Sevilla

We spent the last 2 1/2 days wandering the amazing city of Sevilla. While not wandering the streets, we were able to take in the views of the Cathedral from our rooftop terrace and enjoy the warm weather!

View from the rooftop terrace of the Cathedral

On Friday (day 5), we took the high speed train from Barcelona to Sevilla. We arrived in Sevilla around 2 and spent the next 5 hours exploring the river bank and parque de Maria Luisa....not expecting to find the amazing Plaza de Espana within the park. We rented a 2 person bike thing and explored the park and beautiful gardens. Super touristy but one of my favorite activities we have done so far!

That night we also took in a Flamenco show thanks to a great recommendation from my cousin Chris at La Carboneria. Very unique, hole in the wall place with a great (free) flamenco show. After the show, we got lost wandering the many small streets and alleyways of the Santa Cruz neighborhood before finding one of the many hidden restaurants of the area. Mmmmm....tapas, tapas, tapas. 

On Saturday (day 6), we spent the entire morning exploring the Alcazar. Words nor pictures would give this place the credit it deserves. It was magical. My friend Chelsea recommended to "spend a couple hours getting lost in the gardens of the Alcazar" and that is exactly what we did! Great recommendation Chels!

Later that afternoon we went across the river to Triana and found a fun Irish Pub to watch a couple of futbol matches. We met a ton of study abroad kids and reminisced about the goo old college days. Then we found a riverside cafe for some yummy tapas and watched the beautiful sunset over the river. 

And Sunday (day 7) was our last day in Sevilla. Today we went to the Cathedral of Sevilla and climbed to the top of the Giralda Tower to take in the views of Sevilla. It was another beautiful day here. We explored more of the small streets and walked around Triana some more. It's hard not to fall in love with Sevilla....good food, beautiful views, nice people, great weather. I'm gonna miss it here a lot, but onward we go.  

Cathedral de Sevilla

Giralda Tower 

View from top of Giralda Tower

Bells at Giralda Tower 

Cathedral de Sevilla

Triana from the other side of the river

And since I've been slacking on my pastry pics, here was this mornings breakfast :)

Tomorrow morning we take a train to Granada where we can't wait to explore the Alhambra and Arab baths (and hookah and more tapas)! Note to anyone visiting Spain - book tickets as early as possible to the Alhambra.  They sold out for the dates we are going to be there.  We ended up buying a CityPass for almost twice as much which thankfully included an entry into the Alhambra for the day we needed. The only other option was waking up at 5:30 and waiting in line for limited release day-of tickets. No. Thank. You.

A lot of Ups and Downs

The last couple of days we have seen two different sides of Barcelona. On Wednesday (Day 3), we visited two hills in the city and took in some amazing views. First we went to the top of Tibidabo. According to Wikipedia this mountain is 512m high and is home to an amusement park, a telecommunications tower and a Catholic Church. Interesting mix of things if you ask me!

Like other tourist hot spots in the city, it was very hard to get to. We took the metro to a station at the bottom-ish of the mountain, wandered around looking for a bus (thank goodness we researched how to get there), a bus to the bottom of the funicular and then the funicular to the top of the mountain. It was definitely worth the confusion though because the views of the city were breathtaking. 

You can see the church and part of the amusement park behind us here. 

After taking a million pictures, we took Ann Scott's very sound advice and stopped at Mirablau, at the bottom of the funicular, for some cava and tapas which were both delicious and included another amazing view of Barcelona!

From here we decided to walk down this hill, over to the bottom of another hill, and (thankfully) up a series of escalators to the top of Parc Güel. This is a park designed by Gaudi, as most of the city seems to be, and has some stunning features.  A nice mix of the outdoors and his architecture made for a nice few hours walking around. 

We enjoyed a nice dinner at Cachito's and then found our way to an English Pub close to where we are staying. Stephen loved it because they were playing the Europa Cup (yay Sevilla!) and it was also a Liverpool bar. 

Day 3 wouldn't be complete without a picture of my amazing pastry I had for breakfast. 

Actual size shown :)

Today, day 4 brought on more jetlag.  We were exhausted and decided to take it easier today than the last 3 days. Today was all about the beach! 

We got some sun, had some drinks, enjoyed guacamole and then walked through the Gothic Quarter on our way back.  I think this is my favorite part of Barcelona! It consists or lots of small alley ways and hidden bars and shops. The buildings were all beautiful. Every way you turned, you found something else worth photographing. 

We have loved our time in Barcelona, but we leave tomorrow morning for Sevilla. We can't wait to explore a completely brand new part of Spain and hopefully enjoy some warmer weather as well!

Barcelona, the Beginning

We have arrived in Barcelona, Spain! 

Day 1 in the books and we are already loving Spain, no matter how exhausted we may be....

We are staying in the Eixample region of the city. Seems to be a nice, safe, foodie area and has been great as a jumping off point.  We went to El Glop for dinner and had some delicious Spanish cuisine. But jet lag set in and that was it for day 1.

Wine, Seafood Paella and mussels from El Glop!

Day 2 was a busy and exhausting day once more. Beginning with some deliciousness :) As I told some of you before I left, I am going to be breakfasting like this every day! (Though it's no cronut!)

Coffees, apple tart and chocolate muffin - breakfast of champions!

After the great fuel, we basically walked the entire city, thanks to no cell phones and exploration in our blood! We started off the day walking toward Las Ramblas and La Boqueria (the market). It was a bit chilly and overcast most of the day, but that didn't stop us from seeing the sites and the sea. La Boqueria was a fun experience.  Very similar to markets we went to in Santiago, Chile, but always entertaining. 

They had my brothers and sisters (hares) for sale, as well as some of Mary's little lambs....delicious, no?

They also had my fave foods....meat and eggs (in mass)!

Then off we went to the beach.  We stopped off at Las Ramblas de Mar and found a Starbucks. Sadly they didn't take our app (we both have rewards to use!) Then found an empty concrete pier and took it all in. 

Stephen even touched the water....you can see him giving it a thumbs up if you look closely.

From there we meandered the city looking for La Sagrada Familia. Easier said then done. From pictures I had seen on google, I thought it would be visible from anywhere in the city. Boy was I wrong. Thankfully there were cafés with jamon y queso sandwiches along the trail.  We even ran into the Spanish arc de triomphe and some old men playing bocce ball!

Notice the Segway tour behind us. Stephen wouldn't let me join in :( he said it would make us look too touristy....

We basically walked circles around it trying to find the exact block. But it was worth it - it was amazing. Definitely worth a trip if you're in the area. And I'd recommend the audio tour.  It was a nice history lesson of the entire building. Below are a few pics we took from different parts of the church. You can see the outside is far from complete, but still an amazing site to see!

We even took a lift up 50m that had a great panoramic view of the city. As many of you know I am terrified of heights so this was painful for me...but Stephen had a great time!  Maybe too good...

We ended the night at Cerveseria Catalana, right near out apartment. We tried to go the first night but the wait was over an hour, so tonight we got there early. The tapas were amazing. A montadito with foie gras, steak and pear was the highlight of my meal (and demolished before a pic was taken). The wine was equally as delicious (and cheap!). All in all we had a lovely dinner. Now back to the apartment to rest up for tomorrow's nice weather and big adventures!