Cuenca - Spain

Cuenca – Spain

Post published:29 December 2016
Post category:Europe Southern Europe Spain

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Where the houses hang from the cliffs

For a long time now visiting the city of Cuenca was on the list, however because of every time I return to Madrid it tends to be for short time (weekends mostly), there has been never real time to manage the trip here even though it is only 2 hours by bus from Madrid, or merely 50 minutes by high-speed train. In this occasion in the other hand, with over 2 weeks holidays during the Christmas period where I did not go anywhere far this year as is usually the case, there was plenty of time and luckily for us, the weather could not be better. Cold we don’t mind, but was actually warm-ish and perfect blue sky. With no hesitation we booked the bus tickets and went the following day.

The city lies in between Madrid and Valencia and is the capital of the province of the same name within the autonomous region of Castilla la Mancha. It is the 3rd least populated area in Europe, yet linked to some of the most densely inhabited cities in Spain within an hour. Considering the small size of the city, the amount of historic sights is literally resumed to absolutely every construction within the old town, no wonder why it has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

While everyone knows Cuenca for its hanging houses on the cliff, (after all, this is what every tourist have in mind to visit), it is also home to the very first Gothic cathedral built in Spain, timeline for its construction almost in coincidence with the second Gothic cathedral in Spain, in the city of Avila.

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Berat - Albania

Berat – Albania

Post published:9 December 2016
Post category:Albania Europe Southern Europe

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The Town of a Thousand Windows

Coming to our highlight city in Albania, the UNESCO World Heritage Site listed city of Berat. A trip to the past to the Ottoman era with such incredible collection of buildings from the era, unchanged and beautifully restored to become what is a rare example in the whole of Europe of such architecture and style almost intact since its construction and in such an extent. The “Town of a thousand windows”; “one above another windows” or “the city of two thousand steps” are some of the nicknames, and they make a perfect judgement on their meaning! Although not sure if that is 1000 windows (or if more), the view from the Osum River towards the city will definitely leave you amazed at that countless amount of windows packed one on top of the other as the buildings raise one behind the other on the hill, and as such comes handy the other of the nicknames… 2000 steps. Be prepared and with comfortable shoes, especially if you’re planning on climbing to the top of the citadel on foot.

Without any doubt this is the most beautiful city in Albania, and also one of the most exceptional from the many I’ve been across 30 countries alone in this year, and unique so far when considering the 83 countries been until today.

A day is well enough to enjoy every sight without any rush, however, we came here by car so this saved us lots of time than if having to depend on public transport (buses). Also gave us full flexibility on when to leave back to Tirana as we were in full charge of our time. Having a rental car saved us also from a lenghly walk to the top of the Citadel, and believe me, it is a long and tiring way up. (more…)

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Bamberg - Germany

Bamberg – Germany

Post published:6 November 2016
Post category:Europe Germany Western Europe

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The City on Seven Hills

As originally planned for this weekend to Nuremberg, we would not leave this place without the mandatory visit to nearby jewel city of Bamberg. At just 63 kilometres north, a short 40 minutes commuter train ride from Nuremberg, this was the perfect place to spend the entire Sunday before heading back for the late evening flight back to London. Way more than enough time to completely enjoy the city and sparing some time for great lunch and dinner, coffee and cake and some gingerbread cookies. Both Nuremberg and Bamberg are great cities and compliment each other. While an entire weekend at one of them could be too much, visiting both is the most logical way, not to mention that if you count with an extra day to spare, then do not hesitate in including the other World Heritage city of Regensburg.

The city has by nickname the “Franconian Rome” because it is built on 7 hills, like Rome is. Each of the hill crowned by a church, being the most important Cathedral Hill. Although Bamberg is small, it is home to an enormous historic patrimony and an almost intact medieval core and appearance. This has lead it for being included in the UNESCO list as a World Heritage Site. A “little” over 1000 years of history since its foundation in 973, and an incredible rich history with an ever increasing eager to built better and grander through the centuries, where now most of its sights are still there to enjoy and admire.

