Japan Diaries - Day 8 - Tokyo to Calgary

Friday started for us in Tokyo when we woke up at 8:30 am local time. Due to time zone changes, it was an almost 40 hour day for us! We had to check-out of our hotel at 12 noon so after getting ready, we spent the morning packing our suitcases to make sure the weight was distributed evenly and that valuables were in our carry-on bag.

We checked-out and stored our bags with the hotel and left for our last day of sightseeing in this trip. We had a very late breakfast at the French bakery chain Paul at the Shinagawa station. We had a chicken croissant, chicken and avocado bread and chocolate croissant with coffee.

Then we took the train to our first stop of the day, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in the Shinjuku area. We were given a free tour of the building by a volunteer lady who gave us a very informative tour that included showing us the Assembly hall of the government of the Tokyo Prefecture/Province where all sessions are attended by 127 members of the Tokyo assembly and is headed by the governor/mayor of Tokyo. Then she took us to the 45th floor of the building where we could see the bird's eye view of Tokyo and it's various areas. She had been to Canada so we had a great time chatting with her about the similarities and differences between Japan and Canada with respect to taxes and health care etc.

After that, our next stop was the Harajuku area that has a tree-lined avenue called Omatesando similar to the Champs Élysées of Paris with high-end Western stores on both sides of the road. We went inside a mall and were surprised to see that there was a Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar there! We've been to the Max Brenner's in New York City and Las Vegas but didn't know that there was one in Tokyo too. There was a huge lineup so we just got a chocolate hazelnut crepe packed. We also got a few macaroons packed from the next door French bakery that flies in fresh macaroons from Paris every day. Then getting directions from the very helpful mall concierge (yes, all malls in Tokyo have a concierge desk on every floor), we found a place to sit and savored the delicious crepe and the macaroons. Then we walked to the only Japanese-looking building on the avenue, the Oriental Bazaar.

The Oriental Bazaar is a three-floor building solely selling traditional Japanese items and souvenirs. We bought some Japanese tea cups and plates there. Whenever we come back to Tokyo again, this is one place we will definitely be visiting again because of the sheer quality and variety of the items being sold.

By the time we were done with shopping, we were hungry for something substantial since the Max Brenner's crepe and the macaroons were not that filling. We stopped at a McDonald's which is one of the largest and busiest we've ever seen. There were throngs of school going teenagers who seemed to have come there directly after school and were putting on makeup and changing their clothes to get into their Goth mode. Harajuku is a famous gathering spot for all such Goth enthusiasts, most of whom are school children which seemed a bit odd. Perhaps that's one way workaholism of absentee Japanese parents is manifesting itself.

We would've gone to the Meiji Shrine or Meiji-jingu which was about a km walk away but our volunteer guide at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building had warned us that it might be closed because of its proximity to the Yoyogi park which has a Dengue fever threat alert issued. We did manage to confirm that Meiji-jingu was open but we didn't want to take a chance on our last day in Japan, specially because we didn't have our bug repellent spray with us and because I had decided to wear shorts. Ah well, maybe visiting Meiji Shrine can be another excuse for coming back to Tokyo, in addition to excellent shopping options and a chance to come back to possibly the best mega city in the world.

The Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine that was built in honor of the Japanese emperor Meiji who is famous in history for the Meiji Restoration of 1868 which transferred back the political rule of Japan from the Shogun to the Emperor. You might be wondering why a religious shrine was built for an Emperor. Well, I didn't get a chance to mention this before but in Shinto religion, the Imperial Emperor is considered the living embodiment of the divine and is considered a god!

After Harajuku, we took the train to the Ginza area. Before exiting, we stored our shopping in a coin locker for safekeeping. The Ginza area is like the 5th Avenue of New York City or the Rodeo Drive of Los Angeles - it is THE area if you want to buy super expensive high-end brand items. The whole area gives off an elite vibe with window after window showcasing all the various ways you can quickly rack up your credit card bill. The neon lighting, the tall buildings and the Western brands can easily fool you into thinking that you're in North America or Western Europe.

After strolling around in Ginza, we took the train back to our hotel and collected our suitcases from storage. Then we changed into comfortable travel clothes and freshened up. We took a cab to the Haneda Airport which is just about a 20 minute ride away from our hotel. We were at the airport at 9:45 pm.

