Spain...and a little bit of Portugal

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Hi all,

We have just returned from an amazing two weeks in Spain (and two nights in Lagos, Portugal), and are now finishing up our one day of downtime (mainly doing washing) in London, thanks to Laura and her housemates who have put us up in their lounge, preparing for our next stint - a flight to Istanbul tomorrow morning at 10am.

Before we left I think I mentioned that we were going to the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on the Tuesday night. Well, we went, and it turns out it wasn't an orchestra after all, but a 13 person choir - not really our thing!! They were definitely very talented, and the first 10 minutes or so was good, but it got a bit boring and both of us ended up nodding off at some stage throughout the performance! Oops! But, the Hall is just amazing. Outside and in, it is just beautiful, so just seeing thatwas worth the £10.

So the next morning we began our trip by flying into Madrid, where we spent four nights before beginning a 7-day Busabout Tour of Southern Spain and Portugal - the 7 day Iberian Adventure! Our first night in Madrid we spent checking out some of the tapas bars in an area called La Latina, and also near our hostel. We both immediately fell in love with a place that gives you free food with every drink!! (Who wouldn't??!!) We had a great night that night, and even met a couple of Spanish men who took us to their favourite cocktail bar after we met them at a rooftop bar that totally ripped us off for drinks...they also thought it was a rip off, and so felt compelled to show us not everywhere was like that.

During our time in Madrid, we did a walking tour, visited the palace, went to El Retiro which is a city park that is beautiful, and hired a row boat for a picnic lunch on a lake there, visited an Egyptian temple, and even got all cultural and went to the Reina Sofia, a modern art gallery (when it was free to get in!) And just spent the nights drinking beer and sangria, and eating lots of tapas! Madrid is seriously a great city, possibly one of my faves!

We then headed off on our 7-day tour, and met a great bunch of people over the week long trip. On our trip, we visited Toledo - the old capital of Spain, Consuegra, Grenada, Tarifa, Jerez, Lagos, and Seville. The whole trip was amazing, and highlights would probably be visiting the Alhumbra in Grenada, taking a day trip to Morocco (Africa!!!!) from Tarifa, kayaking in Lagos, and a crazy crazy couple of nights in Lagos where just about anything goes!

We drank a lot of sangria (and absinthe...aah, Lagos?!?!), ate lots of tapas and paellas, watched some flamenco, had lots of siestas, visited the windmills made famous by Don Quixote, tasted some sherry, kayaked to secluded grottos in Portugal, and just had a whole lot of fun.

On our return back to Madrid, we spent one last night with the gang and then caught an early morning train to Barcelona. The train was so comfortable, and in 3.5hrs we had gone from the centre of Madrid, to the centre of Barcelona, and even got a much needed bit of sleep in on the way. Oh, and Jimmy was very excited when the train reached 300km/h.

First thing after we arrived in Barcelona (and after having a little 'siesta'), we went down to the beach, somewhere we haven't been - with any intent of swimming anyway! - for over a year when we were in Italy. It was heaven getting back to sand and, well, actually no surf. But it was still great!

We did a bike tour of Barcelona after it was recommended to us by a lot of people, which gave us a good overview of the city and showed us some of the major sights including La Sagrada Familia. The church was amazing to see, but we weren't quite prepared for it to be SUCH a big construction site. They say there is still at least another 40 years until it is finished!! We then headed back down to the beach in the afternoon, and met up with an old friend at a club that night, who now lives in Barcelona .

The next day we got out of the city and went to two gorgeous beaches about 40 minutes away - Sitges, and Garraf. It was nice getting out of big cities, and lying on a relaxing beach rather than the one in Barcelona where there are people trying to sell you things the whole time...beer, massages, sunglasses, sarongs, coconuts, mojitos, tattoos; basically anything and everything!

On our last day in Barcelona, we visited Parc Guell, which is where there are all houses and statues by Gaudi. His style is amazing, and as someone who has no idea about architecture, all I can say is that it is so funky, colourful and just like nothing you have ever seen before. We then made our way up to Montjuic in the afternoon, which is a mountain to the South West of the city with parks, museums, the Olympic stadiums, a castle, and brilliant views over the city. We spent a while up there just chilling out and checking out the stadiums, the castles and the view.

So as I mentioned at the beginning, we are now back in London, after arriving at 2am last night, and will be heading off to Turkey tomorrow from Heathrow Terminal 5...hopefully they've sorted out all the glitches by now!!

I'm off now to repack my bag and get a good nights rest in before starting all over again. Will try and write an update again soon. (Oh, and will add pics soon too, hopefully!!)

xoxo

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Comments

[Adrienne]

wow spain sounds fantastic...your sooo lucky im still so so jealous! enjoy Turkey love ya xoxoxo