Portugal

Our tour left from Madrid and headed west through Avila and Salamanca in Spain. Beautiful places but on that day my camera decided that it didn't want to work. (I confess that I thought I had charged it up but obviously hadn't).

Then we crossed the border into Portugal and stayed the night at Coimbra. The university here was established in 1290 and moved permanently to this position in 1537 which makes it one of the world's oldest universities in continuous operation. After hiking up the hill to the university, we found this view of the city.

                           

It was a pity we didn't have more time here because our lovely hotel room had a huge balcony. (We could have had a party). But the next morning we did have a pretty sunrise.

                           

Leaving Coimbra we travelled to Batalha with a visit to the Monastery and then onto Fatima. This place is FULL of shops selling religious souvenirs to the believers who flock there. Sadly, very touristy.

Arriving in Lisbon early in the afternoon gave us a chance to have a quick look around this city and then we have had all day to wander around. We also bought a one day travel ticket and made the most of it by using the subway, bus, funicular railway and the streetcars. 

We visited all the tourist destinations and then some and of course had to have a Portuguese lunch. Yum!

                           

                                             

                                                                     

                             

                             

                             

Tomorrow the adventure continues......

    

    

Madrid

Leaving Barcelona by train, we arrived in Madrid just over 3 hours later. Another great fast train ride, sometimes speeding up to 300kmh. Love those fast trains!

Madrid is very different to Barcelona, more classy and I think the buildings are more beautiful. We had another Greet booked and this time, a lovely young girl Ali showed us around her part of Madrid. She is a university student, still living at home with Mum and Dad and two younger sisters and it was great to talk to her about living and studying in Madrid.

                          

                          

                                         

                          

We spent a few hours with Ali and then walked around for hours on our own. Very impressed with the Plaza Mayor and the San Miguel Market place where we enjoyed tapas and a Spanish sherry. I must admit the last time I drank sherry was probably in the 1970s. But of course, it is made here and you must do as the Spaniards do.

                      

                      

Another day we ventured back into the city to the Plaza Mayor and came across soldiers in uniform on horseback and very splendid carriages. We had no idea what they were doing, so followed them to the Royal Palace. They went back and forth a few times and we eventually found out it was a ceremony for the new Ambassadors to Spain to present their credentials to King Felipe VI. Our new Australian Ambassador was part of this ceremony. How lucky we were to witness this!

                     

                     

                     

                                     

The weather has been fabulous, blue skies every day and quite warm but not humid, so I am enjoying it much more than a Brisbane summer. So far, I have taken just over 1000 photos on our trip and we still have another 4 weeks to go!

We are about to start our next Cosmos tour, Spain, Portugal and Morocco, so stay tuned for the next instalment.....

Barcelona

When I was a teenager, I wanted to travel to Spain but it has taken me almost 45 years to get here! We arrived in Barcelona last Saturday after a fabulous scenic 6 hour train trip from Paris. From the train station, we hopped onto a local Metro and made it to the Gothic Quarter where I had booked a self contained apartment for a week - with a washing machine! Sheer luxury, after hand washing for 4 weeks! (Thanks to my friend Bev, for her recommendation as she has stayed here several times before).

It is so lovely just to wake up each morning with no particular plans, have a leisurely cooked breakfast at home and then wander off to explore. Our days seem to have the same pattern - after breakfast, go exploring for about 4 hours (either catch a metro and walk from there or explore closer to home), return home, have a cold beer and some olives, have a siesta and then go out exploring once more. We either have dinner out at a local restaurant or sometimes we (meaning Rob) even cook for ourselves. The food and drinks are much cheaper here than at home.

Barcelona is a wonderful city, vibrant, clean and full of little streets that we love to venture into to see what we can find. Of course, I wanted to see Gaudi's buildings, so they were the first ones to visit.

                                            

                        

                        

La Boqueira Market is just up the road from here and we visited the other day to buy some olives, cheese and ham but intend to go back again this evening for dinner. The food is so fresh and the colours of the market are amazing.

                        

                        

This morning we walked then caught a funicular railway and walked again (up a million steps, it seemed) to Montjuic Castle, an amazing complex on top of a hill overlooking the harbour. We spent several hours walking around the grounds and admiring the views of Barcelona city from there. Then, walked all the way home, thankfully, downhill.

                       

                       

                       

Some more photos of Barcelona taken another day.

                       

                       

                       

We leave Barcelona for Madrid on Saturday by train where we have a Madrid Greeter booked to show us around 'her Madrid' on Sunday.

