Spain

With great intentions I updated our travel blog after a few short weeks of neglect, and then somehow our travels went into overdrive with too much to see and no time for blogging! so I will try to catch up once again
After our stop in Granada, we had originally planned to stop at Valencia on our way up to Barcelona. What we didnt realise is that the MotoGP was on at the time, so all accomodation was booked out (completly booked out!) so next option was a 12 hour train (either all day or overnight) to Barcelona, during the booking process our bank card wouldnt work (for the 140euro tickets, thats each!) so we ran up the road to get out some cash instead, with the last few tickets on hold as this was sold out as well, but our card didnt work at the ATM either, seeing it as a sign we gave up and planned to think about it again tomorrow! After a quick rethink, we bought flights direct to Barcelona for 140euro for the two of us, A much better option!

We had now been to Barcelona quite a few times, (4 times in the past year alone) so for a change of pace we rented an apartment for a week and Rishi enrolled in a weeks intensive spanish course, while I opted to lounge around all day and see some less known sights
Our apartment was great, and was a bit of a splurge

We ended up in the less touristy port end of the Gothic Quarter, which was a great central location

The week went too fast, and Rishi loved her Spanish course (a lot a lot a lot a lot!!!! - Rishi)

Next stop was somewhere we missed on our last trip, Amsterdam

You always get mixed reviews from people who have been, and we were now keen to see it for ourselves

Accomodation is the hardest part about Amsterdam, you can pay 90euro a night for two people to sleep on an old boat where you would struggle to find the room to swing a cat! We found a great Guesthouse just across from the main city centre (10 mins walk) which worked out great

The first thing you see when you arrive at Central Station is bikes everywhere, and it was cold, about 4degrees and people were everywhere on bikes

This was the worlds first(and only?) multi storey bike storage out the front of the train station

Being just outside town, what better way to get around so we hired bikes for our entire four day stay!

We had great clear (but cold) weather for the entire time, most days we just picked an area and cruised through on our bikes stopping wherever we liked, There are some fantastic museums and gallerys

Including Rembrandthaus, Rembrandts original house which had an exhibition that ran through his life and included the most extensive collection of his etchings along with the original etching plates

Unfortunatly the Rembrandt-poppen-haus wouldnt fit in my bag!

We also got to the Rijksmuseum which had a fantastic collection of everything and anything (their version of the Lourve, and almost as big) which also had the Contreversal Damien Hirst diamond skull on display

Which was intresting, but definatly all hype

But we spent most of the time admiring the canals, the bikes and the people riding them and trying to find somewhere to lock our bikes

The food was up and down, and varied, we ordered a beer snack here which was described as ox sausage, it tasted better than it looked!

And of course we strolled the red light district at night, which was more tourist parade than anything else, but it definatly a more sleazy feel over the weekend

Next we jumped on a train to Berlin, were we didnt want to leave 2 years ago

We spent 7 nights here 2 years ago, and had dreamt of living and working here, so we were intrested to see after all this time how it has changed

Things have definatly moved on, and the areas we liked last time have pushed further out as the city has developed, but the feeling of the city is still there

We revisited some places, like the Reichstag, great by day or night (no snow this time either!)

Karl Marx Allee, Communist housing development

Berliner Dom, I took this exact photo last time!

There was a building here last time we visited, and they decided to knock it down after all (apparently due to an asbestos problem!)

And the TV tower is visible from everywhere

We managed to meet up with a friend of Rishis from Sydney, Hannah who is now living and working in Berlin, something we talked to her about after our first trip, and hers two years ago

She took us to a new restaurant run by one of her room mates from Paris, which was a great night out

We read some tourist magazine and spotted an unusual event, a Parkour demonstration at a big indoor skatepark in Friedrichshain which we checked out, Parkour is a french invented sport where you basically just jump all over everything (very hard to explain) but it is certainly big in Germany

Retro Rishi

We sampled many Curry Wurst, this one is apparently famous, not too sure why!

And we even managed some culture, at the uniquely named Hamburger Bahnhoff Gallery, which unknown to us was 12euro entry (just dont convert it to AUD we told ourselves!)

And of course, we sampled most of Berlins beers on offer, including a selection in an old fashioned beer hole in Mitte

Next in Spain it was onto the Former Muslim centre of Europe, first stop was Cordoba one of the most important citys of Western Europe in the 10th Century. The main building left here is the Mesquita (Mosque) which was converted by the Christians when the city was recaptured in 1236. At the time of the Muslim rule this mosque was the second largest in the world.

