Travel by Clark

We visited Stockholm last year for a long weekend trip and didn’t feel like we’d gotten enough Sweden, so we wanted to check out Gothenburg next. Gothenburg is Sweden’s second biggest city and is accessible from Oslo via a 4-hour bus or train ride. We were only there for another long weekend, though, which can be summed up in two full days’ worth of activities:

Day 1: Gothenburg Archipelago

For our first day in Gothenburg, we skipped the main city and explored the different islands that make up the Gothenburg archipelago. You can access these islands from the city ferry, so they’re pretty easy to get to. The ferry ride alone is quite nice:

We started on Vrångö, which is the southern most island and probably the most interesting one. The little town there is very quaint. Our itinerary on each island consisted of seeking out the highlighted viewpoints on the official Gothenburg map, so make sure you pick one up at your first island stop, whichever it may be. This was the best viewpoint on Vrångö:

From there, we took the ferry back to the island of Donsö and then walked to/across the bridge to Styrsö island. I was originally thinking of also squeezing in a visit to Brännö, but after exploring Styrsö, we were pretty much done for the day and headed back to the main city. I still enjoyed this day a lot, though, and definitely recommend setting aside time for the archipelago islands on any Gothenburg trip.

Day 2: Gothenburg City

We didn’t have a set itinerary for this day and just filled it with whatever was close / seemed interesting in the moment. First, we visited the Gothenburg City Museum, which was better than I expected. There are some fun facts about the history of Gothenburg, as well as some creative displays.

Next, we went to the Gothenburg Botanical Garden. It makes for a nice walk, though we didn’t think the grounds overall were anything special. The flower garden near the entrance was the best part:

Then there was Haga Street, which is a famous shopping area with lots of cute shops and cafes. Note that most of these shops are closed on Sunday, though, which is when we were there…

Near Haga, there’s also the old Skansen Kronan fortress up on a hill that overlooks the city:

Lastly, if you’re in the mood for some interesting architecture, I thought the Kuggen building and the Oscar Fredrik Church (below) were worth checking out:

I’ve traveled a lot in China, but one place I always wanted to see and never made it to was the Stone Forest near Kunming. My wife, on the other hand, has always wanted to visit Lijiang to the northwest of Kunming. So we turned this into more of a “Yunnan province” trip to see both of our wishes and then some.

The last time I traveled in China was in 2012, though. Things have changed quite a bit since then, as far as being a tourist goes. In theory, it should be much more convenient now to travel, but in practice, there are a lot of hoops for foreigners to jump through. Alipay, for instance, was a bit of a pain to set up and occasionally didn’t work for certain vendors. And booking things sometimes required a Chinese citizen with a national ID number to make the reservation. So if you’re planning to travel in China, do your research first! Such logistics are their own blog post, and I only want to use this time to talk about the travel itself.

Day 1: The Stone Forest

We actually arrived in Kunming the night before, but it was too late to do anything. For our first full day in Kunming, we skipped the city altogether and went straight to the Stone Forest (aka, Shilin). For as much as I had hyped it up in my mind, I was still pleasantly surprised. People generally spend about 2-3 hours there, but we were there for five, and I could have kept going if we weren’t dragging my wife’s parents along with us!

The Stone Forest is split up into “major” and “minor” scenic areas, and the major area has a lot of interconnected trails that you can easily get lost in. Most tour groups don’t venture very far into these trails, so it’s a great way to experience the Stone Forest away from the crowds. At the very least, I recommend seeking out Sword Peak Pond and Peak View Pavilion. The latter has the best view of the whole park:

Day 2: Kunming

There wasn’t anything specific I wanted to see in Kunming itself, so the events of this day were kinda thrown together at the last minute. Kunming is famous for its flower markets, though, so we stopped by the Dounan Flower Market first. It’s fun to see, if you’re into bouquets, bonsai plants, and/or succulents.

Next, we booked it up the nearby West Hill mountain (aka, Xishan) to see the Dragon Gate grotto:

Xishan is arguably a full day excursion, so we did not do it justice by rushing things and only seeing the Dragon Gate, even if the Dragon Gate is the most popular landmark there.

Lastly, we explored the inner city a little more and visited the Jinma Biji Archway and the East and West Pagodas that face each other across a walking street:

I was also interested in seeing Yuantong Temple, but we did not have time and would have needed to cut Xishan to make it before closing. In retrospect, we could have spent another day in Kunming. It would have given us a chance to also see the nearby Dongchuan Red Land.

Day 3: Lijiang

We took the train from Kunming to Lijiang, which is about a four hour ride. Lijiang has three “old towns,” and we stayed in the one called Shuhe. It’s known for being the quieter and more peaceful one. We arrived early enough in the afternoon to spend the rest of the day exploring the streets of Shuhe:

There’s at least one shop on every street selling Yunnan flower cakes, so make sure you try some!

