I had the chance to visit the stunning island of Tabarca, just a short ferry ride from Alicante. Although it can be reached in about 20 minutes from Santa Pola, the journey from Alicante is only about an hour and absolutely worth it.

Tabarca may be tiny, but it’s breathtakingly beautiful. The entire island is a designated marine reserve, teeming with vibrant aquatic life and surrounded by crystal-clear turquoise waters. One of my favorite moments was walking from the port through the quaint village streets to the end of the main road, which leads to the historic “Porta de la Trancada.”

There, I dropped my clothes and slipped on my goggles, diving into the refreshing water to explore the rich marine life just offshore. For over an hour, I swam among schools of colorful fish and even ventured to the nearby “Ilot de la Cantera” (Quarry Islet), where I found myself completely alone, surrounded by the serene beauty of the Mediterranean.

Later, I wandered through the labyrinthine alleyways of the town, eventually stumbling upon an authentic little restaurant. I treated myself to their ‘Menu del Día,’ featuring a fresh salad, crispy fried sardines and shrimp, and a traditional Valencian paella that was so delicious it kept me full for hours.

Annecy is the prefecture and largest city of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It is located on the northern tip of Lake Annecy, 35 kilometers south of Geneva and last July I had the prividlege to visit this interesting place for a whole day.

The city is really very beautiful, located between the lake and the mountains. And although you can tell that the site is quite touristy, I found some empty spaces where I could really appreciate this place. Highly recommended

Located in the current french city of Lyon, Lugdunum was a very important Roman city in Roman The ruins of the ancient amphitheater and the various exhibits in the museum next to it tell the story of a vibrant Roman city, important to the empire for several centuries. The original city was located west of the confluence of the Rhône and Saône, on the Fourvière hills.

Last september I had the opportunity to visit again the city for a second time and on this occasion I was able to spend a good amount of time exploring this area which is undoubtedly one of the most interesting in Lyon.

The Victory Column is a monument created to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War. It's possible to visit this monument and climb the the stairs to get to the top of the column where you can find very interesting views of the capital city.

The 3rd of October is a national holiday when the German celebrate their "Unity Day" (Tag der Deutschen Einheit). This is normally a really good day to walk along the "Straße des 17. Juni", since it''s open only to pedestrian traffic. I did that walk last year, visited the column and shot the picture you can observe above.

Last summer I had the chance to visit again the Island of Usedom and enjoying the baltic sea staying on the Polish side of it, in Świnoujście.

I discovered the baltic sea for the first time last year on a long weekend break and I had such a good time that I was really looking forward to come back and I was able to do it again back in July.

I was able to capture this really nice sky sight, when the sunset was starting and we went to visit Stawa Młyny, a beatiful beacon that was built between 1873–1874 and has a characteristic windwill shape.

One of my favorite places in Barcelona is la rambla del mar, particularly during sunset. During the summer of 2018 I had the opportunity to visit the city for a couple of days, after attending a wedding in Madrid. The weather was amazing and after a good walk that started in the Plaza de Catalunya I ended up in this place that is really beautiful.

I walk around the place walking by the acuarium and the parks nearby, but before I returned to the hotel, I noticed th sun was starting to go down and I was able to shot a couple of nice pictures, including this one.

Sofia is one the most intersting eastern European capitals. The area had human population sinc the year 7000 BC, so it means a lot of different cultures and religions passed through this land.

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, is one the most remarkable ones. This Orthodox church cathedral built in a Neo-Byzantine style, is one of the largest ones of its kind in eastern Europe.

I had the opportunity to visit sofia in the Autumn of 2016 and I really like this city that I would love to visit again.

Malta was on my list of those interesting places I always wanted to visit in Europe. This tiny Island is in the middle of the mediterranean sea has a fascinanting history, since it was in the past, a crossroad between Africa and Europe.

The Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Sicilians, French and British were involved in the Island at a certain point and this created a very unique and distinctive place, but the legacy of the Order of Saint John, who ruled the place as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1530 to 1798 is clearly present on the architecture and culture of the country.

In June of 2016 I have the opportunity to visit the Island and I stayed mainly on the capital Valetta, a beautiful harbour city that preserves much of its 16th century architectural heritage.

In september of 2016 we made a roadtrip with K and visited Lindau, a major town and an island on the eastern side of Lake Constance. We stayed at a hotel in the Island that’s connected with the mainland by a road-traffic bridge.

The current harbour of this island was built in 1856 and the iconic Lion sculpture and lighthouse mark the entrance of this port. An interesting fact is that this lighthouse is the only one in Bavaria!

I published some additional pictures of Lindau in my juanpics domain.

A couple of weeks ago I made day trip to Poznan from Berlin. There is a train leaving from the Ostbahnhoff station and arriving in Poznan glowny 3 hours later. Once I got there I started to walk towards the city center and on the way there I found a place selling Pizza that had an amazing margherita, yummy!

I visited the central square and I thought it was beautiful with the old buildings around it, including the renaissance old town hall. There were many ice cream places, bars and restaurants. In the information center they recommended me to visit Ostrów Tumski, an island between the two branches of the river Warta. This island used one of the main political centres in the early Polish state and now it's possible to visit the cathedral that houses some ruins from that era in the subterranean crypt. Very interesting city.

Yesterday I started waking from Prenzlauer Berg, all the way to Postdamer Platz and when I was crossing the museum island I noticed the Humboldt-Box and I remembered I never went there before so I decided to make a short stop. This temporary construction, created by the Humboldt foundation, serves as an exhibition space and viewing platform for the Berlin Palace - Humboldt Forum reconstruction project.

It has been a while since the last time I published any picture in this conveuropean photoblog. I have been travelling in Asia so most of the picturers I have been taking are published now in the breaksian career break blog. Nevertheless I'm currently on a break from the break, spending Xmas with my girlfriend.

Today we felt like doing some exercise so we took our bikes and rode all the way to Augusta Raurica, a Roman archaeological site and an open-air museum, located around 17 km away from Basel. We passed by Aeschenplatz, St. Jakob, Muttenz, Pratteln and Augst where this complex is located. It is possible to visit an Amphitheatre, a forum, a Roman museum and a Roman house that displays reconstructions showing the typical life during that era.

I'm in Dublin this week finishing some paperwork I need to sort out before I start my Asian Career Break. Probably this is going to be my last post in this European photoblog for a little while: For obvious reasons I won't be taking and posting many European pictures in the coming months.

A couple of weeks ago we attended a wedding in la Peralada, Catalonia, a small town very close to Figueres. Since anyway we needed to rent a car to get to this place, we booked some days off to visit some of the places recommended by our catalan friends.

Have you ever experienced this feeling of being on the road driving to somewhere and then having and breathtaking landscape in front of you so nice that you feel the urge to stop and take a picture?. Some weeks ago we went

to visit an interesting open air museum in the middle of Switzerland and just before we arrived to this place,we stumble onto this amazing landscape with the snowy alps in the background, reflected in the calm waters of a lake, surrounded by some green hills. Fortunately we found a place on the road to park the car and to take this picture. There is no doubt this country has some amazing landscapes!.

