The most famous castle of Scotland

That is the Eilean Donan Castle. In Scotland there are a bunch of castles, but this one is worth to be visited. It is located on the West coast of Scotland, just before the bridge that allow the access to the magnificent island of Skye in the inner Hebrides.

We went from Ullapool, in the North, to Skye and this castle was on our route. It is a quiet place and we had enough time to get some rest after lunch. There is a restaurant and some shops to buy souvenirs. It's the perfect stop before going to the island of skye...

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Video from Roccaraso

I have just uploaded another video from our last trip to the Winter Resort of Roccaraso. On this one you can see Daniele recording live from the snowboard...

Skiing at the Apennines

Only 200 Km (125 miles) from Rome you can find the biggest winter resort of the Apennines. This place have nothing to envy the Alps for. I have been there with my friend Daniele after Easter Sunday and we found tons of snow, something really weird to find in central and southern Spain on late March. In fact, weather was cold and we even skied throughout the blizzard...

We established our base camp on a little mountain town called Campo di Giove, located 17 Km (10.54 mi miles) away of Sulmona in the Italian region of Abruzzo, which is famous for its confetti, a kind of m&m's chocolates which with they make beautiful flowering shapes.

Once again, I get surprised by the rough landscapes you can find in Italay out of the Alps. We enjoyed spectacular views such as the Gran Sasso (great stone) with 2,914 m. the highest summit of the Apennines and others like Majella group (Monte Amaro 2,793 m.). Large beech forests and some firm represent zonal vegetation in the area.

Campo di Giove is a unique place to get some rest. It is quiet, small but full of local color... From there, we went every day to Roccaraso. There is a direct access from Campo di Giove to Roccaraso, but its closed in Winter due to snow. So we had to go round about 30 Km. through mountain roads to get there.

All the trails are really exciting and you can find all different levels of them, blue, red or black.Ski pass is about €26-€32 a day. And ski and boots rental is about €15 a day.

Here are the photos and videos:

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Krakow April 2.005

Yesterday, April 2nd we commemorated the death of John Paul II, the pope who has filled an important part of our lifes. In the beginning of that year 2.005, I started to plan my trip I wanted to make after the Holy Week, in mid April. On November 2.004 I visited the Südtirol, a region in the North of Italy which was lost by the Austro-Hungarian empire after World War I. I got pretty shocked about the Alpine landscapes, so then, I was determined to visit Austria and get a good knowledge of the Alps on my following trip.

While planning my route to central Europe, I noticed that the capital of Moravia, i.e., Brnö is relatively near Krakow, so I felt so keen of going there, as well as Wadowice, the birthplace of John Paul II. And that is how we set our visit to Poland, approximately on April 7-8th of 2.005.

After the Holy Week of that year, the pope John Paul II died. It was on Saturday April 2nd about 09.00 pm. I was deeply affected by the death of John Paul II and my feelings were conflicting. In one hand I felt the lost of a father, and in the other hand I felt the Christian truth that Karol Wojtyła had finally reached the Eternity. Under these circumstances, I didn't feel very happy of going abroad. But we felt his presence everywhere... In every catholic church of Bavaria an Austria there were portraits of him and the flags of the Vatican fluttered from the most distinguished buildings of the cities we visited. From hostel to hostel we followed the news about the ceremonies and the impact of his death on the public opinion.

Although my trip mates and me were so keen to know about Austria we only thought about getting to Krakow and Wadowice, which were providentially added to our route, three months before, on April 7th and, above all, April 8th, the day of John Paul II's funeral...
When we reached Krakow on the evening of April 7th the streets were crowded... We first went to the Wawel Castle Cathedral. Then, we went to the Archiepiscopal Palace, which was totally sealed off. The following day we watched the pope's funeral through a big screen installed at the plaza behind the Archiepiscopal Palace. Then, we went to Wadowice where we met a lot of people.

I would like to share this footage as a remembrance of that indelible days we lived in Poland on April 2.005. You can find below the slide with some of our photos, too.























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