Spain and Portugal

4^th August

Early start this morning at 5am with a call at 5:15 saying our taxi had arrived, so left the hotel at 5:20 to the bus station. We caught the 6am bus to Zara Goza and had a non-stop ride of 4 and a half hours. The scenery is very dry with lots of irrigated crops having just been harvested. Again cattle appear to be housed indoors and the smell of these can be detected from inside the bus as we drive by! The train station is a large building with a number of tracks. Everyone quickly dispersed to find restrooms and a place to eat. There was a choice of only baguette with salami or baguette and ham with cheese. Salami it was as after south America we can’t really face another ham and cheese anything! We waited until 11:40 for the train to Pamplona which took around 2hrs. A short taxi ride left us in Plaza San Francisco and a short 2min walk brought us to our hotel Castillo de Javier.

We had the afternoon to wander around the city and ended up walking along most of the city wall surrounding the city and saw a lot of places. We walked the length of the street where the running of the bulls takes place and saw the Plaza de Toros where the bulls finish. It is a beautiful city with all the buildings well painted and with lots of plants hanging on balconies everywhere. The only distracting aspect about the city is there is a large amount of broken glass on all non-paved areas. The sidewalks and streets (basically the street is the sidewalk also) are kept very clean with sweeping machines operating all the time, but these don’t pick up the glass in the grass areas. Oh well, still a great place. We had tired from walking by around 6pm, so went for a shower and a snooze before meeting the group for dinner at 8pm. A few doors from the hotel is a Tapas restaurant where you point at a small dish of food and keep choosing until you have enough for a meal. Interesting method and works fairly well, the selections were mainly toasted fresh bread with different toppings such as cured ham (a specialty over here), shrimps, mushrooms, duck and other unrecognisable things. Smoking is allowed everywhere over here so it didn’t take long before a number of us wanted out of the restaurant so the idea of getting ice cream from any of the countless stores nearby was welcomed. There is very nice ice cream over here so Chris is happy :). A few drinks in the Plaza del Castillo were enjoyed before retreating to bed for a well needed sleep.

5^th August

Finally a chance for us to sleep in and catch up on a little needed rest. We checked out of our room around 11am and went to find a bakery for some breakfast. They are all over the city so soon had some yummy bread and salami. Another shop for a peach and drink before we headed for a souvenir store as Sandy wanted a T-shirt and some post cards. The shop didn’t have stamps but said to try the Tabacco store. We knew that was near our hotel so thought we would get them later. Instead we headed to have a look at the Citadel – a large area with high stone walls and park areas to enjoy. The temperature is rapidly climbing and signs already say 34deg! We wandered around the city a bit more making a large loop back towards our hotel, stopping for the stamps before retiring to the cool air conditioning in our hotel lobby.

Sandy wandered off and found some stamps at the local tobacco shop and stopped for a drink with a few of the girls from the group before going back to the hotel. Packs back on and we walk to the bus station. The heat is soaring and it reaches 40 degrees on the way to the bus. On the bus and a couple of hours bus ride to San Sebastian. It has cooled off by about ten degrees because we are on the coast and it is about 6pm. Although we are still hot and decide to go for a swim. A quick wander down to the beach and there are loads of people around, we go for a bit of swim but no waves so don’t last long. A lot of topless women about so lots of interest for Chris. Back to the hotel to check our internet and clean up before dinner. Although within the hour a thunderstorm rolls in and it becomes a very wet night. We all run to the hotel Londres where we are having dinner – a set menu which is really good. Back to the hotel for bed J