After checking-in, we quickly bought some chocolates and then dropped off our bags with the airlines and explored the airport. It looks like a new airport and like everything else in Tokyo, it's super clean. In fact, everywhere you go in Tokyo, it seems like you're walking in a large hospital, that's how clean this city is! At Haneda airport, there is even a smaller version of the Nihombashi bridge from the Edo period whose replica we saw at the Edo-Tokyo Museum earlier on this trip. The Japanese sure do know how to market their history.

We wanted to try some more authentic Japanese food before leaving so after passing through security, we stopped to have Ramen noodles before rushing to our gate since I had been asked to report five minutes earlier than the boarding time because as always, I had been "randomly" selected for extra screening, thank to my Pakistani passport. The silver lining to this discrimination is that we were the first people to board the plane and settling down in our seats took no time.

Since it was daytime in Calgary, it would've been nice if we could've stayed up during the 9 hour flight but we were so tired after another day of walking over 10 km in the humid weather that we fell asleep and slept on and off for pretty much 7 hours!

The flight landed in Seattle at 7 pm local time on Friday. I could've used my NEXUS card for immigration but when I was given the card, I was told that if I was traveling with someone who didn't have NEXUS, I shouldn't use the NEXUS lane. Technically, we could've done immigration separately but I didn't want to take a chance and that resulted in the mandatory secondary inspection. Too bad that the volume of passengers requiring secondary inspection is not too high at the Seattle airport so the officers were slow in conducting the processing. It also didn't help that the officer undertaking my processing was being trained so he had to keep consulting his supervisor which made the process even slower. All said and done, the processing took an hour and then we were on our way. Lesson learnt that the next time we're going to or passing through the US, I should use my NEXUS card.

Due to this delay, the connecting flight desk staff had left by the time we reached there so the person assigned by Delta to make sure that we made our connection had to take us to the main terminal to drop off our bags with the airlines before proceeding through security to our gate. Thankfully we had a decent buffer before our next flight to Seattle so we easily made it on board.

The flight left on time at 9 pm local time and we reached Calgary just before midnight local time on Friday after a short two hour flight. Friday started in Tokyo and ended almost 40 hours later in Calgary.

Our friends Fouad and Faryal gave us a ride home. Since we slept through our flight to Seattle, looks like we'll be up for a few more hours so we will unpack and unwind. We hope you enjoyed details of our Japan trip. Like Samia said on Facebook, we came to Japan with high expectations as a developed nation with a rich history but Japan managed to even exceed them. We would definitely want to come back some day.

Till our next vacation, it's Sayonara from us. Take care!

Japan Diaries - Day 7 - More Kyoto

We woke up at 6:30 am and started the day with in-room coffee. After getting ready and packing, we checked-out at 9:30 am and left the suitcase with the luggage storage of our hotel. Since we're coming towards the last couple of days of our trip, we decided to splurge and have a fancy breakfast at our hotel. Everything was amazing - we shared a salmon topped baguette with salad, an omelette, half portion of french toast with fresh watermelon juice and a smoothie. We left the hotel at 11 am and took a detour to the closest ATM to withdraw cash and then got lost in the inner streets before finally reaching our first stop of the day Senjusengendo Temple at 11:40 am.

The Senjusengendo Temple is famous for its hall that has 1001 statues of Buddha. 1000 of them are identical and flank the 1001th giant Buddha on both sides. In front of the row of these 1000 statues, there are 28 statues of deities. The most interesting thing about them was that most of these are Hindu gods like Vishnu, Brahma and Sarasvati that have been incorporated into Buddhism in Japan. This hall of statutes is very impressive and the building is a wooden structure that is over 750 years old.

When we came out of the temple, it was raining so we took a cab to our next stop of the day, the Kiyomizu-dera. The cab dropped us off in the Higashiyama area and we walked on cobblestone streets up the hill while window-shopping at various souvenir shops of both sides of the road. After ten minutes of walking, we entered the Kiyomizu-dera complex. It is perhaps the most famous temple complex of Kyoto and has numerous temples, pagodas and a waterfall. Unfortunately, the giant pagoda was under renovation so we couldn't see it. Then we went to an underground tunnel which was pitch dark and we were holding a side rail for directions. When I say pitch dark, it was completely black and you couldn't see anything at all. We followed the trail to a sacred stone and legend says that you can put your right hand on it and make one wish and it will come true. Samia's wish was generic about health and happiness whereas mine was very specific and very worldly. Of course, if I have $10 million one day, you will know that my wish came true! When we came out of the tunnel, some local Japanese school kids asked us if they could ask us a few questions for their school project and we gladly obliged. We could see that it was an opportunity for the kids to interact with tourists and find out what brought them to Japan and also practice their English. At the end of it, they took a picture with us too (perhaps to be submitted as proof that they interviewed real people and didn't make stuff up for their project). It had started raining again. We walked through another giant temple and passed through it to walk on a long walkway only to come down again in front of a waterfall that is supposed to bring good luck for those who wash their hands and make a wish. We were done making wishes for the day so it was a quick photo stop after which we started making our way to the exit which was another peaceful walk with lots of greenery all around.

