hiking - Petsolt Family

Lilly Graduated! Then We Drove Around Ireland.

Graduate in cap and gown gesturing with hands in front of a Northeastern University London backdrop.

Lilly conquered Northeastern University London! That was the reason for the trip and the part worth leading with. We are enormously proud of her. Everything after the ceremony was just us staying away from Spain’s summer heat. Or so we thought.

So we took a few extra days in London, then a flight to Shannon and a rental car. I drove like a champ! I hit one curb, popped one tire, and had it replaced, and I’d like the record to show that everything else went fine.

Then we hiked. The Cliffs of Moher on a day when the sky went white and flat, the Kerry coast with the Skelligs sitting out on the water, a beach where the hills come down to meet the sand. Somewhere on a back road we came around a bend into a bike race, or it came around a bend into us. We toured castles. One officially, with a guide and a story. Another had a sign about private property and the Occupiers Liability Act 1995, which Cam appeared to read carefully before continuing toward it. He and Lilly waved from the top of the remains a few minutes later, until we were all chased away.

It ended in Dublin, in a tunnel under the Guinness brewery in hi-vis vests, on a private tour a friend arranged. Four pints at the end of it. Lilly’s, technically, was the one we were all there for. Cheers.

July 14, 2026/by David Petsolt

70 from an August European Adventure

Hiking & Via Ferrata in the Dolomites, sailing with friends in Croatia, learning important history in Sarajevo & Dachau, the Sound of Music Tour, and a lots of spots along the way. Unbelievable.

August 28, 2021/by David

España Travel, Photo Blog

8 from Girona Region

Hiking in the Pyrenees again – this time with Blaze (a dog that found us and led us for hours). Then a few stops at medieval Spanish towns.

March 20, 2021/by David

Barcelona

Climbing Tibidabo! A nice little Sunday.

I realize the reason I don’t post on a regular basis is that uploading photos isn’t intuitive, and it’s a bit clunky. I want to share what we are doing so I am throwing up my hands on the photos for now. Too many days have passed where I have something fun or silly to share, so here goes…

We’ve been meaning to hike around Tibidabo since we arrived and finally carved out the time this past Sunday to explore. After I played a great game of doubles with a friend and new acquantances, we hopped a cab which brought us to one side of the “mountain,” dropping us along the side of the road. We walked along the road on a well-travelled foot path wondering where the actual hiking and nature was that we wanted. After a few minutes we saw the group in front of us cross the road and jump on a gravel path. We followed behind. Success at finding a steep and rocky and shaded path! After a about 10 minutes we were united with the main trail finding ourselves among others out to enjoy a perfect Sunday. The path was wide enough for mountain bikers and walkers and adorable dogs. We followed along and found ourselves at the top surrounded by spectacular views. Along the way we were wowed by clear views to the Mediterranean and vistas up and down the coast. We could see nearly all of Barcelona. We spotted the field where Lilly plays lacrosse each week too. At the very top we were treated to views of snow-capped Pyrenees – but when we twisted our heads we saw the Mediterranean and the beach. Really, really good stuff!

Wandering to the foot of the famous church, we snapped off a quick photo or two and set off towards the bottom. Oh – at the top there is also a fun little amusement park. Electing to head down the other side of the mountain, we decided to walk and see just what this side had to offer. We had other grand views of the coast and could see straight to our neighborhood. We cut in and out of gravel paths and the side of the one road leading to the top. The cable car station was abandoned and is not currently run (sad, no tourists). We carried on, winding through a beautiful shady park. When we eventually found ourselves at the bottom we toyed with the idea of grabbing a bus back home, but because we hadn’t meandered in this part of the city we hoofed it back home. It is literally ONE long, lovely street from the base of the mountain to our apartment about 3 miles away. Hunger set in at some point so we grabbed hot dogs and fries, sat on a nearby park bench and recharged. With full bellies we carried on to home.

Tibidabo – Barcelona’s Highest Peak

Here are some good photos of what we saw – taken by someone else. 🙂 Click and Scroll

I don’t know that I’ve explained the latest lockdown/restrictions here in Barcelona, and they are worth noting. Restaurants are only allowed to offer in person dining between the hours of 8-9:30 am and 1:00 – 3:30 pm, and takeout can carry on throughout the day, ending at 10:00. There is a 10:00 curfew. We are also not allowed to leave Barcelona proper – AT ALL. Oh, and retail stores that are non-essential must close on Saturday and Sunday. And any stores over 400M can’t be open at all (shopping malls, large department stores, bookstore, etc.). It’s all so strange and surreal. In order to work around things we have developed a bit of a new “routine.” I have class from 9-1 Monday through Friday so David and the kids hang out then. Because we are up late that usually means the kid sleep in and get rolling later than they probably should. We typically make reservations for lunch about 2-3 days a week, taking advantage of the only time we are all available for a meal. David starts his work day around 3:00 and we start school. Dinners have changed since we can’t do late night dining like we so enjoyed early on. Now it’s takeout or a simple home cooked meal.

The sun was shining and all was right in the world for us. Even though the stores and restaurants were shuttered we had a full day. The view from our corner straight up to the top of Tibidabo we are gifted each day is grand (the road we walked home). Fun to finally climb to the top and see what all the fuss was about! We are grateful for all this beautiful city gives us every day.

