The Best Of Spain & Portugal. ( Oct 28 - Nov 9 )

Tuesday 28 October. We awoke at 3.30 am, showered and left to get to Acton underground by 4.30 am as the train left there just before 5.00 am to Victoria Station - then via the Gatwick Express to arrive at Gatwick Airport at 6.00 am. We flew out to Madrid at 8.00 am & arrived there at 11.30 am (Spanish time which is 1 hr ahead of London).

We were met by a representative & transferred to our Hotel, arriving at 1 pm. It was raining & cool. I had a lovely bath & relax & then an afternoon nap as quite tired out by now.


We went off to the Meeting at 7.30 pm with the Tour Guide - Paul. Next we had dinner with our fellow travellers at 8.30 pm. It was a lovely buffet dinner & we enjoyed chatting with our fellow travellers. There are 42 people on this tour, the largest one we've ever had! So interesting it should be!

Wednesday 29th October. We were up at 6.00 am and departed at 8.00 am. It was a short drive to Toledo, the ancient capital which is situated on a hill surrounded by the Tagus River. We enjoyed seeing it with a local guide. It was made famous in El Greco's painting and it is a beautiful place, full of Spanish History & Art.

Toledo is known for its steel products and even the USA Army gets their ceremonial swords from Toledo. We visited a "Damascene" factory - they produce beautiful gilded golden inlaid steel products - ie: jewellery. El Casa is the Royal Palace here, but was destroyed in 1936 and it is now being restored for a Military Museum.

We visited St Thomas Church with El Greco's famous painting also. ( painted in 1586)
Next we crossed the Guadalquirir River for the Olive trees of the rolling Andalucian Hills and on to Granada, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. It was covered in a sprinkle of snow too! Very Beautiful!

Andalucia produces 80% of Olive Oil production in Spain. Granada is well known for its universities. We dumped our bags and went out to explore Granada for a while before dinner. We saw the Plaza Gran Capitan & Plaza Trinidad & Plaza Pasiegas and the Cathedral. Then we had dinner at 7.30 pm with everyone.


Thursday 30th October. We were up at 6.00 am and off to enjoy a visit to the Al Hambra with a local guide. Its a walled city with palaces & other buildings & is a summer complex built by the Moorish Kings. It was very beautiful with courtyards, Towers, gardens, rooms, & Palaces.

We carried on & enjoyed the scenic drive along the Costa de Sol via Malaga. We stopped & had an hour here to explore. Its a delightful seaside resort with fabulous beaches. We went on to Fuengirola, our destination for the next 2 nights. Kevin and I hopped in the Hotel Pool & had a nice swim for an hour or so.

Friday 31st October. Today was a day at leisure in Fuengirola. It was raining heaps, despite this we went downtown for a look around and to use the internet. But we got really wet - had to try & dry our clothes and shoes out. So ended up spending the day relaxing , reading, writing letters, watching T.V. & even had an afternoon nap! Went to dinner at 7.30 pm with all the others.


Saturday 1st November. We were up & away by 9.30 am, after a nice sleep in. It was still drizzling with rain. We headed off to visit the Strategic Rock Fortress of Gibraltar. We had 3 hrs to spend here. We took a Taxi ( with 4 others) up to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar to see the fantastic view & the monkeys.

We also visited the caves on the rock. Concerts are often held here as the acoustics are wonderful. We then went back down to the city for an hour or so f more exploring. It is a very British type environment and we posted cards with the Gibraltar stamp on it for both of our Moms.

Gibraltar is U.K. territory, so we had to go through border & customs control. They took 2 bags off the bus to scan & then we were off. We went on through the sherry region of the costa de la Luz towards Seville.

We dropped our bags in our Hotel room then headed off with Carol & John (Aussies) to see the Cathedral Giralda & the Alcazar.


Sunday 2nd November. Today was a free day to explore Seville! We were up at 8.00 am & breakfasted then off to explore one of the most colourful cities of Spain. We walked down Alfonso road to the river & walked along the side of it on a beautiful day, watching the canoeists & rowers on the river.

We met up with an English couple Eddy & Anita and carried on with them seeing a few other sights along the way for a while. We visited the Maria Luisa Park, the Plaza de Espana, Universidad, the Alfonso Hotel (the most expensive Hotel), the Jewish Quarter, Plaza del Salvador & La Santa Iglesia Cathedral. We got home by 4 pm & Kevin had a swim in the Hotel's pool. I had a lovely bath! We had dinner with everyone at 7.30 pm. It was a great day in Seville!