It was still raining so we took another cab to our next stop of the day, the Heain Shrine or the Heain-jingu. It is a Shinto shrine and just before the shrine, on the main road, is a huge orange Pi-shaped gate. When we entered the white gravel strewn main courtyard, we were surprised to find out that they were setting up chairs and sound system in the courtyard for what looked like a concert! We couldn't find out the reason for the concert-like setup since we entered what we had come to see, the gardens that lie behind the shrine. Like all other gardens we have seen in Japan so far, this was extremely green and walking through it was a calming experience. We had the opportunity to walk through a pond by stepping on stones that were laid out close enough to each other to enable one to cross the entire length of the pond. There were water lily flowers growing in the pond so we took some very nice pictures. We kept walking through the gardens for another half an hour or so before making our way out.

It had finally stopped raining so we put away our umbrellas and waited for the bus. The bus took us to our next stop of the day, the Ginkaku-ji or the Silver Pavilion. After getting off the bus, we had a short 5 minute walk up another cobblestone path hill, lined by souvenir shops on both sides. This temple was built by the the grandson of the Shogun who had ordered the construction of the Golden pavilion that was our highlight for yesterday. Ginkaku-ji is different in a couple of ways from its golden cousin. There are no pagoda style overlaid roofs over a single building, rather only the top layer of the roofs of the multiple interconnected buildings are colored silver and you have to walk through a long green path before you are high enough to see the silver roofs. The second difference is that this temple has a Zen rock garden. The walk was again very peaceful and green and it's easy to visualize that monk or not, how anyone doing this walk day in and day out could be at peace in this world. As we were making our way out, it started raining again but by the time we got to the end of the cobblestone path and reached the bus stop, it had stopped. We enjoyed the long bus ride back to the bus stop right next to our hotel.

After a quick freshening up break at the hotel (that included Samia changing her shoes since her shoes had become completely wet by all the walking in the rain on another hot and humid day), we took a cab to our last stop of the day, the Fushimi Inari temple that is famous for its thousand gates that are lined one next to the other, making a long pathway of orange gates that look quite stunning. They're probably the most famous highlight of Kyoto for many tourists because in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha", there is a scene in which the main character is shown running through these orange gates. We got there when the light was starting to fade but we were still able to get some nice pictures.

After that, we first took a train to Kyoto station and then took a cab back to our hotel. We had dinner at our hotel's Italian restaurant and it was another delicious meal - fresh fried calamari, seafood pizza and then lamb shank. Everything tasted divine although Samia had to look away while I removed the heads and tails of the shrimps that were on our pizza!

Kyoto has lived up to its reputation of being the heart of ancient Japan. The temples, the shrines, the castles and the gardens all transport you back in time to the past of this glorious and magical nation and we're very fortunate to have had a chance to witness and experience a slice of that part of Japanese history.

After dinner, we collected our suitcase from the concierge desk and then took a cab to the Kyoto station to catch our 8:40 pm Shinkansen train to the Shinagawa station in Tokyo. After reaching Shinagawa at 11 pm, we walked to the same hotel where we stayed during our first three nights in Japan and that's where we will be ending our trip. The hotel staff had already sent our suitcase up to our new room. The service quality throughout Japan keeps impressing us.

We have a few things left for Tokyo that we will explore tomorrow. After that, we have to reach the airport at 10 pm for the 9 hour direct flight to Seattle that will take off at just after midnight local time. Till then, take care and good night!

Japan Diaries - Day 6 - Kyoto

Our first day in Kyoto started early-ish - we were up at 6:30 am but didn't rush and left around 9:45 am after having in-room coffee. We walked 10 minutes to the closest subway station and spotted a McDonald's at the entrance of the subway station so decided to stop for a quick bite. We had the good old egg and cheese McMuffin with orange juice and also tried a tuna fish sandwich that exceeded our expectations and was very refreshing and yummy.

