26th August: Monaco & Genova

We did a drive past the beachfront at Nice – huge beachfront that it is, and then past its very large marina. I tried to get some photos, but it was a bit difficult, and there was nowhere really for us to pull over to take any. So we have just absorbed what we saw to the best of our ability. We took the coast road from Nice to Monaco and drove through all the little holiday towns and the enormous luxury homes on the hills with the magnificent views.  No longer on the French Riviera, and now on the Cote d’Azur, I would spend time at any of these places! We drove through a town called Beaulieu which was stunning. It wasn’t too totally touristy, and the beaches looked divine. Each little bay was gorgeous, and there were cruise ships and yachts in each of them. Completely scenic, and even though you can’t take a bad photo, the photos don’t show how absolutely beautiful it really is. It was all a little hard to work out where France ended and where Monaco began!

We knew we were in Monaco when we spotted the Monaco Marina – we spotted the Marina because it was the backdrop for the petrol station that we pulled into. Talk about a servo with a view! The yachts were just amazing, and they were all just sitting there, forlorn at not being out on the bay (surely). We would have obliged, but I didn’t see anyone with the keys. After we topped up on fuel, we drove on for Monte-Carlo, huge cliff face on the left, all the beautiful water (and yachts) on the right. The cliff faces just went straight up, and there were lots of tunnels cut into them for the road. We came through one of them, and all of a sudden we were in Monte-Carlo. This is where the seriously beautiful people play, and we can understand why.

The traffic slowed, and all of a sudden there were Ferraris, and Maseratis, and Bentleys everywhere. We chuffed along and followed the signs to the Casino (we are about to give up on our misguided satnav) and found the parking station we were looking for. We came up the escalators into a lovely manicured garden that was lush and green and full of colourful flowers and big fountains. Looking straight down a strip of the garden, you could see the Casino Royale at the end. There were people everywhere. We made our way down, and onto the steps of the Casino, and found out it was closed until 2:00pm (it was 12:15pm at the time). I think that was the time the high rollers were in the main part of the casino, as it was still very obviously open, just not to the general public. Like everyone else, we stood and watched for a bit, watching all the fabulous cars, and very well heeled people walking in and out.

It was pretty hot, and so we decided to grab a bite to eat, and then decided we’d glam it up a little and head into the Bar Americain, which is the café for the Hotel de Paris. The hotel was straight across from the Casino, and we sat at a window which gave us great views of everything happening outside. It wasn’t particularly busy in the café – there was a lady making some business deals with some men about real estate in Russia, and in another corner were a group of Americans who must have had something to do with the film industry. I heard George Clooney’s name mentioned once or twice. They were very plastic-ed up though, three men and one lady with way too much cosmetic surgery and botox. They were shiny actually. There were also lots of photos of celebrities on the walls, all taken at either the café or outside the hotel. It was THE place to be seen, obviously.

I had a glass of champagne which was lovely, probably the coldest champers I’ve ever had. They brought out bowls of potato chips (crisps) and roasted nuts – the almonds were very nice indeed. I ordered a club sandwich (I was tempted to say ‘sanga’) and Mark ordered a salad that had fennel and quail eggs. It was all very fancy, even the napkin was done up with a little satin (embossed) ribbon that you untied. The food was really nice though, and not as overpriced as we thought it would be. It was definitely one of the nicest club sangas I’ve ever had. We ordered coffee afterwards, and ended up with two little espressos that came with cute colourful bikkies and very nice chocolates.

While we were in there, we both needed to go to the loo. The waiters don’t ‘point you in the right direction’, they kind of take you there instead! I was left to my own devices though in the hallway that led to the ladies room, which I completely missed because I was gawking at the cabinets that contained wares by Valentino and other fab designers. Next thing, a door opened and a lady snapped “What do you want?” and then gruffly pointed to the ladies room when I said that was what I was looking for. In my mind, they should not have lined the hallway with display cases if they didn’t want us looking at them! Sheesh and all! While I am on the subject of ladies rooms, I’ll jump ahead because the one at the Casino did something amazing that I just have to blog about. After you flush, this little box thing appears at the back of the toilet seat, the seat itself starts to turn around, and water comes out of the box to wash the seat. It had some sort of dryer as well as by the time it had finished, the seat was all dry again. I stood there a little gobsmacked actually, and I think the lady who gives you the hand towels after you wash your hands, heard my “oh my” comments.

Anyway, after lunch, we went for a wander around the back of the Casino. We (like everyone) marveled over all of the luxury cars that were just parked on the street. There were also all the fabulous designer shops, and I did a ‘licky licky’ pose in front of Prada for my friend Jynks. We looked over the little marina that was below the casino which was just full with yachts that were enormous. There was also a cruise ship out a bit further – it would seem the ship was full of football fans. There was a match on between Barcelona and someone, and there were fans yelling and screaming all over the place. They were all in football shirts and waved scarves under everyone’s noses.

It was very hot in the sun, and so we decided it was surely time to go into the Casino. You can enter the lobby and look around, or you can pay €10.00 and show your driver’s license (and let them take a photo/video of you!) so that you can get inside to the gaming tables. We decided to go in, as, well, it’s the Casino Royale afterall! There were beautiful paintings on the wall, all very Renaissance like, a gorgeous domed and painted ceiling, and enormous chandeliers. It was all very glitzy and luxurious. There were a few tables in the main area, but all of the action obviously happens in the ‘private rooms’ behind heavy curtains. We found a poker card machine and spent the exorbitant amount of €5.00, which lasted us about half an hour – so we felt like we had partaken to the best of our ability!

We left there and wandered back to the car and hit the road for Italy. I feel very special having been to Monaco – it’s such an incredibly beautiful spot in the world, and the glitz and glamour of Monte-Carlo is just totally over the top and fun to wander amongst. We lost tally scores for the ‘Le Moo, Le Celebrité, Le Ferrari/Maserati’ game. Not because of the celebrity side of it though, just because there were SO many luxury cars. We think there was a celebrity score though, there was someone all the football fans were going nuts over, all getting their photo taken with him and all – so we counted him as ‘one’ on that front. (I reckon I win though as I was the one who took the photos of the fast cars!).

So we drove past more fabulous beaches and bays, and found a park at Menton to go for a swim. As we were getting organized though, this really seedy and suspect druggie looking guy wandered past, and he showed way too much interest in what was in our boot (we had the boot open getting out our beach bag). We watched him for a bit as he walked past, and he watched us. We waited to see what he did, and then he just started to wander back along the carpark, up and down, looking at all the cars, always looking back at us. He eventually wandered off onto the beach and out onto the rocks. We are pretty certain he picked up a rock as he took off his t-shirt and put something in it. We kept an eye on him, and as soon as Mark jumped into the water, he headed off back to the carpark. So I followed him, and it seemed obvious that he was up to no good. He was headed to our car, and he looked around and saw me and stopped. So I decided to head to our car and grab my phone and act as if I was calling the police, or something like that at least. Mark came back to the car as well, and then the guy kind of slumped away. So, not entirely sure if we were just being paranoid or not, but it was just all too suspect and we weren’t prepared to take a chance. So our swim at Menton was short lived and we just felt ikked out so we moved on.

