Posts Tagged With: Percy

Day 4: Montserrat

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Mel

After an early wake up again for both of us (jet lag fail) we were on our way to the local metro station before the sun came up. From there we swapped on to the rural railway line out towards Montserrat.
Montserrat or “serrated mountain” is a big mountain about an hour out of Barcelona. The area houses a huge monastery, amazing views and the boys choir. We caught the train for an hour and then a cable car halfway up to the monastery. Just amazing views on the way up.

From there, we caught the funicular (small train on a cable system) further up and walked 15 mins to Sant Joan. B walked a bit further up towards Santa Cova but couldn’t go the whole way without some rock climbing gear. Eep.

Sant Joan

We then went to the church where we had already beaten the crowds and touched the blessed Black Madonna (photo below courtesy of Google because unlike all the Japanese tourists in front of us I followed the very clear no photo rule!) and joined the throngs of people to hear the boys choir sing.

The choir is world renowned, they sounded amazing. The crowd was a bit too much for me as we were packed into the church with only two small exits….eeep

This was before it got really crowded, by the time we left the crowds were blocking every exit and you could barely squish through

So, an early escape was made giving us a clear run at the free lunch included in the all day tot Montserrat ticket. Some more amazing photos and then it was back down in the cable car and back on the train into Barcelona.

A day trip well worth the travel effort, even with some motion sickness on the way back. Now at 4:30pm it is siesta time before dinner. Gotta embrace the Spanish lifestyle. Percy and I certainly need a siesta after even more hills today…

Percy needs his daily siesta to keep up! After all, his legs are shorter than ours

Kilometres walked at 4:30pm: 9.6kms

Steps walked at 4:30pm: 13306

Tomorrow: more city exploring and a cabaret show at El Molina in the evening…in Spanish! B picked this as something he wanted to do, I think he is developing a taste for cabaret. I’m sure all the half naked ladies have nothing to do with it 🙂 dancing shoes ahoy!

Categories: Europe 2015 | Tags: barcelona, cable car, montserrat, Percy, scenic, spain, train | Leave a comment

Day 3: Exploring Barcelona

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Mel

Well, after waking up at 3am (ahhh my comeuppance for going to bed at 7pm!) and not being able to get back to sleep, I read a book and let B sleep until 8:30am. Our hotel here (Hotel Catalona Sagrida Familia) includes complimentary continental brekkie and it was pretty tasty. Insanely huge selection as well.

This hotel is the meeting point for our Intrepid Travel part of the trip (15 days Barceolona to Rome) so we are staying here for an extra 4 nights at the start, before commencing the tour. I have to say, it’s a lot nicer than that frigging terrible contiki hotel in London! It’s self rated itself as 4 stars but we reckon it’s more like 3 given limited noise insulation and the fact our double bed is two singles put next to each other. With single bedding on them. Hmmm.

With our little backpacks ready for the day, including all the essentials like the map, raincoat, water bottle and stuffed toy platypus we set off to explore. Our hotel is a 2 min walk from a metro station and we caught that 6 stops to Paral-lel station which is adjacent to Montjuic, a beautiful park/mountain with a castle on top that overlooks the whole city and the Mediterranean Sea. After much aimless wandering up ridiculously steep and long paths we found…the second cable car station! Because we had missed the first and instead walked halfway up the damn mountain. The views were worth it though:

view out to the mediterranean from montjuic

Percy also enjoyed his first ever cable car ride (B says he is looking the wrong way!)

A quick train trip one stop over then saw us wandering up Les Ramblas which is the main tourist strip. Lots of street performers, buskers, pickpockets…the usual stuff you expect in a tourist area! Lunch was delicious at Cafe De L’Opera….mmmm tapas with beer and cava sangria, followed by real churros. We then visited the erotic museum which was…uh…not erotic and mostly traumatising haha.

Another quick train trip brought us to Basilica de la Sagrada Familia which is 133 years old and is one of Gaudi’s most famous projects, although it is still being built so was not complete in his time. The name basically means “church of the family” or “church of the holy family” but I think it should stand for “bloody great church with ridiculous fruit stacks on top”. Seriously. At the top of the spires on one side there were weird fruit statues. We opted not to go in as it was 20€ each and as B said…a church is a church! Even if it does have fruit statues.

the fruit stacks are on top of the pointy bits to the left of the pic

Kilometres walked today: 15.1km

Steps taken: 22106

Tomorrow: Montserrat for a day trip hopefully! Very excited.

Mel

P.S. These posts will get shorter once we lose wifi, pinky promise.

Categories: Europe 2015 | Tags: barcelona, hotel opinions, jetlag, montjuic, Percy, sagrada familia, spain | 2 Comments

Day 1+2: travelling to Barcelona!