Then we took the subway to our first stop of the day, the Nijo Castle. Interestingly, Kyoto has private subway companies so to get to Nijo Castle, we took two trains and both of them were operated by different companies. Nijo Castle is the former home of the Shogun. It was commissioned to be built as the official Kyoto residence by the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu in 1603 and was completed in 1626 by the third Tokugawa Shogun, Iemitsu. It was at the Nijo Castle that the fifteenth and the last Shogun returned sovereignty to the Emperor in 1867. We rented the audio guide which was very advanced and worked by tapping a pen-like device on a piece of thick paper that had chips embedded in it. The Nijo Castle is a walled compound with two castles and two gardens. The main castle is the Ninomaru Goten which looks majestic from the outside but was surprisingly simple from the inside, specially given that it was the official residence of the political administrator of the nation. It has about a dozen rooms but all of them had floor seating on tatami mats and no furniture, let alone any thrones. All walls have simple yet elegant paintings on them depicting various seasons and animals of Japan. The castle is primarily made of wood and its floor makes a nightingale's sound when someone walks on it. This was achieved by using a special technique that involved using metal clippers beneath the wooden floorboard and was meant to act as a built-in burglar alarm. The second castle is not open to public so we continued our tour to the gardens. Both the gardens are lush green and have a wide variety of flowers, most of which were not in bloom today.

I completely forgot to mention that the weather in Japan is extremely humid and hot these days and for the past few days, humidity has been above 95 percent with a feels-like temperature in the late 30s Celsius. The days sap out all energy and to keep up our fluid levels, we've been making full use of the vending machines that seem to be on every road corner to buy water. Today was another hot day and having walked over 50 km in the past few days, we decided to relax a little and take cabs for getting to the various sightseeing places for today. So we took a cab from the Nijo Castle to our next stop, Kyoto Imperial Palace.

We had to fill out a permission form for entry into the Palace so we reached there around 1 pm for the 2 pm tour. We sat and waited in the air conditioned information center and left only when the tour was about to start. The one hour long tour started at the south end of the 27 acres palace compound and ended at the west end. We were shown the various gates that were used by different people to enter the palace. For instance, the emperor had his own gate whereas the Empress had her own. Dignitaries used another gate and ministers used a separate one. In total, there were six gates. The tour did not include a visit to the Northern residential area. We saw the building with rooms for visitors, the building that was used for ceremonies, the Emperor's residence and various gardens and other buildings. In contrast to the Nijo Castle, the whole compound seems much more elite and luxurious. This is despite the fact that even this elite and luxurious version is also way more simple than any royal residence one will find in any other country of the world that has had royal families. For instance, seating was still mostly on floor and the buildings still primarily use wood as the main construction material. Kyoto Imperial Palace is no longer used as a royal residence for the current Emperor who lives in Tokyo now. After the tour ended at 3 pm, we took a cab to our next stop that was the highlight of the day.

Kinkaku-ji is also known as the Golden Pavilion and it was initially designed to be the retirement home of a Shogun but according to his will, it was turned into a temple after his demise. This temple has two roofs that are gold plated and thus yellow in colour. The temple is on the edge of an artificial lake surrounded by trees. As soon as you enter the area, the spell-binding scene greets you. The majestic yellow roofs shine against the green backdrop of trees and their reflection in water enhances the whole effect. Itsukushima Shrine that we saw in Miyajima yesterday has stiff competition for our favorite ancient Japanese attraction. The setting is so perfect that words can't do justice to the beauty of this magnificent structure. After taking pictures of this unforgettable scene, we walked through the rest of the temple grounds admiring the greenery and then made our way out.

The next cab ride took us to the Ryoan-ji which is another temple but its claim to fame is not the temple building but instead the Zen rock garden in it. In Buddhism, the number 15 signifies completeness and this rock garden has 15 large rocks spread in a few clusters in a rectangular 25 meters by 10 meters "garden" that has white gravel only interrupted by the 15 rocks. The interesting thing about this Zen rock garden is that if you look at the garden from any vantage point, you can only see 14 stones and so figuratively speaking, you can never achieve completeness. It's a very unique concept. We sat at the edge of this garden for about 20 minutes and relaxed.

