My Travel Bug

Ever since I can remember, my family has always gone out of town for trips especially during my siblings' and my school vacations. �You wouldn't find us at home almost every Sunday during the summer school break. �At other times, they were spontaneous weekend day trips. �My dad is the sort who likes going out on long drives. �We either go to the beaches or Baguio or Tagaytay way back when. �We all loved and enjoyed these trips. �My dad takes lots of pics too. �

My mom also enjoys her travelling outside of the country. �Whereas my dad only usually does it for business or to visit relatives. �And us kids got our overseas vacations like they were our right of passage in the family. �So growing up, my siblings and I all ended up being travel bugs, some more than the others. �Lol. �It became one of my raisons d'etre for having gone into the career I am in now (IT with multinational companies... means opportunities to work and therefore travel as well, to overseas with minimal visa application hassle.. lol)

Therefore, for me, as long as I get to explore/travel a city, a rural area, or a place with varying topography, or where I can shoot pics with interesting subjects, I'm happy. �I like this activity better than I do shopping. �And I best like shopping only when it has something to do with shopping for items for my travel, shopping for souvenirs, or shopping for home decor at the country I'm visiting, or if it has something to do with buying Sanrio products. �Lol.

My Europe Photoblogs - Home

Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
on the way to the next terminal for my connecting flight

"W e travel, initially, to lose ourselves;
and we travel, next, to find ourselves.
We travel to open our hearts and eyes
and learn more about the world than
our newspapers will accommodate.
We travel to bring what little we can,
in our ignorance and knowledge,
to those parts of the globe
whose riches are differently dispersed.
And we travel, in essence,
to become young fools again --
to slow time down and get taken in,
and fall in love once more. "

-- from Why We Travel
by Pico Iyer

Welcome to my Europe photoblogs. Bienvenido a mi fotoblogs de Europa.

This page is where you will find the list of photoblogs I made for each of the cities I visited in Europe. You will find the links at the sidebar.

This trip was both a trip of faith and adventure. I visited friends, made new ones, saw different places, met different people, gained knowledge, underwent a myriad of experiences of joy, exploration, sadness, humility, amazement, and thankfulness; all for which I will always be forever grateful.

I took a prolonged leave from work for this journey. And left Manila, Filipinas in September of 2005 for this 6-week journey of independent travel. I don't like the idea of joining a package tour. So independent travel is the way to go.

Prior to this, it was more than a month's worth of preparation picking out which cities to put in my itinerary. Despite proddings by a Madrid buddy to go to Paris instead of Rome, I still chose Rome because of my wanting to visit and be a pilgrim to the Vatican, if nothing else. This journey might have been an adventure, but it was for faith as well. I had to go in this trip to two of the three major Catholic pilgrimage sites (Santiago de Compostela in Spain and the Vatican; the other being in Israel). So it had to end in Rome. In the end, the itinerary by the end of my journey in Rome is this:

SPAIN:
Madrid
Avila
Toledo
Galicia: Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña
Madrid
Granada
Barcelona

PORTUGAL
Lisboa
Sintra

FRANCE
Avignon
Villeneuve-lez-Avignon

ITALY
Firenze
Venezia
Roma/The Vatican

I took a Dutch airline that stops in Amsterdam's huge Schiphol Airport for my connecting flight to Madrid's Barajas Airport. I've lost count of how long it took to get from Manila to Amsterdam then to Madrid. But I can tell you this, I think it took me about 15 minutes of walking to get to the terminal of my connecting flight from getting off the first plane in Schiphol. Haha! Schiphol is huge.












my connecting flight to Madrid, Spain at a Schiphol terminal












a Rijks Museum Shop in Schiphol

Within Spain, I took the bus to travel to the various Spanish cities and to Lisboa, Portugal from Galicia. Going to Sintra in Portugal, I took the suburban rail from Lisboa. Going to France from Barcelona, and from France to Florence, I took the bus. And to cities within Italy, I took the Eurostar Italia train. Then from Rome's Fiumicino Airport, it was off to Amsterdam, then Manila, Filipinas. Home.

This journey was well worth the time and effort it took. It has been a great ride. Life is good.