Vacations

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Vacations

I love traveling and have started to document my trips in Google Earth for two reasons: I love to show people where I've been. But the most important reason is it helps me remember. Especially writing down the stuff in Portugal, I noticed my memory is not that good. Lots of details are just gone and often I can't even remember place names or recall what the place looked like. Just a vague recollection that I spent some time there. Then, seeing the maps and satellite images it suddenly becomes clear. I usually have a camera with me when I'm traveling and you can find the output of that here.
- 2007 - Barcelona
  
  I continued my exploration of Spain by flying to Barcelona in 2007.
  - Barcelona - Hotel Putxet Park map.
    
    I booked this hotel online for the first five days of my vacation. I flew to Barcelona on the 2nd of June and took a taxi from the airport to this place. The hotel was a bit remote but luckily quite close to the Lesseps metro station (down Carrer Homer in south east direction). Unfortunately, the hotel airco triggered a nasty flu in me so I did not enjoy Barcelona as well as I could have. Otherwise the hotel was nice (aside from some noisy American students). I even had a nice Balcony in my room. Despite the flu I ended up seeing most of Barcelona's major sights. I skipped the Picasso museum (100m queues suck) but quite enjoyed the Miro museum, walking through Barcelona, exploring the harbor and Montjuic.
  - My parents summer house in France map.
    
    After five days in Barcelona, I rented a car and drove to my parents place in France (five hour drive).
  - Girona - Hotel Peninsular map.
    
    After staying with my parents for a four days, I drove back to Spain and ended up staying in Girona. From here I visited the Dali museum in Figueres (50km north) while mostly avoiding the beach tourism. The hotel was quite OK except for the noise of some construction work going on near by. It seems that most construction work in Spain consists of either making holes in the ground or filling them up with concrete. The latter causes the first to be a very noisy procedure. If only they would use sand like the rest of the world.
  - Lleida - Hotel Principal map.
    
    After Girona, I drove to Lleida with the idea of visiting Zaragoza (140 KM west). On paper this was a nice idea and indeed Zaragoza turned out to be worth the visit. Unfortunately Lleida is not. The place has a nice castle on a hill and that's about it. The hotel Principal, recommended by lonely planet as having a little more style, turned out to be a quite shitty. In retrospect I should have not checked in there and instead have hopped back in to the car to drive straight to Zaragoza. Worst part of Lleida is the complete lack of restaurants and bars. Uncharacteristically everything in the center closes down at 21.00, which is the time the rest of spain opens up for business. I managed to find one cafeteria that did not close and ended up eating there twice.
  - Barcelona - Hotel Putxet Park (2) map.
    
    After Lleida, I returned the car at the Barcelona and checked into the Putxet Park hotel again for one more night. I spend the day visiting the Tibidabo park on one of the hills overlooking Barcelona. The weather and view were great.
- 2006 - France & Italy
  
  My parents bought a house in the Gard area in France. So this was the starting point of my first holiday at Nokia. I stayed a week at my parents and drove around the area a bit. Photos can be found here.
  - pa et ma en france map.
    
    My parents new house is in St Quentin la Poterie, a quiet village near Uzes and very close to the camping where I must have spent close to ten vacations with my parents. I know the area pretty well and always enjoy being there. Even though I know the area pretty well it was fun revisiting Avignon, Arles and other places. I stayed here for a week before driving towards Italy.
  - Trets map.
    
    I did not know the area east of Avignon that well so I decided to stay a few days in Aix en Provence. Unfortunately my usual unorganized way of finding a place to sleep does not really work in this very touristic town. So I ended up in Trets, which is a nice little town outside of Aix. Aix itself is disappointing and overrated in my opinion. I took the opportunity of not finding a place to sleep there to see most of it. I guess I can do another daytrip there in the future. Instead I did several daytrips to Marseille and Toulon. Marseille was one of the highlights in my vacation. Fantastic city.
  - Cremona map.
    
    I then decided to follow my original plan and drive to Italy. Good decision. I drove to Cremona in one day and managed to drink some coffee in Cannes on the way. Cremona is a nice town with impressive monuments and a cathedral. I did a nice daytrip to Milan from here (by train) and also visited Parma. Then I drove to Tuscany.
  - Albergo Firenze map.
    
