sorry this is only our second update!
we'll try to do better!!
since we last wrote we've been in barcelona and sevilla and now protugal....
(sorry this is going to be a lot of reading!!!)
we had gr
eat time in Barcelona.
it was very nice to have stacy to show us around and navigate the city. we hit all the major sites and many of stacys favorite restaurants as well - michael and my's favorite being la mamasitas (blair and kayla ... you should go!)
we did a LOT of sight seeing with stacy as our guide. one of our favorite tours was of the Sagrada Familia -- a beautiful church (although it´s far from finished) and a symbol of barcelona designed by Gaudi. We walked around the interior -- really a glorified construction site -- and rode an elevator all the way to the top of one of the bell towers. there was a great view of the city from up there and it really displayed how obsessed with every detail Gaudi was. after the relaxing
view we thought it would be a good idea to take the stairs. oh my god there were a LOT of stairs! we made our way down, down, down the tiny spiral stairs (definitely not up to code - at least not any american code) until back on the ground and exhausted.
barcelona is in love with Gaudi, and we loved him as well. we also visited an apartment and roof top terrace of his, and the parc guell (complete with the longest bench in the world).
while in barcelona we also got to see stacy's college while in spain, Barri Gotic (a fun neighborhood with lots of restaurants, we ate at one called CheeseMe where every single thing on the menu featured cheese), the picasso museum, the Church of Santa Maria (where we stumbled upon a wedding in progress and proceeded to grab a seat at watch kevin and peggy's holy union), cathedral of barcelona, montjuic, the pasag de gracia (a pretty tree lined street with upscale shopping), las ramblas (a huge, outdoor market), parc de la ciutadella, barcelona's arc de triumph, and the beach (a very, very, very crowded beach -- we didnt swim... just saw). clearly stacy kept us moving!
after 3 days in barcelona we said goodbye and flew to sevilla on the 14th.
our first day in sevilla was spend getting to know the city and planning for our next few days. our main goal was to get all our tickets situated to go on our day trips to gribralter and granada. after making those arrangements (and walking all over town in the process) we did get to go see the main attraction in sevilla, the Catedral. this HUGE church (the 3rd largest in the world) was
purposefully build so that, as the builders declared, "those who come after us will take us as madmen!" the church also boasts the tomb and remains of christopher columbus (although most historians say its not really him!)
the detailing of the carvings, statues, gates, ceiling, walls, etc. was insane. as huge as the church is, every inch in embellished! attached to the catedral is the giralda, a tall tower with 34 ramps leading to the top which had a great view of the city.
the next day we traveled from sevilla to gibralter. it was a loooong bus ride (4 hours each way) and because of the bus schedule, even though we took the earliest bus there and the latest bus home, we were only actually in gibralter for around 2 hours. however, we tried to make the most of it. since gibralter is actually owned by england, and therefore brittish, we walked across the boarder from spain and all the sudden, people were speaking english and t
he signs were in english, and they even use the pound in stead of the euro.
we went to a little pub that mrs. hyman had ready had the best fish and chips in the town for lunch. after eating we hurried over to the cable car that takes you up the rock to a great view and lots and lots of monkeys. even though we didnt get to see a quarter of all there was to see, it was very pretty view and a fun day. we took the cable car back down and then we RAN back to our bus -- making it by only 2 mins and almost missing it (remember it was the very last bus back to town)!
our last day in sevilla was spent traveling to granada to see la alhambra - for this trip we took a planned tour. it was another
long day on a bus - we were picked up at 6:15am and didnt get there until after 11:00. we finally arrived at la alhambra and get off the bus and next thing you know we are separated from our tour group. some how our tour leader left nine people in the dust (the 5 of us, a family of 3 from australia, and a woman from chicago). we were left standing there with no tickets to get in, and no idea where to go to find anyone. it took about an hour to finally figure it all out and we finally started our tour around noon.
despite all the trouble, la alhambra was great. it was beautiful and interesting, the gardens looked like they were out of a fairytale and it was all like nothing we had ever seen before.
