Europe 2007 Part 3

Usually I list the resources we used to research and tour each city and I haven’t done that yet. We used Rick Steves’ guides for Italy and Istanbul. Istanbul was the first guide book Rick did not write himself and it is a bit different than the others. We also used the Lonely Planet for Istanbul and Greece. I also learned about a lot of great web sites that are helpful for cruisers. For picking a cruise you can’t do any better than cruisecritic.com in conjunction with tripadvisor. For port information the best site I found was portreviews.com. We used the directions from port review to figure out how to get into the city from the ports that are far away.

Day 9 - Athens

After the day at sea the four of us were ready to take on Athens. The ship actually docks in the port of Piraeus which is 45 minutes away from the central area in Athens. We took a taxi to the train and got off at the station next to the parliament building. At the station there was a display of ruins including graves that were discovered during the building of the metro. Discovered ruins of archeological significance were dotted all over town. It must really put a damper on new construction. We walked through the botanical gardens and over to Hadrian’s Arch then doubled back to catch the changing of the guard at the parliament building. This was as ceremonial as the one at Buckingham Palace. The traditional Greek military uniform is something else – wool tights, skirt, large pom-poms on the wooden shoes.

Next we followed the Lonely Planet walking tour through the city headed eventually towards the Acropolis. We saw several tiny churches that dated back to the beginnings of Christianity. These churches sat twenty people at the most, quite a contrast from the Blue Mosques and Aye Sofia a few days earlier. We worked our way up hill through some very traditional and modern neighborhoods thinking we were working towards the Acropolis. We hit a dead end right outside the Acropolis wall about ½ above the city and had to back track. In the end this was a good thing because we found a great little restaurant to have lunch at. What they do is have a prix fixe meal that included water and wine. Then they bring out a display platter of like 30 foods. Since there were 4 of us we got 10 choices and a Greek salad. We had fried sardines, fried calamari, calamari in tomato sauce, fava beans, meatballs and a lot of fried potatoes. It was great and we paid 8 Euro per person. After lunch we had the energy to make the 1.75 mile trek straight up hill to the Acropolis.



This was by far the hottest day of the trip and by this time it was 1 in the afternoon. There is no shade at the Acropolis and you must move very carefully because you are walking on marble steps most of the way up. Everyone talks about the Parthenon but the Erechtheum was much more impressive to me. One side of this building is held up by statues of six ladies known as the Ladies of the Porch.

Day 10 – Katakolon Greece




This Greek island is a cruise stop only because the site of the first Olympics (ancient not modern) is here. The site it self is just stumps of columns as there has been no restoration. Also the fires this summer went right up to the edge of the Olympic ruins so we skipped this site.

Instead we spent the day in the port town. Shon rented a scooter and rode around the island. I spent the day shopping for knick-knacks with Chameko and Tracy followed by a relaxing lunch on the waters edge. At this point in the trip this low key day was just what we all needed. Katakolon is a pretty little town and we thought the shopping was as good as or better than Rhodes or Athens.

Day 11 - At Sea



This day we had some excitement at sea. We passed the volcanic island of Stromboli on our way back to Italy. It is active as shown in the photograph.

Europe 2007 Part 2

The middle part of the trip had nothing as exciting as Shon's account of the Turkish bath but it was definitly my favorite part of the trip.



Day 6 - Izmir - Ephesus Turkey

Our next stop was Turkey. Visiting Turkey was the main reason I agreed to go on this trip. I had a vision of Turkey being very much like Iran but I was wrong. Izmir looks a lot like Charlotte, NC. While most people are Muslim almost everyone was dressed in western garb and most young people speak English. No one really visits Izmir though, it is just the gateway to the ancient cities of Pergamum and Ephesus (as in the book of the Bible Ephesians).

We hired a private guide through Nur and Ekol travel so the 4 of us had a mini-bus and a knowledgeable guide, Yelda all to ourselves. It is a one hour drive from the city to Ephesus where Yelda gave us the historical background of the area and Turkey in general. The area was very green and lush and has a booming agricultural industry. Although Izmir is in Asia on the drive out we saw all of the usual stores that you see in Europe, Ikea and Zara.

