Blogs from Spain, Europe - page 1083

Spend the whole morning walking around Barcelona and all other stuff I didnt see... First joined the free walking tour.....it was short..quite informative, but not that interesting.....the gothic quarter wasnt that interesting itself anyways...haaaaaa! Then went to the fountain..the magic fountain....BUT NO WATER!!! argh!! such a beautiful day but no water......such a waste of the fountain!!!!!! Then went to Park Guell......very nice! very big!! very steep!!! walk die me!!! haaaaaa! but loved the balcony, the view, those buildings of gaudi....ooooooooo. BUT, the curves were all covered up by the tourists sitting there...argh...... Then went to Sagrada Família ........80% of it was under construction.....and mostly was 90% of the inside! so I didnt go in, but the exterior is what amazes me!!!! SO COOOOOL...I can see the gothic inflences with the towers...but all other stuff are... read more

I left my hotel at a comfortable 8:20 AM, almost in perfect synchrony with the forecasted 8:17 AM sunrise for Madrid. Though for many Spaniards minus one degree Celsius (28 degrees Fahrenheit) was bitterly cold, I found the temperature perfect for walking at my usual fast pace, without working a sweat. My intermediate objective was Plaza Castilla, which I reached via Metro. From Plaza Castilla’s interchange I needed to catch bus line 724 that would take me to my ultimate destination, the town of Manzanares El Real located about 50 km (30 miles) from downtown Madrid, but still within Madrid’s district. Why going there? While researching Spain's Royal Palace's history, I came across a reference to a surviving castle from the XV Century in this town. Don Diego de Mendoza is believed to have started the ... read more

It was a quad-continental re-union. Meg flew from India to hang out with MC and I in Fes, and then the three of made our way (via Barcelona) to Madrid, where we met Katie Wang, recently arrived from New York. The four of us set about to explore the city that lives in the shadow of Barcelona; we found it more charming than we expected and spent most days wandering the streets and navigating the metro map. The trip was made possible by Katie Wang's Thanksgiving break from teaching, so we set about to have a (somewhat) proper Thanksgiving at our hostel and with wine and two slices of pumpkin pie, gave thanks for reunions of old friends in new places.... read more

So an opportunity presented itself for Ali and I to take a trip to Germany to visit her cousin and his girlfriend, and stay with his girlfriend in her house for free. We have a four day weekend approaching, so we figured "why not?" She lives in a small midieval town called "Villingen" which is about 60 miles southwest of Stuttgart. Everything looked great for us to fly out on Thursday the 6th and return the 9th, so we booked the tickets. It wasn't until I was reading the confirmation e-mail that I realized we accidentally booked the flight to leave on FRIDAY instead of THURSDAY. Well, for the price we paid, we figured only 1 full day in Germany wouldn't be adequate. Quite upset, I phoned the AirBerlin customer service line, and luckily the guy ... read more

Southern Spain and especially Andalucía is steeped in the belief of duende - a spirit / mysticism that immerses all things. While we wouldn’t go as far as saying our Spanish trip was spiritual or mystical, I think it's wonderfully appropriate to say that our time in Spain was magical. Both Andrew and I have discovered a special affinity with the Spanish food, wine, culture and land, and we are really torn about whether we come back here on our next overseas trip (to visit the northern and central regions) or whether we go somewhere ‘brand new’...but I suppose as dilemmas go, this one is a lovely one! Visiting family was a wonderful highlight of this trip but it was really hard to say good-bye to my siblings - once again, as we have done so ... read more