I you have been following this photoblog I think you are not going to be surprised if I mention Berlin is one of my favorites cities in Europe. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit it once time more and since I stayed with some friends living in the south part of the city I got to see the area around Templehof including the former airport that now it is a huge open green space. In a truly Berlin style, it has an Art minigolf in the middle of the park where we got some water and this is where I took this picture. During the weekend I was visiting Berlin there was a referendum to keep the tempelhof park 100% public and it passed with around 65% percent of the votes in favor of the initiative. Therefore the Berliners will keep enjoying this huge and popular park in the city. Well done!.

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit London one more time. In my opinion the British capital is always an interesting place to visit, offering so many things to do, places to visit and food to eat, that is hard to decide what to do. This time around I was staying at the Paddington area near to the Hyde park and I tried for the first time the London (aka "Boris") Bikes, and since weather was pleasant it turned out to be an excellent decision. I started my ride in the Hyde park, passed by the Buckinham palace, continued all the way to through the Mall and ended up in Charing Cross where I finished the trip. It's here where I took this picture of Trafalgar Square. The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory off the southern Spanish coast during the Napoleonic wars. I really like the view you get from the stairs of the National gallery.

Last thursday I read in my tech feeds that Google had released an standalone camera app in the play store, to simulate programmatically depth-of-field lens-blur effects to the shots taken with the phone. Since I had updated my "old" galaxy nexus maguro to CM11 the night before I decided to give a go to this new app.

Some weeks ago I was showing my brother the map on this photoblog containing the different cities I had visited during the years I have been living in Europe and he asked me about Amsterdam. I haven't noticed but I realized I haven't published any picture yet from the famous Dutch capital and since I recently had a connecting flight passing through schiphol I thought that was a good opportunity to take a good picture for conveuropean. One of most fascinating parts of Amsterdam are its canal system, conceived as part of the city planning in the 17th century. In this picture you can observe one of this canals at night, with the church of St. Nicholas in the background.

Every year the carnival in Basel starts exactly at 4am when all the lights in the old town of are turned off and the different "Cliques" march through it, in different parades playing some traditional marching songs using piccolos and drums. This year has been exceptionally warm so I thought I was a good opportunity to see the Morgestraich again and I was not disappointed at all.

We visited Berne yesterday with some friends that came to visit us from Catalunya. This time around we parked again next to the bear park and there were a couple of bears walking there. I brought my camera to take some pictures in the lovely Swiss capital and while I was taking some shots of the bears I learned something new: You can't run away from them climbing to the trees because they surely can do it as well. As you can see in this picture one of them climbed quite well to the top of one of the trees. All the visitors were surprised and amazed at the same time. They are very cute as you can see here, but as our friend was saying they are cute until they bite you arm off!. Anyhow, we consider ourselves very lucky to have had the chance to see such a nice spectacle.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit again Brussels. This is the third time I visit the Belgian capital known not only for being the heart of the European Union, but also for its beautiful central square, its beer variety and its "Moules et frites", a traditional dish of mussels prepared with white wine served with fries.

I decided this time to visit the Atomium, an steel structure in the north part of the city, to get a good Panoramic view and take some pictures and I was not disappointed. I was rewarded with some interesting aerial spots including minieurope (a miniature park with reproductions of monuments in the European Union) and some other buildings created for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. I find it interesting that even if the Atomium is not as famous a the Eiffel tower in Paris, both were "temporary" steel structures created for world fairs.

I have the impression Milan is more famous for being the main industrial, commercial and financial centre of Italy, rather than for its landmarks (compared to Rome, Florence, Pisa or Venezia), but between la piazza del duomo and la piazza della scala you can find the remarkable one: the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, named after the first king of Italy. This is not only is one of the world's oldest shopping malls, but it's probably the most beautiful one. Once you enter the shopping arcades you can't stop looking at the amazing structures of the ceiling and during the night, with the lighting it is even more impressive. Last weekend we enjoyed a short city break in Milano and this place was definitively one of the highlights.

Sometimes you get a nice photoshoot in the most unexpected place, so it’s good to have a mobile phone with a decent camera at hand to capture the instant. This exactly what happened last weekend when we went to the big shopping center in Weil am Rhein, located very close to the river point where countries meet (France, Germany and Switzerland). We were in the parking lot and getting ready to leave the place, but when we look outside at the sky, we just saw this amazing view composed of some blueish hues and a stripe of sunny light on the background, so I got my phone and shot a couple of pictures trying to get this view on a picture. I wish we will have a new year full of nice sky views like this one we experienced last weekend. Happy 2014.

Probably some of the most iconic art pieces in Basel are the ones created by Jean Tinguely, a Swiss artist famous for his sculptural machines. You can find samples of his work in the Tinguely museum (hosts a permanent exhibition), in the Euroairport and in this fountain located where the old city theater was once located. The artist setup these nine iron pieces in constant movement, interacting with each other. Today at lunch time I was walking in the city center and I was able to capture a nice backlight shot that demonstrates the sculptures in action splashing water.

I visited Italy last Xmas having the opportunity to go for the first time to the eastern city of Trieste. Even if this place is very Italian when you walk around and observe the buildings, you are reminded constantly this region used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is also possible to find reminders of how once there was a considerable slavic population living in this area. Hhe Saint Spyridon Serbian Orthodox church is one of this reminders (1751 when Empress Maria Theresa allowed free practice of religion, prompting the migration of Orthodox serbs). Unfortunately it was a short day trip so I did't have to cross to Slovenia, so next time will try to visit the southern part of the former "free state of trieste"

I have to confess I love the Christmas markets in Germany and Switzerland because they gave me back the Xmas emotion and spirit I used to feel when I was a kid that were long gone. Last Friday we went to visit the market Basel located in Barfuesserplatz and on our way we found out that one of the places serving Gluehwein had on top of it one of the traditional Christmas Pyramids. As you can see in this picture this pyramid has the traditional shape with different motives in each one of the levels. I wasn't aware but this type of decoration has its roots in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) region of Germany. Anyway I already had my first cup of mulled wine this xmas and I'm ready to party on today. If I don't post anything before the 24th, merry christmas to all of you!

Yesterday we enjoyed a nice day at the thermal baths of this German city located very close to Basel, Mulhouse and Freiburg. This was the first time we visited this town and it turned out to be a pintoresque place with a couple of fancy hotels, some restaurants and full of baths due to the spring mineral waters it possesses. When we were arriving to the town we noticed from the distance the ruins of a castle and when we were going back to the car we noticed it again, so I grabbed my phone and took a picture. I was able to get a nice silhouette of the castle at this time of the year.

We just came back from Malaga where we enjoyed some splendid weather during the last 4 days. We went there to meet some friends of my GF and enjoy the last bit of Spanish summer since the Autumn and cold weather is approaching fast to Switzerland. This was the second time I visited the hometown of Pablo Picasso, but this time around I spent more time there and I discovered a city with some very interesting history reflected in places such as the Alcazaba and the Gibralfaro castle or the Malaga cathedral. The first time I completely missed this church is called “la manquita” (the one armed lady), because the south tower was never finished. Malaga is perse a very interesting city to visit, but it can also be useful a starting point to visit many places in Andalalucia. In this picture you can see the Malaga port area from the uphill road that take you to the Gibralfaro castle.

