Travel Spain – Magnificent places to visit in Lanzarote

In 1993, UNESCO declared Lanzarote a »World Biosphere Reserve«. Thousands and thousands of tourists visit the northeastern of the Canary Islands every year. They come for all-year-round warm weather and sunshine and for black, white, and golden sandy beaches. Lanzarote offers more than 300 days of sunshine per year. On average it rains only 16 days in Lanzarote, that is per year, not per month. There is more than magnificent beaches and superb weather: Pretty places to visit in Lanzarote.

 

Travel Spain – A First-Timer’s Guide to Fuerteventura

This travel guide is full of information and travel inspiration for first-time visitors to Fuerteventura in Spain. Serenity, space, freedom, untouched nature… all attributes one wouldn't expect when talking about Fuerteventura. I find all of this and more. Fuerteventura is after Tenerife the second-largest island of the Canary Islands. The island in the Atlantic Ocean covers an area of 1659.74 square kilometres. One look at the landscape and you instantly feel the closeness to North Africa. To reach the Moroccan coast is a skip and a jump of a mere 120 kilometres. The island enjoys 300 days of sunshine per year. That certainly sounds like Fuerteventura is one of the sunniest places in the world. Sunshine is a true drawcard for many.

Travel and Feel the Vibe. Street Art explains places

Imagine a life full of blue or red balloons, dogs that wear golden crowns, flying hearts, little black men in street signs, sunglasses-wearing elephants, cheeky video game characters, cherubs who carry devil horns... When travelling to a location, one wants to see the hotspots – the Tour Eiffel in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome, the Tower of London, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and the list goes on. But what about all the street art that is out there? Some call it vandalism. Vandalism according to the Oxford dictionary is: Action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. When I travel I hunt for street art and I see it as art. Next time when you see street art as vandalism, think again. Please, it tells you so much about a place. 

Travel Spain. With Barcelona Architecture Walks through Barcelona and the Future

Updated: March 2021

 

Spain is one of the easiest places in the world to travel to. Barcelona and probably also Madrid are on most people’s Spain itinerary. You plan a visit to Barcelona and created a list of things that you would love to see that includes: take photos of the Basilica Sagrada Familia, Casa Battlo and La Pedrera, drink Cortado on a tiny square in the Gothic Quarter, play princess in the fairy-tale like Park Guell, stroll crazy-busy La Rambla, eat and drink sumptuously on la Boqueria market, fill up your vitamin D levels on Barceloneta beach and get a contemporary culture-fix at the CCCB in Raval.

Travel Spain - Madrid Walking Guide

What are the first things you think of when someone mentions Spain? Bullfighting? As a child I had a lot of Spanish friends, and to be honest I have no idea whether they like bullfighting, it was pretty irrelevant to us kids. The only thing I remember is that they were all fun to hang out with; we spent summer after summer playing marbles. You might even say I spent big parts of my childhood playing marbles with Jesus. His parents gave him that name. To this day I wonder why, but after all is it just a name.

Travel Spain: Madrid - The best museums, palaces and churches

Madrid, the capital of Spain, is hot in summer, but it is oh so very cool to visit. If you haven’t been yet, please plan to go soon. It is really worth a trip, and it is so very different from Barcelona in Catalonia. It obviously is different, since it is in a very different part of the country. The actress Penelope Cruz and Enrique Iglesias the Spanish singer and songwriter were born in Madrid. How can one not love a city with romantic-sounding street names, like for example Costanilla de Los Ángeles?

With a size of 605.8 km² Madrid is huge, but still, you can walk everywhere, as a matter of fact, you wouldn’t need to use public transport at all. I’m a big fan of looking at towns on foot, which is when I attain the most unexpected finds. Start walking and you will discover Madrid slowly. Spend as much time as you like at the places you love. Go with the flow and walk for hours and hours, and don’t forget to eat, drink coffee and take photos. I spent two weeks in Madrid and here I show you the very best museums, palaces and churches I visited.