6^th August

Both of us had a late wake up probably from the lack of sleep lately. Had some breakfast and headed out for a walk along the beach. Quite a long beach but a beautiful day so nice to be out and about. Lots of scenery for Chris on the beach. Stop at a supermarket for some fruit and drinks and carry on walking to the end of the beach. There is a funicular at the end of the beach which takes you up the hill to get a pretty good view of the city. They have also built a funfair at the top so lots of rides that you could do although they look a bit run down have a look at the coast on the other side before heading back down on the funicular. Walked back along the beach, the water is really warm and wish I had put my togs on. Back to our hotel and update our facebook photos and sort out the updates for everyone. A general chill out in the hotel room before going to find a post office to send some stuff home. Find the post office and manage to get it sent off with my postcards. Back to the hotel and try to get a coffee to go but everytime we ask for it to go they make us sit down and wait for a waiter – can’t be bothered so keep going and see a few of the cathedrals on the way back to the hotel. It has started pouring down with rain and quite a spectacular thunderstorm Walk to a local tapas bar on the other side of the beach, both of us are quite sick of having tapas for dinner and this bar is quite expensive. After the bar we find an ice cream place and it has ferrero rocher ice-cream! It is divine and the best ice-cream ever head back to our hotel in the pouring rain. A great lightning storm too so we stand on our balcony watching for ages before going to bed.

7^th August

Not an early start so we have time to find a small supermarket for some breakfast – the fruit is great in Spain lots of really sweet peaches and grapes to be found. On the way back to the hotel Sandy does a quick detour and gets a summer dress for six euro. We are picked up by a private mini van for our journey to Cangas de Onis. So instead of a seven hour journey it is only four. Have a small stop along the way for something to drink before arriving in Cangas de Onis which is a lot bigger than our tour guide described. We arrive late in the afternoon and our hotel doesn’t have a lift so a very tiring walk up the stairs with our luggage to the fourth floor. We have a bit of time to go exploring so go for a walk around the town and to the bridge. Back to the hotel to meet the group for dinner. Dinner is at a local cider house, but the cider is not like regular cider and in this region of spain it has lots of bubbles and is poured from a height before served. I can’t say I liked it as it has a strange taste but a few people did. Our dinner is also at the cider house and consisted of lots of strange dishes including pigs ears, cheeses, fried chicken, calamari etc The food was good and so was the cheesecake dessert they gave us.

8^th August

We both woke up late even with the bells driving us nuts every hour, there is a cathedral close by with about 9 bells on it and it goes every hour throughout the day. We caught the bus into the Picos de Europa mountains to go for a walk after breakfast. Did about a two hour walk around the area passing the two Covadonga lakes. The lakes aren’t very big and there are loads of people so the walk isn’t that pleasant the area also was a mining area for Manganese oxide and you can walk through some of the old mining tunnels. Lots of cows on the walk too so a few cow patties to watch out for, the cows are very quiet and lots of people wanting to have their photo taken with them. Chris not feeling to well and it is quite cold so back on the bus and down to the town again which takes about 45 minutes. The area is full of rocks before you descend down into the lush greenery again and past the sanctuary. Decide to give the sanctuary a miss and get back to town to watch the opening ceremony for the Olympics. The bus ride back down is also very windy and the bus drivers know the road as they narrowly miss each other passing. We get back to town and get to watch about an hour of the ceremony before the countries start walking out. An amazing show by China so much detail! There is a break between the countries and we run down to the town to a pizza place which has a bigger television and better coverage of the games. Manage to watch the whole 3 hour country ceremony in the restaurant over some wine and hamburgers J They also made some really good coffee which kept me going. Half the group went on a different hike which gets back late so the rest of us organise dinner together at local place that sells pizza and pasta J An early start in the morning, so off to bed but for some reason neither of sleep- probably due to the stupid bells.

