Destinations

Adventures in Spain

Land of the Setting Sun

We spent 18 days in Spain, March 29th to April 15th. Many people were excited when we said we were going to Spain and we were a bit weary… could it really be as good as every says? Well, yes, yes it can. It had everything we want in a travel destination: good food, good walking, and good weather. On top of that there are some really great things to see. We definitely need to go back soon. Spain was our first non-asian country in over five months, so we were a bit concerned about our transition. It was much easier than we anticipated. If we had come straight back to the States, it would have been harder, but since we were still traveling and still didn’t speak the language it was similar enough to our recent destinations. We pushed our itinerary a bit in Spain since it was our last destination. As a result we were pretty worn out by the end. We just wanted to see as much as possible because it was so great.

1. Go

Transportation in Spain was SO easy. We would have been better off if we had booked train tickets many weeks before traveling, but bus tickets were still affordable. The high speed train from Barcelona to Madrid was fantastic and the buses were some of the best we’ve taken anywhere.

Spain – Madrid – Views from the Train

Total traveling distances:

Plane – 21,275 km
Bus – 640 km
Train – 600 km
Taxi – 20 km
Metro – 75 km
Foot – 265,000 steps

2. See

Favorite Cities:

Barcelona – So many people say that this place is amazing, and boy are they right. It has a great old city, great walking, great architecture (hello Gaudi), and great food.

Spain – Barcelona

Favorite Museums:

Prado, Madrid – Although it was a bit overwhelming, looking back, it was impressive.
Museo de El Greco, Toledo – We love small quirky museums, so this was right up our alley.

Spain – Madrid – El Prado

Spain – Toledo – Museo del Greco

Favorite Cathedral:

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona – Bizarre, chaotic, organic, systematic… this place is beyond description. The morning light pouring in through the windows made the pale stone light up like a rainbow.

Spain – Barcelona – Sagrada Familia

3. Eat

Eating in Spain is an event that is taken very seriously. People are always out eating at all time of day. There’s delicious pastries and coffee in the morning, chocolate and churros for second breakfast, a ham sandwich for lunch, tapas for a afternoon snack, paella and wine for dinner, and delicious cakes for dessert. Yep, we gained some pounds…

Favorite Foods:

Iberco Ham – This is not the ham we get at the deli back home. This stuff is soft, super thin, salty, and so good.
Tapas – Little bites of anything you want. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon.
Tortilla – Not tortillas like in Mexican food. These are potato and egg baked and served as tapas.
Merlitones – These eggy muffins were a great surprise in Segovia.

Spain – Madrid – Huevos Rotos

Spain – Segovia – Ponche Segoviano

Spain – Toledo – Menu del Dia

Spain – Barcelona – Squid Ink Paella

4. Drink

Like eating, drinking is also an event in Spain. There’s no drip coffee, only espresso because you should sit and enjoy it. Same goes with wine, and there’s lots of it.

Favorite Drinks:

Coffee – Having espresso every morning has definitely cured us of our instant coffee habit in Asia.
Chocolate con Churros – How have we never had this before? Super thick hot chocolate with churros for dipping. Wow.
Wine – We may have overdone it a little on the wine, but how could you not. It’s Spain!

Spain – Madrid – Chocolate con Churros

Spain – Salamanca – Wine in Plaza Mayor

5. Sleep

We were really impressed with our accommodation in Spain. We decided not to do dorms because the price just wasn’t worth it for us. We did hostals (not hostels) and always have a private bathroom. We were pleased with what we could find in our price range.

Favorite Sleeps:

Hotel BestPrice, Barcelona – This was the perfect place to get over jet lag. We could close the storm shutters and sleep all day.
Hostal Granada, Salamanca – Perfect location, just outside the old town area and the nicest staff.
Hotel Conde de Castilla – We really loved the view from our room.

Spain – Segovia – Room with a view

6. Move

We completely fell off the wagon with any kind of actual exercise, but we won in the strolling department. We walked everywhere. We spent entire days just strolling around cities.

Favorite walking spots:

Parc Guelle – Great in the sunshine and still pretty magical in the rain.
Toledo – This hilltop top is mostly closed off from cars making it a walking gem.
Segovia – Another hilltop town with great places to wander.