Last weekend a very nice colleague of mine invited us over to have dinner at her place and to “spicy it up” she proposed to go to the Bamberg Seilpark, around 10 km away from Solothurn, in the Jura mountains.. I have seen these rope parks before in Switzerland but this was the first time I attempted to get into an climbing harness, clicked my safety line and climbed on the trees overcoming a different set of obstacles. I went as far as my shoulders let me go but my colleagues were very brave and successfully attempted the black circuit, full of really high challenging obstacles. In this picture you can see my brave colleague when she was about to swing on the monkey bars some 20 meters above the ground!. Chapeau.

In september last year we spent a couple of days we spent In Istanbul. It was a massive sensorial experience from every aspect: watching the diverse people walking in the streets, admiring ancient buildings such as Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, smelling the spices blending in the bazaars, hearing the call to the prayer many times during the day coming out of the minarets, feeling the sun bronzing the skin, sipping a tea next to a pistachio baklava and enjoying a grilled sea bass at a nice restaurant in the Sultanahmet area. As you can imagine there are plenty of mosques in Istanbul. Everyday when we were taking the tram to the city center we were passing by the Eminönü station and staring at the new mosque. One of the evenings after dinner I had the chance to get a nice shot of the this mosque from the other side of the Galata bridge using a long exposure.

Last Saturday we went to Europapark, a “Europe” theme park located in Rust, Germany. I wanted to celebrate my birthday there because I really enjoy the thrills you get riding a nicely designed rollercoaster. We were lucky with the weather because we had a sunny day that allowed us to enjoy even the water related attractions. The park was relatively crowded so we had to wait in line for most of the rides, but those seconds when you are rushing through the sky upside down made it worth it. The Blue Fire is probably my favorite ride with all the fast ascend, descends, inversions, turns and loops. I always finish with a green face and dizzy but extremely happy!. This time around I missed riding the Silver Star that you can observe in this picture, but that’s going to be first, next time I visit the park. bis bald Europapark!

I just came back from a short break in Turkey and even if only spent a week in the republic founded by Ataturk, I had the opportunity to get a positive first glimpse of the country. We had a wedding in Izmir and we stayed for a couple of days in the city, but while we were visiting a bookstore we found out the ancient Greek/Roman city of Ephesus was not so far away, so the day after we took a train, traveled to Selçuk and we walked the 4 kilometers to get to this archaeological site. The day trip was worth it because we got the opportunity to visit the different parts of the complex including the beautiful library of Celsus that you can observe in this picture. This library was built in honor of the Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus and he is buried there in a sarcophagus underneath the construction. it’s definitely one of the most amazing tombs I have ever seen!.

Last weekend we had a first glimpse of the future autumn since we climbed with a couple of friends to the peak of Rigi Kulm, also called the “Queen of the Mountains”, through some foggy weather and the temperature dropped to around 10 degrees. Unfortunately we missed the view from the top but when we were walking down the sky clear up slightly and we were able to get an idea how amazing was the view. When we were walking back to Goldau after a nice descend through the forest we were welcomed by a nice view of its twin town Arth, with the Zug lake. I’m not 100% sure but I think that is what I got in this picture. Rigi is definitively a nice walk, but prepare your calf muscles!

Last week K. was counting the days until the weekend because she was looking forward to do some hiking again in Wengen, a small village in the Berner Oberland mountains. Today when we are back I completely understand the reason of her excitement: It’s indeed one of the most beautiful parts of Switzerland, offering some breathtaking views of the Bernese mountains. For the first hiking trail, we parked in Lauterbrunnen, took a train to Wengen, got in the cable car to Männlichen and from there we walked all the way to Kleine Scheidegg. This trail was particularly surreal because you are walking in the rim of a mountain more than 2000 meters above the sea level, with some astonishing landscapes, but at the same time you find on your way cows pasturing, always joined by the sound of their typical Swiss bells tinkling. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me but I tried to capture one of those moments with the camera of my phone.

Today we enjoyed a lovely day visiting the Gruyere district of Switzerland, doing plenty of interesting activities and eating some really good food. We started our visit getting to the town of Gruyères. This ancient town has a couple of interesting attractions including the Castle, the Town fortifications and an unusual museum: the HR Giger, where you can visit some of the exhibitions created by this Swiss artist who won an oscar for his work in the movie Aliens. We also drove to Moléson-sur-Gruyères where you can take both a funicular and a cablecar to discover the magnificent panorama and takes pictures from the summit you can observe the Moléson mountain on this picture I took just when we arrived to Gruyères, on the left top corner.

Normally I publish in this photoblog pictures from European cities or landscapes, but this time I decided to upload a nice butterfly photo I captured earlier on today. We decided to visit Konstanz in Germany and it turned out to be a very nice city with an old well preserved city center (luckily the allied bombs during WWII didn’t touch it). From there you can take a boat that bring you to a small island called Mainau. K. always wanted to visit this place because she had studied in the school this island had a gorgeous greenhouse full of butterflies and indeed once you enter to his place you find plenty of those 'Schmetterlinge' flying all over the place, sucking up juice from orange slices and hopping from flower to flower. So my dear K. here is a butterfly picture for you!.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to visit again the city of light and even if I had visited Paris quite a few times during the last years this is the first time I climbed the Eiffel Tower. Once you cover the 674 steps needed to get to the second level, you get rewarded with a really nice view of the Champ the Mars on one side and The Palais de Chaillot and the Gardens of the Trocadéro on the other. I took this opportunity to take some aerial pictures and one of the views I like the most was the one showing the champ of mars with people scattered admiring the amazing iron structure designed by Gustaf Eiffel, erected in 1889. I always will remember the amazement I felt when I saw the structure for the first time.

One of the plans K. wanted to do for a long time was to visit and walk in the black forest in Germany. Basel is located in northern Switzerland, so Freiburg and the small towns in this region of the country are located nearby. Yesterday we booked our economic smart car and headed north to Titisee. Even if the town was a bit too touristy for our taste, it has a nice lake where you can rent a small electric boat and explore around. Additionally it has some good hiking paths to visit small towns near by walking through the forest. While we were walking through one of these paths we had the opportunity to see the lake through this frame made of leaves where I took this shot.

My dad is visiting us during these couple of weeks and for a long time we wanted to visit the Qin Terracotta Warriors exhibition in Bern, so finally yesterday we thought this would be a good opportunity to do it together, so we booked a car and visited the swiss capital to watch this interesting exhibition. When we ended our visit to Bern, after getting quite a few ice creams in such a hot summer day, we decided to visit also Thun, located only 30 km south of Bern. This city has a beautiful landscape where the River Aar flows out of the Lake Thun. When we were walking towards the lake we saw some charming old wooden bridges like the ones you can observe in this picture.