Travelling? It makes you thirsty for more of this thing called life

Travelling does the craziest things to you. It goes like this. At the beginning of this year, as I was in Botswana, when I saw the wildlife I was convinced that I will do more birdwatching when back home. Easy, go to any lookout point and start. In Zimbabwe I wanted to become a freedom fighter, whereas soon after in Cape Town, South Africa I knew I need to buy a farm in the Karoo and live happily ever after. I mean, thinking of it, an apartment in Clifton with a view of the ocean would equally do the trick.

Is travelling all about the food?

If you ask me which country in the world has got the best food I would say Cambodia. The food I had there was simple, lots of vegetables and rice and all these exciting flavours. But again, how can I pick just one country? 

What about those perfectly cooked Paccheri Pasta in cream of Provolone del Monaco cheese garnished with black truffle slivers I ate in Italy? Once I tried Avocado Toast in Australia I was lost forever, it is now a breakfast staple of mine. My olive addiction started in Spain ... And then there are Koeksisters in South Africa, grilled vegetables, halloumi cheese and balsamic glaze in Athens, Greece, homemade bread in Botswana … and the list goes on. 

In Australia, breakfast is only complete with Avocado toast

Foodie moments enhance the experience of travelling

All these foodie moments surely enhance the experience of travelling, since most dishes were created over a period of time, most often centuries, and are deeply rooted in each countries culture. 

If you travel you often find food you have never seen before. That is what happened when I went to Cambodia, where I saw they sold fried Tarantulas at the roadside and on markets. A Cambodian lady at a market in Phnom Penh told me the country’s population started eating spiders during the Khmer Rouge regime when food was scarce to most people. Whenever I tell this, people get all disgusted and say they would never eat things like that. I always answer, don’t be a hypocrite, it is just the same as eating a cow, a rabbit or a pig. To me, there is no difference at all. It is funny how people’s perception of things gets blurred easily out of, let’s call it, ignorance.

Visit local food markets

When you visit local food markets you can be sure to learn most about the country you visit. This is where people do their grocery shopping, no matter their income or their age or gender. You will surely meet a wide variety or to be more precise representative sample of the local population. Some of my favourite markets are the Farmers Market in San Francisco, USA, the Mercate del Rialto in Venice, Italy, the Churchill Island Farmers’ Market in Victoria, Australia, the Toul Tom Poung (Russian Market) in Cambodia, the Neighbourgoods Market in Cape Town, Torvehallerne in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the ever so popular Viktualienmarkt in Munich, Germany.

Recently I travelled to Positano in Italy for no other reason than to visit restaurants, and I had the best foodie time ever. Now I know where to eat in one of Italy's prettiest villages. It takes a lot of effort, true, to visit a place for its food alone, but try it, there is nothing to lose.

Where is your favourite foodie place? 

From Berlin with love

Travel Spain: Madrid - Finding Street Art

There are so many sights to see in Madrid but as so very often on my trips I am fascinated by street art. It can be gone tomorrow whereas I expect the Palacio Real to be there the day after. Street Art in Madrid is not (yet) as massive as it is in other European cities or in Melbourne, Australia. Nevertheless, while I discover more and more of the street art of Madrid, it feels like meeting old friends. There are pieces by artists I have seen in other places before and a lot of the artwork I see seems to be inspired by existing street art.

The secret in discovering street art lies in the ability to stroll through a town aimlessly and not to feel to miss out on the big sights. Jump on a bus and you might miss the best. Just go with the flow and walk for hours and hours, have a few coffee stops along the way and just be. Street Art invites everyone to take part in a conversation. It can put

Which secrets are best kept by Madrid’s nuns?

Nuns strolling through the borough of La Latina

The walls of monasteries and convents have been probably hiding lots of very dark stories for centuries, but also traditional recipes for sweets. Nuns pass on knowledge from generation to generation and still develop new recipes in abbeys everywhere. 

We are smack bang on trend when we have a fully equipped kitchen up to a point where there are gadgets in our cupboards which we will hardly ever use. We have to. Do you want to be the person serving guests the

Why dressing like a local doesn’t make sense

You know there are lots of people who believe to be the best thing since sliced bread, smarter than Albert Einstein, better dressed than James Bond or I don’t know what else they think of themselves. Just throw all of this overboard, the most important thing is to feel comfortable with who you are, I know it sounds too easy, and it is true. 

