A quick visit @ Barcelona

The plan was to meet Richard and Mireia (and let's not forget young Eric, either!) at a traditional Catalan restaurant, and have a traditional countryside meal. The place was located just outside Barcelona - and we found it eventually, after a rather adventurous trip through the suburbs of Barcelona, and some rather treacherous dirt tracks that were not really suitable for our Clio. Anyway, we made it! The concept was rather cool - they have this winter-time tradition in Catalunya. It all revolves around the Calcot, which is Catalunyan for Spring Onion. The idea is that a bunch of scorched spring onions is brough to the table, the idea is then to peel the scorched bit off, and dip it in a very tasty mayonnaise type sauce. This is combined with plenty of wine and grilled meat. Needless to say, it gets very messy. And needless to say, I absolutely loved it!

The culinary cultural bit out of the way, we made our way to their flat, located not far from FC Barcelona's home stadium, where we hang out during the evening, catching up on the latest. After all, we don't get to meet up very frequently these days, and we sadly also missed Rich and Mireia's wedding last autumn, since we were in Asia at the time...

The next day, we headed off to explore Barcelona. What better place to start than the Sagrada Familia  - especially since Mireia is actually a tour guide, and knows the place very well, and actually had the time to take us there.

We've both seen the Sagrada Familia, of course (we've both been to Barcelona several times), but the cool thing about this monumental piece of architecture is that it's a work in progress, which progresses year by year. Actually, the church is funded only by donations - which mostly equals tourist entrance fees these days. Which means they actually have loads of cash now, due to the influx of tourists, particularly China.

What's exterior of the church is of course what's most famous (in particular the historical facade which  was completed by Gaudi himself), but what's great news is that the interior has been completed now, as well. And pretty amazing, it is! It's certainly unlike any church I've seen before - it's more reminiscent of the scenery from the movie Avatar, than a catholic church! Very clever how they light up the place using natural light as well, even if today was a bit of an overcast day.

Sadly, Mireia had to rush  off after our very informative visit, and we had to rush off to meet up with Richard for lunch. After a tasty and authentic Catalan "business lunch", we continued our modernista tour by checking out Palau de la Musica Catalana, another modernista masterpiece (this one, however, is not the handiwork of Gaudi The cafe where we waited for the tour to begin was already in itself a sight to be seen - even if it  was nothing compared to the breathtaking concert hall. Certainly one of the most beautiful (if not most beautiful) concert hall I've been to.

We spent the rest of the day kind of randomly wandering around Barcelone, checking out the Ramblas, the area around the port, and a really cool middle eastern style teahouse in the old town, where we had some mint tea and oriental sweets. Yummi! All reminded us of what a great place Barcelona really is - one of the top cities in Europe, no question about it!

We then headed back to Richard's and Mireia's, where we were treated to a great dinner, for more catching up on old times. We didn't even made it to a bar/pub - seems like we are getting a bit old for that sort of stuff??

Anyway, the next morning, it was time for us to push on, so we said our good byes, and hit the road. Felt a bit wistful, as it may well be some time until our next visit to this part of the world...

Through Catalunya towards Barcelona

A last road trip ahead of us before moving over to Japan! The plan was to drive to Barcelona to spend a few days with our good friends Mireia and Richard, then drive to La Rochelle. And then back to Nice.

On the way to Barcelona, we decided to stay the night in Perpignan, a decent-sized French city I'd actually never been to. It's part of French Catalan country, and it does sort of show. The place has a slightly different feel to your average French city, and a bit of that Spanish touch does come through as well. In fact, the place used to be the capital of the Mallorcan kingdom until 1659, when it was annexed by France.

It's a rather pleasant to walk around, with a decent-sized historic town center. Our walk started at Castillet, a rather impressive medieval castle that guards the entrance to the old town. We walked through the historic streets of the old town, and made our way to massive Palace of the Kings of Mallorca - a testimony to Perpignan's past grandeur. Unfortunately it was not possible to visit the place, so we contented ourselves to walking around the impressive walls.

After exploring the medieval town center a bit more, and visiting the beautiful cathedral, we headed back to the hotel, to have a quick rest before having dinner, very satisfied with our quick but interesting visit. It turned out to be very tricky indeed to find a restaurant with a table for two (fair enough, it was Saturday night after all), so we ended up at a trendy burger joint, where we had a pretty decent dinner.

The next morning, we got up bright 'n early, and drove on towards Barcelona. We wanted to visit Girona before arriving in Barcelona, where we had a lunch date with Mireia and Richard (late lunch, mind you, this being Spain, or should I say Catalunya?). Girona is one of those cities that impreses straight away, with its compact old city lined up along the river, with the impressive cathedral dominating the city, sat on its hilltop.

I have to say straight away that I really loved Girona. I love European medieval cities, and Girona is the perfect example of one. We started off by crossing the river, and visiting the beautiful Romanesque style Sant Pere de Galligants Benedictine church. From there, we crossed the atmospheric former Jewish Ghetto (with its characteristic narrow streets and tiny squares) - Girona had one of the biggest concentrations of Jews in Spain until the expulsion of all practicing Jews was ordered in 1492 (at least they got the option to convert to Christianity!).