    Tuscany is very popular with the tourists, yet I had no trouble finding a nice hotel in Pistoia, which is a nice historic town close to Firenze (aka Florence). I stayed in the aptly named hotel Firenze and spent the next five days doing all sorts of cool daytrips to Firenze, Lucca, Pisa and of course the surrounding mountains. Also I saw Italy win the world cup against France in a nice wine bar/restaurant. Of course driving a car with french plates (my rental car was rented in Marseilles) is not so nice. Luckily it broke down and was replaced with an italian car.
  - Asti map.
    
    Since I had only a few days left and had to get back to Marseilles, I decided to drive back into Northern Italy. I stayed in the insignificant but charming Asti in the Albergo Cavour. Asti is conveniently close to Torino, which earlier that year had been the site of the winter olympics. Torino is a very impressive town that in my opinion is much nicer than Milan and Firenze.
  - Fuveau map.
    
    After a long journey to Aix, I once again ran into trouble finding a place to stay. The tourist office booked me a room in an overpriced hotel/resort in the middle of nowhere. The rooms were nice though. Because the weather was bad (thunderstorm), I did not enjoy the pool so much. But it was for only one night. I drove to the airport in Marseille the next morning.
- 2005 - Spain
  
  Despite driving 4000 km during the previous holiday, I had only seen about a third of Spain. So I flew to Malaga, rented a car and started driving. Slight complication: I might have to abort the trip for an excursion to Helsinki to apply for my (current) job at Nokia Research center. Photos can be found here.
  - Hostal Reyes map.
    
    First stop was Antequera, which is far enough from the coast to lose the fat German/English/Dutch/.... tourists which seem to prefer staying within 10KM of the coast. Next morning I got in the car with the intention to see some of the surroundings. This turned into an epic 300 km journey through the mountains. I got lost several times did some sightseeing in Ronda which looked so nearby on the map :-)
  - Priego de Cordoba map.
    
    Next stop was Priego de Cordoba, which, as the name suggests, is pretty close to Cordoba. I stayed at Hostal Rafi. Very nice, quiet town and of course I did a daytrip to nearby Granada, which despite the name is closer than Cordoba.
  - Ubeda map.
    
    By now, some arrangements had been made for a trip to Helsinki. I was going to fly there from Murcia in about a week so I started driving in that direction and stopped in Ubeda. In retrospect, the nearby Baeza would have been a better choice since it is somewhat nicer. But still, Ubeda is nice as well. Both are medieval little towns. With the sierra Nevada separating it from the coast, also blissfully free from tourists.
  - Murcia map.
    
    I decided to not go to a beach resort since I hate those. Murcia is an area full of them but the capital itself is not very popular among tourists. Despite this it has a nice historic center and the usual facilities (bars, restaurants, etc.). I quite enjoyed my stay here. The placemark marks the actual hotel, even though I forgot the name.
  - Helsinki map.
    
    Nokia booked me a nice room in the Radisson Sas, close to the Kamppi busstation and also quite close to where I now live. The trip to Helsinki from Murcia involved three hops by plane. I flew from Murcia to Madrid, then to Frankfurt and finally arrived in Helsinki at 23.00. From hot spain to chilly Helsinki was a bit of a culture shock but I immediately liked the town. The job interview was succesful and I more or less decided to accept their offer on the spot.
  - Hotel Alameda map.
    
    The trip back to Murcia was slightly better (one hop less) and I rented a new car and drove to Alameda to spend the night there and drive on the next morning. It's an industrial area with not much to do.
  - Hotel Nixar map.
    
    Next stop was Almeria where I stayed in hotel Nixar. Almeria is an industrial town, off the beaten track. Despite this it has plenty to offer. When I arrived some festival was ongoing. That was nice, except for the fact that this meant distruption of the garbage collecting process which in this town involves dumping your garbage on the street and then somebody collects it, eventually. In other words, the smell was terrible given the 38 degree heat and the fact that the festival generated lots of garbage which was not collected right away.
  - Ecija map.
    
