Saturday 22 May
Early start today for a 6.30am train. On the way to Bristol we were passed by a steam train going the other way! All black and shiny like you imagine them to be, chuffing away. Cool.
Get to Bristol Airport, check in and have 'breakfast' – a very ordinary sausage sandwich. Ick. Will remember that for next time. But the flight was OK, despite all the lads and ladettes on the package tours for the coastal resorts. We flew over alps still covered with snow, and lots of patchwork countryside on our way to Barcelona.
And then we got lost. Slightly. We got off the airport shuttle bus, and went the wrong way. Then went down the wrong street, then the right street but the wrong address! We got there eventually. Our hotel was right on Las Ramblas, and so was our room. We could sit and look out and watch the goings on. Once Kathy worked out that the window was a double window after banging her head on the outside pane! D'oh!
So, off we went for a wander around and to find somewhere for lunch. Down a lane way we found a place, which seemed to fit the bill. We had a delicious fizzy-ish rose, called Cresta Rosa. And the food was delicious – Matt had baby broad beans with jamon, followed by baby goat; Kathy had white asparagus then salted cod and finished with crema catalan. After our food we had a brandy espresso, which was a favourite of the regulars and the restaurant staff. Delicious!!! Hope the rest of our Spanish meals are as good.
After lunch, we walked back to the hotel for a spruce up, but got distracted by whole legs of Iberico pigs (well, jamon now) hanging in the window of a deli!
Mmmmmm, not in Cardiff any more.... Anyway, back to the hotel. Kathy sat on the windowsill (with the window closed!!) and watched the street performers.
Appropriately spruced, we wandered down Las Ramblas looking at the market stalls and street performers. We saw the produce market, and the memorial to Colombus at the end of Las Ramblas.
We wandered along the waterfront and people watched. And boat watched – there were a couple of huge GTFOOH yachts
which caused us to wonder whether they have hot and cold running wankers?
Barcelona is full of big impressive Imperialist-type buildings,
Matt at the Barcelona marina
and some residential buildings have those lovely, a-typical balconies outside the windows of the apartments.
These were actually opposite our hotel room
It's just what we were hoping to see.
After a wander around, we had a bottle of wine on a boat which has been turned in to a bar.
Matt enjoying the atmosphere
The wine was delicious, and we had some lovely anchovy-stuffed olives to go with it. More wandering, more nibbling. Beer and freshly pan-fried sardines (omg, so delicious) served with garlic and parsley, and baby squid with basil and garlic. The bar (very tiny little bar, few tables and stools at the bar) was opposite another bar where the UEFA Cup was being shown, so the bar staff kept disappearing. Then we found another little bar where we had the most AMAZING Iberico ham – just slices of it we could greedily shove in to our mouths.
This stuff is so good....
It was just a little place, with legs of ham hanging in rows from the ceiling.
So fabulous. The Iberico is just incredible – proscuitto is nothing to it. It's sweet, savoury and so meltingly tender. So absolutely delicious.
More wandering, the Matt needed to have a pit stop. And it was a tourist trap, where we had nasty dry, overcooked paella and sangria.
Never trust a man with a sangria this big
Never mind, it was a great day.
Sunday 23rd
After a little sleep in until about 9am and a quick breakfast at the hotel buffet (sorry, but ordinary proscuitto just doesn't cut it any more) we meandered up Las Ramblas and joined the queue for one of the tourist buses (you know, the hop on, hop off ones). An hour later (!!!) we finally get on.
This is what we had to look at while we waited to get on to the bus
The 2-hour bus trip was sooooo worth it. We saw heaps of fantastic buildings,
with lots of Gaudi,
museums and the Olympic venue.
A sculpture by the marina
Believe it or not, this is a communications tower
Pardon?!?