GENOVA:

We stayed at the Columbus Sea Hotel – so named because you can get from this port (across the road from the hotel) to almost anywhere via a ferry. Explore the new world for yourself! There were car ferries and four or five enormous cruise ships in port the night we were there.

We caught a taxi to the main plaza, mainly because we just couldn’t figure out the buses and trains. You need to pre-buy tickets, and we were tired, and hungry, so we took the easy way out. It was at this point that our total lack of Italian words became somewhat apparent. ‘Buon Giorno’ didn’t seem like the right thing to say once the sun had gone down, so I braved a g’day and hoped one of the two cabbies there could speak English. One did, and he kind of translated for the other one, who took us into the square. I did manage a ‘molto bene’ once we arrived, and we both stumbled out an ‘arriverderci’ at the end of it all. He laughed and waved and we got to our destination, so all was good with the world.

There was a big fountain, and a set of arches – but we have no idea about any of the buildings around us. They were old, that’s about it. The Genovese were (and still are) Italy’s biggest trading port, so there are lots of fabulous buildings attesting to the wealth of many of the merchants of days gone past. We looked around and there were a couple of restaurants with lots of people in the chairs on the pavements, and then there was a little side street with a lit up sign over a doorway saying “Rosamund Trattoria”. Now I must look up the word trattoria, but I thought it meant restaurant or something, so we headed down there. It was reasonably busy (turns out its good for Genovese restaurants when the cruise ships are in) and the guy running the show was very welcoming. There was a menu up on the wall, and none of it made any sense. He came to translate some of it, and Mark ordered one of the fish dishes he was talking about, but ended up with one of the other ones (was just as good, so it seems). There were two locals having dinner (or at least, they were Italian, if not local) and I liked the look of one of those dishes, so I ended up with that. Mine was a local fish, done with almonds, and squid on the side - and it is the yummiest squid I have ever had. Mark’s was tuna with tomatoes and stuff. We also got a local bottle of wine which was a little young, but still nice, and then had the ‘typical Italian dessert’ which were really the only words I understood him saying when he explained what there was for dessert. It was a chocolate thing, almost like a mousse, on top of the biscuit thingys that you put in tiramisu, but they were hot pink and drowned in a very strong liquor. If we weren’t tanked from the wine, we would have been from the dessert, but then….. The locals had an aperitif, and being such connoisseurs of aperitifs as we have become, we figured we should ask for one. So we were handed a shot glass each containing very clear alcohol. We watched, and the locals sipped, so we sipped. My eyes began to water immediately! Seriously, you could start your car on this stuff. We survived, and made it through the ‘grappa’ and then paid the bill. The waiter guy offered us more grappa (I think they get a kick out of tourists trying all the local stuff) but I was already having giggle fits so it was time to head off.

We caught a taxi back to the hotel, and we were both pretty seriously tanked from the grappa. The fresh air did not help at all. As is our experience with aperitifs, we slept really well. I have a vague recollection of Jamie ringing during the night to let me hear Zander purring, but I am not sure if it was a dream or reality! (Mark tells me it was reality). Then we woke up (slightly hungover) to some good news about another one of my fairies being pregnant, so it was a good 24 hours for many people, the cat included!

~ An enormous photo album accompanies this enormous blog. You will find it here!

25th August: Aix-en-Provence to St. Tropez, Cannes and then on to Nice

We can’t really say we’ve seen Aix-en-Provence as it’s just a little town on the highway that makes it easier for us to get to St. Tropez. Actually, it’s 8:00am and we’re on the road, on our way. So for us, Aix-en-Provence was a nice dinner and an ok brekkie. We had dinner at the hotel last night, nice and easy. It was an entrée buffet, and a dessert buffet, with a choice of main meal in between. The entrées were interesting, again, not much of an idea of what we were eating, but they were nice either way. It was the same with the desserts. There was something that the only word we recognized was ‘violet’ and it was a creamy thing that tasted like what lovely roses smell like. And real French chocolate mousse.

The electricity kept going off, both during the night and this morning. It’s always fun to feel your way around a room you don’t know looking for the toilet! Other than that, the hotel was all good. We’ve left early this morning to get to St. Tropez as the parking is meant to be a little on the manic side of things. Our theory is that they have all partied all night, being on holidays and all, and that they will be asleep until noon. Fingers crossed for us hey?

SAINT TROPEZ:

What a marvelous place! It was a bit of an effort in mad, windy, narrow roads to get in there, but it was 100% worthwhile. I was on the phone to Jamie as well at one stage, but we took a wrong turn and so I had to go (putting this in here so that Jamie can have a giggle). Saint Tropez is like a sleepy Gold Coast – all a bit glam, but the beaches were nice and quiet, at least at the time of the morning that we were there they were! By lunchtime when we left, it was all getting a little on the mad side of things. But, we got there early enough, found our way onto one of the main beaches, and got that fabulous park (for both the car and then on the beach for us) that we were hoping on. The view was sensational. A big bay, with mountains reaching down to the sea on either side, and nice calm, cool water, so that you could just float there looking at everything. Of course there were also the obligatory yachts that were four times the size of our house.

The sand on the beach was very gritty, almost like ground up shells really, but once you got a few feet out in the water, it was nice soft sand and totally clear water. No waves, it was more like being in a lagoon, but the occasional jetski or speedboat would go past and so you’d get some movement from that. It was also pretty shallow for quite some way, so it was really great for families and Japanese tourists who can’t swim in Australian waves. It was really fabulous – just floating in the Mediterranean, and being not too hot, and not too cold. We could have spent the whole day in the water. The sun was good too, not like ours where you can feel yourself getting scorched. We ended up spending the whole day in the sun and both of us just got a little bit pink, not really burnt at all.

It was getting closer to noon and the beach was getting more crowded. We can’t really get over how Europeans jam pack into every spare available inch of sand. I can’t say I have ever seen beaches this crowded, even Bondi in the middle of a heat wave doesn’t get that packed. We had a family of Germans pull up in front of us – and I mean so close to us that their beach umbrella put us in the shade as well. It kind of killed the view for us, I’ve never enjoyed hairy back and crack views, plus they had two yappy dogs, one of which bit a little girl of about 2 who was walking past with her grandfather. So we decided it was time to pack up shop, go find some lunch, and then head off to Cannes for the afternoon.

