Zaragoza (WOW)

Zaragoza, there are lots of WOW moments in the historic centre.  The enormous central square dominates the old town close by to the river. There are two cathedrals, one at either end of the square.  This is the Bascilica del Pilar with domes of coloured tiles. It still has the function of the local church and being Saturday we saw a full mass wedding being conducted, a christening in the smaller chapel to the rear and lots of little girls in their flowing while dresses in cafe's with their families after their confirmations.  The second cathedral at the end of the square has been converted to a museum with an entry cost so we did not venture in.

At the opposite end of the square is a very large water monument in the shape of South America.  If you stand at the closest point of the pool to the Bascilica and crouch down you will see the outline of the continent of South America.   The end of the pool where you need to crouch down is just near where we are sitting.

We visited the Ebro River which has the usual historic bridges crossing it.  We also visited the Palace Aljaferia which is a stunning Moorish fortress only a 10 minute walk from the centre.

Saturday evening having a walk through town we came across one of the central squares where it appears dancing is a favourite pastime.  The dance seemed to be a style of latin dances.  All the dancers certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves.

We had a late departure from Zaragoza.  Our train to Barcelona left at 2.30 pm.  That gave us the morning to do some more looking around, grab some morning tea at a very cute cafe and visit the big market that was across the street from our accommodation, where we got some supplies for a picnic lunch at the station before we boarded our train.

I have to just add that on our train journey from Madrid to Zaragoza our train hit the magic 300 kms an hour.  Our previous trains had reached 250 kms but this was our first at the 300 .... woosshh.

We have now moved onto Barcelona and I will post some pics of our time there in the near future, until then, bye for now, don't forget to keep in touch.  

Madrid

Hi everyone, just adding a little bit of detail about our 3 days in Madrid arriving around 11am on the train from Cordoba.  Took the metro from the main train station (which was huge, bigger than a lot of airports we've been to) to the area where our accommodation was.
Our guesthouse was quite close to the historic centre within walking distance of the Royal Palace and it's magnificent grounds and the Plaza Mayor which is a central part of Madrid.

 

This top pic shows only this half of the palace, there was an equal amount of the building on the other side.  We don't have the camera equipment to capture the full size of a lot of the buildings as mostly they are so huge it is hard to take it all in while standing there.  The second pic is of the side of the palace with some of the gardens in the foreground.

We spent lots of time walking and enjoying all the bustle of a big city and found our way to one of the bigger parks in the city that has a large pond contained within its grounds. We had really nice weather for our visit to Madrid with the last day getting to 29 degrees.

We took in a museum while there which as always was fascinating, what was also fascinating was the vertical garden on the wall of the building outside the museum.

We took a day trip to a town close by to Madrid called Toledo.  The town has been deemed a Unesco world heritage site.  It is an ancient city perched on top of a mountain and was known as a fortified city where the city walls ran around the entire town so as to keep guard and to see any approaching armies. We took the fast train the 75 kms and  took 33 minutes to travel there.  We had a really enjoyable few hours having a wander around and checking out all the ancient architecture there and then did the fast train back to Madrid to enjoy our last night there before travelling on to Zaragoza to the north of Madrid.  

On our last night in Madrid we had a walk up to the Plaza Mayor to see if there was much happening there and on the way we found another quite famous Madrid attraction called the San Miguel Market.  It is a really cool market with some isles having fresh food for sale, other isles having Tapas and also bars for drinks and sweets.  It was a really nice way to end our few days in Madrid.

So off to our next stop in Zaragoza about 300 kms to the north east of Madrid of course on another high speed train.  Will bring you some pics of our visit there when time permits. Seems amazing to think that we are getting to the end of the Spain/Portugal stage of our travels.

Stay safe everyone as we will on our travels.

Seville and Cordoba

This morning we are travelling on to Madrid.  Just waiting around until it is time to go to the station.

This mornings train journey will be our second on the "fast train" service in Europe.  The trip from Seville to Cordoba was our first trip on a fast train which travels at 250 kms an hour. 140 kms, 35 minutes.  It was quite fun.  It is hard to see anything up close to the train but quite fine to look into the distance.

The front of the train looks a little like a duck, but the carriage we travelled in was really comfortable.  As I booked the tickets quite a while back we had first class seats for a good price which was a really comfortable way to travel.  Very plush seats, lots of leg room.  Pity we were only there for 35 minutes. Ah well.

Seville was a really good city to explore.  As in all cities in Europe there is not shortage of massive Cathedrals and ancient city walls attached to unbelievably cute little alleyways where people live in the cutest of cute houses.

We stayed in a guesthouse just off one of the main thoroughfares of the old city.  Still has original timbers throughout the building.

