Visited: September 2007
Well here is the first great TBT post of the blog, in this case about a trip I took to Spain & Portugal with a longtime friend Bhavin Shah in September 2007. It was for around a week to Madrid, Lisbon & Seville with quick stops in Tangier and Gibraltar.
Back in 2007 it seemed like I wanted to go to Europe every year but only made it there every 3 years. Part of the challenge not having a girlfriend in 2006 & 2007 was having no one to travel with. Fortunately I convinced Bhavin to join me and we set off in September 2007 for a Europe trip. Much of this will be based on photographic memory. I.e. I'll look at photos and remember what we did from them.
What we did in Madrid
We arrived into Madrid first and stayed there for the first 3 nights. Depending how you measure things Madrid is the 5th or so most populated city in Europe. At the time which was pre-2008 financial crisis it was definitely humming along without problems.
Madrid really is a lovely city and what I remember most about it was the big grand streets. There are some similar ones in Barcelona but they don't seem quite as big and majestic as the ones in Madrid. I remember spending the first day walking the streets, trying to order food and getting Bhavin acquainted with Europe. It was his first visit there and we were fighting jet lag so the first order of business was to learn how to order back-to-back espressos.
One of the main highlights of our visit to Madrid was the Palacio Real. For some reason I can't find photos for this one, as I only have access to Facebook now and not my photo collection, hence photos will have to wait! There has been a palace (or fortress) at this location for hundreds of years. The current one however was finished around 1755 and soon after occupied by its first resident King Charles III.
It is still the official residence of the Royal Family although they apparently don't live there anymore and just use it for state functions and tourist euros. It is very large like most palaces comprising of almost 1.5M sq ft of space. Notables out of its 3000+ rooms are the Grand Staircase, Hall of Mirrors, Royal Library, Royal Armory, the Royal Apartments and the Royal Chapel. It's the 10th biggest palace in the world so suffice it to say you need a lot of time to properly explore it!
Also in Madrid that we did
There are many other sights worth visiting in Madrid including:
Plaza Mayor (a huge square in the middle of the city) - although I remember being nervous in the crowds there after the attacks a couple years earlier in Madrid
Retiro Park - a huge park in the middle of the city
Plaza de Cibeles - although we didn't go in
Prado Museum - which I remember being a beautiful building but I didn't enjoy the museum as much at the time as I probably would now
Museo Reina Sofia - which we didn't go in, but apparently has some great collections of Picasso and Dali
We also went to countless (it seemed) cafes, bars and restaurants of which there are many, many amazing ones!
After Madrid we hit the road for Lisbon in Portugal. Rented a car and started driving. Bhavin took some time to learn how to navigate in Europe but he did get us to Portugal with only one missed turn.
Lisbon (or as we called it, the city that shall not be named)
Getting into Lisbon I remember to be a challenge. 1) Because we missed an exit. 2) Because Portuguese wild drivers live there. 3) They have stoplights in the intersection (which I now know happens elsewhere too). And 4) We turned down the alleyway of death trying to get into the red light district where our hotel was located.
That turn was particularly interesting because the police officer who was guarding it pulled us over (wondering what the eff we were doing turning into it) and spoke in Spanish (because we had Spanish plates) and then didn't believe we didn't understand him. Then rather than let us out of the lane from the same spot 4 meters behind us, he had us 'turn left, left and left' to get back to the main road. He really meant (and pointed) right, right and right. We did that route but literally had to roll up our windows as a bunch of druggies stood up (maybe 10-20 of them) and started surrounding our car. - in my mind now it seems like Zombies! We had to slowly drive through them and eventually out the other street to get back to the main street.
We finally got to our hotel and parked near it on the street and didn't touch the car until we left 36 hours later!
The last note on this post is to say that our hotel room looked amazing online but was not nice when we arrived and it stank like crazy due to a drain in the washroom. We poured hot sauce all over it to try to mask the smell!
The one thing we didn't do is go out at night in Lisbon. Unlike the red light district in Amsterdam the one in Lisbon is not safe and not meant to stroll around in at night. That combined with a long drive into the first night and a long day in Lisbon the second day, we ended up staying in both nights. After going out in Madrid and Seville coming up I still think it was a great decision!
What did we do in Lisbon?
Well first off a bit about Lisbon. It is suffice it to say the biggest city in Portugal. With 3M people in greater Lisbon, it's just big enough to feel big, but not big enough to overwhelm like some huge cities. Lisbon I didn't know is apparently older than London, Paris and even Rome. It's been held by Germanic Tribes (what hasn't in Europe?), the Moors, the Crusaders and of course the Portuguese (sometimes with Spain, sometimes not).
It's a fashionable vibrant city from what I remember and full of colour and on the Atlantic Ocean as well as the Tagus River.
During the one main day we were there we got around to see a lot:
Monument to the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos)
Castelo St Jorge - original structure that stood there was built by the Moors
And in general the old town is wonderful to walk around in
And so that was Lisbon - a quick hit with a fun day sandwiched between two average evenings. I'm told I should go back and explore it again. Maybe I will.
