Barcelona, the Winter Place in Europe

Travel Day 805 – Detmold to Barcelona, SPAIN

After one month in Germany, it was about time to escape the greyness for a while and do a little side trip. For obvious reasons the south, like Mediterranean Spain and Portugal seemed the perfect destinations…

Evening Stroll through the historic Area of Barcelona, Spain

Initially we had the idea to travel by train all the way to Lisbon and make stops in Paris, Barcelona, Madrid and other places, but when we looked up the prices for the train tickets we opted for the much cheaper flight version. While this was saving money, it also meant that we didn’t see as much of country side as we were hoping to and in the end we even lost Paris entirely out of the itinerary, because the cheapest flight went directly to Barcelona…

In the end a train ride to Duesseldorf, a flight to Barcelona and a bus ride into town made this day feel like a proper Active Travel Day, even if I wasn’t bringing my big backpack with all the equipment along. Since my old daypack was finally broken after two years of content use and abuse, I decided to try a new, slightly sturdier model. The zipper and seams had finally ripped of my old bag and there seemed to be no hope of repair. And so this little trip to Spain became the perfect chance to test a new daypack and practice some light carry-on travelling…

Rooftop Apartment view of Spring-like Barcelona, Spain

Once we arrived in Barcelona and settled-in, we of course had to go for some Tapas in a recommended local restaurant. While all the food looked really good, I was painfully reminded that it would be a little bit trickier to enjoy delicious vegetarian meals here in Spain than it had been in India. Unfortunately most of the Tapas were meat based and it took us quite a while to at least find a few that were vegetarian friendly…

After dinner we went for a nightly stroll through the historic area with its narrow winding streets. It was simply amazing to walk around in Barcelona and the almost spring-like air made us quickly forget about the winter in Germany. As it had been absolutely freezing in Berlin over the past week, all of a sudden I felt much more alive and really excited about being in a city in Europe that I had not seen before and that didn’t seem to have much of a winter. Also the fact that I managed to visit an old travel friend for a drink in his rooftop apartment made this the perfect Arrival Day in Spain and in Barcelona…