Another interesting place to visit in Girona are the Arab Baths - built in the 12th century, and very heavily inspired by Roman baths. After that, we checked out the gem of Girona, the cathedral. The interior is impressive indeed, but the most impressive thing about the place is the huge staircase leading up from the lower levels of the city to the cathedral. You may recognize the setting from Game of Thrones... The views from up their over the old town are pretty amazing, too...

I could've easily lingered here longer, but alas, it was time to push on towards Barcelona...

A weekend in Paris

Before starting our big Asian adventure (after the "small Asian adventure" of last autumn), we quite fancied one last weekend in Paris. So when our dear friend CoCo decided to organize here 40th birthday party in February, it was an easy enough decision to accept her invitation.

We arrived Saturday morning, after a rather pleasant journey on the night train (something we should do more often, really - taking the train is so much more relaxing than flying, even if it does take a bit of time - but that's not really an issue with a night train is it?)

We had all the day to us in Paris before heading off to the party in Montmartre, so we decided to make the best of it. We started off by checking out the Orsay museum, a place we'd both been to several times already. But hey, a museum like that merits several visits anyway! Besides, it's much less busy than the Louvre, for example.

The cultural bit (which really is mandatory in Paris) out of the way, we decided to head off for lunch. We ended up in a delightful little creperie not far from the museum, where we enjoyed some of the finest crepes I've had anywhere, including Brittany! Our appetites sated, we met up with Sarah, and ex-colleague of Mathilde's who's relocated to Paris. Great to catch up with her as well, especially since she had some great news to announce to us with the arrival of a baby!

We then made our way to our hotel, which was located in Montmartre, which truly is one of the most beautiful parts of Paris (which is to say in the world!), in spite of the tourist hordes who have invaded it, in no small part thanks to that wonderful movie called Amelie.

The party itself was, of course, fantastic fun! Most of Mathilde's friends from her Angers years were there, great to catch up with them.



One of the problems of "really growing up" is that as people have kids and stuff, it gets harder and harder to meet up for great "adults only" parties. Anyway, as can only be expected from a party celebrating CoCo, everybody had a fantastic time.

CoCo, of course, loved by all as she is, got loads of cool pressies (I wonder what she's gonna do with all those bags she was given, though?) Much to my surprise, we carried on to the wee hours of the morning. And I didn't even have such a bad headache in the morning. Is there still hope for me !?

We spent the next morning exploring Montmartre a bit more. We decided to check out the cemetery, one of the more famous ones in Paris, with quite a few famous Frenchmen and -women are buried (people like Alexander Dumas, Edgar Degas, and last but certainly not least, Dalida). Quite a peaceful place to wonder about, actually.

The next stop on our breakneck schedule was lunch with Isabelle. The plan was to meet at the outskirts of Paris, in a place called Suresnes. It's a pleasant enough place, quite green, in contrast to downtown Paris (there are nice views towards the Bois de Boulogne). Before lunch, we decided to check out the American military cemetery (wow, what's this about all them cemeteries today, eh!?)

The lunch, which we enjoyed in a rather fancy French bistrot called Pere Lapin, was unsurprisingly delicious. And of course, most importantly of all, it was great to catch up with Isabelle again!)

Felt a bit wistful to leave Paris, since we don't know when we'll be back next time. Soon enough, I hope! If not, we can always quote Bogie and say "we'll always have Paris" (not sure what that's got to do with anything, but there you go...)

A busy weekend in Nice

Due to our project to move out to Japan, we are trying to squeeze as much as we can out of our social life. After all, we want to say bye bye to everybody we know here, before heading off. Working in Japan, I'm afraid I shan't be having a lot of holidays to travel back to Europe with, unfortunately...

So on Friday night, we were more than happy to join Chris, Aurore and Marie for a dinner at Chris and Aurore's place. More than happy, since we always have a blast with them, and we know the food will be excellent and plentiful! As it was, this time around as well. We had a raclette, one of my favourite dishes in France. Raclette is a dish from the Alps, basically involving potatoes, ham and melted cheese - how could one possibly go wrong with ingredients like that, eh? This was followed up by equally excellent deserts prepared by Mathilde and Aurore. Yummie!

On Saturday, we managed to catch Naim, who was visiting Nice. We agreed on a lunch at Safari, a nice restaurant with a terrace on Cours Salyea. It's a place we go to very rarely, and even if it is a very touristy place, the food is very good. Probably the best restaurant on uber-touristy Cours Saleya. And since we were blessed with some of that lovely winter sun that often hits Nice this time of the year, that terrace was just a fantastic place to be...

Afterwards, we walked over to Rue Bonaparte, a trendy street by Place Garibaldi, where we met up with Marie and Mathilde's colleague Olivier for some coffee and cakes.

Ah, what a wonderful day! Nice is another place in this part of the world I will miss a lot, I will certainly fondly remember  sunny winter days like this!