    I decided that I wanted to see Sevilla again (no trip to Andalucia is complete without a visit to Sevilla) and also Cordoba, which I did not visit while staying in Priego de Cordoba. Ecija is a nice quiet little town on the road between those two huge, hot cities. It's worth a visit and the hotel in the center was excellent. Two daytrips and some sightseeing later I moved to Jerez
  - Jerez map.
    
    Jerez is famous for the sherry that they make in the area. The whole town smells of it and the center is very nice. From here, I made daytrips to Gibraltar and Cadiz.
  - Hotel Venecia map.
    
    Finally I had to spent a night in Malaga to be able to fly back. I suppose the center is OK but it doesn't compare to most of the other places I visited during this holiday. Essentially it is a airfield that provides a more or less continuous stream of beach tourists. Malaga itself actually has some history and pretty nice architecture. Also it comes with the conveniences offered by large cities. I stayed in the hotel Venecia in the center which proved to be quite comfortable and conveniently in the middle of the center.
- 2004 - Spain
  
  Looking for a repeat of my 2003 holiday, I flew to Madrid and rented a car (this time for the whole journey). Spain is huge and I managed to drive close to 4000 km in three weeks. Photos can be found here
  - El Burgo de Osma map.
    
    Since I arrived around 19.00 in the evening, I had preselected an escape route to the north. After about 100 km, I left the main road and drove to El Burgo de Osma. I found a nice hostal with clean rooms and airco and installed my self on a terrace with a nice beer. Around me some festival was going on involving men dressed up as roman soldiers and lots of sword fighting. Great start of a great holiday.
  - Ribadesella map.
    
    After relaxing a few days I drove off to Spain's northern coast. I found a hotel in Ribadessella, which, frankly, sucked. Additionally the weather was cold and rainy which also sucked. Next day, I did some sightseeing and drove off to Leon.
  - Leon - Hostal plaza mayor map.
    
    The trip to Leon took me through the mountains. Basically, Spain's coast is at the foot of the mountain range (around 1500 meters). On the other side is central spain which lies on a plain about 500-1000 meter above see level. Whatching the temperature drop below 15 degrees celsius (outside the car) during the drive to Leon was not much fun. Leon is on the good side of the mountains but still close enough to suffer the consequences (bad weather). However, it is a beautiful city with plenty to see. I found a nice hostal right in the center and stayed there for several days, mainly enjoying the city and the surrounding area.
  - Salamanca map.
    
    Next stop was Salamanca, another old Spanish city. It also happens to be one of the more touristic cities in central spain but still I manaeged to find myself a nice place right in the center. It's touristic for a good reason because it happens to have a huge, very old center. Also I was well clear of the northern bad weather by now. 35 degrees of dry heat and blue sunny skies. This is my favourite kind of climate.
  - Caceres map.
    
    Caceres was sort of disappointing after Salamanca but still very nice.
  - First hotel Merida map.
    
    Then I visited Merida, an old town with some roman remains, including a theater. I checked into the hotel near the railway station. It sucked (lots of trafic outside, very warm also) so I checked out next morning and found myself a much better place.
  - Second hotel Merida map.
    
    The second hotel was right in the middle of the city close to all the bars and restaurants. I stayed here a few nights.
  - Hospederia Almagro map.
    
    From Merida I drove to Almagro where I landed in another spanish festival. I found a nice room in the Hospederia Almagro, a former convent.
  - Toledo map.
    
    Toledo was my final stop. This is another fantastic old town with spectacular views since the center is on a (steep hill). Unfortunately it is very touristic but I still managed to find a nice place right in the center. This was my last stop and after two days, I had to drive to the airport in Madrid.
- 2003 - Portugal
  
  In 2003 I spent my summer holiday in Portugal. My original plan was to travel using public transport. However, I soon discovered that having a car is essential for seeing more of the country. Photos are here and here.
  - Faro map.
    
    I flew to Faro in the south and discovered that it is an awful beach resort. Next morning I was on the bus to Evora.
  - Evora map.
    
    Evora is a charming old city with some roman remains. I spent two days here relaxing and enjoying the city. I also discovered that not having a car sort of limits what you can do.
  - Lisboa map.
    