Everytime I go to Berlin I'm very quickly reminded why this my favorite European city. As soon as I’m getting close to Alexanderplatz, I feel excited to realize that I’m again visiting the German capital. The first time I visited the city was 7 years ago and it’s amazing how the city have changed in that short time: The palace of the republic is gone, the hauptbahnhof is completed and the area around the parliament is getting nicer and nicer. Each time I visit Berlin I get the opportunity to see something new I haven’t seen before and this time it was not an exception: When we were walking near to Postdamer platz we saw a small flyer talking about a watching tower and indeed we found hidden by a tree one of the last remaining surveillance symbols of the GDR.

Last weekend I was in Zurich enjoying the last day of the festival Zueri Faescht. I wasn't aware but my friend A. told me this festival only takes place every three years, so I'm glad I made it even if it was only for the last day. The city was absolutely packed and there was music and food all over and plenty of shows. One of the most impressive ones in my opinion was the tightrope walk between the towers of St. Peters Church and the Grossmunster cathedral, over the Limmat river by Alfons Bügler. It was really spooky to see this tighrope walker to go from one church to the other without any protection. I took this photo when he was starting the walk in St. Peters.

In my fourth visit to Poland I had the chance to visit a very picturesque town at the banks of the vistula river: Kazimierz Dolny. K. Mentioned the town when we were in Switzerland so I was very curious and I was not disappointed at all. The city has a very interesting architecture with former warehouses restored to their former glory. It's also possible to climb a small hill to get a beautiful view of the river and the city center, that you can observe here in this picture taken earlier today.

Some weeks ago a Polish colleague recommended us a small city near Colmar called Riquewihr, that he described as a gorgeous medieval city located in the mountains with an old walled center. Today we decided to head north into France to visit this place and we were able to corroborate this place is indeed one of the most beautiful town in the Alsatian region. We were reading that during WWII this was one the few places that was spared from destruction, since it was relatively hidden in a cul-de-sac, so there are many houses from the 15th century really well preserved. One of the perks of visiting this place is the route to get there, since you pass through several vinicole plantations and some other nice towns as well. In one of the towers surviving the original wall built by the Duke of Horburg in the 13th century, you can visit a museum with the history of the city. Its called Dolder in Alstatian, meaning the highest point, where I took this picture.

We just arrived from a city break in Copenhagen. It was a really nice city and one of the highlights was definitively the amusement park of Tivoli Gardens. This is one of the oldest park of its kind in the world, since it opened on August 15, 1843. We were reading that once Walt Disney visited this park and got so impressed that he decided he was going to build something similar. The park is very interesting because it feels old but really well kept. I definitively would recommend it if you get the chance to visit this scandinavian city.

Today it was a sunny day in Switzerland so we used our brand new mobility card to get a Smart and we headed to Neuchatel to visit a friend of K. When we arrived there he proposed us to visit a really cool place on the top of the mountain, so we went there. I had no idea what was exactly about so when we finally arrived after circling a lot of small roads we got to a place that at first sight doesn't look too impressive: You just see some cows with their bells ringing, surrounded by some rocky fence, but once you cross the field and pass the rocks you get welcomed by a breath taking view: The Creux du Van, a natural rocky cirque that looks like a cliff in the sea. You can walk in the edge of the cliff and in some parts is scary: the abyss is just 2 steps from the road, but anyway totally recommended! Very interesting place.

During this long weekend we visited Hamburg for the first time and we got a very good impression about this German maritime city that once was member of the medieval Hanseatic League. We didn't know but during those days the city was celebrating the "Port Birthday" and there a lot food stalls, bands playing and nice ships visiting the port. Berlin is still my favorite German city but this comes second very close.

A friend was visiting us this weekend and she wanted to visit Strasbourg so we decided today to hop on the TER train and go to this beautiful Alsatian city. When we got there we were welcomed by a very nice sunny day and while we were walking in the old city center I took this picture of the Place Kléber. This is the largest square at the center of the city and there is an interesting historic fact: Even if the place is currently named after the french general Jean-Baptiste Kléber, the first name it had was Barfüsserplatz (square of the bare-feet-goers), because once there was a monastery along the square.

The distribution of the holidays in Switzerland is particular, since most of them are clustered in May and there are not so many in the remaining months of the year. Anyway, last Monday I wanted to enjoy the last holiday this month so I head south to Zurich to meet a German friend. She proposed to go up to Uetliberg by train and it was a very good idea. This mountain offers an impressive panoramic view of Zurich and its lake as you can observe in this picture. It takes around 20 minutes to go there and the trip is totally worth it. Highly recommended if you pass by Zurich.

Today I have been wondering around freiburg enjoying the first sunny day of a spring that almost forgot to come to Europe in 2013. Seriously! This has been the longest European winter since the year I arrived to Europe. I know winter can be long in these latitudes, but if you could see the happiness in the faces of most of the people outside enjoying the sun and grabbing cofee in the terraces you would understand what I'm talking about. Anyway, when I was waking from the train station I saw this woman taking a picture to the first blossoms and you can see her and see them in this picture. Welcome spring!!!

I feel very lucky living in Europe and now I feel even luckier living so close to Paris. I knew living close to the French border that Paris was very close by train and last weekend I had the opportunity to try out how close it was by taking the TGV to the Gare de Lyon (and it was indeed only a couple of hours). I have been in Paris several times and there is a plans I repeat over and over: Talking the metro to Hotel de Ville, crossing "Île de la Cité", stopping by Notre Dame and then going back to continue walking through Rue de Rivoli until I reach Palais Royal. Then I go to le Jardin des Tuileries, continue to "place de la Concorde: and then I walk all the way up through "Avenue des Champs-Élysées" until I get to the "Place Charles de Gaulle", where "l'Arc de Triomphe" is located. I took this picture at the end of my walk there.

Today we visited Karlsruhe, one of the big german cities in the Baden-Württemberg state. Before going there I read there has been some speculation about this city being used as a model for Washington, D.C. (since both cities have a centre from which the streets radiate). I couldn't stop thinking about this point when we were walking in the city center: When we passed by the Rondellplatz we observed this obelisk that might be in fact a model for the American one. Probably this city is very nice during the summer time, but today we realised the spring hasn't come yet to Karlsruhe because it was rainy, grey and cold ... brrrr.

There are 2 alsatian cities bordering with the north of Switzerland: Saint Louis and Huningue, where you can do an interesting bike ride along the Huninguen channel. This old channel fed by the rhine river was built in the 19th century and used to be a fluvial medium of transport in this region. Despite the chilly weather today we decided to ride along the canal and we went all the way up to Kembs. When were approaching the town I found this funny tree in the middle of this growing field. Kudos for the owner to spare the life of this little tree!!

A couple of weeks ago I went by train to Besançon, the Capital City of the Franche-Comté region in France. The town has a very interesting history, being one of the first cities conquered by Julius Cesar in the "Gaul" region. I enjoyed walking around the old city center and when I was on my way up to visit the Citadel deisgned by Vauban, I stumble upon this ancient Galo-Roman ruins. Everytime I found those type of ruins I have to stop by, because for me it's a clear reminder that those cities have been there for a really long time.