9^th August

Woke up at 6:30am for a bus to Oveida that was suppose to leave at 7:15 but actually left at 8:15. Sometimes I don’t think our guide has a clue what he is doing and get the feeling this is only his first or second time doing this trip. So we had an hour to sit around waiting, bought a coffee and orange juice at the little café in the bus station before boarding the bus. About an hour journey to Oveida probably would have been quicker normally but there was a canoe festival in the next town which was holding up traffic. Changed buses in Oveida for the longer journey to Santiago de Compostella, about a five or six hour journey. Caught a taxi from the station to our hotel which is just behind the main square. The group decides to sit down at the local café outside our hotel for a drink while we wait for our passports to be photocopied by the hotel, first place this has happened in Spain. All of us are pretty hungry and wanting some thai or Chinese. Found a place down from our hotel that did thai food yay! Then went for a wander around the city found an ice-cream stop which was really good. Then decided to go to the contemporary art museum which was on the other side of town. The museum is mostly one artist and lots of white walls but the roof has an interesting architecture of halls and pyramids with this echoing of four different languages around you from speakers a bit freaky but kind of cool. A really good view from the top too of the city. Lots of people around with backpacks as this is one of the last stops on the pilgrimage from France to Spain. So people are getting their certificates to prove they have done the walk, apparently it can be a minimum of 100km to get the certificate and you just get a kind of passport signed off at the local churches along the way. Most people walk an average of 25km a day and can be on the road for a month if they start in the Pyrenees of France. Meet up for dinner and go to a local restaurant with fresh fish. The road our hotel is on has a number of these restaurants and you can see all the lobsters and crabs in restaurant windows as advertising – octopus seems to be a favourite too. Sandy decides to have oysters and mussels for dinner while Chris has a steak. After dinner we wander into the main plaza to watch local musicians and enjoy the lit up cathedrals.

10^th August

We have a tour at 10am with a local so decide to have a bit of a sleep in. Meet everyone outside our hotel in the plaza. Our tour guide is going to take us to the main cathedral in town, so a lot of explanation about the city and the pilgrims as we walk around the cathedral to the main entrance. Also joined by a few screws loose jester that starts speaking English but we soon realise he is just quoting songs. Finally get into the cathedral, loads of people and it is jam packed being a Sunday. Decide we have done enough ABC tours to last a lifetime and disappear from the group to do our own exploring. A number of different plazas with lots of little walkways, go for some thai and a doner kebab for lunch. Manage to also find a chocolate factory but don’t buy anything. Sandy goes shopping and buys a bracelet and some more postcards to send to family. Decide we need to find an internet spot as the wi-fi doesn’t work in the hotel, after asking the tourist information centre we find it and check our ton of e-mails but still no idea on where we are staying in Lisbon so a quick e-mail to our travel agent. Walked around some more around the streets and found a coffee place that does amazing hot chocolates called Moda espresso. Sandy continues to wander around the streets but Chris goes back to the hotel for a snooze. Dinner is at a place one our group has chosen which specialises in Paella as we are not going to the south of Spain. It was quite salty but still good and we mostly just sat watching the Olympics on the TV. After dinner we tried to go back to Moda for a hot chocolate but couldn’t find it. After a lot of wandering the streets we realised why we had missed it there are no signs outside and it gets boarded up at night. So back to the hotel for some sleep.

11^th August

Another bus journey, taxi to the bus station again and then catch a bus to Porto which takes about five hours with a stop for lunch in the last hour. Once we get to Porto we expected we would be stopping in a bus station but we are just dropped off on the corner of a street – quite strange but seems to work. A taxi ride to our hotel which is very central again and the nicest yet. We have a huge room with a king size bed. Decide to go for a walk and get our laundry done too. Walk down to the water which is about a twenty minute walk and try find the laundry place but apparently it is shut after lunch on a Monday. Oh well, went and had a look at the palace stock exchange but didn’t go in further than the foyer. Apparently it is still used but has tours through the building. We walked back down to the waters edge to the Ponte Luis bridge where there is a funicular that takes you up to the main part of the city but the line was too long so we decided to walk up the stairs. Quite dirty and a much older part of the city with lots of tiles on the walls, an interesting part of the city but not somewhere I would venture at night. Up to the top and there is a cathedral with a stone wall that looks like a city wall. Decide to go to the Majestic café which is on the main street and suppose to have amazing architecture. Manage to find it and it quite an amazing café with lots of mirrors and glass. Have the best coffee called an affogato which is espresso with ice cream and then decide to splurge with strawberries and cream. Really good strawberries as they are so sweet. Walk along the main street and find an amazing façade made of blue and white tiles. Lots of churches around with these gorgeous tiled facades. Then off to find an internet café again as we need to find out about accommodation, we find one that is much cheaper than our hotel. Have an email from our travel agent so all sorted for Lisbon J Then keep on walking and find a market but it closes at 5pm so will be a good stop for breakfast in the morning. Walk back towards our hotel and chill out watching the Olympics for an hour until dinner time. Meet up for dinner and then walk to the restaurant which is owned by this Portuguese women that basically does everything. So our meals take a while to be prepared for 16 people plus she has another ten people in the restaurant! So our meal takes about 3 and a half hours to be cooked and consumed. All of us are wanting some dessert or coffee so back to the majestic café for cake and coffee – yum!

