So, apologies but I'm now catching up
on posting for a trip I took last year. This will
also be quite a long post unfortunately. Back in July (the following week after the Belgium
post I made in July) we took the opportunity to take a trip to Spain.
Ironically we were just in Spain again, a few weeks ago, for another
trip so stay tuned for that update soon. I started out the trip by flying
directly into Barcelona after everyone else, due to scheduling. At the I was
directed by the reasonably friendly airport staff to a bus that took me directly to
downtown Barcelona, approximately a 15-20 minute walk from the stop
to our home away in Barcelona. Not a bad ride, so you don't need to
worry about taking a more expensive taxi. The home away we stayed at
was nice and was booked through EnjoyBCN. Overall it was an enjoyable experience though we did have some delays due to a housekeeper issue. I'd suggest you make sure you know when you can check in.
The first thing we really did was do
our standard tour, the Sandeman's Walking tour of Barcelona.
Again this was a big success. We had a lively tour guide who went
through the history of Barcelona from the creation of the city, the
story of the Chistopher Columbus to the current status of the city.
One of the most amazing stops, due to the time of the year, was the Iglesia de San Felipe Neri (Church of San Felipe Neri). We walked into what looked like a small courtyard of a somewhat hidden church. As we walked in yellow pedals were falling all around us, almost like a movie setting. It was really quite mesmerizing and beautiful. I can't recommend the Sandeman tours enough, they have been amazing every time we've taken them.
In addition to the walking tour we also
visited various sites of the city that weren't on the tour. The
first sight that we saw was the beautiful, yet unfinished, cathedral
of Sagrada Familia. While still unfinished (under construction since
1882) and designed by Antoni Gaudi, it is a beautiful example of his
work and visually stunning especially when compared to other cathedrals of Europe. I was especially pleased by the curvatures and softness that was incorporated into
the design, where most cathedrals are a much more jagged or square.
While we didn't have the patience to wait in line to see the inside,
based on external appearance alone I thought this was one of the more
friendly and welcoming cathedrals I've seen in Europe. Definitely
holds it's own when compared to the rest.
After the cathedral was Park Güell,
the mosaic park that Antoni Gaudi also designed. An amazing and
beautiful experience. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting
Barcelona with at least one day there. The views, garden and mosaics
are well worth the trek we took from Sagrada Familia to see it. It even had a beautiful view of the city you could enjoy as well, letting you get a feel for how some of the city is laid out. The garden was also especially enjoyable for me because it let me play with my camera in getting shots of flowers and things like that. :-)
The final stop in
our trip to Barcelona included one more site that bore the mark of Antoni Gaudi,
Palau Güell, a mansion that Gaudi designed. It bore a lot of the
same architectural traits that both Sagrada Familia and Park Güell
bore, making it another beautiful site to see. Though I didn't enjoy
it as much the other sites we visited. It was still well worth the
visit. The best feature was the variety and designs of the chimneys
on the roof. They were all designed and looked like they would fit
magnificently into Park Güell with uniqueness of their mosaics. As
a friend mentioned, it looked like they were designed for children to
have fun with and claim as their own.
Throughout the whole journey to Barcelona we
visited a number of restaurants for tapas and paella. All of which
was fantastic Unfortunately I don't remember any of their names
since they were so long ago... I'm sorry for that. But everything we
tried was amazing. In addition we did have a little bit of down time, during which we decided to enjoy the beach at Barcelona that was newly created since the Olympic games where held in Barcelona. Finally, some actual relaxing in Europe! Did I mention sunburn? Yeah... Don't sleep for too long on the beach.
Once we were finished with Barcelona we
started on our next journey towards Villafranca, Navarre, Spain.
This was a villa we were going to stay at while going to Pamplona for
the Running of the Bulls. I'll get to that in a minute though. On
the way we stopped at another amazing place, Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, in Monistrol de Montserrat. A monastery on the
top of a mountain just outside of Barcelona. The design, site and
view were just breathtaking. The food in the cafeteria is
definitely overrated... Essentially just gas station sandwiches and soda. That's ok though, this is a monastery, not a 5 star restaurant. But everything else was just fantastic.
We
were originally going to take a cable car up to the top, but ended up
driving our rental car to the top. The cable car might have been
icing on the cake, but it definitely wasn't needed to enjoy this
trip. The entire monastery is beautiful, and the insides of the
buildings you can go into are astounding as well. One of the neat
items is a step like, cube structure, something like a child might
build. A number of people braved the climb of this monument to take
pictures on top, with the amazing view. And it definitely looked
worth it, if not a little reckless from the safety of the ground.
Definitely one of the most amazing monasteries I've had the pleasure
of seeing.
After this, we continued on to our
lodging for the next two nights, the Hospederia de Alesves inVillafranca. I have to say, in my current 18 months of being in
Europe, this has definitely been my favorite place to stay. And
honestly speaking, some of the best food I've ever had in my life.