Mountain biking in the snow

It's been a while since I've done mountain biking, what with our four months spent in Asia and all... So I was quite happy to accept Philippe's invitation to join him for a bit of cycling at the wonderful Massif d'Esterel. The original plan was to join up with a group of "local lads", but seems that the local lads chickened out due to the somewhat chilly weather, so it was just me and Philippe in the end, then.

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the weather was indeed somewhat chilly - in fact, the temperature was below zero in the shady part of our route. Which actually meant we ended up cycling in the snow at times! Which was actually good fun, and not as difficult as I expected. I did take it quite easy going downhill.

I even accepted the challenge to cycle up Mount Vinaigre - I had my doubts about the viability of that one,since it does take a bit of hassle cycling up to the top, at the lofty altitude of 614 meters (OK, fair enough, it doesn't sound very impressive, but it seemed that way from a couple of hundred meters downhill...), and given my lack of recent practice.

But, I agreed to the folly, and even made it to the top! And the view from up there was as magnificent as ever! Cycling around this beautiful part of the world is one of the things I will miss, once we make our way over to Japan...

New Year in Nice

Often, New Year's eve involves travelling somewhere for us, but we figured we'd done enough travelling recently, and decided to spend new year on the Cote d'Azur this time around. Luckily, Chris and Aurore invited us over to their place to celebrate the arrival of 2017 together with them, Marie and some other friends of theirs.

It was all great fun! The food was fantastic, as it always is at their place, starting with a very classy aperitif, and crowned by some very tasty "christmas logs". There was a great carnival feel to proceedings, with giltter, balloons and other colourful stuff being thrown about.

We finished the mad evening with a very funny game, which involves one person reading out a more or less mundane phrase (less mundane meaning something rather rude/dirty) from a card, and then each participant selecting a more or less mundane word or expression (less mundane meaning rather rude/dirty) from a set of cards, which basically makes for the most funny and/or disgusting sentence. Sounds simply, but oh my is it fun (especially after a few drinks).

So, a very nice way of welcoming 2017, I reckon, even if some of the changes 2017 brings are kind of scary (what with a Trump presidency, looming Brexit, continuing massacres in Middle east, just to mention a few things...). Stay positive, I say!

Quick post-xmas visit in Finland

After a Christmas spent in La Rochelle, I still had enough holidays to briefly pop over to Finland, which I was happy to do. As I was only staying for 3 days and a bit, the program was going to be rather tight, as I was trying to squeeze in meeting as many people as possible.

We started off with a post-Christmas meal at Tomi's place back at Haravakuja. It was great, as always, great to see everybody, including Nanna, Tomppa, their kids and Julia, my dear niece. I naturally ate way too much...

The next day, I was planning to meet Janne, Tomi and my dad in Kallio, where we were planning on having lunch in Oiva, a traditional Kallio haunt located on Porthaniankatu. I decided to walk down to the restaurant with dad - I really love walking around Helsinki. It was particularly nice on a cold, sunny winter day we were lucky enough to experience. A pity there wasn't any snow, though...

Our panoramic stroll took us by the railroad station, through Kaisanniemi park (with the botanical gardens), past Hakaniemen Tori, up Kolmas Linja to the restaurant. Lovely little stroll! The meal itself was your typical Finnish luncheon restaurant buffet deal - pretty good quality. I liked the place - unpretentious, with a retro feel, with a nice mixed clientèle of Kallio hipsters, local old-timers and office workers having their lunch there.

The next day, I had the foolish idea to go for yet another Christmas swim. Clearly, the La Rochelle experience wasn't enough... My dad was foolish enough to join me. We decided to head to Löyly, a fancy new seaside sauna opened a couple of years ago, a pretty trendy place these days, apparently. It's a place I've wanted to check out for some time. It felt like a pretty good plan, since it would've allowed us to combine a nice hot sauna bath with the rather wintery dip in the Baltic. 

Alas, though, Löyly was closed, so we only went for the icy dip in the Baltic part of the plan. Still, a lovely experience - the views from the sea are pretty lovely, and the sunny weather actually made the experience significantly more enjoyable than my swim in La Rochelle. 

The mandatory foolish swim bit done, I decided to walk to Kallio again, where I was meeting Janne, Katja, Yang and Rasse for some escape room action. The walk was lovely, as it was the day before - this time taking me through Eira, past Johanneskirkko, Esplanaadi, the Senate Square and so forth. Each time I walk around Helsinki, I get quite nostalgic and a bit regretful about not living there (the feeling of regret is usually quickly dispelled when I compare the Finnish weather to the Cote d'Azur weather between September and April....).

We did better in the Escape Room than last year (when I had a go at it with Janne and Katja) - we managed to escape with minutes to spare! Yoppii! After a nice lunch in my favourite Middle Eeastern restaurant in Kallio, Sandro, we headed off to Janne and Katja's place, where we had one of our nerdy, and very enjoyably board game nights. 

And then, alas, the next day, it was time to fly back to France. It was short, but oh so sweet!