Obrigado Portugal por nada (j/k.. sort of)
From Lisbon it was off to Seville. Clearly we didn't do our best in Lisbon but we made the most of the day and driving in Portugal was a breeze (if by breeze it means due to how fast we drove to leave the country - and then it was more of a hurricane). No honestly I have to go back I shouldn't bash Portugal anymore the people are wonderful (baby robbers and muggers all of them). I love Portugal really! (Said no one ever). Ok no more - I hope to go back someday.
The drive to Seville I remember as being uneventful but when we got to Seville we immediately knew we loved it. We rolled into a beautiful hotel which was glorious after the literal shit hole in Lisbon. We stayed at the Al Andalus hotel which had a beautiful pool and lovely rooms.
Seville is the 4th largest city in Spain behind Madrid, Barcelona and a 3rd city which I'm too lazy to spend 10 seconds looking up (do your own work readers!). It is in the South of Spain only an hour or so from the Portuguese border. It's also the hottest (temperature folks - not people, get your mind out of the gutter) major city in Western Europe. Who knew?
The city was founded by the Romans, under Muslim rule for over 500 years during the middle ages, then became a major port of trade during the colonial years. Now Seville is a beautiful metropolitan city filled with lovely Sivilians (sevillanos).
We saw five main sights while we were there.
1) Real Alcazar - a must see which is a Royal Palace originally built for Peter of Castile a Christian king. It was built on top of an old destroyed Muslin Fortress. It's still used as a Royal Residence in Seville by the Royal Family but most of it is open to tourism, including the gardens that are beautiful and quite expansive.
2) Seville Cathedral - which was the largest in the world for around a hundred years supplanting the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, before being passed by St Peter's in Rome. Inside is really special which is not surprising given Europe's general cathedral building skills and seeing Spain as such a large Roman Catholic country.
3) Parque de María Luisa - which is a very large park a little bit south of the central part of Seville. It's filled with fountains, flora and some fauna (and plenty of silivians). Maybe not a must see as 1 and 2 above, but still worth a visit if you're not rushed.
4) Plaza de España - a very large Square built inside Parque de Maria Luisa for The Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 (look that stuff up for history if you like).
5) Calle Betis - two nights in a row we drank here. All drinks seemed to be 1€ (that's alt-shift 2 if you need the Euro sign, which oddly is different from the £ sign being option-3). We drank enough that Bhavin smoked a small bit of a cigarette, as far as I know the only one of his life. Maybe no one knows that so keep it quiet.
About Tangier (and Gibraltar)!
Gibraltar & Tangier were a day trip on our last day in the South. We setoff early in the morning (I had to really push to get Bhavin moving that morning - we almost missed our boat!). We left for Tarifa solely because it has a fast ferry to Tangier. I remember noting that even at 8:15 AM it was still dark and the sun was just coming up - which seemed odd but it was a good lesson in realizing how far West Spain (and Seville) are in the European timezone, in fact they are arguably more suited for UK time.
We made the ferry and there were two notable things with it. 1) It had signs which stated NY and Ontario sales taxes apply - this was because it used to be used for the Toronto to Rochester fast ferry trips - which was cool seeing we are from Toronto. 2) The boat has two sides (duh!) which are separated by a customs area in the middle (Ahhhh! I see). So you start on one side and get your stamps to enter Morocco then go to the other side. This is reversed on the way back.
Once in Tangier we joined a guided tour with a lovely older gentleman who was an interesting and good guide. Although! he did not want his photo taken with Bhavin and I - not sure if he thought we were a couple and felt odd about it. Also we would not speak with me in French - maybe hated the colonial rule.
We went to The Medina, which is a set of alleys of commercial and residential fronts. Don't get lost in here. We didn't but it was tempting to wander around. We also went to the Souq, saw some camels, went to a sanke oil... errr. medicine shop and saw some carpets (much bargaining would have been necessary here).
In the above photos are among other things are: Gibraltar which the Brits still control, expensive carpets, me hiding under a bridge (I don't remember why sorry), Souq and Medina entrances (you've been warned!) , our guide, me looking fat and sweaty (I know it's the best), snake oil shop and other stuff which is probably just random photos to you, but you should like it.
Tangier was a great quick trip and still my only time in Africa to date. Stamp on the way back and off to ...
The Rock! (Not Newfoundland but Gibraltar)
Off to Gibraltar we will go to see the British and Spanish Show(down). So as I currently live in London I know a thing or two about Brits controlling stuff not in/from Britain (ummm, ok I won't go into detail, but there's lots of stuff just check the museums and the Island to the West). Anyhow... much to the annoyance of Spain, Gibraltar is still in British hands.
Gibraltar has been in British hands since 1704 when they captured it during the War of Spanish Succession. It goes to show that if you have no heir, problems happen. Which was the situation in Spain when Charles II died childless. Charles II of England had kids many years earlier but his brother James II took the throne instead. Ok that was an aside.
Back to Britain taking advantage of a situation. They controlled Gibraltar - and it's still an overseas territory of theirs. Gibraltar is quite small, has 30k+ residents, some big rock and a lovely view into both the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean. It was also hilly, expensive, quite warm, dense, has an airport and had some nice areas and tall buildings. We even had to clear customs in and out of the territory. That was 4 passport showings in 1 day! Worth a visit? Yes I think so.
And you know what, that's it! We drove back to Seville, stayed the night, drove back to Madrid, flew back to Toronto and all in all had a great trip.
Comments