    After a few days in Evora, I took the bus to the capital Lisboa where not having a car is not an issue and spent several days exploring this huge & beautiful city. I stayed in the harbor district which seems to be the heart of the city. The area is rather flat and to the left and right are some steep hills. It was completely rebuilt a few centuries ago after some flooding issues. That is why it looks like a modern US city from above with its grid like structure.
  - Viano do Castelo map.
    
    The morning I left Lisboa, I simply took the bus to the airport, rented a car and started driving. This does not sound very exciting except for the fact that this was basically the second time I rented the car (first was on Hawaii); I do not have a car and I only recently got my drivers license. In other words, the six lane round about at the airport was kind of exciting :-). Portugal has the typical mediteranean driving style: slightly suicidal and learned me basically how to drive a car 'properly'. Viano do castelo is a nice little town on the atlantic coast. There's a few nice beaches if you are into that and the Spanish border is nearby. Also there are some nice cities in the area to visit. I stayed here for a few days.
  - Braganca map.
    
    Braganca is the capital of one of the most remote areas in Portugal. Until about 15 years ago, there was no easy way to get there by car. Now, with EU money, there's a good road through the mountains. What this means is that it is virtually unspoilt territory with friendly people and no tourists. I stayed here for a few days and had some fun driving into the mountains that surround the city.
  - Lamego map.
    
    After Braganca, I drove to Lamego, a small town close to the river Douro that streams into the atlantic at Porto. From here I made a daytrip (by train) to Porto. I simply drove to Peos de Regua and took the train that more or less follows the river all the way to Porto.
  - Castelo de Vide map.
    
    Next stop was Castelo de Vide, a medieval fortified city along the Spanish border. There's a few nice fortified cities along the border. One of the more significant is Elvas.
  - Sevilla map.
    
    Sadly I was nearing the end of my holiday, so I dropped off the car in Faro (airport) and took a taxi to the bus station where I took the bus to Sevilla in Spain. Sevilla is a very beautiful city and in late July also a very hot city. I took a hotel with airco. The short walk from the busstation with my backpack was quite exhausting in the 39 degree heat. After recovering I did a stupid thing: sightseeing. Sevilla is a very nice town to see but not at 15:00 which is more or less the hottest moment of the day. Next morning it was much nicer and I shot lots of pictures then. Finally I had to go back to Faro where I spent one day at the beach.
- 2002 - Greece (Dodecanese)
  
  Same holiday, different part of Greece. That was more or less what I was looking for in 2002
  - Leros map.
    
    This time I flew to Kos instead of Athens and took the boat to Leros as soon as I got there. Here I relaxed a bit and also rented a scooter for a day.
  - Kalymnos map.
    
    My second island was Kalymnos which is also very nice. Again I rented a scooter and explored the island a bit.
  - Rhodos map.
    
    After that I decided to go to the other end of the island range and took the boat to Rhodos. Rhodos is very nice as long as you stay away from the beach resorts. I found a nice pension in the old center of Rhodos city.
  - Tiros? map.
    
    Not sure if I stayed here. I just know I spent one night on a island between Rhodos and Kos. Big mistake, nothing to do/see here.
  - Kos map.
    
    Since I was running out of time, I spent two nights on Kos before flying back. Like on Rhodos and last year on Naxos, staying close to the harbor helps keeping things enjoyable. With a scooter I explored a bit of the island and discovered that on the main road these things easily accelerate to 80 KM/hour which is quite scary if you've never driven a scooter. In retorspect, I probably needed a license to drive that thing.
- Hawaii
  
  Early 2002, I attended the HICSS conference on Hawaii and stayed there for a week of holiday afterwards. Finding back the places where I stayed four years after is a bit of a challenge of cours but I believe I managed to find most places.
  - hotel where I stayed map.
    
    This is the hotel where I stayed during the conference. The terrace under the round thing is a spectacular breakfast spot, 15 m from the crashing waves which are visible even in Google Earth
  - hiccs 2002 conference hotel map.
    
    The actual HICCS 2002 conference was in a Hilton resort in the middle of nowhere.
  - First pension map.
    
    After the conference ended, I called a local travel agency and they booked me three different pensions all over the island for a really nice price. The first one was near here I think. It was definitely this side of the highway. The house was in a residential area and the owner was a nice old guy.
  - Second stop map.
    
