Saturday, 29 December 2012
Photos from Barcelona
 |
| Me standing next to a lion statue at the base of the Columbus Statue |
 |
| Me standing on the warf before I dangled my feet over the edge. |
 |
| Columbus Statue |
 |
| Street Performer |
 |
| At the Park |
 |
| Spanish for of hot chocolate. It pretty much is just chocolate. |
 |
| At Park Güel by the Gaudi Lizard/Dragon |
 |
| Hiding behind the columns at park Güel |
 |
| Another style of column at Park Güel |
 |
| A type of Spanish lolly called carbon |
 |
| Another protest, they just seem to follow us everywhere |
 |
| Yael, Ryan and I at the base of the mountain |
 |
| The view from the top |
 |
| Inside the Castle |
 |
| Yael and I standing beside a funny statue |
 |
| Yael and I sliding down the hill |
 |
| Part of the Sagrada Familia |
 |
| A Gaudi building we went to hunt for. |
 |
| Another Gaudi building. |
Valencia 19th - 21st
Again we travelled by train but this time it wasn't the fast speed Ave it was just the ordinary train. The directions to the hostel were really easy to follow, almost like a treasure map. I'm surprised they didn't tell us to count our foot steps and get out a compass. It was a really nice hostel and we were in a room with two other people. As we arrived quite late in the afternoon we decided to save all the historical activities for later and go to the beach. We got a little bit lost but we discovered that when you are lost sometimes you can find then best things. We stumbled into the Americas Cup museum which mentioned New Zealand a lot in its audio museum as we had won the cup a couple of times.
By the time we finally reached the beach, it was dark. Elaborate sandcastles with money containers riddled the beach, watched carefully by their creators a few meters away and runners jogged past us, even thought it was dark. It wasn't unsafe dark though, people were constantly moving and it was vey light. That's the thing in Spain which is so different to New Zealand, night time is just like daytime as their are so many people around and the lights are so bright.
We tried to find a metro station which was printed on our map so that we could get home (hôme hostel) but we couldn't find the steps underground anywhere. We then realised that the tram station was actually the metro station and with the help of a man also waiting for a tram we learnt which one to take and that we could use our metro card.
That night for dinner we went out with one of our room mates Claudia who was from Italy. We ate at the recommended Bodeguilla del Gato and had a variety of tapas, ranging from tomatoes to cuttlefish. The waiter was a good laugh and mum and I definitely thought he had an eye for Claudia.
For breakfast the next day we went across the road to a traditional Spanish market. It is very similar to the Farmers Market back in Hawkes Bay but on a much larger scale. There are loads of meat stalls, cheese stalls, bread stall, Jamón stalls, fish stalls and much more. We purchased some bread, jamón, cheese and a bag or mandarins (1kg for 0.60€ which is like $1.30nzd) which lasted us for lunch as well.
We spend the day at the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias looking around the science museum, which may sound boring but it wasn't. It was an interactive museum so it was very hands on, I forgot all about the science aspects though and just enjoyed playing about. There were things like soccer booths where you had to kick the soccer ball as hard as you could at the wall, a water whirl pool, strength testers and much more. I even saw a real chicken hatch out of its shell.
Our ticket to the museum also included a movie I the Hemisféric which was a circular building. The movie we watched was about a group of people who sailed down the blue Nile. That also sounds kind of boring but it also wasn't. Seeing all the shots on the huge IMAX screen was just amazing, we had to turn our head from one side to the other to see both ends of the screen. Words can't explain how big it was. We also had to wear these head sets which contained the audio. That way you could listen in any language you wanted.
Later that evening as I was writing about Barcelona on the computers at the hostel Yael walked through the door. We were both as shocked as each other and just stood there hugging and laughing. The even funnier thing was the man who was at reception got us to fill him in and said he would out her in our room, until it turned out she was in our room anyway. What a co incidence! Together we all went out for dinner (Claudia had already left to go back to Italy) at a restaurant called El Rally. Here we ordered a delicious traditional Valencia Paella which had rabbit and chicken I it.
On our last morning in Valencia we went to the market again but this time with Yael. Then we said our goodbyes again as we had to walk back to the bus station and travel back to Madrid.
By the time we finally reached the beach, it was dark. Elaborate sandcastles with money containers riddled the beach, watched carefully by their creators a few meters away and runners jogged past us, even thought it was dark. It wasn't unsafe dark though, people were constantly moving and it was vey light. That's the thing in Spain which is so different to New Zealand, night time is just like daytime as their are so many people around and the lights are so bright.
We tried to find a metro station which was printed on our map so that we could get home (hôme hostel) but we couldn't find the steps underground anywhere. We then realised that the tram station was actually the metro station and with the help of a man also waiting for a tram we learnt which one to take and that we could use our metro card.