At the beginning of January I left Dublin, closing one of the most interesting and eventful chapters of my life. On the day I left the city I woke up early to finish up all the paperwork and all the tasks I had to do before I left Ireland. When I was bringing some clothes to charity I was welcomed by this beautiful Sunrise with amazing colors and a bird passing by. I always will have some really good memories about my time in Éire.

One of my favorite plans when I visit a new city is to go as high as I can to get a panoramic view of the place. When I visited Nice back in January I read the Colline du Chateau overlooking the Baie des Anges offered an amazing view of the city. So I climbed all the stairs and after some good walk (later on I found there was an elevator, but never mind) I was rewarded with an amazing view of the old town, the bay and the sea.

I was in Heidelberg 4 years ago, but last weekend I had the opportunity to go back and climb to the castle where you have this amazing view of the city. It's quite some exercise to climb the stairs to go to the top but once you are there you feel it has been totally worth it.

I visited Belfast for a second time last year (2012) and this time I did the "Black Taxi Tour" and it was very interesting. The driver was part of the Catholic community and he drove me through both the loyalist protestant areas (ie. Shankill Road) and the Nationalist enclaves (Falls Road and Bombay Street). One of the most suprising parts of the tour was to pass by the "Peace Lines". I had no clue Belfast had built during the troubles those walls to separate Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods. In this picture you can one of those walls along Cupar Way in Belfast.

In September last year K. came to Dublin to visit me and we rented a car, head down to the south west of Ireland and visited the famous Ring of Kerry. I heard before this area was one of the most beautiful parts of the country and the people were right, the landscapes were astounding!. When we were going around the ring we stop in this spot where I was able to take this nice picture that shows just a glimpse of how nice is the area.

In the south coast of Ireland very close to Cork there is a seaport that could be easily be known as ‘Titanictown’ since most of the shops, pubs and restaurants have reference to the famous British passenger liner. The name of this was until 1920 was Queenstown and its history is tied to the Titanic because this port was the last European port where it called before heading to New York and well you know the rest of the history. Last year I had the opportunity to visit this town 2 times and in one of my visits I took a picture of the old pier where the boats bringing the last passengers boarding the Titanic.

I have to confess I'm a Beatles fan. When I was a child this group was played over and over at my grand parent's house so it sitck on me. Last year in August I had the opportunity to make a day trip to the city where this famous band was formed. A very interesting part of the city was the Albert Dock, this structure has a very interesting history because it was the first warehouse to be created with iron, stone and brick (until that time there were wood based). Today it's a very vivid tourist atracition with a lot of visitors, shops, coffee places, etc. This place was one of the highlights from the short visit (besides the whole beatlemania).

I really like Barcelona. It's probably my favorite city in Spain where you can find a very nice weather, some very good food and the amazing Gaudi architectural landmarks. One of them is the 'Casa Batllo', a house bought by Josep Batllo in 1900, but reburbished by Gaudi in 1906. Last year I got the opportunity to visit again the city and I was able to take a nice shot of the city on a sunny day.

The Montreaux Jazz Festival take place in July every year in this Swiss city and it's probably one of the most famous ones in the world from this kind. Last year we had the opportunity to go there and when we visited the city we found out the Château de Chillon is one of the most visited places not only in this city but also in the whole country. The history of this castle is actually very interesting: It was controlled by the Counts of Savoy who used to tax most of the goods coming from Italy, given its strategic location. We were hesitant about visiting the castle but I'm glad we did it because it was worth it.

At the end of April I had the opportunity to visit one of eastern European cities hat was on my list "to-go" for a really long time: Budapest and I was not dissapointed at all! since it's indeed a beautiful and very interesting city. I was very fortunate because the weather was quite warm for being sping time, so I experienced a mini-summer over the weekend. I visited the famous Fisherman's Bastion, the Royal Palace, the Parlament and climbed the stairs to the Gellert Hill. On the day I got in a took this picture of the Parlament and the Royal Palace (Királyi palota) from the margerit bridge.

A couple of weeks ago K. was visiting Dublin and we rent a car to go for the first time to the Northwest of the country. We drove all the way to Donegal stopping by in Sligo and Bundoran. One of the highlights of the trip was without question the Slieve League cliffs. They are more than 600 meters high and the view is just stunning as you can observe in this picture.

I still remember how I felt the first time I visited the Tower Eiffel in Paris (it was the same sensation I experienced when I visited the Taj Mahal): A landmark that you have seen so many times in pictures, postcards, movies, books, etc, but this time the place appears in front of your face and you can almost touch it from the distance. Every time I go to Paris I try to go to the Trocadero metro stop and try to get this really good view of the Eiffel Tower. Once I was playing with my camera and I setup a long exposure while the tower was glittering and that's how I got this shot.

In the summer of 2010 we were looking for a short break holiday and we found some cheap tickets to Bergamo, so we decided to go there. I was gladly surprised by this beautiful town, particularly the “Città Alta” area with its medieval town architecture, narrow streets and history you can breath in every corner. We were not very lucky with the weather in that occasion (we experienced some torrential rain) and were in our summer outfits, but nevertheless we enjoyed the visit to this place and I would gladly come back.

Last fall I went to visit my dear friend J. in the Netherlands. This time we took the train a visited the nice city of Utrecht. We walked around the canals, grab some cup of coffee and enjoyed a lovely sunny day grabbing a beer in one of the terraces.

Last summer I found a extremely cheap flight ticket to Edinburgh flying in the morning and coming back in the evening, so I decided to make a "day trip" by plane to Scotland. I'm really glad that I did it because Edinburgh turned out to be a very interesting city with it's majestic castle, and the one o'clock gun, bam!!!. I also solved during that trip one question I had my mind for a while (why a Scotland and England are part of the same united kingdom). I also enjoyed walking around the city and climbing to this park where I got the chance to get a nice view of the city. I definitively will come back!.

During the summer of 2011 we took a small summer break and we went for the first time to Dubrovnik in Croatia, flying from Berlin. A lot people had recommended me this destination and I was not disappointed at all since they have a nice summer weather, nice food and an amazing site seeing. You can walked around the city in the old city walls and that's where I took this picture of showing the old cathedral. The only minus are the rocky beaches with sea urchins, but overall it was a very nice holiday.

In the summer of 2011 my dad came to Europe for the second time and we meet in Berlin. From there we did a small trip including Vienna, one of the cities he really wanted to visit since he is in love with the classical music. I used to have a very interesting colleague at work from Vienna so based on his comments I was also very interested in visiting the city. We had a very good time there and one the plans we did was to attend a concert at the State Opera. The building was built in 1861 but restored after the Second World War.

When you visit Dresden it's hard to believe that one of the most important landmarks, the Frauenkirche, was reconstructed only after the German reunification and it has been standing there for less than 10 years (the works were finished in 2005). This famous church was completely destroyed after the second world war during the Anglo-American allied forces began the bombing of Dresden in February 1945. When you look at both the pictures before the war and the picture of this area during the communist German Democratic Republic, you realized they did an amazing job bringing the Frauenkirche to its former glory. I have been in Dresden only 2 times, but it was just a short visit catching a train to Prague. I would love to go back and spend more time in the city.

