Barcelona

Hello everyone,

We arrived in Barcelona on Friday afternoon and caught a taxi to our apartment. It is  HUGE! We did very well with our apartment selection, both here and in Lisbon.

We have spent Saturday and Sunday exploring Barcelona. We have walked and walked. Barcelona is a very easy city to walk around as it's flat with lovely wide streets and lots of benches placed strategically for weary walkers.

We visited Sagrada Famlia. It is truly amazing both inside and outside. We took the elevator up the bell tower at the top of the church. Magnificent views but a very high and cramped space. I was quite glad to come back down. They think it will be completed by 2030. They are using all the admission money, 11Euros per person, to fund the construction and so it is moving ahead quite well. There is a museum below the church in the crypt area and that is all about the design and construction of the church. They have some of the models Gaudi used and some of his scetches and the models and drawings that the later architects and sculptors have used. Gaudi himself is buried there. you can see his tomb - very plain and simple, surprisingly.

We also visited La Pedrera, the apartment block Gaudi designed in 1910. There you could visit the roof terrace, the attic and one of the apartments as it would have been in 1910. It is still used as an apartment building, with people (very rich people) living there. It is a really interesting building with curved walls. Each apartment is semi-circular, looking down onto an internal courtyard. It also has great views from the roof top.

We also walked past many of the other incredible buildings that were designed and built at the turn of the 20th century, the Modernista buildings. They even have the footpaths marked so that you can find them.

We walked down into La Rambla, the real touristy area of Barcelona. There again the streets are wide with pedestrian walkways in the centre of them. It is very lively and bustly here, with heaps of street vendors, restauraunts, cafes, bars, souvenir shops and Louis Vuitton handbag sellers, of course. We were looking for the Cat Bar which Andi had read about. Eventually we found it, a tiny little cafe/bar with cat pictures on the wall. Not as impressive or exciting as we'd hoped.

 
Will continue exploring Barcelona for the next couple of days and then it's time for the big flight home. See you all soon.

Maz, Great Gran and Andi

Lisbon

Hi everyone,

I posted a really big blog from Lisbon but it seems to have disappeared. I don't know if anyone read it before it vanished, but if not I will do my best to rewrite it.

Our first full day in Lisbon was very warm and sunny. We left the apartment and followed the tram tracks down to the town. We are immediately above the town but because of the steep, narrow, hilly streets it takes about 20 minutes to get there. The centre of Lisbon is laid out as a grid with large public squares. It is very easy to get around. We found the HopOn HopOff bus and its partner, the Hill Tram Car ( a mini version of a W class tram). They have lots of little trams in Lisbon as there are many narrow, steep, winding treets in the old part of the town.

We also went on the Santa Justa elevator which was originally built to deliver goods from the lower part of the city to the higher part and vice versa. It was designed by a pupil of Eiffel. Three were built and this is the only one left and is a great tourist attraction. It is built next to a 14th century church on the top level. This church was one of only three man made structures to survive after Lisbon's 1755 earthquake. The rest of the city was levelled. The castle of St George and the Aquaduct were the other two.

Later we went to the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos (the Monastery of Jerome) and the Padrao dos Descobrimentos ( the Monument to the Discoverers). The monastery is a very beautiful building. It is huge and very imposing. Several Kings and Queens have their tombs there, as does Vasco da Gama, the Portugese explorer who found the sea passage to India. The monastery was built to honour the explorers and to celebrate the success of the Portugese seafarers.

Through a park and under a road and a railway line we got to the waterfront area, which is the place the sailors set out on their explorations. To commemorate this a very large statue of a caravelle was erected in 1960 (the 5th centenary of Henry the Navigator - the King of Portugal at the time). The caravelle has 42 huge figures on it. Twenty-one on each side, representing all the people involved in the discoveries, from the king to a sailor, a mapmaker, a ship builder, a priest, etc. It's amazing. On the forecourt in front of the caravelle is an enormous map showing the places the Portugese discovered in this period.

