Travel to Spain, Bilbao.

This past weekend I went to Bilbao with my friend Aliyea. Bilbao is a town in the northern part of Spain, in Basque Country. Our adventure began with us taking the Metro at 7am and trying to find our way to the train station. After an interesting ride that involved Aliyea being the target of an attempted robbery (this always happens to her), we finally found ourselves on the train. Ten train stops and a Subway sandwich later, we had arrived in Bilbao.

Luckily for me, Aliyea studied at the University of Deusto over this past summer, so she knew her way around. We ended up staying with a woman named Tete (her real name was Teresa), who was the host mom of her friend over the summer. Unexpectedly, Tete fed us lunch. Unlike America, lunch is the main meal of the day (this makes sense, given that they eat lunch around 4 in the afternoon). Tete went all out, serving us grilled vegetables, locally caught fish, cucumbers covered in mayonnaise (ew), and shrimp with the eyes still attached (double ew). I’m not going to lie...

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Travel to Spain, Barcelona.

Spain! this is a country I've looked forward to for a long time and I'm so happy to be here. For the next 16 days I'll be seeing a good portion of the country. The whole trip is centered around La Tomatina. But to start off...it's Barcelona!!! For the first 1/2 of the trip my brother is with me. This is the first time we're traveling together and I'm excited! We both flew into Bacelona on Saturday morning and have been on the move since.

Taking the bus into the city you immediately feel overloaded. There are so many things to look at! The old buildings and history and culture...so much to take in. The bus dropped us off in Placa de Catalunya. It's a beautiful square bubbling with people, vendors and fountains. We make our thru around the square and down to the opposite corner where our hotel is. We opted for location over luxury and ended up in a quaint place with the nicest staff - hotel Medium Monagal. We are right at the end of La Rambla and it's perfect. We have to walk thru a small watch store to find the front desk but this is just part of the charm. Two staff operate out of a desk the size of a small closetWell load onto the tiny elevator and ride up to our room. It's small but very clean and has two twin beds. What more do we need! We immediately drop off our stuff, change clothes and head out. It's around lunch time and we've decided to do a walking tour of the city thru the old part of town. We start at thebeginning of La Rambla.

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Travel to Spain, Galicia, Pontevedra.

Had a great day relaxing around the pool. Those who wanted to swim swam, those who wanted to read read. Those who went Pink went Pink! In fact most of us went a little Pink - and we had run out of after Sun so that will be on the shopping list for tomorrow! A great day in the Sun with the temparature hovering around the high 20 C's.

We decided to eat out tonight and on the way back via Curtis I spotted this very nice restaurant (Parillada A Meson) on the road into Arzua so we took a short drive out too it. It looked closed i.e. there was no-one there at all - but it wasn't so went in. Inside it was very nicely decorated and a nice temperature. We ordered and had both starters and a main course - this was probably a mistake after seeing the size of the starters... Catherine had enough salad for 5, Eleanor had enough croquettes for 5...

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Travel to Spain, Galicia, La Coruña.

We have spent the last week exploring the Ria De Muros. The first two nights spent anchoring off the playa de San Francisco which was well sheltered and good holding. The town was small and friendly. We then moved to Muros anchoring outside the Marina, the town was bigger and busier, lots of history and cafes. They were celebrating a festival and the live music played until 5.30 am and at 9.00 am they sent up rocket air bombs from the pier !!! When do they sleep? It all got a bit too noisy and busy so we headed over to Portosin and have spent the last two nights on a berth there. A very nice place, very welcoming and friendly. Today we head for Baiona. I don't think we will have enough wind to get us there today so will either anchor up on the way or do a bit of night sailing. That is the boring factual bit over I will leave Sam to let her imagination run riot.

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Travel to Spain, Region of Murcia.

It's Sunday afternoon and I've come back to the hotel from the beach to do some washing and start getting organised to move on tomorrow. I've spent 3 lovely - hot and humid - days here, just relaxing. I think I needed it. I have been carrying a sore hip muscle for a couple of days - I think from sleeping on buses and trains in awkward positions. I really felt I could do with a massage. I had seen a massage being given on the beach on Friday.  On Saturday, late morning, I walked to the beach - going north this time - where 'The Las Villas Path' starts. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, Benicassim became a centre for glamorous parties attended by renown public figures and important bourgeois from Valencia and other major towns, who had their holiday villas built along the sea front. About 28 of these villas still remain and there are information boards along the boardwalk that give details about them. The one at the most northern tip of Playa (Beach) Voramar is the Hotel Voramar

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Travel to Spain, La Rioja, Logroño.

