Up to the Atlantic Coast

Well, it's been a while since I updated this. I was full of good intentions and planned to sort it all out at Rubee's, including uploading the pictures, but somehow the time flew and nothing got done. Hmmmm....

Anyway, the last time I wrote this we were being rained on rather profusely in Granada - in fact it was tipping down so much that Cathryn decreed that the new elocution practice should be 'the rain in Spain falls mainly on bloody Granada'. It didn't just sprinkle I might add - each time the heavens opened it was probably Adelaide's annual rainful. However, it did eventually stop and we were able to venture into the old Arabic Quarter of the city following the LP's suggested walk. This meant that we enjoyed the view from the square facing the Alhambra (which sent Cathryn off into a new frenzy) as well as pottering down the little street filled with tiny Arabic tea shops. Of course this entailed trying Morrocan mint tea for Rachel while I sipped away on a very sweet but nice vanilla tea. Yummo!!! By this stage we were ready for a siesta so it was a good excuse to crash out for a while waiting for Rubee and her friend Arianna to arrive from their exciting five hour bus journey from Madrid. Lucky things!!!!

Before we knew it, it was time to grab some dinner and head up for our night tour of the Nasrid Palaces in the Alhambra. I have to say that there aren't many places where it makes perfect sense to begin a tour at 11pm at night, but in Spain, why not? The plaster stucco work in the palaces was amazing but I have to say that I think it was just as good at the Alcazar in Seville. The other problem was a general lack of lighting so photos were tricky to take, not to mention the fact that the bit I really wanted to see with the Patio of the Lions was under restoration so we missed it. Drats!!! Still, it was pretty impressive. A short trek back down the hill gave us time to meet up with Rubee and Arianna, who at midnight, had just finished dinner. Only in Spain!!! A few drinks and a lot of talking and we finally made it back to the hostal for the night.

The next day after a belated breakfast we set off to see the Royal Chapel which houses the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain responsible for the defeat of the Moorish leader and subsequent conquest of the Alhambra. They also happened to be the parents of Catherine of Aragon so it's interesting from a historical perspective. Unfortunately we missed the opening times and contented ourselves with fighting off the rosemary-sprig-offering gypsy women instead. There's always the internet I guess if I want to see what the chapel looked like anyway. We all headed back to the tea street instead for a refreshment break before our garden visit to the Alhambra. Believe it or not, just as we got to the gate the heavens opened once again but thankfully it was only a relatively short downpour. The gardens were amazingly beautiful but they were on such a big scale that after a while you ceased to really appreciate them, although Cathryn again was in heaven. Another late dinner followed as we adjusted well and truly to Spanish time, and then it was time to pack for our early morning departure to Madrid.

Surprise surprise, as we set out for the station in the morning it was raining yet again. Lovely! However, I must say that the First Class train trip was unexpectedly good as we were served a three course lunch with a bar service. What style!!! We even had little bottles of balsamic vinegar and olive oil for our salads, along with tiny salt and pepper shakers - and the food was good!!! On our arrival in Madrid (at Atocha Station where the bombs went off) we were met by Rachel's friend Jose who took us to Rubee's so we could dump our bags and then gave us a walking tour of Madrid's main sights, including the main parks. The architecture is beautiful in the city, with its wrought iron balconies and domed roofs. Rachel even commented on how European it all looked! Jose's tour finally ended after tapas for dinner at about midnight, by which stage poor Rubee had nearly frozen to death waiting for us (as we had her house keys she couldn't actually get in to her own place).

Our first full day in Madrid was pretty much a catch up on sleep day, although Rubee didn't have that luxury with her usual 6am start. We staggered out at about 2pm and braved the well organised Metro to sort out the next train booking and hit the shops, although we didn't actually buy anything. The Spaniards have definitely got the tourist info sorted too - we had no trouble getting about due to all of the signs in English as long as no-one tried to speak to us in Spanish. On our return to Rubee's the plan was for an early night but alas that was before we all started talking!

The next things on our plan were the Prado and the something-Thyssen Collection. Both were amazing collections of art, especially the second one. In the LP it describes it 'quite simply as a ridiculously rich collection' and I'd have to agree. Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Sisley, Renoir, Rafaello....they were all there, plus many, many more. We met up with Jose again for a paella dinner and met his two brothers, since he had met all of Rachel's family in Canberra and wanted to reciprocate. One of his brothers has an apartment with an amazing view of the city so we went there for a late drink, and Jose's impromptu version of Spain's entrance in the Eurovision Song Contest, the 'chicky chicky' song. Be afraid, very afraid I say! Finally, on our last night in Madrid we recreated Erkan's Air Conditioner cocktail, although due to the unavailability of pomegranate juice on its own (strange in Spain where it's important enough that Granada is named after it, and the fruit is its symbol) we made it instead with a rather weird mix of orange, pomegranate, raspberry and blueberry juice. It was yummo!!! But of course we've had to rename it the Air Reconditioner now.
Which brings me to Donostia. This place has been on my list of destinations since Susanne raved about it, and I can see why already. It's nice here! We didn't quite get the same stylish train trip with the lunch service but the town is making up for it with their version of tapas, called pintxos. We had to try them out of course, along with the local wine. It's all good so far....I'll have to give a full update once we have seen a bit more of the town.

Hola`!!!

Well, it's been a while since I updated this - apologies to anyone who may actually be reading it! Since the last update we enjoyed our last ferry trip from Santorini to Athens - all 8 hours of it but luckily we made the wise decision to upgrade ourselves to the First Class lounge featuring purple tub chairs for the journey - not only did that wipe out the constant battle to maintain one's balance on the sliding plastic garden chairs, but our baggage stayed dry, we had a bar service and blissfully, we didn't suffer too much from smoke inhalation. However, we also didn't make it back to the Plaka until about 1am so the following 6am pickup was a bit horrific. Despite this, I have to say that the whole organised transfers thing makes life a bit easier, especially now that we are back on the DIY backpacker deluxe version (ie public buses, balancing with packs on while trying to read a map at the same time!)

