Ole…ole…ole!!
Ah…..Andalusia! What a change it was stepping onto European soil after predominantly touring the developing world over the past 150 days. Even though most of the major European countries had a profound (not always positive) impact on many of the countries we travelled through as Dorothy says “There´s no place like home”. Well not our home exactly, but when you step off the boat from Morocco; breeze through immigration; saunter into the quaint town of Tarifa, Spain; check in to one of the plushest hostels we have experienced and literally walk right into a knock-off Texas Star Fajita Bar complete with genuine fajitas and margaritas, you can close your eyes and almost imagine you are back in your own surroundings. If that wasn´t enough when you look at the bill you definitely know you are back in the ´real´world….$3 beers….seriously when is the last time we paid anything over $1!! Well at least we can get beers now!! Two weeks in Morocco was a good detoxing after South Africa. As you might be able to glean we are getting a little bit worse for wear and this insertion into the West was just what the Doctor ordered. Time to let loose and enjoy Andulusia like the Europeans and British…..consume, consume, consume without any regard for prices!!
There´s no better time to do that than Becca´s birthday month!
You all know she expects princess-like treatment for a minimum of a week building up to the crescendo of July 9th! In crescendo-like fashion we started in the beautiful seaside, surfer town of Tarifa and weren´t disappointed. We strolled the beaches, consumed copious amounts of seafood, enjoyed the Italians OT win over Germany and got lost in the amazingly quaint streets of the old city. Seriously, if you plan on visiting Tarifa (and you should!) bring a big wallet. There are just too many great places to eat and fun artisan shops to explore to attempt it while working on a fixed (sorry…all your retired folks) income. And remember no pooping on the beach!
After just a quick stay in Tarifa we jumped on an easy and quick (something we aren´t use to) bus ride to enjoy the southern Spanish culture capital of Seville. Our introduction was nothing sort of the simplicity that we look forward to by hitting Europe for a few weeks. We stepped off the bus and weren´t hassled for a ride, in fact we had to look for one!! After getting in the cab and explaining where we wanted to go we were almost shocked that the cabbie used his meter without us asking. You mean he isn´t gonna try and take us for all of our worldly belongings?? Ahh ain´t the First World grand?! Our centrally located hotel made it very easy for us to explore as much of the city of Seville as possible over our brief three day stay. We really did attempt to see everything but were waylaid on multiple occasions by many appealing looking tascas (tapas and wine) bars for lunch!! Once we made it away from the sangria and patatas aioli we managed to witness some of the most magnificent sights Europe has to offer. The first sight to take our breath away was the world´s largest Roman Catholic cathedral, Santa Maria as well as it´s amazing bell tower, La Giralda. After spending so much time in the modern Islamic world we were very much interested in the Moorish (Muslim) influence in much of the architecture and how most of the dated Roman Catholic structures in the south of Spain are nothing more than converted Islamic religious monuments. As far as sightseeing goes the Alcazar and the Seville regional administration building (don´t miss this!) provided us with a glimpse at some of the most magnificent architecture and design we have seen since the time we spent in Uzbekistan.
At this point in our trip after two or three big monuments in a day or two we need to take a break and focus on something else. This is not so much for the fact that we don´t like monuments but at some point during an eight month journey of monuments a certain level of desensitization occurs. We are constantly aware of this effect as we walk up to some of the most beautiful monuments in the world and say ¨Okay, next!” At this point we know we have to improvise and so we did just that. Another glass of wine, another small tapa, grabbing the bull by the horns at the bull ring tour, maybe wandering the tight, quaint streets of the different neighborhoods and we are ready for more! Honestly just getting lost in the streets of Seville is half the fun and we did just that on multiple occasions whether knowingly or not. Our partners in aimless wandering were the Ganims, a family from the east coast of the US, whom we met while crossing from Morocco to Spain. As you can all imagine by this point, spending 24/7 with your spouse (Especially Jeff) can be an…how shall we put it….interesting experience! In an order to remedy the oversaturation issue we enjoy meeting new friends and fellow travellers. The Ganims provided that respite perfectly. After our days of sightseeing we would meet up with Mit, Alex, Kate, and Chris and go out for a night on the town. Together we enjoyed multiple new and interesting tapas, different flamenco performances and, most importantly, perfectly made Churros complete with a chocolate dipping sauce…YUM!! and thanks Ganims we had a blast experiencing Seville with you. After a quick jaunt through the enticing ceramics district of Triana we jumped on the next bus to Portugal and the southern coastline also known as the Algarve.