Monday 3rd November. We got up at 7.00 am and departed at 9.15 am for Portugal. We passed through the fertile plains of the Alentejo and headed to the beautiful hill top town of Evora. It has lovely cobbled streets, arches, brillant white houses and its fortified wall. Its a wonderful Moorish City. The Roman's transformed Evora into an Imperial Town.

They left several signs of their passage - the roman temple called "Templo de Diana" - stands out. The temple of the Goddess Diana the Huntress. Cardinal King Henrique founded the first University in 1559 here in Evora.

We saw the cathedral - a Roman Gothic Building, Giraldo Square inside the Historical Centre, Sertorio Square - City Hall, a Salavador Church and the Silver Water Aqueduct monument (1533) So Evora is a very interesting place, its classified by Unesco in 1986 World Hertiage.

We continued on our way and arrived in Lisbon at 5 pm. We dropped our bags in our room then went out with Carol & John for an explore. We found a Burger King and had a crispy chicken burger for tea. We have a wonderful Hotel room, sitting room, balcony and lovely ensuite - very nice!


Tuesday 4 th November. We were up early and off on a guided city tour by 8.30 am with a local guide. We visited Alfama ( the old town ) Rossio Square, Pracado Comercio, Belem area ( Bethleham ), Torre de Belem ( Belem Tower), Pradrao dos Descobrimentos ( Discoverys Statue), Mosteiro dos Jeronimos ( Monastery of Jeronimo), the Moorish Citadel and other highlights.

We got dropped back at our Hotel at 11.30 am and we were free to explore ourselves, so we did!
We went off on the Metro to the Oriente Stop to see the Exhibition Center of 1998 at Parque das Nacoes. We saw the Oceanario, the Torre Vasco da Gama and had a cup of tea sitting in front of the Targus River which Lisbon sits on.

Then we got back on the Metro to Rossio Stop to explore the center of town. We saw Praca da Figueira, & the Elevator de Santa Justa - an elevator in the middle of some streets designed by G. Eiffel from the 19th Century for a fantastic view of Lisbon. We saw the Praca do Comercio and walked up the hill to see Se de Lisboa (cathedral) and Castel Sao Jorge (old walled city).

We also spent 30 mins in an internet cafe.

We walked along Rue da Madalena & Rue da Conceicao good shopping streets. We caught the metro home to stop Roma and our Hotel by 5 pm. Kevin checked out the swimming pool , it only had a few feet of water in it....hahaha.

We met up with Carol & John by 6 pm and went out for tea around the neighbourhood. We sent a birthday card to Ethel for her 87 th birthday when we found a post office.


Wednesday 5th November. We awoke at 4.45 am and turned on the T.V. to see Obama had won the election by 58% of the vote. We have alot of Americans on our bus - so they were happy! We departed at 7.45 am and headed northward to Fatima ( a famous religious catholic sanctuary). It was very impressive! The Square is very large for thousands and thousands of pilgrims that visit on the Holy Days.


Next we headed on to Oporto, on the Northern Banks of the River Douro. We arrived at 1.15 pm and dropped our bags as usual & ate our breadrolls for lunch. Next we got the 502 Bus out to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean. We visited the Castelo Quedo there. Its a bit like Ngamotu Beach, in New Plymouth only larger.

We spent 45 mins here and I paddled my feet in the Atlantic Ocean. Next we caught the bus back to our Hotel. We found our way to the Metro and caught it to the town center - stop San Bento. We got out and walked down Rua Mouzinhio de Silveira to the River Douro. For 10 Euro we got a ride down the river cruising under the 6 bridges for 45 mins - it was really good value.


Next we visited the Cathedral Terreiso da se. A very old & under restoration church but the view was amazing! Then we headed back to the Hotel on the metro - stop Casa da Musica. We found a supermarket nearby & bought breadrolls, ham, cheese & Bananas for our tea.We were quite tired out as we'd done quite a bit of walking up hill and down dale today.


Thursday 6th November. We were up and departed at 9.00 am today. It was very foggy first thing as we passed through rolling hills and mountains - Fuentes de Onoro - Portugals only natural Ski Resort and through Ciudad Rodrigo. We crossed the border back in to Spain again.We reached the ancient and beautiful university town of Salamanca round 3.30 pm.

