Advertisement
Published: November 4th 2007
Hola! As many of you know, we returned last weekend from a 5 day trip to Spain. The first week back to work after the break has been quite hectic so that's why it has taken so long to put up our pictures! Thursday was a LONG yet pretty good day of parent-teacher interviews from 11 am - 8 pm. We were completely knackered by the time we got home! Anyway, let's move on with sharing our adventure to Spain with you!
We spent most of our week in Barcelona, but our hotel was about 50 km outside of Barcelona in a small town called Vilanova I La Geltru. Each day we walked about 3 km to and from the train station just to get to Barcelona and then back to our hotel. Once in Barcelona our days were filled with many more kilometres of walking and walking...and walking...and getting lost...and walking some more (all the while hoping we could find people who spoke English to help guide us).
DAY 1 - We got picked up at our house in Aylesbury at 5:15 am. The car we hired to drive us to the airport was a very nice BMW and
Catalunya
on the streets in Catalunyaour driver was wearing a very spiffy suit. We got dropped off at Heathrow airport in London and then departed for Barcelona at about 8:35 am. We had a stopover for half an hour in Stuttgart, Germany, and then we arrived in Barcelona at 1:30 pm. We had to remember to change our watches because Spain is an hour ahead of England (6 hours ahead of all of you at home). We had our first experience on the Spanish train system (having difficulty communicating because of the language barrier) as we made our way to our hotel in Vilanova I La Geltru. Our hotel was an apartment complex and our room was complete with a balcony and kitchen. That afternoon we did some grocery shopping and looked around town. We had dinner on the beachfront and Will bought a bootlegged CD of High School Musical off a street guy because he couldn’t say no to him (yes, the cd actually works). We spent the rest of our evening relaxing in our hotel room and trying to watch some Spanish television.
DAY 2 - After waking up at 9:30 am and having breakfast in our room, we headed out
Barcelona Cathedral
Absolutely amazing architecture at the Cathedral in Catalunya. This cathedral has centuries of history. to the train station for our first full day in Barcelona. En route we were informed (in Spanish) that the rail line had snapped part way to Barcelona. Of course we had no idea what was going on when everyone got off the train half way to Barcelona, so we followed the mob of people to a line up of coach buses which then took us the rest of the way. We originally had our day planned out, but now we had to adjust our plans and ‘wing it’ because we had no idea where we got dropped off and how to get anywhere. We bought an English map from a tourist information booth (which was the most useful purchase we made all week), and then hopped on the metro (subway system) to Catalunya, a very touristy part of Barcelona. Catalunya has lots of little shops and cafés as well as the ‘Gothic Quater’ which is a historic part of Barcelona housing the Picasso Museum and The Cathedral. We noticed a couple of surprising things in Spain: * Dogs are off-leash and they never stray from their owner. *Dogs ride the public transit, walk in malls and enter shops.
* Gelato shops are on about every corner. * Mullets are in style! Mullet count for day 1 = 4
DAY 3 - The coach bus dropped us off in Barcelona at a different spot than yesterday, called Espanya, which meant we had to ‘wing our day’ yet again. When we turned to our left after we got off the bus, we were in awe of the building at the end of the road. It was the Museum of National Art. We climbed up many stairs to the front of the museum and saw a beautiful view of the city. We then picked a direction and started walking. After about 10 minutes, we stumbled across the Olympic Museum and across the street was the Olympic Stadium from the 1992 Summer Olympics. We were nicely surprised that there was an open gate for tourists to enter and look around the stadium. From the stadium we caught a city bus (we were tired from stair climbing and walking), transferred onto the metro, and took the metro to Temple De La Sagrada Familia. Sagrada Familia is a church designed by Antoni Gaudi starting in 1882. Gaudi worked on the
church until his death in 1926. We took a lift to the top of Sagrada Familia where we saw some more amazing views of the city. During our visit, they were performing structure maintenance to keep the church in good condition. Sagrada Familia is probably one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture we’ve ever seen. Next, we traveled to the main shopping district, Eixample, where we wandered through shops and had dinner. The shopping was far too expensive for us! Louis Vutton, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce and Gabbana, Gucci and other top designers lined the streets. The Tommy Hilfiger in Spain is very different from back home (clothing and shoes are far more stylish - and far more fancy and expensive)! Other surprising things in Spain:
- Pretty much everyone smokes
- There are NO SMOKING signs on the bus, yet we saw a bus driver with a lit cigarette picking up passengers
- Total mullet count = 10
DAY 4 - After getting dropped off in Barcelona, we took the Metro to the waterfront where we spent our entire day. Our first stop was at the Columbus Monument. The monument was built in 1888
on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition commemorating the discovery of America. We took a lift to the top (about 60 metres high) where we could see mountains and past the coast line into the sea. After having lunch at McDonalds (where they have potato wedges and beer) we visited the Barcelona Aquarium. We saw many different kinds of fish (as you probably guessed). We saw Nemos as well as some very large and scary sharks. In addition to sharks, we saw penguins, stingrays, eels, blowfish, starfish, and octopi. Next we went on cruise that sailed around a couple of harbours and then went along the coast line for 18 miles. It was an amazing feeling being on the Mediterranean Sea. In the evening, we ventured to El Poble Espanyol (a Spanish village built in 1929) to see a flamenco show. The dancing was exciting to watch but the singing left something to be desired. Regardless, it was a very cultural experience (Spanish beer and wine are both very strong). Other surprising things in Spain: * Crepe stands along the waterfront are as frequent as hot dog vendors back home * Scooters and motorcycles are as common as cars
* Mullet count = 16
DAY 5 - It took longer than usual to get to Barcelona due to traffic, and as a result we missed a walking tour that we had wanted to go on since our second day. We went back to the Gothic Quater and explored some more of the buildings. We walked by the Picasso Museum, but didn’t go in because of a very long line. We had coffee and lunch at a local café and treated ourselves to another gelato. We did a little shopping and Bri wanted to buy something European, so she splurged on a pair of calf-length leather and suede Tommy Hilfiger boots. We then took a long walk along the beach and ended up at the Barcelona Casino where we lost 45 Euro. After the Casino, we made our way to the Zoo and saw a dolphin show and many other animals (as you typically would expect to see at a zoo 😊). To end our night we went out for dinner (unknowingly we ended up paying 10 Euro for two cokes), treated ourselves to crepes, and did some souvenir shopping. Other surprising things in Spain:
Bri inside Olympic Stadium
This is where the 1992 Summer Olympics were held. * Graffiti is everywhere, but a lot of it is actually very creative. * The street performers are very vulgar in language and in gestures. *Mullet count = 21.
DAY 6 - For our last day in Spain, we decided to stay in Vilanova and explore the town and walk along the beach. We did a lot of walking but very few places were open. After doing some shopping, we sat down to enjoy more strong Spanish coffee. Before our day ended, Will had to take a quick swim in the Mediterranean Sea (it was cold but worth it!). After having dinner, we packed our bags and headed to the airport. We had to go the night before our flight because the bus and train systems do not operate early enough in the morning for us to get to our flight in time. Sleeping in the airport was not comfortable, and wasn’t the most pleasant way to end our trip. We made it through the night and departed Spain sleepy and grumpy at 6:30 am. We had a 2.5 hour stopover in Zurich, Switzerland and arrived back in London in the early afternoon. This trip was a
fantastic experience (despite our night in the airport). Visiting Spain is definitely a trip to remember. Mullet count = 25.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.178s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0584s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
tim
non-member comment
Hola
Hey you two, sounds like you had a great week in Spain. Did you learn any crazy spanish? And that mullet count, was that for each day or total? Miss you two