That night for dinner we went out with one of our room mates Claudia who was from Italy. We ate at the recommended Bodeguilla del Gato and had a variety of tapas, ranging from tomatoes to cuttlefish. The waiter was a good laugh and mum and I definitely thought he had an eye for Claudia.
For breakfast the next day we went across the road to a traditional Spanish market. It is very similar to the Farmers Market back in Hawkes Bay but on a much larger scale. There are loads of meat stalls, cheese stalls, bread stall, Jamón stalls, fish stalls and much more. We purchased some bread, jamón, cheese and a bag or mandarins (1kg for 0.60€ which is like $1.30nzd) which lasted us for lunch as well.
We spend the day at the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias looking around the science museum, which may sound boring but it wasn't. It was an interactive museum so it was very hands on, I forgot all about the science aspects though and just enjoyed playing about. There were things like soccer booths where you had to kick the soccer ball as hard as you could at the wall, a water whirl pool, strength testers and much more. I even saw a real chicken hatch out of its shell.
Our ticket to the museum also included a movie I the Hemisféric which was a circular building. The movie we watched was about a group of people who sailed down the blue Nile. That also sounds kind of boring but it also wasn't. Seeing all the shots on the huge IMAX screen was just amazing, we had to turn our head from one side to the other to see both ends of the screen. Words can't explain how big it was. We also had to wear these head sets which contained the audio. That way you could listen in any language you wanted.
Later that evening as I was writing about Barcelona on the computers at the hostel Yael walked through the door. We were both as shocked as each other and just stood there hugging and laughing. The even funnier thing was the man who was at reception got us to fill him in and said he would out her in our room, until it turned out she was in our room anyway. What a co incidence! Together we all went out for dinner (Claudia had already left to go back to Italy) at a restaurant called El Rally. Here we ordered a delicious traditional Valencia Paella which had rabbit and chicken I it.
On our last morning in Valencia we went to the market again but this time with Yael. Then we said our goodbyes again as we had to walk back to the bus station and travel back to Madrid.
Thursday, 27 December 2012
Barcelona 16th - 19th
This time we took the high speed Ave train to Barcelona from Madrid which travelled at 300km/h!!! The train was quite comfortable too and there was a Spanish movie playing. When we arrived in Barcelona we had no idea where we were going and it took us ages to finally find our hostel. Spanish people are really bad with directions, they will say left but then point right so it makes it very confusing and difficult to understand. Already we had fallen in love with Barcelona and the only downside was that my Spanish was non existent as here they speak Catalan.
We had expected it to be cold here up north, but no. It was the hottest day we had yet so once we had the hostel staff looking after our bags we went to explore the port and the wharf. It was just buzzing with excitement and it was so nicely presented. Here we gave our feet a rest and enjoyed a delicious ice cream in the sun, while watching a man rummage through trash. A little further along, past a very expensive children's adventure section consisting of a small zorb like thing and many other fun things there was the edge of the wharf which I sat on and dangled my feet over the edge.
After soaking up some well needed sun we ventured onto the well know street La Rambla. This street is unique because it is lined on both sides with tents filled with all kinds of knick knacks and street performers are seen everywhere. As the street progresses you see a change in the stalls and soon the street is covered in street artists, and then further down pets stalls. We returned back here later that night for dinner and we were extremely disappointed as the menu deal we thought we were getting really wasn't what we got. Thank goodness we only shared a meal. Also the whole way through dinner we were bugged by beggars and people trying to sell us silly things.
The next day was another beautiful day so we decided to start with a visit to a park. We walked to the park Ciutadella and explored around there, but not on the grass because that wasn´t aloud. The park is also the home of the Catalan Parliament. The end of the park led onto the Arc del Triomf which is very similar to the one in France. We got a little bit lost trying to find this market but luckily instead we found a chocolate museum so we had morning tea there, also tasting all of their samples. When we finally found the market it was very disappointing to learn that it was closed for renovations.
The afternoon consisted of a Gaudi hunt as we roamed around the city viewing buildings he created and then catching the metro to the other side of town to go to the Park Guell where his famous Lizard/Dragon mosaic is. By now I was exausted and my feet hurt like crazy so i sat down and ate some of our nut pavlova/meringue/rock while mum climbed to the top of the park to look around some more. We then walked back to the metro and I found my energy after purchasing a few lollies from the sweet shop as mum has learnt that when I´m tired I get grumpy and lollies make it all better.
