Across National Borders

So the second largest city in Spain, Barcelona – crowned „World Capital of Architecture" in 2026, was to be visited by us again.

We left our bus safely in Sitges.
The greater Barcelona area is unfortunately well known for theft (not only of vehicles). On top of that, a fairly strict environmental zone with heavy fines for non-compliance/incorrect registration applies in the wide metropolitan region.

…so comfortably by Rodalies into the urban jungle!

Passing the beautiful sea panorama…

…the jungle slowly became visible in the distance:

The impressive and world-famous Sagrada Família (recently home to the tallest church tower in the world). We feel sorry for Ulm Minster. 🙂

Even though the tower is set to be inaugurated on the 100th anniversary of Gaudí's death, 10th June 2026 - the cathedral is far from "finished".

We continued through the Catalan metropolis.
Even though we already know many corners of the city it is always lovely to be back here.

Across National Borders!

Passing Girona, after more than four months – excluding the brief family wedding trip – our journey led us back out of Spain.

On the way through France, near Saint-Mathieu de Tréviers, we found a lovely spot for two nights. Complete with a lake.

We think you can spot the difference between Spain and France in the photos quite well. 🙂

Next up on our list was an exciting visit:
CERN near Lake Geneva.

Brief interlude for all those interested:

CERN? What on earth is that?

• Well, the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire!
  Or also: European Organisation for Nuclear Research

What happens here?

• At CERN the structure of matter and the fundamental interactions between elementary particles are researched – in other words the basic question of what the universe is made of and how it works.
  Using large particle accelerators, protons in particular are accelerated to near the speed of light and brought to collision.
  
  In terms of energy and frequency of particle collisions, the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is the most powerful particle accelerator in the world.
  With a diameter of 8.5 kilometres, situated 100 m underground, it is not exactly small.
  Yes, you read that right: kilometres!

What is the point of all this?

• Invention of the World Wide Web (1989): Tim Berners-Lee developed the WWW at CERN to simplify the exchange of data between scientists.
  …and thankfully also to share our BUS website with you! 🙂
  
  Or also in medicine for example cancer treatment: CERN technology enables precise radiation treatments in which particle beams (hadrons) specifically destroy tumours while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue.

So not entirely unimportant after all! 🙂

The guided tour including insights into the ATLAS control room was incredibly fascinating.
Any more in-depth questions about matter and the substructures of leptons and quarks? Please contact a real physicist you trust! 🙂

From here we continued just under 200 km to Solothurn to visit dear friends.

Solothurn (CH)

…we think our furry co-pilot also got his money's worth during the drive! 🙂
He quite literally stuck his nose out of the open passenger window and enjoyed the view.

We also took great pleasure in seeing the beautiful nature near the Swiss Jura now in bloom. It has been a while since we were last here in November! 🙂

And a first for us:
We headed out onto the water for a rowing trip!

Very handy when friends are members of a rowing club and there is no more training scheduled on a Sunday afternoon.
So we grabbed a four and launched it on the river Aare.

We quite enjoyed it!
Even if our rowing coordination certainly still has "potential", to put it mildly. 🙂

But at least reassuring to know that beginners usually need weeks, if not months, before getting the hang of it.

After a bit of sport we cooled off in 13°C fresh river water and afterwards toasted to what was definitely the slowest rowing trip ever – jokes aside 🙂 .

Back to Germany

Barely arrived near Lörrach: it rains! The first time for us in over two months.

We made the best of it.

Suddenly Christian was lying in a beach chair and Scandinavian rows of houses appeared.

Have we lost our way?!

Thankfully not! 🙂

We spent a night in Ringsheim, near Europa-Park. Here we went for a leisurely stroll and also did a lap around the Rulantica water park. This time however without a visit. But who knows, perhaps in autumn. 🙂

The coming days/weeks things will be rather quiet here on the website and the next post will certainly take a few days to arrive.

The reason: we are in Germany! 🙂
In other words: you already know everything. 🙂

Jokes aside. We are visiting friends and family.

See you soon!

Final word – and we mean it this time:
Has our fluffy four-legged friend developed a new fondness for the passenger seat? We don't know and will simply let a few photos speak for themselves. 🙂

…whether with the television tower of Barcelona, the skyline of Barcelona and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat in the background or the beautiful ocean: our four-legged friend also feels right at home on the road 🙂