Arriving from Tarragona by train, we had decided to base ourselves in Castelldefels. Not, because this is the little town where Lionel Messi lives (somewhere in a big hidden villa) and definitely not, because it is a must see in Spain. The simple reason was that in Europe it was a long spring weekend. So literally everyone was off for a city trip to Barcelona whith skyrocking prices for accomodation and food. Castelldefels is a beach town south of the airport of Barcelona and one can reach Barcelona CBD by metro within 20 minutes. And accomodation is half price compared to Barcelona. So we checked in a little, simple hotel. It was nothing special, but OK considering we only passed time in the room while sleeping. Castelldefels has a surprisingly nice and huge beach. The water ... read more

For those of you who follow us since quite a while - this is not new: going to Spain, especially for me (Nina), is like coming home. I have lived in Alicante in 1995 for some time, so coming back to Valencia was really like coming home. At that time I have visited Valencia, but to be honest, all I remember was the city at night with lots of great bars, music and party. Oh yes, the wild times..... But as Valencia is very close to Alicante, the spanish which is spoken here, the way people are, the whole feeling is similar to Alicante. So this was home with all the wonderful memories about the wild times in Spain during university time ;-). We had found a really cheap flight from Basilea/Switzerland to Barcelona with Vueling. ... read more

We made it! We finally arrived in our last destination on this trip through India. To be honest, the 2 days following the night in hospital, all, Nina wanted to do is: leave India the fastest possible and fly back home. This has happened the first time ever. Normally, time is only flying by when we are travelling and we are always very sad when it is time to return. Nina had finally decided to continue the trip for 2 reasons: one was, not to spoil Markus his holidays and one was, that a trip back would have taken about 24 hours and is very stressful for the body. Taking things easier in India was a better option once she had put the emotions to the side. So arriving in Mumbai was kind of special for ... read more

It was a difficult route we had chosen. Going with public transport from Bijapur to Aurangabad is not common (needless to say that a Lonely Planet not even thinks about such an option). But we finally found a solution. Especially bad is such a long overnight trip, when exactly that day we both started with a light "colon clense". So all we hoped was that it did not turn worse. By train we left Bijapur around sunset. It was a 3 hour drive to Solapur. Solarpur seems to be a rich industrial city in Maharashtra. Suddenly houses looked much nicer and shops looked more expensive. We took a rickshaw to the private bus stand and first went to a nearby restaurant. We had 2 more hours to kill before our night bus left. Markus had a ... read more

How lucky we were that we got train tickets to go to Hampi before christmas. This was nearly impossible and I still have to thank this wonderful and patient travel agent in Agonda who booked us the tickets 2 weeks in advance. As it was a day train and only a 7,5 hours trip from Madgaon to Hampi, we did not care about a general class ticket. The journey was great and the landscape especially in the beginning around the Dandeli Wildlife Parc really beautiful. In Hubli a horde of army guys came onto the train. But they were very kind and respectful. The train was packed but the journey still pleasant. Arriving in Hospet we were immediately attacked by the rickshaw drivers who wanted to take us to Hampi. No thank you - the local ... read more