We dropped into the ‘town’ of Saint Tropez to get lunch. We parked at the marina and admired the gorgeous yachts (these put James Packer’s yacht to shame) and then found a little tourist shop to get the obligatory fridge magnet. However, it would seem that the French Riviera does not believe in either good, nor glam, fridge magnets! I mean, sheesh, don’t the jet set collect fridge magnets too and want (demand) good ones? Anyway, poxyish fridge magnet obtained, we found a nice little bakery and had a very yummy chicken baguette and the more than yummy raspberry tart that was in the window. We sat at the tables on the sidewalk and watched the beautiful people pass by. There were lots of cars, lots of very nice cars at that. We even saw the standard fare of Ferrari’s and Mazerati’s.

CANNES:

Back on the road again, and we headed along the coast road for Cannes. This is simply a beautiful part of the world! East of Saint Tropez is St Maxime, and we would stay there if we came this way on holiday again. Gorgeous little coves everywhere with that lovely blue/green coloured waters of the Mediterranean.  A little further on was Frejus, and St Raphael – again, both lovely places. This entire strip of coast is built out, many private homes, and then lots of hotels and resorts in between. Cannes was a bit of a let down though – it was like an over the top Gold Coast. Miles of beach with small pebbles, and only a narrow strip at that before you hit the water. We found a park along the road and went for a swim. The water was just as lovely as it was at Saint Tropez, cool enough to make you jump when you get in, but once you’re all wet, it’s just perfect. We dried off and hit the road again, I jumped out a bit further along to grab the poxy fridge magnet, while Mark went for a joy ride all over Cannes looking for a place to do a u-turn to come back and pick me up. Fifteen minutes later, I was back in the car and we were on our way to Nice for the night.

NICE:

We checked into the hotel and then headed off to grab a tram into the main square. Nice is a pretty cool little city with lots happening all over the place. The main square was full of people, even when we headed back to the hotel close to 11:00pm. There was a lovely fountain area, and the standard large statue of someone famous whom we have never heard of. There were a heap of skateboarders trying their skills on jumping off and over steps, or, for many, their lack of skill.

We found a restaurant, and went for the ‘menu of the day’ option, always a good choice as they seem to be really nice meals, something you may not necessarily order (because you can’t translate well), and always at least half the price of the meals on the a-la-carte menu. This one started with a plate of four little things – here comes my terribly descriptive description: something on a piece of bread that was like a tangy soft cheese, a puff pastry triangle with sweet meat inside, salad leaves sweetened with something and wrapped in lots of jamon, and then a tomato stuffed with meat, very different meat from the other things though. It was all really yummy and almost filled us up before we got the main meal. I had a steak that had a sweet mustard sauce and Mark had salmon that had some strange olive type sauce. For dessert, as we were in France, we figured profiteroles would be the right choice, but it seems even the French will pre-make some foods as well! Dinner over with, we caught the tram back to the Virgil-Barry stop (Thunderbirds are go!) (really, it was the Virgile Baril stop), and got ourselves all organized for Monaco the next day.

~ Beachy type photos are here!

24th August: Aix-en-Provence

Time to say goodbye to Spain (sad). We reflected a little last night over dinner, and have decided that if you came to Spain, you would simply HAVE to see the Mezquita, the Alhambra and the aqueduct at Segovia. They were the mind-blowing things for us. Cordoba and Granada were the funkiest towns where we could have stayed for much longer, just exploring, eating and experiencing. Madrid was amazing for shopping, Zaragoza the best for tapas, with Granada a close second. Toledo was by far the best meal we had. The very best sangria of all was the first tapas bar we went to in Madrid, it was sweet enough, and tangy enough, and just bloody good. Spain has been an amazing three weeks – there have been only one or two not-so-great bits, but not every single day in a month of jam-packed travelling will be fabulous. Every town has been great, and very different from the next. The people have been friendly and helpful, even if they think tea should be made entirely of hot milk.

LATER:

We’ve just driven across the border (Spain-France), well, I drove across the border, and there are obviously good shopping deals! It was a little manic (which is why I am typing and not driving any more), and took an hour to go maybe 10km. Le Perthus was the town, and if we ever do that again, we’ll pre-plan and take advantage of the shopping! Right now, we’ve driven past ‘Le Thermes’, a thermal spa resort, and we are at the foothills of the Pyrenees – good scenery to say the least. But, freeway, here we come – the idea of a nice little country road just kind of backfired on us and we’re happy to detour back onto the fast roads!

Mark has just asked what our road game is in France – so we have decided on ‘Le Moo, Le Celebrité, Le Ferrari/Maserati’…. stay tuned for tallys.

I’ll just make a note here about some very cool road signs. Where we have the “You are now entering (enter town name here)” and then the “You are now leaving (enter town name here). Please come again”, Europe is much more to the point. They have a sign with the name of the town on it when you enter – just the name, nothing else. When you are leaving the town, it’s the same sign, only with a big red diagonal line through it, crossing it out. Bloody logical I say!

~ Our 'crossing the border' photos are here.

23rd August: Barcelona & our last night in Spain

It’s our last day in Barcelona, and also our last day in Spain! There is just so much to see and do in Barcelona, we could have spent a week here alone. So today we have decided to go and look through the Gothic Quarter, particularly at the Palau de la Musica Catalana and the underground ruins of the Roman city Barcino.

Mark says “We started with the Palau de la Musica Catalana, which was founded by the Orfeo Catalana choral society and completed in 1908. It was an amazing old building, all decked out in roses, reflective of Modernisme and the socialist ideals of the architect. Surprisingly it held around 2100 people, something we would not be able to do today in such a confined space. The stained glass inverted dome ceiling was the standout attraction though”. Yeah, the ceiling was pretty amazing. They called it ‘The Sun’ as it brought the place to life. It let in all the light to make the roses grow (even though they were ceramic).  There was also an outdoor balcony that was filled with pillars covered in brightly covered mosaics. We had really wanted to go out there, but it was all closed off to the public, and we weren’t even allowed to take photos (although I did a sneaky one when we were leaving). Having said that (about photos), it was really hard to get even a good photo of the outside of the place – the streets are so narrow, there is nowhere to go to get a photo that will take it all in. According to the tour guide, this is why the pillars were on the balcony – to create a sense of space and perspective.

Back to Mark again: “Next stop was the Museo d’Historia which in reality was a tour of ancient Roman remains of Barcino which dated back to about 12 BC. That’s right, this town is older than Catholicism. The ruins are all underground and walking through gave a fantastic perspective on what life would have been like for a normal Roman worker – salting and curing fish, making wine, or washing the rich people’s clothes – it was very interesting.

We gazed in wonder at the city wall and its (underground) dimensions. It wasn’t until we were walking around outside later in the day, that we realized great chunks of the wall and its sentry posts had been retained, and built around. I just can’t imagine how anyone might have got through those defences.

The last part of the museum was an old royal palace (Palau Reial) which was built into the Roman wall. Really, it was two rooms – a chapel, Capella de Santa Agata, and a hall, Salo del Tinell. Neither were spectacular, however the hall was where Isabel and Fernando received Christopher Columbus upon his return from discovering the America’s, and was used during the Spanish Inquisition, so it was good history to soak up. How many people can say they’ve been in that room?”