Spain – Barcelona – Parc Guell

Spain – Toledo

Spain – Segovia – Morning walk

7. Etcetera

As we’ve mentioned before, our rough budget for this trip is $100 a day (for two people). Our daily average in Spain was $135.25. We felt like we were living it up in Spain and not trying to stay on budget. This average is a lot lower than we expected. Transportation and accommodation weren’t cheap and we really splurged on food and wine. We were really impressed how far we could stretch our dollar without really trying.

Check out all our photos from Spain on Flickr and our post, Colors of Spain.

Also, check out our weekly posts from Spain:

Colors of Spain

Nomadic Cadence - Header - Color - RAINBOW

Spain – Salamanca

Spain – Segovia – Sunset lighting

Spain – Toledo – Museo del Greco

Spain – Barcelona – Sagrada Familia

Spain – Madrid – Catedral de la Almudena

Spain – Salamanca – Excellent Street Art – Moby Dick

Spain – Barcelona – Parc Guell

A collection of some of our favorite photos from Japan, one for each color of the rainbow. Click on the first photo to view a slideshow. Check out our Flickr page to see all our photos from Spain. Also, check out our photo collections by color.

BLACK & WHITE

Spain – Barcelona – Squid Ink Paella

Spain – Madrid – Reina Sofia

Week 46 – Segovia and Madrid, Spain

The Final Week

Spain – Segovia – Sunset lighting

It’s hard to believe that this was our final week of adventuring around the world. We have a lot of mixed emotions about “the end.” Throughout the week, we waffled between excitement, dread, anxiousness, and exhaustion just at the thought of it. We did our best to appreciate our last days of adventuring without worrying too much about what awaits us at home. We spent the first few days in Segovia wandering the narrow streets and touring Sleeping Beauty’s castle. We returned to Madrid for two nights to see more museums and savor our last few days abroad. Then, torn between reluctance and excitement, started our 25-hour journey home.

1. Go

Plane – 11,115 km. Our journey home from Madrid was not the most enjoyable, but everything went as well as it could. We flew Madrid to Dublin followed by a 7-hour, overnight layover in Dublin that we spent attempting to sleep in the 24-hour McDonald’s. Next up was an 11-hour flight to LA with a short layover, and finally our 2-hour flight to Denver. There was a huge snow storm in Denver and we assumed our flight would be canceled since it seemed like nearly all other flights were canceled. To our surprise, our flight was not canceled and we were perfectly on time.
Bus – 275 km. Salamanca to Segovia and Segovia to Madrid
Metro – 20 km. Around Madrid
Foot – 81,000 steps in 7 days (approx. 40 miles)

2. See

We were a little worried that visiting Segovia would be repetitive after visiting Toledo and Salamanca, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. Segovia had two things that we had yet to see on our travels this year: a castle and roman aqueducts. The castle, or Alcazar, was used as a model by Disney to create Sleeping Beauty’s castle at Disney Land. Needless to say it was magical. The aqueducts on the other side of town were just as impressive. They seemed to go on forever and right through the middles of town. Staying overnight was a great choice since lots of people do it as a day trip from Madrid. It was like a completely different town in the early morning and late afternoon and evening when all the tourists went back to Madrid.

Spain – Segovia – Roman Aqueducts

Spain – Segovia

Spain – Segovia – Sunset lighting

Spain – Segovia

Spain – Segovia – The Alcazar

Since we had already seen much of Madrid, we made sure to visit a few new places but return to some old favorites. We spent a day walking around the Reina Sofia Museum being both confused and amused by contemporary art. We have to admit that Picasso’s Guernica is quite impressive. We returned to the Plaza Mayor and enjoyed people watching. We took advantage of the sunshine by spending our last afternoon wandering around the park stalking peacocks.

Spain – Madrid – Plaza Mayor

Spain – Madrid – Reina Sofia

Spain – Madrid – Parque de El Retiro

Spain – Madrid – REFUGES WELCOME

Spain – Madrid – City Views

3. Eat

Segovia had some delicious local treats that we just couldn’t get enough of. Our favorites were ponche segoviano and merlitones. Ponche is a delicious cake with syrup covered in almond marzipan. Merlitones look like muffins, but are made with lots of eggs and almond flour, which makes them taste more like custard than cake. Yum! We also enjoyed Huevos Rotos, which is literally “broken eggs.” It’s basically potatoes (french fries or sliced) topped with ham and fried eggs.