As opposed to majority of other cities where you can follow a well defined route when doing your sightseeing tour, here in Bamberg this is a bit more complicated to do. There are too many places you could go, and every of them is full of history and sights therefore the best and only option is to make a route of loops and zig-zags, back and forth’s. Don’t just concentrate in the key sights because the city is way much more than that with absolutely every street worth the walk.
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Stuttgart - Germany

Stuttgart – Germany

Post published:23 October 2016
Post category:Europe Germany Western Europe

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Cradle of the Automobile

One more time back in Germany this year onto another city I’ve never been before, said to be one of the most friendly in the country, and for a good reason. While it is true that very near the city there are many great places to visit, with a numerous bunch of UNESCO World Heritage Sites at the brink of a short drive away and within them, for this weekend the plan would be simply. Visiting just the city and also get to see and spend some time with one of our friends who lives there. Now, knowing there are great flight connections from London and having visited the city, we can easily plan another trip to Stuttgart in the near future to reach all these destinations nearby.

The city benefits from a rather unique location, as opposed as any other large German city. It sits in the middle of a lush valley by the Neckar River completely surrounded by vineyards. Quite a different view as to what many people think of Stuttgart, as an industrial city where one of it’s nicknames actually comes from: the cradle of the automobile. This is just in part true, and so was some decades ago. Nowadays, it is a vibrant transforming city very welcoming to the tourist.

With regards to the car industry, Stuttgart is the birthplace of the car and the motorcycle. Invented by Karl Benz and subsequently industrialised from 1887. The headquarters of giants Mercedes-Benz and Porsche are in the city, and are an unmissable sight not only for car lovers but to anyone, for both the building’s architecture and the impressive history and unique collections on display. (more…)

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Burgos - Spain

Burgos – Spain

Post published:16 October 2016
Post category:Europe Southern Europe Spain

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Head of Castile, Royal Chamber, First in Voice and Fidelity

Finally making it to one of the most desirable cities of the list of my less travelled areas in Spain, I start with Burgos for now. Although we landed in Santander, the nearest airport, we made our way to Burgos straight after leaving the chance open if time permitting for Sunday, to return to Santander after many years since the last time. That I can recall I’ve only been once to Burgos when I was too little to even remember anything other than a huge Gothic cathedral and all black because of centuries of dirt. Many years have passed and of course, the cathedral is not black anymore, but spotless clean and fully restored after many years of ongoing works. Nothing else I did remember from the past, nor even a picture I have, so this trip was as exciting as for any new city I visit from scratch.

While there are many cities in Spain as beautiful and historical as Burgos, what makes it to stand out is the impressive cathedral, listed UNESCO World Heritage Site for its fine pure Gothic architecture, size, achievements, ornamental details and massive collection of art in every form inside and outside, with stunning glass works all over. There is such another cathedral with similar characteristics in Leon, northwest Spain, which to my taste (and not because I was born there), is more beautiful yet it does have a mix of architectural styles being Gothic the primary one.

At the footsteps of the historic old town at little over 15 kilometres lies another site, this time unique in Europe and of high importance to the world. The Atapuerca caves, home to the richest fossil record of the earliest human beings in Europe, from nearly one million years ago and extending up to the Common Era. Only for having the chance to come and visit this place on a guided tour, your trip to Burgos will be well worth it! And in combination with such a beautiful old town, you are guaranteed to have an unique city break. (more…)

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Lviv - Ukraine

Lviv – Ukraine

Post published:9 October 2016
Post category:Eastern Europe Europe Ukraine

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Latin Leopolis, The City of the Lion

Coming back to one of our less visited countries in Europe, Ukraine, also one of the biggest with so much to see and so much to offer. While we had a great time visiting the capital Kiev in other trips, it was about time to come to the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site listed city of Lviv. The most historical of any in the country and with such an incredible vast amount of old buildings, churches, palaces and monuments all over the city; many of which already perfectly restored to their former glory with many on the way. In this city you can still strongly feel its Soviet past with areas where it seems time stood still, but it is changing and redeveloping rapidly itself to become the next new major tourist spot in Eastern Europe.

The city’s potential is unquestionable. Through its history of invasions and different empires taking over this region it kept gaining strength and importance, and survived almost intact the Soviet invasion and both World Wars, unlike majority of its neighbours, or even Kiev that was severely destroyed to rubble.