For our last day in Barcelona we decided to spend it with our new friends Yael from Israel and Ryan from China. We took the metro up to the Montjuïc castle where we explored and admired the view of Barcelona from the top. We could see the city on one side and the construction work of the Sagrada Famila and on the other side we could see a huge cruise ship coming into port which Yael and I found very interesting to watch. Getting down the hill was the fun and easy part. We found a slide. It didn't go right down to the bottom well actually it went no were near... but it saved us a bit of walking until we decided we wanted to go down it again and again.
After Ryan and Mum dragged Yael and I away from the slide we all walked to the Olympic Stadium of Barcelona which was actually really tiny. When we finally walked our way back down to the same level as the city we ate lunch in the Las Arenas at Udon Ya. After lunch we all went our own ways with mum and I returning to the hostel via the Sagrada Familia and a few more Gaudi buildings like Casa Batilló and La Pedera.
For dinner we went back to La Rambla and picked somewhere with a little more class. A gourmet Pizza place called La Poma. Here we shared a delicious pizza which was ham cheese jamón and lettuce. The next morning, the last in Barcelona we said our farewells to Yael and left a message in Ryan's boot as we didn't want to wake him. We then walked the now familiar walk to the metro and said goodbye to Barcelona.
We had expected it to be cold here up north, but no. It was the hottest day we had yet so once we had the hostel staff looking after our bags we went to explore the port and the wharf. It was just buzzing with excitement and it was so nicely presented. Here we gave our feet a rest and enjoyed a delicious ice cream in the sun, while watching a man rummage through trash. A little further along, past a very expensive children's adventure section consisting of a small zorb like thing and many other fun things there was the edge of the wharf which I sat on and dangled my feet over the edge.
After soaking up some well needed sun we ventured onto the well know street La Rambla. This street is unique because it is lined on both sides with tents filled with all kinds of knick knacks and street performers are seen everywhere. As the street progresses you see a change in the stalls and soon the street is covered in street artists, and then further down pets stalls. We returned back here later that night for dinner and we were extremely disappointed as the menu deal we thought we were getting really wasn't what we got. Thank goodness we only shared a meal. Also the whole way through dinner we were bugged by beggars and people trying to sell us silly things.
The next day was another beautiful day so we decided to start with a visit to a park. We walked to the park Ciutadella and explored around there, but not on the grass because that wasn´t aloud. The park is also the home of the Catalan Parliament. The end of the park led onto the Arc del Triomf which is very similar to the one in France. We got a little bit lost trying to find this market but luckily instead we found a chocolate museum so we had morning tea there, also tasting all of their samples. When we finally found the market it was very disappointing to learn that it was closed for renovations.
The afternoon consisted of a Gaudi hunt as we roamed around the city viewing buildings he created and then catching the metro to the other side of town to go to the Park Guell where his famous Lizard/Dragon mosaic is. By now I was exausted and my feet hurt like crazy so i sat down and ate some of our nut pavlova/meringue/rock while mum climbed to the top of the park to look around some more. We then walked back to the metro and I found my energy after purchasing a few lollies from the sweet shop as mum has learnt that when I´m tired I get grumpy and lollies make it all better.
For our last day in Barcelona we decided to spend it with our new friends Yael from Israel and Ryan from China. We took the metro up to the Montjuïc castle where we explored and admired the view of Barcelona from the top. We could see the city on one side and the construction work of the Sagrada Famila and on the other side we could see a huge cruise ship coming into port which Yael and I found very interesting to watch. Getting down the hill was the fun and easy part. We found a slide. It didn't go right down to the bottom well actually it went no were near... but it saved us a bit of walking until we decided we wanted to go down it again and again.
After Ryan and Mum dragged Yael and I away from the slide we all walked to the Olympic Stadium of Barcelona which was actually really tiny. When we finally walked our way back down to the same level as the city we ate lunch in the Las Arenas at Udon Ya. After lunch we all went our own ways with mum and I returning to the hostel via the Sagrada Familia and a few more Gaudi buildings like Casa Batilló and La Pedera.
For dinner we went back to La Rambla and picked somewhere with a little more class. A gourmet Pizza place called La Poma. Here we shared a delicious pizza which was ham cheese jamón and lettuce. The next morning, the last in Barcelona we said our farewells to Yael and left a message in Ryan's boot as we didn't want to wake him. We then walked the now familiar walk to the metro and said goodbye to Barcelona.
Friday, 21 December 2012
Day Trip to Segovia 15th December
We took another bus, also around 45mins but this time to Segovia. The unique thing about this also hill built city is it has an amazing "Aquaduct" which was built a very long time ago to transport water from the well to the castle. It stretches on and on and all made out of brick.
 |
| Aquaduct |
At the information center there was this really amazing cube that you stood inside and all the walls had a screen on them. It played clips of Segovia from a helicopter and it actually felt like we were flying.