At one stage we were surrounded by mist that just rolled in from the sea and dropped the temperature by about 5 degrees. It was odd, but quite freaky as the sun was still quite hot as it poked through the mist. It cleared after about 30 minutes – fortunately it came in after we'd been to the top of a hill for the most amazing views over the bay. We got off the bus
Just something we saw on our wanders
Kathy in a street in Barcelona
just near the Cathedral
Kathy just near the Cathedral
– and it closed for lunch. So we wandered around and found somewhere for lunch. Boy, did we find something. Rose, of course. Tomato on bread, tripe (so delicious), and cod stuffed mushrooms. The octopus we ordered wasn't so great, but still like nothing we'd had before. More wandering and just looking at buildings and waiting for stuff to open again after lunch. We came across the Basilica Santa Maria (closed) and sat and had a glass of cava while we people watched for a bit before deciding that the Cathedral should be open by now.
And boy was it worth the visit. Heavily gilt saints and alters,
and stained glass.
There was a nun reciting the rosary in a lady chapel for prayers. We couldn't get in to the choir as there was mass,
The high altar
so we sat and listened to the organ for a little while before moving on.
We were taking photos of a placed called the Hotel Colon (unfortunate name, but it's the Spanish spelling of Colombus),
when we hear a commotion behind us. A lady had some bits stolen from her bag as she stood with it gaping open. A timely reminder, and caused Kathy to clutch her handbag a bit more tightly.
More wandering and looking at buildings.
OK, not just buildings. Look at all that porky goodness!
Pre-dinner snack of beer and more Iberico ham. Dinner was a couple of streets back from Las Ramblas. Matt had a haunch of rabbit (mmmm, bunny) and Kathy had 'Monkfish Catalan' – the monkfish came out with a stew of prawns, mussels and clams. Delish! We had a lovely bottle of wine with dinner, but didn't write it down. Crafty Spanish – they keep the best wines for themselves. Not that we're complaining, mind.
On the way back to the hotel a guy tried to pick Matt's pockets. He was working along, and tried to sell Matt tickets to a dancing thing. Then tried to demonstrate this 'dancing', by tripping up Matt's feet. Matt's no fool, and felt the guys hand in his pocket – so grabbed his wrist and started yelling Police! Police! The chap looked terrified and let go Matt's wallet, then promptly scarpered. We had to have sangria and a plate of anchovies to calm down. What a nice way to calm down from an exciting end to a lovely day.
Monday 24th
Today we decided to try out the hot chocolate and churros for breakfast. Oh – I think my heart just stopped. Richly thick chocolate with sweet fatty pastries. What a breakfast. We needed a rest to get over our breakfast!
We headed out, and found out it was a public holiday (duh – end of May), so no shops were open. Not that Kathy was going to be doing much shopping. We headed off (on foot)
Just one of the buildings we passed along the way
to Gaudi's wave building
(wow – big queues too)
Just to contrast
and the Sagrada Familia.
What an incredible building. We walked around the outside, and were amazed.
We didn't go in – it was an hour long queue and we didn't feel like it after walking for about an hour to get there. But wow, wow, wow – such an incredible building. Poor Matt didn't realise that it was still being built.
Slightly footsore, we caught the hop on hop off bus again (different route) as we'd bought 2-day tickets. Today we saw the royal palace, more Gaudi buildings, the Royal nunnery (yes, really), and the Barcelona FC stadium. We hadn't realised that there was so much to see in Barcelona. So much to see, so little time. Never mind.
Another amazing lunch of tapas and that delicious dry rose that the Spanish seem to do so well. We had cuttlefish (mmmm), asparagus, and that delicious bread with smooshed tomatoes again. More wandering and being still peckish when we came across a lovely little plaza full of locals we stopped off at a place called l'Economic (it was so good we noted its name). We had a salad each and a drink, sat in the shade and watched the world go by – lots of families out and about enjoying the holiday. Just amazing.
A bit more wandering, then back to the hotel for a siesta. Barcelona really is a lovely city to walk around and look at buildings and wander down narrow alleys in. Brilliant.