If you have been following this photolog you are aware this was not my first time in London and you might remember the first time I went there I didn't have a decent camera so I ended up taking up crappy pictures. In my second visit to London I went with a good camera and I got the opportunity to take some decent pictures like the one you see here with the Big Ben. I went for a Juan Luis Guerra concert with G, but we also took the oppotunity to visit London for a couple of day, and yeah as I remembered it, it's an amazing city!.

A couple of weeks ago I took one of those cheap flights to Charleroi, Belgium and there I found out there was a bus service to Luxembourg, so I did a small city break in this small but very interesting country. I learned that most of the people are trilingual since they study French and German at the school plus their national language (Luxembourgish). I also learned that in this country it was fought one of the most cruent battles at the end of the World War II (Battle of the Bulge and I learned that Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy that still exits in the world. So on that weekend I explored the city, walked all over the place and enjoy a very nice weather. I also rented a city bike (veloH) and went around the different parks. It was a lovely visit and I would love to go back again. In this picture you can see the fortified city.

Venice is one those places you can read about in many different guides or websites, hear stories from the people who have been there already and browse photo galleries, but nothing compares to actually to go to Venice by train, get off at the Santa Lucia train station and start strolling around the narrow streets, crossing bridges until you get lost or if you are lucky find by chance the Rialto bridge. I found a connection flight back to Dublin passing by Venice and I got the chance to spend a couple of days in the Italian former city state.

Almost 2 years ago I spent the Xmas vacation doing a small European trip through Germany, Czech Republic and Poland, finishing it in Krakow, Poland. I took the night train from Prague to Krakow and I had a very good time there with K. celebrating NYE. We went to a nice Jazz concert the last day of 2010 and also I had the chance to taste for the first time the food in the famous Bar mleczny. I also experienced the coldest winter ever. Poland is beautiful, but it can be reallly cold during winter time!

The last week of November we were surprised in Ireland by a "cold snap" that really lower the temperature in the country and was followed by heavy snow falling. I love to walk under the snow and this time I had the chance to do it a couple of times going to work and going back home. I took this picture in Sandymount on the weekend just after the first snow fall took place.

In the Xmas holidays of 2010 I had the chance to visit a city that was on my list of "really want to go there": Prague and I was not disappointed at all. I really enjoyed my time there visiting the Prague Castle, the charles bridge, the Josefov Jewish quarter and of course the old town where you can see the famous Tyn Church. On my second day on this nice city the sun was shinning and I could take this picture of the famous landmark.

The last weekend of October I had the chance to visit Poland for second time. In this opportunity we went to Gdansk, a beautiful city in the Baltic sea, that was completely destroyed during WWII, but that was very well restored. Here is a picture in Długi Targ (Long Market) showing the Neptune Fountain with the Main Town hall in the background. I highly recommend to visit this city!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to visit Stockholm, one of the Scandinavian cities that was on my "I definitively want to go there list". The week before I asked F. a Swedish college of mine what would he recommend to visit and the first thing he told me about was the Vasa Museum, a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628 that sank on her first trip very close to the Stockholm harbor ... that would an interesting story, but the amazing second part more than 300 years after is that they were able to recover the ship that was kept in a very decent condition because of the composition of the water around that area. So you get this incredible of experience to visit this gigantic ship almost as it was in the 17th century. I would recommend the visit to Stockholm just to see it. In this picture you can see the ship on the background with a small Sailor doll in the exhibition (using the wonders of perspective it looks like real one!).

A couple of years ago I visited Portugal and I had a great time on that country, visiting Porto, Lisbon, Sintra and Cabo da Roca, the most western spot of Portugal and also the most western part of the European Continent. I think this fact is really cool because you can not go any further :). I would to came back to the country: Beautiful landscapes, great weather, nice people and amazing food!.

In september 2010 we have the chance to visit Porto flying directly from Dublin. This was the first we visited Portugal and thanks to a Portuguese friend of mine we tasted the famous "Bacallau" in a restaurant close to the city center that was absolutely delicious. We also had the opportunity to visit one of the bodegas and we tasted the famous porto. Finally we didn't only have very good food and wine, but we were welcomed by a gorgeous old city center. Highly recommended.

One of my first images of Europe was the majestic old walled city of Carcassonne. An Scotish friend invited me to visit this place with a friend of her who was visiting her and I was so happy that I was able to go. I loved the city!. I was able to come back some years later when I did train trip from Girona to Carcassonne and during the night I was able to capture this shot.

O'Connell Street is probably the busiest street in Dublin at any given time with buses coming and going to every corner of the city, pedestrians crossing and meeting at the spire and taxis waiting for passengers. It is almost a privilege to see it completely deserted as you can observe in this picture. Some years ago while I was living in Ireland I had to go one time to a public office in the city center and I tried to arrive as soon as they were opening. The sun was just coming up and the street looked so empty that I decided to take this shot. It was not intended, but I got the James Larking statue on the spotlight. He was a trade union leader and socialist activist and there is a picture honoring him in the middle of this famous street.

In the autumn of 2010 I had the opportunity to make a small trip flying to Girona and then going by train I went all the way up to Carcassonne, stopping by in different towns including Narbonne, where I needed to switch trains. I took the opportunity to walk around this former prosperous port located in the department of Aude. I'm always fascinated with the Gargoyles in the European cathedrals, but the ones in Narbonne were particularly spooky so I took a picture of one of them.

Last year when I was visiting Finland, I went to the tourist office to ask some information about an Island nearby Helsinki, but then the guy in front of me began to ask questions about how to get to Tallinn by Ferry ... and to make the story short next morning I was early in the port buying a return ticket to Tallinn, Estonia. This was the first time I visited one of the Baltic republics and I loved it. Tallinn is a very beautiful city with nice park, a very well preserved city center and some interesting museum. I took this picture when I was getting to Tallinn by Ferry. You can see from the Boat the city center at the right of the picture. It's very close so you can walk there.

It has been almost 4 years since the time I visited Finland, and one of the best souvenirs I have from that travel was the day trip I made to Suomenlinna on a nice summer day. It's a very interesting place, according to wikitravel "Gibraltar of the North, was once the greatest sea fortress in the Baltic, built by the Swedish in the mid-1700s". You can take a boat that will bring you to this place, enjoy the day and then come back to Helsinki. Totally worth it!

I have heard some positive comments about Oslo but I have to confess this city was not in the list of the European places I wanted to visit first. Nevertheless in June 2010 I found some ridiculously unexpensive flight tickets, so I decided to visit Oslo. The weather on that weekend was sunny and one the spots I enjoyed the most was to visit the Frogner Park where there were plenty of people walking around, playing and taking a sun bath. I walked all the way to the end of the park and when I arrived there I took the picture you can see here ... by the way if you head rumors about oslo being expensive ... it's not true ... it's superexpensive!!!