I didn't dress like this local in Cambodia but we had a friendly chat

There is big advice everywhere where others tell you what best to wear, when and how to wear it and it doesn’t make any sense to me at all. There are people who truly believe it might be the very best to wear a cork hat when in Australia but that is their opinion. There might be others who tell you it might be awesome to wear a money belt, yes, let them do it. And there are the ones who tell you to best wear trainers on city trips, but no, no, no, ... How can someone else know what is best for me or you?

How to dress when travelling

Trust me, packing clothes for vacation really depends on

Travel Spain. Madrid - Delicious Food Markets

Madrid is well known as the city that never sleeps or was that NYC? I guess so, but it also is true for Madrid. The city is nearly as large as London and Berlin and as the capital of Spain it happens to sit right in the centre of it.

During the hottest day in June the young Madrileña Isabella tells me that she has got two jobs. Her ”real one” is the badly paid position of a social worker. The job that gives her enough money to have a life is that of a shop assistant on Gran Via the boulevard in the centre of Madrid. The European Central Bank says that the situation in Spain is getting better, but for Isabella the financial crisis is still in full swing. Wages are so low, that most of her friends need to have two jobs to get by. That is if they are lucky, many others are unemployed. To her it feels like it might take years before the job market will be back to its pre-crisis status.

What is a great place to see consumer behaviour of Madrilenians? Exactly right, I have to visit a few markets to better understand what is going on. Since I love to visit markets for their food when travelling, I can kill two birds with one stone … (not that I would ever literally want to kill a living creature). 

You want to see Madrid for foodies? Come with me and visit the Mercado San Miguel, the Mercado Barcelo, the Mercado de San Idelfonso and the Mercado de la Cebada. This is going to be a delicious trip around town.

10 of the most vibrant food markets in the world

Farmers' and also food markets are places where traders are passionate about their wares. I try to explain this with a mushroom. These markets are places where someone not only sells you any mushroom but the mushroom that person truly believes is the best mushroom out there. Farmers know the story behind the mushroom, they might even remember the day they started mixing the right ingredients for the compost before they put them in their dark rooms. Or they can recall the very day they went out to gather mushrooms in the forest. They know how much effort it takes to get the perfect product, they respect their food naturally. It is so very lovely to see this pure affection for a product. My secret tip for a great experience at farmers markets is, to start chatting to the farmers. You will most certainly hear the most amazing stories about the food. A visit at a market is about connecting growers and consumers. Do you get that at your local supermarket?

These markets are places where locals and visitors have been buying their wares for decades if not centuries (at least that is the case in some parts of the world). If you are on vacation and visit a market you will be part of that community, if only for a short time. You sure will be able to try food staples you can only get at this particular place, and you will most certainly be longing for these things forever. It is almost as if you tasted the place, literally. A market tells you a lot about a town, you will find out about the relation people have with their food. Why do people eat? What do they want to express? Do they want to express anything at all?

How to best describe food markets? Take passionate farmers and regional food and scatter them around a beautiful landmark. Add the excitement and hunger of locals and visitors, and finish off with the scent of herbs, spices, bbqs and freshly brewed coffee. If that isn’t a recipe for a feast, I don’t know what is.

Come with me on a tour around the world, and see the most vibrant food markets ...

Eyewitness Soller. Isabelle Van Passel co-founder of XO Private

Isabelle lives in Soller in Spain, and her passions are travel, tourism, hospitality, and surfing. With XO Private she creates extraordinary travel & lifestyle experiences – needless to say she is in the constant search of a world as far away as possible from the 9 to 5, dinner and bed lifestyle. And here Isabelle tells us about Soller.

Three words that characterize Soller?

Authentic, charming & picturesque.

How do you get around Soller?

An old wooden railway line has linked Palma and Soller since 1912 in an enjoyable train ride through mountains and valleys. An ancient tram takes you on a journey from

Travel Spain: 3 fabulously special hotels in Mallorca

What does first spring to mind, when someone talks about Mallorca the island in the Balearic archipelago? Do you also picture cheap hotels and semi naked boys and girls sipping sangria from a bucket? Mallorca the island in the Mediterranean Sea also has got fantastic landscapes, delicious cuisine and lots of history and art. I wanted to visit desperately ... And here is where we stayed and had many best time ever moments. 
 