Michelle: I was pretty chuffed to be in that room to be honest. With spending so much time studying Isabella and Ferdinand (yes, their names get translated all different ways), it was pretty exciting to be standing somewhere they had been standing. It was a shame though, they had put in a false floor and created a huge exhibition on the history of water supply for Barcelona.  There was no mention anywhere of the importance of the room anywhere to be seen. So I snuck off the false floor and made sure I touched the brickwork ;-)

We decided we really needed to drop into the beach as well - so we took a quick look there, decided we didn't really want to go for a swim, and then headed back to the hotel instead.

Mark says: “We were pretty exhausted after these tours so we took a break back at the hotel, before heading to Las Ramblas for dinner. The avenue is lined on both sides by shops, cafes, bars and historic buildings. Down the centre is a 5 metre wide pedestrian-only walking strip. We arrived at the avenue around 8pm and could hardly move for people – this was a Tuesday evening, nothing special happening. From what an Indian bar tender was saying this amount of people was normal. Not only that, it never stopped, this was a 24-7 street all year round”.

We left Las Ramblas and caught a taxi back to the hotel. We had a really cool cabbie who spoke English and dreamt of visiting Australia one day. He was a windsurfer and thought that windsurfing from Melbourne to Sydney would be pretty exciting. He then acknowledged that the waves at Barcelona were probably very different to the waves in Sydney.

So after a nice little chat about Australia, we climbed into bed and just happened to turn on the TV. We have hardly seen any TV as we’re normally too exhausted, but it’s fun watching things like CSI that have been dubbed over in Spanish (Horatio sounds hilarious). There was an Aussie movie on, certainly not anything many Aussies would have seen I am sure, as it was just so bloody silly. It gave us a very clear idea why most people think they will be eaten by some animal when they come to Australia though. It was set in the Northern Territory (they kept switching from the Kimberleys to Kakadu in landscapes) and was all about a rogue killer (giant) croc! Radha Mitchell was in it – her dog (a labbie) was like Lassie and sensed things and ended up sacrificing itself so she could be saved, by the lead guy, who plays Brady Black in Days of our Lives (yes, I can be a soapie addict at times). There were lots of Aussie actors in it, and it was not only a very funny film, but it was even funnier listening to the Spanish overdubs. So, much entertained we were, on our last night in Barcelona!

~ Last night photos are here....

22nd August: Barcelona (Gaudi)

Brekkie at a place down the road from the hotel. Bacon, eggs and chips, all laden in oil – and, you guessed it, tea made entirely with hot milk. I’m going to start drinking coffee soon enough!

Barcelona means Gaudi, so we started out on our Gaudi tour of Barcelona. We caught the train to Sagrada Familia (it’s really good, they name their stations after landmarks and streets), which is Gaudi’s main work (unfinished masterpiece is how the Spanish describe it) in Barcelona. It’s a very unconventional church to say the least. Gaudi started work on it in 1883 and he lived like a recluse on the site for 14 years and is buried in its crypt. Work continues today on it (its covered in scaffolding) following Gaudi’s original plans.

We didn’t go inside (there’s a let down), but the queues were over two hours long with zero shade. We hummed and ahhed a lot, and then decided the sunburn and heat exhaustion was probably not a good idea. So we did the full walk around instead. The church drips with sculptures – based in nature, mixed with scenes from the nativity and Christ’s childhood. It’s quite a bizarre scene actually. Eight of the twelve spires have been built (one for each apostle) and they are topped with Venetian mosaics. Around one side is the (very modern looking) ‘Passion Façade’ with very angular and sinister looking figures – it also has these angled support struts coming from its roof to the ground which are meant to represent Christ’s ribs.

We did a little shopping (got a great bracelet and matching earrings) and then caught the train to Diagonal to go and have a look at Gaudi’s ‘Casa Milá’ (La Pedrera), better known as his wavy building. We were hoping on going in there, but were starting to figure out how expensive things are to get into in Barcelona. This building is great, but it cost €23.00 each just to go in and have a look at the courtyard! By the end of the day there were three Gaudi places we had hoped to go into, but they would have set us back over €55.00 each just to go inside. Anyway, we went into the shop of La Pedrera and got a pretty good view of the courtyard just the same. Admittedly, the entrance fee got you up onto the roof as well, which would have been great, but sometimes you just have to cut your losses.

Next up was a Gaudi museum, housed a bit further down the road. This was the third exorbitant entrance fee with a huge queue, so again, we just looked and admired from the outside. The street we were on was pretty fabulous though – called ‘Passeig de Grácia’, it housed all the great designers shops in really interesting buildings. It had really elaborate street lamps as well that had tiled seats under them, one of which I partook of while Mark figured out the bus route to our next stop.

So, we had to head a few streets over to catch the bus we needed to catch, and just as we got to the bus stop, we saw a little Chinese massage place. We were both really in need, Mark in particular as his back was still in bad shape, and so we went inside. We got what we wanted across (half hour massage each) and were taken into little rooms. The lady who massaged me must have learnt to massage at the Atlas massage school of weightlifting – my goodness but she was strong! She pounded my back, and stretched every muscle along my spine. I got a full body massage, I am sure it was a bit longer than half an hour to fit all of that in. She almost killed my feet though – but gee it felt good, even the heel punching bit. Mark’s masseuse wasn’t quite as skilled in massage as mine was but he mostly got the massage he asked for and we headed on our way.

Our next stop was the Güell Park, another Gaudi creation and a UNESCO world heritage site. It was commissioned in the 1890s by Count Güell; “Please build me a garden city on this 20 hectares here”, he said to Gaudi one fine summer’s day (or something to that effect anyway). The actual building of it began in 1910, and it was officially opened in 1922. When you enter, you come to “The Room of a Hundred Columns” (once you get past the one-hundred-thousand people that is) which is actually 84 crooked pillars that are brightened with glass and ceramic mosaics. It was meant to be a marketplace, and the sellers are there now with their little sheets on the ground, full of goodies that they can quickly pull up if the police pretend to really show concern. Above that is the Gran Plaça Circular – a large open space with a huge snaking balcony of coloured mosaics which is said to be the longest park bench in the world. The views over Barcelona from here are amazing, but we couldn’t enjoy it for long as the sun was just screaming overhead. We did however, enjoy the sellers here and got a few very cool little knickknacks (like a nice pair of dangly earrings for Michelle which you will see in numerous photos)!

We caught a taxi back to the hotel after that as it was hot and sticky and we wanted to clean up before dinner. After a little rest, we jumped back on the metro and headed into Las Ramblas – the street that they say ‘if you haven’t been to it, you haven’t seen Barcelona’ – at least that’s what the barman in the tapas bar we went to said. He was pretty cool actually. An Indian who spoke good English and had his whole family in Australia. We worked out where each of us was from as the cricket was on. Ah cricket, that great game that creates bonds between the Indians and the Aussies over their mutual dislike of the English team. Needless to say, Mark was in his glory being able to talk about cricket, and I just enjoyed the view of the busy street (8pm by this stage). Both Mark and I enjoyed the yummy tapas as we enjoyed our mutual viewpoints. This place had crab thingys, and they were very, very good.