In this first weekend of June I decided to go to Scandinavia for the first time. I had to get up early and when I went to take the bus to go to the airport I saw this nice sunrise in the Sandymount beach.

Last weekend I went to the Netherlands for the second time in my life to visit my dear friend J. who works in the Hague. Even if the weather was not great I had a really good time chatting about so different topics. On Sunday since it was a rainy day we went to the Mauritshuis Museum where is the famous painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring". On my way back yesterday I did a stopover of 2 hours in Amsterdam. In conclusion I enjoyed very much this weekend :).

Last weekend I visited Strasbourg. I found some cheap flight to Frankfurt and then from there I took a couple of trains to get to that nice French city. Something I had read before and I really liked it was the "Jardin de deux rives", a shared park between the French and German countries (Strasbourg and Kehl). I had crossed some European frontiers by car before, but this is the first time I do it walking back and forth in less than 15 minutes. In this picture I'm looking to Germany from the French side.

The first trip of this year 2010 was to Berlin to visit my aunt and uncle. I'm sorry it was such a short trip because I really like that city!!. This time, when I was passing near the Brandenburg gate I notice the path of the former Wall and I followed it all the way to Postdamer platz where I took this picture. As you can see here it was snowing a lot!.

Last weekend I went for the first time to Poland to visit K. and we spent one day together in Warsaw. When we were walking towards the old city center I spotted this "Cafe Colombia" that actually served authentic Colombian coffee and that had some nice pictures and decoration inside (even an "hamaca"). I was ready to be surprised by Warsaw, but the Colombian Coffee was not what I was expecting ... a nice surprise though :).

Today I realised that I would a really lousy paparazzi :). The story is I went to the IFI (Irish Film Institute) to see the Japanese movie Okuribito (Departures, vert good by the way) and then suddendly I saw there were a lot people taking pictures with flashes. It took me some minutes to realise that they were actually taking pictures of Bono, the lead singer from U2. Instinctively I grab my phone and tried to take a picture and well ... you can see the result here ... no comments.

Last week we went to Belgium with K. to spend the "mini-holidays" there. It's a funny story because we bought the tickets 6 months ago just because they very cheap. For me it was the second time I visited the country and I recall now what I liked it so much the first time I went there: Nice cities, good food, convient train system and not very expensive. I went again to Brussels and Brugges, but this time I also visited Ghent (very nice as well). When we were were walking in Brugges we found this "Jerusalem Church". I was reading in wikitravel that it was built by some brothers of Italian extraction. Belgium is a nice country and it's just 1h away from Dublin

In the second week of October 09 I went with K. to Munich and Salzburg for a long weekend holiday. I really enjoyed both cities. I pass by Marienplatz many times during the trip and every time I enjoyed looking at the "Glockenspiel". We even went there the last day to hear and see the mechanical characters come to live for a couple of minutes :-).

I bet you haven't seen before this version of Davinci's "Last Supper" :). This mural is located in Dublin, where there is a nice Italian Quarter with some nice restaurants and Cafes. A plan that we like to do with K. on the weekends is to go there and grab a coffee.

Probably the shortest city break I have ever done in all these years, but one of the most interesting ones at the same time was the hour I spent in Salamanca back in 2009. I didn't plan on purpose to visit the city for such a short time but it was rather a stop over on my way from Llerena in Extremadura to Ourense in Galicia. I was visiting an old friend from high school in Extremadura, but I was also going to the wedding of a Spanish friend in Galicia and the only flight that I could find was from Dublin to Madrid so ended up renting a car and driving across the Iberian peninsula. I decided to break the trip to Ourense in two and I was glad I did it, because Salamanca turned out to be a beautiful city. I definitively would like to come back and spent more time. Here you can find a picture of the Plaza Mayor.

Yesterday (Oct 17/09) it was a very chilly morning in Dublin but a couple of hours later the Sun came up and it was a very sunny and pleasant day. K. was very kind to get up early and go with me to get my MSc. degree. It was nice because the ceremony was in St. Patrick's Cathedral and I hadn't been there before. I took this picture just before entering the place.

In the first week of October 09 I had the weeding of a good friend in Galicia, but I took a couple of days off to visit my high school friends M. and C. in extremadura. I went with M. to Merida and I was surprised to learn it was one of the most important cities of the Roman Empire. You can find the Roman remains everywhere but one of my favorite spots was the Roman Theater. I felt like I was in Rome again. Amazing!

A couple of years ago I was crossing a pedestrian bridge over the Liffey river and I was able to take with my mobile a nice picture of the sunset over the Custom House in Dublin

Last week just before my birthday I went to the outdoors module of a leadership program I have been doing for some months now in my company. The module was actually very interesting but one huge added value was the location: Leenane in the Galway County. The landscapes were breathtaking. I took this picture on the 16th of September of 2009 at 6:05 pm in front of the Leenane hotel.

I love to fly and since I live in an Island I have been flying a lot during the last couple of years. I was going to visit some friend in Spain in the last day of September 09 and a couple of minutes after taking off I saw this really nice sky when the sunset was approaching. So I thought it was worth to take a picture.

The first time I visited Austria was in 2009 when I went with K. to Munich. I didn't know but she told me Salzburg was relatively close to the Bavarian border and since I always wanted to visit the place where Mozart was born this was an excellent opportunity to go there. We had a really good time visiting the old town with its beautiful baroque architecture. Actually just before we crossed the bridge to go there I took this picture showing an overview of this place, including the Hohensalzburg Castle. And of course we didn't leave Salzburg before visiting the birth house of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Probably the last sunny and warm day Dublin 09 ... I don't know how many times I passed by Merrion Row in front of St. Stephens Green, but way too many!, nevertheless, today when were walking with K. we noticed there was a tourist taking pictures in the middle of nowhere. When I watched closely I noticed she was taking pictures of this old Cemetary, the "Hughenot", where there are buried the descendants of the Hughenots, who escaped the french prosecution. Interesting how I missed this spot so many times!

I have been living in Europe for a bit more than 5 years now. I have been lucky enough to meet very interesting people and travel around many European cities, so I thought it would be a good idea to publish once in a while a random picture, and add a small comment :). So here we go: "Saint Patrick's Day Sunset in Dublin 09"

Last Christmas (08) I had the chance to go to Germany and to spent a wonderful christmas with L. and J. They were wonderful hosts. In this second visit to Berlin I really wanted to visit the Reichstag and I'm glad I did it, but it was not fun to queue outside in the "Berliner Winter". That's a lesson I learned :).

In December 08, I meet my aunt and his husband in Germany. I went to Frankfurt first and one night when I was crossing one of the bridges I took this picture of the lights of the "Wolkenkratzer" in Frankfurt am Main. This was my second visit to the city and I really enjoyed it :).

Last weekend we went to visit our friend C. in Dijon. It was almost 2 years since the last time we went there and we had a great time walking around Dijon, hiking in the nearby towns and going to the French movies. The first day when we went to the city center and we were heading back I took a picture in this warm sunset.