Spain – Segovia – Ponche Segoviano

Spain – Madrid – Huevos Rotos

4. Drink

We spent the week indulging in many of our new Spanish favorites and trying some new ones. An old favorite we just had to have again was chocolate con churros. It’s thick hot chocolate – so thick it’s more like hot fudge – with fresh churros to dip.

Spain – Madrid – Chocolate con Churros

5. Sleep

We stayed in a great room in Segovia with unbelievable views. It was the perfect place to wait out the rainy afternoon. For our last nights in Madrid we returned to the same place we stayed the first time around – with the classy towel swans. Our final night abroad was spent attempting to sleep at the 24-hour McDonalds at the Dublin airport. The floor was tile, so we grabbed some padded chairs to lay on. It’s about as comfortable as it looks and we got at most two hours of sleep.

Spain – Segovia – Room with a view

Spain – Madrid – Classy Towel Swans

Spain – Madrid – Sleeping at the Airport in Dublin

6. Move

We fit in a short hike outside of Segovia once the weather cleared. We had incredible views of the entire city including the cathedral and the castle.

Spain – Segovia – View of Town

Spain – Segovia – Morning walk

7. Etcetera

We returned to Denver on Saturday and are staying with Lindsey’s sister and brother-in-law for a few days. To our surprise there was a snow storm as we arrived that blanketed the city. Luckily, our flight was one of the few that wasn’t canceled and we made it with no problems.

Colorado – Denver – Snow in April

We do plan to write a few more posts about our travels, like final thoughts and overall statistics, so stay tuned for the next few weeks.

Check out our Flickr album to see all our photos from this week.

Oh, and shout out to Bill for cleaning out the garage.

Week 45 – Madrid, Toledo, and Salamanca, Spain

Spanish City Hopping

Spain – Salamanca

We left the coast and headed inland to Madrid for the first half of the week. The weather was unexpectedly good, so we spent less time in museums than we’d planned and more time wandering the city and even took a day trip to Toledo. Madrid does not compare to Barcelona, but it was still quite charming. For our Toledo day trip, we were prepared to face huge crowds, but were pleasantly surprised by our ability to find quite streets. For the second half of the week, we made our way to the lively university town of Salamanca. We mostly wandered the old town, drank lots of wine, and ate lots of their famous ham (maybe too much).

1. Go

Spain – Madrid – Views from the Train

Train – 600 km. Barcelona to Madrid – seriously one of the best trains we’ve ridden on this whole trip.
Bus – 365 km. First out to Toledo for a day trip and second from Madrid to Salamanca which was surprisingly comfortable.
Metro – 20 km. Riding around Madrid.
Foot – 90,000 steps in 7 days (approx. 45 miles)

2. See

We started our visit to Madrid by spending the morning at Museo Prado. It was the most crowded museum we’ve been too since the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Another similarity to the National Palace Museum was the sheer number of works on display to the point of being overwhelming. It was an impressive museum, but hard to take in during one visit. Our favorite part was all the El Greco pieces. For the rest of our time in Madrid we walked through the city visiting the Parque de El Retiro, Plaza Mayor, Catedral de la Almudena, and the Palace. We wouldn’t say that Madrid is one of our favorite cities, but it has a lot to offer.

Spain – Madrid – El Prado

Spain – Madrid – Parque de El Retiro

Spain – Madrid

Spain – Madrid – Plaza Mayor

Spain – Madrid – Catedral de la Almudena

The weather was too perfect to pass up a day trip to Toledo. We spent the day wandering (like we do everywhere in Spain apparently) and only visited one paid attraction – Museo del Greco. It houses many works by El Greco and his students. The building itself is also of interest. A wealthy fan bought the house mistakenly thinking it was El Greco’s house and restored it.

Spain – Toledo

Spain – Toledo – Museo del Greco

Spain – Toledo – Museo del Greco – “Look at my dragon in a cup.”

Spain – Toledo – Museo del Greco

Spain – Toledo

Salamanca may easily be one of our favorite spots in Spain (so far). It was described in our guidebooks as a lively university town, which made us a little worried that we wouldn’t get any sleep and that we would constantly be surrounded by twenty-somethings running amok. There were plenty of twenty-somethings, but there were just as many seniors (the 65+ kind, not college kind) and families around at all hours. The old town area was constantly filled with people eating, drinking, and strolling. The Plaza Mayor, stunning both day and night, is definitely the place to see and be seen.