12^th August

Had a bit of a sleep in and then went out to the market to get some breakfast as the hotel breakfast was not that nice. The market is amazing with loads of fresh fruit, meat, fish and other crafts. We catch up with the others but decide to keep doing our own thing, buy the biggest peaches I have ever seen and some really good figs. Keep eating them as we walk down to the waters edge again to find the laundry, found it and dropped everything off to be picked up later in the day. Wander back to the plaza and our hotel and sort ourselves out before meeting up to go on the cruise. Walk back down to the water for the six bridge cruise but because there are so many of us we have to wait for the 2pm boat instead. Chris and I run to a local food place and get a hamburger and drink for lunch. Back just in time for our boat and a beautiful day compared to yesterday with lots of blue sky. We go up the river first and under four of the bridges and see the fifth, then back down the river towards the mouth and under another bridge. Back to the dock and we thought we were suppose to stop at a port house must have misunderstood. Off the boat and we cross the Ponte Luis bridge over to Vaia de Galle another town but actually were all the port is manufactured. Apparently port was like champagne in France where until 1987 you were not able to call it port unless it was manufactured/distilled in this area. We walked to the Croft distillery which was above the main street as it had a free tasting – sat down and were served a very nice white port before we started our cellar tour. After the tour we were given a red port to sample that was 5 years old – not as good as the white J They wouldn’t let us purchase and try a bottle in the distillery so we decided to keep going and find another place. Walked along the main street and stopped in Kovul which let you sample four different types also for free! Some of them charge you for tasting but we managed to see a few that didn’t. Definitely prefer the white ports or the older tawny ports. There are several different types of port which are dependent on the grape and how long they are kept in the cask. Also the bigger the cask it is kept in the shorter its life span before it is bottled. So the small little casks are generally the ports that are 20 or more years old. Back over the bridge and one more tasting in Porto before getting our laundry. Walk back to the tasting we did in Porto and buy a bottle of pink port and a white port for the group, plus some cheese J We wanted to try the pink port in Croft but had issues purchasing it – after talking to the guy in the port shop we discover they are the only ones that make a pink port and it was only released in June. Back to the hotel to drop off all the stuff and then to the supermarket to get some water and breakfast cereal for the morning. Back to the hotel and catch up on some of the Olympics before dinner. Really tired and think we got a bit of sunburn today. Dinner is at a churrasco so we are looking forward to Portuguese chicken. Both Chris and I get a full chicken which only costs us 6 euro each! Really good chicken and can’t finish it – I am sure there is more than one chicken on my plate. With a very full tummy we walk back to the hotel and I post my postcards on the way. Let everyone know we had the port and most of us sit down to a glass or two of pink port, will probably have the white port and the cheese tomorrow as it is our last night with the group.

