Despite the trip name of “Barcelona to Berlin” those were just the airport gateways; we actually spent the first day of this trip reaching Andorra. Off the plane and into a rental car for the scenic drive to Andorra, the 17th smallest country in the world in the Pyrenees between Spain and France.
Andorra was the only new country that we visited, although it was a long, long time since we were in Spain, Monaco, or the Netherlands (other than overseas possessions); 44 years in fact! Even 10 years since our last trip to France. It was great to finally return to some of these countries, but disconcerting to realize how much these places (or we?) had changed.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”
Heraclitus
Website posts for this trip:
Through the Eyes of Van Gogh and…..???
Through the Eyes of Van Gogh
Visiting the Vimy Memorial
The Bust of Nefertiti
“They replaced Vimy Ridge…”
Visiting Mont Saint-Michel
Andorra, a very tiny country
“Nit de Foc” (“Night of Fire”)
Return to Barcelona
Côte d’Azur – Antibes to Monaco
Marseille – it’s NOT Paris
Each of the posts above has a link to a photo album on Flickr for that destination. Or you may jump directly to the Flickr collection for the whole trip: www.flickr.com/photos/100countries/collections/72157721873138431
The intro to the trip written before departure:
In June of 2023 we will, at last, visit Europe again! This trip will be a shortened replacement for the ill-fated “Through the Eyes of Van Gogh” trip that we originally planned for 2020. We bought, and subsequently had cancelled, three different plane tickets before we finally accepted that COVID truly meant zero travel and took our refund. Currently, we plan to visit Spain, Andorra, France, the Netherlands, and Germany on this trip, and we’ll make the call on returning to the Principality of Monaco when we are in the south of France.
Of course, the trip name “Barcelona to Berlin” means that the starting and ending points are set. The feature image above is from our starting city, Barcelona. Anyone who has visited Barcelona in the last 100 years (or more!) will undoubtedly recognize the picture of the unfinished Sagrada Familia. The first stone of this famous basilica was placed on March 19, 1882, it was unfinished in 1897 when the photo above was taken, it was unfinished 44 years ago (in 1979) when we were last in Spain, and is incomplete to this day. Just one of the fascinating sites that we hope to visit on this trip.
The end point of this trip, Berlin, is equally interesting for us. At the time of our first trip to Germany together, Berlin was a divided city and could only be visited by crossing the Berlin Wall (pictured above, image credit to Berlin Unwrapped) via “Checkpoint Charlie”. The flight to Berlin was beyond our means, so we missed the opportunity to visit a former UN country that no longer exists, East Germany. No such issues on this trip though, and we’ll visit the remains of the infamous Berlin Wall.