Posts Tagged With: spain

Day 8: Hiking in Nuria Valley (the Pyrenees) 

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Mel

After a terrible nights sleep (nice hotel but the bed and pillows are pretty crappy) we woke up to a delicious local breakfast provided by the hotel for 5€ each. Bread, cheese, ham, sweet bread, muffins, toast and lots of OJ or coffee. We needed sustenance because today was mountain climbing day! 
At 8:45am we all walked a few mins up the road to board the Nuria valley cog wheel railway, also called a rack railway. It’s the only way to access Nuria Valley from this side of the mountain. We went up (50min trip), explored a little and then met for lunch. B and some others hiked to a peak and then came back down to share lunch with us. On my little exploration I saw ponies, horses and a baby donkey! Not to mention some amazing views. 

 

We caught a cable car partway up one of the peaks

  

baby donkey!

  

Nuria Valley

  

Nuria Valley from waaaaay higher up

  

beautiful!

 
Afterwards, two of us caught the rack railway back down while the others hiked 3hrs and 9.1kms down to the second railway stop, then caught the last train back. I elected not to walk down for lots of reasons but mostly because once you committed, you had to keep going and it was pretty steep in parts…my poor knee! Also, one of our tour members wasn’t feeling too flash so I kept her company on the train. 

Here are some of B’s photos from that walk though, amazing.

 

this is my favourite!

  
   
  

While waiting for him to return from mountain climbing, I explored the local town of Ribes de Freser a little more.

the town is proud of its catalan heritage and this huge flag on the mountain shows it

  

  

just a random pretty picture

 

After everyone got back from being mountain goats, we have rest time for a few hours and then are off for a late dinner of the national dish – Paella. We had to opt for meat or fish (easy for me – no seafood!) and I have high hopes for impending deliciousness.

Mel

Tomorrow: onwards to Carcossonne in France! Goodby Spain.

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Day 7: Final farewell to Barcelona and an intro to Ribes de Freser in the Pyrenees 

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Mel

As a group, we checked out of our Barcelona hotel at 10am and headed into the city centre for a little guided tour. We started with some Gaudi architecture and went past Caso Battlo – Gaudis house and then another Gaudi building with less colour but where the stone and flowing lines clearly show the distinct architectural style.
 

Gaudi’s house in Barcelona

  
 We then moved on to walk through La Catedral, a church built for the poorer members of the community in the middle of the gothic quarter. When we went in it had a service on so could only see a small part. The best part was the geese! They just hang out and live in the cloisters. 

   
  

SERIOUSLY! GEESE IN A CHURCH!

  

GEESE!!!

 From here we wandered back up Las Ramblas and then back to the hotel where luggage was collected and it was onwards to the regional train station. Then a 2hr train trip to Ribes de Freser in the Pyrenees. Percy was feeling motion sick so needed a cuddle on the train. Okay maybe that was me…

 

i love you percy

 
I tried a three prong approach to battle the motion sickness this time since I’m determined not to take travacalm and turn into a drooling zombie.

1. Sit near a window and watch the horizon the whole time 

2. Eat candy (something to suck on) as it was what I used to do when I was little and it really helped 

3. No reading ANYTHING on the train, including signs or maps

Overall success? It all worked well until I ran out of candy. Candy seems to be the key! Definitely not feeling as bad this time around though. 

On arrival in Ribes de Freser we walked 10 mins down the road to the Hotel Catalanya, which is a very small hotel run by two ladies (mother and daughter, I think). The room is small but lovely and finally – we have a double bed! Haha no more jumping from one bed to the other like small children…damn. There was some mild worry when in the conversation about our room we picked up “matrimono?” with an affirmative from our tour leader but it turns out that word is part of the phrase for double bed. 

  
We had an hour of relaxation time (I really needed a shower…stiiiiinky) and then it was off for our first group dinner in this tiny little town. 

 

yep, its a mountain village….and thats not even the mountain!

 
 

the local river…also where they wash their clothes

 
Dinner was at a local bar and was AMAZING. I had chicken broqette and B had the traditional local Catalan sausage. 

   

catalana sausage (pork)

 
For dessert we both had the Creme Catalana which the area is also known for. Delicious! The total for two mains, tapas (not pictured) of potatos, 2 desserts and 4 drinks was 32€. Not bad after coping with Barcelona prices for the last week. 

 

creme catalana…so much deliciousness

 
That plus 2 beers for B and 2 wines for me has been enough to ensure a good nights rest with a full belly tonight 🙂

Steps today: 20914
Kilometres today: 14.6kms 

Tomorrow: MOUNTAIN GOAT MEL! We shall see if I actually give in to peer pressure and climb up the damn mountain peak….

Mel 

P.S. Every single person in our tour group has an osprey brand backpack or wheeled bag. I was very reassured by the older couple who told me that although they had what we had (a wheeled bag with straps to convert to a backpack) they hadn’t used the backpack straps once in 5 years. Excellent. B has also been very excited to talk to the same couple about their multiple South America trips as that is next on his list. 

P.P.S. We have wifi here (which surprised me) but it is very slow. Argh 25 mins to upload this post! First world problems 🙂

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Fun fact: Barcelona tap water 

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Mel

Barcelona tap water is completely safe to drink according to every travel guide and the Spanish water authority – so i have no doubt that’s true.