13^th August

Slept really well probably due to a full tummy and lots of port J Early start and we walk to the local train station to catch a train for one stop to the central station. Change trains onto the express train to Lisbon, suppose to take 3 hours and running a bit late. On the train and lots of space and time to catch up on diary. Should be in Lisbon by lunchtime J Another train change to a metro. Takes us to Restaurante Plaza followed by a short 5min walk to our hotel. It is in the heart of the restaurant area so will be easy to find a place to eat! After check in we went for some lunch. Lots of sangria was consumed by most so walking around the city was a bit harder for some. We headed to the river and arrived at Plaza de Commercial with a view of the 25^th of April bridge, it looks incredibly similar to the Golden gate bridge in San Francisco. There is also a Christ statue which looks similar to Christ the redeemer next to it. It was decided that we head up to the castle for a look over the city, so caught one of the trams up the hill, number 28. Lots of people around so packed on the tram. Standing was hard work with the steep hills and jerky starting. Got of at the Castello stop but still a bit of a hike up to the Castle. At the stop there was a view of the river under some eaves with bougainvillias so some good group photo’s were taken. Up the hill to the castle and costs about 5 euro to enter. The view from the Castle was great and when at the top of the tower we had pretty much 360 degree views. Headed back to the hotel with a couple of shopping stops on the way. We still had a bottle of white port so met the group a little before 8 to enjoy it with some cheese. Dinner was pretty much next door at an Indian restaurant. Fairly good meal there for our last supper. Headed over to Bairro Alto area for some drinks and a look around after that. Quite a walk up to the area, lots of people drinking on the streets. Great selection of small bars. Found one that did well priced Caipirinha’s in various fruit flavours. Even tried a Kiwi flavoured one which was pretty good. Got back to hotel a little after midnight again.

14^th August

Day to ourselves in Lisbon. Have a lazy start again due to late night last night. Leave luggage at the hotel and check out. Decide to do the sightseeing bus rides. There are 2, each does a different side of the city. They take around 1hr45mins so they cover a fair area. The first trip we do with Clare, Marie and Susan. It includes the Belem area with the Belem tower and Jeronima Monastery. Also a number of churches and the main green belt park of the city. Had lunch in between the two rides which was not very good at all. Said goodbye to everyone and made our way to the plaza to do the second trip. The second trip was not as scenic and was mostly just to go out to the Parque de Narcoes which hosted the world expo in 1998. A fairly modern area with cable cars and a huge aquarium. Also gives the best view of the Vasca da Gama bridge which is 14km long. It is currently the longest bridge in Europe and connects Lisbon to the south of Portugal over the river. Post home more travel stuff and 4 DVDs as post office is open late – until 10pm! Get back to hotel, see Axel, say bye and get taxi to our new hotel. It is a fair way up the city so no going back for dinner. The first room smells really badly of smoke, so actually went and changed rooms this time. New room much better, but people have still smoked in it as the smoke smell got stronger later in the evening. Chilled out and watched the Olympics till 11pm, decided we needed some dinner so went to a local restaurant around the corner. Had hoped to have Chinese, but the restaurant was closed due to a holiday. Dinner was good and thankfully really quick. Back to hotel and bed a little after midnight.

15^th August

Lazy start again, up at 11am and pack. Checkout at 12 like usual, decide to go straight to airport. Have some food – really good tuna salad. Flight delayed to Palma Mallorca wherever this is. Finally take off almost an hour late so not sure if we will make our connecting flight. We get a really good view of the Vasca da Gama bridge as we leave and you can really see how long it is. An hour and a half flight to Palma de Mallorca – damn why couldn’t we stay here a night. It is in the Mediterranean next to Ibiza a really beautiful looking island. We get to the departure lounge and apparently our connecting flight has also been delayed so no chance of a layover. Buy some books to read on the next flight and some choccies to keep us going. A bit of a longer flight this time almost three hours to Berlin. We arrive in Berlin close to midnight and grab a taxi outside. We were a bit worried for a while as our bags were the last ones out. Quite a way to our hotel but we get there eventually. Haven’t had dinner so have a bit of coco pops to settle the stomach before heading for bed.