Sevilla, España

So after the trip around Portugal, we made our way into Seville (Sevilla to the Spaniards). A little while later we were in our hostel and quickly to bed. The next day was full of sites to see and marvelous weather. With the average high while we were there at 30º C, we hoped everyone back home would be jealous.

The first site on our agenda was the Cathedral of Seville. Like many other touristic churches, the visitors to this church are plagued by gypsies. Unfortunately we were taken by surprise and swindled out of a couple Euros. Not a big deal, but I think Stu took it personal and is planning to go back to even the score. Gypsies aside, the cathedral is an amazing structure. It is the largest gothic church in the world. It is also the third largest cathedral. It houses an amazing amount of intricately carved, stamped, and moulded pieces, each of which could easily have been someone's life work. Whoever says the church has no money, should pay there €8 and see what's on display. Among all the artwork and beautiful craftsmanship is the tomb of Christopher Columbus. It is held off the ground by statues of the kings of the 4 kingdoms of Spain. DNA tests have been performed to prove that the remains inside are indeed those of Christopher Columbus. (Side note: apparently he died thinking he had discovered India, not the "new world").

Another great site seen in Seville, was the Alcazar. This palace was built by christians shortly after the Reconquista (the retaking of Spain from the Moors by the Catholics). It was built in the Moorish style. There is so much attention to detail in the Alcazar, that even close up pictures wouldn't do it justice. Moulded plaster and carved wood take shape into such an impressive building. It truly left us in awe.

We saw many cute buildings, beautiful gardens, and ornate fountains. Many of which were in or around intricately tiled plazas. The general mood of this city is relaxed and it does indeed have a romantic air about it. If I was asked if I would return to Sevilla, I wouldn't even blink. Of course I would.

Hasta la proximá vez,

Kathlene and Stu

Sevilla, España

Portugal and lots of it!

Well, Madrid is behind us, and now Portugal is too, but not without leaving their marks.

We rented a car in Madrid, and just getting to the rental office was a big enough adventure. Misdirection to blame. The car we rented is a nice, new VW Polo, quite similar to the Golf of N. America. It handles nicely in even the most hectic of traffic. I can not say the same for Stu. The trip out of Madrid was riddled with traffic circles four lanes wide, and buses threatening to run us off the road. We managed to get out unscathed and make our way onto the highway. The drive was quite nice, with a few very interesting sights. It's quite a thing to drive from one country's capital to that of another in just 6 hours. This drive showed us the equivalent variety of landscapes one could expect to see while driving across all of Canada. Quite impressive.

Lisbon was surprisingly clean and wet. We arrived during the middle of a heavy, heavy rain. However, the remainder of our time spent there was sunny and warm. Our hostel was an adorable set up, just steps from the main plaza. The hostel supplied us breakfast, which was cooked by a sweet old Portuguese lady. Her crepes were fantastic. The most notable characteristics of Lisbon were the sidewalks (tile mosaics) and the buildings sided with tiles. Often, the tiles would illustrate an event or scene, and many times they were simply beautiful patterns. Aside from that, Lisbon offered up a plethora of fantastic sights. Our favorites included the neighborhood of Belém, where we saw the tower of Belém, the monument of Lisboa, and the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. We also really enjoyed the castle of Saó Jorge, and the Sé Cathedral, and the various plazas. The people were also a highlight. They were friendly, welcoming, and very helpful.

After our time in Lisbon, we were off to Sevilla, but not without a stop at the quiet, little, mountain town of Sintra and a beautiful drive along the coast. The town of Sintra is situated nicely below a collection of mansions, castles, palaces, and monasteries/convents. Really there were only multiples of the palaces, but that's still pretty good for such a little town (Pop. approx 33 000). The two sites we put on our must-do list were Quinta da Regaleira and the Palace of Pena. Quinta was a mansion, formerly royal palace, bought by an eccentric millionaire in the 19th century. With his millions and eccentricity, he turned the gardens/backyard into an adventuring fantasy land. The result was something better than most theme-parks. We were able to go through caves, underground tunnels, climb towers, see mystical grottoes and fountains and much more. The entire property was impressive. He even commissioned a tiny chapel with cathedral-like detail for his own personal use next to the mansion. It was an all-around fantastic stop on our tour.

The Palace of Pena was on the top of the mountain above Quinta da Regaleira and while we were there, it was also located in a cloud filled with a thick mist. This was rather unfortunate as it was difficult to see the entire castle from the outside. However, we were still able to notice it's true fairy-tale like qualities, arab influences, and ridiculous color scheme. Sections of the castle were colored by red, yellow, and blue at random (where the blue was all tile work). The inside was interesting, as it was all decorated in elaborate 19th century fashion by the last royals to live there. For a better look at the palace when it's not in a cloud, look at thiswebsite.

