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Published: December 9th 2012
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We started our European journey in Madrid, Spain. It is a beautiful old city with lots of old architecture and narrow streets sporting little bars and restaurants. We stayed in a little hostel off Plaza del Sol which was the perfect spot to explore the city from. We spent a lot of time walking the streets, looking at the churches and old buildings that are dotted around the city. It is an easy city to walk around, relatively flat and most of the Hop On Hop Off bus route was easily walked in a day. The city sports quite a few big parks where you can wander for a couple of hours or just sit and people watch. We loved the cheap food - an expresso was €0.50, a glass of wine €1 and you could pick up tapas for around €2.50. The shops/businesses still close in the afternoon from around 2pm to 4.30pm which can be a little frustrating when you are out sightseeing but you get used to it and just have to plan around it. On the flip side, the shops stay open until very late and it is fun to go out around 6pm when there are
lots of people on the street. The locals don't eat until very late - some restaurants didn't open until 8pm and you can hear them partying into the wee small hours every night.
From Madrid we caught the overnight train to Lisbon in Portugal. They have a cable car that runs 15km along the water front but unfortunately it was closed for maintenance. Here we discovered Portugese Egg Tarts. They are the best dessert item and I made sure we had at least one every day - egg custard in flaky pastry, divine! We spent the first day just poking around by our hotel which was in the business district, but luckily was next to a big mall and the metro station so we could eat cheaply. The second day we caught the metro out to another area of town and had a nosy around checking out some of the old buildings in the area. We picked up one of the Hop On Hop Off bus maps and made a plan for the following day to catch the metro out to one of the outerlying areas that had lots of old buildings to check out. We got up early
and headed for the metro station only to find it completely closed. This was the day of the strike action across Europe so the metro was shut for the day, along with just about every tourist sight we went to. We ended up having to catch the local bus service which was still running and took a 40 minute ride across town to start our day at the Jerónimos Monastery which opened in 1601. From there we headed across to a fortification built in the river at around the same time - early 1600s. You do need to cross a gangway to get to the fortification as it is surrounded by water. This was the place I was most disappointed was closed as a tour would have been very interesting. We then backtracked towards the monestary and found a little kebab place to have lunch and then moved onwards. We stopped at one of the government buildings on our way as there was obviously something important going on. They had uniformed people all lined up in a row outside the building, snipers on the roof and secret service men running around. Our final destination for the day was Castelo de
S Jorge, a large castle up a steep winding road. After we took some photos through the closed gates, we found a spot to watch the sun set over Lisbon before catching a taxi back to the hotel.
The next day we caught an early morning flight to Barcelona and headed directly to the port to catch the Norwegian Spirit for our cruise to Madeira and the Canary Islands. This cruise ship was bigger than the one we were on in Alaska and although much the same in most other aspects the food on this ship was superb. There was the usual buffet, however also included in the price were two al a carte restaurants which is where we chose to eat. Funchal in Madeira was fantastic. Obviously it is set on the seaside, but at the back jungle covered mountains rise behind the city. We caught the cable car up into the hills which afforded a good view of the city and also was the easiest way to get to a cute little church in the hills. They offered basket rides (baskets on wooden sleds steered by a couple of locals at the back) part of the way
back down the hill which looked fun but were pretty expensive so we passed. Instead we found a hiking trail and hiked back down to the bottom. This was a distance of about 9km and was pretty hot and sticky but we enjoyed getting out and doing some hiking again. We stopped in town for lunch and a glass of the obligatory Madeira wine before we headed back to the boat. The Canary Islands were a bit of a let down as they really only offered limited shopping - unless you were prepared to spend a lot of money on a day tour there really wasn't a lot to do in the towns. We had a wander through Santa Cruz on Tenerife but did not spend a lot of time on shore. Areciffe on Lanzarote was a little more interesting and we enjoyed pottering in this area and had a nice lunch overlooking a lovely sandy white beach. From here the cruise took us onto Malaga on the mainland of Spain. This was a lovely spot and there was quite a bit to see without going too far. We first headed to Gibralfaro built at the top of the hill
in the 18th century to lodge troops and is attached to the Alcazba which was built mostly in the 11th century with additions in the 15th century and was the palace-fortress of the citys governing Muslims. We then pottered around the city checking out the old churches and gardens before joining the ship to to head back to Barcelona.
It took us a while to warm to Barcelona. It was such a contrast to Madrid in terms of cost and ease to get around - it is so much bigger and everything is much further away. We put our walking shoes on and headed down to La Rambla, one of the main streets where there are street performers and stalls and ended up at the waterfront. From there we headed to the Barri Gotic area where there is a big Gothic style church. And then onto Sagrada Familia which is an amazing, amazing church but unfortunately covered in repair work. The following day we went on a half day tour to Montserrat, a monestary in the hills about an hour out of Barcelona. We caught the cog wheel train from the base of the hill up to the Monestary
which would have afforded great views if it hadn't been quite so hazy. The church at the top is pretty understated from the outside but amazing on the inside and also houses the black virgin statue which people come from a long way away to touch. We also walked up into the hills where you could get a great view of the Catalonian countryside when the clouds cleared. From Barcelona we headed to Cairo.
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