Spain summary
I'll post a lot more on my trip to spain over the next few days, but thought I would post a short summary here, then those that don't feel like reading all the detail can just flip through the photos as I get them up.
I started the trip in Madrid with the intention of watching a few days of the Hockey World Cup. This turned into 4 days when I realised that they had a free stand, along with a free shuttle bus out the the venue, so I could watch all the finals without having to stretch my budget all that much at all. It was great to watch, and in general I enjoyed the games. There were a few slow ones and the games were generally a lot lower scoring than I had hoped. The highlights were Aust v Spain in the semi finals, and Spain v Argentina in the 3rd place final. The sheer number of spainish and argentinean fans at the grounds lifted these games, but also the pace of the games and the tension. I took a huge amount of photos and met some great people there. It was definately worth going.
On the rest day for the world cup I went to Toledo with another australian girl i had met in the hostel. The cathedral at Toledo is listed in all the guidebooks and is meant to be one of the best in Spain. While the cathedral was pretty impressive, I was more impressed with the town itself. It is a very medieval town, lots of narrow, cobbled streets and most of the town in still inside the city walls. We had a wonderful day wandering around the town, getting lost regularly, and exploring all the bits that appealed.
From Madrid I travelled to Granada to meet up with a friend from Uni. We spent a couple of days exploring the city and a whole day (8 hours) at the Alhambra. The history of the town is amazing, and as we are both interested in Tudor history (and by association Isabelle and Ferdinand) we had a great time. The town is big enough that we were seeing new things most of the time, but small enough that we were able to explore the central parts on foot and easily get to all the places we wanted. The Alhambra was definately the stand out of the trip and I loved Granada.
After Granada we travelled to Cordoba. After a fabulous few days in Granada, Cordoba was a bit of a let down. The town itself is lovely, but we had serious problems with accomodation and many of the museums and sights we wanted to see were shut for renovations. However we did see the Mezquita and the Alcazar. These were both wonderful. The Mezquita was just what it promises, and going there after the Alhambra meant we felt better able to appreciate and notice the Islamic decorations. However the thing that offered the most memorable visit was the Alcazar. We visited this after a frustrating day, and it was the last thing we were doing. The guide book mentioned that it had a few roman mosaics, and nice gardens. The mosaics were incredible. There was one room with about 8 mosaics of different sizes and almost all were pretty well complete. they were magnificent and such a suprise. Just made all the frustations of the day seem smaller.
On leaving Cordoba I left my uni friend as we planned to visit different places. I went on to Valencia as I was very keen to see the arts and science complex that has been built there over the last few years. The whole complex is huge, and not quite finished. However I spent a very pleasant afternoon in the science museum there and had a look over some of the rest of the complex. I hadn't realised just how far out of the main part of the city it was, or how spread out it was, so didn't get to see all of it. Again in Valencia I met up with another australian in the hostel and as we generally wanted to see the same things we spent part of each day that I was there together. The highlight of Valencia was the flamenco show I went to on my last evening. I was slightly dubious about it as it seemed to be very heavily advertised to tourists, but it was wonderful. It wasn't really touristy at all, no traditional costumes and lots of locals there who were obviously fans of the trio performing that night. The female singer was incredible and made the dance and castenets seem so much a part of the song. The songs were really passionate and it seemed that she needed to get up and dance just to properly convey her message. Just incredible.
Finally I returned to Madrid for one night before flying back to England. I used this time to see the two main art galleries that I hadn't seen before and had a very pleasant half day wandering around the Prado looking at all the works they have there. The Goya collection is stunning and they have some wonderful El Greco's. I also got to see Piccasso's Guernica at the Renia Sofia which was incredible.
I had a wonderful trip and can't wait to go again and see all the places i didn't get to this time. I'll try to get most of the photos up, and a bit more detail about each place, before i head off on the next adventure.
I started the trip in Madrid with the intention of watching a few days of the Hockey World Cup. This turned into 4 days when I realised that they had a free stand, along with a free shuttle bus out the the venue, so I could watch all the finals without having to stretch my budget all that much at all. It was great to watch, and in general I enjoyed the games. There were a few slow ones and the games were generally a lot lower scoring than I had hoped. The highlights were Aust v Spain in the semi finals, and Spain v Argentina in the 3rd place final. The sheer number of spainish and argentinean fans at the grounds lifted these games, but also the pace of the games and the tension. I took a huge amount of photos and met some great people there. It was definately worth going.
On the rest day for the world cup I went to Toledo with another australian girl i had met in the hostel. The cathedral at Toledo is listed in all the guidebooks and is meant to be one of the best in Spain. While the cathedral was pretty impressive, I was more impressed with the town itself. It is a very medieval town, lots of narrow, cobbled streets and most of the town in still inside the city walls. We had a wonderful day wandering around the town, getting lost regularly, and exploring all the bits that appealed.
From Madrid I travelled to Granada to meet up with a friend from Uni. We spent a couple of days exploring the city and a whole day (8 hours) at the Alhambra. The history of the town is amazing, and as we are both interested in Tudor history (and by association Isabelle and Ferdinand) we had a great time. The town is big enough that we were seeing new things most of the time, but small enough that we were able to explore the central parts on foot and easily get to all the places we wanted. The Alhambra was definately the stand out of the trip and I loved Granada.
After Granada we travelled to Cordoba. After a fabulous few days in Granada, Cordoba was a bit of a let down. The town itself is lovely, but we had serious problems with accomodation and many of the museums and sights we wanted to see were shut for renovations. However we did see the Mezquita and the Alcazar. These were both wonderful. The Mezquita was just what it promises, and going there after the Alhambra meant we felt better able to appreciate and notice the Islamic decorations. However the thing that offered the most memorable visit was the Alcazar. We visited this after a frustrating day, and it was the last thing we were doing. The guide book mentioned that it had a few roman mosaics, and nice gardens. The mosaics were incredible. There was one room with about 8 mosaics of different sizes and almost all were pretty well complete. they were magnificent and such a suprise. Just made all the frustations of the day seem smaller.
On leaving Cordoba I left my uni friend as we planned to visit different places. I went on to Valencia as I was very keen to see the arts and science complex that has been built there over the last few years. The whole complex is huge, and not quite finished. However I spent a very pleasant afternoon in the science museum there and had a look over some of the rest of the complex. I hadn't realised just how far out of the main part of the city it was, or how spread out it was, so didn't get to see all of it. Again in Valencia I met up with another australian in the hostel and as we generally wanted to see the same things we spent part of each day that I was there together. The highlight of Valencia was the flamenco show I went to on my last evening. I was slightly dubious about it as it seemed to be very heavily advertised to tourists, but it was wonderful. It wasn't really touristy at all, no traditional costumes and lots of locals there who were obviously fans of the trio performing that night. The female singer was incredible and made the dance and castenets seem so much a part of the song. The songs were really passionate and it seemed that she needed to get up and dance just to properly convey her message. Just incredible.
Finally I returned to Madrid for one night before flying back to England. I used this time to see the two main art galleries that I hadn't seen before and had a very pleasant half day wandering around the Prado looking at all the works they have there. The Goya collection is stunning and they have some wonderful El Greco's. I also got to see Piccasso's Guernica at the Renia Sofia which was incredible.
I had a wonderful trip and can't wait to go again and see all the places i didn't get to this time. I'll try to get most of the photos up, and a bit more detail about each place, before i head off on the next adventure.
posted by bronwyn | 11:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home