As it was Miss Becca´s birthday week she got to select the towns she would like to visit on Portugal´s coast and she did a magnificent job. Our first stop was the small, captivating town of Tavira. It is becoming more and more popular with English tourists but if you get there now you can still experience the small and colonial feel that we fell in love with. Tavira is home to less than 30,000 people and boasts wonderful sidewalk cafes, pristine (albeit packed) beaches, amazing seafood and perfect side-streets for an afternoon saunter in the sun. After a few days of fun and sun (including an Italia World Cup Championship!) in Tavira we hit the road for a short trip down the road to Lagos. This town is just a bit bigger in terms of population but greatly exceeds Tavira with tourists. Our take on Lagos: if you enjoy shopping, laying in the sun with countless others and eating and drinking with Germans and English then Lagos is the place for you. This is not to say that we didn´t enjoy. There was plenty to keep us intrigued including a nature hike along the Atlantic Ocean-eroded cliffs that were known as the “End of World” during the days of Chris Columbus, the local chicken special known as “Chicken Piri-piri”, and countless bottles of Vinho Verde. By the way if you haven´t tried this wine pick up a bottle, any bottle and drink it with some seafood or something spicy….YUMMM! At this point with our multiple mentions of alcoholic beverages you might be thinking we are turning into a couple of lushes. Close….no just kidding. We are really just celebrating Becca´s birthday in grand fashion and (yes Mom B and Z) in moderation.
From the sun soaked beaches of the Algarve we headed north on a quick bus trip to the capital city of Lisbon. Wow! What a change from the small coast towns that we spent the last week in. This is big city Portugal but it really doesn´t feel that way. At least not like big city Bangkok or big city Cairo feel. The cute trolleys that whisk down the street, the grand architecture of multiple religious buildings, and the walkability of most of the city sights make Lisbon one of our favorite First World big cities. We got acquainted with the city by doing a few walking tours which gave us a look at the city from many of the Lisbon´s mirodouros (lookout points) and cobblestone streets as we dragged our weary bodies up and down five of the seven different hills that populate Lisbon. Luckily for us we managed to utilize the public transportation (cablecars, funiculars, Metra) increasingly well during our stay which helped shield us from the blaring sun on more than one occasion. After seeing the sights of Lisbon we decided to immerse ourselves in its culture…..for us that means wine and food!! We found a list of well-established pastelerias (treat shops!) and dove into the favorite local past time of pulling up to the stand up bar, ordering a few pastries and espressos and practicing our very limited Portuguese. Our recommendations for the best custard pastry in town is to catch the short train to Belem, walk around the sights a bit, work up a sweat then settle in at Pasteis de Belem for a custard tart topped with cinnamon and sugar as well as an ice cold beverage. This will always remind us of Portugal. After conquering our sweet tooth it was time for something more sophisticated…..a wine tasting. The Portugeuse are sixth in the world in wine production (as well as #1 in cork production) yet how many of you have ever experienced (not a Port) a Vinho Verde, Dáo, or Setubal regional wine? We know….neither had we!! To say the least we fell in love. The wine commission in Portugal is doing a wonderful thing. They feature tastings of three different wine regions weekly at their office in the middle of Lisbon. The best part…it´s free and they don´t limit your (just don´t go overboard, they are so nice!) consumption.
After consuming and sightseeing in the city we decided to escape to the hills like the Royals use to do. This was done for hundreds of years at a location called Sintra. Sintra is located a quick and easy 45-minute train ride away from the Lisbon city centre and is still home to the amazing summer getaway residences and parks of the Portugeuse royal family. All we can say is….go there. After travelling quite a bit of the world we have yet to see anything like this although due to the royal family´s German lineage you might find this in Bavaria. Take Disneyland and combine it with Versailles, mix in a little Moorish influence and…voila…you have the amazing buildings of Sintra. Albeit the place is crawling with tourists (Oylear..is that you?) and priced appropriately we had a great time wandering through the palaces and castles and sauntering through the endless parks. Just make sure to bring to your walking shoes ´cause you will walk and your wallet because the local almond pastries and giant beers are a necessity after a long day at the sights!
Our time in Portugal was amazing and HOT!! We were recently informed that we would get to stay a few more days. TAP, our airline, from Lisbon to South America decided to pop in a last minute change and that caused great excitement for us. They were flying us through Porto, land of Port, and giving us a two day layover….oh yea!! As soon as we arrived in the Porto airport we knew we were really going to like this short two day adventure. Porto is home to the most sophisticated trains we have experienced yet and with the new extremely helpful Porto Tourist services they are on the cusp of becoming the biggest hit in western Europe! Being that we only had two days we jammed in as much as we could including four different tours of port houses, a city tour on the mini-train, countless educational opportunities from the masters of the barrel in the tasting room and, of course, multiple glasses of tawny, ruby and ONE….20 year tawny. YUM! There is so much to see up and down the Douro River…take your time when you visit Porto. We will be back and can´t wait to take a trip up the river and visit the vineyards…any takers?!!!
Well, its off to South America for us two…..we will see you back on the left side of the world!
Tags: Lisbon, Portugal, Spain, Travel
Jeff and Becca
Well, I am finally caught up on your blog. Becca – your week of birthday celebrating sounded amazing! I wish everyone loved birthdays as much as we did! Miss you tons.
Beth