Madrid – Bullfights & Flamenco

Since we weren’t in Madrid for long we decide to do one of the attractions that screams Spanish and Madrid traditions, Bullfighting! We caught the metro to Plaza Monumental de las Ventas del Espíritu Santo, the international centre of bullfighting built in 1929.

It was a very cool building jam packed with tradition. We did a audio guided tour (we were experts with these things now) through the site. It was right in the middle of the bull fight season so there was a lot going on, a bullfight was on later that day, therefore we were unable to walk out on to the sand of the ring. The bullring seats just under 25,000 people with the cheapest ticket being only $8!

We could still see blood stained sand within the ring from fights in previous days. I could imagine the atmosphere being quite amazing here during a bullfight with the audience having a strong influence on the toreros (matadors, the most senior)

After a parade of the toreros and a salute to the president a picador enters the arena on horseback armed with a vara (lance). The horse is surrounded by a protective covering, but prior to 1930 the horses wore no such thing and the horses were often disembowelled.

The picador stabs the bull in a mound of muscle in the neck which weakens his muscles and therefore lowing his neck to allow the torero to perform the final blow of the sword later in the fight.

Next, the banderilleros come out and attempt to plant two banderillas (sharp barbed sticks) into the bulls shoulders.

The matador then comes out in the final stage, with his muleta (red cape) and estoque (sword). The red cape does not anger the bull as the bull is colourblind, it is used to attract the bull and in a series of manoeuvres wears the animal down. If all goes to plan, with a stab of the estoque between the shoulder blades and through the aorta or heart, giving victory to the matador.

If the matador has performed particularly well, the crowd can cheer to the president to award the matador an ear of the bull by waving white handkerchiefs. If his performance was exceptional, he will award two ears.Very rarely, if the public or the matador believe that the bull has fought with great bravery, the president may grant the bull a pardon and the bull’s life is spared it is allowed to leave the ring alive and return to the field. It really is quite a huge production and is referred to as a art, not a blood sport.

Before we started the tour I was unsure if I would like to see a bullfight. But once we watched a video of a fight during the tour I made my mind up. It was quite horrific! I just couldn’t imagine watching an animal be slowly wounded to its death, it just seems so brutal and unnecessary.

We left the arena feeling quite emotionally drained and headed into town to Mayor square. A very large square of beautifully towering apartments with wrought iron balconies and cobblestones where all sorts was happening! There were a lot of street buskers doing acts we had not seen before.

Next stop was a tapas bar for lunch, then a walk via the Palacios Real, the royal palace, to Gran Via for some quick shopping which was great, quite successful for one hour!

Home for a little rest before heading out to take in a Flamenco show. It was gfantastic! Man, they can move, such skill and so fast! They weren’t spring chickens either. They had a singer and a guitarist on stage with them while the performers danced, the singer was just incredible! His voice was a real typical Spanish voice.

Great night!

Markets, Chilli Balls & Undies.

Baz and I got up extra early this morning to beat the crowds and visit the La Catedral in the gothic quarter. This church commenced in the 13th century and wasn’t finished till 6 centuries later.

We explored the small windy paths of Barri Gotic and found some lovely little courtyards and water features.

As we walked back to the hotel we stopped off at Mercat de la Boqueria, the most incredible market I have ever seen! The colour, smells, sounds and freshness was out of this world! Everything was so beautifully displayed. Rows upon rows of fruit in baskets, cups of freshly sliced fruit and delicious freshly squeezed juices, I had two! Strawberry and coconut, and mango and orange. Yum!

Amazing looking legs of cured jamon (ham), all kinds of seafood even sea snails a cute little tapas bars scattered throughout the markets.

We sculled our juices and headed home to get Greg & Margs to show them the markets.They were just as amazed as we were. Baz and I couldn’t stop taking photos.

We squeezed in on some stools at a tapas bar and had a beautiful piece of Spanish omelette, prawns and mushrooms and chilli balls, mmmmm so good.

Time to leave Barcelona, we definitely could have spend another week here, o well next time…

Next stop Zaragosa.
The roads were really quiet which was a change. We had bought some Spanish ham, chorizo and cheese from the markets and stopped off to enjoy it with a beautiful baguette along with fruit, pastries and honeyed nuts yum! Dad’s hand washing hadn’t quite dried so he hung them over the park bench. Really exciting view for people driving past seeing his undies!

