We slept in the Four Points by Sheraton in Sandakan after two short flights in the previous day: the first one from the remote jungle of Mulu to Kota Kinabalu, and the second one from KK to Sandakan. This is from west Borneo and Sarawak state to east Borneo and Sabah state of Malaysia. Sandakan is the base for tours going to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, to Sukau Wildlife Sanctuary and to Turtle island.
For some of our friends and acquaintances it’s still summer. Everyday in the social networks we find lots of pictures of nice beaches and exotic places. But for us routine is back. We are already working and I (Laura) am getting used to a new job. However, we are trying to extend the summer period with weekends of beach, drinks and swimming pool. And this has reminded us of one of the most beautiful beaches where we’ve been together: the Costa Nova beach, near Aveiro (Portugal). Its colourful houses stole my heart.
Aveiro in fact is a synonym of colour. The vibrant houses, the drawings of the moliceiros… The two big cities of Portugal, Porto and Lisbon, are easily reached by plane from Barcelona. But if you want to get lost among the beautifull villages of this country, having a car is a must. So two years ago we decided to cross the entire Iberian Peninsula with our own car to start a roadtrip that we will always remember.
Peníscola is a medieval town built on a rock hill between two beaches in the north of Castelló province in Spain. Birthplace of a pope and shooting location for Game of Thrones, Peníscola mixes a medieval castle with white painted houses and the Mediterranean sea as background landscape.
In less than 2 hours driving from Barcelona, you can reach one of the most important wetlands in south of Europe: the Ebre delta. You don’t need to travel to Vietnam to see incredible rice fields under a sunset, or a fisherman throwing the net for fishing while thousands of flamingos start flying. You don’t need to go to Thailand to sleep in a wooden roof house surrounded by palm trees in front of a virgin beach. You have all of this in one single place in Europe. The Ebre Delta in Catalonia is still being discovered by travellers from all around the world and it is one of the best places to eat paella and seafood!
Summer is coming and, when it arrives, all Catalans use to go and bath in the Costa Brava –in our opinion, one of the finest landscapes of Catalonia. It may not be the typical exotic coast, but it has the incomparable Mediterranean charm of its cliffs and its plant life. The Costa Brava, which literally means “rugged coast”, is the scenery of our summer childhood memories. The coast follows the Catalan counties (comarques) of La Selva, Baix Empordà and Alt Empordà, all of them within the province of Girona, whose inhabitants have seen how fishing has been replaced by tourism as the main business of the area.
Continue reading Tossa de Mar: Postcards from the Costa Brava
