Category: Europe 2025

Another day exploring Arles in Provence, France

A visit to the historic city, the Palace of the Popes, the bridge, and a murmuration of starlings!

It was our first full day in Barcelona, and there was heaps to explore. First we walked to a nearby market to find some fresh fruit, bread and cheese. These had been plentiful everywhere we went in France, especially the bread and cheese. The market was good, had plenty of stalls and a wide range.  ... [More]

Good morning Barcelona! After breakfast we headed to the Picasso museum, which included a walk through an extraordinarily long tunnel in Passeig de Gràcia station. The Picasso museum is undergoing renovation, but most of it was open, and we wandered around looking at some amazing pieces, then had a beverage in the cafe. After that  ... [More]

For today we planned to visit Montserrat (“serrated mountain”), a mountain and historic town about 90 minutes outside Barcelona. Organising this was a bit confusing. The visitor info says to get there you catch an R5 train to Monistrol de Montserrat station (Carrer del Pont), then use the rack railway to reach the town. (Another  ... [More]

Exploring Barcelona – more Gaudi, and the Gothic Quarter

(These travel blogs have a lot of pictures. If you’re reading via email and they don’t appear, click through to see them.) One of the cool things about our accommodation in Barcelona was it was close to everything… including Passeig De Gràcia, a Metro station with a connected railway station for suburban and regional trains.  ... [More]

Alas it was time to head home from Europe. Why? Because we’d booked tickets for the Oasis concert on Melbourne Cup night! So we’d booked our flights to arrive home about 24 hours earlier. I’d pondered taxi vs train to Barcelona airport. Two of our party leaving the following day were going via taxi, in  ... [More]

Hello from an aeroplane somewhere between Milan and Singapore – I’m posting this from the air, lucky enough to be returning from a European holiday, my first time overseas since 2017. This time we stayed in three countries, five cities, visited three other cities, saw incredible architecture, famous landmarks, amazing old town streets, stunning scenery,  ... [More]

I wrote most of this after the 2025 Europe trip (England, France, Spain) but never completed it. Friends are currently travelling to some of the same places (yes, I’m jealous) which has reminded me to finish it: basically this is some notes for my own reference for a future trip. Luggage For three weeks in  ... [More]