Alfred's mother wanted to revisit the city of Cesky Krumlov (German: Krumau) in the Czech Republic, where she was born and attended elementary school, with her children and their partners. So we organized a three-day trip to this beautiful city.

Castle of Ceský Krumlov with Vltava river (German: Moldau)

We had the idea of ​​cycling to Český Krumlov and then continuing on to Prague after the family reunion. So we took the train from Munich to Passau and cycled around 365 kilometers to Prague in 7 days, with a total elevation gain of over 4,600 meters.

On April 9, 2024, we took the ferry from Tangier, Morocco to Tarifa, Spain and continued home. In Spain we experienced three highlights this time: the excellent Gala Dalí Museum in Púbol, the impressive city of Girona and the mighty Sierra Nevada. The first two are in Catalonia, near the French border. We had been in the Sierra Nevada exactly eleven months earlier, see article Mountains of Andalusia, but this time we were able to use our skis.

Thanks to a large low pressure area at the beginning of April, there was a lot of snow in the Pradollano ski area, which is quite large with 23 lifts and 113 kilometers of slopes. We had traveled with skis in our little motor-home through France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco for almost six months without using them, but finally we needed them nearly at the end of our trip. We were so happy to be able to enjoy the only ski resort in Andalusia.

We came to again Spain on January 8th 2024 and we continued to awesome Seville which is with nearly 700,000 inhabitants the largest city and the capital of Andalusia. Two kilometers south of its center is the decent official overnight staying place for little money in a vehicle distribution center directly on shore of the channel Canal de Alfonso XIII. Outstanding is Seville's cycle path network thus we strolled around per bicycle and on foot in its old town and surrounding.

The cape Cabo de São Vicente is the southwestern end of the continent Europe. There the coast of Portugal turns from west to south. This region is part of the Algarve region with awesome beaches but also a lot of tourists.

There is also a short south coast few kilometers south of Lisbon with marvelous beaches, mountains, caves and trails where we spent some nice days

Wonderful Portugal has its name from its second largest metropolis Porto on the delta of the river Rio Douro. Porto simply means port and it had during the times of the Roman Empire the name Cale - PortoCale finally became Portugal.

Bridge Ponte Dom Luís I in Porto with Rio Douro

We came the second in our lives to Portugal via the international bridge between Tui, Spain and Valença, Portugal on November 16th 2023. The bridge crosses the river Rio Minho and there is a nice cycling trail along its Portuguese shore. We started in Alto de Cerejas and pedaled upriver 26 kilometers to the nice village Monção. This trip is very convenient because it uses an former abandoned railway track, but there were some obstacles on the way...

On October 16th 2023 we returned to Spain and we had the idea to cruise along its marvelous north coast where we had been with our little daughter in the years 1984 and 1987.

The weather forecast was good for the next two days so we dared to cross with our camper 1632 meters high pass Somport in the western Pyrenees and to hike a little bit in the mountains. Soon we came into the virgin snow.

We chose the winding route via Clermont Ferrant from Geneva, Switzerland to the western Pyrenees because it traverses the region Auvergne of France with a lot of nature, marvelous little villages, and the stunning mountains and extinct volcanoes of Massif Central. There we did three superb hikes including its major peak Puy de Sancy which is with 1885 meters sea level the highest point between the Alps and Pyrenees.

Before we came to the region Auvergne we enjoyed the unusual warm weather in mid October 2023 with swimming in Lake Geneva and in Lake Lac des Eaux Bleus (10 kilometers northeast of Lyon). Outstanding was our hike to 1623 meters high Crêt de La Goutte in the French Jura mountains - close to the Swiss border where we could see Lake Geneva and the northwestern ranges of the Alps.

Stunning Prague, the capital of Czech Republic, is definitely a must to see in Europe. It is an UNESCO world heritage site; a cultural, political and economical hub of Europe with a rich history. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, residence of several Holy Roman Emperors including Charles IV (1316 - 1378) and an important city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

We started our trip to Prague in marvelous Dresden, Germany and bicycled 5 days along the rivers Elbe and Vltava (German: Moldau) - a  distance of approximately 260 kilometers mainly on paved cycle tracks without significant slopes and disturbing traffic. The first step of this itinerary was really challenging because we took local trains from Munich to Dresden.

The highest mountain range of the Iberian Peninsula and in western Europe outside of the Alps is the marvelous, majestic and pristine Sierra Nevada in Andalusia. It is located few kilometers southeast of famous Granada with its beautiful Moorish palace Alhambra which is one of the most visited sites on earth.

But Andalusia has much more interesting mountain areas than Sierra Nevada. Few kilometers north of Marbella / Costa del Sol is the spectacular Serriana de Ronda.

We came to Andalusia end of the year 2022 and traveled mainly on its wonderful south coast east of Málaga. End of January 2023 we took a plane from Málaga home to Germany where we stayed till mid of March 2023. 

We visited the areas around San Juan de los Terreros, south of Mojacár, La Isleta del Moro and San José on Andalusia's east coast. From the latter one we did a spectacular bicycling tour along the coast to the summit of 212 meters Vela Blanca where we could see Cabo de Gata in the west, which is the southeast corner of Spain. There the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea turns from south to west.