*edit- I spent another 30 minutes fighting my phone, texting myself pictures from David’s phone and uploading to this post. This is not in my strike zone.

January 29, 2021/by Kate

España Travel

Weekend in the Pyrenees!

Time continues to fly by for us here in Spain. Can’t believe it will be a month on Monday that we’ve been here.

UPDATE: This is all old news. It is now NOVEMBER 6. This story happened weeks ago! We snuck away to the Pyrenees to see another part of the region. It was most definitely cooler, mountainous, gorgeous and we loved our 4.5 mile hike along a beautiful gorge – Ruta de las Gorges Carança.

Ruta de las Gorges de Caranca Pirineo Catalán Francia

Cameron had been asking for a good hike – and he got one. It was challenging, stunning scenery, a little dicey, dangerous and Cameron approved. David took a couple videos as we clung to the safety rope along the cliffs. At maybe three to five feet across at points, this mama was grateful the kids had something to hold on to. At the highest I am guessing we were probably 300 feet above the gorge. The whole thing seemed a bit surreal. As we hit what we assumed was the halfway point (yeah, no helpful maps or blazes along the way) David, ever the responsible dad and husband, reminded us that rain was predicted and we needed to pick up the pace. When it was safe to do so and we were not perilously clinging to the side of the mountain to avoid plunging into the gorge, we jogged and tried to make double time. And…just as we finished putting our pack in the truck and climbed in the car the rain began to fall. We would NOT have wanted to spend any time on a rain-soaked trail.

Tiny ledges….very high above the gorge.

David navigated the switchbacks in the rain like a champ. We also used the time to teach the children an important life skill….how to use an atlas. A-T-L-A-S. We bought one the second day in the city for a couple of reasons. First – you never know when your signal is going to drop and your mapping app quits on you. Second – google maps doesn’t make it easy to spot what might be a cute little mountain village or a town you should quickly research and visit. Grateful that our car had awesome navigation, but we did notice what looked like a neat mountain town off in the distance – the atlas helped identify said adorable town so we headed over to Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via.

A tuckered Cameron zonked almost before we were out of the parking lot after the hike. Lilly and David volunteered to do the reconnoissance mission in the cold, pouring rain while I selflessly stayed in the dry, warm car so Cam could continue to snooze. Mission accomplished. A rain-soaked Lilly returned to lead us to a cute, warm restaurant. The waffles, crepes, cappuccino and hot chocolate with whipped cream warmed our innards and fueled us for a walkabout. The town was virtually void of all visitors, but we were grateful for the few enterprising shop owners who kept their doors open. Forgot to mention that we were in France. We actually kept jumping the border from Spain into France all weekend, mostly because of a funny little island city of Spain surrounded by France. Click the article to learn about that!

Llívia, a Spanish City Landlocked by France

Anyway – we had success finding a few tasty French cheeses, a bottle of local beer and another bottle of local liquor from a lovely French woman who graciously helped us. She didn’t speak English and I don’t speak French. She just kept telling us to use google translate when her French didn’t quite translate for me. It wasn’t until 20 minutes into the conversation that it occurred to me that we were minutes from the Spanish border and she might just speak Spanish. Yep. We had a good chuckle since we could have simply been chatting in Spanish the whole time. Our conversation continued and turns out that when two people speak broken Spanish to one another you can communicate pretty well – and no one judges the grammatical errors or conjugation flaws!

The next day we headed back to Girona and showed the kids the church and old town. We previously visited this area with our dads (see Octogenarians in Spain blog) and used it as a chance to recreate some photos. The kids stood in for Lou and Denny. As we climbed and wandered the kids appreciated that their grandfathers made it up the dozens of steep, stone stairs and around the hilly city! I’ll try to upload a split shot of our recreations later – poor David has been tasked with that one.

Today, September 11, is a Catalan holiday. (remember I said I drafted this long ago, just roll with it). We wandered a bit just to see what the locals would do to commemorate the day. Typically there would be upwards of one million residents filling the streets to show their support for an independent Cataluña, but the pandemic curbed most of the big plans. Keenly aware that we didn’t want to find ourselves in a huge crowd or near any sort of riots (we haven’t heard of any) we wandered different neighborhoods to observe how folks were showing their Catalan pride. Lots of folks wearing their flags as capes, one small, very orderly and spaced out march (pro-Communist I might add). Here are a couple of interesting articles about the significance of the day in this region of Spain and an explanation about the different flags flown here in Cataluña. We spent a good amount of time at a local coffee shop reading to the kids and discussing what it means for Barcelona, Cataluña and Spain as a whole. Interesting stuff.

https://www.barcelonas.com/la-diada.html

https://www.barcelonas.com/catalan-flags.html

OK. So that has you caught up through September 11, nearly seven weeks ago. I’ll try to catch up again on our next adventures. But, know this: our days are filled with exploring, schoolwork, coffee shops, people watching, researching cities near to us, road tripping (when and where it’s safe), checking out markets, eating on sidewalks and late night walks to the best darn gelato shop in the city.

More coming. I promise. – I am racing to play catch up. Writing the blogs is the easy part – uploading the right pictures is really dragging me down and causing all the delay.