Parts of the original walls also remained

But the Mequita was the real highlight

The Christians basically just modified the existing building, and built a number of cathedrals inside the original mosque

It was amazing just walking through the arches, and seeing how the light changed

Other than the Mosque there wasnt much left of the Muslim city, but the street layout was definatly based on the original Muslim city.

Cordoba felt as though it was really based around the tourists, but there were still some great local places to be found. This Fino bar specialised in Montilla-Moriles a type of Fino, a glass out of the chilled barrel was only about €1.20 not the best tasting stuff though!

The food here was a little dissapointing after Seville, but we did find a great Tortilla place (which is basically a potato frittata) and when its good its great!

We stayed just outside the old town in Cordoba, and just on the corner was this bar on top of a new multi-storey carpark, this must be were all the locals go because it was pretty busy for a Monday night, and had a great view of the old Roman Bridge

Next was onto Granada, home to the Moops(according to George or Moors, according to the Bubble boy in Seinfeld)

With the obvious highlight here being the Alhambra

A good solid day was required to see the Alhambra, and even in low season the pre-book tickets were sold out 24 hours before the day, so that meant we had to get there for the on the day sale tickets at 8am with entry at 9am. The entire day felt like cattle through the saleyards, but it really is one of the most amazing places in the world

The famous Lions courtyard was under maintenance, and all the Lions had been taken away for remodelling (just imagine a series of 7 giant lions squirting water into a central fountain)

But the main courtyard more than made up for it.

The view back over the Albycin was impressive as well (this is the old muslim medina)

Then there was the Generalife (the Architects Gardern) where the average tourist seemed to go crazy, I had to take a photo of this Brady bunch Family who decided to get a photo of them all jumping out from behind the columns and you will notice that the last two people are not even part of the family they just decided to join in

It was a long enjoyable day

After some great Tapas in Seville, and some good finds in Cordoba, we had high hopes for Granada. But this stop seemed to be the end of our Tapas meals. Every place we found seemed to adopt the more of less is better angle, and it was about getting free stuff, which the American tourists seemed to love

But we still found some intresting places, this place was suposed to be mexican but they served huge Montaditos (which were free)

And I am definatly not sure how the knights fitted into the theme

Another day we setout to explore the Albycin, We had read some bad stories about this area. And there have been quite a few violent muggings so we really had our wits about us, and quite a few times we walked down a narrow street to see some very dodgy characters just hanging around trying to look like they were meant to be there, and after a few hours walking around we booth had the heeby jeebys, but it felt very Arabic and we could have easily been back in Morroco

Until we found these guys at one of the lookouts, very Spanish!

Our first stop back in Espana was Seville, we had been here on our first Europe trip 3 years ago now. We left with bad feelings after arriving with no accomodation booked and walking around without a map for 3 hours before we found a very overpriced room with only a bed for €40 a night. We ended up staying 1 night that time! So we thought we should try Seville again, and this time we booked some accomodation. It happened to be the weekend, so there wasnt actually much left to choose from, so we ended up with a double room for €46 a night in a Hostel. If you have read our earlier blogs, this one definatly fell into the cave room description. But it was the weekend so, we were not planning on staying in the room much.
Seville is a beautiful city, but completly overun with tourists.

The Alcazar was a real highlight, we didnt see it last time

There were heaps of wedding photos getting taken everywhere we went, which sort of dictated where you went in the Alcazar as they would turn up somewhere and take over the entire area with cameras etc. But I would hate to imagine what they are charged for the privelige!

We did get to Plaza de Espana last time, but we were hoping the canals would have water in them this time, but we had no luck I am not sure when they fill them if at all. But this was the main site for the 1929 Spanish-American Exhibition (Basically the world expo at the time)

The Hostel had a great roof terrace which was great for a drink in the evening, our room actually had a window onto the terrace. Luckily we didnt want any early nights as it was quite noisy until the early morning

Seville really came alive at night time, with heaps of tourists, but also plenty of locals as well

The south of Spain is famous for there food, and Tapas in particular, we tried quite a few places and were mostly impressed here. Bar Europa was definatly the highlight though with my pick the Montadito

It was easy to spend quite a bit of time wandering between the tapas bars, so with a full stomach at around midnight we checked out a Flamenco bar. We didnt expect much at a free show (Although the drinks made up for it) and the dancing wasnt great but its suprising how many locals go to these things, so the atmosphere was worth it.