The city of Ephesus was huge with 250,000 inhabitants at the peak of the Roman/Greek era. Like Herculaneum there was running water, sewers and public latrines and baths. Also the city had many multi-storied buildings. The most famous is probably the 3 story library of Celsus shown above. This library was so magnificent that the Egyptians stopped sending them papyrus. They did not want this library to rival the one in Alexandria. This lead the Ephesians to develop the precursor to the modern book. They figured out how to cure animal skins then write on then bound them together versus the parchment scrolls that had been used. This site was also very moving because you can walk in the foot steps of the Paul and you can see many of the symbols of the early Christians carved into the marble. I would love to come back to see more of this area. It was very hot and crowded the day we were there.




After Ephesus we visited a state sponsored carpet making school. Of course the intent of this stop was to sell us carpet (which they did) but it was also very interesting to see the woman spin the silk into yarn and to make the carpets. They have the showmanship down of displaying the carpets, flipping, turning and explaining the differences. We were glad to do our carpet shopping here because we heard that in Istanbul there are so many stores the choices are almost to many.

We went to a restaurant but did not enjoy the food. Since it was Ramadan we could not use our usual barometer of following the locals. Both days we were in Turkey we never say a local eating.

Day 7 – Istanbul



Istanbul is so interesting. It sits on two continents and is a mix of all of the major world cultures. While you hear the call to prayer crossing a street at the intersection you can see women crossing the street wearing all styles of dress, from full burka to a hijab (head scarf) to designer jeans. Making a 360 turn you see every kind of architecture – Ottoman onion domes, Christian Byzantine style domes, Muslim styles and if you look closely influences from eastern Asia including India.

We started the day with a cruise down the Bosporus river. There are bridges that look just like the Golden Gate that connect the European side of the city to the Asian side. It was a really beautiful journey. You can see buildings from the 500 AD through modern times as you move up through this Golden Horn area. You can also see the Aye Sofia and the Blue Mosque in the distance. I’m glad we started the trip in this tranquil setting.

Once we left the harbor area the city was as bustling as in the world I’ve been to including Hong Kong. The trains were packed and people were every where. The boat ride on the Bosporus was our only ship sponsored shore excursion. We ditched the group on the plaza between the Aye Sofia and the Blue Mosque.



Our first stop was to tour the Aye Sofia once a Byzantine church, turned into a mosque when the Ottomans defeated Constantinople, and now a museum. Aye Sofia translates to "divine wisdom" and was built during the height of the Christian era of the Roman Empire. Begun in 532 it was completed in an amazing five years, and was the world's largest cathedral in until Constantinople was defeated in 1453. That was the year it was turned into a mosque, and it remained so until 1934, when the young Turkish republic restored its Christian attributes, and, with a mix of Islamic and Christian characteristics, reopened it as a museum. It was amazing to see the blend of Christianity and Muslim religion all in one spot. Tracy and Chameko were also introduced to the stand up toilet at this spot. There were only three ladies toilets and this place averages several million visitors a year.



On the other side of the plaza across from the Aye Sofia is the Blue Mosque whose actual name is the Mosque of Ahmet, after the sultan who built it. It was erected between 1609 and 1616, and is one of the largest ever built. It is constructed around four main domes, each of which is subdivided into three semi-domes, and all covered with the distinctive blue tiles that give the mosque its unofficial name. Since we were there in the afternoon during Ramadan people were coming in to say prayer. I’ve never been to a mosque before and seeing the ritual and reverence of it al was interesting and also seeing the women worship behind a screen, out of site from the men was different.

We then walked past the harem house of Suleiman the Magnificent, conquerer of Rhodes then over to see the eqyptian Hippodrome and a 200 year old gazebo that was a gift from Austria. Once again the mix of cultures in an eight square block area was amazing. I wanted to visit the underground cistern but Chameko had a weird dream the night before about getting stuck in a small wet underground area so since that pretty much describes the cistern we skipped it.

We then walked about about a mile to the most visited site in the city the Grand Bazaar. This place was stall after stall of jewelry stores, tourist junk, rug merchants and “genuine fake” watches, purses, sunglasses and the like. We bought Sophia a Persian costume and returned to the ship. Overall we were not impressed with the bazaar.