Invaded by the Tatars in 1261 by King Daniel and completely razed to the ground, was rebuilt from 1270 by King Lev (Leo) who chose it as his residence, making it the capital of Galicia-Volhynia. Inherited by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1340, then Poland gaining control in 1349 with Casimir III becoming part of the Kingdom of Poland until 1772 with the First Partition of Poland and as such, the region annexed to Austria, Habsburg Empire. This would last until the end of WWI with the fall of the Habsburg Monarchy, leading to the Polish-Ukrainian War, when Poland retook control. As for the last years on the city’s recent history, at the brink of WWII the Soviets invaded the land and slowly annexed it to the Soviet Union, lasting until its complete independence in 1980. (more…)

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Polonnaruwa - Sri Lanka

Polonnaruwa – Sri Lanka

Post published:29 September 2016
Post category:Asia Sri Lanka

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The second most ancient of Sri Lanka’s ancient kingdoms

With our Sri Lankan trip coming to an end, we spared our last day before returning to Colombo to visit yet again another former Imperial Capital. The best preserved of all the ones we’ve visited in this trip so far, and perhaps one of the most impressive due to the level of conservation and big size of its constructions. This is a huge archaeological complex built in a long north-south orientation, but easy and good enough for a day trip as majority of tourists do. From our base in Anuradhapura, it was another great and easy commute here; and as I’ve been commenting in the other travel guides for Sri Lanka, having a base in either Anuradhapura, Dambulla or Kandy to visit the central region of Sri Lanka would be your best choice.

Polonnaruwa is for many a stop-over en-route towards the east coast and the beaches of Trincomalee. For us, unfortunately, time was our downside and while we could have gone for barely a day and a half to Trincomalee, we decided to instead return to Colombo and be on the secure side, have a great hotel, a beautiful pool and enjoy our time without any further sightseeing nor rush, but just having a well deserved rest (and high level of luxury too since we stayed at the Galle Face Hotel).

Visiting the site is really easy and while there are many constructions, the key ones are mostly located all along the main path heading south to north of the complex. A day trip is really the best decision you can make to come here because other than the archaeological park, there is nothing else in the “new” city of Polonnaruwa. As usual in sites like this, I strongly recommend you to follow a visit like the one we did which you can see below and where I’ve marked the sites by numbers in a perfect order.

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Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

Dambulla and Sigiriya – Sri Lanka

Post published:28 September 2016
Post category:Asia Sri Lanka

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Largest and best preserved cave temple of Sri Lanka

Our next destination after such a fascinating day before at the archaeological complexes of Anuradhapura came to be another unforgettable day in beautiful and unique Sri Lanka. With so much to see in every corner on this rather small country, and with a tight agenda with unfortunately limited days, my original research for this trip was going to be visiting all of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which in turn are the must-do’s when in Sri Lanka. So with both the Cave Temple Complex of Dambulla and the ancient Citadel of Sigiriya this would be a perfect day, easy to manage in the same day since the sites are small and nearby each others, with Dambulla taking you around 2 hours to visit no more.

Sigiriya Citadel itself, although way bigger place, it does not take too much time either. The biggest “hassle” are the stairs to reach the top of the rock which if you do when the sun is at its highest (anytime between 10.00am through 16.00pm) that could be really a difficult experience. Of course this depends on the time of the year you are visiting, if in dry or monsoon season, or the seasons in between them. For us, and to anyone if I can suggest, the best planification you could do is visiting Dambulla the first in the morning, have lunch, and then continuing with Sigiriya in the afternoon towards the end of the day.

Be very cautious about the wasp nests! Yes, believe it or not there are many cases of wasp attacks in Sigiriya. Their nests are in the rock, towards the upper part and near the staircase leading to the top, you will see them hanging, near the wasp warning messages around the dangerous areas. You have to be quiet as you ascend and not going off the main path, yet many careless tourists do not follow this and can potentially trigger an attack. There are specially conceived cages you can take shelter if this happens, however, not at the top nor by the staircase which is the worst place you can be should this happen. Take plenty of repellent with you in any case, not just to protect from the wasps, but to prevent from the mosquitoes, noticeable by the gardens down below. (more…)

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