after the long ride home back sevilla, we had dinner at a cafe with outdoor seating. we soon realized soemthing was going on when the bars were packed and people would errupt in burst of cheers. apparently sevilla was playing for the championship of the spanish soccer league, and to them this was huge!! toward the end of the dinner, it was quite obvious that sevilla had won when the streets started to fill with cheering, singing fan waving flags and wearing capes.
the next day (the 17th) we all had one final breakfast together, we said our goodbyes to stacy and the hymans and then michael and i left to catch our train madrid, and then flew from madrid to lisbon, portugal.
yesterday we toured all over lisbon. the city is divied into different neighborhoods (mainly baixa, bairro alto, and alfama) and we tried to see a bit of each of them. we also went to the neighborhood of belem to see mosteiro dos jeronimos (a monastery built to
commemorate vasco de gamas expedition to india and houses his supposed tomb), the torre (tower) de belem and we ate at the pasteis de belem. this a bakery type place that opened in 1837 as a little pastry shop and is now HUGE! the restaurants main draw is it's famous pastel de belem, a little treat that has a flakey, pastry outside and a yummy, yummy custard center. although they serve other food, everyone comes for these little cakes (and they are only .80 € a piece) and you can see the little only lady bakers churning them out by the hundreds through a big window that looks through to the kitchen.
we'll try to do better!!
since we last wrote we've been in barcelona and sevilla and now protugal....
(sorry this is going to be a lot of reading!!!)
we had gr
eat time in Barcelona.it was very nice to have stacy to show us around and navigate the city. we hit all the major sites and many of stacys favorite restaurants as well - michael and my's favorite being la mamasitas (blair and kayla ... you should go!)
we did a LOT of sight seeing with stacy as our guide. one of our favorite tours was of the Sagrada Familia -- a beautiful church (although it´s far from finished) and a symbol of barcelona designed by Gaudi. We walked around the interior -- really a glorified construction site -- and rode an elevator all the way to the top of one of the bell towers. there was a great view of the city from up there and it really displayed how obsessed with every detail Gaudi was. after the relaxing
view we thought it would be a good idea to take the stairs. oh my god there were a LOT of stairs! we made our way down, down, down the tiny spiral stairs (definitely not up to code - at least not any american code) until back on the ground and exhausted.barcelona is in love with Gaudi, and we loved him as well. we also visited an apartment and roof top terrace of his, and the parc guell (complete with the longest bench in the world).
while in barcelona we also got to see stacy's college while in spain, Barri Gotic (a fun neighborhood with lots of restaurants, we ate at one called CheeseMe where every single thing on the menu featured cheese), the picasso museum, the Church of Santa Maria (where we stumbled upon a wedding in progress and proceeded to grab a seat at watch kevin and peggy's holy union), cathedral of barcelona, montjuic, the pasag de gracia (a pretty tree lined street with upscale shopping), las ramblas (a huge, outdoor market), parc de la ciutadella, barcelona's arc de triumph, and the beach (a very, very, very crowded beach -- we didnt swim... just saw). clearly stacy kept us moving!
after 3 days in barcelona we said goodbye and flew to sevilla on the 14th.
our first day in sevilla was spend getting to know the city and planning for our next few days. our main goal was to get all our tickets situated to go on our day trips to gribralter and granada. after making those arrangements (and walking all over town in the process) we did get to go see the main attraction in sevilla, the Catedral. this HUGE church (the 3rd largest in the world) was
purposefully build so that, as the builders declared, "those who come after us will take us as madmen!" the church also boasts the tomb and remains of christopher columbus (although most historians say its not really him!)the detailing of the carvings, statues, gates, ceiling, walls, etc. was insane. as huge as the church is, every inch in embellished! attached to the catedral is the giralda, a tall tower with 34 ramps leading to the top which had a great view of the city.