Day 8 – Yet another boring day at sea

Europe Fall 2007 Part 1

Shon and I went on a 12 day Mediterranean cruise. We sailed on the Carnival Freedom leaving out of the port of Rome. We were tagging along with Chameko’s parent’s travel club. There was a heat wave going on while we were in the area. It was never less than 85 degrees each day so we will look really wiltied in all of the photos which can bee seen on our Flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/shevvi/sets/72157602345957510

Day 1 – September 21st MSP to ATL to Rome
We flew over on Delta. Our initial flight was cancelled and we were put on a flight 3 hours later. We were not to upset about this because we were upgraded to business class for our overseas leg. Since I don’t travel for work anymore I had forgotten how much better it is in business class, especially since the airlines barely feed you. We had the personal entertainment units so I watched Fracture (pretty good) and Waitress (just okay). The seats fully reclined so I slept at least 5 hours. Shon stayed up the entire flight.

Day 2 –September 22nd Rome to the ship
We flew overnight so it was the next day when we landed. The main airport in Rome was something else. It took us almost two hours to receive our baggage. At that point we were just exhausted and took the shuttle straight to the ship. The ride to the ship was another 90 minutes but Carnival did a good job with the processing and we were in our room within 10 minutes of getting to the port.

The ship is brand new but is decorated like something from a bad 1970’s acid trip, lots of smoked mirrors, avocado and orange colored wood paneling and faux snakeskin. It is all absolutely hideous. I won’t say much more about being on the ship. It was pretty boring entertainment except for a fabulous Beatles review and standard hotel restaurant type food. It was clean and the spa specials were decently priced.

Day 3 – Naples, Sorrento, Herculaneum

Shon, Chameko, Chameko’s cousin Tracy and I went out exploring the citied together at each site. We had been warned about the crime in Naples and we could see why. This city looked very industrial and there were lost of locals out and bout just loitering. The train system looked like something from a documentary on NYC circa 1979. We had to wait for the train sort of under ground and I think we would have been a little nervous if Shon had not been with us. Fortunately Naples is the gateway to some of the most beautiful places we visited.



Our first stop was Herculaneum, a city destroyed like Pompeii by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The mechanics of the destruction of Herculaneum differed from that of Pompeii markedly. A cloud of molten volcanic ash descended from the air and buried Pompeii, sealing the city and all its residents in a solid block of soft pumice. Herculaneum, on a different flank of the volcano, found itself in the path of a 65 mile-per-hour wave of molten material, heated to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, which effectively killed or burned nearly everything in its path. That was followed by a 40 mile-per-hour torrent of mud that swept much in its path out to sea, and buried what was left to a depth of 75 feet.


Herculaneum was not as prosperous as Pompeii but we were still able to get a really good sense of what the city was like. We saw many taverns, a bakery with grind wheel, metal and leather worker shops along with homes of many sizes. The ruins were pretty intact. What amazed me was that most buildings were multi storied and that there was running water into most places. Also the public baths and latrines along with the sewer systems were just amazing. We did this site without a guide but I think a guide would have enhanced our experience here.

We went back to the train and continued south to Sorrento. Here we had our authentic Neapolitan pizza. We visited a citrus orchard in town and I got some Limoncello and meloncello. We also had our first taste of gelato for this trip. We walked the historic area from the old town down to the harbor. This is a beautiful city. Our original plan was to take the hydrofoil over to Capri but we were running out of time so we just took the ferry back to Naples and our ship. I have added this area of Italy to my must visit again list.




Day 4 - At sea

Day 5 – Rhodes



Rhodes, Greece was a late port for us as we did not arrive until 11 AM. The port is right in town next to the medieval old town area so we just walked right off the ship and into town. Rhodes has been conquered by every major empire over the last 3000 years and it shows. We could see the Greek, Roman, Muslim and Byzantine influences everywhere. IT was a very important sea stop during the crusades and this is when the medieval city was built by Christian knights from all of the countries in Europe. We hit all of the medieval sites and did some shopping. Chameko got a good price on a rolling leather duffle bag. We had a good seafood lunch and sampled the local wine.

