I was not able to get much sleep between arriving late and leaving early. I woke up and got ready. I walked to the bus stop and boarded the bus to La Línea de la Concepción. The ride was comfortable and I was able to take a nap on the way to make up for lost sleep the previous night. After reaching La Línea de la Concepción, I walked to Cafe Eclen at the corner for a quick breakfast and then continued towards the border with Gibraltar. ...
I always wanted to visit Luxembourg, but it was not easy to plan for it since it is not really on the way to anywhere. With the new dynamic pricing for flights on the Lufthansa group with Miles and More, I was able to get a great deal by flying in and out for a day at the end of a work visit to Spain. I started my day very early with a flight from Barcelona to Zurich and the connecting onwards to Luxembourg. ...
I got up in the morning and got ready for the day. The Sunflower City Backpacker Hotel is located in a quite residential neghbourhood and it was a nice walk back to the train station. I bought a one-way ticket from Rimini to San Marino at the Tabaccheria opposite the railway station and went and waited at the bus stop which was about a 3-4 minute walk to the right. ...
A weekend in between a work visit to Spain gave me the chance to explore 2 microstates in neighboring Italy. My flight from Barcelona to Rome was early in the morning. It wasn’t too long. I had booked a shuttle from the airport to Vatican City. The bus dropped me off a couple of blocks away. There was some festival or event there that day, and there were devotees in huge numbers walking towards St. Peter’s Square. Regular tourists like me were able to reach St. Peter’s Square but could not go towards Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel directly. ...
This was part of A day in Lisbon 🇵🇹. After lunch I joined the 3:00 PM walking tour of Baixa and Bairro Alto by Live History Lisbon with Alexandra. We started at Praça Dom Pedro IV and walked past Joalharia Ferreira Marques which was featured in some James Bond movie. We passed by Elevador de Santa Justa and while telling us about it, Alexandra said we’d be getting there another way. ...
This was part of A day in Lisbon 🇵🇹. I made it to Praça Dom Pedro IV just in time to join the 11:00 AM Alfama Free Walking Tour by Discover Lisbon. Our guide was Francisco. He told us about the history of Lisbon and then we stepped into Casa do Alentejo to see the beautiful moorish courtyard there. × < > We walked to back to Largo de São Domingos and got some time to visit Igreja de São Domingos. ...
Going to the airport and taking a flight always gets me excited, so I didn’t really mind waking up at 3:00 AM and making my way to Helsinki airport for my flight to Lisbon and onward to Barcelona. I was able to use priority check-in at the airport with my Star Alliance Gold status. The counters for TAP Portugal were located right next to Lufthansa’s. With my bags tagged to Barcelona, I was issued boarding passes for both legs, first to Lisbon and then onward Barcelona. I was offered a complimentary priority seat in forward economy cabin but I was ok with my currently assigned aisle seat at the back so declined (a decision which I questioned later). I made a quick visit to the SAS Lounge before heading to the gate for boarding. ...
This was part of A day in Oslo 🇳🇴. I joined the Free Tour Oslo City by Nordic Freedom Tours at 10:00 AM. We assembled at The Tiger and after introductions and seeing where everyone was from, we started off. × < > We walked by the Christian Frederiks plass to our first stop the Oslo Opera House. We were given some time there to explore around and walk to the roof. There were great views of the floating sculpture She Lies. ...
There were no connections from Helsinki which would make it in time for the Swiss flight to Mumbai on the same day. So I flew from Helsinki to Oslo on SAS connecting on Swiss to Zurich and I was going to stay at the Zurich airport tonight. Since my flight to Mumbai was the next morning, I wasn’t in any rush to get to Zurich so I choose a long layover in Oslo. ...
I landed from Munich at around 11:00 AM and had the rest of the day in Madrid till my next flight at 11:50 PM. This was my first time in Spain and I was excited. I made my way out of the airport and to the metro station and bought the €8,40 Tourist Ticket for 1 Day. × < > I planned on talking a walking tour at 3:00 PM so I had time to see a couple of places on my own before that. First I took the metro from Madrid-Barajas Airport to Puerta de Toledo to see the neoclassical arched gateway built to honor Fernando VII. ...