Spain – Salamanca

Spain – Salamanca – Plaza Mayor

Spain – Salamanca

The most spectacular sight in Salamanca is easily the Old and New Cathedrals. They are basically two cathedrals in one. The Old was built in the 14th century while the New was built between the 16th and 18th centuries. There was some restoration done in 1992 where they were a little creative with their additions. They were able to hide an astronaut in the ornate facade.

Spain – Salamanca

Spain – Salamanca – Astronaut

Salamanca has one more thing going for it – street art. It’s even better than Barcelona. The quality of the murals is much higher in Salamanca and they seem more deliberate. There are some serious works of art here.

Spain – Salamanca – Excellent Street Art – David Bowie

Spain – Salamanca – Excellent Street Art – Audrey’s Books

Spain – Salamanca – Excellent Street Art – Lion Stairs

Spain – Salamanca – Excellent Street Art – Moby Dick

Spain – Salamanca – Excellent Street Art – Green Girl

Spain – Salamanca – Excellent Street Art – Trex licking a tree

3. Eat

Spain – Toledo – Menu del Dia

Menu del Dia and tapas (or pinchos) have become a way of life for us. Menu del Dia is a great way to order some fun stuff without spending too much or having to choose from a huge menu. We had a delightful lunch in Toledo including 3 courses and drinks.

Salamanca is known for it’s inexpensive pinchos, probably due to all the college kids. And we took full advantage. For example, we paid €14 for three pinchos and two glasses of wine. The pinchos were massive. The paella would have been enough for the two of us, the size of the chorizo sausage put bratwursts to shame, and the stuffed mushrooms were some seriously huge ‘shrooms. We didn’t end up eating dinner because we were so full. We learned our lesson and carefully ordered smaller plates the next times – usually paying €4 to €7 total.

4. Drink

We enjoyed lots of wine and a few beers this week. We have been really surprised at how cheap a glass of wine or beer is at a restaurant or bar. It’s been as little as €1.30 and the most has been €3 (at Plaza Mayor).

Spain – Salamanca – Wine in Plaza Mayor

Spain – Salamanca

5. Sleep

Our Hostal in Madrid had some interesting decor complete with towel swans covered with welcome candy. In Salamanca, the decor was less exciting, but the shower was better. At both places were were impressed with the soundproofing. Lindsey is a pretty light sleeper and we didn’t have any problems with street noise.

Spain – Madrid – Classy Towel Swans

6. Move

Spain has been colder than we expected, but the rain has continued to hold off making for good walking. We had another high step count this week, but we haven’t even thought of working out. Our rooms have been large enough to do circuits and the cities would be great for running, but we just haven’t been able to get motivated. Since we are heading home at the end of next week, we figure that we should save our energy for sightseeing. We’ll get back on the wagon when we get home… probably. 🙂

7. Etcetera

The daily schedule in Spain is something that we were worried about before arriving. Late night partying was our nemesis in Southeast Asia and we didn’t love the late nights and late mornings in Argentina. We feared that we wouldn’t adapt to the Spanish schedule, but to our surprise we’re actually really liking it. We go to bed around midnight (or a little after), then sleep in until 8:30 or 9:00. With the cold weather it makes sense to get started a little later and enjoy the warmer weather in the afternoons. We haven’t spent many nights out on the town, but when we do, it’s pretty exciting. While having wine and pinchos in Plaza Mayor in Salamanca close to 11:00 pm, a huge religious parade went right in front of our table complete with a band.

Spain – Salamanca – Front row seats to the Parade

Check out our Flickr album to see all our photos from this week.

Week 44 – Barcelona, Spain

Back West

Spain – Barcelona – Parc Guell

We arrived in Barcelona at the beginning of the week and immediately experienced some serious culture shock… but in a good way. As much as we loved our five months in Asia, being back in the West is comforting. It’s more familiar and we can almost blend in… if it weren’t for our lack of Spanish style and language skills. Everything is just a bit easier. We know how to behave in certain situations. For example, when we go into Christian churches, we know how to act, where to go and where not to go. But in Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, we were never confident about what we could or couldn’t do and where we should or shouldn’t go. We obviously still enjoyed those experiences, but being back on familiar ground is letting us breath a little bit more easily.