The highlight of Rhodes was our visit to the Turkish bath. Suleiman the Magnificent (more about him when we talk about Istanbul) conquered Rhodes in 1522 and the Ottoman Turks ruled this area until Italy took it over in 1912. There is still a large Turkish community here. Shon, Chameko and I all got a bath and a massage. It was different to say the least. Here is Shon’s description of his “bath”.

(This is Shon typing)
So first you pay for the use of the bath then the guy gives you a towel and a little silver bowl, it kind of reminded me of a small salad bowl. But anyway, so I went to the “locker room” which was nothing like you would expect in America because for one thing you can smoke in it. So there was a guy there smoking and of course he was naked. Needless to say this was odd to me. So the guy speaks some broken English so he starts talking to me. Which again, I find odd because he is NAKED, don’t get me wrong I took off my clothes but I had the towel wrapped around me like a casing on a gourmet hot dog so I was not his mirror image. I go down the hall to the “bathing room” as I will call it. It was a wide open room with a bunch of water spouts fairly well spread out on each wall. So there may have been about 10 total. So what you were supposed to do was run the water and use your little bowl to splash and pour the water (which was HOT) on you. There was not a tub or pool anywhere in the place. Like I said you just splash and pour water on yourself. Also you are to just relax and meditate. Now the entire place is made of marble, and in the center was like a big round bench. There were guys just sitting or laying on it relaxing. And of course THEY WERE TOTALLY NAKED. Because of my American Puritan upbringing I still found this troubling. Don’t get me wrong there wasn’t anything seedy or sexual going on but all that nakedness was something I was not used to. After I had been pouring water on myself and soaking up all the heat a guy comes to get me for a the massage. The funny thing was he spoke really low so I had a hard time hearing him. I initially thought he was speaking his broken English but it turned out the dude was from London or one of the towns around there so his English was fine, he just didn’t talk loud. Now to be honest I was expecting an American style of massage, in a small room, on a padded massage table. Of course that was not what it was like. There was another room similar to the one I had just left but it was smaller but not by much. I was instructed to lie down on the floor, at this point I’m naked, and I had to use my little bowl to prop my head. So the guy put on some gloves and used some soap and gave me a massage. Once again it was fine nothing seedy but I found myself asking myself “how am I going to explain this to people back home?, Do I leave out the part about all the male nakedness? If I tell people of this will my machismo forever be questioned?” So after the massage I went back to the first room and splashed some more water on myself. Because I am a small and shallow man there was/is only so much meditating and introspection I can do before I begin to bore myself. So soon afterwards I went and put my clothes back on waited for Shevvi and Chameko outside. I will say the bath and massage was relaxing, just different.

Other than getting our massage on a marble slab the female experience was the same.

Lisbon 10/15 -17, 2005

We took an overnight train from Madrid to Lisbon. Everyone should take an overnight hotel train at least once. It is quite the experience. We paid for a first class cabin with a shower and bathroom in the cabin. You get access to the first class lounge if you are on the hotel train so we hung out there for a few hours before we departed. They feed you a full four-course dinner with wine although you don’t board the train until 10:30 PM. Your personal steward takes care of your needs including making up your beds and waking you up for your three-course breakfast.

The train station in Lisbon is right off the coast. The view is beautiful when you walk out of the station. We stayed at the best hotel of our trip in Lisbon –Hotel Olissippo Castelo. The room was large, clean and inexpensive. They even give you a bottle of good port upon arrival and all for 90 euros. The only problem was this was the first hotel without Internet access but in all of the tourist centers you can get access pretty cheaply.

Saturday we took a cab to Rossio Square and walked around in this area back towards our hotel. Lisbon is beautiful. There are a lot of architectural details on the buildings, sidewalks, and streets. Most of the city was rebuilt in the mid 1700’s after an earthquake. There buildings are worn looking but have tiled fronts and terracotta roofs. I took a lot of pictures of the tile. Lisbon is also relatively inexpensive. Cabs were cheap; there are a lot of small restaurants called churracarrias that serve great inexpensive meals. Lisbon is built into a hillside. There is a lot of uphill walking. There are all of these stairways that you use to go form street to street. Since the streets are narrow and have two way traffic and parking on both sides (and sometimes a streetcar) even walking downhill was quite the adventure. We rode the streetcar #28 around the scenic loop and it is an excellent introduction to the tourist areas.

