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Published: August 30th 2009
It has been just over two years since my last trip to mainland Europe, and it was time for another. Having conquered Italy and Greece, it was time for Spain and Portugal. With a month of vacation time, I decided to head off with GAP Adventures to experience the cultures, traditions, histories, and landscapes of the Iberian Peninsula.
Before leaving, I studied every possible map of Barcelona I could find as Day One of the tour was a free day as the rest of the group arrived. I can get lost in Pickering where I grew up, never mind Barcelona! After touching down and hopping on the bus to the city centre, I stopped by the hotel and headed off to the Gothic Cathedral, just as mass was finishing. The next stop for me was the Casa Milà designed by Art Nouveau architect Antoni Gaudì. After taking a few photos and seeing the massive line-up to go inside, I decided to keep going to Gaudì’s masterpiece in Barcelona, the Sagrada Famìlia. Begun in 1883, it remains a church-in-progress and is scheduled for completion in 2030. You can see Gaudì’s inspiration throughout the church - nature. The columns look like trees
sprouting from the floor and the light seems to beam through the trees as if the visitor is standing in a forest. Again, the line-up to go up one of the towers was too long, so I kept going and climbed uphill to the Parc Güell, a whole park designed by Gaudì which has fantastic views of Barcelona and reportedly contains the longest bench in the world. After almost getting lost on my way back to the hotel, I got ready to meet the fourteen other travelers on the tour. Thankfully, the whole group was terrific and everyone hit it off instantly. Early night after a dinner together as the next day we were off to Pamplona.
After breakfast at the hotel, Andy, Wendy, Cheryl, Melanie and I walked over to the area of Montjuïc where we had a great view of the city from the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. Our destination was the Fundaciò Joan Mirò, but unfortunately it was closed, so we continued up the hill to a funicular which took us even further up to the Castell de Montjuïc. A long walk led us back down the hill and to the Museu d’Art Contemporani de
Barcelona (MACBA). We arrived back to the hotel to meet the rest of the group and our tour leader, Ignacio, before heading into the subway (at rush hour!) to catch the train to Pamplona with only minute(s) to spare. Arriving late in Pamplona, we went for a dinner of traditional pintxos, small portions of food washed down by a glass of wine. A quick tour of Pamplona at night finished off the day.
What else is there to do in Pamplona than to run with the bulls? Well, we missed the running of the bulls by a few weeks, but Sarah, Andy, Jessica, Ingrid, Christine and I did walk the route taken by the bulls after walking around the city and seeing the Citadel and Cathedral. Following a lunch of pintxos and Iberian ham, we were off to the next city - San Sebastian.
As the hotels of San Sebastian do not work with any tour groups in terms of booking large groups, our group was split up between three hostels. Andy, Cheryl, Melanie and I were in a convenient one just seconds from the beach. Arriving late in San Sebastian, we went for pintxos, which included seafood,
pork, deep fried peppers with a glass of cava for dessert!
Realizing we were only about an hour from Bilbao and Frank Gehry’s iconic Guggenheim Museum, we jumped on a bus the next morning and headed south. The Museum certainly defines Bilbao and serves as a beacon for thousands of tourists. Appreciating some contemporary art, the exhibits were amazing (works by Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky, etc.) and the large spaces for massive installations were extremely effective. We all deserved an afternoon on the beach, so after getting the bus back to San Sebastian, we relaxed for a few hours and ventured out into the Atlantic for a swim. That night was Charlie’s birthday (four birthdays in two weeks within a group of 15!) and there are too many stories to include about that… After dinner, Ignacio took us to a local reggae bar to end the day with one more drink.
It didn’t know what to expect for the location of the next two nights. It wasn’t a bustling city or a relaxing beach…it was nature. We arrived by private bus to Cangas de Onìs, the gateway to the Picos de Europa National Park. We arrived quite late, so
off to dinner at a traditional cider house where we were treated to a variety of local dishes and cider (rotten apple juice!).