Empowered to Receive Love - Abba means much the same as daddy. Thus the word Abba expresses trust, safely, confidence, belonging, and most of all intimacy. Abba implies an embracing and nurturing love which transcends all love that may come from elsewhere. Complements of Henri Nowen as translated by ME!

I have been walking with Abba father - my daddy - quite a bit. Today I walked 18 miles almost non-stop, except to watch a herd of sheep grazing with its shepard (yes a real shephard - complete with staff and dog!) watching over them. And yes I recited the 23rd Pslam to myself. Anyway I walked that 18 miles for the most part alone. Many of my friends left ahead of me and then stopped in Viana. I chose to keep going as I was in Viana by 10 or so. These times I have walking alone give me a chance to talk to myself, or Abba or the world around me. Sometimes I answer myself - a bit scary.

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Travel to Spain, La Rioja, Azofra.

On our way to Azofra which is 23.3km down the road, well path actually. Fiona headed off this morning with a vengeance arriving in Ventosa for morning tea ahead of me. Fiona leaves in the morning while I pack and pay the bill. She likes to see how long it takes for me to catch up while I try to catch her as soon as possible - yip the sun has got to us.

We generally only spend about half the day if that walking together, the rest is wandering along chatting to others or walking alone. Both are great, it's nice to have time on you own as well as meeting new walkers to chat to and learn about their lives. Everyone is so open as we all have the Camino in common.

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Travel to Spain, Navarre, Pamplona.

On a beautiful sunny day there are few better sights than a glorious lake, fields of wild flowers and a sky full of twittering birds. Luckily Mother Nature smiled on us and we were able to get down to the laguna at Pitillas without seeing a cloud in the sky. We arrived on the day of the "Fiesta del Agua" which we assumed would mean activities and people, but the visitors' centre was closed for the occasion unless you had pre-booked a guided visit which was a bit of a shame.

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Travel to Spain, Catalonia, Castelldefels.

We have already flown from Marrakesh to Barcelona and are having our last night in Castelldefels, a lovely coastal town just out of Barcelona. Sitting on the balcony watching our last Spanish sunset.

Our last few days in Marrakesh were quite relaxing. Spent a few days just lazing around both at Riad Khol and at Dar Sabra. Went in to the square again for a bit of last minute shopping and something to eat. Checked out Gilles, the upmarket shopping complex and bought Leanne an amazing silver and amythyst ring.

One thing Mick wanted to do was have his picture taken with the Cobra's. We missed it the first night as they had packed up, so we headed back in the next arvo and there they were. After seeing one of the Cobra's strike at it's handler Mick starts to have second thoughts. Sensing this The Charmer quickly comes over and drapes a less venomous snake around Mick's shoulders and charms 200 Dirham out of his pocket, which is quite alot!

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Travel to Spain, Basque Country.

I went to an centuries old Catholic Church for my friend's first Communion. There was about 20 boys and girls receiving first communion. After the communion we all walked over to the restaurant for a big party. We ate gigantic lunch , included shrimp, filet mignon, wine, sidra, deserts, other kinds of fish, lots and lots of food. We all played together

The party lasted from 2:30 until 10:30, then Grandma and I came home we were exhausted. The place that we went for lunch was a very fancy restaurant. First Communion is a major event here and you receive lots of presents. Where we went was up some outside escalators which we rode and then walked a couple of blocks to the restaurant. I had a lot of fun and the first communion was interesting.

San Sebastian: A couple of days ago we went to San Sebastian and I went on the beach and swam in the ocean. The water is clear here and the waves are not gigantic, swimming here is safer for everyone. The water is warm here and you do not freeze like an ice cube. We played on the playgrounds in San Sebastian. There Eneritz, me and Papa Papa is Eneritz's Godfatherare lots and lots of playgrounds here for children.

