- the food, the food, the food!! The wine! ;-)
- siestas
- Museo del Prado, architecture and grandeur!!
- Dec's favourite: the Tour Bernabeu - Real Madrid's stadium and museum ;-)
We loved it all, and luckily the weather wasn't too hot so we didn't mind when I got us completely lost in the old town on the way back to the hotel - so much for being the NavCaro!
Costa Blanca:
We arrived in Alicante to meet Paul, Mary and Robyn; we stayed in Benidorm - aka British mayhem summer haven - for 1 night, enjoyed dinner, walk and some shows that night.
Next day, Torrevieja. Nice to stay at Mary & Paul's place as we could stop hotel hopping for a few days. The beach was great and we found some really nice restaurants.
Highlight - Carnival/Amusement park
Valencia and La Tomatina:
We went into Valencia on the search of my past - well, we were there so it kind of worked out! See, my greatgrandmother was Valenciana so I went to the Archbishop's Diocese to try to find her baptism papers. We'll see what happens.
Valencia is stunning, we stayed in the old town and if it wasn't for the Navman, we would still be trying to find our hotel.
On the second day we drove in the morning to Buñol, and ignoring advices to be there before 8am, we arrived with the hords at 9:30am. Goggles on and 3euro sandals on, we headed of to find the square of the ham, we never made it that far as the multitude of people flooded the streets and every square meter got populated by 17 people at once.
The crowds would shout "Agua! Aqui! Eh eh eh eh eh" - Water! Here! and whoever got the best chanting going would be blessed by a bucket of water from the skies!! Well, from the top of the buildings where the locals watched safely.
Being squashed like a sardine four times, every time a truck went past empty, finally the 5th and last truck came packed with flying tomatoes. It's good fun, I recommend!!
After the storm comes the calm... well, not really!! After the storm of tomatoes comes the river mayhem where everyone headed to get washed as the few hoses from the neighbours weren't enough to wash out all the tomato sin!!
Sevilla - the land of Flamenco
What can I say! 44 degrees!! One of the most beautiful places I've ever been to.
We saw a Flamenco show that almost brought me to tears, we had more nice food, climbed the tower of the catedral, visited the Alcazar and were cooked alive.
By the way, did I mention we ate Iberico Ham everywhere?? Yes, we did.
Funny thing, Dec asked for toast with butter, tomato and ham and the man behind the bar looked at us like aliens and said "Manteca y tomate????? No, no, no - Aceite de Oliva!!" And that was that, olive oil and no arguments.
The last days - Jerez, yum!
We drove to the Costa del Sol and on the way stopped at Jerez de la Frontera where they make the famous Jerez/Sherry wines and Sherry Brandy. Two hour-tour, tapas and tasting everything later, we walked off with some really nice bottles and sleepy heads!
Then Ronda, where 5minutes turned into 1 hour as the town was colourful and crazy with the celebrations of the Virgin.
We finally made it to Fueringiola in the coast for one last day at the beach before heading to Malaga airport and back to Ireland.
What a trip!! I think I want to live in Spain...
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