We’re back after a brief period “off”. We’ve been very busy planning our wedding and our next big adventure, our honeymoon, which, by the way, will take place in the same continent as this post 🙂 I really miss travelling far away like we did last summer. These last months of relative “quietness” have been useful to put in order our lifes but we are anxious for our honeymoon to begin!
Wall of Xi’an
After having written about our amazing experiences in Datong and Pingyao, we want to share with you a bit of the charming city of Xi’an. Xi’an is a must-see in any first trip to China. Located in the surroundings of Xi’an, the Terracotta Army is, together with the Great Wall of China, one of the highlights of this country. But the Terracotta Army is not the subject of this post. Of course we will give you some tips to visit it in a future post, but our aim now is to prove that Xi’an has much more to see and do.
When we first thought about visiting China last summer we started gathering information about what to see and do in the two weeks of holidays that we had. We first focused on the Beijing area and found out that in the south, in the way to Xi’an, we could visit one of the most impressive medieval towns in China.
View of Pingyao from the wall that surrounds the ancient city
Pingyao is located in the Shanxi region and is a very popular destination among tourists. It is easy to reach Pingyao by train either from Beijing or from Datong. During our trip we met other travellers that were following the same itinerary than us: taking a train from Beijing to Datong and then another one from Datong to Pingyao. We have already written about the amazing experience that we had in Datong where we visited its hanging temple and the Yungang Grottoes. Continue reading Inside the walls of Pingyao→
These days we are bit busy because we are moving to a new flat but one week ago we had some free days and we decided to make a quick visit to the Catalan province of Lleida. We really needed some relax! 🙂
Lleida (whose capital has the same name) is the fourth and less populated province of Catalonia, after Barcelona, Tarragona and Girona. But the city of Lleida has a medieval complex (La Seu Vella) which has been the scenario of some historical highlights of Catalonia while the entire province is known for its natural and agricultural importance.
Picture taken in the cloister of La Seu Vella, with Lleida at our feet
Portugal is not a big country but there is a lot to see and do. Most people only focuse their attention in its two main cities, Porto and Lisbon, or the touristy Algarve beaches. But the country has much more to offer.
Yellow everywhere? This means we’ve reached Portugal 🙂 (picture taken in Elvas)
We have already written in this blog about some of the main hotspots of our Portuguese road trip, but we wanted to write down a brief guide about the itinerary that we followed in case it may inspire somebody. We think that in around 10 days most of the hotspots of central Portugal can be visited. Do you want to know how? Keep reading!
South of Guilin, in China, you can find the biggest karst formation of the world. The erosion has created unique mountians that are cut by different rivers: Li River, the biggest, is the main way to reach Yangshuo by a cruise boat. Yangshuo is a touristic capital in the middle of the karst formation. Although many tourists pay for an hotel in the town, we decided to stay in a small hotel in the countryside, close to Yangshuo but far enough to have a quiet and pleasant stay. The Moondance Hotel was next to Yulong river, the most beautiful river we have ever seen.
Our bicycles in our day through Yulong river landscapes
