Travel Day - Barcelona to Madrid

June 15, 2016

We spent the majority of our day today enroute to/from airports, at the airport waiting for our flight or enroute via air to Madrid. It always surprises me how exhausting a day of travel can be and this was less than a 1.5 hour flight! How am I going to handle 20+ hours of travel tomorrow? Not well, I'm guessing.

As this is my last post for our Spanish Pilgrimage and Bike Tour trip and, since I don't have any interesting sightseeing observations or pictures from our time in the Barcelona and Madrid airports, I thought I'd post a few random pictures that we got a kick out of along the way. As you'll see, poor Jerry headlines almost every photo. It all started on the first day of our bike trip when we were touring the church in Evora and Rich unwittingly snapped this picture of Becky and Jerry.

New hairdo, Jerry?

From that point on, we were on the lookout for other opportunities. Check these out.

I don't think any of these later pics were as good as the first. And, of course, there's this picture of Rich and Jerry. Probably the only time Rich will be taller than Jerry.

It took a 2-foot high bench to achieve this look!

And last but not least, Rich insisted I include this picture to prove how well we rode together.

I guess that's supposed to be a phantom me he has his arm

around. By the time this picture was snapped, I was long gone!

Hope to see you all soon.

Barcelona Sightseeing - Barri Gotic

June 14, 2016

Today we wandered through the Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter), following a route described in our guide book. This section of Barcelona is the oldest part of the city and the area where ancient Romans first founded the city of Barcino, where medieval Christians built the great Cathedral of Barcelona, and where Jews were forced to live until 1492 when they were expelled from Spain. Today, the Barri Gotic is a charming area filled with narrow, winding lanes opening onto grand squares. As we wandered through these lanes we encountered unique shops, Art Nouveau storefronts (such as the Els Quatre Gats restaurant), street musicians and beggars. (It wasn't all sightseeing today, however, as Becky and I did a fair amount of shopping in some of the shops we came across.)

By the time we finished our walk, it was close to 2:30 and time for lunch (wonder how long it will take Rich to revert back to his 11:30 lunch time). We stopped at a tapas bar Becky had read about. It was jammed with locals, but we were lucky enough to get seats at the bar where we could watch all the action. Some of the tapas we ordered included a Russian salad (not exactly what we had thought it would be, but delicious none the less), chicken croquettes, octopus, white asparagus with fish roe (first time I've had fish roe and it wasn't too bad, surprisingly), pork ribs (without the ribs), and some type of pasta with sausage. Everything was delicious and we topped off our meal with a lemon ice served in a hollowed out lemon topped with meringue. Again, one of the best meals we've had this trip, but sadly also one of the last few meals we'll have in Spain. Tomorrow we fly to Madrid and on Thursday we begin our long trek home.

Cathedral of Barcelona

Monument to the Martyrs of Independence

Asparagus tapa with fish roe - isn't this a work of art?

Boneless pork rib tapa

Octopus tapa

Lemon ice dessert

Barcelona Sightseeing - Sagrada Familia and Park Guell

June 13, 2016

We spent our day today sightseeing at two major Barcelona sights: Antoni Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, and his Park Guell, part of an early 20th century upscale housing development. Gaudi was a 19th century Barcelonian architect famous throughout Spain, but especially loved in his native city. We had to secure timed entry reservations for both sights and the earliest I could get us in to Sagrada Famila was at 12:15, followed by tower access at 2:15 and then Park Guell access at 4:00. When Rich saw the schedule he wanted to know when we were having lunch, given that Park Guell was a good 45 minutes away from Sagrada Familia by Metro (oops!).

Spent a leisurely morning at the apartment and then left for our walk to Sagrada Familia at 11:30. The first sight of this cathedral is overwhelming. It towers above everything around it and the exterior facade is very "busy" (Rich calls it ugly). As you look closer, however, you realize that each exterior side has a story to tell: the Nativity facade, the Passion facade and the Glory facade. Gaudi designed the interior to reflect nature, with the columns representing tree trunks blossoming with leaves and the colors of the stained glass windows reflecting the sun's path from east to west: cooler colors on the east side gradually changing  to warmer colors on the west side. It's beautiful the way this colored light bounces off the interior walls. I was absolutely captivated by the cathedral, while Rich didn't care for it at all and didn't understand what all the fuss was about (I guess the old saying is true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder).

Initial view of Sagrada Familia - this is the Passion Facade

Can you see the" tree" branches and leaves?

Stained glass window

On our way to Park Guell we bought sandwiches and had a picnic lunch in the park while being serenaded by street musicians singing songs such as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Circle of Life". After lunch, we entered the Monumental Zone of the park, where we saw more of Gaudi's fanciful architecture, including a pair of gingerbread-style houses and a spectacular view terrace lined with colorful undulating tile benches. Afterwards, we walked @ 3 miles back to our apartment. All told, today was an 8+ mile day and my feet are tired!

Park Guell

Another view of the pillars supporting the terrace

Park Guell gingerbread house

Travel Day - Sintra to Barcelona

June 12, 2016

Today was another travel day, this time by air from Lisbon to Barcelona. The day was pretty uneventful: on our way to the airport by 6:30 this morning to catch a 9:00 flight; landed in Barcelona @ noon (Spain is an hour ahead of Portugal); arrived at our VRBO apartment @ 2:00; did some laundry (love that the two VRBO's we've rented have had washing machines) and @ 6:00 decided to take a stroll about town and find someplace to have dinner.