So we left Athens and headed to Rome on Olympic Airlines. The flight was a bit ho hum and would have been enlivened no end if Rachel's dream of the flight attendents wearing classical Grecian dresses like togas had been realised. Alas it was not to be. We caught the airport train into Termini and had a bit of a wait for our room to be available so this was an excuse for a cheap coffee stop, followed by dumping the gear and having a bit of a chat with Flavio at Reception. Rachel thinks I had been exaggerating in my descriptions of how Italians deal with people, but that was only until we went to the Post Office and it all became clear!

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking until our feet steamed - broccoli pizza at Pizza Planet, the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, the Pincio, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Campo de' Fiori (hmmmm......apple and raspberry gelato!!!), across to the Trastevere, the Bocca della Verita`, Piazza Italia, and back to the hotel to crash for the night.

On Sunday we headed off by IC Plus to Naples for a Disorient Express tour of Pompeii. It was all a bit organised really with clear signposting - what is going on??? Rachel was happy since visiting the ruins was on her list of things to do (tick!) and we even got to see the dog body cast this time, along with the villa and fullery featured on my BBC dvd about the last day of Pompeii. After trekking around the ruins for several hours we headed back into Naples and went for a stroll down to the main square, but since not much was open we soon headed back to catch the train for Rome. Alas we did not realise that reservations were required so for the last hour we had to stand in the First Class aisle after being booted out of seats, plus we had to pay the reservation fee and a fine even though we couldn't sit beacuse it was packed. Typical!!!!

The next morning after a quick walk to the Colosseum, we boarded the Alta Velocita` Eurostar for Florence which was stylish. My only grumble was the passenger who decided that my backpack was not worthy of a spot on the luggage rack so they put their huge suitcase in its spot and abandoned my pack in the middle of the entrance bit at the start of the carriage. Bloody rude I thought! Our first stop in Florence after checking in at the beautiful Aprile was the laundromat - aghhhhhh......clean clothes!!!!! Cathryn was very impressed with the hotel which was soon transformed into a Chinese laundry upon our return as the contents of our packs were laid decorously around the room for an airing - it still smelt of clean clothes hours later. But we did get complementary slippers and a little amenity bag each - and the shower was one of those 6 jet fandangled contraptions so you could be pummelled to within an inch of your life. Impressive!!!! In the afternoon we met up with Lisa, Justin and Olivia again for a gelato and coffee before a quick sprint around the markets and dinner at the nice restaurant just down from the hotel. That left only the following morning for a shopping splurge (after breakfast in the courtyard amongst the orange trees!) before our trek to the airport in Pisa. Note for future travels - take the direct train since the connection is a hike at Pisa Centrale.

Now begins my big gripe - don't fly Ryannair! Not only was check in a shambles but they make a killing on excess luggage. Luckily Rachel had sent 5 kilos that morning at the Post Office since my pack was 1 kilo over and I had to pay the exorbitant fine of 15 euros for it, even though on the pages Rachel had the amount was 8 per kilo. According to the woman, 'it had just gone up'. Hmmmmm.......but I couldn't get my boarding pass until I paid it. Sometimes budget airlines are not that fantastic! Since most of the passengers were Italian they had to be told to be quiet during the safety briefing and they applauded our bumpy landing, so that was amusing but otherwise it was an uneventful flight. In fact, the only surprising thing was that we managed to get a row together despite the usual boarding bunfight.

Arriving in Seville was document free again - no checks required. We caught the airport bus into the centre and then navigated our way onto the circular bus to get to our hotel, balancing with packs on and reading maps at the same time, frantically trying to find street names in the dark as we whizzed by them. Still, the Hotel Regina is rather stylish too even if we were too tired to enjoy it the first night. Exploring Seville was fun - the Alcazar and the gardens were beautiful (you'll have to wait for the pics - it's the usual story), the Cathedral was completely over the top (and we got kicked out anyway. Plus the Giralda tower was closed for maintenance - it's the symbol of Seville and former minaret! You're supposed to get a great view of the city from up there. Drats!!!), and the winding little streets were cute, including the tapas bar stops for lunch. Again, we spent hours just walking soaking up the vibe of the city. It's nice there!

Yesterday we spent the morning strolling around before our train in the afternoon to Granada. No doubt there will be another photo festival when we hit the Alhambra later tonight for our tour, but that will be an update for another day!

Santorini

Greetings from the Cyclades! It's nice here in a picture postcard kind of way - blindingly whitewashed buildings, blue domed churches, sparkling turquoise pools clinging to cliff edges, exclusive hotels, tourist trap shops, and everywhere you look, the cobalt blue of the Aegean.

We've spent four days here exploring the island, including catching a boat out to the middle of the caldera so that we could hike up the side of the currently dormant volcano, doing a three hour cliff top hike around to the town of Oia (or as Rachel has now named it, Oy) which is famous for its sunsets, and yesterday we hired a car and zipped from one end of the island to the other. It was fun once you got used to being on the wrong side of the road, car etc. It's certainly much nicer here than on Mykonos, but then we've also had sunshine here rather than wind and rain and that's got to help!

Well, this is only a short post since I'm almost out of time and we have our ferry to catch back to Athens - all seven hours. At least after the last big ferry trip where we froze, were washed with sea spray, shortened our lives due to passive smloking and had to balance precariously on plastic garden chairs, the First Class Lounge option sounds much more stylish!