Day 4: Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

Lijiang’s old towns are cute, but it’s the proximity to other attractions that makes it such a popular destination. For instance, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (aka, Yulong Xueshan) is only an hour’s drive away. This national park is basically China’s miniature version of Switzerland with hints of Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong (from my Top 10 list).

The national park consists of four main scenic areas, and you probably only have time to see 2-3 of them in a day. We tried to do three, which was maybe a mistake, as it really limited how much time we could spend in the central Blue Moon Valley area. This is where all of the beautiful blue and green lakes are, and it would have been nice to have time to walk the full length of it:

The other two areas we visited were Spruce Meadow and Yak Meadow, both of which offer similar views of the snow-capped mountains. If the yaks are in town, I’d say go for Yak Meadow over Spruce Meadow. Unfortunately, we were there too early in the season for the yaks, and so I found Spruce Meadow to be the more pleasant walk:

Overall, I enjoyed this day a lot, maybe even more than the Stone Forest, even though the scenery here wasn’t necessarily anything I hadn’t seen before.

Day 5: Tiger Leaping Gorge

Another popular day trip from Lijiang is the Tiger Leaping Gorge. This one’s a bit farther away, though, and unless you plan to do the two-day hike (yes, two days!), you’ll only spend 1-2 hours there. So I’m not sure I would recommend it, to be honest. But don’t get me wrong, the canyon is still neat:

If you come earlier in the year, the water is supposedly a prettier color, and if you come later in the year, the water is more “active.” So we might have just picked a bad time. Ultimately, we would have preferred spending the whole day in Lijiang. We did at least return with enough time in the day to explore the main old town of Lijiang:

This one was definitely more scenic than Shuhe, but it was also very commercialized. The shops were much more in your face. But if you’ve traveled at all in China before, then you know that’s par for the course.

Spain was more my wife’s trip than mine, as she is a big fan of Antoni Gaudí’s architectural designs in Barcelona. That was the main goal of the trip, though it made sense to expand it into a bigger vacation and include Madrid. Thus, we started the trip in Madrid and ended in Barcelona. Here’s the full breakdown:

Day 1: Madrid

We arrived in Madrid with enough time in the afternoon to see at least one thing, which was the Temple of Debod. This is an Egyptian temple that was donated and relocated to Spain to help preserve it. The wait to get inside can be quite long (about 90 minutes for us), so a quick look at the outside might be all you have time for:

Day 2: Art Museums

For our first full day in Madrid, we wanted to visit two separate art museums. The first, the Reina Sofía, was a bit of a letdown. The layout of the museum was confusing, and there just wasn’t much in there to get excited about.

The second museum, the Prado, was much better. Alas, they didn’t allow pictures in this one! Some notable exhibits were a room dedicated to Bosch, some early wax figures, and a copy of the Mona Lisa done by a direct student of da Vinci.

Day 3: Park and Palace

This was our favorite day in Madrid. We spent several hours walking through El Retiro Park, which is basically the Central Park of Madrid. There are many nice photo ops here, but my favorite was probably the Palacio de Cristal:

We had booked a tour of the Royal Palace for the afternoon. You might not find much enjoyment in seeing room after room of overindulgence, but it’s still interesting. Just make sure you also visit the armory. It is not part of the main tour and is easy to miss!

Day 4: Barcelona and Gaudí

In the morning, we took the 2-hour train from Madrid to Barcelona. In Barcelona, we bought the Modernista tourist card that grants you free public transportation and access to a handful of mostly Gaudí-related venues. Between the things we saw this day and the next day, and the number of times we took the subway or bus, we definitely got our money’s worth.

We were only able to fit in two of the venues on this day, though: Casa Batlló and La Pedrera-Casa Milà. These were homes designed by Gaudí. For me, Casa Batlló was a bit too silly-looking. Casa Milà was better. Here’s a look at the front of the building and the rooftop:

Day 5: All Things Gaudí

Every vacation needs a cram day, and this was definitely ours. We had to justify buying the Modernista card, after all! The day started with the Palau de la Música Catalana concert hall:

We also visited Güell Palace (another Gaudí home), the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau (old hospital grounds), and Casa Vicens (Gaudí’s first big project in the city):

The main event, though, was the La Sagrada Familia cathedral. This was not part of the Modernista card and requires a reservation, but it was definitely the highlight of the entire trip. Yes, this place has been under construction for over 100 years, but most of the remaining work to be done is on the outside. The interior is 99% complete and packs a lot of wow factor:

Day 6: Figueres Day Trip

For our last day in Spain, we made a day trip to a smaller city called Figueres. Figueres is about an hour’s train ride from Barcelona, and the main attraction there (or rather, the only attraction) is the Dalí Theater and Museum. This theater-turned-museum was designed by Dalí as his final legacy and resting place, so it’s a very interesting (and at times weird) experience:

Because Figueres doesn’t have much else going on, we returned to Barcelona early enough to visit the Picasso Museum. Frankly, we did not care for this museum. It is more about Picasso’s early works and his friend, Joan Miro. We wished we’d skipped it and squeezed in one more Modernista freebie instead.