Our last cab ride of the day then took us to the Gion area. We stopped at a theater that had a 6 pm crash-course performance about various customs of the ancient Japanese culture. Gion is the geisha quarter of Kyoto and the performance's main draw was a dance by two maikos. A maiko is a young in-training geisha who hasn't yet graduated to being a full geisha. A geisha has always been misunderstood as a glorious Japanese euphemism for a prostitute and although it is true that some geishas did dabble in that profession, the original concept was not meant to include that. A geisha is meant to be a performer who presents a world of fantasy and perfection for her audience as an escape from reality. Apart from the rather serious dance by the two maikos, other items of the performance included a demonstration of the tea ceremony that we had already experienced at the Hama Rikyu garden in Tokyo, a Japanese harp performance, a flower arrangement demonstration, a court music performance, a small skit-like ancient comic play and a puppet show where a life-sized very realistic puppet danced to a song and was controlled by three men wearing black head covers and black clothes. Great quick introduction to some of the ancient Japanese customs in just an hour - we felt it was excellent value for money.

After that, we dined at a nearby restaurant in traditional style by sitting on tatami mats with a 6-inches high table in front of us. We ordered Shabu-Shabu which is a Japanese culinary experience where you cook food in front of you on your table in boiling water. We tried vegetables and supplemented the Shabu-Shabu with tempura and Japanese omelet. It was an interesting experience but we weren't quite full after the meal so we decided that we would have something else before going to bed. We walked around the Gion area for half an hour and then took the subway back to the station closest to our hotel. As we got out of the subway station, we stopped at McDonald's to have filet-o-fish and then walked back to our hotel to call end to a busy day where despite taking cabs, we still ended up walking over 10 kilometers!

Tomorrow is going to be another full day since we have quite a few things planned. Till tomorrow, take care and good night! :)

Japan Diaries - Day 5 - Hiroshima and Miyajima

We woke up at our hotel in Hiroshima at 8:30 am after a peaceful night's sleep. Considering that we had been sleeping 6 hours for the past few days, it was a refreshing change and probably has something to do with the North American comfort of the Sheraton. Since we had to check out of the hotel today, we took our time getting ready after having in-room coffee made using an ingenious drip coffee sachet. We checked out around 10:40 am and stored our bag with the hotel luggage storage.

We walked to the adjacent train station (Hiroshima station) and tried omelette with rice at a restaurant. It had a base of tomato fried rice covered by a plain omelette drizzled lightly with ketchup. We were a little wary in giving it a try but it actually tasted quite amazing. The serving size wasn't enormous and we knew that because of a packed day we won't have time for lunch so we decided to supplement our breakfast with some comfort food. We had McDonald's chicken burger and as always, it didn't disappoint.

We boarded the Hiroshima tourist bus  outside the train station at 12 noon and were dropped off at our first stop of the day, the Atomic Bomb Dome or the A-Bomb Dome. It is the ruins of a building that is still in the same shape as it was after the atomic bomb explosion in this city. It is the only building that retains its post-atomic-bomb state since the rest of the entire city that was also destroyed has been rebuilt and were it not for the A-Bomb Dome, you wouldn't be able to tell that this city was once destroyed in an instant.

As you must already know, Hiroshima has the unfortunate distinction of being the first city ever to have an atomic bomb dropped on it. The bomb was dropped by an American B-29 bomber plane (called Enola Gay) at 8:15 am on August 6, 1945. Next year will be the 70th anniversary of this horrendous incident. The actual target was the bridge that is a few meters away from the A-Bomb Dome but it missed its target and instead detonated about 160 meters away from its intended target. The bomb detonated in the air 600 meters above the Shima Hospital building and in less than a second, most buildings within a 2 kilometer radius were turned into rubble and ashes and within that instant, over 80,000 people were killed. About 6500 of them were children, most of whom were working in the area around the A-Bomb Dome to make fire lanes in case aerial bombardment hit the city. About a dozen buildings had their structures remain intact because of the use of concrete in their construction. This isn't to say that anyone inside the buildings survived. The smoke and ash from the explosion went into the atmosphere and within 15-20 minutes of the blast, the so-called black rain started coming down that affected the remaining survivors of the initial blast by drenching them in this radiation poisoned rain. The effects of the radiation from the initial blast and the following rain were so strong that by the end of 1945, a mere 5 months after the bomb explosion, the total death toll in Hiroshima had reached 140,000. It is estimated that about 350,000 people lost their lives because of that one instant that should rank as the worst moment of human history. The horrific thing is that it wasn't a spur of the moment attack but a lot of planning went into it. There were six cities on the short list and along with Hiroshima and Nagasaki (that became the second city to have been destroyed by an Atomic Bomb a mere 3 days after the destruction of Hiroshima), Kyoto was also on the list. In a chilling display of cold-hearted murderous intentions, all six cities that were on the short list for "receiving" the atomic bomb had not been raided in the war till then so that the Americans could accurately measure the destruction caused by the Atomic Bomb - unbelievable! Tokyo and Osaka had been regularly bombed in aerial raids but these unfortunate 6 remain untouched.

