Taking in some art on a Sunday afternoon

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

We woke early this morning to take a taxi from our hotel in Seville to the train station to catch an 8:45 a.m. train to Madrid. The trip was about two and a half hours, much better than the eight our train ride it took us to get to Seville. Upon our arrival in the Madrid Atocha train station we got directions from a lady at the tourist information booth on how to get to our hotel by metro. I have to admit the first couple of times we arrived in a city without knowing EXACTLY where our hotel was and how to get to it, I was a bit stressed, but by now I’ve learned, that there is a tourist office in every train station/airport and if you can’t quite get to where you are going with their directions alone, that people are generally happy to help you find your way. We followed the lady’s directions, switching metro lines once and arrived at the metro station she said was closest to our hotel. The hotel was not in direct sight, so I asked a bystander if they knew where it was, and sure enough, they kindly pointed us in the right direction. Once at the hotel we checked in and dropped our bags before heading back in to the center of town on the Metro.

I had read in our travel guide that a couple of Madrid’s more famous museums were free on Sundays, so we decided to give a couple of them a go. First stop was the Museo de Arte de Reina Sofia, Madrid’s modern art museum and home to works by such famous Spanish artists as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, among others. After touring the areas of the museum where many of these artists’ works are featured, we left the museum to grab some lunch, as it was nearly after 2 o’clock at this point.

After lunch we walked down to the El Prado Museum, Spain’s most famous museum. When we reached the ticket booth however we realized that the free hours did not start until 5:00 p.m. So we decided to come back a little later so we could take advantage of the free admittance. Instead we went to the Caixa Forum and toured a moving photography exhibit that was featured there. After exploring the Caixa Forum we stopped for a snack and to relax for a bit before heading back to the Prado Museum.

Shortly after five o’clock we walked back in the direction of the Prado Museum, however, to our dismay we discovered that we weren’t the only ones looking to take advantage of the free admission, the line was a couple hundred yards long, and not being the biggest art museum people to begin with, we decided to give it a pass. So we made our way back towards the metro station, stopping first at the train station to book our tickets to Toledo for tomorrow before heading back to our hotel.

The remainder of the evening we spent in the area around our hotel. We went for a couple of drinks and a snack at a café nearby before returning to our hotel. A couple of hours later we inquired about restaurants in the area or markets, only to discover that not much was open in the area on a Sunday evening, so we ended up going back to the same café for dinner, I don’t think they recognized us, but we felt a bit silly.

Tomorrow we rise early to take a train to Toledo where we will spend the day.

A Picture Perfect Town in the Southern Spanish Sun

I am pretty sure we could have slept all day today. Our hotel here in Seville is one of the few hotels where the air conditioning has worked without a hitch, that has had a comfortable bed, and where the way the buildings are so close together prevents the sun from shining in. We slept until after 10:00 this morning, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

When we finally made it out of the hotel into the hot Seville sun we meandered through the winding narrow streets of the Barrio de Santa Cruz to the city's Cathedral. The Cathedral was built on the site of the former Muslim Seville's main mosque between 1401 and 1507. We toured the Cathedral and walked up to the top of its adjoining tower, La Giralda, which was the former mosque's minaret dating to the 12th century.

After touring the Cathedral and tower we walked towards Alcazar, the former residence of Muslim and Christian royalty, and found an inexpensive place to grab sandwiches, cold drinks, and to get out of the sun, something one has to do frequently in the July Sevillan sun.

After lunch we toured Alcazar. Seville's Alcazar was founded in 913 as a Muslim fortress. The fortress has been expanded and rebuilt numerous times in it's 11 century existence. The Catholic Monarchs, Fernando and Isabel, set up court here in the 1480s as the prepared to conquer Granada. Its intricate architecture with its many courtyards, painted tiles, detailed carvings, wood panel ceilings, etc. as well as its ornate gardens were the highlight of Seville in my opinion.

By the time we finished our tour of Seville's Alcazar we were pretty tired and were in desperate need of an escape from the blazing heat, so we went back to the hotel with some cold beverages to relax and cool down.

Within a couple of hours we were ready to set back out. This time we headed outside of the historic center towards the Plaza de Espana and the Parque de Maria Luisa. The Plaza de Espana was unfortunately under construction, but we were still able to appreciate the grandeur of the plaza and could imagine how much better it will be when the renovations are complete. After wandering around the Plaza we walked through the Parque de Maria Luisa to the river. We then walked along the river, stopping after a while for another break from the heat for a cold refreshment and a snack. Revitalized, we finished our stroll down the waterfront at the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza in front of Seville's bullring, one of Spain's oldest. From here we headed back to the hotel through the narrow streets of the Barrio de Santa Cruz where we had a brief evening swim.

Refreshed by our swim and a bit of a rest in the hotel we set back out into the Barrio de Santa Cruz around half past nine to a restaurant we had scoped out earlier near the Cathedral. Here we enjoyed a variety of tapas: Croquettes, Pimientos Rellenos de Carne, Bruschettes de Pollo Morraqui, etc. and some drinks before heading back to the hotel. Tomorrow we take a morning train to Madrid. I am sad we don't have a bit more time to enjoy Seville, as it has been one of my favorite cities, but I am glad that our trip moves on and that the days continue to go by, as we are both in many ways, although we are still very much enjoying our trip, ready to go home.