Rishi was ready to ride her bike home by then

Overall our revist of Seville was much more enjoyable than the first, and we looked forward to the rest of southern Spain

Our next stop in Spain was Pontevedra, a beautifully preserved medieval town

We usually try to see a few hotels before we pick a place to stay, what you end up with can really vary all within the same price range, we ended up with what we call a cave room! which is basically a room with little or no natural light and what appears to be 5watt light globes with only 1 working.

Pontevedra was a nice little town though with lots of winding streets to explore, we spent most of our time stopping in plazas for drinks and looking for good places to eat

We had a great lunch at this simple seafood place

For some reason there was a lot of graffiti around the town, most likely because there is nothing for the kids to do, it contrasted well at this place against the bright green paint

Next stop was the seaside town of Cambados, sitting right at the mouth of one of the famous Rias(rivers), Cambados the the capital of the Rias Baixas wine district famous for their Albarino wines!

We choose a hotel out of the tourist office accom guide, and a very freindly lady showed us to an average room facing a small quite street, it only had two single beds so Rishi with her now expert Spanish asked if they had a room with a Double bed as well, with sea views if possible, she explained in detail that she only had a small apartment but we could look if we liked. It turned out the be a two bedroom apartment with a kitchen and windows that opened right onto the sea front, with a little bargining we got the room for less than she wanted for the back room with single beds!

The view was great

The waterfront was great for stolling and just as good for watching the locals strolling as well

Fishing is still big in this area, but we couldnt quite work out what was going to be done with this Anchor Bike!

There wernt too many wineries right at the town, but this beautiful place was only 5 mintues walk from town and had a onsite hotel with tasting rooms etc.

But the best part about Spain is that you pay little more in a bar or even a restaurant for a glass of wine than you would for the price calculated from a bottle shop price, Albarino wines are some of the pricest whites I have ever drunk and you would struggle to find one back in Australia for under $25 in a bottle shop, and yet I was drinking some of the best I have had for €1 a glass
Although you do miss a few things here as well, like clean wine glasses, you almost always get something floating in the glass or finger prints on it! and in Cambados after a few glasses with lunch of a particularly good Albarino, one glass arrived completly warm (not great!) so we asked if he had another bottle that was cold, so he comes out with the cold bottle and just pours some cold wine on top and asks if that is ok! We now have two buckets of wine! for 1euro!

Just on the edge of town was a beautiful ruined 15th century Cathedral, which has now been converted into a cemetary with graves right up into the ruined building

It was hard not to drink wine all the time here, it was all so good. But somehow the beer taps were hard to resist here as well, these a specific to this region of Spain and are for the Estrella Galica beer

No bar is without its resident dog, we named this fella Tooth Dog for obvious reasons

With our own apartment, we spent two nights in Cambados relaxing and enjoying the small town as this would be our last stop in Spain for now and we are heading for Portugal

There is a saying that in La Coruña no one is a stranger, and we found this out pretty quickly! After getting off our train from Lugo we headed to the bus stop to get the bus into town. There we met a lovely old man who was just sitting at the stop, waiting for someone to talk to. He quickly struck up a conversation with me (in very fast Spanish!) telling me how great it is that I can speak Spanish and experience the culture. He said Spain is the best country in the world, and very romantic, that Galicia has the best food, and that La Coruña is at the end of the world and has great beaches! He was so cute and funny. I didnt think he would ever let me go, just kept talking and talking and talking (and even wanted to discuss the news in the local paper with me!). He didnt know where Australia was and was quite confused when I kept telling him it wasnt in Europe. He started talking to Ben and when I told him that Ben doesnt speak very much Spanish it didnt stop him! He started talking to Ben in full speed Spanish with Ben just nodding his head and me laughing. It was great! Eventually we said farewell to our new friend and headed into town with a great start to a new city.

La Coruña is on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and our first beach stop, so we headed straight to the beach of course! The sunshine was great and we couldnt have asked for better weather.

We had a great time exploring the headland sites, including a Roman fort which was converted into a lighthouse and still works!

We got around the headland in the most awesome trasport! These really old trolley cars!

The inside was so cool, and really clean considering how old it was!

At night ofcourse we had to explore the tapas scene. Here is a view of one of the streets we visited:

and one of the best places we found was this jamoneria, which had jamon hanging all over the roof and was appropriately named the king of Jamon!

Ben enjoyed some good tintos there

We also found another great tapa bar which had excellent seafood! We are making it our mission in Galicia to try every type of shellfish on offer before we leave :-)

La Coruña emblem:

We love the skull and crossbones