The rocky landscape continued which was occasionally highlighted with giant bull statues and yet more wind turbines. We even spotted massive storks nesting on chimneys tops, in trees and atop telephone poles, pretty cool.

We got to Zaragosa in the evening, settled into our very nice hotel before Baz and I went into town to take some night shots of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar on the Ebro river.
It was very cold but we persevered and came away with some ok pics.

Zaragoza to Madrid
Madrid is the next stop, again lots of bull statues, big rocky hills and patchy shrub with rows of power pylons replacing the wind turbines.
We drove for about 3 hours before arriving at our amazing apartment, definitely the best place we have stayed at.

We managed to do a heap of much needed washing before heading out to the closest street for some shopping, mum and I have not nearly done as much shopping as we needed.

That night we went to a great restaurant a few doors down from our apartment called Juan & Juan and enjoyed a delicious 3 course meal.

The Best of Gaudi.

We had heard about these free walking tours in Barcelona and decided to do the Gaudi one. We had seen a few of his masterpieces and wanted to learn more about him.

Firstly we decided to have breakfast in a near by cafe as the hotel breakie was bad, worst one we have had! We walked up to the Gaudi house that we visited yesterday to met the guide. She was great! A local of Barcelona. She explained a few things about the Casa Batllo and Mr Batllo.
Mr Batllo was a man in textiles, his neighbour was a chocolatier. They were competing over who had the best house and they both commissioned modernist architects to create these master pieces.

Gaudi had a few references to Saint George who is the patron saint of Catalonia (which is the region that Barcelona is the capital of) where Gaudi is from. The amazing scaled and rippled roof top is believed to represent the dragon and the huge cross represents the sword that killed the dragon in the tale.April 23rd is St George’s day, the day when men give roses and the women give books – a rose for love and a book forever. This day is to celebrate the slaying of the dragon to save the princess.

Next stop was his other building, La Pedrera which means the stone quarry (officially called Casa Mila) just up the road of Passeig de Gràcia. This structure was built as an apartment block but now it is offices as well. Eulalia (our guide) explained that there is a 90 year old lady living in one of the apartments and it is said that she is only paying $200 a month rent because she signed rent control lease many years ago, so her rent has never increased, lucky lady! Everyone wants to be her best friend!

Next stop La Sagrada Familia, wow this place is incredible! It absolutely blew our minds. Just the size was amazing and the detail. This building has been a work in progress for more than a century, construction started in 1882 and there is not a finish date.

Less than a quarter of the project was complete when Gaudi died in 1926 at 73. His death is a very sad tale. While crossing the road on his way to church and not watching what was going on got his foot/shoe got stuck in tram tracks and was unable to free himself before being hit by an oncoming tram.

He was a man that didn’t care much for how he looked or how he was dressed, so due to his shabby clothes and no identification they thought him to be a beggar. When the ambulance arrived they assumed he would not be able to afford the care so took him to the poor hospital where he got insufficient care and died a few days later all alone. So sad!

The exterior of this church had so much significant detail, one side was referred to as the Nativity facade – the first facade to be completed (in 1930) there are amazing sculptures of Mary and Joesph, Jesus being baptised and the 3 wise man. This side is also covered in birds and animals.
The opposite side is called the Passion facade, facing the setting sun, depicting the last supper, Jesus burial and many dark and spooky characters, along with a large bronze statue of Jesus ascending to heaven.This structure is truly incredible from the exterior but once we got inside it was something I could never imagine!

The tour concluded outside the church.
We lined up and entered. I don’t know how long I stood just in the entrance looking around with my mouth open. It was beautiful and so grand. The stained glass windows, the huge leaning pillars and the light all was just stunning! Gaudi really did love the shapes and form in nature and so many of his ideas and creativity come from it.

He had snails climbing walls, the leaning pillars represented tree trunks, the lights- honey combs, these amazing pillars with what looked like bowls of fruit came from crystals forming. It was just so great and I once again could go on and on about this building.

We love love loved it!!!

Rabbit, Catalan sausage and ice cream for dinner.

