I heart Spain....

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Time to start part 3 of my adventure as I moved into Spain. Spain was a bit of an unknown to me, I didn't know what to expect of the places or the people and my Spainish is non existent, lets just say I am not disappointed in the slightest, Spain is a wonderful country.
Day 55 & 56 (21/08 & 22/08) I started my Spanish adventure down south in Seville. Seville is known for its extremely hot summers and didn't disappoint while I was there. 40 plus for the 2 days i was there, it so hot my sweat droplets were sweating!!! Seville is such a beautiful town, there is definitely a Morocan and African presence in the arctictureof the buildings. I stayed in Barrio Santa Cruz which is a small area of narrow cobbled stone streets with shops and restaurants just behind the Catherdal, it is one of the nicest areas I have stayed in so far. There is definitely a lot to see in Seville and it's such an easy city to walk around and see a lot. I visited the giant Catedral, which you could also walk to the top of the bell tower (up ramps instead of stairs thank goodness) which gave you a great view of all of Seville, Parque Maria Luisa de Plaza de Espana, a beautiful park and a huge complex with fountains, giant stairways and amazing tile designs showing some of the history of Spain's main cities. Seville is well known for Flamingo dancing so I visited the Flamingo museum which showed the history of Flamingo, costumes and props, images from some of the most famous Flamingo dancers and a demonstration. On my last afternoon I walked past a family and this young boy, about 8 years old was crying to his mum "I don't want to go into the museum, it's to hhhhooootttt", I was thinking to myself I'm with you kid, 40 degrees is to hot to be a tourist!

Day 57 & 58 (23/08 & 24/08) staying south I moved onto Granda next. Unlike Seville which was flat, the town of Granada is in amongst the mountains. The main tourist site in Granada is The Alhambra, which was the palace fortress for the Nasrid sultans who were the last rulers of the Spanish Moorish Kingdom. It is high on the hills overlooking the whole town and the site is made up of some ruins, buildings and beautiful gardens. There is so much to see and take in at the site it's a little overwhelming. Probably the most spectacular part of the site is the Palacios Nazaries which were the private living areas and business for the sultan's. There are many rooms and open garden areas with tile work and carvings in the buildings which are true artwork, you could stare at them for hours. Within the town there are a lot of small alley ways with shops and restaurants and the cathedral interestingly tucked in amongst these, it is easily missed.

Day 59 to 63 (25/08 - 29/08) took me up the east coast to Barcelona (remember to say it with a lisp) and wow what a city. So big, so much to see and do, I really got to see hardly any of it. It was incredible just to walk around the city, from Placa de Catalunya, down La Ramblas, to the Harbour and the beach. It's cool that in just a few minutes walk from the centre of the city you are walking along the sand at the beach. One of my favourite places along La Ramblas was Mercat de Boqueria, a massive food market were you can get everything to make a meal and even have a meal in there. There are fruit and vegetable stalls, meat and fish stalls, spice stalls, stalls just for eggs or olives or cheese. It is so bright and vibrant, and the smells just make you want to eat everything you go past, it puts Paddy's markets to shame, big time! I went to the Museu d'historia de Barcelona whose main feature is the underground archeological site which are the remains of the Roman city of Barcelona, incredible that things this old still exist in such good condition. I also went to the Museu Maritim mainly because it had the Titanic exhibition on, it's amazing that they have been able to discover so many artifacts from the disaster. The final area I went to was Placa d'espanya and the area of the Olympic stadium from the 1992 Olympics. I visited the Olympic museum there which had a lot of exhibits not only from the Barcelona Olympics but Olympics from other years, pre and post. What was great about visiting that area was the day I was there there was a stage finish for the Tour of Spain (3rd grand tour cycling event of the year). Ok I might have know that before I went there, but if I had mentioned that at the beginning of the blog you might not have read on. The stage finished right outside the stadium and I got the perfect spot about 20m beyond the finish line right behind the barriers for one of the camera's (so no one could stand in front of me) to see Philip Gilbert win the stage, his first for the season, it was awesome.

Day 64 to 66 (30/08 - 01/09) just an hour outside of Barcelona is this awesome little town Girona, this is where I spent the next 3 days. To be honest there is not a huge amount to Girona but it is a beautiful small town, tucked into the Pyrenees. It has a walled old quarter, with the cathedral sitting at the top looking out over it, and brightly colored buildings that line the river. You are able to walk along the walls of the old quarter, so you get some great views of all of Girona from different angels at the various look out points along the way. The Cathedral, like most in Europe, is has a high ceiling, stained glass windows and very detailed carvings in the stone work. The small narrow streets of the old quarter take you through the many shops, restaurants and museums that the city has.
Day 67 & 68 (02/09 & 03/09) so I know many of you aren't cycling fans, but the reason for my next couple of destinations was Vuelta (Tour of Spain), and if cycling does juts one thing it takes you to some beautiful places. First stop was Oviedo and Cangas de Onis. Oviedo was just were I slept so I can't tell you too much about it, but Cangas de Onis is this beautiful mountain side village about an hour and a half from there. My hope was to get on the final climb for the day, but I didn't do my research too well. I thought the start of the climb was close to the town itself but once I got there and started walking I soon found out it wasn't, I walked about 2km from town and found a 20km to go sign for the race and the climb itself was only about 10km, so a bit further out than I thought! I found a spot on the side of the road and set up camp for the day. Having followed the Tour de France I learnt that if you want a good spot you get there early and wait, that however is not the case with the Vuelta. On TDF the roads are closed 2 hours before the riders come through, it is only about 15 mins in Spain, where everyone in the town comes out in France and you can barely find a spot of the side of the road, not the case in Spain, in the 500m around me there was only about 10 people. So bit of a different atmosphere, but it was still exciting to see the riders come through. I was hoping to catch a souvenir drink bottle that one of the riders threw away but wasn't so lucky, on walking back into town though I spotted a bit of foil, which turned out to be a small almond cake that one of the riders threw away (or dropped). Not quite what I wanted but cool all the same. The town itself is lovely, surrounded by green rolling mountains, a place used for skiing in the winter and a lot of water sports and mountain biking in the summer.

Day 69 (04/09) the race started from the small coastal town of Gijon (about half an hour from Oviedo) so that was my next stop. Since it was the start I actually got to see Gijon, which is just lovely. The race started in front of the football stadium, so I watched most of the riders sign in and then walked about 1km from the start line to see them roll out of town. I had a good spot again and was able to see all the leaders of the different classifications because they always start at the front and also because they had only just left they were still riding pretty slowly. As for Gijon I really just walked around the town for the day, as it was Monday none of the museums etc were open. The old town sits on a hill at the point of the town and from the top you can see all out over Gijon, along the beach and the coastline. The old town leads you down onto the beach, where the cathedral is the last building and looks out over the beach.

Day 70 &71 (05/09 & 06/09) another start of the race for me, this time from the town of Santander. So I mentioned that the Vuelta is very different to TDF and for some things that is a good thing. At TDF the security is full on, there are barriers everywhere and you are only allowed within the barriers with special access, so getting close to the riders is near impossible. Security is not so tight at the Vuelta and at the start in Santander all the team buses were parked in a big car park behind the start line at the football stadium and you were able to walk in and around all the buses and when the riders went to the sign on and the start line they would just ride straight through the crowds (or dodge the people who were just walking around aimlessly), it was great to be so close. Santander itself is another coastal town, with the port/harbour on one side and the beach on the other. It was another town I did a lot of walking in and it was nice just to sit on the beach and take in the sun and awesome view. The boys would like this one, the golf course of the town was right on the head looking right out over the beach and rest of the coastline.

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