When we got back we walked home - 30 minutes back as it is all uphill. After a rest we went on up the hill to the Castelo de Sao Jorge (the Castle of St George). This was the site of Lisbon's first settlement and is situated on the top of the highest hill of the town. It is just above our apartment but it is about a 1 km walk to get to the entrance. There are lots of cats and peacocks here.The views are spectacular from the castle walls, but really not that much better than the views from our apartment.

When we got back to the apartment we walked the other way down our street to the little restaurant that is at the bottom. It didn't look much but the food and the people were lovely. The owner even organised to book a taxi for us on Friday so we could get to the airport. Had a lovely call from Caroline and Benj at 10.00ish on Thursday. There had been a large earthquake in Southern Spain. Reassured them that we were not going south, we had changed our minds about Grenada partly because of the earthquake.
 
On Thursday we went on a bus tour to Sintra, the mountainous area just outside Lisbon. It has been the summer retreat of the kings and queens of Lisbon for hundreds of years. It is incredibly beautifully. An enormous parkland dotted about with the grandest stately homes and palaces. We went to Pena Palace the summer retreat forKing Ferdinand and his family in the 19th century. He designed it in a variety of styles - very whimsical. It was furnished in the Victorian style, totally over the top!!!
On the way back we stopped at Cape Rock, the most westerly point of Europe. We watched the wild Atlantic for a while and then headed back towards Lisbon on the coast road passing some of the most expensive and exclusive properties in Portugal.
 
 
Have really loved Lisbon. It's a beautiful and charming city. Full of castles, palaces, churches and MUSEUMS!!! Every stately home, grand house and palace has been turned into a Museum, housing an enormous range of subject areas from tiles to electricity from antiquities to modern art.
Lisbon is wonderful and we are very sorry to be leaving. Our apartment is gorgeous, Light airy and well appointed. We fly to Barcelona tomorrow and have our last few days in Europe.




Love to all

Maz, Great Gran and Andi

Assisi to Portugal

Hi to you all,


After a very lively night in Assisi we woke early. Today we had to leave Assisi and drive back to Rome. Our last day in Italy and goodbye to the big black car. We found our way back to the parking station and met a lovely ginger puss on our way. After our usual 30 minute struggle to get out of the old town we got onto the motorway and headed towards Fuimicini - Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport. We decided we'd leave the car there instead of at Termini. Got there in good time, well done Simon, he's done a great job as usual, worth his weight in gold.
Dropped the car off and hope that the two scratches on the wheel trims won't cost us too much money. The kerbs are much higher in Italy! The car was super. It went very fast and scared all the other drivers out of the fast lane. We travelled well above the speed limit almost all the time, up to 150kmh at times. Lots of fun! I do hope there are no speeding fines though.

We got to the airport in good time which was just as well as the plane was leaving early. Unbelievable - 14.25 instead of 15.30. Arrived in Lisbon at 16.30 Lisbon time, they are in the same time zone as England. Andi rang the apartment people and after several calls we finally got the 'out of office number' to contact the girl with the key.

Took a taxi to the apartment which is up high above the city just beside the Castle of St George. A beautiful location, if a bit steep. The apartment is beautiful, huge, light and airy.Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large living room and a kitchen with all mod cons. Just lovely. Helena the 'Travel Lisbon' girl told us that there was a little minimart down the hill a bit so we wandered down and bought some supplies. Walked back and had bread, cheese, tomatoes, oranges, grapes and other good things for tea. Yum! Off to bed by 10.30 and wil explore Lisbon tomorrow. It looks lovely!


love from

Maz, Great Gran and Andi

Assisi

Hello to everyone,

We left Verona on Ella's birthday to drive south to Assisi. We thought the drive would take about four hours, with a couple of rest spots on the way. As usual it took half an hour to get out of the town and to find our way to the motorway or Autostrade, but eventually we prevailed.