We got to our rooms at our hotel and dropped our bags as usual and headed off to explore Salamanca with Carol & John. We walked through the lovely Plaza Mayor and saw the Iglesia de St Martin ( a cathedral), Universidad (university college), Casa de las Conchas (house of Shells), and down past the Universidad of Geografia & Historia, Catedral Nueva to the river - Rio Tormes - to the beautiful Puente Romano (Roman Bridge).

We visited the Casa lis Museo Modernista ( filled with Art Nuvo - similar to Napier N.Z.). We arrived back to our hotel in time for dinner with everyone at 8 pm.


Friday 7th November. We left Salamanca at 9.oo am for the fortified Avila. It has a beautiful Roman wall surrounding the Old Town. We visited the cathedral and St Theresa's Convent. We actually walked atop the actual fortified wall for an amazing view over Avila. We wandered the narrow cobblestoned streets and found a wonderful fruit & vegie market at the Central Plaza. We had one and a half hrs free time to explore Avila.

Then we continued on to Segovia to see this Medieval Town sitting atop a rocky hill. We had been here before but it had been only a 1 hr stop for lunch. This time we had 2 hrs to exlpore freely. It has the most fabulous Aquaduct erected in the 1st CenturyA.D. Its a most impressive work of engineering supplying water to the higher lying parts of the town.

We visited Casa de los Picos - so called due to the diamond shapes studding the building, Church of San Martin, Church of San Sebastian & the Cathedral of Segovia (a massive late Gothic limestone structure). It was erected in 1525 by Emperor Charles V.

The Alcazar is an impressive castle for the Kings of Spain. Now it is a Artillery Museum.

The Tower of Hercules (a Dominican Convent) was very impressive too. At 3.30 pm after running around seeing these buildings we met up with the bus and drove the next one and a half hrs to reach Madrid by 5 pm.

Again we dropped our bags and headed off to the supermarket with John & Carol. We ended up in their room having our breadrolls & chatting as we watched T.V. together.


Saturday 8th November. Today we had a free day to explore at our leisure. Madrid is the capital of Spain and its 2,180 ft above sea level - so Spaniards say Madrid is the Nearest Thing To Heaven. Its population is 5 million people. We had a sightseeing excursion with a local guide from 9 am - 11 am.

We saw Plaza de Toros de las Ventas (bullring), Torre Europa (tall sky scrapers), Estadio Santiago Bernabeu (Real Madrid soccer stadium), Plaza de Colon (Christopher Columbius Square) up Gran Via Avenue to Plaza de Espana ( monument to Cervantes) and also the Palacio Real ( Royal Palace). Then we had the remainder of the day to ourselves to explore how we wished - which we did!


We set off down Calle Mayor to the fabulous Plaza Mayor and on to Plaza Puerta Del Sol and up to Plaza de colon to see Christopher Columbius statue more closely & to visit the museum Arqueologico, then back to Fuente de Cibeles ( another square) to see the Puerta de Alcala (archway) at Plaza de la Independencia.

Next we strolled through Parque de El Retiro - a lovely Park with lake & Monument Alfonso XII and Palaciq de Cristal ( a huge glass house) and the Estatua de Angel Caido. It had beautiful trees all in Autumn colours and was a perfect day.

Next we visited the Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia to get some culture and view some famous paintings and Art work, we especially wanted to see Pablo Picasso's room and his huge painting. Kevin was definately not impressed. He reckoned he could do better with his eyes closed, but this is art I suppose.

After this we were becoming weary so took the Metro back to the Hotel. We caught the Blue line to Gran Via then changed to the Green line to Marques de Vadilo ( our Hotel stop), walking in the door at 5 pm. We just had breadrolls in our room - I think i'm beginning to get sick of them!!

At 7 pm we met the others in the Hotel for a beer and farewells as our Spanish Trip is over now!We had an excellent adventure and made some wonderful friends!

Sunday 9th November. We were up at 7.30 am, breakfasted and saying goodbyes to the people leaving for home. We got a bus transfer to the Airport at 10 am, as our flight left Spain at 12.30 pm. We arrived at Gatwick at 1.30 pm and arrived back in Acton at 4.30 pm.

We'd had a wonderful 13 days travelling around Southern Spain and Portugal, now its back to work this coming week!