After that, we made our way out onto Las Ramblas and joined the thousands of people doing the same. This place was busy! There was something on offer for everyone, tapas, bars, stalls, artworks, buskers, mime artists, caricature drawers – all sorts of things, not to mention your regular throng of souvenir shops and clothes stores. We wandered in and out, and then took a few side streets as we were getting hungry again. We came across Plaça Reial, built in the 1850’s and meant to be Barcelona’s most lively square. It was lined with restaurants and had fabulous lamp posts everywhere which were designed by Gaudi.

We chose a restaurant and sat down to a couple more hours of tapas eating and sangria drinking. We tried the Navajo razorfish, but didn’t really like it, so we had some fried whitebait and grilled veggies instead. After that, we rolled back to the first tapas bar (the one with the cricket showing) after looking through a few more stores. One more crab thingy, one more sangria, one more taxi ride, and then we both slept very well indeed!

~ Our Gaudi Barcelona photos are here.

21st August: Monserrat-Barcelona

We head for Barcelona today, and make a stop in at the Monastery at Montserrat on the way. Montserrat is about 3 hours east of Zaragoza, and around an hour north of Barcelona, so a little detour, but also a very worthwhile one. Mont Serrat actually means ‘serrated mountain’ which is a bloody good description of what you see. It’s highest peak is 1,236m (4,055ft). The chapel here was first written about in the 9^th century and the monastery was founded in the 11^th century. Pretty remote place to have a monastery, and I’d say that there would have been little disturbances or distractions up there in the 11^th century. The monastery was destroyed in 1811 (War of Independence with France) and all the monks were killed. It was rebuilt and repopulated in 1844. Benedictine monks live there today.

Mark says “It was a very windy drive on narrow roads up to Montserrat, however the view as we came around 180 degree turns was spectacular, whether we were looking upwards at Montserrat or down through the valleys.  Like every other tourist spot in Spain, Montserrat was chockers with people, and it was little wonder, the views really were spectacular.

The basilica was pretty standard as far as Spanish churches go, plenty of height and gold trim!

I can just imagine a hermit monk coming back to the monastery and announcing a vision for the future – turning their isolated monastery into a massive tourist spot, complete with hotel, shops, train station and cable car, and let’s throw in mountain climbing for good measure. Ahh the irony".

The only thing that I will add about Montserrat was that we had a really big bowl of strawberries and cream in the café there!

• We just drove past a big lego man on the side of the road. We may have the big Pineapple, and the big Prawn, but just outside Lleida (on the way from Zaragoza to Barcelona), Spain has the big lego man!
• There are large nests on top of electricity stations and on some old church spires. And I mean BIG! It turns out that these are stork nests. We’ve seen lots of nests, but no storks yet. We have however, seen lots of eagles and falcons.

BARCELONA:

Well, we’ve made it to Barcelona, and the navigation was pretty easy actually. Looks like a nice place so far! We checked into our hotel and then headed to a laundromat – we really, really needed to wash our clothes more than what they get in the bath! So that involved jumping on a train and finding a place we had the address of (thank you internet for travel blogs and google searches). The trains (metro) are just as fast, efficient and clean as they have been over the rest of Europe. €1.40 gets you a single trip… there are also day passes and ten-trip savers which are very worthwhile. You buy tickets from a machine which is really simple, and then put your ticket into a machine to get in – all nice and easy. When we were coming back, we went to buy two single ride tickets and a young guy stopped us and told us to get one ten-trip saver which we could both use – very handy indeed! (Logical I know, but my brain didn’t work that way when we were looking at all the ticket variations in Spanish!)

We found the laundromat, and a couple of other Aussies in there as well. The concierge in London said it’s only the Aussies who want laundromats, everyone else just has it done by the hotel. At €1.80 for a pair of knickers, I’ll choose the laundromat any time. Anyway, these girls had been travelling for a month, and we had a big discussion about food and wine, the standard Aussie focus.

Laundry done, we went to a bar down the road for dinner. We had grilled vegetables (they do them so well here, we’re falling in love with rock salt), Mark had fish of the day, and I had a steak. It was all really yummy and as we went to order dessert, the waiter talked us out of the tiramisu and into the Crème Catalana as it was ‘home made’. It was very nice too! We like how the waiters all give you their opinion here – every time we have followed them, they have been spot on.

Just a little note here about the area we are staying in. It is called ‘Eixample’. The suburb was part of a new expansion (example) of Barcelona in the early 19^th century and follows a rigid grid system of streets. Every corner though is chamfered off, to allow the buildings there to overlook the squares below – it looks very cool and the people who live in the apartments on the corners all have great views from their balconies. Because it was a ‘new’ area, the city’s elite were able to employ the groundbreaking new architects to develop some really spectacular and modern buildings, which are in the ‘Art Nouveau’ style – known in Catalan as ‘Modernisme’.

~ Click here for our Montserrat photo album.

20th August: Zaragoza

Mark has tweaked his back so we are having a laid back and easy time in Zaragoza, made easy again due to the incredibly high temperatures. We look back at the temps of places we have been to and they have all dropped back down to mid-high 30s again, and we just seem to be chasing a heat wave around Spain. 44 degrees (celcius) seems the norm, and I am pretty certain that is around the temperature that we jump into the sauna with! Anyway, a day lazing around has been good – we did get out this morning though before it got too hot.

We went downstairs to a little café next door to have some breakfast. I love it when the waiters can work out what I am talking about – we ended up with good cuppas and toast, and I had brought some vegemite with us, so we had a very Aussie kind of breakfast. Mind you, a good cuppa to me these days is tea made with boiling water with a little milk added, not tea made entirely of hot milk. (Yes, I still have problems communicating this one – can say the same thing in every café, but you end up with something different)!

We went for a walk after brekkie, and discovered the building opposite the hotel is actually a big market. It was great wandering around looking at all the fish, meat and vegies. The first fish place we came to, a guy was filleting a big long fish. He had a filleting knife (of course), but also a big cutter that was a semi-circle about 20 cms long on the straight part. He’d roll that along the edges to cut off the crappier scraps of fish. It was amazing to watch, he was so precise. The meat stalls were selling a bit of everything, and lots of things that I did not recognize, by name or by look. There were also lots of little animals, whole animals. There were fruit stalls, and we bought some bananas (2), a couple of apples and a kilo of grapes. It was around €3.80 for all of it. There were probably around 120 stalls in the building, all fish, meat, or fruit – all with similar prices. We took our fresh fruit and headed back to the hotel for a feast!