Goudi’s Barcelona

Day two in Barcelona
We purchased some tickets for the hop on hop off bus, mum has been dying to go in a double decker. It was a really good way to get our bearings and to see what there is to see and just how big the city was along with all its different regions.

We hopped off at Gaudi’s park, a fantasy park created by Antonio Gaudi an amazing architect in Barcelona. The park was packed full of structures glittering with ceramic tiles along with artificial structures created to mimic nature. There was a beautiful tiled bench curving around a open space with a great view that gave the impression of waves. The colours of the tiles were really pretty and the park was a very pleasant walk. Apart from the many people selling a lot of crappy souvenirs. They were quite entertaining as there were police walking around moving in them on trying to catch them actually selling. The street sellers worked in teams with one acting as a look out to warn the others that cops were coming.

What a sight to see them all run. They had a great system of ropes attached at each corner of their cloth that the souvenirs were displayed on for a quick scoop up and run to the bushes. Once the cops went past they all came back out again, very funny! Dad was loving it!

We did quite a few souvenir shops and then headed back to the bus to continue on to Casa Batllo, another of Gaudis creations. Gaudi was commissioned to build this fantastical building by the very wealthy Batllo family. Mr Batllo wanted a structure that was more grand than his neighbour.
So Gaudi built this incredible weird but revolutionary home.

The exterior is amazing, there are splashes of blue, mauve and green tiles everywhere, bone like mini pillars, skulls or masquerade masks as balcony frames and waves of colour flowing throughout. Every element can be interpreted in so many ways.

Then there was the interior! Wow! There are no straight lines to be seen, just beautiful natural shape and form. A stunning wood staircase that weaves up to a mushroom shaped fire place in a room with a twisted ceiling wrapping around a sun like light.

Gaudi was quite a revolutionist in the architecture world, his use of light and form was genius.
There was a beautiful light tunnel coming down from the roof all the way through the building in the middle. He had placed lighter blue tiles at the bottom and darker blue tiles at the top, so as the light travels down further it loses its intensity so lighter tiles were needed to reflect more light where it is needed. The windows down the tunnel opening into the various rooms are larger at the bottom and smaller at the top with the same reasoning.

The rooftop was also incredible, so much stunning coloured mosaics, waves and balls of colours.
I could just go on and on about this building! It is a must see and one of my highlights of the whole trip!

We got back on the bus and finished the tour of the city. We wen at had a tasty Spanish feast then home.

Viva Barcelona!

We had a slight sleep in this morning, got up at 8am had our petit dejourner then it was on the road again. It was freezing! The landscape was beautiful, we could see the snow caps of the Pyrenees. Hola! We have crossed the border into Spain. Next stop Barcelona!! Well via the Dali museum in Figueres.

Spanish is a very cool language to hear around you and a welcome change from French. What a place! I knew some of Dali’s work, been to a exhibition in Melbourne but this was another realm!
Just the exterior of the building was amazing, it had giant eggs on the rooftop and what looked like all different sizes of dog poo on the sides.

The museum was inaugurated in 1974 and designed by Dali in order to offer visitors a real experience of getting inside his captivating and unique world, and it sure did…
Dali thought of no better place to create a home for his work than his home town in Figueres and in a old theatre opposite the church he was baptised.

The range of his work just blew our minds, even Margs and Greg got into it.
Paintings, drawings, sculptures, engravings, installations, holograms, stereoscopy and photography were all on display. Not to mention his absolutely beautiful jewellery. Each room was like viewing a different artist. He was such a talented man with a great sense of humour, another strong recommendation if you are near Figueres.

Now to continue on to Barcelona, I have been looking forward to this part of the trip, I’m really excited about the tapas and paella.

The hotel was quite a mission to find we weaved through a lot of narrow city streets and had to do some reversing and monrvrring , but finally found it. We were close to La Rambla which is a very busy road with shops, cafes, bars and a heap of street vendors and buskers. We went there to check it out. So much was going on and so many people, there was a very cool vibe about this place. We had some tasty tapas, some delicious Spanish ham and a few drinks and carried on down to the water to check out the waterfront shops.

Paella was on the cards for dinner and it was delicious, we had it at about 10pm which is the standard time for dinner here. I thought it may have been hard to get into that late dinner routine but we had been eating that late every other night anyway. What helped was how light it would be, it doesn’t get dark till about 10.30pm.