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Travel to Spain, Aragon, Zaragoza.

It was another grey weekend in Pamplona, but the weather forecast suggested that just under two hours away in the car, we might find some sunshine. So we headed off to Zaragoza and, sure enough, just as we were getting close, the clouds broke up and we were left with a beautiful blue sky.

About 50km Southeast of Zaragoza is the sad sight of the crumbling remains of Belchite. To get there we drove through spartan countryside on one of the straightest roads we have ever seen. The ruins of the cathedral loomed large in the distance and helped us get our bearings. Not really knowing where we were heading, we went through the new town and parked up out side the ruins of the old town.

It seems that once upon a time wandering idly through the ruins left from a brutal Spanish Civil War battle was possible. The crumbling buildings are getting a bit dangerous now though, and you can only go inside the cordon on a guided tour. They are available at 2pm, 4pm, and 6pm and, as usual, we timed our visit to imperfection! Instead we wandered around the outside of the cordon. It would
Ruins of Belchitehave been quite easy to lift up the rope and go inside but we erred on the side of caution. We even met the guide who told us that an audio tour in English was available if we went back to the starting point on the hour.

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Travel to Spain, Asturias, Cudillero.

On Saturday we left Galicia to drive 212 kilometres east into Asturias. It was three hours of beautiful scenery, first mountains and then the coast of the Bay of Biscay. Our campsite is a few kilometres east of the old historic fishing port of Cudillero and the scenery is sensational. We thought it didn´t get any better than Galicia until we walked out of the campsite a few hundred metres down a winding country road and were met by a view that took our breath away; a series of sandy bays and sheer cliffs stretching into the distance and the waters of the Bay of Biscay at their calmest, benign and blue. Our photos do not do it justice because the light wasn´t particularly good and there was quite a damp mist rolling in from the sea.

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Travelt to Spain, Andalusia, Cádiz.

Cadiz was a great surprise. I arrived by ferry in the port that was once arguably the most important in the world. Full of history, quaint and appealing, I made the most of my day there, taking in its sights and learning a little of its incredible history. Cadiz is where the first Spanish constitution came into fruition. I visited the museum explaining Spain´s political evolution and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Cadiz may have seen its heyday, but like many spots in Europe one can really feel its history. It´s something that I have come to love and appreciate about Europe. Being immersed in Cadiz´s nooks and crannies for a day was a privilege and a fantastic experience.

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Travel to Spain, Galicia, La Coruña.

Tuesday was a Fiesta Day in Castile y León (a Bank Holiday). We awoke to find several caravans arriving, some quite early and others throughout the morning, so we expected a noisy Fiesta night ahead. Wrong! By evening everyone had disappeared, leaving us completely alone, the only campers down in the woods by the lake. We like peace and quiet but I (Vivien) think a noisy Fiesta night might have been better than being completely alone in such an out-of-the-way place; John, however, was quite happy about it and it meant we could let the dogs off the leads for a run. Spanish campers had used the day to “set up” their caravan pitches for the summer ahead, for holidays and weekends. Others who had been here over the weekend also left today. One young couple who John helped placing his van on the next pitch to us said that he was putting it there until October.

We decided to go off for a picnic lunch. We drove to the “Casa del Parque” an impressive information centre where we spent a while learning about the flora and fauna of the region e.g. otters, martins, eagles,
Little waterfall on the Rio Terabuzzards and wolves. We have already seen quite a few golden eagles as well as black and white buzzards flying about. To see the wolves one needs to go higher up country on a guided tour “wolf watching”. There are still quite a few wolves in Northern Spain and also still a limited number of Brown Bears, in León and the Picos de Europa. We watched a film about this most endangered of species at the Casa del Parque. This surprised us. We knew there were wolves but thought that the bears had all been hunted out back in the 1930s when bear hunting was all the rage; not so. There are still some left. We were lucky to see Brown Bears in California in 2008. Who knows, maybe we shall see some when we get to the Picos in May!

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Travel to Spain, Andalusia, Málaga.