After leaving Sintra, we headed down the coast of Portugal as a scenic route to Sevilla. We made our way down the coast on some beautiful, twisting, country roads. We drove by a few very small villages and a few frighteningly large trucks before coming up to Olemira. Olemira is a quaint little white-washed town. It gives a real authentic feeling of southern Portugal. The roads are all cobbled and the buildings, all white. Terra-cotta roofs covered every structure. It all came together to show us how quiet and simple life could be in the back roads of coastal Portugal. After Olemira, we raced towards the southern peninsula, rushing to beat the sunset, and boy are we glad we did. We reached Cabo Saó Vicente just minutes before the sun disappeared and we were treated to a wonderful sight. This place could have easily been mistaken for the end of the Earth. With nothing but shear cliffs and endless ocean in sight, facing due west, the sun glowing red over it all, time stopped for a few moments. If we could choose which sunset to see everyday, it would be the one at Cabo Saó Vicente. At least, until we find a better one. We spent a few minutes after the sunset to eat our pre-purchased picnic. I had a ham and cheese pastry and Stu had some sort of . . . "Meat-Cake" . . . Yum, I guess. Well, he seemed to enjoy it. For dessert, we enjoyed a Portuguese specialty made only for the Christmas season. I could have eaten hundreds of them. If we ever return to Portugal, these desserts will heavily weigh on which time of year we go.

Hasta la proximá vez,

Stu and Kathlene

Lisboa, Portugal

Sintra, Portugal

Driving along the Atlantic coast in Portugal

Cabo Saõ Vicente

Madrid

So this time around, and for the next few reports, I will have a Stuey along for the blog. This Monday, the two of us began our whirlwind tour of Spain, which we will finish off with a quick stop off in both Amsterdam and Berlin. We had a few difficulties getting going, nothing serious, but it did almost result with us missing our bus from Bilbao to Madrid. We did make it on the bus, and got to Madrid. After a session of intense luggage lugging, we got checked in and headed back out on the town.

Since we had nice weather, we decided to do as much of the outdoor sightseeing as we could (which turned out to be an excellent decision). Our first stop was the Parque del Buen Retiro, which is a 300+ acre paradise at the center of the city. The park was beautiful, for lack of a better description. There were fountains and statues and creeks and all sorts of trees. There was a lake in the center of the park, at which you could rent a row boat for a quaint little ride. At one end of the park, there was the Queen's rose garden, with most of the roses in full bloom.

After touring the park, it was definitely late enough for us to be hungry. So we fed ourselves on a walking tapas pubcrawl. We ventured through the old town center, finding interesting pubs and restaurants. At each establishment, we would order tapas and drinks, take in the atmosphere and the wonderful food, and move on to the next. This is a fairly popular way to do supper in Spain, and a great experience. We found a great little pastry shop, called Lhardy, where the desserts were unbelievable and the sherry was strong. This was our favorite stop. Admirable mention goes out to "Museo de Jamon", because Stu thinks it's hilarious that there's a chain of restaurants called "Ham Museum."

The second day began with a full tour of old Madrid beginning with Puerta del Sol (a main hub of Madrid). We ventured through cobbled streets to see old churches (some with proportional bell towers, others without), historical markets, convents that sell cookies, stores that sell amazing pastries, and, of course, plazas. Plaza Mayor was the standard old-town Spanish plaza in Madrid. However, this plaza is unique in the fact that it was painted burgundy (apparently a color that was elected democratically by the citizens at the time) and was also used for getting rid of those pesky heretics during the Spanish Inquisition.

Our old-town tour ended with the Catedral de la Almudena and the Royal Palace (Palacio Real). The Cathedral was very modern (construction from the 19th century until 1993) and GIGANTIC! You literally could not look at the entire church from the outside without turning your head. It didn't matter where you stood. The most significant thing about the inside was how colorful the ceilings were and how high they were! However, the Royal Palace was far more awe-inspiring than the Cathedral. The vast building alone is impressive, but it's nothing compared to the elaborate decor inside the 24 rooms we were able to tour. Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures of the inside of the palace to share. But try to imagine what you think an elaborate Spanish palace would look like and then double the amount of amazing chandeliers, velvet on the walls, Ming vases, and incredible ornate vaulted ceilings. Then add a lot more gold tables and mirrors.

Day 2 of Madrid unfortunately featured a bit of rain. It started in the afternoon and didn't hinder our seeing of Temple de Debod (an Egyptian Temple given to King Franco from the President of Egypt in the sixties for helping save monuments from a rising Nile), Gran Via, and Plaza Cibeles (including the GIANT Bank of Spain and Palace of Communication). However, after going to get some delicious Paella for supper at another Museum of Ham it really started to pour. This is when we discovered that you really need to watch out for taxis and buses as they drive through the rivers that build up on the side of the streets.

Tomorrow we're off to Portugal!

Hasta la proximá vez,

Kathlene and Stu

Madrid - Day 1

Madrid - Day 2

Eva turns 24!

Last night we celebrated Eva's 24th birthday in the same fashion that we celebrated mine. Our friends and people from her basketball team got together and we enjoyed a giant supper and drinks at Eva's house and then went out to Sopelana to enjoy the clubs along the beaches. It was a very enjoyable evening although it rained all day and night yesterday and I ended up completely soaked by the end of the night. I have to say cold and wet and so much worse than just cold. I don't know how well I would fair if I was going to be here for the entire rainy winter. Snow and colder may be better.

On an entirely different note, Stu arrives in less than 4 days! We'll be leaving on our grand euro-adventure a week tomorrow (October 19)! We'll be traveling to Madrid, Lisbon, Seville, Tarifa, Tangier (Morocco), Granada, Alicante, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Berlin. So the blog will become much more interesting soon. In the last while the blog dwindled, but now it will be back and better than ever! Look forward to some travel pictures!

Hasta la proximá vez,

Kathlene

Eva turns 24!