Mum and I had our first real sangria for the trip, very refreshing and it had a heap of alcohol!
We walked home to our 3 star hotel, more like a 1 star, at least it was in a great location, it was a bit like a Spanish Brunswick.

Again lots of really cool dogs here, all sorts!

Gladiators, Duct’s and Catalan Cuisine.

We had one of the best hotel petit dejourner yet! Tasty crepes with berry compote and of course our staple ham and cheese in beautiful bread!

We checked out and headed straight to Les Arenes to explore the ancient structure. We arrived right on the opening time so avoided the crowds. This arena staged, gladiator contests, public executions and bull fights. Bull fighting is still an regular event at this arena and is one of the few left that still participate in the real traditional of bull fighting.

The interior of the arena is well preserved considering what it has endured. During the French Revolution the town was created within its walls as protection, it has been plundered for it stone and generally abused. Considering all that it has endured it has held up considerably well.

There is currently a project underway to clean up lime scale, lichen and pollution stains from the exterior as well as addressing some troubling cracks that have appeared over the years. Considering all it has been through over the years it has stood up to the treatment it has received very well and is an awesome sight to see.

Unfortunately they were also preparing the Arenes for some sort of concert and had asphalted the centre arena and placed scaffolding around for extra seating. This took away from some the authenticity and feel of the place but either way was still a pretty spectacular sight.

After a pleasant morning exploring the Arenas was now off to Pont du Gard, an ancient three tiered aqueduct built by the Romans that was once part of a 50km long system of water channels built around 19 BC.

The huge structure was hand carved, transported from nearby quarries with some of the blocks of stone weighing over 5 tonnes!

We spent a bit of time here getting some great photos with a cool stormy sky which creating a great backdrop for the pics. Baz and I walked up to a higher view point and got a great perspective of it.

We carried on to our next stop for the day, Carcassonne. An ancient town perched on a rocky hilltop and full of windy footpaths, huge stone walls and many turrets. As the village came in to view it looked like it was a castle out of a fantasy medieval story. Very impressive!

We ventured in to La Cite, the fortified walled city. The city is ringed by two rampart walls and 52 stone towers through out. There were a quite a few tourist shops which took a little bit away from the spectacular outside, but we did find some amazing cookie and lolly shops so Mum and I were in heaven!

As our journey continued on after leaving Carcassonne and driving through the countryside we saw so many wind turbines. They were such a sight and we never got sick of seeing them, how do people say they are a eyesore? What really added to the sight were the beautiful ancient stone villages in the foreground.

We carried on to our next over night stop at Canet en Roussillon. Mum and I just picked a place that was not far from Barcelona and turns out we chose a good one! Since it is so close to the Spanish border there was a very strong Spanish influence. The host and owner of the hotel was wonderful, she was so friendly and she made us feel so welcome, the hotel had such a homely feel.

There was a tourist bus of oldies there and I accidentally walked in on the biggest guy getting changed looking for Mum and Dads room so that wasn’t so fun! What a sight! Ekkkk

We had a delicious traditional Catalan meal of meatballs Yumo! Very tasty.

Another day down.

Cannes and Beef Tartare

Such a beautiful day today to visit Cannes!
Cannes is a fair bit smaller than Nice in size and population on 75,000 live here, but there was probably twice as many as the Cannes Film Festival was on. Just driving in had a better feel than Nice, everything seemed cleaner and a lot more relaxed dispute the crowds.

We got our touristy shots outside the famous Cannes festival red carpet (no movie stars there though) we then headed to the beach. Cannes beaches have sand which is another thing they have over Nice, the water was pretty cold so unfortunately no swimming. We saw a couple of locals sunbaking on the beach, they looked like they had been there for 100 years, their skin was like burnt rubber!

We strolled further along the famous La Croisette boulevard, taking in the sights, the people and the atmosphere. Even though it was busy with all the festival goers it still had a real laided back feel, we could have easily spend a few days here, o well maybe next time!

It tooks a while to get out of Cannes as we took a few wrong turns but we continued on our way to Nimes. After checking in to our hotel we headed straight out to see the Les Arenes. An amazing arena built around 100 AD and holding 24,000 spectators and rivalled only the coliseum in Rome. As it was only an hour until closing time we decided to leave it until tomorrow, so we continued on to the Maison Carree, a temple constructed in AD 5.