When I think of Malaga, I think of one thing - holiday resorts. The last leg of my trip was a day in Malaga before flying home to Ireland and my expectations were low. Fortunately I was proved to be wrong! I was staying in a hostel in the Old Town within easy walking distance of the centre. Malaga's history outdates Cadiz. Founded around 770BC by the Phoenicians, it has seen rulers from Ancient Carthage, the Roman Empire, and Arab Empire before coming under Christian rule again after the Reconquista. The archaeological remains and monuments all these eras have had the effect of making the city "open museum", displaying its rich history of more than 3,000 years.

After setting myself up in the hostel (with people again yay) I walked downtown to see what the city had to offer. It was a really sleepy Sunday and many places were closed. I walked down by the Alcazaba, an old Moorish fort with a Roman ampitheatre at it's base. I headed into the centre of town by Malaga Cathedral. Only one belltower was built, the other remained unfinished after the funds for it were given away. As a result it's known as
sunset dinnerLa Manquita, the One-Armed Lady.

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Travel to Spain, Andalusia, Córdoba.

It was a sad day leaving Cadiz, but I had my bags all packed and ready for the long road home! I was transporting rum, sherry and wine home with me, which made for very heavy bags. It was after 6pm when I arrived at Cordoba, and VERY HOT. The muggy heat nearly bowled me over when I got off the bus. I got a taxi to the hostel and met my roomates immediately - two Americans called Mike and Chu. It was way to hot to go outside (43deg) so we all stayed in under the air-conditioning until after 9pm. And even then it was still ridiculously hot! Chu and I went out for a walk around La Juderia, the old Jewish quarter in Cordoba. The famous Mesquita is very close to where we're staying and looks very impressive from the outside. We ended up eating at a fancy tapas place, sharing cod in tempura batter with a garlic/chilli sauce. Yum! Back at the hostel we worked out how to turn our fans on so we could sleep!

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Travel to Spain, Basque Country, Mundaka.

With a promise of some sunshine the Basque coast had a real feel of spring about it last weekend. Ok, so it wasn't as warm as a couple of weeks ago, but we weren't complaining. We jumped in the Bogey Buggy and headed to the small coastal town of Mundaka where we stayed in the imaginatively named Hotel Mundaka. It was really comfortable and not badly priced compared to most other options in the area. We were also lucky to find a parking space near the harbour for most of the weekend. In summer that could be a bit of a problem.

As we couldn't check in straight away we had a bit of a wander around. The small harbour is lovely and there is a nice outside bar on the square overlooking it. There are also some benches at the clifftops where you can sit and admire the view. The sea was calm though, so we were unable to observe the phenomenon which makes Mundaka famous in the surfing community - the waves breaking from left to right.

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Travel to Spain, Castile & León, Salamanca, Bejar.

On Friday morning we has chocolate con churros, which is amazing! Since I have been sick I only indulged with one churro.

Then after we had our breakfast we were given thelpful tips for traveling. I am pleased to say I have two trips planned! The first is in March and I am going to Paris with about 10 other people from my program here. I am looking forward to seeing what many people have told me is there favorite city in the world. I want to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre and everything else Parisian!. I want to pick up some French saying for the short time I am there. The other trip is to Morocco. The details are still being finalized but the trip is mid-April. Looking forward to seeing another continent!

After our workshop I was still feeling under the weather (I still am but I am getting over it) so I went to bed early.

On Saturday, I went with two other girls walking around the city. We stopped in a makeup store and I purchased a lipstick for 1.90! We also went to a clothing store and has fun trying on
P1010389coats just for fun. We have no room to pack any though! Then we went to the grocery store. The girls I was with did their shopping and I picked up a few staples for my kitchen

After our outing we came back to their girls’ apartment to pickup some more curious souls and left to walk around. We came across a beautiful park and we entertained ourselves with the playground toys—including a zipline! The night was freezing (by our southern CA standards) so we did not stay much longer.

After, we got warmed up by our apartments and headed out for some Chinese food nearby. I guess some people were craving it. The food was ok—I am not a huge fan of the cuisine myself but I found food I liked.

After a long day I was tired and ready to relax. So I went home, made myself some tea and had a nice skype session.