After siesta and a spruce up we headed down towards the beach. There we were, just wandering along, and there was a guy coming towards us. Kathy thought “that's an odd coloured pair of swimmers he's wearing”. Innocent Kathy. He was wearing only a pair of thongs (jandals, flip flops – same thing), a bandanna on his head, and a back pack. !!!!!!!!!!! So now we know where he keeps his keys.
Kathy wanted to head in to Barceloneta (the old fishing village), but there was a massive carnival on, complete with brass bands, drums, dancing bands and massive crowds. We gave it a miss, wandered on and walked to the beach.
We sat looking over the Mediterranean! It wasn't quite what we expected. The sand was a dusty beige, and was lined with loud cocktail bars (a lot like Darling Harbour, but Spanish). Because we could have been anywhere in the world, we had 1 drink then walked back along the waterfront to Barcelona, avoiding the carnival. We went back to the marina and had proper paella. Real paella. Matt had black paella – it was coloured and flavoured with cuttlefish ink, and was studded with the beasties flesh. Kathy had seafood, complete with delicious, sweet langousteen. Couple of bottles of delicious wine and a complementary glass of post prandial cava . It was a stunning meal, in a lovely setting – it was great to see the light change as the sun set over the city.
We walked back to the hotel, meandering along Las Ramblas.
By this time we could start to pick the pickpockets – they can really stand out when you know what you're looking for.
What a brilliant end to our stay in Barcelona.
Tuesday 25th
Today it was up, pack and off to catch the train to Madrid! The train was incredible – high speed train, just under 3 hours between Barcelona and Madrid. It was amazing. It kept going faster and faster, until it hit 300 kmph!
It didn't go that fast all the time, but it was pretty stunning. Imagine if there was a fast train between Sydney and Melbourne – how amazing would that be? The train was so smooth and clean – like so much of the rest of what we've seen in Spain.
Kathy started to get quite home-sick on the trip. The countryside looks familiar but different – dry, dusty and sparse growth, just like in parts of Aus. White soil rather than red, but wide lands. There was lots of farming, with small-ish fields.
#
We got to Madrid, and to the hotel, only to find that they had no record of our booking!!!!! Fortunately they had an available room, but it was about 7pm by the time we finally got it sorted out. We had to find an internet cafe and print off a fresh copy of our booking, then wait until the duty manager was on duty, and make a phone call to the UK. Sigh. All sorted in the end though.
While we waited we went to the Plaza Mayor for lunch. Kathy had veal fillet, and Matt had roasted baby suckling pig. Mmmm. We enjoyed sitting with some red wine and watching the passing people.
We took the opportunity to do one of the tourist bus trips, which was well worth the drama of finding where to get it from.
The Imperial Palace
A shop front we passed on the bus
Parliament?
A quick snooze, discovering that the airconditioning didn't really work (c'est la vie), sorting out the room, then out for some food and drink.
The first place we went to was in a little square full of lots of groups standing and drinking or playing cards. Not quite what we'd expected, and Kathy didn't feel completely comfortable, so we drank up and headed onwards. We found some fantastic little places near the hotel where we had 'stuff' on toast – ham or the most stinky blue-green cheese. Yum! There were loads of people out and about doing the same thing. At another place we had Iberian black sausage – a tasty paprika scented nugget of porky goodness. We worked out that Matt's eaten pork about 9 different ways since we've been in Spain – he's nearly at his porky limit.
What a name for a bar!
Seafood anyone? Just look at that octopus!
A bit more wandering and nibbling, then back to the hotel for a night cap and bed.
Wednesday 26th
After breakfast in the hotel we were off.