A long but much better travel day

Friday, July 16th, 2010

David left early this morning, around 6:00, Tim and my train wasn't until 11:30 or so, so we slept for a bit longer before packing up and catching a cab to the train station. At the station we had an early snack and purchased our tickets back from Seville to Madrid for Sunday before heading out about 10 minutes late on the train. The train ride to Seville had quite a few stops and took in total about eight and a half hours. I tried to kill some time on the train catching up on typing up my blog entries, but unfortunately even though we had a first class seat, there were no power outlets on this train, so the computer battery didn't last long, although I did get a few done. Other than that we slept, looked at the dry arid scenery out the window, listened to music, and played games on our phones. In many ways it feels like a waste of a day when the majority of the day is spent on the train, but sometimes it is much needed downtime. We arrived in Seville right around 8:00 p.m. and took a taxi from the station to or hotel. The hotel was a very pleasant surprise, although a bit more expensive than the employee rates we have gotten in many cities, I had booked it on Priceline for a reasonable price and it was in an excellent location in the historical center of Seville and withing walking distance of all of the sites and numerous restaurants/cafes. And and added bonus, free internet, so I could finally get caught up on these blogs. After dropping our bags and relaxing for a bit we head out down the street and found a cafe to have dinner at. Unfortunately the dinner was not that good and not that cheap, tomorrow we will try to scope out a better place and a better value. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, picking up ice creams on the way and went to bed.

Parks, Plazas, and Paella

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Today is David's last day in Spain as he leaves tomorrow morning for Madrid and then home to the States. Today is also our only day in Valencia as Tim and I leave tomorrow for a full day of travel to Seville, in the Southwest of Spain, so as exhausted as we all were from our travels and activities over the last week, we set out reasonably early to explore the town. We walked from our hotel along the Jardines del Turia, which are a series of gardens, parks, playgrounds, etc. that lie in the bed of what was once the city's river, which is evident by the myriad of bridges that cross over it into the historic center of town. From the Jardines del Turia we turned in towards the historic center and made our way to Valencia's Romanesque-Gothic-baroque-Renaissance (yes apparently it is all of those things) Cathedral. The Cathedral is home to the Capilla del Santo Caliz, a chapel containing what they say is the Holy Grail, we weren't sure we bought it. Another interesting highlight of the Cathedral is in the back where there is an alter to the Virgin Mary, adorned with flowers and thank-you cards. The ritual is that if a pregnant woman goes to the Cathedral a few weeks before their baby's birth and walks around the Cathedral 9 times to commemorate the 9 months that Mary carried Jesus and pray to the Virgin Mary for an easy delivery and a healthy baby that it will happen. This explained the pregnant women doing laps, I thought maybe they were trying to induce early labor and the Cathedral was the only cool place to go and do so.

After touring the Cathedral we ducked into an Irish pub oddly enough for an early lunch, we hadn't had breakfast this morning so come midday we were pretty famished, even though in Spain you don't usually eat lunch until 2 or 3.

After lunch we got a bit lost in the narrow winding streets of the Barrio del Carmen, a neighborhood in the historical center, before finding the central market. This market was nothing compared to the market in Barcelona, however, this could have been due to the fact that most of the stalls were closed or were closing up for afternoon siestas. We didn't see as much evidence of siestas in Barcelona or elsewhere in Europe, but here in Valencia all of the shops seemed to close up between 2:00 and 5:00 or so. From the market we made our way to the Placa de Ayuntamiento a beautiful plaza surrounded by historic buildings such as the Ayuntamienta de Valencia and the Correos. From this plaza we made our way to the Plaza de Toros de Valencia, home to Valencia's bull ring before heading back to the hotel for a rest.

We headed back out from the hotel around 5:30 or so in the evening to explore the Jardines del Turia in the other direction as we made our way to the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, a complex of amazing architectural buildings housing various museums surrounding by a series of enticing reflection pools. The afternoon sun however was barreling down on us so we made our way back to a cafe near the hotel for a refreshment and then went back to the hotel to cool off before dinner.

Tim's Dad had contacted a colleague of his, Robert Callahan, who lives in Valencia to let him know that we would be in the area and see if he might be able to meet up with us. Robert was kind enough to meet us at the hotel around 8 o'clock to take us down to the beach for some paella, although he informed us that true Valencians never have paella for dinner, they have it for lunch in the afternoon. Lunch or dinner, it was delicious. Although I must say both Tim and especially David looked relieved when he asked if we just wanted the traditional chicken paella, although true Valencian paella usually also has rabbit and snails. Before our paella we enjoyed a few tapas and some beer/wine. It was a gorgeous atmosphere, right on the boardwalk along the beach, and with the ocean breeze the temperature was perfect.

After dinner Robert dropped us back off at our hotel where we all worked on packing up for the morning and then went to bed. We will miss David when he leaves tomorrow and were extremely grateful for his company. It was nice to see someone from home as we have been traveling so long just the two of us.