The area around the A-Bomb Dome has been converted into the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and while the A-Bomb Dome is a hair raising reminder of the cruelty that the human species is capable of, the park and the memorials in the park extend an optimistic message of peace rather than dwelling on assigning blame. Walking through the park and stopping at different memorials - one for the 6500 children, one for the 20,000 Korean nationals living in Hiroshima at that time who died in this incident and a mound that has the cremated ashes of 70,000 people - was a very moving experience. We sat at a bench in the park and talked about how it would've had been a day very similar to this one and that none of those hundreds of thousands of people must've had any idea of what was about to strike them. Just goes to show the ephemeral nature of life and even more than that, it shows us the capability of the human species to self-destruct.

We then passed by a flame that the people of Hiroshima plan to extinguish the day the world gets rid of all nuclear arms. Then we went to a memorial hall within the park that hits home the scale of destruction. The hall is circular and on its walls is a 360 degrees view of what you could see if you stood at the location of Shima Hospital after the bomb had been dropped. The view is constructed using tiles and 140,000 of them, in remembrance of the 140,000 who died in the immediate aftermath of the Atomic Bomb explosion. Just before exiting the hall building, we decided to sit through a movie that presents some excerpts of the book "Children of Hiroshima". We had already been extremely moved but listening to the version of events that 4 children experienced first hand completely rendered us speechless, with dry throats and teary eyed. Witnessing the painful reminders of this massive scale ethical crime is too much to take in a few hours.

Our last stop of the Peace Memorial Park was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It further humanized the experience by highlighting the trauma and the horrors of the unforgivable incident.

After exiting the park, we took a cab back to our hotel/train station and then took the train to Miyajima station which was a 25 minutes ride. After getting off the train, we walked for 5 minutes to the ferry station and took the next ferry to the Miyajima island. This island is famous for two things - the Itsukushima Shrine and it's "floating" torii gate. We could see the gate from our ferry and like gates of all Shinto shrines, this one is also shaped like the symbol for the mathematical constant π.

After getting off on the island, we walked through the souvenir market towards the shrine. Another interesting thing about the island is that deer roam the island freely and not just one or two but a whole bunch of them!

The Itsukushima Shrine is breathtakingly beautiful. When the tide is high, the whole shrine that's made of wood and supported by wooden underwater pillars, seems to be floating on water. Painted bright orange on the inside with a red pagoda style single roof, the shrine is picture perfect. The shrine was rebuilt several times since it's original construction in the 6th century. The current structure dates back to the 16th century and follows models from the 12th century.

We took quite a few pictures of the shrine and the floating gate that's visible from the main dock of the shrine. The gate is made of decay-resistant camphor wood and is 16 meters high. Similar to the shrine, the gate seems to be floating on water in high tide but when the tide is low, worshippers can walk around its base. We were relatively fortunate to encounter a fairly high tide for the gate to appear majestically standing in the sea. In terms of evoking ancient Japan, this shrine and its gate have so far definitely done the job most convincingly. Although that might change after we visit Kyoto, let's see.

Then we took the ferry back to the mainland and from there we took the train to Hiroshima station. We got our bag from our hotel, got a McDonald's dinner packed and boarded the Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka. The ride took 1.5 hours during which we had dinner and I started writing this update. After reaching Shin-Osaka, we had to wait about 20 minutes for our next train to Kyoto station. We got a cab from the Kyoto station to our hotel Hyatt that was a short 10 minute ride. We were in our room by 10 pm and now about to go to bed. We are in Kyoto for the next two days after which we will go back to Tokyo.

We'll be back tomorrow when we have some tales of Kyoto - Japan's ancient capital - to share with you. Till then, take care and good night!