We walked the length of the Aquaduct and then looked around the city, which was also filled with souvenir shops very similar to Toledo. Again we went into another Cathedral, this one was far more open and again mum took prohibited photos. It amazed me the amount of detail that goes into the buildings, everything is painted perfectly and it just blows my mind.
We then found our way to the Castle at Segovia. Interesting fact... this is the castle that Disney based the castle on at Disneyland. The sad thing about this castle was everything original was destroyed in a fire so all the rooms were recreated by sketches done of the castle before the tragedy. The luxury was still evident however and I was still amazed but the amount of unnecessary space. A whole room to get dressed in, another to write a letter in.
 |
| The Castle |
 |
| One of the roofs, luckily there was an identical roof to replace the destroyed one |
 |
| Aqueduct at night |
Again by the time we got to the train we were completely exhausted from all our travels, and not looking forward to the early morning train the next day to Barcelona.
Day Trip to Toledo 14th December
We took the train for about 45mins from Madrid to Toledo and arrived at the station far far away from the center of town, which was on a hill surrounded by a stone wall. Toledo is a very old place and the buildings show it, with roofs falling apart. We had to walk to the center of town which was a long way from the train station but it saved us money. It was a long climb to the center but well worth it.
 |
| Roof Falling apart |
 |
| A small portion of the Cathedral at Toldeo |
From here we were able to get directions back into the main part of town, back to the tourist part more like it. We had a very non Spanish lunch consisting of pasta but it filled us up. We then took this tourist train ride all around the city. It isn't really a train just a motorised car which looks like a train and very reasonable priced.
 |
| View from outside the walls across the river on the train. |
By now we felt we had done all we could do in Toledo so we walked back to the train station in the dark, I managed to remember the way. By the time we got on the train we were thank full to finally put up our feet and relax a little.
Thursday, 13 December 2012
Two Days In Aranjuez
We left Madrid and travelled aprox. 48km by train to Aranjuez. Aranjuez is quite a small little city but full of culture and beautiful buildings. We arrived about midday so we had alot of time to explore. There were so many fountains riddled through out the city. Sadly, however, most of them didn't work because they get turned off for winter so we saw alot of empty fountain, incredible still however. On the same street as out hotel was a big entrance way thing which was opposite to a fountain. This became my point where I would refer to so we didn't get lost as this always led back to the hotel.
That night for diner we went to a little where it was only us, we got the meal of the day which was incredibly cheap and we had to dissect the menu. I was able to order for us and he seemed to understand which was good. Over all the food was average but it was cheap and a good experience.
The whole city was filled with arches like the ones on the side near anything royal and old
After this, with our little tourist map in hand we went to the Gardens of Aranjuez. I didnt expect them to be so big, it went on and on and on little paths everywhere. The gardens were right beside the river Tajo and so we could always find ourselves by finding the river. Because it is winter the gardens looked a bit bare, with the only things remaining being the ever green trees. But the walk was still lovely, especially when we got to cross this old bridge and then i found a herd of geese which seemed to like me alot.
Entrance to the Gardens
Hedge House in the gardens
The Bridge over the Tajo
My only friends so far....
But wait, there was more...after crossing the bridge mother and I became a bit lost both wanting to travel different ways. Thankfully we found our way "home" well nearly, we found our way into the palace gardens or the Jardín de la Isla. Here there was this waterfall that ducks just loved to sit on and there were some pretty confusing statues. It would take alot of work to keep the gardens looking nice because there were so many hedges all perfectly cut in shapes and patterns.
Ducks on the waterfall
I have no idea what this state/water fountain was so I am going to pretend it is Peter Pan sewing on his shadow.
Perfectly cut hedges
Is this a naked lady or a Cat? You decide...
By now it was getting dark so we returned to the hotel and just fell asleep even though it was only around 6. That night we decided not to go out for dinner because we were hardly hungry so instead we went to the supermarket and bought bread jamon and cheese all for less than 10 Euros.
The next day we did some more exploring but the highlight was definitely the Palace. We payed entry and we were able to look (no photos) inside rooms of the palace which all had the original decor. The attention to detail was amazing and some of the rooms just caused our jaws to drop.
Outside the palace.
We also went in search of Joaquín Rodrigo's monument and his grave. Because he was a very famous musician who was inspired to write his famous piece by the gardens in Aranjuez.
His music written in the pavement
His memorial plaque
The modern art on top of his family tomb.
That night for diner we went to a little where it was only us, we got the meal of the day which was incredibly cheap and we had to dissect the menu. I was able to order for us and he seemed to understand which was good. Over all the food was average but it was cheap and a good experience.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)