Sensational Seville

Just a few hours down the freeway from Granada is the sweet town of Sevilla, although our introduction to the city was actually kind of sour. While the GPS helped us find our way into the center of town, it had a hard time finding our hotel, and we spent a very frustrating hour driving around in circles, going the wrong way down one way streets, and finally getting stuck in a street that was too narrow to drive through. (Many of Sevilles's streets are from the horse and buggy age, and are too narrow for cars!) At this point, a few locals took pity on us, and after backing us out of a spot that was so tight that the shop owners had to close their doors to make room for the car to pass, a young man jumped on his motorcycle and led us straight to our hotel. The next time we visit Spain, we are NOT renting a car!

This was our favourite town so far, with a lively atmosphere, friendly people, tapas bars and pastry shops on every corner, and the most unbelievable old buildings!

On the way into town we passed under the amazing Metropol Parasol, the world's largest wooden sculpture. This looks like a giant honeycomb, and was just completed in 2010. This was the only modern artifact that caught our eye in Sevilla, as the city is a treasure of old buildings, from the sweet shop on the corner

to the watchmaker's shop

to the lovely Spanish balconies overlooking the road below.

The shops were a visual delight, from the souvenir shops,

to the sweet shops

the flower carts

and perfumeria.

Naturally, we visited a few churches, including the small church on the corner

the Basilica de Macarena

and the Catedral de Sevilla.

This is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world next to the Vatican and St. Paul's. As with many Spanish cathedrals, it is built on the site of what was once a mosque.

There is a great system of ramps that led us up to the bell tower to enjoy a view of the entire cathedral and the city below.

We sure were glad that they didn't ring the bells when we were up there, as it would have been deafening!

We finished off a perfect day with the perfect night, enjoying the Flamenco dancers. They are amazing, and can they ever move fast on their feet!

 

 

 

 

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Amazing Alhambra

We usually plan our trip as we go, leaving home with a loose itinerary, firming things up when we are about 5 days out, reserving our hotels and planning the sites we want to visit at the same time. While this flexibility has great advantages, there are some downsides, such as deciding that we want to visit the Alhambra, but finding that all the online tickets are sold out! What to do but pray and proceed on faith that everything will work out?

We booked our room in Granada for two nights, with the backup plan that we could extend our stay if necessary in order to see the Alhambra. The drive from Barcelona was very long but beautiful, past lovely beach towns, olive groves and rolling hills. After 10 hours, we finally arrived to our favourite hotel so far. It was in a great location, quiet, and had a rooftop pool. What could be better?

We asked for a 7am wakeup call, and when we woke up, headed straight to the Alhambra without stopping to eat breakfast. After parking, we walked quickly toward the first group of people that we saw, praying that by some miracle we would get in. God is good! Not only were we at the exact spot for buying tickets, but after a short wait, we were able to buy not one, but two sets, one to get to get into the grounds right away with a 1:00 viewing of the Palacios Nazaries (the main attraction!), and one to view it again at night. We were so happy that we could hardly contain ourselves! God is so good!

To see the Alhambra is especially exciting, as it is the site of a Moorish military fortress dating back as far as 899. It was established as a royal residence in 1238, when the first Nasrad sultan, Mohammad I chose this site high up on the hill overlooking the town to build his palace, a mosque, gardens, houses for his people and all other services needed to maintain the complex.The final conquest of the Alhambra took place when the patrons of Christopher Columbus, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile unified Spain and drove out the Moors. The Iberian dynasy was the last group of Moors to rule in this area, turning over the palace and all other holdings to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.

 

As in all castles, the Alhambra is surrounded by a high wall with towers. The square towers date back to Moorish times, while the round towers were built by the Christian rulers. The low walls to the right are the remains of houses that the Moorish townsfolk lived in.

When Emperor Charles V and Queen Isabella of Portugal visited the Alhambra in 1526, they decided to build themselves a home within its walls. In order to do this, they destroyed a wing of the palace so that they could build their own Renaissance castle. The symbolic significance of this was that it showed the Emperor to be one of the most powerful figures in the world, owing to his grandfather conquering the Moors in this area.

