Sun in Sevilla

Big day in Sevilla today! We started our day with breakfast near the cathedral (croissant and coffee) after deciding that €13 for breakfast at our hotel was a bit extreme! We then headed to Real Alcazar, the royal palace of Seville where the modern royals still reside. We were on the first tour of the royal residence which was fully booked all day with six people per tour. Amazing experience with beautiful carvings, tapestries, relics and portraits. A fanstastic insight into the life lived in the castle and its history. After our tour we explored the rest of the castle and the lovely gardens. Found a maze garden which we managed to complete together, some might comment that you can see over the hedges but we tried not to cheat!

We headed back to our hotel for lunch during the hottest part of the day and did some washing (rooftop laundry Dale). After the washing was done we headed out to Plaza de Espana, somewhere I’d been interested in visiting. Beautiful open semicircle of tiling and ceramics with a river going around it, fountains in the middle and the war museum surrounding it. Lots of tourists having fun rowing boats around the little river, funny to watch! It was a scorching day today, 36 degrees and humid so I decided an ice cream was in order. We headed back to the Seville cathedral which has been one of our key landmarks and I had a mint chocolate ice cream and mum had a coffee. She’s been very satisfied with the Spanish coffee and they forgot to charge me for my ice cream so it was win win!

Back to our excellent hotel for a little siesta before tapas for dinner at the same place we went last night. Our old mate at the restaurant recognised us and brought out the bread straight after our drinks, he knows us well! We had booked in for a flamenco show after dinner at a little place round the corner from our hotel. No drinks or food, just guitar, voice and dancing! We both loved the guitar and dancing but wished we knew what the singer was singing about, it was very dramatic! A long but enjoyable day, off to Gilbraltar tomorrow!

Hotel Murillo on LHS

Safely in Seville

Monday 30 July 2018

Today is the second of thirteen travel days in our holiday not including to and from Oz.

We were up at 5.30am and still had to vie for the bathroom with two asian girls. Anyway managed to leave the hostel at 6am and catch the 6.36am train to Lisbon. Got a coffee / hot chocolate at the station and caught the 8.23am train to Faro.

Arrived in Faro at 11.30am and had a wait till 1.55pm for our bus to Seville. Found the bus station  (thanks to Kate's phone and Google maps ) and then went down to the waterfront to source some lunch. Settled for toasted sandwiches at a restaurant on the marina. Watched some fish jumping and thought of Andy who always seems to see them (he is not always believed). Seemed to be in a touristy section of town.

Bus left on time and we crossed the border into Spain at around 3pm (4pm Spanish time ). I was worried when I booked this bus that it would be cancelled because there weren't enough people on it.  Needn't have worried.  Half way to Seville we left  11 people behind because the bus was full!!!!. Pleased it wasn't us and now realise why our ticket was a voucher which was valid for eight days.

Finally made it to Seville and the Hotel Murillo which is literally just around the corner from the Alcazar in the old part of town.

Tapas and a jug of Sangria and we are ready for bed.

Zoo day!

Sunday 29 July 2018

We decided to head to Lisbon zoo today for a change of scenery. I’d bought our tickets the night before thankfully, as when we got there, the line for ticket purchasing was about 300 people long. We sailed on in with our electronic tickets and headed straight for the dolphin show which started at 11am.

Amazing show with two sea lions and two bottlnose dolphins, clearly adored by their trainers and loving in return. We then started our proper exploration of the zoo and headed in the direction of the free flight bird show. Ate lunch surrounded by peacocks and their chicks. Claimed seats in the amphitheatre and watched birds of prey, owls, macaws, parrots, a baby ostrich and an armadillo fly and scuttle around the area. Both shows were in Portuguese so we clapped and laughed when everyone else did!

There was a 20 minute cable car (more like a metal bucket hanging off a wire) that went across the zoo that we managed to get on when the lines were short. It was a nice way to see the big cats that had been hiding up on tall platforms when we looked into their enclosure. Had an ice cream before looking into the petting zoo then headed to the 3pm dolphin show because we wanted to see it again.