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Mel

Ahhh so much airporting in the last two days! Just under 30hrs and 3 flights later we have made it to Barcelona. I got lots of very pretty “airplane window” token photos:

flying into sydney from canberra

a very hazy looking shot of Dubai

Barcelona! Near the ocean

The flights were mostly uneventful except for my feet swelling up like balloons (never happened before) and lots of limping around the plane and the Emirates business lounge in Dubai as a result. On both of the long haul flights we had an empty seat in our row which was great, gave us that little extra bit of space to spread out in. We both managed some sleep on the 14.5hr flight, although I got more than B…mostly due to using travacalm to zombify myself. Drooly Mel is so attractive. Percy also had a great time flying Emirates (Qantas codeshare) for the first time.

We finally landed in Barcelona at 2pm local time (we are now 9 hours behind Canberra and 6 hours behind Perth) and managed to locate our hotel for the next 5 nights without too much drama. Well, aside from getting absolutely and totally drenched in the rain. I left little puddles as I wandered through the lobby…splashy-splashy…

With my poor swollen foot (left one has gone down mostly in the above pic but right one still very sore, swollen and puffed up) combined with B’s overwhelming urge to stay in his PJs and watch Spanish TV, we opted for room service and an early night. Well, sort of early as he is now watching Big Bang Theory in Spanish and getting quite engrossed. I’m not at that level of translation ability, I’m more on the Dora level of being able to say “HOLA!!” and smile maniacally while hoping they speak some English. Bad tourist.

Mel xx

P.S. This hotel has leather pillowcases. It’s freaking me out a little. How are you meant to sleep on a leather (well, I actually assume it’s pleather) pillowcase?

Categories: Europe 2015 | Tags: barcelona, emirates, Europe, flying, metro, Percy, spain | 1 Comment

Percy is off on a new adventure….

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Mel

Come December 28th 2013 Percy the platypus (with Mel and her best buddy B) will be off on a NEW overseas trip.

Percy will be spending 3 weeks in….

JAPAN!

Please note: we aren’t going overseas with batman. Really. I swear. Or some creepy person who only has a letter for a name because secretly they think it is way cooler than having a normal name like Mel. Percy and I are just travelling with a friend who likes to not have his name (or photo) all over the internet, so he will hereby be referred to as B. Don’t expect to see any photos of him either lovelies, although there will be lots of me running amok! Sake anyone?

Places so far on the “list of awesome stuff to visit” include:

– Niseko for 10 days of powder skiing
– Kyoto
– Hiroshima
– Tokyo (yay Disney land!)

Percy and I are both super excited 🙂

Categories: Japan Snow Trip | Tags: bff, Hiroshima, holiday, Japan, Kyoto, niseko, Percy, planning, qantas, skiing, snow | Leave a comment

A summary of Percy’s adventures

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Mel

Just for you Anna! And all the other Percy lovers out there 🙂 Percy had a great trip but is glad to be home and back with all his friends.

Percy having a beer at Perth airport before the flight

How exciting, first time on a plane!

Woohoo 7am and we are on the contiki bus for day 1!

All tucked up in bed while we get ready to hit Amsterdam the first night

The Heineken brewery experience in Amsterdam

Anne Frank Huis

Now on to BERLIN! Where Percy was almost lost forever in a stairwell (someone rescued him though)

The Jewish memorial in Berlin

Mmm snickers mcflurry!

Percy did visit the Berlin Wall and all the other locations in Berlin with us but I think the photos are on my camera sorry…

Percy’s adventures in Prague. Percy and I really liked Prague 🙂 we want to go back again soon!

Percy loved the view off Charles bridge

Percy had a great time discovering public transport – NOT!! We got so lost lol.

Ah Percy, you’re a drunk

Percy and I on a river cruise in Prague

Just dive right in to that CRAZILY CHEAP VODKA in Prague little buddy

Now it was Oktoberfest time in Munich.

Percy got a Percy sized stein….

Mmmmm beer he says!

Just dive right in….

Platypus mother Mel drank a lot of beer which may explain the photo before his one…

Long day for Percy. Hat thief!

Onwards to Venice. Not many photos of Percy in Venice as it isn’t really a safe place to be constantly opening and closing your handbag. He was there though!

Venice was very pretty

Percy went on a gondola ride and snuggled on the love seat with emma and Amelia

Mmmm street pizza

Austria on the way to Venice – beautiful

Now Rome! My 2nd favourite place after Prague…

We visited the Pantheon, trevi fountain and Spanish steps that first night…

Percy thought this castle was amazing

The colosseum!

Mmmm gelato

Yay Florence! Not many photos here…mother Mel and auntie emma…drank a lot and ummmm….yeah.

Looking all pretty before heading out for dinner. Sorry I came home really drunk at 1:30am Percy! Errrr and then left for Switzerland at 6am still really drunk hahaha

The bed in our hotel room…. for midgets obviously

Mmmm cocktails….messy

Yay, view from the bell tower. Which almost killed me to climb

There are no Percy pics at Pisa. I’m amazed there’s actually one of me. So hungover on the way to Switzerland!