On our second morning we took a tour with a guy who works at the guesthouse.  It was a walking tour of the historic areas close to the guesthouse.  The Cathedral and the Jewish quarter.  He was a great tour guide and a knowledgeable historian.  Showed us two doors which are still on the Cathedral which were original from the 13th Century.  Made of timber and still standing.  Quite amazing.

In Seville we also bought tickets for the hop on hop off bus (the first city that we had decided looked like ok value) 16 Euro's each for 48 hours.  It was good to give the legs a rest and let the bus take us to the different monuments.  Another popular mode of transport in Sevilla is the horse drawn rides which take in the city.  Of course the prices are aimed very much at the tourist market.  We didn't stretch our budget that far but it was fun to watch and hear the clip clop of the horses as they passed by.

Enormous parks surrounded by enormous buildings is another feature of even the smaller cities like Seville.  Stopped off there for a walk around the grounds, a quick refreshment stop and to gaze at the sheer size of the grand building and lake.

Just a selection of a few of the pics of the the very cute alleyways in the labyrinth of streets which make up the Jewish Quarter of Seville.

The other thing which is also taken very seriously all over Spain is the attachment to sweet food.  Breakfast mainly is coffee and sweet anything and again in the afternoon.  This is shop which was full to overflowing with sweet buns and cake of every imaginable shape and size just near the corner of our accommodation. It did a very brisk trade all day except for the siesta time when pretty much everything except the bigger chain stores closes. 

So onwards to our few days in Cordoba on the fast train as described earlier.  There seemed to be a general feeling that Cordoba was a place just for a day trip to spend a few hours there and then scram but as we had booked our train journey and accommodation for 2 nights we decided to stay with that plan.  As it turned out we had 2 really enjoyable days just wandering around the historic Mezquita area and the Jewish Quarter.  A beautiful river runs around the town with an amazing historic foot bridge. There is a blend of Christian, Jewish and Moorish architecture to gaze at and it all sits well together in yet another labyrinth of alleys.  The yearly patio competition had just finished the day before we arrived so a lot of the balconies still had lots of flowering pots in evidence.

The next pics are the remains of an ancient water wheel just downstream of the bridge dating from the Arabic time.

We spent our last evening in Cordoba with a visit to the Arabian Bath House and spent time in the different pools of varying temperatures and then finished off with a massage.  There are 3 pools ranging from very hot, medium heat and then cold.  Couldn't spend long in the very hot or the cold but the medium was very nice.  There is also another pool which is highly salted and when you get into it and stretch out you bob to the top of the water and then just relax and float.  Didn't take our camera with us to the baths so unfortunately don't have any pics to show, but it was a really beautiful setting and felt very relaxing with the music and the water and cups of hot sweet peppermint tea to drink. 

So we are off to Madrid and will do another post after our time spent in Madrid.

Bye for now, take care and love to everyone. 

Quarteira (The Algarve) Southern Portugal

Hi everyone, I am a bit behind in posting some pictures of our stops so here are some pictures of our destination after leaving Lisbon.

We caught a morning train from Lisbon to a town called Loule' which is in the region called The Algarve in Souther Portugal.  The region extends along the southern coast of Portugal and in this area is the point of land which is the western most tip of land in continental Europe.

We took the local bus from the station at Loule' to our destination in the beach side town of Quarteira. The biggest of the towns in the area is called Albufeira which is a great deal bigger than Quarteira.  We were very pleased to have chosen Quarteira, (or should I say I think Quarteira choose us, you know what I mean Barbie)!!

Quarteira is the place that the Portuguese tend to go to for holidays as opposed to Albuferia which seemed to mostly have British tourists.

We had an airbnb apartment at Quarteira which was great as again we could self cater and make some home cooked meals.

The supermarket was just at the corner about 50metres from the apartment and the beach was 350 metres from the apartment.  There was a nice easy flat walk to the main part of town with all the restaurants and bars and a beach which extended in both directions for as far as the eye could see.

The weather was good for our first 2 days, swimming, sunbaking and walking on the beach but the last two days a cold wind struck up and a few showers.

It was a very easy spot to relax in and we extended our stay another day making four in total.  We both felt like we could have stayed on another week without any effort.

On our last day in Quarteira we booked a half day bus tour and went to the part of the Algarve where the land at the western most point of continental Europe is and also saw some other towns in the area. One called Lagos which is a medieval city.  Very old, very beautiful narrow winding streets, and a magnificent church with a small museum in the back of the building.

Again all too soon it was time to pack up and move on to the next destination.  As there is no through train from southern Portugal into Spain, we booked a bus to take us to Seville.  We took a local bus at 7am to the bigger town of Faro where we then waited until 8.30 for the regular coach service to take us to Seville in Spain.  The trip was quite easy arriving in Seville at 11.15.  Will put some photos up soon of our days in Seville.

Cheers to everyone, take care stay well, thinking of you all.