We’re starting to feel like locals in Sintra as we’re able to recognise which jewellery and artwork sellers are new and old on the lovely walk up to the main square which is lined with sculptures. Another enjoyable day ending in a beer for mum and mojito for me.

Lisboa

I am officially taking over blog writing duties from today, apologies to anyone used to mum’s style of writing.

Today has been another lovely, but very different day. I almost asked mum what she was going to wear this morning... felt very stupid when I remembered she’s only brought two shirts and they’re exactly the same (she found this hilarious)! We headed into Lisbon after breakfast and caught a metro to Alfama, the old town district near the sea. Much hilarity as we tried to top up our travel cards, got fooled by an atm with a metro sign above it and tried to put our tickets into it (I found it a lot funnier than mum). Lots of tiny little streets, very like Venice. I’d found a recommended cafe online so we headed there in a roundabout way for the best pastel de nata we’ve had so far, delicious!

Worked our way through some more little streets before stumbling across a lovely cathedral. Went in for a wander and then headed down towards the sea (we had a bet about which direction it was, I won!). Found an enourmous square by the water with lots of restaurants around the edges and statues in the middle. Very like St Marks square in Venice.

Continued along the water front to the Time Out food market. A great find by mum, lots of yummy stalls around the edges with an eating area in the middle. An octopus salad for mum and fried squid with a lovely lime aeoli for me. We then decided to head up the hill to the botanic gardens, discovered the museum of natural history next door with a combined ticket. Mum wasn’t very keen but was soon won over once we discovered that there was a really old Charles Darwin research laboratory and amphitheatre inside, really cool! Heaps of wax models of bizarre diseases too, a bit gruesome!

Quick walk through the botanic gardens afterwards, very small and not very inspiring. Exotic trees for them were just Australian trees for us!We discovered later that it wasn’t the proper botanic gardens. Headed back to Sintra on a metro and train and went to the hostel garden for cheap drinks. Beer for mum, gin and tonic for me.

Success in Sintra

Friday 27 July 2018 (Kate’s turn... again)

After both sleeping like logs and waking at 6:30am, we did some research before heading down to breakfast which started at 8:30am. It may be the best breakfast we get for the whole holiday! Beautifully laid out cereals, breads, hams etc. with freshly squeezed juices and an excellent coffee machine. We headed into the old square of Sintra after breakfast to try and find some groceries, we weren’t successful but did get our first pastel de nata (Portuguese tart). Much nicer than the ones in Australia!

After that we headed up to the Quinta da Regaleira, a beautiful 19th century palace located up in the hills. I’m in charge of the language in Portugal and managed to buy both our tickets without the man behind the counter reverting to English, so I was rather proud!

We went to this particular palace for its inverted well which was well worth the visit! The very deep well was lined with a spiral staircase which led to a series of tunnels and caves that worked their way underneath the garden. Great fun to explore, we even discovered another smaller well down an unlit passage. On leaving the tunnels we had to go across some stepping stones which were in a sweet little pond covered with green algae.

We spent our entire morning in the gardens going up towers and generally exploring, great fun!

At lunchtime we headed up to Pena Palace (I have nicknamed it the rainbow palace). We had lunch in the gardens as we had decided not to pay entry to the castle itself, a good decision in the end as the line stretched all the way down the road! The palace was wonderful to look at as it was painted bright colours and dominated the top of the hill it sat on. The gardens were huge with lots to see including a stable, five lakes and small structures hidden around in various places. Unfortunately the horses were already booked so we couldn’t go riding (mum was very relieved by this piece of news!).

Headed back into town just before five and found an atm and a small minimart for groceries. Pizza to share for dinner, a margarita cocktail for me and the tallest beer I have ever seen for mum. Finished with Nutella crepes, all overlooking the old square.

Research and reading when we got back to the hostel, a lovely day!