We flew back to Málaga, Andalusia on March 20th 2023 to explore the famous and marvelous beaches of western Costa del Sol including its coastal mountain ranges and the street of Gibraltar.

Unfortunately we brought a serious flu from Germany to Spain. Thus we could not do a lot of activities in the first week. End of March we traveled to the coastal mountain ranges Sierra de los Nieves (Snowy Mountains up to 1919 meters sea-level) and Sierra Blanca de Ojén. Our first destination was the nice little town Coin where to took our bicycles to the 331 meters high hill Sierra Gorda - Fat Mountain. We continued to Tolox which is a marvelous mountain village on foot of mighty Sierra Blanca de Nieves. The 4 hours hike Sendero de las Cascadas leads to some wonderful waterfalls.

The sandy beaches of famous Costa Blanca - White coast in the Alicante province are marvelous, adorned with rocky mountains between its huge and wide sections.

Valencia is with approximately 800,000 inhabitants the third biggest city of Spain. We wanted to visit its old town but we could not find a parking place for our two campers - Marion's sister Jutta and her husband Hermann were with us. Fortunately we had visited the old town with our little daughter in the year 1986. Fortunately we found space for our cars on its southern end close to its modern impressive quarter Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of art and science).

The landscape of Spain is very mountainous. Indeed the third and fourth highest European mountain ranges (after Caucasus and Alps) are in Spain with sea-levels above 3400 meters - Sierra Nevada and Pyrenees. Its marvelous coasts are quite often rough and rocky. In the recent years In the last years Spain has built a lot of via ferratas where you might enjoy climbing without a lot of equipment.

We came to Spain on November 15th 2022 with our camper to enjoy the pleasant winter climate on its southeast and south cost and to follow more ore less our itinerary with our little two daughter Eva (two and a half years old) and Marion brother Tommy in the year 1986. Our first stop was the nice mountain village Agullana which is located few kilometers west of the main border station La Jonquera between France and Spain close to the Mediterranean Sea.

We spent in Mallorca the last two week in May 2022 to enjoy the Mediterranean Sea and to hike a little bit.

There is a spiky mountain range along the northern shore of the island - Serra Tramuntana which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The long distance trail GR221 - The dry-stone route leads from Port d'Antratx (northwest corner of Mallorca) to Polença (northeast corner). This approximately 145 kilometers long hike is challenging due to its remoteness on rough and rocky terrain, and it is barely impacted by mass tourism.

Late Autumn 2021 we returned to Italy again - this time to Tuscany including its beautiful island Elba where we found many superb hiking opportunities, pleasant temperatures up to 20°C and a lot of sunshine for this season.

Again Marion's sister Jutta and her husband Hermann joined. When we drove through the Alps we had very nice weather which we used for two longer hikes. The first one was around was in Klausen (South Tyrol) around its huge monastery.

In Summer 2021 we spent a lot of time in Italy, especially in its Alps in the northwest corner. There are many gorgeous mountains, beautiful lakes with pleasant warm water, the Mediterranean Sea, interesting villages and towns, and a lot history.

We traveled two times to Italy, first between July 19th and August 8th and second between August 23rd and September 26th 2021. Our first itinerary started with witches in western Tirol, Austria where we biked from Serfaus to Hexenseehütte - hut of the witch's lake, where we stayed two comfortable nights with very few people.

Central Sweden offers a lot of hiking and mountaineering capabilities along its border to Norway and on the coast of the Baltic Sea. In between the landscape is relatively flat covered by huge forests and with some nice villages and little towns. Its capital Stockholm is located on the coast of the Baltic sea. It is a bustling metropolis with 2 millions inhabitants, a lot of interesting culture, many green parks and some impressive waterfronts.

Roofs of the street Strandvägen of Stockholm

After we had crossed the border from Norway on the E14 we turned on the first southern street right and continued to the mountain hut Storulvåns. There was a big parking lot and it was nearly fully occupied. The mountain hut is like a little village with a large hotel including some big buildings.

In Jontunheimen are the tallest peaks of Scandinavia up to close 2,500 meters sea-level. This sounds not very high for alpine standards but you have to take into mind that you are much closer to the North Pole. Jontunheimen has some steep, needle-like pinnacles embedded by enormous glaciers and huge lakes. Besides the thinner air these mountains equals summits with 3,300 meters and more sea-level in the Alps.

Reindeer with glacier

We decided to head along the eastern side of Jontunheimen because the weather forecast was bad as usual for its western part where the clouds of the northern Atlantic Ocean hit the mountains and stick there. 

Norway in northern Europe and on the western side of the peninsula Scandinavia is a natural treasure with stunning mountains, deep gorges and fjords, uncountable waterfalls, huge glaciers, and green lush vegetation at lower sea-levels. Its population is besides the few cities very low, its density of people is the lowest of continental Europe. It's famous for bad weather but we enjoyed a lot of nice days in June and July which is quit often the case. And it never gets really dark in these two months - literally you might start a longer mountain tour in the late evening.

Typical Norwegian Cot

Before we headed to Norway we enjoyed skiing in the Alps beginning of May 2016. There had been lots of fresh powder and the ski slopes on the Schnalstal glacier in South Tyrol, Italy were more or less free of people!