La Garrotxa

On the weekends that we don't leave Spain, we love exploring our region of Catalunya. It is amazing how much you can see by renting a car for a weekend. There is such beauty that lies near to us, and we don't want to overlook it by thinking we always have to travel far to find lovely sites.

In April, we rented a casa rural (an old rustic Spanish farm house) with four friends. On a Friday night, we all arrived at different times, made pizza, and played hours of "Cards against Humanity" - a favorite among us all!

The group all united on Friday night.

Our home for the weekend (not the entire house, but an apartment within it)

On Saturday morning we walked to the nearby village of St. Joan de les Abadasses. We wandered the small, quiet streets and found a sunny plaza to sit in to share some tapas.

A quick nap in the sun.

After walking home along the creek, we played a friendly game of soccer in the big yard and enjoyed a barbecue including our favorite Catalan tradition, calcots (we wrote about them here). We spent all night by the fire playing cards and laughing!





On Sunday morning we drove to a nearby (inactive) volcano that is now a beautiful wooded hill to hike all around. We hiked to a church that is now in the center of the crater. After the beautiful walk, we finished with a meal at a Catalan restaurant in the countryside, and headed back to "real life" in the city.

We loved the time with our friends discovering new corners of the country we love so much. Until next time!

Almalfi Coast

This year we have been drawn to more to the off the beaten path style of travel. We have ventured towards small towns, authentic experiences, and less of the big cities with tourist itineraries. However, the Almalfi Coast has been a destination we have wanted to visit for a long time! Yes, it is a popular tourist destination, but the tourist season is actually May-September, and we were traveling in April, so we didn't think it would feel too bad.

The process of choosing to go in April was kind of humorous. This Spring when we were looking at the calendar, we realized that Rachel had one ¨personal day¨ that she is allowed to use at school. All of our weekends for the Spring were already filling up, so we needed to decide when and how to use it! We tossed around a few different ideas, but used Google Flights to see where we could fly to for cheap the following weekend. Lo and behold, Naples, Italy was one of the few places that the price was still low! So we booked our flights for one week later, quickly booked an airbnb, and a few days later, were on our way!

To say that we were happy with our choice would be an understatement. Our airbnb was a family home owned by an Italian mother and daughter, and their adorable little dog named Chico. The women were very hospitable, and even shared a typical Italian dish and the family wine with us when we arrived late Thursday night. When we woke up Friday morning to see the view from the terrace in the daylight for the first time, WOW! We had breakfast on the terrace and had trouble pulling ourselves away from the view of Positano.





Our first day, we hiked the famous Path of the Gods. This trail was incredible! We took the bus from Positano to the nearby village of Nocelle, and caught the trail from there. The views ranged from picturesque coasts to farm homes, abandoned stone buildings to shaded forest. We loved every second of the four hour hike!

The second day we took a boat from Positano to the town of Almalfi. Here, we met a sweet old man on the street who spoke no English, but somehow convinced us to go off of the main street to a little pizzeria up the stairs. We devoured some wood-fired pizzas, and after an obligatory afternoon gelato, took a bus up to the village of Ravello. Rovello is set up higher in the mountains, so although it is not on the coast, it has many famous Villas with views of the water and coastline. We loved walking around the small streets. Every street in the village looked like it could be a postcard view. All the trees were blooming, providing a colorful palette for the eyes! After returning to Positano in the evening, a huge rain storm rolled in. Although disappointed that it was raining, it was still so beautiful! We planted ourselves at the cafe on the beach with a glass of local red wine and watched the rain fall. We decided that any weather would look beautiful in Positano, it's impossible not to!

The view from our boat ride to Almalfi

Beautiful Rovello bursting

Almalfi

Positano's iconic dome.

Our last day, we tore ourselves away from the Positano we love in order to see Pompeii on the way back to the airport in Naples. We hadn't originally planned on visiting, but when we realized it was on the same train line that we would take to go to the airport, how could we not? We spent a couple of hours walking around the ruins. It was of course interesting, although for us, it did start to blend together after a while. However, with knowledge of the history of it, we remained intrigued by the peak into ancient Roman life.

Our Italian getaway came to an end too quickly, but we were so glad for the stolen weekend away!

Algarve

After an intense winter of traveling throughout Southeast Asia and India, we knew early on that we would probably be ready for something more relaxing for spring break. We tossed around a few ideas of options that would be calmer, and finally settled on heading to the Algarve region of Portugal. This area seemed off the beaten path to us, and we were hoping to go someplace that actually did not have a ton of stuff to DO, but would offer some outdoor beauty, good weather, and a chance to slow down. The Algarve did not disappoint.

We rented a car from Sevilla, and drove the two hours to our beautiful Portuguese Villa, which was Rachel's parents' Christmas gift to us. It was the perfect place to base ourselves. 

Each day of the week, we spent the morning relaxing around the timeshare, soaking in the morning sunshine on our private patio, and drinking multiple rounds of coffee. We had a picnic lunch each day, and then decided which of the viewpoints, beaches, or villages we wanted to spend the afternoon seeing. It was a perfectly paced week, with a delicate balance of "go" and rest.

The first night that we arrived, the sky was especially colorful. The day had been a mix of sun and rain, and we could tell it was going to be a great sunset. We walked down to the beach nearest to our villa, and after crossing the long bridge to reach the sand, were blown away by the beauty that awaited us!

We started our tour of the Algarve by visiting the inland town of Silves. We visited the castle grounds, sipped a cafe just outside the Cathedral, and enjoyed the shops selling a variety of cork products that are produced and sold in the region.

We briefly visited the old town of Faro. Although Faro is the location of the airport, and one of the biggest cities in the region, as I mentioned earlier, we were not particularly interested in sight seeing this time around. We found a cafe and enjoyed the view from a second story window while playing one of our favorite card games. We then meandered through the cobblestone streets, admiring the unique architecture and bright colors of the town.

Just a short drive down the road from Faro is an even smaller town, Tavira. We loved sitting by the river in front of this beautiful cafe in Tavira enjoying the afternoon sun. We also visited it's stunning white church and church gardens.

Although we loved the quaint towns and getting a glimpse at authentic Portuguese way of life, the real draw to the Algarve is it's incredible coastline. We picked a different section of coast to go to each day, and it seemed to just get better and better. We loved being there before peak season so there was essentially no one on any of the beaches. This resulted in breathtaking views, and time to sit and admire instead of having to avoid crowds. The variety of the coast and rock was some of the best we have seen!

Praia da Marinha

This lighthouse was once considered the "end of the (old) world." It is the southernmost tip of Europe.

Our last evening, we headed to Praia da Falesia. We were hoping the afternoon clouds that rolled in would clear out in time for us to catch one more beautiful sunset, but they did not cooperate. However, this beach was stunningly beautiful nonetheless. The rock shape was truly mesmerizing. We walked for a long time along the beach observing all the different shades of red, and sprinted at the very end as we saw the rain ahead of us. Thankfully we made it back to the car just in time for the clouds to break lose.