Iberian Adventure, 7 day tour of the South of Spain and Portugal
Day 1 - headed out early on the bus with a little breakfast stop along the way and we eventually stopped in Cordoba for lunch. Cordoba is one of the most impressive places I've been to so far. We entered the city by crossing the river via the Roman Bridge which gives an amazing vista of the Moszquita. The Moszquita is a Mosque which was taken over by the Christians and instead of tearing it down, they converted it to a cathedral. We went inside and it's an amazing interior, full of moorish design and decoration with Christian iconography in alcoves and a nave etc. truly spectacular. We went for a wander through town and an grabbed the local soup which is a bit like a gazpacho but thicker and has some bacon and egg sprinkled on top, and I had a tortilla which is egg and potato baked in to a little cake.
We headed off to Seville for the afternoon and night. Once we'd checked in we went out for a walking tour of the city which is a maze of tiny streets and is pretty cool. After the walk, we went for drinks on the terrace and out to tapas at a local diner.
Day 2 - I got up and went for a walk back in to town and had a look in the cathedral, but didn't have time to look in the palace. I only got a little bit lost on the way back to the hostel and we headed off for Portugal. On the way out of town, we stopped off to see Plaza la Espano which is a huge castle like palace which is empty and sometimes used as a government building and often used as a film set (Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars Clone Wars, The Dictator).
We headed off to Lagos, Portugal. The accommodation in Lagos was private rentals and we had a tiny apartment for 5 of us which was rather entertaining really. We went out for dinner in a popular local restaurant, I had the salmon which was to die for. Afterwards we went out for a pub crawl. I shouldn't have gone as I didn't really feel like it but I went anyway. The first bar had a 9 shot challenge which a number of people did while I watched. The second bar had actual fishbowls of alcohol - an entire bottle of spirit and an entire bottle of mixer, best shared among 6-8 friends. I ended up getting in on one of those once the 6 girls were beginning to flag, so I only had a small amount. I stayed on for the third bar which was more of a club and had a jäger challenge which our bus driver did. The saving grace was that the music was good and I did enjoy dancing for a while, then thankfully I went home to bed.
Day 3 - slow morning to go and explore Lagos. Had booked to do the kayaking in the afternoon but it was cancelled due to high tide and winds making it too hard to go. Instead, some girls and I had our own beach hop, starting at the beach closest to town and working our way along the headlands to about 4 or 5 beaches before heading back for a light dinner. Ended up having Thai for a change and we had planned to go out for a drink, but couldn't be bothered in the end
Day 4 -stupidly early morning start as we were heading to the southernmost point of Europe in order to catch a ferry across to Morocco for dinner. While the concept of doing 3 countries and 2 continents in 1 day was cool as you'll see, it all unravelled. We had a late lunch and caught a 5:30pm ferry across the straight, only the ferry was about 45 mins late. So, once we were there, we were already hurrying to catch up lost time. We had a little bus tour which ultimately took us to a car park where we could ride a camel about 10m past cars for the princely sum of €1. Needless to say, I'm glad I at least rode a camel in a desert and skipped this option, though a photo with the baby camels was irresistible. We the headed on to the medina and to the markets where our guide took us through the winding, narrow streets and we eventually ended up at a pharmacist. While it was a cool idea to visit a Moroccan pharmacy, it ended up being a pressure selling exercise, I did cave in a little bit I have to admit. We'll see how the products go, but it was disappointing to find the same products later for lower prices, but, thems the breaks. We also stopped at a leather store and jewellery store but it was a little rushed. I did manage to find a postcard, write it and have someone buy me a stamp, so we'll see if it turns up ever... Finally we headed on to dinner which was promising in it's Moroccaness, but failed miserably in it's lack of Moroccan flavours, or any flavour really. The local wine was really nice though, one saving grace, even if we had to buy it as extra. We rushed off to catch our ferry home. We got there and lined up with everyone else out on the port docks. Then we watched the ferry leave with no one on it. Seems it had finished for the night and wasn't actually our 10:30pm ferry, our ferry was late. Just how late? 3 hours late. We all sat, lay, slept on the bitumen of the port waiting with no information and an increasing sense of dread and in some cases fear. It really looked as though a riot would break out at one point when a large group of intimidating men descended on the port and there was lots of noise, a bit like I imagine a soccer mob to move. In the end the ferry came and we all got on, quite relieved to have a boat. Then the ferry proceeded to sit there for about an hour, no idea why, just working on a combination of Moroccan and Spanish time or something. In the end, we got home at 5am and had to be up and on the bus at 9:45am. Needless to say there was a lot of napping on the bus that day.
Day 5 - slept the majority of the way anywhere on the bus. We stopped in Rhonda for lunch and had a look through the bullfighting ring, the birthplace of the modern style in Spain apparently, and quite nice, certainly more rough cast than the Madrid one. We had tapas for lunch at a Michelin tapas bar but my friends and I were sorely disappointed in what we had, but it happens I guess. We headed on to Granada and went out for Tapas for dinner with the group. The Sangria was really good and we did try the Ox Tail or Bull Tail which was a bit like a fatty lamb shank but good to at least have tried. I skipped the visit to the bar afterwards and headed to bed.
Day 6 - Morning started off going to the Alhambra which is simply stunning. We had a tour guide who gave us a great grounding in the development and changes from Islamic to Catholic religions over time and pointed out the two sets of iconography side by side in many places. The tiles and plaster works are just amazing and I wish some were still existing in their full coloured splendour. It was a relatively fast paced tour but also enough to absorb without impending brainsplosion. Afterwards we grabbed some lunch and headed to a Hammam for 90mins of silence and relaxation. We all had massages and I particularly loved the hot bath, but the whole process was warm bath, hot bath, cold bath (oh my god squeals of cold!) then the steam room. It was a really wonderful experience and I'm glad I did it, I just wish the massage had been a little more robust, but it was nice. In the afternoon I wrote postcards and did some more exploring through the artisan markets and did a spot of shopping including caving in and buying yet another handbag... Hopefully this one will last. That evening we headed out for a night tour of the oldest parts of Granada and stopped at a beautiful outlook over Granada and the Alhambra. We went on to a Flamenco show which was fabulous even if we were crammed in like sardines. The older ladies were spectacular while the younger girls where technically wonderful but lacking something in the vibrancy and expression. We got home relatively late and I rather preferred bed than going out to the pubs.
Day 7 - An early enough start on the way back to Madrid with a few breaks and eventually on to Consuega for a photo op in front of the Windmills of Don Quixote fame. We stopped in Toledo for lunch and a bit of an explore of what was not once, but twice the capital of Spain. While we didn't get very long there, it was a cute little place with excellent marzipan and far too many tourist shops to let it look like one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe. We arrived back in Madrid early in the evening, checked in to the hostel, dumped our bags and went out for one last hurrah at tapas.