Andrea

Day Twelve, I can hardly believe how fast this tour is going. However before it is done, I have another day to explore Seville. We started out the day by going to the Plaza de España, in Maria Luisa Park. It was built for the 1929 Exposición Ibero-Americana. The purpose of the Exposición Ibero-Americana was to smooth over relations with the countries who attended. It is lavishly ornamented with spanish glazed tiles, and was the palace in Star Wars episode I, and II (Small win though the orig [...]

This was a busy, busy day. But it was a pretty good day. We left early to hop on the bus and drove about 3 hours to Gibraltar. Gibraltar is a British Territory on the southern end of Spain at the entrance of the Mediterranean. It has an area of 2.3 square miles (6.0 km2) and a northern border with the Province of Cádiz in Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region. The country Gibraltar has almost 30,000 people. Gibraltar became British 1704 during the Wa [...]

Today is a full day in Granada. We had the walking tour early first thing in the morning. Our walking guide was called Paco. He was an elderly gentleman in his late 60s I think. Be had a good sense of humour. He took us to the old corner of the city called the Albaicín on the mountain. The view from there was amazing. You could see a good chunk of Granada and the snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains. The Albaycin is the old Arab Quarter. It comprises approximately the area between the hill [...]

Today is another travelling day. Yay. We got the late ferry and went to Denia. This ferry was the nicest ferry I have ever seen. It was like a mini cruise ship. With couches and fancy chairs, patio furniture, a pool, several bars, tvs and a kids area. It was not to shabby. We were on the ferry for four hours. With four hours to kill you have to believe that we got our drink on and hung out on the roof top patio. One of the boys was drunk enough to give us a strip tease. After that we had a [...]

Day 8 Today is recovery day in Ibiza. Most of us slept in till noon. Getting home at 7 am would do that for you. I had a quick shower then climbed into bed. At 11 am the maid service woke me up to change the towels and clean the room. I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I decided to wash some laundry. After that I went with the group to lunch. We went to a cafe down the street run by a French guy. I got my first salad all trip. It was a chicken salad with apples, tomatoes and an avocado sauc [...]

Day 7 Oh Ibiza. They say what happens in Ibiza stays in Ibiza. Well – we’ll see. We flew to Ibiza from Barcelona. The flight was delayed so we stayed at the airport for 5 hours. The flight was 45 mins. The we headed into the tow of Ibiza. We bought our pre- ordered party tickets on arrive at the hotel. The we had a quick walking tour of the city. The city is tiny. Lots of shops, lots of clubs, lots of cafés and the fort. That is it. Quick note. Ibiza is an island. It has several small to [...]

Day 6 This was a full day in Barcelona. We started the day with a bike tour of Barcelona. We took the bikes to a church in Barcelona that was built to honour the sailers in town. It had parts of a ships hull in the foundation. It was a little distracting because there was a marching band passing by at the same time. Next stop was the port. They built an island off the port for tourists so that they could put in tourist activities that would not have to close on Sundays. So they could ma [...]

Day 5 Today was a big travel day. We had 6 hours to drive to Barcelona. To be fair most of us spent the drive sleeping and getting ready for going out later that night. We made a stop 2 hours in at a place called Zaragoza. This was a roman city founded in 24 bc. This town was destroyed by Napoleon but rebuilt for the 2008 expo. We had a quick tour of the Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar. A church built around a pilar on which the Virgin Mary is said to appear to St. James. You are su [...]

The four day of tour was an amazing day. I got up early and went for a run. After that we piled on the bus to head toward San Sebastián. San Sebastián is a town 20 minuets away from the France- Spain boarder. It is the holiday resort for the rich and famous. It has a lot of 5 star restaurants and shops. We drove into town and got dropped off just off the main drag. I spent the day at the beach. Claire, the girl twins and Jess headed straight to the beach to get as much sun as possible. [...]

The third day of tour took us out of Madrid where we started going north. We stopped in the adorable town of Segovia. This town is full of old world charm. Its most striking feature is a large roman aqueduct that dominated the landscape of the town. Another cool thing about this town is that it has a beautiful cathedral and a castle like rectory. The rectory is actually able to purchase tickets to to wander inside. If you like old buildings then it is worth the 7 euro to go see it. You can [...]

The second day on tour started out with a bang. At breakfast I opened my yoghurt and under the lid was a message that made me believe i had won free yoghurt for a year. I did not it was an invitation to entertain I win free yoghurt. After that we went for a bus tour of Madrid. We bused though the down town core and learned the layout of the city. Next we went to a museum called museo del parado. We saw the most famous, religious and royal paintings by Spanish painters. Random note – there [...]

This was day one of our contiki tour. I have never travelled alone so the day started off with a rocky start of me being extremely nervous. I am not even going to lie. But once I got onto the plane I was fine. I had a 7 hour flight to Amsterdam. On the flight I over heard the girl behind me was going to Madrid too. I decided that I would keep her in mind to help me get too my next flight. I slept most of the first flight trying to jump start my internal clock to Madrid time. I had a 5 ho [...]