Lagos, Portugal- Beach Bumming and Grubbing

We spent 3 lovely days in Lagos, a nice (and touristy) little beach town on the southern tip of Portugal. We stayed in a fantastic guest house with a little old Moroccan lady. She spoke Arabic, French, Portuguese and a very little bit of Spanish....but absolutely no English. The hand gestures were abundant.

Every morning she would make a fantastic breakfast with three flavors of homemade marmalade, hand-squeezed orange juice, and omelets with fresh eggs from a neighbors. Yeah it was good. After breakfast we'd head to the beach to work on our improving tans.

We ate dinner at this Indian restaurant two nights in a row, it was hands down the best Indian food we've ever had. Business was very slow and we struck up a conversation with the Pakistani owner. After declaring how good his food was he told us why: He's always instructed the chef, (who cooked in India for 15 years) to prepare the food in the traditional Indian style, not to put any creams or fancy sauces on it, and not to dumb down the flavor for foreign taste-buds. The picture was taken on the second night, after we told him about our trip, he stated enthusiastically "you are not the normal people!" and asked to have his picture taken with us.

Next up we head back into Spain to visit the ancient city of Seville.

Lisbon Portugal- Castles, Street Parties and more Castles.

We took an overnight train from Madrid to Lisbon, Portugal.  Our initial excitement of the overnight adventure was let down by the tightly cramped gender specific rooms.  Sue’s room had a toddler that unfortunately got motion sickness all over their compartment floor at about 2 am.  Needless to say we were relieved to get some fresh air in Lisbon.

Portugal is relatively less expensive and reminded us a little bit of South America with its slightly more laid back feel than the hustle and bustle of the rest of Europe.  

Castello de Sao George perched above Lisbon

Trolley cars in old town. 

 View from Castello De Sao George

 The outlines of arches you can see are from the Carmo Convent. Built in 1389, the Convent’s arches were practically the only thing left standing after a massive earthquake in 1755 that completely leveled Lisbon. The arches were left bare (no roof) to serve as a reminder of the earthquake.

The alter at Liceu Gil Vicente

The entire month of June is a festival in Portugal and we happened to arrive in Lisbon on the first night.  The streets were brightly decorated and lined with drink and seafood vendors.  Locals were out dancing, drinking and celebrating in the streets.

We took a day trip to Sintra, a historic town 30 kilometers away from Lisbon.  The town was home to a Moorish military fort believed to date back to the ninth century during the period of Arab occupation.  Parts were later rebuilt and maintained by the Portuguese kings from the 12^th- 19^th centuries.

 

Walls of the castle with the Palace of Pena in the background

The Palace of Pena was built in the 1800’s by the King and Queen of Portugal and housed the Royal families until 1910.  We took a tour of the palaces rooms with an eclectic and surprisingly tacky collection of furniture (sorry no pics allowedJ)  

We headed south from Lisbon to Lagos, a little beach town on the south tip of Portugal. We spent 3 days lying on the beach there and not much else, so we're not sure how exciting a blog post would be....might put a couple pictures up, we'll see. After that we're headed back into Spain to visit Seville.

Madrid-Bull fights , civil protests , and chocolate dipped churros.

We spent 3 nights in the Spanish capital, taking in the amazing amount of culture the city has to offer.   There were ancient Egyptian ruins accompanied by a cathedral that took over 400 years to complete.  We visited two renowned museums, the Prado and the Renia Sofia, to see works by masters like Picasso, Dali, Goya, Raphael, and many others.  

After some moral debate we also decided to attend one of the most classic Spanish events, bull fighting. The spectacle is deeply ingrained in the Spanish culture and Madrid is the famous epicenter of the sport. It turns out that while the main events are held on Sunday’s they actually have fights every single night of the week.  We were told that during the week only Novilleros, or apprentice bullfighters, perform rather than the true Matadors, but as first time observers we wouldn’t really be able to tell the difference. We decided to go on a whim and showed up about 10 minutes before the fight assuming there wouldn’t be much of a crowd on a Tuesday night….wrong. The stadium was completely packed. We managed to get some cheap seats in the rafters for 5 Euro, which was fine as we didn’t really need to see the action too close up. The whole event was pretty interesting as it seemed to be a serious and passionate pastime for the locals, even if it was pretty sad for the bulls.