Sunday is a great day to go to the museums. Most are free. We took a taxi to The Belém District and started with the Coach Museum. It was really interesting. Queen Isabella could see the advent of the car and had all of the horse drawn carriages spruced up and stored here. I’ll take our Camry over the most ornate coach any day. I guess being a princess is not all it is cracked up to be. Then we went to the Monastery of Jerónimos and saw the tomb of Vasco de Gama and the beautiful cloisters. There were Boy and Girl scouts there selling 2006 calendars. In Portugal the Boys and girls are in the same troop together. Next we went to the Monument to the Discoverers and got a good view of the suspension bridge built by the same company that built the Golden Gate Bridge and the Jesus Statue like the one in Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
The light rail took us back down town and we went to take one of the funicular trams up to the top of the hillside and followed the Rick Steves walk back down to the port. This was a beautiful, friendly city. It would be my first choice to introduce kids to Europe. You could wander for days. It felt like Venice with all of the narrow passageways except it is laid out on a grid. (In Venice I felt lost the entire time we were there.) We had dinner at Nossa Churrascaria and had the best grilled chicken I had ever tasted. It was near our hotel and the Castelo de São Jorge.

We used Rick Steve's Spain and Portugal 2004 and Timeout Lisbon

Lisbon Pictures - http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shevvi/album?.dir=/22bb&.src=ph&.tok=ph8pR1DBW6XXv309

