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7 Terrific Tourist Attractions in Cartagena, Spain

7 Terrific Tourist Attractions in Cartagena, Spain

A joke from my childhood: a bull called Hannibal jumped over the fence and exclaimed that his name was now Hanni because he had lost his balls in the barbed wire. A pretty lame joke, all the more since my schoolmates used to tease me with it.

I knew that Hannibal the army commander (the one from the elephants) was associated with the Spanish city of Cartagena, but only recently I discovered the exact connection in the museum of the Punic Wall.

Apart from the Punic Wall, there are several other exquisite attractions in Cartagena. The city is only an hour’s drive from our house, so we visit this beautiful city often.

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10 Exciting and Unusual Things to Do in Cordoba, Spain

10 Exciting and Unusual Things to Do in Cordoba, Spain

Córdoba is about a 4-hour drive from our house, if we went in a straight line. There are enough exciting things to do in Cordoba. However, the last time we visited, it took us a week to get there because we first visited several other places.

Including the village of María which has a beautiful botanical garden situated on the slope of a mountain. We also stayed on a campground in the middle of the Cazorla National Park. And visited the beautiful excavations of Cástulo in Linares. I’ll write more about that in another article.

We enjoy this way of traveling so much, getting from one place to another at our leisure and seeing both known and unknown places. I can highly recommend the alternation of camping cabin and hotel stay that we have done.

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The Best Place to Relive Ancient Roman History is Mérida, Spain

The Best Place to Relive Ancient Roman History is Mérida, Spain

If you love ancient roman history then you must visit Mérida. Spain has many Roman excavations, but rarely as complete as the monuments that can be seen in Mérida.

The first time we visited this city in the Extremadura, we stayed with our son. With a journey of 3 hours in the car and an equally long journey back, there was not much time left to visit the city in peace and quiet.

We definitely wanted to come back to see everything at our leisure. That only happened 12 years later, but then we also took the time for it.

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The Enchanted City, a Petrified Beauty in the Vicinity of Cuenca, Spain

The Enchanted City, a Petrified Beauty in the Vicinity of Cuenca, Spain

In between Madrid in the center of Spain and Valencia at the East coast lies Cuenca, an eagle’s nest between 2 rivers.

There are just a few touristic highlights in Cuenca to be seen, for instance the Cathedral and the so called Hanging Houses, but the old city as a whole is fantastic. It is stuck on a mountain top, sandwiched between 2 gorges carved out by the rivers Huécar and Júcar.

That and our favorite Spanish museum, Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, make a visit more than valuable for us. All the more now we have heard of yet another touristic highlight: The Enchanted City.

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Las Tablas de Daimiel, One of the Unique National Parks of Spain

Las Tablas de Daimiel, One of the Unique National Parks of Spain

When I was doing the research for information about National Park Las Tablas de Daimiel, I realized this again is an article about a swamp. Like Insel Hombroich in Germany is a swamp. And that, while I really love all kinds of landscapes. 🙂

I have to admit that once we adore a place – be it a city, a museum or a landscape – we tend to revisit it often. In a museum the temporary exhibitions will be different each time. A landscape changes with the seasons and with the type of weather that can be extremely different in some years.

We went back only a few months after our 2017 visit to experience the difference of the Tablas after 2 months of excessive rainfall. And different it was!

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What to See in Antwerp, Belgium. Including Unknown Hot Spots

What to See in Antwerp, Belgium, including Unknown Hot Spots
View on top of the MAS (Museum aan de Stroom)

In the Netherlands we lived 5 miles from the Belgium border. And crossing the border really meant crossing a frontier, despite that small distance.

As soon as you are in the neighborhood of the border you can see that the street is different (ask any professional cyclist – Belgian cobblestone roads are famous), the houses are built with materials we don’t use in the Netherlands and on a back road it even shows that nature looks different. In the Netherlands everything is clean cut, Belgium is cozier.

For Tom and me Antwerp was closer by than Amsterdam, so if we wanted to sniff some culture we usually went there. What to see in Antwerp? There is a lot of variety and the terraces are great!

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Wadden Sea, the Netherlands. Get Ready for an Adventurous Walk

Wadden Sea, the Netherlands. Get Ready for an Adventurous Walk
Wad Walk 2012

A unique area in the North of the Netherlands and Germany is the Wadden Sea. The Wadden Sea is an unusual type of nature and shines on the Unesco’s World Heritage list.

The area is essential for a lot of birds, seals and aquatic plants and is very vulnerable. That became all too clear in 2019 when the ship MSC Zoë sank North of the Wadden Sea, the Netherlands, and a lot of plastic and consumer products ended up in the sea and on the islands.

The Wad Walk of 2019 (I explain what a Wad Walk is later on) was dedicated to cleaning up part of the sea shore of Wadden island Schiermonnikoog. But the effects of this environmental disaster are not clear yet.

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The 5 major Tourist Attractions in Breda, the Netherlands

The 5 major Tourist Attractions in Breda, the Netherlands
Chassépark and the “Grote Kerk” in the background.

Since we can’t travel at the moment, I am traveling virtually. I made a dreamboard the other day which was a lot of fun.

And as another replacement I am making reviews about travel destinations. Sounds like a good second best plan, don’t you agree?

Breda is the hometown of both Tom and me. It is a cozy, provincial town with a beautiful historic center.

In the months before we left Breda to emigrate to Spain, I wandered around a lot, already feeling like a tourist, taking loads of pictures.

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