensive taxis because of Sabbath.

So Tel Aviv would be for us the entry point and start of a much bigger and overloaded tour where in each day we would be in a different city or even more than one. But for now, let me tell you my personal opinion on this city.

On my original plans, this was going to be a 2 full days visit, plus some hours on the last day before having to get back to the airport to fly back into London. On the last bit, we re-arranged it the way of spending the last hours in Jerusalem, and thanks goodness for that. Why comes soon explained… Then, what happened to the second day planned for Tel Aviv? Well, it happened that on the day of arrival, and with the help of landing super early at 5.00am giving us plenty of time, we saw absolutely everything! Now let me resume this in saying Tel Aviv has almost nothing to be seen plus its in overall quite ugly, run down and dirty city. And so for the spare day that now we had extra, we used for one of the best day trips we could have ever done while in Israel, Masada and the Desert of Judea. (more…)

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Tarifa - Spain

Tarifa – Spain

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

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Moorish Tarif ibn Malik

First weekend in February and also second weekend trip of the year to a new destination. We found the cheapest weekend of the year to fly to Gibraltar as being this one, and since we’ve already been to Gibraltar the year before, it is still the most convenient airport in order to reach Tarifa, Cadiz and Jerez; the destinations we planned for this occasion. Unfortunately at only 2 days, we were one day too short as otherwise we would have reached Huelva to have completed the whole south of Spain and Portugal as we’ve been to all other destinations in the south in the past.

Tarifa is the southernmost city of Spain and Continental Europe, and it’s also the point with the shortest distance between Europe and Africa at only 14 km. This point is also referred as where the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea meet. Due to its small size, you can easily plan the visit as part of your way either into Cadiz, Jerez or in the opposite direction towards Gibraltar since you will be passing by. Just few hours is all you will need to discover it.

To my unexpected surprise, the old walled city is very charming and full of beautiful little squares and buildings. There is also a magnificently conserved Medieval castle dating back to the Moors period and therefore of the characteristic architecture. The beaches are entirely of sand and run for kilometers, but always mind the possible currents as the whole region along the Strait of Gibraltar is known for this. (more…)

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