Geneva and Montreux (Switzerland)

Hello,

Well, here you have one more "town-post"... in fact the weather has been very bad, in the Alps, and we do not like to walk under the rain, if not necessary ;)

In the same weekend, we visited Chamonix (see last post) and the swiss towns of Montreux and Geneva, both situated on the shores of Leman lake, but in opposites extremes. Montreaux is a town perched on a hill over the east side of the lake. It is not very beautiful, but it has excellent views over the French Alps. And, above all, it hosts the Montreux Jazz Festival and, yes, we had tickets. We attended Herbie Hancock (jazz) and Chaka Khan (funk) concerts. Just too good.

Next day we were in Geneva (west end of Leman Lake), which has a very nice old town and a fantastic cathedral. The towers offer a great view of the lake, the town and the famous water jet. Otherwise, just a nice city with lots of banks... and very tidy!

Find here more pictures of Geneva and Montreux.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Chamonix and Mer de Glace

Hi there,

After a series of "town-posts", very little related with the Alps, we are back with our famous "mountain-posts". Well, we don't know if very famous, but those are the ones we like the most :)

We went to the town of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (1037 m), situated, as the name may hint you, on the feet of the famous Mont Blanc (4808m), the highest mountain in Western Europe. The town is situated in a narrow valley with very spectacular views to the glaciers and the high mountain, especially the massif du Mont Blanc.

The weather was not very good, and we had to cancel our hike to the lac Blanc (2352 m). Instead, we took the mountain train to Montenvers (1913 m), and we walk down to the Mer de Glace, one of the most beautiful glaciers in Chamonix area. According to Wikipedia, this glacier moves at the amazing pace of 1 cm per hour, or 90 metres per year.

We visited the Ice Cave, a beautiful but somewhat disappointing place.

More pictures of this adventure can be seen here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

San Sebastian - Donostia

Hello,

As promised before, now we will tell you about our visit to San Sebastian, as all the other Basque towns it has its own name in its original language, Basque or Euskera: Donosti.

And what a beautiful town! San Sebastian is on the northern coast of Spain, very close to the French border. Its main beach, la Concha, is very popular, and very beautiful. The beach is located between two hills forming a lovely bay. One hill (the Monte Igueldo) has an observation point, and the other hill has the old town at its feet. The rest of the town extend to the other side of the second hill where there's another bay with a second beach (Paseo de Zurriola).

In the old town one can buy one of the best tapas in Spain: the famous pintxos.

San Sebastian is a must of the Spanish/Basque landscape. More pictures can be found in our Picasa website.

Cheers,
-Manu y Nina-

Pamplona - Iruña

Hello again,

Being in Vitoria, we profit its excellent geographical location to visit Pamplona, in neighbouring Navarra, and San Sebastian (soon in this Blog) still in the Basque Country.

Pamplona, also known as Iruña -its Basque name- is the capital of the region of Navarra. This town hosts one of the best known "fiesta" in the world: the bull-running of San Fermin. Also known as just Sanfermines, this fiesta is held the week (actually 9 days) around July 7th, the day of San Fermin. Not only bull-running, which actually last just a few minutes every morning, but sanfermines is also, and especially, the night. Music, dancing, concerts, bads (peñas) playing music in the streets, the afternoon corrida, excellent food, better wine... not to be missed.

Downtown Pamplona is -just as Vitoria- full of the charm of a little village, and the tapas can be found everywhere. Another specialty of Pamplona are the sidrerias, places were one can be served excellent beef steacks or amazing tortilla de papatas just in the middle of a collection of huge cider (sidra) barrels. The cider is self-service, and one buy the right to haev a glass, and then serve it self straight from the barrel's tap. Just great!

We spent a lovely day in Pamplona, we promise!

AS usual, more pics to be found here.

Vitoria - Gasteiz

Hello again,

After the weekend of the 1st of May we used one week to spend some time with Manu's family in Vitoria (Spain). We went there by bus, meaning 14h long hours of travel. Most of the driving was during the night, but anyway. It was a good solution since it is a direct connection from Lyon to Vitoria. We lost the bus in our way back, by-the-way, because our tickets were wrong. After a complaint, we got our money back, which was fear enough, since we got one day more of holidays!

Vitoria -or Gasteiz, its Basque name- is a very nice little town. It is the administrative capital of the Basque Country or Euskadi region. Its old town stands on a hill, and it has a lot of charm, looking rather like a small village than a town. You can eat lovely tapas in the bars nearby the Cathedral, and their local "fiestas", held in early August and known as "la Virgen Blanca" are rather popular in Northern Spain.

More pictures can be found here.

Cheers,
-Manu y Nina-

Paris!

Hello!

We have spent the first of May in Paris. It was Manu's fourth visit to the city of light, but it was Nina's first visit. We enjoyed together the lovely and nice atmosphere of a very romantic town. Well, except for the tones and tones of tourists (we remind you here that we ARE NOT tourist, of course :D) that were filling the streets and the cafes and were queuing just everywhere.

The travel from Grenoble was very nice. We took the high speed train, or train a grande vitesse (TGV). In a bit less than 3 hours we were downtonw Paris, in the Gare de Lyon. We were living in a hotel in Paris "extramuros", but situated very close from the metro Line 1, which have stops all along the historical centre of Paris.

We visit the Eiffel tower, of course, but we also wondered along the little streets of Montmartre, the Quartier Latin or the Marais. And we walked the Champs Elysees all long, from the gardens of Les Tuilleries to the Arc the Triumph. We saw a little bit of everything that one must see in Paris for a first visit, and we left many of other things for the next one ;) including the Louvre. Actually, after the Winter Palace and the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, the Louvre's building looked to our eyes a bit disappointing. Maybe next time!

As usual more pictures of our trip can bee seen in our Picasa website.

Cheers,
-Manu y Nina-