Later that night we went tapas shopping again. We found a little bar that charged per toothpick – you choose the tapas you want, take it out of the display case, eat it and then at the end, they counted the number of toothpicks on your plate. We had some really yummy ones, some salmon on a bed of mayo and cream cheese (I think), ones with jamon and cheese and tomatoes, some more of those fabulous prawns wrapped in potato. After our fill there, we went for another street wander and ended up in a very old bar for another tapas plate. It was more traditional this time, and it was another of those plates of ‘we have no idea what we are eating’ type things. More sangria, more tapas - Food is GOOD in Zaragoza!

~ Photos here.

19th August: Bilbao to Zaragoza

So the Guggenheim Museum is the reason we came to Bilbao. It is an impressive building to say the least. Mark tells me it was an initiative between the Guggenheim Foundation and the city of Bilbao in 1997, to build there and revive a dying portside town. It is also the town where the ferries that sail to the UK leave from. In that regard, the building itself is shaped like a cruise ship, a cruise ship with three decks. It is clad in squares of reflective titanium It’s very modern and makes for a great piece of architecture. We joined the queue to enter (€13.00, can you tell it’s a private museum?) and only had to wait around half an hour to get in. The building is just as fabulous on the inside, with vast open spaces, lots of steel and glass, and views out onto the river. There is a soaring atrium in the centre, and all of the exhibition spaces arranged themselves around this, so it is used as the base focal point to find what you want to look at. There was surprisingly not all that much in the museum itself. A few exhibitions that had maybe a dozen pieces in them each, so we wandered for about an hour and a half and saw pretty much everything.

The first thing we came to was by Richard Serra. It was a series of steel (uhm) things. A few metres tall and a variety of shapes and widths, all designed for people to walk through. The one we walked into was a large spiral one, and we thought there’d be something in the middle, but there wasn’t. So we joined the crowd at the end who were all standing there looking dumbfounded, many of us giggling a little, most of us (probably) thinking, “This is art”? The next exhibition was very cool though – it was a huge white room, nothing on the walls except for built in speakers blasting out a crowd cheering and chanting at a football match. On one wall, was a screen about the size of a smart phone – it had a video image of the match, except it had been altered to show just one player. So here was this one guy, running back and forth, obviously trying to defend, and then get in on the action, but it looked so bizarre because he was the only one on the field. All the while, this huge crowd was cheering. We laughed at that one.

There were a few other exhibits, some a little disturbing, most focused on bodily functions and gross murder scenes. So it was an interesting visit to say the least. Outside the museum was an enormous cat sculpture, maybe 12 metres high, which was covered in growing flowers of all different colours. It was a nice entrance display and it has left me wondering how they keep all the flowers fresh and blooming.

So we are on the road again now (passports in hand) on the way to a couple of nights in Zaragoza. I must say, the mountains just outside Bilbao are gorgeous. They rise out of nowhere and are totally covered in fir trees. It looks like they have a timber industry thing happening and are replanting as they go as there are trees in big patches of the same size, with a distinct line between trees that are all the same size as well, only taller. The weather is also a bit more bearable up here in the north, only 34 degrees today, so it’s pretty bloody good in my books! And how magical is this, driving along a Spanish highway, looking at the mountains, singing along to Roger Glover’s “Butterfly Ball”. Love is all.

LATER:

We arrived in Zaragoza and spent the next 40 minutes trying to get to our hotel. Sat navs don’t understand road works – and these were major road works. Turns out they discovered this old Roman wall, and they are excavating it (as you would). As our hotel is on Avenida Cesar Augustus, so named because of the other Roman wall they found, the road in front, and beside our hotel is closed off and in the midst of an archeological dig. We eventually found the hotel, and booked in, and parked in the wrong place, and then had the guy from the hotel come and show us where to park. We still don’t really know the dimensions of the car (within one eighth of an inch, the way you need to know the width of your car when driving in Europe) and so he made allowances for us and let us park in a bigger car park which is at least four inches wider than the car (I feel so spoilt)!

The hotel is … well, not quite what we are used to, but it’s all part of the experience, right? I just keep telling myself this. The man on reception tells me there is a coin operated machine on the first floor, we can get chocolates, coca-cola and sex for only €1.00. Yes, you read it right. We looked, but we couldn’t find the machine – someone may have decided they wanted to take it home with them.

Zaragoza itself seems like a fun place though. We went to get some dinner around 9:30pm (we are learning about late nights) and found a fantastic tapas buffet recommended in our travel book. We have eaten all sorts of things tonight, including more than excellent mussels done in a variety of ways, and topped it all off with two jugs of sangria – so excuse me if my typing is a little messy.

The walk to dinner was very cool – we walked through the main square which passed the basilica, and it’s a pretty incredible building to say the least. Lots of turrets and domes and its all lit up at night. There were also some good fountains, and on the way back, we joined the locals and had a little splash about in one – much needed as it’s still in the low 30’s even though it’s now midnight. Hmmm, time for sleep I think!

~ Photos for this, and the previous blog entry are here!

(All the Zaragoza photos are coming)

18th August: Segovia to Bilbao

Big road trip today! We’ve taken a little side trip to see two small towns, which has set us back a little for time, but has been very worthwhile. We’ve driven through massive fields of sunflowers which stand out amongst all the pale gold grasses. I’ve made Mark pull over a few times so that I can take photos. Our first little stop was an old church, just a square room really, but in the middle of nowhere and looking very country-like. We had a quick wander, took some pics, ate a bikkie from the hotel (which I liked, but Mark was not so keen on – mind you, he could have given me his, but he didn’t) and then jumped back in the car.

As stated, we took a little side trip to see a couple of little towns along the way. The first was Pedraza de la Sierra which is perched on the side of the mountain and has a little (late 19^th century) castle that looked fabulous. The second was Sepúlveda, another town hanging off the side of a small mountain. We stopped here and went for a walk amongst the old town. We dropped into a bar for a drink, and all of a sudden it started to rain. All of the locals who were milling around the street ran into the bar, so very quickly we were surrounded by people talking way too fast for us to even get a gist of the conversation. Ten minutes later, it was all over and everyone left again. We went across the road to the bakery and there were all sorts of things on display in individual baskets. After some more bad Spanish and lots of pointing, smiling and nodding, we ended up with one of everything. It cost us a whole €3.40 and made for a great lunch. We wandered out and sat on some old steps to partake of our goodies.

A couple of hours later we arrived in Bilbao, only to discover that we had left our passorts (and airline tickets, and cash and a few other goodies) back at the hotel in Segovia. It’s not a particularly nice feeling knowing you are in one town, and your passports are in another and it’s not made any better when you ring the hotel and they tell you there is nothing in the lost and found basket. After two phonecalls, I decided I probably wasn’t quite communicating how completely panicked we were, and maybe I wasn’t describing “under the mattress” all that well either. So the lovely lady on the reception desk offered to ring and talk to them for us. We went for a walk along the river and looked at the outside of the Guggenheim to pass some time and try to take our minds off the passports. When we got back, YAY, the passports were on their way to Bilbao via courier and would be there first thing in the morning. Needless to say, our night in Bilbao was not so great, but we made up for it the next day.