Madrid 10/12-14, 2005

We left Barcelona and flew to Madrid on the 14th. This was National Day in Spain. We saw no signs of the holiday in Barcelona but in Madrid everything was closed and there was a huge parade. Because of the holiday we were able to go to a bullfight. I'm now very against bullfighting but Shon has a very different opinion. I'll let him explain from here:
-----------BULL FIGHTING PART, IT IS KIND OF GRAPHIC------------------
First of all let me just say I am not for the killing of innocent animals, I read that the bull is properly butchered afterwards and eaten so I guess its no real foul done by the bull fight. Which really isn't a sport or a fight in any way because in the end the bull will get killed, even if he finds some way to entertain the masses he will get put to his ultimate death in the end. Plus somehow it is seen as honorable to the bull because supposedly he has 4 years of the good life before he meets his doom. Ok that’s enough of the disclaimer. So we found the hotel, dropped off our luggage and hopped on the metro to go to the bullfight. Now I don't know what I was expecting I thought it would be more like a rodeo type of venue but it was a really nice brick built stadium. It was a round oval with all these statues and monuments on the outside. The atmosphere reminded me of a baseball game. There were vendors outside selling sandwiches and soda and people with programs. Because it was not the big Sunday fight or the two weeks of the festival of the Toro or something like that the stadium was not completely full, it might have been 50% or so. But anyway we went to out seats which happened to be next to another couple from California. So the first match is about to start and a band starts to play, although there were at least three bands in the stadium neither of them played at the same time. So the horn starts and there are about 8 matadors in the ring and the bull is released. I can only give you my interpretation from here because I am not familiar with the traditions and pageantry of the bullfight. I didn't know there were so many to start. But all these guys had pink capes. So the bull charges out and runs at them randomly. Some times they run behind the brick barrier at other times they hold their pink capes open and entice the bull to run at it. So this goes on for about 10 minutes then another horn sounds. Two guys then ride into the ring on horseback. But the funny thing is the horses are blindfolded and they have on some kind of armor. These two guys stand on the horses stand on opposite sides of the ring and for some reason the bull will charge at one of the houses. But because the horse has on all this armor the bulls horns do not hurt it or anything like that, it actually leans in to the bull and resists. The guy on the horse has a long poker type of thing so while the bull is trying to push the horse the rider is stabbing the bull right between the shoulder blades. But when the bull is attacking the horse and rider the crowd cheers loudly. So this goes on for about 5 or so minutes. Then another horn sounds and the horses and riders go out of the ring. Now the 8 guys are at it again, a few of them now have these poker things in their hands instead of the capes. So they (the matadors now with the pokers) stand in front of the bull for a second, then they run at the bull and stick the pokers basically in the same area as the guys on the horses were poking the bull. This is probably what we have all seen in photos when the bull has this ribbon looking thing hanging off its back. Now not everyone of the pokers stick every time but at this point the bull has these things stuck on its back and it also has the wounds from the horse riders so it is starting to bleed a lot. I personally think the reason behind all the matadors and the horseback guys is to take some of the energy out of the bull before its fight with the main guy. A horn sounds again and now the main matador comes out. He has a red cape. Now the main matador basically does his thing alone. The other guys are all behind the barriers ready to lend a hand if need be. So he does his thing with the bull for about 15 or so minutes then at some point he kind of does this sideways karate kid pose with his sword and this is the sign that he is about to kill the bull. I think he kind of hypnotizes the bull for a moment then takes a few steps towards it and plunges his sword in that same area as the other participants. I take it that it if done correctly it goes through the bull’s lungs and heart in one motion. At this point the bull drops dead and some guys come out and tie a rope on the bulls horns and drags it around the ring and out, leaving this trail of blood. A clean up crew comes out and cleans up the blood and they get ready for the next match. This is basically the way each match went with a few small differences. The first match we watched the minor matadors couldn't get their pokers to stay in the bull. So they kept trying so that made the match longer. Also the main matador had to stab the bull a couple times to kill it. In the end one of the minor guys has to just take a little knife and stick the bull right in the brain to kill it. The second match I guess the bull had a "come up". One of the minor guys while fighting the bull fell down and at this point the bull gored him and started trampling him. The others had to rush in, distract the bull and 4 guys ran out of the ring carried the injured guy by each limb. The door to the infirmary was right under our seats so we saw the guy was hurt pretty bad. The third went off pretty much without a hitch. It seemed all the people performed the way they were supposed to. Even the final kill only took one attempt and the bull just fell down right where it was standing. That was it we left afterwards and took the subway back to the hotel. -------------END OF BULL FIGHT DESCRIPTION--------------------------------------- After the bullfight we went back to the central city called Puerto Del Sol. There was a big statue to one of those Spanish Kings. I do not remember who it was off hand but I was surprised that there was some kind of graffiti all over the base of the statue. From Puerto Del Sol you can basically get to any of the museums or attractions and it is the main subway stop around Madrid so if you are going to travel to Madrid staying somewhere near will serve you well. Also near the Puerto Square there are a several markers devoted to the French, which surprised me also. I always thought the Spanish hated the French for their spats during the 15-1700's. A short walk from the Puerto Del Sol was the Plaza de Mayor. If you have seen any painting detailing the Spanish inquisition where the non-Catholics were being tried this was Plaza de Mayor. As I all ready stated it was the main place for trials and hangings during the Inquisition. There are balconies around the square, which were used as luxury boxes for the executions. There are also more statues in the square. One was of Phillip II he was probably the one king I learned the most about on the trip because there were at least four or so sculptures and paintings of him in every museum we went in on the entire trip. He was even in a several in Portugal. I think he was responsible for a kind of art renaissance during his reign. We basically did the walking tour from the Rick Steves book. Once again if you are going to Europe I would suggest his books because they are very informative without being too boring. So after Plaza de Mayor we walked to the Palace. Once again built by Phillip II. We did not take the inside tour although it was highly recommended but a person can only take so much 15th century art and house hold items. We just walked around the outside and through the park but it was still nice. While we were walking to another monument we walked in a under the street tunnel. Just like every other big city on the earth there is a large number of homeless people in Madrid. So anyway we were walking to cross under the street and there were obviously people living in the tunnel. But what struck me as odd was they were all on one side of the tunnel they were not bothering the people walking by but they didn't seem to be nomadic as I expected. You would expect someone to have a sleeping bag or cardboard but a few people were sleep on mattresses with box springs and bedding. So obviously this was their "permanent home". Later that night we went out to a nightclub a guy we met the previous night in Barcelona told me about. It was pretty good but Shevvi and I being our old selves bunted out at about 1:30 am although the club stayed open until 4:00 am. But the thing was it was exactly like going to a nightclub here. They also only played American music. There wasn't any music with Spanish words so I guess the bad American influence such as Nelly and Fat Joe reaches everywhere. Hahaha