Travel Spain: 4 hours in Barcelona - Food Tour

When was the last time you stayed up late only to regret it the next morning? As soon as I open my eyes on this sunny morning in El Born, the hipster area of Barcelona, I realise what a massive mistake I made with staying up late the previous night. But what should I have done? There was no way around it. I started eating and couldn’t stop, so it became late by accident. Never mind, I get over the initial shock, take a quick shower and jump into a taxi to drive the 4 kilometres to Passeig de Gràcia where I am about to meet the lovely Renée who is going to guide me through the neighbourhood of Gràcia. 

proudly Catalan

Renée

Its people, a mix of locals and immigrants are so very proud that they don't say they come from Barcelona, they say they are from Gràcia. Last time I was in this neighbourhood must be 10 years ago or so and I can’t wait to see whether it has changed. Renée has been living in Barcelona for many years and I believe she must live an amazing life since she seems like a happy lady, and very passionate about food.

Renée knows where the locals go and after a short walk up to the borough of Gràcia we start meeting them at their stores, restaurants, bodegas and cafes. We come along squares with busy terrace cafes and overall it feels like there are a lot of elderly people and families with children living next to artists and artisans in this part of the city. It is a cosy, relaxed and welcoming area. I am not saying there aren’t other parts of Barcelona just as lovely ... 

All these years back Gràcia was a quiet area and now it is being described as a hot spot but still very affordable. I see a semi-gentrified, but in parts still authentic part of town.

Travel Spain. Barcelona: Som Nit Born & 7 Portes

Shortly after touch down in Barcelona I jump into a taxi and ask the driver to drop me off at guest house Som Nit Born. I am delighted when he says that it is in a very great area. Som Nit Born is a little guest house with only 11 rooms on one floor in a palace from the early 19th century which has been converted into apartments. The fantastic thing about Europe is that most certainly someone famous and artistic has been in that exact same spot before you, and in this case it was Pablo Picasso. The painter relocated from Malaga to Barcelona in 1895 and lived at this place with his family.

If it is good enough for Pablo Picasso …

The taxi driver drops me off and for a few very long minutes (you know how it feels) I have to search for Som Nit Born. There is no sign at all that there is a guest house, I ask around and a waiter of a nearby restaurant points me into the right direction. I ring the bell, a buzzer sounds and the door opens. I am in a semi-pitch-dark entrance hall and make my way up a staircase, only because there is no other way I could have taken. Et voilà, there is a door on the second landing, and it says Som Nit Born. Check-in is quick and, not dirty …, friendly. I truly admire everyone who is brave enough to open a business in the current economic situation. 

Travel etiquette. When did you last steal a clothes hanger from your hotel room?

Again: anti-theft hangers

I know, I know, I know it is likely that you never ever did steal a hanger from a hotel room. But most of the times I am about to put my clothes into the wardrobe of a hotel room I have to fight with these silly hangers.

If none of us would never even plan to steal a hanger why do we have to deal with the theft proved ones? Would the world not be a better place if none of us would have to struggle with these hangers anymore? One step at a time, right? Next time you are about to take a souvenir hanger from a room, think of your fellow travellers first. And maybe, hotels will soon start to use normal hangers. Never stop dreaming ...

Where do you draw the line, have you ever stolen from a hotel room? Looking forward to hear from you.

From Berlin with love

Travel Spain. Ecstatic about how beautiful life is - Port Valldemossa

 

In August I went swimming in Port Valldemossa in Mallorca, Spain. While frolicking peacefully in the crystal clear, calm waters of the Mediterranean under the big bright blue sky I thought how lucky I am: I am living in Europe and I am now able to go swimming and to be certain that no creature big, small and/or creepy is going to attack, eat or sting me. 

I looked back on my seven years living in Australia, where at the very back of my head (and that countless times) I thought: what if … I went in and out of the water, jumped, swam backwards, swam forwards, trod water, floated on my back and pretended to be dead … you get it, I was ecstatic about how beautiful life is.