~ Some photos here for both this blog entry, and the next one!

17th August: Toledo-Avila-Segovia

We headed up the road from Toledo to a spot that the concierge told us about, so that we could get some great photos of the whole of the city and then we hit the road for Segovia via Avila. Avila is the highest provincial capital in Spain, set at 1,131m above sea level. The centre of the city is encircled with an extremely well preserved medieval wall (12^th century) which is over 2km long. We had lunch looking at the wall, and then hit the road again, this time to Segovia.

We’ve been amazed at how different every town has been. The architecture, the layout, the feel of the town – each place has been completely different and we’re beginning to wonder when we’ll be saying “oh, this is like such and such”. Segovia has been the same. This is a gorgeous little town, very clean, very friendly, and definitely worth seeing. The main attraction is a Roman aqueduct which was built in the late 1^st century and was still in use in the 19^th. This was truly awesome! There were two tiers of arches standing 29m (95ft) from the ground, so it was very imposing (and even better at night). There is 728m of the thing, and it takes a big 90 degree turn at one point. It was in excellent condition, and it was amazing to stand there, knowing the history of it.

The two other fabulous monuments in Segovia are the Cathedral and the Alcazar. We didn’t go into either, as the Cathedral looked like all the other Cathedrals did (on the inside) and the Alcazar didn’t have great reviews about the interior. So we decided both of these were things to look at and admire from the outside instead. The Alcazar was directly above the motel we were staying in. It is build on a cliff edge and looks very much like a Walt Disney Castle.

Our motel was just gorgeous – filled with antiques: inlaid tables, tapestry chairs and mother of pearl floor lamps. The atmosphere was very gothic, and really lovely. The only fault with the place was the single pillow! One great big long pillow that was the same width as the bed.

After a little siesta time, we caught a taxi to the aqueduct on the other side of the town and then walked up the hill to the Cathedral and the Plaza Mayor (the main square). The shopping was pretty good and we dropped into a little parfumeria to grab some more soap and toothpaste. Maybe TMI here, but I grabbed some leg wax strips as well and went off looking at other things while Mark went to pay. Next thing, the girls were all giggling and it appeared they were teasing him about the wax strips. We all made a joke of it and Mark played along with them being his, and so next thing we knew, we were being laden down with freebies! The sales girl gave him some aftershave and so Mark is smelling even better than ever today!

After a walk around for an hour or so, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner that was on a little plaza. Their menu had a ‘left hand’ section – which was all about “we’ll give you lots to eat, just trust us as we pick things off the menu for you”. So we decided to trust them as we are still doing pretty badly with translating menus, and at €30.00 each which included a bottle of wine,we thought it was more than reasonable for a restaurant meal. (The ‘right hand’ section had a set menu which looked really yummy too). We ended up with so much food, much of it that we weren’t sure what it was! There was enough for at least two meals really. First up was gazpacho, followed by white asparagus covered in some sort of mayonnaise that had chopped jamon in it. Then a selection of cured meats, and then some salad thing – I couldn’t work out what was in it, but there were lettuces on the bottom, tuna and mixed seafood in the middle, and then some type of stew with carrots and onion in a tomato base on the top – it was very yummy indeed. Then a big piece of fish, very delicate in a mild broth with some sort of sweet jelly on the side. Next came the meats – one was a lamb chop, the other we think was ox in a pepper sauce. I didn’t like the sauce, but the meat was lovely, very tender. Then dessert (yes, the food just kept coming!) which was layers of puff pastry, cream in the centre, and then caramel something or other all over it. Then coffee. We rolled back to the motel, after taking one more quick look at the aqueduct (which was even more impressive at night)!

~ Click here for the photos for this entry.

16th August: Cordoba to Toledo

We said goodbye to Cordoba and headed to Toledo, with a few more detours on the way to take a look at some things. Our first detour was to Calatrava La Nueva – the ruins of a fortified castle built in 1217 by the Knights of Calatrava, Spain's first military-religious order. We spotted it from a way away, it was a big hill, with a big bit of ruins on top! We had originally planned on just looking at it as we drove past, but it looked so good, we decided we should brave the road and head up. Peugeot are not really meant for medieval road driving, no seriously, they rattle way too much. It took us about 10 minutes or so to get to the top and we discovered they closed the gates half an hour later for siesta. It was blazing hot sun again, and ruins don’t have any roofs, so it was a hot detour to say the least. They certainly chose a good spot for a fort – you could see for miles around, the views were incredible.

A few quick photos later and we were on our way again.  We saw a very cool lake and decided to pull over and have a look, but that upset our satnav who was 100% convinced we were sitting in the middle of the lake. Touchy thing it is. Did I mention we have a female Aussie voice on it, who pronounces the street names in a very Australian manner? Imagine this… turn right on Avenida de Calle Tarragona… (aven-ueoooo deee Calleeey Tarragunna).

We came across some very big roadworks – we knew they were bigger than the other ones we had seen because instead of just some flags and/or flashing lights, there was a manikin, fully dressed in emergency clothing (bright yellow contamination suit, bright red helmet) with a motorized moving arm that waved a big flag up and down. About 1km later, there was a lady (a real lady, not a manikin) stopping traffic to let the ‘other’ lane go instead. No word of a lie, we waited there for at least 10 minutes, often with no cars coming in the other direction. We were finally let through, and drove forever to pass it all, and the huge line of cars waiting to get through on the other end. All in all, it was around 10km worth of road works, and they were actually working on a small 500m stretch in the middle of it all. We have noticed that most construction and road works in Spain have just stopped altogether, I guess that is because of the economic situation. Either that or they do all the work at 2am.

We eventually arrived in Toledo – now I am not quite sure how to describe Toledo! We were on this busy road, and went through a busy roundabout, drove about 200m and there were these enormous stone towers that were the old gates to the city. As soon as we passed them, it was like we were in another town. The buildings were all pretty much the same colour and very, very old. Everything was crammed together on this mound of a hill, and a steep hill at that. Do not go to Toledo and stay at a hotel around the (small) outskirts if you are not prepared to walk uphill. And I mean STRAIGHT up hill with a very steep incline. (Yes, we were lazy, and hot, and so we caught a taxi to the apex of the hill and wandered a little from there).

We had a nice little hotel, and the concierge was a young guy who had just returned from 2 years of teaching Spanish in Melbourne, so I think he was a little chuffed to be having some Aussies checking in. He recommended a restaurant for dinner, and so we headed in there as we were just starving. This must have been the best restaurant in Toledo, we had a delicious meal and really great local wine. It was one of those ‘it’s the mix of flavours that makes this dish so great” kind of restaurants. After the best chicken Cesar salad either one of us have ever had, we shared a plate of grilled sirloin which was just so good – maybe even better as red meat has been so unavailable for a while now. So entrees, main meals, desserts, wine – all just fabulous and made Toledo even more memorable for us.

