Day Five - Sevilla to Toledo

The first part of today was an early train to Madrid and a connecting train to Toledo. Photos from trains never turn out well so I skipped it this time and just relaxed.

For the photos I will write one more day in reverse. The is the night view from our room in Toledo.


The cathedral in Toledo is less than a block from our guest house.

If the streets in Sevilla were called kissing lanes, there are a few streets in Toledo that are even closer. We will just say these are more like a French version of the kissing lanes.

One of the views looking down to Toledo. Yup, you guessed it - we got lost here too. Just google a map of Toledo, Spain and you will understand.

One more shot of the city. Again, a very small city like Sevilla. A little touristy in the shopping areas, but just an amazing place.

Day Four - Sevilla

OK, I am going to write this post upside down starting with the end of day four and ending with breakfast. This should be fun for us all. :) (and it will save me from reordering all of these pictures. I am loading three days worth of blogs and it is getting late here so here we go.


We ended the night with an amazing Flamenco show. Lightning fast guitar and equally fast feet. From what I hear Dr. Hudson plays guitar just like this. They would not allow pictures so here is a nice night shot of the streets of Sevilla - the birthplace of Flamenco.

This is the view from the bell tower of the cathedral. As you can see it is easy to get lost in all of those little interwoven streets - and yes we did get lost ...um several times.

The front of the cathedral.

This place was a little outside of the old city and was amazing, but I can't remember what it was called. I have it written down somewhere, but it is pretty late and I am not about to wake Penni up to find it. Sorry.

The Alcazar was my favorite place in Sevilla. All of the tile work and religious symbols from three religions were nice, but the garden was amazing.

A view of the inside with all the carvings and symbols.

And finally - or actually to begin - the view from our table at breakfast that morning.

Day Three Barcelona to Sevilla

Ok, what day is this? Sorry, I am a little behind. It has been a little crazy trying to get a good internet connection.

Well this is Barcelona. ...yeah look at all of those people. It was a little too much for me. There are some very amazing buildings, but shopping is nothing more than tourist junk and all the same shops you will find in Dallas or any other big city.

The Sagrada Familia. If there is one reason to go to Barcelona it is this amazing building. It is still under construction and not due for completion until 2024, but a must see. This cathedral was the life work of Antoni Gaudi, who gave his life savings to it's construction and died penniless not long after the construction began. His requirement was that the church be funded only by the people through donations. This is one reason it has been under construction for so long.

This is a detail from the front of the Sagrada Familia.

La Boqueria. (Farmers market)


Disney themed(...yet all is Spanish) water show at Font Magic.

Ah... Sevilla. This is the street to our guest house. The streets in Sevilla are so close together that they are said to be almost kissing. This is the reason they are known as kissing lanes. No cars on these streets.


This is the view from our room. After a long flight we called it a day.

Day Two

We slept late this morning and then went to La Sagrada Familia, but the line was around the corner! So, we opted to see Park Guell which is a housing residence that Gaudi started but it never really took off. The entire place looks very Dr. Suess like - all of it is mosaic-ed.


FYI - If you reverse the lens in your telephoto attachment you get a fish-eye. Just one of those useless tidbits I learned when I was a photography major many moons ago.


Afterwards we ate lunch at a place recommended to me by Rick Steves -personally (...yeah right, we know Rick personally).


Then walked up La Rambla (overly touristy) and then walked thru Gaudi's Casa Batllo. AMAZING! The entrance price almost deterred us from going in, but we are so glad we did! WOW! The whole apartment looked like the inside of a dragon and was inspired by 20,000 leagues under the sea.

This was a shot from the roof. Notice it looks like a dragon's spine and a cross.

The front of the house.


After resting for a bit, we went to see Fountain de Magica or something like that. It's basically a fountain show like the one in Vegas, but with music. Tonight had a Disney theme. All the songs you know and love and can sing every word, but in Catalan. I hear they switch it out. Sometimes, it's a Queen themed nite. That woulda been awesome. :) But, Little Mermaid was good too. :D
Tapas 24 was next where we had skewered lamb, truffle & ham sandwich, and a lentil & torro soup.

On the way home, we stumbled upon an outdoor fashion show, inclusivo catwalk. Muy chic! :)

Day one - Barcelona

Well, after a few technical issues we are finally online. We landed in Barcelona yesterday and it was nothing but rain. Although the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain, it also falls on the coast.

This is the Cathedral of Barcelona.

We did a little shopping to stay out of the rain and then stopped to tapas at El Xampyet.

I did not take a lot of pictures on day one because it was just too rainy.