Percy in Switzerland (where he was very upset not to climb mt Pilatus on the cool train. Rah)

Percy was sad cos Mel was homesick and missing her beautiful nephew 😦

The boat cruise and ferris wheel ride on lake Lucerne helped everyone cheer up though

Chapel bridge in Lucerne, where the famous water tower is

Mmmm macaroon

PARIS!!!!! Hooooooraaaaay. Last contiki stop and almost the end of our adventure.

Up the Eiffel Tower! 2nd floor cos you couldn’t see anything but fog at the top (we still went up though)

We saw the Mona Lisa at the louvre

We climbed the Arc de Triomphe

Moulin rouge was amazing. Percy stayed home for that one though

He was sad to say goodbye to the bus mascot, a British bulldog!

Percy and the rest of contiki were lucky enough to see the Eiffel Tower light up at night

At the end of contiki we spent a few days in London! Not many photos of Percy here as I explored on my own a bit and he had to stay in the hotel room one day because I ran out of handbag space. He was there in spirit though!

He rode the tube a lot. Terrifying at first but I had it nailed by the end!

He got a new buddy at the natural history and science museum! Baby T-Rex.

Big Ben

London bridge

SQUIRRELS IN THE PARK!!!!

Last night in London, he stayed in and we went to Hard Rock Cafe

Important life lesson for all – don’t eat at heathrow airport….you will get food poisoning and suffer miserably for the entire flight!

Thanks for following Percy’s adventures folks! 🙂

Categories: Europe 2012 | Tags: Europe, Percy | 2 Comments

Day 7 – Prague to Dachau to Munich

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Mel

Today was certainly a big one. We left Prague at 9am and travelled towards Munich, the only services stop (to pee and buy food) was in the Czech Republic so we could waste the rest of our currency…I failed there and ended up with bags of lollies but still close to 300 kronor! Bloody useless money. Then back on the bus for a three hour drive to Dachau concentration camp. I’m still very fluey (hacking cough, trouble breathing, congested like you wouldn’t believe and a nasty headache) so I slept on and off while we drove as I haven’t been sleeping well at night.

Dachau was amazing. We watched a documentary in English on arrival and the images are some of the most stark and confronting I have ever seen. Lots of stills and videos of the liberation and the survivors, as well as pics of those who didn’t survive. I wanted to buy the film but we would never get approval to show our students in Australia, it was way too graphic. The camp itself has been rebuilt (it was razed to the ground after the war) and is very much a tourist destination. Regardless of the hordes of tourists, It was still very disturbing to think this happened in the not so distant past. We could go into the sheds they slept in, eating halls, gas chambers (which were never used at Dachau) and see the layout of the camp. The piece of artwork to memorialise the suffering of the prisoners is very powerful:

After Dachau, the bus ride into Munich was very quiet. We had a quick “check in and change” at the hotel and then headed into the city centre for dinner. We wandered around a bit and saw the glockenspiel, a famous plaza where Hitler spoke to the masses and some amazing buildings. After dinner at a local restaurant some people went back to the hotel and some decided to head to Oktoberfest for a few hours – we decided to head out! Hooray for German cold and flu tablets haha.

As we only had a couple of hours at Oktoberfest tonight (10pm bus pickup and I voted a big NO WAY to staying later and trying to navigate the trains and buses) we opted not to go into the beer halls but to enjoy the atmosphere and the rides! I went on an INSANE roller coaster with FIVE loops and screamed the whole way around, Emma just laughed. Cow.

We also bought some souvenirs (Emma got a stein, I got a drinking boot and Percy got his own baby stein – see pic below) because we figured buying glass things sober was a good plan. Tomorrow however…tomorrow is beer hall day!! YAY! Our tour buddies Amelia and Claire are going on a bike ride around Munich in the morning (as Emma said “we Smith girls just don’t do bikes”) so instead we are going to shop in the city. We’re both considering buying pretty German beer girl outfits but geez they are pricey!

From lunchtime we will be experiencing the joys of Oktoberfest late into the evening…

Categories: Europe 2012 | Tags: contiki, dachau, oktoberfest, Percy | Leave a comment

Trip mascot

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Mel

This is Percy the Platypus. He will be our holiday mascot 🙂

Categories: Europe 2012 | Tags: contiki, Percy, platypus | Leave a comment

Posts Tagged With: Percy

Day 4: Montserrat

Day 3: Exploring Barcelona

Day 1+2: travelling to Barcelona!

Percy is off on a new adventure….

A summary of Percy’s adventures

Day 7 – Prague to Dachau to Munich

Trip mascot

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Posts Tagged With: Percy

Day 4: Montserrat

Day 3: Exploring Barcelona

Day 1+2: travelling to Barcelona!

Percy is off on a new adventure….

A summary of Percy’s adventures

Day 7 – Prague to Dachau to Munich

Trip mascot

Tag Cloud

Follow Blog via Email

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