We didn’t actually do much more in Toledo! It was one of those places that you look at, and it actually looks better from afar, which we learnt the next day.

~ Here are the photos!

15th August: Cordoba

We walked across the bridge and started our exploration of the old city. We began at the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (a really old palace and its gardens). As we were walking in, the attendants were there getting themselves organized, and right beside them was a cat, getting himself all organized as well and having a very public bath. The gardens were lovely, another big show of how fabulous water ponds and fountains can be. Long narrow ponds with small arches of water fountains along the side, were lined with bright red geraniums and different coloured roses. We made our way into the accompanying building which was the palace of the Catholic Monarchs of the 14^th century. Sadly, the smell of sewerage was pretty overpowering throughout most of the building, but it was still interesting to look around. There was a tower as well, and Mark went up to take some photos while I sat myself down on a very old chair.

The temperature was rising, and was around the 36 degree mark when we headed off to wander through some of the streets. We started through the old Jewish quarter and found ourselves at the Sinagoga (Synagogue). It was small, built in the 14^th century, but was very well preserved and had Hebrew script covering the walls. Next was the Capilla de San Bartoleme – an old church covered in painted plasterwork and tiles. A lot of the plaster work had fallen off, but you could see the remnants of colourful iconography high up on the walls. From there, it was a short wander to the Callejón de las Flores, a tiny and narrow alley with whitewashed walls, covered in pots of bright red geraniums, ending in a little square with a very cool and much needed water fountain. Splashing occurred!

Needless to say, all of the streets on the way were lined with shops, bars and restaurants, many of which we stopped in at. We found ourselves another fabulous plate for our collection, a fridge magnet (of course) and some very cool clothes – it’s been so bloody hot, we have needed much lighter clothes which dry faster after the washing machine of M&M in the bath at night. Yay also for the great Aussie invention of ‘Ezy-line’ which has no doubt impressed every chambermaid who has had the pleasure of working around it in our bathrooms.

THE MEZQUITA:

Our last stop on our Córdoba walkabout tour was the piece de la resistance – the Mezquita. This was once the greatest Mosque on the Iberian Peninsula. The original building was started in 785, so from memory, that’s only around 50 years after Mohammed’s revelations and the birth of Islam. Over the next few hundred years there were many alterations and lavish additions, while in the 16^th century, a Cathedral was built in the heart of the reconsecrated Mosque, part of which had been destroyed. As soon as you enter, you are faced with hundreds of columns and arches made out of a dark orange stone, intersected with pale creamy coloured stones. My little book here says “850 columns of granite, jasper and marble”. We must have spent around 15 minutes in this area as it was just so breathtaking. We finally figured out how to do ‘panoramic’ photos on our camera as well, so I was trying to get one that would show how incredible this entrance was.

Wandering around inside the Mezquita was like a clash of cultures. There was all this fabulous Islamic design in architecture, tiles and sculpture, and then smack bang in the centre was this enormous typical inside of a Catholic Cathedral with all its gold and white stucco ceilings. It felt like Christianity was impressing itself upon Islam, saying ‘we are bigger, better and brighter, look, see’? And as much as we have enjoyed the soaring ceilings of the Cathedrals, this just looked gaudy and ostentatious compared to the elegance of the Moorish side.

Next we saw the Mihrab, an Islamic prayer niche. The doorway was covered in Islamic designs in gold and silver and the marble floor stones had indents from where pilgrims had circled the Mihrab on their knees over the centuries. We were completely impressed by the Mezquita and agreed it was the best religious structure we had seen on the trip so far. We spent at least an hour inside – not only was it fabulous to look at and wander through, but it was also nice and cool (well needed when it seems to always be above 40 degrees after noon). If you go to Spain to see anything at all, you would be mad not to make the trip to Córdoba to see the Mezquita.

HAMMAM BATH:

We caught a cab back across the bridge to our hotel as it was just way too hot to walk. We spent a few hours just relaxing and cooling down and headed back into the old town for a traditional Hammam bath. We had read about these when we were in Granada as there was a traditional bathhouse there as well, but we didn’t have the time and so decided to visit the one in Córdoba instead. Now this was both a bit of luxury and a real experience as well.

We were shown into separate change rooms – and then met up again in cossies and towels in the main bathing area. There were three baths; warm, hot and cold, and we followed the “good for the circulation” suggestion and hit the warm bath first. It was about 4m x 4m with steps leading down into it and about half a dozen men and women (mainly in couples) just lazing on the edges in the water. Around the bath was a platform which had massage tables with people getting massages and above the bath was a domed roof with the star and moon cutout skylights we had seen in the old baths at Granada. The room was very dimly lit with gorgeous Morrocan lanterns everywhere, the air was warm and moist and smelt strongly of the aromatherapy oils they used in the massages. It was very relaxing to say the least, and I really enjoyed just sitting there in the pool with my head tilted back resting on the platform, looking up at the ceiling.

After about 10 minutes, we decided it was time to try out the hot bath, and it was indeed hot! They recommended no more than 5 minutes, and so we jumped out of the hot bath and into the cold. The cold was indeed cold. Very, very cold. But, we’re here for the experience so we fully dunked ourselves and then raced back into the warm bath again. It was definitely good for the circulation – got the heart pumping, the breathing going, and my arms and legs were all tingly and alive.

We waited our turn to be called for the massage and scrub and when it came around, we were ushered up onto a big marble platform. We laid down face up and they proceeded to smother us in stuff, I think it was some sort of oil. They flicked it on which felt bizarre but great and then rubbed it in. Next came a big soap up, with a little bit of a scrub thrown in. I had my eyes closed (and a big grin on my face) and then they did something that just made me giggle. The best way to describe it was that they were putting clouds on me. Now I know that sounds strange, but just stop and think about that for a moment. I felt something unbelievably soft and light just envelop me. It started on my feet and moved up my legs, and by the time they hit my belly I just had to open my eyes to look. I was being covered in soap suds, like the bubbles from bubble bath, and they were putting it on by letting it fall out of a big bag. Very bizarre, and the most amazing feeling ever. They followed that with bowls of warm water that they poured over me, at equal times, so that it washed over both feet and both legs (and so on and so on) at the same time. Again, a fabulous feeling. Then we got a big scrub, a good hard, fast scrub. Best of all, we then got to turn over and have it happen all over again on our other side!

From there, we were ushered over to the massage tables and got a lovely 15 minute relaxation massage with aromatherapy oils. I chose jasmine and Mark went with orange, so we smelt like a lovely orchard in bloom for the rest of the night. Massage over, we headed to the showers, and then back into the warm, hot, cold, warm bath routine again. It was totally blissful. I now need to find the Brisbane equivalent I think!

~ Photo time! Click here!