Hello From Spain

Hello from Barcelona

This is my first ever blog and I´ll have to be very brief since I only have about 11 minutes left at the Internet cafe. I am sitting here at the Maremagnum shopping mall in the port of Barcelona.

Theresa and I just came back from our tour on the blue Tourist Bus. (20 Euros for 2 days). What a fabulous city!

Yesterday we had dinner in the Gothic Quarter and got serenaded by one musician / music group after another. And today the bus tour, beautiful weather, brilliant sunshine, about 28 degrees Celsious.

We started in the port area, snaked our way past the Casino, the Olympic Village, the Zoo, through the Gothic Quarter to the hussle and bustle of Plaza Catalunya. Along the way we had a quick peak at Gaudi´s masterpieces: Casa Battlo and La Pedrera. The we came across the middle part of the city, up to the hill of Montjuic where we visited the Poble Espanyol (Spanish village), a beautiful 1929 replica of buildings from villages throughout Spain.

Then we passed the Olympic stadium, the Teleferic cablecar and came back down into the city where we are just starting to relax now in the harbour.

Tonight we´ll probably head up the Ramblas and check out some authentic Barcelona Nightlife.

Hello from Tarragona

My second blog entry. Sitting here in Calle Cos del Bou in Tarragona. We spent 2 very intense and interesting days in Barcelona. Barcelona is a great city with so many sights to see. The Barrio Gotico (Gothic Quarter) with the old cathedral, the newly renovated waterfront with the Statue of Columbus, La Sagrada Familia, the architecture by Antoni Gaudi (La Pedrera, Casa Battlo, Parc Guell, La Sagrada Famila), the Olympic Park.

The topography is great, on one side is the Mediterranean, on the west side is the hill Montjuic and on the north side is Mount Tibidabo, the highest mountain overlooking the city with an amusement park and a beautiful church on top.

We ended up buying a 2-day ticket for the Bus Turistico (20 Euros for 2 days, 16 Euros for 1 day) and rode the blue, red and green lines of the bus, covering all the major sights. We also took the Tram Azul and the Funicular to the top of Mount Tibidabo.

A great city. Tremendous nightlife, although we are not club goers, the activity and hustle and bustle until late in the night are great. La Rambla is just full of people and people of all ages are walking in the Barrio Gotico and as a tourist you feel completely safe. Lots of entertainment, we even saw a live concert in front of the old cathedral (La Seu) where people were dancing the Sardana, a traditional Catalan dance.

Now we have just arived in Tarragona and do a little walking around this old Roman town before we head further south on the coast. Next report to follow...

Hello from Javea

We just arrived in the little port town of Javea, about 75 km south of Valencia. Yesterday we drove down the coast from Barcelona, stopped in Tarragona for a lovely little lunch and had a quick peak at the remains of the Roman walls. We couldn´t find the supposedly well preserved amphitheatre though....

We made our way south along the N340 to a town called Peñiscola, a beautiful jewel on a peninsula sticking out into the Mediterranean. We stayed in a beautiful little hotel along the waterfront (for Euro 37 each) and had a great dinner at a local restaurant.

This morning we left, drove into Valencia and walked around the downtown area. We checked out the Cathedral on the Plaza de la Reina, then the Mercado (similar to the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto) where the fish market area almost made me toss my cookies.

Across the street is the Llonja, a Gothic silk market, one of the few Gothic buildings that is not a church. Unfortunately it is under renovation and all covered up and we couldn´t get in.

Then we headed out on the road again, for about 2 hours, drove through the expansive developments at Denia and ended up driving over the mountains to Javea. Javea is a beautiful little town right on the Mediterranean, at the foot of an impressive mountain called Montgo.

We´ll see what tonight holds...

Hello from Sitges

Sitting here in the cafe, 2 minutes from the Hostal Bonaire (Euro 39 for a single room) where we are going to spend the night.

We left Javea yesterday around 1 pm and drove up the A7. We were just curious about the toll and ended up paying Euro 6.20 and Euro 17.75 plus another Euro 1.20 to exit just around Tarragona.

We decided to explore the mountain areas and ended up in a hostal in the small medieval town of Montblanc where a single room cost only Euro 25.00 and a double room was Euro 42.00. We walked around the town which is completely encircled by walls and medieval watchtowers. Quite interesting, but very small.

Having dinner was another thing, we were ready to eat by about 8 pm, but no chance, none of the restaurants would open before 9:00 pm so we ended up eating a bocadillo (sandwich) at a bar on the main square.

This morning we had a nice little breakfast on the main square at the same place. It was market day today and all sorts of merchants were selling various types of merchandise from portable stands. Our breakfast was lovely, tea plus 2 of the freshest croissants we had ever tasted.

We then made our way through the mountains past Valls into the area of Montserrat, which is an absolutely fascinating area. We ended up spending the entire afternoon at the Monastery of Montserrat, checked out the basilica, were astounded at the various modes of transportation one could use to get up to the monastery, ie. the road with Euro 4 for parking, a pin and racket railroad and an aerial tram.

Plus we took a funicular to the top of the mountain to Sant Joan and walked around at the top of the serrated mountains. What a gorgeous view! We also walked up to the right to a little chapel (I guess the Chapel of Sant Joan). Right beside it was an abandoned villa / restaurant that was glued against the mountain. It pretty much lay in ruins and I wondered what must have happened to this rather mysterious place...

After Montserrat we drove down to the coast and we decided to spend our last night on the mainland in Sitges, a really beautiful town about 50 km southwest of Barcelona, right on the Mediterranean. We went to the tourist office to get our accommodation information and then drove down to the beach where we had to park quite far away from the downtown. Parking is definitely an issue here.

We booked into the Hostal Bonaire right downtown, 2 single rooms at Euro 39 each, not bad for a beautiful beach town. Not fancy, but clean and with private baths. Now we are gonna head out for dinner. After about 4 to 5 hours of walking today we are pretty tired and hungry....

Tomorrow it´s off to Ibiza where we are going to have a more relaxing week.