Our visit to Madrid also happened to coincide with some peaceful political protests following a recent election. For the past 2 weeks or so hundreds protesters, feeling disenfranchised by political structure (and lack of jobs) have occupied Puerta del Sol in make shift tent city. It was quite interesting to walk through the square/tent city and see all the posters (mostly in Spanish) as well as song and drum circles. 

We have now headed to Portugal in time for some summer festivities!  

The tents and tarps of Puerta del Sol,  The name  means the sun gate, as it was the eastern most gate in the city walls of old Madrid. The plaza is also the literal center of modern Spain's roads as all distance markers throughout the country are measured from there.

A protester waving the old flag of Madrid, a symbol of the protest against the current republic.

The Royal Palace housing 2,800 rooms.

The changing of the guards.

Santa María la Real de La Almuden Cathedral above the old Arab wall believed to be build in 852 AD.

The bright interior of the cathedral.

The worlds oldest restaurant, continuously operating since 1725.

Churros to be dipped in thick melted chocolate....so good! True Spaniards eat this for breakfast.

Plaza de Toros- the bullfighting stadium.

The bulls were "softened up" by lances from horse back. The horses are armored and blindfolded to keep them from panicking too much as they are rammed by the angry bull. The lances also test the bulls strength, if it appears too weak to fight after a few pokes from the lance the bull is spared and led out of the ring. 

While the weeknight fight was on;y supposed to feature the rookie Novilleros, there was a surprise appearance by a real Matador. According to some people sitting next to us he was apparently ranked as one of the best in all of Europe. He was seriously full of himself and quite a show off, dancing around the bull, taking his shoes off and even giving the bull passes while on his knees! Crazy.

Templo de Debod, an ancient Egyptian temple donated to Spain in the 1960s and reconstructed in a park, complete with hieroglyphics in inside.

Parque del Retirio where we spent most of one day relaxing in the sun and people watching.

The well groomed garden in front of the Royal Palace.

A HUGE bouncy ball by the crazy artist Yayoi Kusama in the museum of modern art, Renia Sofia.

Wine in Western France and Sun Bathing in Basque Country.

We left Paris in need of some down time and headed to the quiet town Nantes.  We stayed in a small studio with a much needed kitchen.  We explored the city, planned out a general  route for the next few weeks, and made some healthy meals (we have been eating a lot of Baguettes and not very many vegetables) and jumped on a train to Southwest France.

Bordeaux is the second largest wine producing region in the world, producing 800 million gallons of wine a year.  Of course we did our best to sample an array of regional wine, from cheap to only kind of cheap.   We spent an afternoon wandering through the city’s pedestrian streets lined with shops , cafes and bars.  After two nights in Bordeaux we boarded an early morning train (we are loving our Eurorail Passes!) headed towards San Sebastian, Spain.

We happened to be in San Sebastian for a big cultural heritage festival , where food, dancing, drinking and music were abundant. Graham’s Uncle Harry saw a show featuring San Sebastian’s culinary specialties on the Food Network and recommended that we check it out and we are so glad we did.  Only about 10 miles from the French border, San Sebastian has a mix of gastronomic influences from the French, Spanish and the Basque.  We spent our few days in San Sebastian sun bathing on the beach, wandering the streets and hopping from one tapas bar to the next.

  

Castle of the Dukes of Brittany (region of France) from the 15th century. 

           A motor powered larger than life Elephant that you could pay to ride, which we did not.  Really odd.

A lush park just across from the train station in Nantes

A meal we made in our little studio

At a wine bar in Bordeaux

The beautiful beaches in San Sebastian where going topless was the norm

A flamenco dance competition being held in the harbor

There were little boys (but no little girls) playing soccer everywhere in the city

Some little ones dressed up for the festival and dancing. So, so cute

Outdoor stalls at the festival full of locally made cheeses, pastries and cured meat

Tapas bars- little rich bites of heaven

We are now headed to the capital of Spain- more to come from the big city! Also, check out the new link "Where in the World are Sue and Graham?"  (located just above the "about me section") it will take you to a page where you can follow us via GPS tracking for the last 7 days (when we have it turned on).