1. Go

Plane – 10,160 km. Hong Kong to Barcelona via Moscow… yep, as in Moscow, Russia. Strange, but we couldn’t pass it up for under $300 each.
Metro – 35 km. The metro system in Barcelona is minimal, but was pretty useful from our second hotel into the city center.
Taxi – 20 km. We decided to take the easy way from the airport by taking a cab instead of the metro/bus combo. It turned out to be a great decision after our long flights.
Foot – 94,000 steps in 7 days (approx. 47 miles)

2. See

Do you people know about Barcelona? Because it is AMAZING! The sights are unique and outstanding, the food is delicious, and the city itself is beyond charming. We spent the first few days slowly getting over jet lag and only committing to seeing one thing each day. We started with Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s unfinished cathedral. It was one of the most beautiful manmade structures we’ve ever seen. At first it appears chaotic and random, but after a short time one begins to see the reason and order. It’s not just an aesthetic beauty, it’s also a mathematical beauty.

Spain – Barcelona – Sagrada Familia

We visited one of Gaudi’s other famous masterpieces, Parc Güell. Lindsey had walked the free sections on a beautiful sunny day while Pat took a jet lag nap. On the day we had tickets to the rest of the park, the weather was grim. It rained nearly our whole visit with only a few short breaks. But with the bad weather the crowds were thin.

Spain – Barcelona – Parc Guell

The weather turned a bit cold for our last few days in Barcelona, but the rain held off. We spent two full days walking around old town including La Rambla, the market, and the beach front. We would wander, stop at cafes, sit on benches in squares to people watch, and eat lots of ham.

Spain – Barcelona

Spain – Barcelona – Gaudi’s Casa Batllo

Spain – Barcelona – La Pedrera

Spain – Barcelona – Headless performer at Cathedral

Spain – Barcelona – The Beach

Spain – Barcelona

Lindsey is in photography heaven with all the street art. Every metal door is covered in art. It’s a nice juxtaposition from all the gothic architecture.

Spain – Barcelona – Street Art

Spain – Barcelona – Door Art and bikers

Spain – Barcelona – Door Art

3. Eat

Touring Barcelona is at least half about the food. We usually eat out at least twice a day, but the beauty about Spanish cuisine in that it’s small enough to enjoy several times a day. We’ll pop into a cafe mid-morning for a second coffee and a pastry, empanada, or churros with hot chocolate. While strolling, we’ll buy some fresh fruit to eat while walking. Then in the early afternoon we’ll stop for some tapas, paella, or a sandwich. We usually retreat to our hotel to eat dinner in our room or the communal kitchen. We often pick something up from the grocery store, like salad or soup. We’ve had some really tasty pastries, but nothing we haven’t had before. Our major mid-blowing meal this week was squid ink paella with seafood. It looked like a tar pit, but tasted like heaven.

Spain – Barcelona – Squid Ink Paella

Spain – Barcelona – fresh fruit at the market

Spain – Barcelona – fresh fruit popsicles at the market

4. Drink

Mmm, coffee. We’ve had some rough times subsisting on instant coffee, but not in Spain! The coffee here is superb and even better it’s pretty cheap. We can get an espresso or americano for around 1 Euro. With our jet lag and Pat’s minor cold, we haven’t gotten to dive into Spanish wines like we thought we might but we did have some cava at lunch the other day to go with our paella. We also found a great bar that has fifteen craft beers on tap. We may have spent entirely too much time and money there one afternoon and regretted it a little the next morning.

5. Sleep

We could not find a single hotel with vacancy for the whole week in Barcelona, so we had to split it between two different places. This worked out really well since our first place was right between Sagrada Familia and Parc Güell while our second place was out in the ‘burbs but only half a block from the metro that took us straight into the city center.

6. Move

The weather in Barcelona was beautiful for our first few days. We’ve really increased our daily step counts and it feels good to be walking again. While Pat was taking a jet lag nap, Lindsey hiked to the highest point in Parc Güell for some views of town.

Spain – Barcelona – Parc Guell

7. Etcetera

Since Spain is our last destination, we’ve decided not to worry about the budget as much. Sticking to $100 a day is probably possible, but it would be pretty stressful. We are still watching the budget, but not keeping it under $100 a day – we would be happy with $150.

Check out our Flickr album to see all our photos from this week.