While this hotel is in a small town in Spain, as you can guess they
mostly spoke Spanish. The daughter or niece there did speak
reasonable English, and the hostess spoke a small amount. That wasn't
too difficult for us though since two of our company spoke reasonable Spanish, and I with my 4 years of high school Spanish was able to hold
short, yet fun, conversations with the English the hostess knew. The
staff at this hotel when well above and beyond in making us all fell
at home. I would stay there again in a heart beat. They even
translated their menu by hand, into English as best they could to
help us understand what we were ordering. Every meal was fantastic
and our hosts even provided us with free wine every night. They
served what I think is common in the Spanish country side of 3 course
meals. We were given the choice of an appetizer to start with. One
night I had a Spanish dish of tomato, drizzled with egg crumbles,
cheese and a vinaigrette. The other night I had a seafood based
salad, which I believer was some kind of mini eel. Every appetizer
they had listed was tried by at least on person in our group, and
every one fantastic. Next came the main courses. One night I had a
fish dish, and the other was a pasta dish. Again every option was
fantastic. Finally comes the choice of desert. One night I chose a
fruit cup and the other a pastry. Again amazing. The one warning
about Spain, is that they didn't serve dinner until 2200 or 10:00pm at
night, but it is well worth the wait. I highly recommend this hotel
to anyone visiting this area of Spain, even if you don't have a bit of
Spanish in your repertoire they will go out of their way to make you
welcome.
The next day, we woke up bright and
early (4....am...) to go to Pamplona to get ready for the Running of the Bulls or what they locals call it San Fermin. We were there for the first bull run of the week, and
already Pamplona was completely trashed from the party that had
started the night before. While a few of my company were going to
participate in the running, I was not.
The remainder of us went into
the Plaza de Toros to get ringside seats to the Arena. If you want
seats you will have to buy tickets to get in, if you don't want to
run. But well worth it. After a long wait, but before the running
they had a spanish marching band (ok, they didn't march) playing to
entertain the crowd. Then you head the gun fire and could watch on a
large screen the oncoming bulls as they charged towards the arena.
Those that ran into the arena before the final bulls were allowed to
be the fodder and entertainment for the rest of the crowd. 
They then
let the baby bulls into the arena to play with the crowds. All in
all it could be quite amuzing when a young bull would throw some of
the more foolish people around. Though there were definitely moments
of shock as someone took a particularly nasty toss from the bull.
Luckily no one was hurt while we were there. Eventually the bulls
had their fun and the people were allowed out and you wander the city
until the real bull fights happen. Since we were all exhausted we
grabbed some pastries, wandered around the city like tourists do, and
then drove back to Pamplona for a much needed nap.
After the much needed nap we did one more thing
(besides the amazing dinner that night) in the Province of Navarre.
We visited the castle Palacio Real de Olite, in Olite, Spain.
Castles have definitely turned into one of my favorite experiences in
Europe. Every castle is soo different from the last, the castles in
one country are especially different from ones in another country.
Spanish castles (granted I've only seen one) looked sandy and, almost
had a bright feeling to them. Probably helped that it was a bright,
sunny, beautiful day. This castle seemed especially grand since you
were able to wander on your own through the whole grounds and it is quite large. I think
that if I had never been to Europe and you put a number of castles in
front of me, and asked me which was the "Spanish Castle"
this is the one that I would pick out. Amazing.
The next day we started our trek back
to Barcelona for our last night before returning to Germany via
plane. We had one last place to visit, which was Zaragoza, Spain. It was a
reasonably quick stop. We mainly wandered around the city talking
and stopped for a quick bite to eat. We ate at a little restaurant
where you can order single servings of various foods from a small
slider like sandwich, to hot chocolate to an assortment of other individual serving items. The big site that we saw in Zaragoza was Nuestra Señora delPilar Basilica, or Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar. This was
huge, and the only thing I can say to describe the inside... was Grandiose... huge. It makes you think of how small you really are,
which who knows? Maybe that was exactly what they were going for.
After finishing up in Zaragoza, we continued our drive to Barcelona
where we stayed one final night before flying home. I have to say
that while it was relaxing, it was also a little lame. My dinner
that night was at Ikea. What can I say, there wasn't a whole lot
next to the airport and I didn't want to wander.
Once again, the trip was awesome. We didn't do a
whole lot of relaxing besides a little time at the beach, but we did see a whole lot of things. And all
of it was fantastic. The food, amazing. The hotels, fantastic. The
activities, outstanding. If you get a chance to go to Spain, GO to
Barcelona, go into the country side. I think Spain is one of those places where if you don't go outside of the major cities, you're missing a lot.
Spain may be a little challenged (from what I hear) economically, but
it is beautiful and friendly. Visit all you can.
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