After visiting the temple we wandered through the streets to kill a bit of time before dinner. The best time of day. We found a restaurant in a cute courtyard. After so much talk about it Nat finally had beef tartare, it was nice but says it was no where near as good as the one she had at Rockpool. Mmmm name dropping now!

On the way back to the car we met a dog that speaks English! Well, he actually understood me when I said Hello instead of Bonjour. His name was Oulan and he had one blue eye and one brown. Very cute, he loved to talk (bark) too.

Then it was home to plan our visit Barcelona!

Grand Prix & Pebbles

Off to Monaco today, the drive through Nice to Monaco was hectic! The roads were so busy and the narrow streets seemed to just exaggerate the situation. I didn’t realise how populated this area is and so many apartments! We drive to Monte Carlo along the Moyenne Corniche (coastal road) with the huge cliff giving us an amazing view of the coastline and the town of Villefranche-sur-mur. Princess Grace Kelly died in a car crash on the D53, a road linking the Moyenne and Grande corniches.

Monaco is a crazy place and so small, just 200ha but has a population of 32,350 with 7600 citizens who don’t pay tax. Nice if you can get it!

It is quite strange, they are a sovereign state, is not a member of the European Union yet it participates in the EU customs territory – no borders between Monaco and France and they use the euro. O well I guess you can do what you want when you’re are loaded!!

There were plenty of flash cars, Ferrari’s, Aston Martin’s, Masserati’s. We wondered down to the marina to check out all the super yachts, they were huge and gleaming. The Grand Prix was starting the next day. Part of the track runs right along side the marina so all the boats were lined up to get the best views. It was such a lovely hot day to walk around the marina, dreaming of that lotto win, checking out pit lane with all the F1 cars getting their final tune up and just seeing how the other half live.

We walked up the hill to visit the Royal Palace and to check out the view over Monte Carlo, and what a view it was! The water was such an amazing clear blue dotted with huge white boats and surrounded with the distinctive terracotta roofed buildings. How did they built this city on such a huge cliff face? It really did add to it being so spectacular, I mean NZ and Australia would have stunning little coves like this but we don’t build a city/country on it.

I thought we may have seen more glammed up people dressed in their Prada and Gucci, maybe they all leave town when the Grand Prix is on.

It took us quite some time to get back to the car and out of Monaco taking a few wrong turns didn’t help either but we made it.

As we drove to Nice the rain started to set, but we still parked up to check out the ‘beach’ or should I say what beach… It wasn’t that exciting, but we had a walk along the ‘beach’ and on pebbles anyway.

We were all abit disappointed with Nice, it was very commercialised, too big and busy and the waterfront promanade was quite run down, and full of English tourists. So we took our pics and headed off for a early dinner.

When we got back to out hotel in Vence Baz and I went out to take night shots in the cobblestone streets. While taking a few we had a very friendly (maybe a little crazy) old French lady come up to us and chat away din French. Even after several attempts explaining that we didn’t understand French or a quick “Non Francais…Anglais” during one of her brief pauses didn’t seems to worry her as she continued to chat away. We had a few laughs with her before she shook our hand and went on her merry way.

The walled cities of Vence & St. Paul

We had a fair bit of distance to cover today through the Côte d’Azur region to the French Riviera.
We took the tolls road once again to cover the long distance in the shortest amount of time. It easy to make up time when you can drive at up to 140km!! Although you pay for the privilege at about €20 in tolls, not cheap.

It was quite a change in landscape the closer we got to Nice. It is quite a hilly place, the peach coloured buildings with their terracotta roof tiles all squeezed in together along the hillside. Every little spare space was filled up.

We were staying in Vence a very small village in the hills about 30mins in from Nice. This medieval city with its enclosed stone wall dating back to the 12th century, with great little paths winding through the streets to people’s front doors. Lots of photo ops here! And a lot of dogs too! We had a good adventure exploring and navigating our way wondering through the streets.

We took a drive up to another amazing medieval village, St Paul de Vence, perched atop a hill looking out over the Mediterranean Sea. It was beautiful! Picasso and Matisse used to frequent this village for inspiration. You can see why.