Matt in the Plaza Mayor
Alfonso XII
Part of the Plaza Mayor - now a hotel
Just something we saw along the way
We walked down to the Royal Palace and took some photos,
Kathy in front of the Cathedral with 2 police horses behind her
and found out that the Palace was closed until the afternoon because of the trooping of the colour. We saw the horses getting ready for the parade
– including one over excited stallion (and what a stallion!) and a very nervy mare! We walked on, through a little garden
Kathy with one part of the Palace behind her
and then tried to get in to some larger gardens behind the Palace, but they were closed too. So we walked on and went to the crypt
and cathedral
beside the Palace,
lunch (peppers stuffed with cod and a platter of different pates), then back to the hotel (on the way back we saw an amazing food market full of people eating the most incredible looking food)
Can't get enough of that wonderful Duff
and a siesta. Only to find out that the maids hadn't picket up Matt's ironing. It was only after Kathy said that she'd do it herself that the staff said that the maids would do it for us that afternoon – rather than the 24 hours they originally said it would take. Sigh. Never mind.
Anyway, after Matt's siesta we went off to the Parque del Retiro for a walk.
We walked up to the Crystal Palace, and had saw some huge fish and little turtles
It's a wee turtle!
in the lake outside
and a wedding party walking around the lake for their photos. Inside the 'palace', which is really a large glasshouse,
was a circular garden all laid out for the seasons, with massive pumpkins and zucchini plants in it. Cool. We then walked through the beautiful, leafy pathways to the Palacio de Velazquez, which is closed for renovation, then to a large lake with a monument to Alfonzo XII on one side.
It was very impressive. The lake had rowboats for hire, and was full of people who had done so. It was really pretty.
After a siesta and spruce-up, we walked along the Puerta del Sol and to the Casa Baja and Casa Alto for drinks and tapas. It was a lovely area to eat and drink in. We had benito on a tomato/pepper compote and pork sausage on yummy bread. And of course delicious olives everywhere which came out with our drinks. We had a double malted 7.5% beer at a corner bar outside on a corner. Later there was a big bowl of lovely olives, delicious white wine, eggs with a tomato and fish stew, more white wine in tumblers (rather than glasses) with some delicious lightly fried squid. Fino sherry with cold fish and a baby eel salad. Delicious! It sounds as though we'd had a lot to eat, but they were all small portions. It was so fabulous, and another great day.
Thursday 27th
Today we decided to go to Toledo. First we found the railway station and bought our tickets, then raced across the road to the modern art gallery so that we could see Picasso's Guernica. It's pretty astounding – it's larger than we expected, and in its natural black and white it is incredibly depressing, more than we expected. Not entirely unexpected when you consider that it commemorates the aerial bombing of civilians in the city of the same name during the Spanish Civil War.
We dashed back to the railway station, and found that the station has a huge tropical garden smack in the middle of it
– complete with turtles. Amazing.
1 of 2 sculptures of huge babies heads near the platform for the train to Toledo
The train was another high speed train, so took only 30 minutes to get to Toledo from Madrid. We walked from the railway station in to the old citadel
Views of the Alcazar
– up, and up, and up, through the old city gates
Check out the old city gate - all iron clad
and along the old fortifications.
We had to pause and check out the view – partly to catch our breath and partly because it was just so stunning. The view was out in to the valley over terracotta-roofed houses.
It was exactly what Kathy expected central Spain to look like. We walked up to the Alcazar,
Street view of Toledo
Shade cloth over the lane
partly to find it and partly to check out places for lunch because we knew the Alzacar was closed for lunch. So we walked back down the hill to a place we'd checked out earlier for lunch, as we'd decided to have a proper meal rather than tapas or sandwiches. We ate from a nice set menu, with Matt having chorizo and bean stew, then bull tail (a bit like osso bucco) and Kathy had white asparagus and venison. We drank Dehesa del Carrizal Cabernet Sauvignon 2004. We followed it up with cheesecake – it was so rich that we were glad it was only a small portion. Oh, and coffee (of course), which oddly was the least good coffee of the trip. We were the only ones in the restaurant, but the waiter was very friendly.
