May 24, 2013 - Flavors of Spain

Remember our motto: Never save the best for last, do everything you really want to do first? Well, we kind of rebelled against that motto, ha! Today, Kayley and I got up early and set out to climb Mt. Tibidabo, where a Neo-Gothic church sits atop Barcelona’s highest peak. We took the metro to ridge of the peak and then walked along a beautiful path looking out at the city and water. This was a popular exercise path as runners, walkers, and bikers were numerous. The hike was beautiful and was actually the best part of the journey. The only...

May 23, 2013 - Hallelujah

Today, was a beautiful day! SUNNY- hallelujah! Kayley and I headed straight for the beach. The beach in Barcelona is man-made, I believe it was made for the Olympics. We found a spot on the sand and laid out our towels, ready for our mid-morning nap…within 30 seconds we had a person ask us if we wanted to buy a drink. We said, “no” and laid back down but within seconds another person approached us; think Mexico, only worse! Kayley and I would close our eyes when a person would approach and pretend to be asleep and most the time, that would...

May 21, 2013 - Roman remains in Spain

We left early today to drive south to Spain to explore the remains of the city of Empuries founded in 575 BC by Greek colonists from Phocaea then later occupied by the Romans. We took our passports although no one was manning the border crossing booths when we crossed over into Spain so we didn't have to produce them after all. It was interesting that the architecture changed almost immediately when we crossed the border. In southern France most homes are either a tan stone or stucco structures often with a veneer of stone to match the...

May 21, 2013 - Leaving Barcelona

Tuesday 21st May, 2013 Barcelona, Spain to Denver, Colorado, USA We were up at 3.15am in our hotel in Barcelona to catch a shuttle to the airport for our 6.55am flight to Frankfurt and then to Denver. The flight was OK until just before we reached Denver when there was a lot of turbulence and Lynn felt a bit queasy. After we arrived and cleared immigration, we then picked up a car at the car rental office and headed off on the last bit of our holiday in the USA. We drove to our friend Claudia’s place where we were staying the first night....

May 21, 2013 - Watch out for the hangin' hoofs...

Today, was a blast! We jumped onto the bus and headed for the harbor where we walked around the water front and looked at all the sailboats. We then walked down La Rambla (a famous street with tons of things to see and do) to La Boqueria which was a HUGE market. It was filled with fruits, vegetables, flowers, nuts, olives, cheese, meats, sea food, tapas, smoothies, and a bunch of weird things...like brains and such. Kayley and I walked around the market for hours looking at all the booths and trying different things for our lunch. I got a...

May 20, 2013 - Barcelona, Spain

Sunday 19th May, 2013 Barcelona, Spain Today we walked down to the port after breakfast looking at shops and really being pretty lazy – we had ice creams and tasted some Catalan wines which were good. Then we walked back through the old city then to Barri Gotic, the Gothic area of Barcelona which is very historic and quite beautiful with narrow streets and very old buildings as well as the cathedral. It started to rain again so we headed back to our hotel and went out to dinner and final shopping. Back home to bed at about 10pm. It was...

May 20, 2013 - Photo Redemption

One thing we have learned throughout our travels is to never save the ‘best for last', always see your top sites first. With that in mind, we went to the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Church). This is Gaudi’s most famous and persistent work. He worked on this church from 1883 until his death in 1926. Since then, the construction has moved forward but very slowly; it is not expected to be completed for another 25 years. This church was magnificent and whimsical: filled with symbolism from the bible and windows that allow the church to be...

May 19, 2013 - Travel day home

Seville to Portland Wake up call at 5:15...cab to airport at 6:15. Short 15 minute ride. Hurry up and wait kind of day. On time departure to Madrid. Good cup of coffee...finally! On time departure to Dallas...BUT...my $80 extra leg room seat is exactly like the one I had coming over...knees touching to start with and the guy in front of me all the way back instantly. I really want to cry...seriously! My seatmate and her husband had just spent a week in Spain. They are both doctors. We chatted and she asked her husband to switch with...

May 19, 2013 - Seville added to

Seville Woke up to rain and wind. Here we thought it was going to be hot! Breakfast. We are so far into the old city that the bus is about a 15 minute walk away...so we opted for a cab. Cobblestones and downhill didn't seem like a good idea in the rain. Cab drivers are totally amazing! Many sharp corners and narrow streets...we missed scraping by inches...really inches! He had to do an extra back up/go forward on one of the corners. Couple of hours on the bus including our potty stop. Then Seville...Spain's third largest city. Had a guided...

May 19, 2013 - After today, we are offical backpackers!!!

Today is boring, so if you want to skip over this entry I understand! We took a night train last night: it was kind of like a bad dream. We took a train from Vernazza to La Spezia at 11:45pm and then tried to buy our train tickets from there to Rome but for some unknown reason, we were unable to make the purchase. After an hour of stressing, the train arrived and we found the conductor. She let us buy the tickets on-board but the cabin seating was full, so we sat on a fold out seats in the aisle for 5 hours from 1:30-6:30am. At 6:30, we...

May 18, 2013 - Barcelona, Spain

Saturday 18th May, 2013 Barcelona, Spain Cool again this morning, we got ready and went out for breakfast and saw the same American/Canadian couple as yesterday. Chatted to them and after breakfast we set off again on our open topped tourist bus on a different route today. We didn’t have to wait quite so long this morning to get on a bus and set off about 10:30am. We followed the route almost fully round (whole drive takes 2 hours) but eventually got off at the Parc du Montjuic, from where we caught the cable car up to the Castle...

May 17, 2013 - Barcelona, Spain

Friday 17th May, 2013 Barcelona, Spain Today is fine and we went to breakfast about 10:15am in a restaurant just around the corner. At breakfast we met a couple from Australia who were starting on a cruise round the Mediterranean today and an American/Canadian couple who had just finished a cruise. After breakfast we walked up and bought our two day tickets for the open topped tourist bus as we had decided to see the sights from the bus and get off when we wanted to. We stood on a queue that stretched for about 200-300 metres and took some...