The village has kept it’s ancient feel with the addition of a few art galleries and boutique shops.
The panoramic views were incredible, we could even see snow capped mountains in the distance in one direction and turquoise ocean in the other. Amazing! We stopped for a delicious crepe and a rosè, so French!

Back to the hotel for a rest before heading out for a beautiful 3 course meal in the square of the old town. The food was devine, once again view the pics in the food page. We were wondering if we may see any famous face with the Cannes film festival only being on down the road. Then we saw Cliff Richard, we wanted to break out into song – ‘We’re all going on a summer holiday….’ But thought not! Ha.

Another great thing about this town is it is situated on two natural water springs, so there are lovely fountains everywhere that you can drink from, the water is amazing and so fresh, crisp and smooth.

We loved this little village, which didn’t seemed to be ruined too much by tourism and has kept its character. A really great town and would recommend it.

Lyon to Orange and Nuclear Crocodiles.

After two packed days in Lyon we’re off to Orange.
As we headed out of Lyon we drove through quite a few industrial type villages which was a change to the villages we went through north of Lyon.

Throughout the drive we drove aside quite a few rivers which lead to the quote of the day, by Greg and Baz – “that’s a bloody big river”. We also past a crocodile farm called Ferme aux Crocodiles where 400 crocs lay about in tropical pools heated by the nearby nuclear power station, Centre Nuclearie du Tricastin.
We carried on to Montelimar the home of nougat, there was no driving through here! After a shorts drive through town we found a small nougat shot and bought a selection before carrying on our way.

Orange was quite untouristy which was surprising considering its amazing Roman ampitheatre.
As we drove in we saw the Arc de Triomphe, a 1st century AD monumental arc commemorating the 49 BC Roman victories.

After checking into our hotel we took a walk through the narrow streets of town to the Theatre Antique an ampitheatre believed to have been built during the rule of Augustus Caesar between 27 BC and AD 14. The huge 37 metre high and 103 metre wide structure is one of three still standing in its entirety (minus a few mosaics and a roof). The arena could accommodate 10,000 spectators, with everyone attending the performances including the poor and slaves. Shows performed varied between tragedies, comedies including mimes and operas.

All actors were male, even the performers playing female characters. Eventually women were allowed to appear in miming shows and over time were encouraged to take off their clothes, creating an ancient form of pornography, which was soon stopped.

You could just imagination the hype and excitement spreading through the stands waiting for the shows to begin, the extravagant stage sets, flamboyant costumes with the music wrapping around the entire theatre no matter where you sat. They still have concerts and operas here with the likes Tina Turner, Dire Straights having played there. It would have been quite magical to experience one.

Day 2 in Orange
We headed to a castle on a hill we had seen on the way in to Orange.
The walk to the top was a mission with a long walk up a very steep hill. When we finally made to the entrance at the top we were told it was a bank (public) holiday and they didn’t open for another ninety minutes! So we spent time checking out the view and relaxed in the sun.

It was a bit of a shame we wasted the time waiting as the castle wasn’t quite as grand as we had expected. The tour was in French so we had no idea what they were saying, so we did our own personal tour.

That afternoon we decided to take a road trip into the hills to a village called Sault. This is Lavender country, but unfortunately we were a few weeks too early to see them in flower which was unfortunate as the amazing number of lavender fields would have been extraordinary to see in full bloom.

Sault was a cool town nestled in the hills surrounded by numerous lavender farms. It must have been the place to take a bike ride or motorbike ride as there were so many riders of both persuasions around. We had a pleasant walk around town checking out the various souvenir and patisserie and stopping for a quick feed in this very old school pub, the only thing on the menu was baguettes (surprise) with minimal fillings. The French don’t seem to have anything more than meat and a slice of cheese or finely diced tomatoes if you are lucky. But I had a beautiful baguette with just pâté in it, it was delicious the best baguette so far! And my first full cup of coffee, again a bit of misunderstanding with the order but I quite enjoyed it.

We went to a amazing pastry shop for dessert and headed back to the car via a view point of the valley. As I was walking around looking up at all the balconies of the apartments I missed a step, rolled my ankle and fell over, protecting my camera as best I could. Camera body is ok but my lens is playing up abit, still usable though. O dear!
After a pleasant drive back to the hotel and another late dinner bed was a welcoming ending to a busy day.