Mystras (26 Sep)Have you ever climbed to the top of an ancient Babylonian town? We have, and it was magnificent. The town is called Mystras, and it is built on top of a mountain that rises up from the plains around Sparta. For some reason, the town was abandoned not so long ago, sometime in the 19th century. The nice thing is, you can go wherever you like, there is hardly a sign that says: "do not touch" or "no entry". And there is plenty to e...

Once Andre's brother learned that we were about to leave Langenau, and were looking for one last stopover before arriving in the Netherlands, he did not hesitate and recommended us to stay in Boppard, a small town in the Rhine Valley (the entire valley is often called "The Romantic Rhine"), just south of Koblenz. In a good year, the aforementioned brother clocks up tens of thousands of kilometers on the German motorways, so that we did not take his word...

Because Andre had to work, we decided to stay in a small and quite place without any distractions. Langenau did not disappoint. We noticed that the water in the ponds, drains and rivers of the town is unusually clean and clear, and beautiful to see. Apart from that, the village is so ordinary, so devoid of anything memorable, that I am sure I will have forgotten all about it shortly after posting this blog. In fact, it is only with great difficulty that I remembe...

Venice & Lido

Our first full day in Padua started disastrously. To make matters worse, the disaster was of our own making: we started the morning with a needless argument. Instead of going to Venice, as we planned to do, Nita returned to our hotel and Andre grimly bought himself a Padua card, in a desperate attempt to have fun on his own. One hour later, we kissed and made up. Because our carefully prepared timetable was no longer valid, we decided to postpone our trip to Veni...