We arrived at Assisi at 12.45 and walked down the steep streets to the tourist information office. As we walked we were surprised to see that the town was absolutely packed with people and that many of them were dressed in medieval costumes. What was happening we wondered? The town square had banks of seating erected on one side and all the streets were blocked off so no cars could enter. Some of the streets were even blocked for pedestrian traffic. We finally got to the tourist information office and asked the lady there if she could find us somewhere to stay. She made many calls and finally found a 'The Hotel Sole', right in the centre of town with an apartment built in under the roof, in the attic space. It was great. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms a sitting room and a balcony area. It was also very cheap - only 90 Euros.

The reason for eveyone being in costume was Assisi's Spring Festival. The festival ran over three days - Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The two sides of the town (upper and lower) hold competitions to banish winter and welcome spring. They have banner blessing ceremonies, the Assisi flag waving and throwing, crossbow competitions, log sled races, tug of war, archery, reenactment of medieval life, parades and processions and a choral and musical competition. It was the last day of the festival when we arrived and it was all very colourful and busy. The whole town was involved!

We packed a couple of small bags from the big cases in the car and walked back to the hotel leaving the car in the covered parking station. We then walked to the lower part of Assisi to the church of St Francis of Assisi. It's an amazing place. All the decoration was by Giotto and is fabulous. The lovely statue is still just as lovely. It was created by an artist known as Norberto, although that was not his name. His real name was Luigi Proietti. Sadly he died in 2009.

We walked back to our hotel which is in the upper part of the town. We are near the other large basilica, St Chiara's (or St Claire's) which is a twin of the basilica of St. Francis. We watched the festivities for a while and then went to the restaurant next door to the hotel for dinner. And so good friends, to bed. Tomorrow we drive back to Rome and drop off the car and catch the plane to Lisbon.

Talk again soon


Maz, Great Gran and Andi

Verona and Venice

Greetings to everyone


This is a very special message. Happy Birthday Ella. We are all very sad that we won't see you today at your party. We all hope that you have a great time and we will have another party when we are all back home.

Happy Mothers Day on Sunday to all of you who are mums or who have mums. Have a great day all of you.


We are in Verona, the home of Juliet's balcony, another piece of clever marketing! Yesterday we left Pompeii to drive to Verona. We had Simon plan out our route and set off at 8.00. Unfortunately something had happened to Simon's voice, it had gone. While I tried to find it we missed our turn onto the motorway and had to drive through the narrow and crowded streets of industrial Pompeii until we could get back on. By the time we had reset Simon's voice we were on the motorway and on our way to Verona. Thankfully Simon is all better now.

It took 6 hours to drive to Verona with a couple of rest stops on the way. When we came off the A1 motorway we were somewhat startled to have to pay tolls of 45 Euros. We'd also had to put 50 Euros of fuel in the car. The costs were adding up!We arrived in Verona at 3.30 and decided to hell with it,we'd paid out a fair whack already today so we'd stay at a luxury hotel for two nights. Hang the expense!! Also they'd park the car, which was a consideration. The man at the parking garage had a very unusual (to us) pet bird. I don't know what it is and the man had very little English so he couldn't tell us about it.

We visited the Arena to have a look after we had checked in and got the car sorted. It is still used for concerts and operas so it is in excellent condition with some modern additions like comfy seats, a bar and a souvenir shop, all very important. We explored Verona for a while and then decided to have an earlydinner and go back to our very comfy suite at the Grand Hotel.

Today we caught the train to Venice. We went to St Mark's where there were no queues!!!! A miracle, we got straight in and were able to look around easily. It was great. St Mark's is a fabulous church. It is a combination of East and West with amazing tiling on the floors, great mosaic covered domes fabulous statues and wonderful carvings. Spectacular indeed! Unfortunately you cannot take photos inside, not that that stops many. There were two weddings also taking place in the square. What a venue!

We were very weary after we got back to the hotel so it was a promenade around the town and back to the hotel to bed. Tomorrow we collect the car and head off to Assisi.


Have a great party Ella


Blog again soon

Maz, Great Gran and Andi