So sad to leave Mallorca

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

After we woke up this morning and got our things mostly packed and had breakfast we decided we would pay the additional fee to keep our hotel room until 4:00 in the afternoon so that we could come back to the hotel for lunch and could clean up before heading to the airport. We left for the beach shortly after 10:00 in the morning. The sun felt a little hotter today, perhaps because there was a little less of a breeze, but I spent a fair bit more time in the water. We decided to head back to the hotel for an earlier lunch around 12:30 or so, this way we would have at least an hour or so back at the beach after lunch. We made it back to the hotel after our afternoon at the beach a little before 3:00. We took turns cleaning up and finished packing up and left the hotel right around 4:00. Again we underestimated the travel time from the hotel to the airport and arrived at the airport only an hour or so before our flight again. But again, we had no problems, that is until our flight was delayed 30 minutes or so and we had to sit on the plane at the gate. We weren't that surprised however, the amount of planes at the airport in Mallorca is astonishing. Mallorca is obviously THE beach destination of Europe, in fact it was hard to find a Spaniard, most store owners, waiters, etc. were English. When we finally departed Mallorca it was again just a short 30 minute flight to Valencia. Upon our arrival in Valencia I was able to get directions from a lady at the airport on what metro station to get off at for our hotel. Unfortunately the metro station was much further than we thought from our hotel and we weren't entirely sure in what direction from the metro it was, luckily we guessed correctly and arrived at the hotel safely. After dropping our bags at the hotel we set back out to find something to eat. We found a Lebanese restaurant not far from the hotel and enjoyed a couple of drinks and some sandwiches before heading back to the hotel.

Spanish Paradise

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

There is nothing better than waking up in paradise. This morning we woke up and had some breakfast at our hotel before packing our beach bag and heading out. Tim stopped in the town to get a haircut (since it has been over a month and a half since we left) while David and I picked up a towel for David, a soccer ball, and some water to take with us to the beach. After Tim was done with his haircut we walked the short distance to the beach. This beach was a refreshing change from the beaches of Barcelona. The sand was much finer and softer, the water clearer, and the beach much less crowded. We found a great spot on the beach and settled in. The weather was phenomenal as well, the heat in Barcelona had made it very hard to lay out without getting into the water every 15 minutes or so, but there was a beautiful breeze in Mallorca that made it pleasant to lay out for even an hour before you felt it necessary to dip into the ocean to cool off. We took a break early afternoon and went back to the hotel to make lunch. After an hour or so break from the sun though we were back at the beach. The boys enjoyed kicking the soccer ball around the beach and the scenery (anyone who has been to a European beach knows what I mean) while I soaked up the sun, listened to music, and cooled off in the Mediterranean. Early evening we headed back to the hotel and had a swim at the pool where the boys got involved in quite the competitive game of water soccer with a young group of Italian boys. After the game we went up to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner and had a couple of drinks before heading out to eat. We found a restaurant a little further into Magaluf and enjoyed some good food and drinks. We returned to the hotel late and went to bed. Tomorrow we check out of the hotel, but our flight isn't until late evening, so we hope to enjoy a little more time on the beaches of Mallorca before heading for Valencia.

We're going to Ibiza...well Mallorca....close enough

Monday, July 12th, 2010

After a late night celebrating the Spanish victory in the World Cup Final, we slept in a bit this morning, checking out of our hotel in Barcelona at around noon. We then took the 12:30 bus to the Montmelo train station and the 1:01 train to the airport. We may have slightly underestimated the travel time from hotel to airport and arrived at the airport less than one hour before our flight to Palma de Mallorca, but luckily we were able to successfully check our bags and board our flight with time to spare. The flight from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca is only 30 minutes in flight time, so it was a quick jump over the Mediterranean and we were there. Upon our arrival in Mallorca I inquired about transport to the Palmanova/Magaluf area of Mallorca, where our hotel the Playas Ca's Saboners Apartamentos was located. Transportation was fairly simple, we merely had to take the #1 bus from the airport to the main bus station near the Placa de Espana and one of several different busses from there to Palmanova/Magaluf. Based on the information I had read in reviews we got off at a Magaluf bus stop and had only a 5 minute walk to our hotel. We arrived at the hotel around 5:00 in the evening and were able to check in straight away. The hotel was very well located within walking distance of a grocery, restaurants, the beach, etc. The hotel also had a very nice pool on site as well. The room itself was nothing spectacular but had a separate bedroom, living room area, and kitchenette with a mini fridge, stove top, toaster, plates, silverware, etc. It was perfect for our needs and would be an excellent place to return with friends. After dropping our bags in the hotel we walked to a supermarket we had seen upon our arrival and picked up some items for breakfasts/lunches which we planned to eat in the room as well as some snacks/beverages. After returning to the hotel we set back out shortly to find a place to eat. We had dinner at a little place just right down the street. I was really surprised that for a resort town the grocery items as well as the prices at restaurants were quite cheap, often cheaper than what we have found in mainland Spain. After dinner we walked back to our hotel and hung out on the patio chatting over a couple of drinks before heading to bed.