Paris

Here we are in the City of Love, our third visit to this great city. Each time we stay in a different area and explore as much of the city as we can.

Yesterday, we spent the day with Paris Greeter Bernard who showed us around his favourite part of Paris, the Latin Quarter. Bernard had been to Brisbane last year and been out with a Brisbane Greeter, so it was nice to be able to chat about our different Greeter programs. We had quite a warm day, about 38C and a sprinkle of rain in the evening to cool it down a bit.

                          

Bernard took us to the Sorbonne which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris and thanks to a nice guard, we were able to venture inside the inner courtyard.

                                         

We wandered through the Luxembourg Gardens, the Fine Arts Institute, the Pantheon and heard all about the Paris Meridian line. We visited several churches and heard about their history. We even got to see the remains of the oldest walls in Paris built around 1200 and now used as part of a basement carpark!

                            

We spent about 6 hours with Bernard and learnt so much about Paris and saw places that we would never have found on our own. Such a great day.

                     

Today, we set out exploring on our own, discovering new areas and old places that we had ventured before. We even found the National Archives building. What treasures it must hold!            

                           

                           

And found the oldest tree in Paris, planted around 1602, commonly known as a locust tree. It is supported by two concrete crutches. The tree lost its upper branches to a shell during World War I, but it still blooms every year.

                                          

We have a 6 hour train trip to Barcelona Spain tomorrow and then the Spanish adventure starts!

 
    

Munich-Dachau-Neuschwanstein Castle-Black Forest-Heidelberg

The internet hasn't been that great over the past few days, so this is what we have been up to over the last four days.

We had 2 nights in Munich (another fantastic city but I personally like Berlin a little better) and the first night was spent in a Bavarian Beer Hall and once again, a great night! The next day in Munich was Christopher Street Day, equivalent to our Sydney Mardi Gras. Lots of floats, dancing and music, a very happy day for all.

We spent hours walking around exploring, even watched some locals surfing in the river that runs through Munich. That was certainly different.

                         

Earlier in the day we had visited the Nymphenburg Palace, quite pretty with all the summer flowers.

                         

Some other photos from Munich.

                                           

                         

In the afternoon we visited the former concentration camp at Dachau which is now a memorial to the victims. Quite a confronting place but definitely worth a visit and a reminder to all, that this must never happen again.

                          

                          

After leaving Munich, we drove to the Bavarian Alps to visit the beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle. This castle was to be one of my highlights and it didn't disappoint. No photos were allowed inside but it was spectacular! 

                          

And yes, the Disneyland Castle is based on this one! It has quite a fascinating history and if you are interested in the story, I suggest you Google it! Also you can find many photos of the interior too.

We then headed for the Black Forest but I hate to tell you (after a walk through it this morning, the forest is not black). We were told that there are lynx and bears there but I looked and couldn't find any!

Then onto Heidelberg and what a lovely town, also the home of Germany's oldest University. The town is overlooked by the ruins of Heidelberg Castle, looking quite spectacular up on the hill.

                           

We ended our Highlights of Germany tour today and for the next two weeks we are doing our own thing, travelling by train to Paris on Wednesday and after a few days there, we take another train to Barcelona. 

The adventure continues......

Rothenburg

Everybody that I know who has been to Rothenburg loves it and I did too. It's a beautiful medieval old town on the Romantic Road in Southern Germany. Of course, at this time of the year, there were many other tourists visiting Rothenburg as well but that didn't matter!

The buildings within this walled town are lovely and particularly the Rathaus (town hall).

                      

On our walk around the town, we also found a lovely garden, the Klostergarten, hidden behind a wall.

                      

So many gorgeous places.

                     

                     

                     

We also had a walk on the wall that surrounds the town.

                     

We still have more travels on the Romantic Road, so looking forward to them.

Nuremberg

Another castle! Nuremberg has the Imperial Castle at the top of the hill with a great view of the city.

                         

                         

Nuremberg was the city that the Nazi Party chose to be the site of their huge conventions known as the Nuremberg rallies and of course later, became the site of the Nuremberg Trials where the German officials involved in war crimes were brought before an international tribunal.

Rob just had to have a play with the key in this door!

                        

We weren't really that hungry so decided to have a small meal at the restaurant we chose. When I asked the waitress if one of these platters was enough to share between two, she said no, they are quite small. We could have easily shared one! They do like their meals BIG in Germany.

                        

It was delicious!