The amazing Alhambra

We spent two full days in Granada, which we loved.  The only downside was me (Karen) getting sick with a bad cold for the second time in six weeks – not fun! Travelling is definitely a challenge for me when I am sick – I still want to get out and do everything but it…

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Las Fallas

How to describe Las Fallas?  It’s a crazy four day festival in Valencia, Spain, perhaps best summed up by this quote : “Does the smell of gunpowder excite you? Does the sight of flames make you smile? Do you secretly harbor pyrotechnic urges that are only socially acceptable on the Fourth of July? If you…

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Valencia

The main reason that we went to Valencia was to experience Las Fallas (which is a whole different blog post!)  However, while we were there we did manage to see a few other things.  We stayed in a stunning apartment outside of Valencia – the picture above is of the view.  We visited the cathedral…

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Toledo

Toledo is another easy day trip from Madrid.  The bus station is at the bottom of the hill that the old town of Toledo is perched on – a short walk led us to a beautiful gate and wall that were part of the original old town.  We walked through winding streets to the beautiful…

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Segovia – an aqueduct and an alcazar

Segovia is a small town about an hour away from Madrid.  It was an easy bus ride to get there, and the whole town is pretty compact – you can walk around it and see everything.  We started our day at the Roman aqueduct which is right in the middle of town.  It was amazing…

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Madrid

We took a bus from Barcelona to Madrid, where we based ourselves for four days.  We decided to mix up our time in Madrid with daytrips to the surrounding towns, which we actually preferred to Madrid itself. On our first day in Madrid we did a free walking tour to explore the city.  (This one…

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Gaudi’s Barcelona

One of the highlights of Barcelona was visiting the church that was originally designed by Gaudi –  La Sagrada Familia.  This massive church isn’t actually finished yet – more than a hundred years after being started it is still being completed to Gaudi’s design.  In the last few years the inside (pictured above) has been…

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The monastery of Montserrat

Montserrat is a monastery on a mountain outside of Barcelona, easily reached by train.  A friend of mine had originally recommended this to us, and it is definitely a great day trip to do from Barcelona. Before getting on the train, we had to decide if we wanted tickets to go up the mountain by…

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Gothic Barcelona

We wound up flying from Nice to Barcelona, as it was just as cheap as a 24 hour bus ride.  However…we hadn’t flown in two months, and apparently I had become a bit rusty on appropriate carry on items! Security opened my backpack to check something…firstly, I had to ignore Sarah and Reuben’s fits of…

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Monaco

Monaco, the second smallest principality in the world, is less than an hour from Nice. We took a bus to Monaco, and much like our other bus trips around Nice this was crowded, meant we were standing the whole way, and ended with Sarah, Reubs and I getting off a stop early to prevent actually…

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