Shevvi again-
I think we had better food in Madrid than in Barcelona. I had the best unagi rolls at Kumara right off of the Puerto del Sol square. The rice was normal size but the eel was as big as a deck of cards. Also we went to another restaurant around there named Puerto Rico and had a really inexpensive but delicious lunch. And the highlight of the eating was something called churros and chocolate. Churros are donut sticks that you dip in this liquid chocolate that is like homemade pudding right before it thickens up. It was so good. You can get this treat at many places around town but we got it from where Rick Steve recommended next to the Joy nightclub. Also we did the Tapas crawl from Rick Steves and the shrimp at La Casa del Abuelo is not to be missed.

Madrid had top-notch museums. I would put it up against Paris. The Prado and Reina Sofia were great but I also enjoyed the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. There were a half dozen others that all sounded interesting but we did not have enough time to visit. I heard that the Navel Museum was very good.


We used Rick Steve’s Spain and Portugal and Timeout Madrid
Here is the link to all of the Madrid Pictureshttp://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shevvi/album?.dir=/8912&.src=ph&.tok=phFuUzDBEHK5bd4y

Barcelona 10/ 8-11 2005

We arrived in Barcelona on Sunday the 9th. We stayed at a nice but over priced hotel - www.hotelnunezurgell.com. The location was great, there were lots of restaurants in the area and it was easy to catch a cab or get on the Metro. If you can get a room for less than 75 euros per night then I would highly recommend it. We met up with Chameko and her cousin Tracy and took the metro over to the Ramblas that evening. The Ramblas had the usual freaks that perform for tourists - dancers, mimes, living statues, fortune tellers, etc. We had a really good seafood dinner at some random restaurants and a large pitcher of sangria made with champagne. After dinner we continued our walk down the Ramblas past the Christopher Columbus (Cristobel Colon in Spain so why is it different in English?) to the waterfront. This was a very pretty walk and the weather was great - around 75 deg. We went to Cafe Royale after that to hear some jazz by a live group and some funk. Did you know mixed drinks are rare in Spain. You get a glass of liquor and a bottle of a mixer but never a mixed drink. It was a small smoky place that was packed. We called it an early evening at 1AM although the club keeps going until at least 4.

The next day Shon and I took the tourist bus around Barcelona. We got the two day pass but I would recommend that the 1 day is enough to see all of the sites. Barcelona is a very pretty city. It was very clean and laid out in an easy to navigate way. We spent most of the day looking at the architecture by Antoni Gaudi. Here are pictures of Dinky and Shon in front of my favorite sites.


The Sagrada Famila church is the most interesting structure I've ever seen. I would like to go back and see it once it is finished in 20 more years (only 130 years after it was started). Also I loved the mosaics that were everywhere. They were made with found objects like plates and bottles. To think this was all done in the late 1800's since Gaudi died in 1906.

We had dinner again with Chameko and Tracy in the Barri Gotic area off of the Ramblas. Then we went to a great club Jamboree/Los Tarantos for the What the F**k jam session. It was off the hook with live performances by a regagge group, and some rappers and singers all accompanied by most of the jazz band from Cafe Royale the night before. This was followed by a really good hip hop set. We partied until 3 AM but just like the night before the club was still jumping when we left.

Chameko and her group moved on to Southern Spain the next day. We finished touring the city and went to the Picasso museum which I highly recomended. We had dinner that night at a Scottish style tapas bar near the hotel. Talk about fusion cuisine but it was good. We called it a night early so that we could catch our flight to Madrid the next morning. In retrospect Barcelona was my favorite city of the three we visited (Lisbon , Madrid). It felt a lot like San Fransisco. The people were very friendly and it was pretty easy to navigate even if you did not know much Spanish.

Here is the link to all of my Barcelona pictures.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shevvi/album?.dir=/e37a&.src=ph&.tok=phTcTzDB__hzuPh8

We used Rick Steve's Spain and Portugal and Time Out Barcelona as guidebooks.