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Published: January 13th 2005
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El Angel Caido - The Fallen Angel
This amazing statue was in Parque del Retiro in Madrid. It is thought to be the first statue dedicated to the devil. hi everyone, sorry it has been so long between entries...so much to do! We are pretty tired actually from so much travelling, and have been taking it a bit easier the last 2 days here in barcelona. actually not setting an alarm clock has been great! a little more like normal holidays...not that I´m complaining about this holiday in any way....having such a good time!
Anyway, shame about the weather in NZ at the mo, hopefully it will turn into summer right when we get back....maybe we should pack some of the spanish and portuguese weather in our suitcases! It has been amazing...especially considering its winter over here! We have seen no rain at all since we left france, and although it has been quite chilly here in barcelona in the evenings, the days have been really sunny and warm. Today it was 15 degrees inthe shade, so pobably about 20+ in the sun. Barcelona is really cool. We went to the Sagrada Familia today, Gaudis life masterpiece. It is so enormous, and still a construction site. One can only imagine how incredible it will be when finished. Aparently an australian guy is overseeing the whole project at the moment.
Granada
One of the beautiful carved window holes in the Palacio Nazaries (Nasrid Palace). The detail of the Islamic art is incredible, and stunning. We also went to a Gaudi designed park today, where there are several really amazing modernist buildings/sculptures amongst all the greenery. Our hotel here is lovely! We ended up having to pay more than we wanted because everywhere was full, and I think Barcelona just is more expensive. But we haven´t been spending heaps so far anyway, so we figured we could splash out a bit, and its only 55 euros for us both.
We didn´t enjoy Madrid all that much, quite dirty, although they did have a great ´fallen angel´statue, aupposedly the first statue dedicated to the devil! It was really well done though, and quite beautiful. We went earlyish one morning while the sun was shining right on it. i also went to a pretty good modern art museum in madrid, but compared to the paris one in the Pompidou centre, it was somewhat diminished! oh and the other cool thing in Madrid was when we went through the main square to get to tourist info, the king, queen and other royal family members went through in horse drawn carriages with guards and police escorts, on their way to a royal function at the palace! (jealous toady???
Plaza de Espana
This was actually a semi circle of buildings (surrounding an enormous fountains and a canal) . They were a fantastic red colour, and were clad in tiles, depicting scenes from all the provinces and towns of Spain. hehe 😊
before Madrid we were in Granada, just for a night, to got to the Alhambra Palace, a remnant of Spain´s muslim period. it was stunning, set on the top of a hill, and so elaborately decorated. The detail was just incredible, writing all over the walls, but carved in amongst other carvings, particularly of leaves amd plants. it had a really natural theme and fell, the gardens, called thh generalife, were filled with water streams and fountains everywhere, and, aside from the numerous japanese tour groups, they were extraordinarily peaceful and lovely.
sorry this is rather backwards, think I might copy and paste it into my journal!
before granada was seville, which eamonn and i both really enjoyed the atmosphere of. great little windy back streets, and the real alcazar, or royal palace, also in a muslim stlye, was fantastic. In fact it was so good, and so different from anything I´d ever seen, i think it slightly lessened the impact of alhambra, which is probably the tourist icon of spain, or at least southern spain.
we havent liked spanish food all that much, but have had two great indian meals! and one really
Castelo dos Mouros, Sintra
This place was well worth the couple of hour of walking it took us to get there. Note the astounding size of the rocks that surround and support it. good kebab. everything here seems steeped in oil, and/or fried or lathered in salad dressing.. ick. looking forward to Italy (we are flying to Milan tomorrow) in that respect!
we have bussed all the way around spain, which although cheap has meant we´ve spent quite a few hours in buses, which isnt that fun. luckily we´d planned the trip so the travelling was fairly well broken up. I think the longest was from Lisbon to Seville, which took about 8 hours.
Lisbon by the way was amazing. Right by a river and the sea, great pedestrianised cobbled streets, and our rediculously cheap hotel was right in the middle of everything. We took a couple of day trips, the first by train (bout 45mins) to Sintra, beloved by the protuguese royalty, and full of forests and little walking tracks. We walked all the way up a rather large hill, accidentally taking a much longer, but more scenic route to the morrish castle on the top. it was awesome, such inspiring views out to the coast of portugal, which is tiny by the way, and enormous boulders on the mountain face. the castle itself had rampart walls that wound around
Mosteiro dos Jeronimos
This Monastery in Belem just out of Lisbon, is huge, peaceful and beautiful. the top of the hill giving about a 300 degree panorama. not bad! it was also warm and sunny so we hung out on the top of this amazing castle for quite a while.
Our second trip was to belem, just out of lisbon by tram, where there is a cool old monastery (jeronimos i think). It had a lovely courtyard in the middle, and amazing white stone architecture. it was huge. Unfortunately, eamonn also dropped my camera that day, screwing up the click mechanism for scrolling through photos. So neither of us were too happy. the camera has somewhat recovered now, enough to cope till i can get it fixed back home. there was also the torre de belem there, supposedly THE tourist icon of portugal, but we both found it pretty uninspiring and ugly. just a squat square white tower on the edge of the water. we did however see an amazing sunset that night back in lisbon, over the bridge...lol very romantic!
The last trip was to Evora, a walled city a couple of hours out of lisbon by bus, which wasn´t too exciting actually. the best bit was when eamonn decided he´d steal a
Cloisters at Evora
Orange trees should be mandatory in all cathedrals I reckon! mandarin from the side of the road off a tree and it was so sour, he just about turned green. that and the totally calming and peaceful cloisters of the cathedral there. they were filled with orange trees and a lovely little fountain, and noone else was around. simply lovely.
Better go, love to you all, and hugs too 😊
Samara xxoo
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