However if you are someone like me who has a lot of contact sensitivities and allergies….it may not be the best thing for your stomach. Ow. No more tap water for Mel! Just sangria 🙂 

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Day 6: Last day in Barcelona and meeting our intrepid travel group for the Barcelona to Rome Intrepid Adventure (15 days)

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Mel

Despite our best effort, sleeping in was a bust. We were down at breakfast by 8am and then the process to sort out our booking transition was much easier than the trip advisor reviews led us to believe – we handed over the old room cards, settled the room bill and they reissued new ones. No problems! We had to do this because we are now officially on day 1 of our intrepid tour…weeeee. Day 1 is mostly people arriving at the hotel from their home country though so it’s still an exploring day for us.

Little exploring was done though. After breakfast we did some hand washing then…had a siesta. Post-siesta we went back to Les Ramblas for people watching and delicious sangria, cerveza (beer) and pizza. Mmmmm. Plus churros and chocolate sauce. More mmmm. Sine we then had until 7pm until our meet and greet, we siesta-d some more. Basically, it was an extremely lazy day. 

  
We met our very small intrepid group at 7pm. It consists of us, a couple from Canada around our parents age (at a guess) and another young lady from Australia on her first overseas trip. We have a fifth person joining us in a few days as well. Our tour guide is Andrea and he’s from Italy, he seems very well travelled and has been working for intrepid for 3 years. After our brief run through it was back to bed/dinner/exploring for the group before a 10am checkout tomorrow. We took the bed option….a very, very lazy day! 

Steps taken: 6905

Kilometres walked: 4.8km

Tomorrow: As a group, we are off to Ribes de Freser to explore the Nuria Valley

Mel 

P.S. No wifi for the next few days so will upload more posts and what I’m guessing will be some pretty photos once we return to civilisation 🙂 

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Day 5: Touristing around Barcelona and then boobies (not mine…obviously…)

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Mel

Day 5 started very early after the siesta fail and an epic 12 hour sleep. We had finished breakfast by 7:30am and were on our way to be tourists. First stop was the Arc de Triomf where the view was obscured by some car show that was setting up. 
  
Then we walked up to the Parc de la Ciutadella and explored. As it was so early we had to play dodge the homeless person, but we got to see the Cascada monument which was quite impressive…and a giant mammoth. The parks themselves were very pretty as well. 

 

cascada monument with the sun rising slowly behind it

 
 

mel and the mammoth

  

B and the mammoth

 

We then walked through the gothic quarter to check out where Picasso used to live and down to the waterfront where the aquarium is. 

 

gothic quarter

 
 

the aquarium is apprently the largest in europe…but nothing compared to sea world etc. So heads up that you may be disappointed with your 20€ spend

 

After the aquarium it was back up to the gothic quarter to find Euskal Etxe which is a tapas bar where you pay by the toothpick omnomnom. 

  

A short metro trip brought us back to the hotel where I had a rest for awhile as I seem to have hurt my back from walking all the hills yesterday. Yay for arthritis in my spine making itself known at inopportune moments. Grrr. 

After our rest it was off to the cabaret show at El Molino! We were prepared with what we had worked out from the Internet: it was naughty but interesting, it was all spoken in Spanish, they were likely to include us once they realised we didn’t know Spanish and it was in the middle of the party district of L’Eixample. 
We got there early and found dinner in a local restaurant…first time trying paella and it was tasty. The half a litre of cava sangria certainly topped it off haha.
   
 
After dinner at Bar Stage we walked 2 mins up the road to the show. It’s well worth being early as it determines your seat! While lining up for the show we had the brief intro performance (yes, that is ladies dancing under the windmill) and then we were able to go in. Showing our sms ticket which we bought 2 days ago for 50€ (that got us 2 entry tickets + a bottle of cava) was enough to get in where we were targeted straight away as non spanish speaking and sat in the very front row. The show was fabulous and even though the MC spoke in Spanish, she included us. I had a half naked guy on my lap for a kiss and B had a lady in lingerie use him as a seat so we were both happy at the end! The agreed highlight was the aerial performance with silks. That lady was amazing. 

   

El Molino as we left at 8pm

 

Steps today: 24102

Kilometres: 16.9km

Tomorrow: I have no idea, I drank 1/2 a litre of sangria and then shared a bottle of cava (sort of a mix between champagne and passion pop). Sooooo tomorrow is for sleeping as far as I am concerned right now! 

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Siesta fail

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Mel

Here is the story of our siesta fail. Sorry Spain.

Yesterday we got home from Montserrat at 4:30pm and promptly decided to nap before heading out to dinner. You can’t eat dinner here until after 8pm as nothing (including room service!) is open anyway.

So after blogging, face booking, jumping on the beds etc it was 5:45pm and the alarm was set for 7:09pm.

Which I decided wasn’t long enough.

So we reset it for 8:09pm with Mel fully intending to nap for no more than half an hour anyway since I’m not a napper.

8:09pm comes around and the alarm goes off and B turns on the light. Nope. I’m not getting up. I’m fast asleep.

8:45pm – are we getting up? Grunts all round.

9:33pm – really we need to get up. It’s dinner time. 

10:45pm – bugger it, bed time. 

We both then slept through to 6am this morning (with a few brief wake ups). No dinner. 

Siesta fail. Pizza for dinner fail. 

At least I proved that I really don’t do naps – I sleep! 

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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!

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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. 

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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? 

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