While the outside looks like a giant decorated box, the inside looks like a Roman Coliseum. Unfortunately, the building was never used as a royal residence, because the roof was never put on! ....very leaky on rainy days, but very beautiful on starry nights!

The Alhambra has had many owners and gone through several facelifts over the centuries, as Spanish kings recognized the beauty of the Moorish structures, but wanted to incorporate Christian designs. Even Napoleon liked the Alhambra and used it as a barracks! Unfortunately, all of the Moorish art and decoration was removed, but fortunately the pools and fountains remain. Much of the Alhambra fell into ruin over the centuries but has been beautifully restored.

While the entire Alhambra is magical, the main attraction is without a doubt, the main palace, the Palacios Nazaries. Being inside conjurs up pictures of sultans sitting on silken cushions. The ceilings inside the palace were incredible mosaics of thousands of geometric prisms.

The gardens have also gone through a series of remodels through the centuries, largely retaining the designs of the Moors. I felt like playing hide and seek in the maze-like gardens that were created out of hedges, fountains, pools and flowers.

Although we loved our daytime visit, we were thrilled that we were able to return at 10 pm, as the magical feeling of being in the Palacios Nazaries without the crowds will stay with us forever. Having scouted out the palace earlier in the day, we were able to go directly to our favourite spots and quietly reflect on what the Alhambra must have been like in the days of the sultans.

 

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Beautiful, beautiful Barcelona

(We had trouble with the power at our hotel and none of our devices charged while we slept, so we ended up running out of power on the ipad. The following pictures have been copied from the internet. We have to wait until we get home to post our pictures from our cameras.)
Seeing ourselves lounging beside the pool in Barcelona, we booked the Marriott for two nights. However, we arrived late on the first night, and on the second we were so busy touring the city that we didn't get back to our hotel until after dark. One of the things we have learned in life, and especially when travelling is to roll with whatever comes our way.
We set out on the Hop on Hop off bus, which picked us up right outside our hotel. We enjoyed seeing the lovely Meditteranean beaches and the Olympic Village, which have now become condos for the locals. We got off the bus downtown, and found ourselves in the middle of a huge fiesta. Thousands of people had gathered to watch a couple of hundred people enjoying a Catalonyan street dance called the Sardona. This is a traditional dance, in which young and old join hands in a huge circle, and follow the very precise steps of this traditional dance. The dancers were accompanied by a group of musicians playing lively music. Watching them was pure magic!

A little further down, we came upon a woman singing Ave Maria in the most beautiful voice. It was enchanting, and at that moment I fell completely and totally in love with Barcelona! Soon we were caught up in a huge crowd, and before we knew it, we were in a huge square where different teams were taking turns building human pyramids. These pyramids are called castells, and have been part of Castelonian culture for over 200 years!
As we continued through the square, we came upon the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Daint Eulalia. This church was built between the 13th and 15th century, and it perfectly captured the sense of wonder that we felt in being in such a beautiful city. We sat at the back and allowed God's peace to wash over us as the priest conducted mass in Latin.

The landmark that Barcelona is probably the most famous for is the La Sagrada Familia. This is an incredible church that was started by the Catalon architect Antoni Gaudiand in 1882 and is still being built today. It is the most amazing piece of art, taking up a full city block, with colourful bobbles of fruit on the spires. The way that the exterior stone walls are built made me think of a gigantic sand castle.

We took one look at the line that circled around the block and decided to skip seeing the inside. After our experience at Notre Dame, churches and noisy huge crowds just don't go together for us! This is one more thing that we will have to add to our list for the next trip!
Although we could have stayed in Barcelona for several days, we had already booked our hotels at the next two towns, so we had to say good-bye although there was so much more to see!

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Montpelier to Barcelona

What bliss, to have a completely relaxing day. After walking across the street to buy our breakfast supplies, we enjoyed a leisurely meal beside the pool. Our only job for the day was to return our little Fiat by 3:00 pm and get to the train station.

