As every year at Devex the company takes a week long Summer break in August. August isn't really the best month to take holiday in Spain, because on the one hand everybody does and on the other hand tends to be really hot. That's why I tend to do a trip on my own, without my girlfriend. In the recent years this have been cycling holidays. ...
2020 was a bit unexpected to say the least. Here is a quick review from my perspective.This is the second year we are living in the countryside and hour from Barcelona and over the year it turned out to have been a pretty good decision. JanuaryPretty uneventful. I mostly cycled indoors and met the BRCG crew once for a longer ride. A storm hit Spain and led to a bit of damage on our house. ...
Katja and I spend the last few days in Marrakesh. We were looking for a cheap holiday in a not too cold country and Morocco was pretty much the only choice. The flight to Morocco was with Ryan Air. I already knew how much I hate them, but they confirmed it again. We stayed at a small hotel Riad Alksar in the Medina. A Riad is a house with a courtyard and the rooms build around it. It doesn’t have any large windows to the outside. The area of the hotel is pretty poor with the exception of a handful of similar hotels. The hotel has eight rooms and each of these would usually house a family. Our host was very nice and the hotel clean and with a minimal design. One of the perks is the roof terrace, which we used a lot to chill and for breakfast. Because we didn’t have too much time, we spend most of it shopping in the Souks, visiting a few of the palaces and enjoying the food market at night. The food was very good and I can only recommend it to everyone. The most amazing thing was how friendly everyone is in Marrakesh. You get hassled once in a while by people trying to sell you various rubbish, but they leave you alone after you said “no” twice. Everyone was helpful and I never felt like I should have to worry about pick pockets or similar. Very different from the situation in Barcelona. But pictures speak more than a thousand words, so have a look…
Last week Cat and I went to Cádiz for our Summer holiday. It was just a week this year and we didn’t really decide what to do this year until the last minute. It was either a motorcycle tour around Catalonia, France or a short flight to somewhere in Europe. Because Cat likes the Atlantic and we had never been to the very South of Spain we decided to take the Trenhotel night train from Barcelona to Cádiz and rent a car there for a few days. We booked train and car and I also bought a backpack and some trekking shoes for the trip. Because the booking was done in the last minute we didn’t get a sleeper cabin, but the sleeper chairs are OK too. The train goes from Sants station to the centre of Cádiz. The first night we staid at the wonderful Hotel Argantonio , but because we didn’t book we just had the room for one night. We had a look around the town and the next day headed south. A lot of the coast of Southern Spain is filled with horrible new holiday homes and you won’t find nice villages, but the beaches and the surroundings are rather beautiful. We stayed at camping sites, which were all nice and usually had access to the beach. We as far as Tarifa and after a bit of sightseeing got the idea of taking a ferry to Tangier . As it turned out you need a passport for this unless you go on a packaged tour, then an id card is sufficient. The tour was packed full of “shopping opportunities”, like spices, gifts and carpets and other stuff we didn’t really want. But because we didn’t have a choice and Tangier is a nice place it was worth the trip. I would have liked some time to explore the city myself, but you would need more than one day anyway. One word of advice: if you enjoy the western tradition of toilet paper, you better bring your own. The last day we did a quick trip to Gibraltar and then back north to a camping ground not far from Cádiz to make it easy to drop of the car and spend some more time on the beach and in the town. Overall a very nice holiday, with a bit of everything and also a bit exhausting. I would do it all again, but maybe book the hotel earlier and go with the motorbike. You can see more picture in my facebook album.
View Larger Map I returned yesterday from a four day trip to Amsterdam. As I met my Cat there we tend to go every February and celebrate our anniversary. The last years we stayed at the Winston Hostel in the red light district, but last years experience was so bad that we looked for something new this time. We found the Sunhead 1617, which is a nice small B&B in the centre of town. I tried to book the red room, which has views of the canal, but because of some confusion we ended up in the yellow room. I suggest you book early and get the red room, because our room contained some kind of boiler which was extremely annoying. And bring backpacks instead of a suitcase, because the stairs really are steep. Otherwise the B&B was perfect, the rooms was nicely decorated, the bed comfy, the breakfast was very good with home made jams and fruit yogurt. Our host Carlos was also very nice, even though we annoyed him on the first day by getting up at eleven for a very late breakfast. Amsterdam tends to be a bit wet and cold at this time of the year and this was no exception. But it gave me a good excuse to spend most of the time shopping, in coffees and restaurants. The shops seemed even better than the last time, but maybe that was because of the area around the Sunhead. Here are some of the restaurants we checked out: wagamama: I can't keep Cat away from wagamama and the chicken chilli ramen were perfect as usual. But the raw juice seemed a bit on the orange juice side and the raw salad was a disappointment. I really have to learn how to make the salad from their cookbook and maybe they should have to look into that one too. The service wasn't very good either, but it was very crowded. Top Thai: This one was recommended by Carlos and it excellent. The food was near perfect and the restaurant is also pretty small and cosy. There are obviously a lot of asian restaurants in Amsterdam, but I think this one belongs to the top. Some pancake restaurant in the center: I can't remember the name now, but it wasn't any good anyway, neither the service or the food. If you like pancakes I would recommend the Pancake Bakery, which is much nicer. De Struisvogel: A tiny romantic restaurant which serves a three course set dinner which includes a very good ostrich steak. I had a homemade poultry pate with bruchetta and then a flemish stew, both very tasty. The stew was a bit on the salty side, but maybe that is just me. None of the restaurants allowed smoking, which was a nice change from Barcelona, where the smoking ban is not enforced enough. I personally can't understand why anyone would allow smokers in their restaurants and just hope this will be sorted out in Barcelona soon too. I think next time we should go in the summer, so we can see a bit more of the city and the parks. And I also want to check out some of the museums if they every finish the renovation of the main ones.