Even if could assume this picture was taken in the middle of the country side somewhere in Ireland, this shot was actually captured in the Phoenix Park of Dublin. In the West part of the city there is this huge park (around 7 km) where I used to go once in a while when the weather was nice. Last autumn I went there with some Brazilian friends and we took some pictures including this one.

Last year in September I went to visit my friend C. in Dijon. The easiest way to travel was to fly to Lyon. I had the chance to make a small tour around the city center and even if I didn't have the chance to visit la Basilique de Fouviere, at least I got a glimpse from the distance here (I couldn't stop comparing it to Montmatre in Paris)

I really enjoyed visting Berne in 08. It is a really nice medieval city and to stroll around the city center in the night is a great plan. I took this picture in front of the Bundeshaus.

In the summer of 08, I had the opportunity to visit the nice villa my friend J. have in this small Tuscany town called Campiglia Marittima. I really had a good time with him, since we had the time to have long conversations about many topics, particularly about relationships. I took this picture from the window in the dining room on a sunny day. If you look closely you can see in the background the famous Elba island (Famous because it was there where Napoleon was exiled.). It was a really nice week in Tuscany!

This year (09) I went to visit my dear friend T. at Paris and we went together to the Fete de la musique. But the year before we also did it and in a very sunny day next to the Eiffel Tower she took this beautiful picture.

The second time I visited Madrid was in the Winter of 07. It was nice that the weather wasn't particularly cold. One night I was walking in the plaza mayor and I got took a picture showing the Christmas Lights.

Florence (Firenze) is probably one of the most beautiful cities in Italy. I visited for the first time several years ago but I still have in my mind the lasting impression of such a beautiful architecture. When I was in the terrace of the Uffizi gallery I had the opportunity to take a picture of the amazing Duomo di Firenze. The cathedral is probably next to the Ponte Vecchio, one of the most recognized spots in Florence. This duomo created by Brunelleschi was a remarkable achievement during the renaissance period. I wouldn't mind to visit again this city!

One of my favorite European cities is Rome, because I love history and when you walk around this city you can see the ancient Rome remains everywhere. A place a really liked during the visit in the summer of 07 was the "Foro Romano". As you can see here it was a very sunny day and the view was just magnificent!.

In January 07 we went to a paid Ski trip to Courmayeur in Italy. One day when the sport guys where Skiing we went with J.B. and M.G. to do some site seeing in Chamonix Mont-Blanc. Actually we wanted to go to Geneve, but the bus schedule didn't work out so we end-up here. Anyway, it was worth it, we took a small train, went up to the mountain and we saw this beautiful snow lake.

The only time I have been in the "North" (Northern Ireland, for the locals) was in November 06. One of the most interesting parts of the trip was to go to the "Giant's Causeway", where the lava formations created these particular shapes that you can see on this picture.

One of the first places I visited when I moved to Ireland was the prehistoric complex of Newgrange. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is one most interesting ancient structures in Ireland, located near to the Boyne river, some 30 minutes north of Dublin. Apparently this place had some religious significance for the tribes living in this region more than 3000 years BC. As you can see in the picture I took on that opportunity I was very lucky to have an amazing sunny day.

The only time I haven't been able to enter an European country was a long time ago when I was not an European citizen yet and I didn't have a British visa to get into Gibraltar, the British Overseas Territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula next to the "Linea de la conception" town in Spain. In this picture you can see the famous Rock of Gibraltar and that was almost the end of my visit to this place. Today I would be able to cross this border without any problem.

Last weekend I was reading in Wikipedia about some of the biggest misconceptions in history and of them was Christopher Columbus and earth round vs flat discussion. Back then many people agreed with the round earth concept but most of them disagreed with Columbus assessment about the distance needed to reach India from europe the other way around (and they were right). I remembered some years ago I visited the city Palos de la frontera in Spain and I had the opportunity to see some replicas of the caravels he used to navigate all the way to America. I remember thinking back then that I was able to understand why there was a rebellion just before they arrived to la Hispaniola. Maybe it’s not so clear in the picture but they were tiny for such an immense trip.

The first time I went to Berlin back in 2006 I noticed there was this ugly building "under construction". I was curious and I took a picture that was buried in my hard drive. Today when I was cleaning up my computer I found this picture again and I realized they were not building anything, but it was actually the other way around: They were dismantling the "Palace of the Republic". This building was the seat of the parliament of the German Democratic Republic. A couple of years later I visited Berlin and the construction was gone. Berlin will always be one of my favorite cities in Europe.

The first I visited Berlin in the summer of 2006 I fell in love of that really interesting city. I like history and you can breath 20th century history everywhere in this city. When we were walking around with some of my colleagues we passed next to this statue of Marx and Engels and that was a good reminder that once this was East Berlin, the capital of the GDR.

The only time I have been in Greece was when I visited the island of Zakhyntos. I flew there with a charter flight organized by a travel agency in Dublin and I didn't particularly like the place, but my initial impression changed when I visited this unique shipwreck beach. It's very particular place because this short strip of beach is surrounded by high sheer limestone cliffs so it's only accessible by boat. The white sand is beautiful and the hue of the blue water is almost surreal. If you get the chance to visit this Island this is a place I would definitively recommend.

The only time I had been in London (I think it was in the spring of 06) we didn't bring any camera and the mobile phone I had at that time didn't have a camera either, so we bought a disposable one that took some really ... horrible pictures!. I had to throw them away because in most of them you hardly could tell that was London :). Anyway I kept a couple of them like this one where you can see the London Eye .. kind of.

During the winter of 04, I was living in France with M. in a really small village next to Bordeaux, called Cestas. I always remember it was there I saw for the first time in my life Spiders so big you could see their teeth!. A nice plan in Cestas was to go to a park nearby. It was there I took this picture.

One of the advantages of Basel is its proximity to both the French and German borders. So two weeks ago we went with K. to visit Colmar in the Alsace region of France. We had a really good time walking around the narrow streets of the old city, I tasted finally the famous "Tarte Flambee" (not recommended if you don't like or tolerate bacon) and I visited the Unterlinder Museeum, that displays the famous "Retable d'Issenheim". If you are visiting the Alsatian region this city is definitively a recommended spot. I took this picture in a pictoresque area of the city crossed by canals, called "little venice".

The first time I went to Paris in the autumn of 04 with M. The weather was amazing with really clear blue skies. I took this picture in Montmartre and I still enjoy looking at the colors and the background here :).

10 years ago I started my European journey right here, at the center of the world, according to Salvador Dali. I took a train from Toulouse to Perpignan and I started a new chapter in my life filled with so many experiences that I feel many decades have gone through since that January 2004, so far away. Today when I look back I feel extremely lucky to have had the chance to live these years in this continent. I have to confess I didn’t like it at the beginning, but bit by bit I blended in and I fell in love with Europa. I went through some very tough and very rewarding moments and I made some very important life lasting connections. These years opened my mind to the world and I matured immensely as well. I’m very looking forward to the next 10 years to come. I’m still happily conveuropean after all these years :).