After packing and spending some time getting organized for the Spanish leg of our trip, we headed back to the super marché to get some sliced chicken to add to the baguette and cheese, and to spend another leisurely hour besided the pool. Since we were all packed, we decided to head to the rental car return an hour early, telling ourselves that we might as well relax at the train station.

Montpelier is a lovely old city, but after driving around and around the same city block for an hour looking for the rental return place, we were both ready to scream! Adding to our frustration was that it was a very warm day, and we were both starting to lose our good humour. After stopping and asking for directions a couple of times, we were finally told that the rental agency was INSIDE the train station! Argh! No wonder the GPS had us driving around and around the same block!

The train station at Montpelier was modern and clean, but nowhere as comfortable as the one in London. There was a shortage of places to sit down, and it was very hot inside. We did, however, find a little café that had tables, so Bryce bought a double expresso, and we sat and relaxed while waiting for our train.

The rapid transit trains are painted in delightful designs. I loved this flower power version!

After our experience on the London-Paris train with the two chatty Cathy's, we decided to spring for first class going to Barcelona, and we were glad that we did. It was very comfortable, and the 3 hour ride went very quickly.

Giant loaves of bread

We arrived at our hotel around 8:00, but fortunately, there is some sort of music festival going on right beside the hotel, so after unpacking we went out to join the fun. We enjoyed a falafel from a street cart and bought our bread and cheese for tomorrow's breakfast before settling in for the night.

Giant sized buns!

 

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St. Emilion to Montpellier

St. Emilion is a lovely little town that is mostly made up of vineyards and wineries. The views stretching across the valley are breathtaking, and the vineyards go on for miles.

We set out early in the morning looking for a Boulanger to buy our breakfast baguette, but the only shops that we could see in town were wineries. Hmmm, that wouldn't be so good for breakfast!

While the town is truly delightful, and we enjoyed navigating the narrow streets

and looking down on the lower village,

our hungry stomaches told us that sight seeing wouldn't do the job. Finally, we found a small grocery store that sold everything we needed; baguette, camembaert cheese and fruit. The bread and cheese here has to be the best in the world, and this, our standard breakfast, has made us excited to jump out of bed every morning that we have been in France! And the grapes of course, are the best in the world. Trés bon!

After driving around in circles, and getting caught up in the snare of the busloads of tourists coming into town to tour the wineries, we finally made it onto the highway heading toward Carcasone, 3 1/2 hours away.

While it was hard to believe that this castle fortress could be anywhere as awesome as Le Mt. St. Michel, we were dumbstruck when we finally saw it from a distance. It is so huge that two pictures don't even capture the width of the entire castle!

This site was inhabited from ancient times. Even though the fortress has amazing protections, including turrets for viewpoints, a moat and a double wall, it changed hands many times throughout the centuries.

In 1208 the Pope declared that a crusade should take place against the current inhabitants of the area, and it was taken over as a royal possession. From this time on, the fortress grew into a medieval town.

From the lookouts, the Pyrenees Mountains stand in the distance. One of the main purposes of Carcassone in the 1600s was to protect France from the Aragones in the south.

Much of Carconne had fallen into ruin by the 19th century, and many of the stones had been carried away to build the newer town below the castle. In 1835 a group of academics saw the fortress for the treasure that it was and sought tto have it restored. The French architect Viollet-Le-Duc undertook restoration of the castle taking 58 years, with Le-Duc dying before its completion, and one of his pupils finishing the work.

This is now a UNESCO world heritage site, and has been identified as one of the finest examples of medieval architecture in the world. As we walked around the outer wall, the word that kept coming to our minds was "magic, absolutely magic!"

After exploring the old castle for a couple of hours, we jumped back in our little Fiat and headed off to Montpelier, our stop for the night. It is always a delight to discover a truly lovely hotel at the end of a long tiring day, and La Maison Blanche was wonderful in every way.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner on the patio, and a lovely warm evening on our last night in France!

 

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