the next day we traveled from sevilla to gibralter. it was a loooong bus ride (4 hours each way) and because of the bus schedule, even though we took the earliest bus there and the latest bus home, we were only actually in gibralter for around 2 hours. however, we tried to make the most of it. since gibralter is actually owned by england, and therefore brittish, we walked across the boarder from spain and all the sudden, people were speaking english and t
he signs were in english, and they even use the pound in stead of the euro.we went to a little pub that mrs. hyman had ready had the best fish and chips in the town for lunch. after eating we hurried over to the cable car that takes you up the rock to a great view and lots and lots of monkeys. even though we didnt get to see a quarter of all there was to see, it was very pretty view and a fun day. we took the cable car back down and then we RAN back to our bus -- making it by only 2 mins and almost missing it (remember it was the very last bus back to town)!
our last day in sevilla was spent traveling to granada to see la alhambra - for this trip we took a planned tour. it was another
long day on a bus - we were picked up at 6:15am and didnt get there until after 11:00. we finally arrived at la alhambra and get off the bus and next thing you know we are separated from our tour group. some how our tour leader left nine people in the dust (the 5 of us, a family of 3 from australia, and a woman from chicago). we were left standing there with no tickets to get in, and no idea where to go to find anyone. it took about an hour to finally figure it all out and we finally started our tour around noon.despite all the trouble, la alhambra was great. it was beautiful and interesting, the gardens looked like they were out of a fairytale and it was all like nothing we had ever seen before.
after the long ride home back sevilla, we had dinner at a cafe with outdoor seating. we soon realized soemthing was going on when the bars were packed and people would errupt in burst of cheers. apparently sevilla was playing for the championship of the spanish soccer league, and to them this was huge!! toward the end of the dinner, it was quite obvious that sevilla had won when the streets started to fill with cheering, singing fan waving flags and wearing capes.
the next day (the 17th) we all had one final breakfast together, we said our goodbyes to stacy and the hymans and then michael and i left to catch our train madrid, and then flew from madrid to lisbon, portugal.
yesterday we toured all over lisbon. the city is divied into different neighborhoods (mainly baixa, bairro alto, and alfama) and we tried to see a bit of each of them. we also went to the neighborhood of belem to see mosteiro dos jeronimos (a monastery built to
commemorate vasco de gamas expedition to india and houses his supposed tomb), the torre (tower) de belem and we ate at the pasteis de belem. this a bakery type place that opened in 1837 as a little pastry shop and is now HUGE! the restaurants main draw is it's famous pastel de belem, a little treat that has a flakey, pastry outside and a yummy, yummy custard center. although they serve other food, everyone comes for these little cakes (and they are only .80 € a piece) and you can see the little only lady bakers churning them out by the hundreds through a big window that looks through to the kitchen. after belem we r
ode a trolley car over to castelo de sao jorge - a very old castle right in the city. it was only 1.50€ (actually, everything here has been really cheap) to get in and we spend a little over an hour wandering around seeing the views (you can see the whole city all the way down to the rio tejo from up there) and climbing up and down the old fortress.after seeing as much of lisbon as we could yesterday, to day we were going to spend the day in sintra. yesterday was very very hot and we were prepared to be as sweaty and overheated today, however after leaving sunny, blue-skied lisbon (pretty sky to left) and taking a 35 min train ride we stepped out into misty, rainly, cloudy, chilly weather (see picture on right). we were freeeezing! we tried to tough it out in shortsleeves with no sweaters of rain
jackets, but it was just unbearable! we were in sintra for maybe an hour in a half before giving in and heading back to the train. 35 mins later and we were back to lisbon, still without a cloud in the sky -- it was very weird. we were disappointed we didnt get to really enjoy sintra, but we used the extra time in lisbon to go to the parque das nacoes, or the park of nations. this area was built up for the world expo in 1998. its a really modern, well-devloped area right along the river and was a nice place to spend the afternoon.we are leaving tonight on a night train to madrid where we will be for the next two days. we will try find more time to keep in touch, so we wont be burdening everyone with so much reading at once! : )
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