The next day Sunday was spent booking hostels for our Paris trip. The internet kept going out because too many activities were going on. The laundry was going, people were cooking and three laptops were in use. After the
P1010391hostels were booked I decided to attempt the laundry. I had accumulated quite a pile clothes needing to be laundered. After the wash cycle completed, I was left with a sopping wet clump of clothes. Dryers are not used here in Spain so off to wring my clothes as best I could I went! One of my roommates who had done laundry a few days prop told me her clothes tool 3 days to dry. So I will be wearing the same pants for the next three days most likely. Oh well, Spaniards do save a lot of money not using driers. I just pray it does not rain! Right now my clothes are in the cold, sopping wet. Hopefully they will catch some sun!

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Travel to Spain, Andalusia, Jerez de la Frontera.

In the province of Cadiz there are three towns which form the famous 'sherry triangle' of Spain: Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlucar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa Maria. Any bottle labelled as 'sherry' must have come from this region, which has been producing wines since the times of the Phoenicians (1100BC). Having had absolutely no appreciation for sherry in the past, I decided to visit a bodega in Jerez to sample some different types and educate my palate.

Arriving on a sunny May bank holiday, I went to the Gonzalez Byass bodega near the centre of town, where they produce Tio Pepe brand sherry. The company was founded in 1835 when Manuel Maria Gonzalez Angel, under advice from his uncle the famous Tio Pepe, founded a winery in Jerez. Soon after he created a partnership with an Englishman, Robert Blake Byass, creating the current family-run company which now exports to around 150 countries worldwide. It's not so much a vineyard, which are out in the surrounding countryside, but rather a large storage area where the important distillation processes take place. We hopped on a train for a tour of the grounds before being ushered into one of the
the Apostlesmassive cellars, it was so cold inside compared to the warmth outside. Here we got to admire the dusty barrels of sherry and watched a propaganda video, which was mostly concerned with telling us just how successful Tio Pepe is by an actor cheesily pretending to be the founder of the company. We did get an explanation of the distillation process etc, most of which I've forgotten. We walked from there through a small village to another cellar, containing an enormous 3,500 gallon cask named after Christ, flanked by 12 slightly smaller casks named after the 12 apostles. Further on, we found a small cup of sherry on the floor with miniature ladders leading up to the rim. This was all for the mice who roamed the bodega, and sure enough we got to see a mouse go up for a drink while we were there!

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Things to Tarifa, Spain.

Country/Town visited: Tarifa, Spain
Date of stay: June 2012
Where you stayed:  Pension Correos
Travelled with:  As a couple
Tour or pre planned: Pre-planned

Tarifa is a great little town on the south coast of Spain that is known for its spectacular beaches and strong winds. These two conditions have made the town famous for kite surfing in recent years, and have brought in a lot more tourism to the area. There are numerous places in the town where you can take kite surfing lessons and hire gear.

The town is built around the old quarter, port and castle with newer developments appearing a bit more inland. The old town is a maze of winding passages built to protect against the strong winds. This creates a great atmosphere among the many restaurants, cafes, bars and boutique shops. There is an indoor market that is worth checking out too. The seafood is particularly good here, even compared to other places in the south of Spain, and tuna fishing is still a major industry. There is tuna tinning factory along the beach, which might not be particularly pleasant, but at least it shows how fresh the fish is! We were in Tarifa during the Euro 2012 football tournament, the town was buzzing with the locals out supporting Spain, and we cheered on all their goals with them!

One great reason to visit Tarifa is that it is the Southern-most point of Europe. From the coast you can clearly see Africa and the Atlas mountains, and on a really clear day can apparently make out individual people along the coast of Morocco. There are regular ferry trips that take you across to Tanger where you can stay for the day or start a tour of Africa. There are also a number of boat trips that can take you out for whale and dolphin watching along the Straits of Gibraltar.

Unfortunately, one of the darker sides of Tarifa is the detention facility at the end of a walkway out to sea, where illegal immigrants from Africa are detained until they are deported. The walkway, however, does make for a nice walk where there is the Mediterranean Sea to one side and the Atlantic to the other. It is quite something to see the waves washing in from two different directions at this spot.

The beaches along the coast by Tarifa have beautiful white sand, dunes and sparkling clear water. On the first day that we were there, the wind was so strong that the sand was whipping up and stung any exposed body parts. We quickly figured out why the beaches were deserted, but the following day the wind had died down and the beach in the town was great.

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