After lunch we walked up to the cathedral,
The outside of the cathedral
which is yet another amazing catholic cathedral (no photographs, of course). It's heavily ornate with lots of saints chapels and an incredibly ornate Baroque high altar covered in gilt. There was a chapel full of images of past bishops all the way back to its founding. Unsurprisingly some of the bishops had very short tenures during the Inquisition. One seemed to have been disposed as the dates of his tenure were very odd and he wasn't wearing his bishop's hat. There was also a gallery full of art – including works by Raphael, Titan, Goya and El Greco. There was even a Carvello.
Unfortunately, by the time we'd finished there and walked back up the hill the Alcazar was closed!! Kathy was very cranky, because she'd stuffed up her timings. Bah. So we tried to get in to another church – which was also closed!! Dammit. Never mind, we walked back down the hill and out through another set of gates and across a lovely old stone bridge, which gave us different views of the Alcazar,
so it wasn't all lost. We were early for the train, so we sat in a road-side bar and had a couple of beers (and some delicious dark greed olives) and looked out at the view and watched the people going past. As we sat, we tried to walk out how far we'd walked – and couldn't. Miles and miles though.
Back to Madrid and the hotel to freshen up and off-load cameras and bits and pieces, then off for our last round of tapas. Delicious eggs with peppers, anchovies and capsicum on toast, 2 different types of olives, and a bit of Spanish omelette. As we sat outside at one bar there was a group of young people, one of whom had a pretty little dog who kept hopping in and out of his carry bag begging for pizza.
Friday 28th
Today we had chocolate and churros for breakfast again. It was so much better than the ones we had in Barcelona. The chocolate was richer and thicker and the churros were crispier – and there were more of them. Good thing we went for a little walk afterwards to the Royal Palace again. It was HUGE.
Views from the Palace over Madrid
The Palace is so incredibly ornate and richly furnished. The throne room was all rich reds and a real statement of power – as it's intended to be. There were a couple of rooms panelled with porcelain tiles. Others had rich, but faded tapestries, and nearly all rooms had rich silk drapery, including ones to cover doors. The royal armoury was pretty good, too. There were lots of multi-piece suits, and full sets of horse armour – including ceremonial sets for jousts. The royal pharmacy, which was also part of the entry fee, was pretty amazing too. It came complete with a 16th century still. After several hours we were getting pretty tired, so Kathy bought a charm (she really wanted one with the Madrid bear and strawberry tree,
but couldn't find one anywhere), we left and found somewhere to sit for a bit and have a cool drink. We went up to the market we saw the other day, but decided not to stop there. Instead we had a couple of plates and a drink at a nearby bar – anchovies and fried pigs ear, because the tripe was off. The pigs ear was fatty, gelatinous and cartilage-y, pretty much as you'd expect. While we were eating it rained for a bit – the first rain we'd had all week.
After lunch we went to the Museo del Prado – an art gallery. We saw lots of works by Goya, Raphael, Fra Angelico's annunciation and some great works by Boche. There was so much great stuff to see. Some of Goya's later works were fairly disturbing, but we both loved his 2nd and 3rd May 1809 panels. By this stage our brains were full and our legs were tired, so we retired to a square across the road from the gallery and sat and had a last glass of Spanish rose while we rested our weary legs before going back to the hotel to pick up our bags and go to the airport to return back home. It was another exhausting trip away, and we're glad we're going back to a long weekend.
At the airport, and through security to do some duty free shopping for Paul and Kirsty, get some water and some food. The plane was delayed for about an hour, but that's air travel for you. By the time we got back to Bristol it was midnight, so it was straight to the hotel and to bed.
Saturday 29th
We woke up to a cold, wet and windy Bristol. Train back to Cardiff, taxi home, out for lunch then a relaxing afternoon watching the Dish and feeling homesick.
Sunday 30th and Monday 31st
After the efforts of the last week, these 2 days were pretty relaxing. A couple of meals out and the opportunity to watch some sport on TV. What an absolutely brilliant holiday!
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