    For the second stop I had a whole house for myself about 15 minutes outside Hilo, just off the highway. It could have been here. Impossible to tell with the low resolution and clouds.
  - Third stop - Waimea map.
    
    For the third stop I had an apartment in a house in Waimea. It could have been near here.
- 2001 - Greece (Cyclades)
  
  In 2001 I did some Island hopping on the cycladic islands. It's been a while but I'm pretty sure I stayed on all the islands in this folder more or less in the order below.
  - Athens map.
    
    I flew to Athens and found myself a nice hotel near Syntagma square.
  - Sifnos map.
    
    Next morning I went to the Piraeus harbor and boarded a ferry to Sifnos.
  - Paros map.
    
    Then to Paros where I made the mistake of not leaving right away (awful party island with drunk tourists)
  - Amorgos map.
    
    Next day I was on my way to the most remote islands of the little Cyclades on a small boat that took about four hours to get there.
  - Shinousa map.
    
    Shinousa proved equally nice as Amorgos. It's a friendly little island with a very small population.
  - Iraklia map.
    
    Iraklia was also quite nice but by now I had started to run out of cash so I had to take the boat back to Naxos with my last drachmes.
  - Naxos map.
    
    Naxos is like Paros, but at least I managed to find a decent place this time and also the the harbor city is quite nice.
  - Syros map.
    
    On Syros I spent a few nice days in the beautiful harbor city.
  - Athens map.
    
    Finally I spent my last days in Athens where I managed to not get into the Acropolis due to a strike :-(
- 1999 - Sweden Inlandsbanan
  
  My first summer in Sweden, my parents decided to spend their holiday there and also brought my sister with them. They went camping in south sweden and my sister and I decided to do the inlandsbanan. You can read all about this trip here..
  - Mora map.
    
    We boarded the inlandsbanan train to Östersund here.
  - Sveg map.
    
    Our first stop, in the middle of nowhere, was Sveg
  - Östersund map.
    
    Here we had to change to another train for the second two thirds of the inlandsbanan.
  - Storuman map.
    
    We spent some time in Storuman.
  - Jokmokk map.
    
    And then some in Jokmokk, which unlike Storuman and Sveg has at least some tourism and facilities. Also a lot of mosquitos.
  - Gällivare map.
    
    Gällivare is the last stop on the inlandsbanan. From here we traveled to Abisko with a regular train.
  - Abisko map.
    
    Abisko is a ski resort and in the summer the endpoint of a very long hiking trail through the mountains. From here the railroad goes through the mountains towards Narvik in Norway.
  - Narvik map.
    
    We did not stay here but arrived here in an organized excursion from Abisko through the mountains. Very spectecular scenery on the way there.
  - Östersund map.
  - Stockholm map.
    
    Technically we were here only 45 minutes, but hey, it's the most significant landmark on the whole trip.
- 1998 Turkey
  
  In 1998, my sister and I decided to go on holiday together. She was sort of not feeling like joining my parents on their holiday and my mother was more comfortable if she had her big brother with her. My sister is the adventurous type and selected Turkey as our destination. You can read all about it here.
  - Antalya map.
    
    We landed in Antalya and took a taxi to the bus station where we took the bus to Egridir
  - Egridir map.
    
    Here we relaxed a bit on a camping at the lake.
  - Pamukkale map.
    
    This is essentially a tourist trap, although the ruins and marble basins are worth seeing. The camping was primitive and the humidity in the valley was terrible.
  - Foca map.
    
    Foca was our first mistake, we left the next morning for the much nicer Ayvalik.
  - Ayvalik map.
    
    We stayed here for several days just relaxing and doing a boat tour.
  - Bergama map.
    
    We visited the ruins of Bergama.
  - Cappadocia map.
    
    We admired the strange landscape of Cappadocia, a.k.a. valley of the Dicks.
  - Safranbolu map.
    
    We spent a day in safranbolu
  - Amasra map.
    
    We relaxed for a couple of days in this nice black sea beach resort, which unlike many beach resorts in Turkey does not have so many tourists.
  - Istanbul map.
    
    We spent a few days in Istanbul before flying back home.

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This page was generated using kml2html from this kmz file, which was exported from Google Earth. Or view the kmz in Google Maps.