The next day, we were all offered a number of options as to how we would like to spend our day in Cagas de Onìs - spelunking, walking into the mountains to a pilgrimage site, or riding 4x4s into the Park. Well, when in northern Spain why not really see the landscape and what better way than canoeing through the mountains. Charlie, Phil, Zay, Jamil, Sarah, and I got suited-up (swimsuits, surf suits, windbreakers, and lifejackets) and went off to the launch spot. All of the instructions about how to canoe, where to go, and safety procedures were in Spanish, so we only got one or two words and hoped that the words “white,” “water,” and “rapids” weren’t mentioned. Off we went on the river from which the views were spectacular with the fog snaking around the green mountains. Although there were no rapids, we did come upon some tricky turns and potential beachings, but three hours later, a shivering packed lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches (and apples and bananas for Phil) on the shore,
and 15km of canoeing, we all made it to the end and headed back to the hotel for hot showers. All of us were exhausted after the day and headed to bed early as wake-up the next morning was for 6am as we had to leave Cangas de Onìs before thousands of individuals with canoes descended on the town!
Driving out of Cangas de Onìs in the dark, our bus driver took us to two Romanesque churches that survived the turbulent times of Spain when the Moors and Christians fought for control of the land. After a long bus ride, we arrived in the city which I was most looking forward to - Santiago de Compostela. Santiago is the final destination for millions of pilgrims who walk or bike from southern France and along northern Spain (each year 5 million pilgrims arrive in Santiago). In the Middle Ages, Santiago was the third most important pilgrimage site for Christians, after Jerusalem and Rome. The pilgrims’ goal is to see the relics of St. James who is supposedly buried here within the dominating Cathedral, begun in the 11th Century. Our taxis from the bus stop pulled right into the main square,
the Praza do Obradoiro, and from there we walked only steps to our hotel for the next two nights. Despite the fact that the hotel was very convenient for walking around the city, the best surprise came when we opened the windows of the room and looked over a small café to the Cathedral’s bell towers. That afternoon, we set out to explore the interior of the Cathedral and the relics of St. James before a tour of the city by Ignacio.
The next morning, we met our city tour guide who took us around the main sites, explaining the significance of the buildings and the growth of the city as the popularity of the pilgrimage became more and more known around the world. Symbols of the shell are all round the city, representing the sign of the pilgrim and proof that they made it to the Atlantic, or the end of the world. Of course, there was a local specialty we had to try before leaving - chocolate con churros - a freshly baked doughnut dipped in chocolate.
The next day saw us leaving Spain and entering Portugal where our first destination was Oporto. Following a walk-about
by Ignacio and seeing the Cathedral, we ventured across the Ponte de Dom Luis I for a better look at Oporto and the Douro River. Dinner was at a “vegetarian” restaurant where I had a great steak…followed by drinks in the main square. Oporto is filled with buildings decorated with tiles, including the interior of the train station and the façades of churches. After a trip to a Mannerist Church the next morning, it was off to find some port! Winding through the narrow streets, we found Croft & Co Distillery where we were treated to some port tastings and a tour of the facilities. After lunch at the historic Café Majestic, Andy and I jumped on the bus and headed for the beach. With the water a little colder than that at San Sebastian, I only went up to my shins!
The final day of the tour saw us get a train to Lisbon, Portugal’s capital. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and jumped on the tram to the area known as Belém (Portuguese for Bethlehem) where we visited the stunning Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. Decorated in the Manueline style (a late Gothic artistic period named after
King Manuel I), the cloister was filled with decorations and symbols representing the prosperity and victories of Portugal in the 16th Century. Leaving the monastery, we visited the Monument to the Discoveries, a sculpture jutting out over the Tejo River portraying those individuals who supported or actually left from the shores of Portugal in search of new lands for trade and conquest. One more site to see, the 16th Century Torre de Belém, before a long, long walk back to the tram and the hotel. Our final dinner was held at King Chicken where many photos were taken, followed by one last night out in the salsa clubs of Lisbon. With goodbyes from everyone, most of the group departed back to homes in Australia, America, and Germany, except for Ignacio, Wendy, and I…we were taking the long way around the Iberian Peninsula, along the south coast, and back to Barcelona for the next part of the trip.
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Margie
non-member comment
Amazing pics
can't wait to get a moment to read the story. M.