It's strange to be in a big city again where you have to be careful when crossing the street for fear a car, motorcycle or bike will run you over. We joined the throng of people on La Ramblas, Barcelona's main boulevard (similar to the Champs-Elysees in Paris only without the cars), and made our way from the Placa de Catalunya to the waterfront. Wandered among all the sidewalk vendors selling knock-off purses and "Nike" shoes and finally found a little restaurant across the street from the beach where we had dinner. By the time we finished dinner and walked back to the apartment it was after 11:00. Didn't take many pictures today, but here are a few.

An example of Barcelona's Modernisme architecture

Placa de Catalunya

The beach at Barceloneta

Sintra Sightseeing

June 11, 2016

Our agenda today was to do some sightseeing in Sintra, a small town outside Lisbon where Portuguese kings and royalty built magnificent palaces and homes as summer getaways. The town of Sintra itself sprawls at the base of a hill, while two of the town's major attractions, the Pena Palace and the ruins of a Moorish castle, sit at the top of the hill. This hilltop was our destination for the day.

But first, we had to find a pharmacy, as Becky woke up with a sore throat this morning. According to our proprietress there was only one pharmacy in town, near the train station. She gave us directions (which sounded very simple) and we were on our way (albeit what turned out to be the wrong way). Becky and I obviously didn't fully understand her directions, because we ended up on the outskirts of town and had to walk all the way around the hill along a set of railroad tracks to get back into town (at least 2 miles). The entire time we were listening for the distant sounds of a train rumbling down the track. When we did finally reach the pharmacy, it was quite busy and Becky had to patiently wait her turn to buy her throat lozenges. Everyone kept cutting in front of her (love these European queues) and she finally gave up in disgust. By this time it was after 11:00, so we caught a taxi to take us to the Pena Palace. From there, we would walk to the Moorish castle and then back to town.

Walking the rails

Our taxi dropped us at the ticket booth, but it was still a long, steep climb up to the palace itself. The Pena Palace was like something straight out of Disneyland, with Gothic towers, Renaissance domes and Moorish minarets, all painted different colors. Built in the 1800's by Portugal's King Ferdinand, it's a mix of German and Portuguese styles, with Moorish elements thrown in. In contrast, the Moorish castle down the hill reflected a much simpler style, being a typical medieval fortress, built of stone. After a quick tour of the castle ruins, we followed a steep path back to town for a much needed lunch and refreshment.

View of the Pena Palace on the walk up

Pena Palace up close and personal

What I would give for a kitchen this size!

Moorish castle

The Algarve to Sintra

June 10, 2016

After breakfast and a short hike to stretch our legs, we loaded up the car and started our drive north through the Algarve and back into the Alentejo region of Portugal. Nuno had given us suggestions as to which towns we should stop at along the way and I'm so glad he did or we would have missed some gorgeous beach views. We side-tripped to the beaches of Carrapateira, Arrifana and Odeceixe, villages so small they're barely on the map and are never covered in the guide books. At Carrapateira we saw kite surfers, at Arrifana an old fort, and at Odeceixe a favorite local swimming hole. It took us all day to work our way north, but it was so worth it.

Kite surfer at Carrapateira

Another view of Carrapateira from the cliff tops

 

The fort ruins at Arrifana

Odeceixe beach

We stopped for lunch at a small fishing village along the way and ordered the local specialty, Arroz de Marisco (seafood rice), filled with prawns, clams, crab and mussels. It was one of the best meals we've had this entire trip!

By the time we reached Sintra, it was almost 7:00 and we were all tired of being in the car. Sintra's a fairly small town with steep, narrow, winding streets. Our GPS obviously didn't know how to navigate these streets to get us to our destination. It kept routing us in circles through some of the narrowest streets I've ever seen and up steep inclines. I don't know how Jerry did it with the manual transmission, sometimes having to stop on the incline to let another car pass, sometimes having to back up downhill. There were times I had to close my eyes! Rich finally used his Google Maps app on his phone and it got us to our hotel directly. The car is parked and will stay there until we leave Sunday morning. If we need to go any distance, we'll take a taxi.

Can you see how close Jerry parked to the post?

The Algarve

June 9, 2016

We were up early this morning and on our way out of Sevilla before 9:30. This was after we had breakfast of course, as Rich and Jerry have already established a post-ride morning routine that they didn't want to deviate from. Like homing pigeons, they've scoped out nearby pastry shops and have zeroed in on their favorite, each morning buying coffee and a few of their favorite pastries. They do bring them back to the apartment and grudgingly share them with me and Becky.

Our route today took us through southwestern Spain and southern Portugal to Sagres on the southwestern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. Before Columbus discovered America, this area was thought to be the edge of the earth. Along the way, we stopped in the towns of Tavira and Lagos to stretch our legs and see the sights. We also stopped at a field of sunflowers for a photo opportunity.

Field of sunflowers

 View of Tavira's church

Our hotel for the night is beautifully situated on a bluff overlooking the sea. Sagres is a surfing town and there seem to be more surf shops in town than restaurants. About 4 miles out of town is the Cape St. Vincent lighthouse, with the best sunset views in the area. After watching the sun set, we drove back into town for a late dinner at what appears to be the favorite hangout of the surfer crowd. Dinner was delicious, so they obviously appreciate good food (or maybe it was the beer and wine they were craving?).

Waiting for the sun to set at Cape Sagres

What a gorgeous sunset!