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.

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.

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.