No year would be complete without some kind of party involving Philippe and large quantities of Cava. Once again we found ourselves on our annual trip to Brussels, this time for Philippes 40th, celebrated with the now traditional Bubble Brunch. This year we had the pleasure of meeting Arno for the first time, and seeing Philippe and Astrid’s stunning new home in completed form. We spent the whole weekend there, and to be honest, I enjoy helping Philippe prepare as much as the party itself. Especially well attended this year as he invited all of his new neighbours along as…
Much like when I was living in Madrid, it was when people came to visit that I actually got out and saw things. With my parents visiting for several days, I had the perfect excuse to explore some of the national parks that I’ve mentioned in previous posts. Montserrat Our first trip was to Montserrat. A very distinctive land mark that I first spotted back in 2004 when Mats, Niki and I came up to Catalunya to watch the World Rally Championship. It truly is a unique looking lump of rock. And what does my family do with big lumps…
Espe and I had the pleasure of having Jenny come to visit for a long weekend giving us a good excuse to explore a little. Never a dull conversational moment with Jen around, it was really good for all of us, giving a much needed escape from the pressures of work and study. It is also great for me to see how well Espe and Jenny get on. A real shame we live so far away at the moment. Modernismo trail around Barcelona San Lorenz National Park The Village of Mura
It appears that these days most of the pre season F1 testing takes place in Spain. Probably something to do with the weather and for that you won’t hear any complaints from me. The first testing was in Valencia, then Jerez, and finally Barcelona. Given that the Circuit de Catalunya is less than 20km from my flat, it would have been wrong to miss out. Besides, the testing is one of the few affordable ways to see F1 cars at full tilt. Good to see the the 2011 cars, although it would be a lot to ask for a more…
I wasn’t able to fit my bike into the car when we moved back to Spain, so I had to bring it on the plane on my way back after Christmas. One of the rules for packaging up the bike is removing the air from the tyres. Once unpacked, I discovered that my bike pump was broken. Visiting my local bike shop to get a new one I took the opportunity to find out about good routes in the area. Not only did they point me to the excellent www.wikiloc.com, but let me know about the monthly excursions they put…
Working from home, has many advantages, but one of the negatives, is it is very easy to pass the entire day without going outside. Trips to Mercadona give a good excuse to get out every few days, but sometimes I need to my force myself to go out for a walk. It was on one of these walks I decided to take my camera. Sabadell, I’m told is an old cotton town, and as a result is rather industrial. Not exactly a pretty place, one might say. Walking in most directions from our flat involve walking past factories and warehouses,…
Long time friend, Mandy, had a trip planned to Barcelona for a while. She and some friends were visiting some old work colleagues, and so we arranged to meet up while she was here. It turns out that her friends lived a little further and more east than the 1 hour north of Barcelona we originally thought. But what better excuse to explore the Costa Brava? On Sunday morning Espe and I set off for L’Escala and picked up a hangover wielding Mandy before working our way back along the coast towards Barcelona. Forget the reputation and avoid places like…
It would appear that I’ve got national parks in every direction. So far I’ve only briefly visited two of them. This view below is one of many from the Parc de Collserolla looking over Barcelona. I’ve just picked up a load of maps from the wonderful Altai shop which I visited this week, so shall be exploring some more…