Japan Diaries - Day 4 - Osaka

Monday was another day that started early as we were up a little after at 5:30 am. We had in-room coffee and repacked our suitcases because we wanted to store one suitcase here at the hotel since we will be coming back on Thursday evening. After getting ready and finishing packing, we checked out just before 9 am and then walked to the JR Ticket Reservation Center at the adjoining Shinagawa station. We booked our Shinkansen ride to Hiroshima. With the Japan Rail pass, we didn't really need to make advance reservations and could've boarded any train but to reduce any chances of close misses, we felt it was better to make the reservation. The first train was from the Shinagawa station in Tokyo to the Shin-Osaka station in Osaka with a total ride time of 2 hours and 46 minutes with a start time of 9:40 am.

Since we had a good half an hour to go before boarding the train, we decided to have breakfast. The Shinagawa station has numerous options but we decided to go with a safe bet and chose the French bakery chain Paul. As you might remember, we dined at this chain in various cities of Europe earlier this year. We had a chocolate croissant, chicken croissant sandwich, apple jam pie slice and a mushroom and cheese croque-Monsieur with coffee. As always, everything was great. In fact, the quality might have been a tad bit higher than the quality in Europe!

We boarded the train at 9:35 and it left even before 9:40 am! That's when we realized that we had boarded the wrong train. We were waiting at the correct platform in the correct line for the car where we had gotten reserved seats but the confusion arose because the trains come and leave so quickly that we didn't realize that our train was the one supposed to arrive next. Anyway, no harm was done since we were told by the conductor to get off at the next station and wait a few minutes to catch our original train which was coming right after this one. We got on the right train at the Shin-Yokohama station and then bought some cookies and orange juice from the train's trolley service. We researched Osaka during the train ride using the guide book that we had purchased from Calgary and after reading about it a little, we decided to change our plan and stop in Osaka for sightseeing. The bullet train ride was so comfortable that we fell asleep for 20 minutes towards the end of the ride.

We reached Shin-Osaka station at 12:26 pm and stored our suitcase in a coin locker. Then we reached the Osaka station after a short train ride and explored the huge station complex that has a 20 floor mall connected to it. We window shopped at different stores on various floors before coming down to the basement floor that has food shops. As impressive as the mall was with all kinds of international brand stores, the food shops were even better - desserts and sushi of all kinds was on display. We munched on a few items that we liked, got a couple of things packed and then took the Osaka Loop train to get to our first stop, Osaka-jo or the Osaka Castle. As the name suggests, the Osaka Loop train goes around different areas of Osaka in a circular route, much like the JR Yamanote train of Tokyo.

After getting off the train, we had to walk 15 minutes to get to the castle building. The building is surrounded by a moat (a deep trench filled with water, built with the intention of keeping out enemies). Osaka used to be the capital of Japan before Kyoto and Tokyo and this castle was used by the royals of the time. The castle is built in the pagoda style with 4 roofs but the actual castle was destroyed by bombing of the allied forces in the Second World War so what we saw was a concrete and steel reconstruction of the original building. It was still very impressive and gave us a fair idea of how advanced Japanese architecture was, even back in the 7th and 8th centuries.

Then we walked another 20 minutes to reach a different train station and took two trains one after the other to reach the Namba station in the South area of Osaka. Within the station, there was a pretty long underground walk in a shopping area that had hundreds of shops. Saving space and time seem to be a common theme of Japanese life and by building shopping options at all major train stations, they achieve both.

Osaka has two major touristy areas - Kita (North) and Minami (South). Kita is new whereas Minami has some older streets mixed with modern buildings. In Minami, we explored the Namba city complex which comprises several buildings - the rail station, shopping mall, parks building and a cinema. Then we started walking to the Dotombori street which is the icon of Osaka and flanks both sides of the Dotombori river. On our way, we stopped at Burger King and had the whopper which had a higher quality than what we are used to in North America. Samia suspects that all these chains have better tasting food in Japan because of the country's emphasis on quality control which is a trademark feature of the Japanese way of doing business. No wonder the Japanese are pioneers in the manufacturing of all kinds of electronics in the world. Unfortunately for us, the famous Glico man neon sign was under renovation so we couldn't see it. It is a huge neon advertising board which depicts a man running with both his hands up in the air as if he is just about to finish a race. Over the years, it has become a symbol of Osaka's status as the leading commerce and industrial center of Japan, a status that Osaka has held since many centuries ago when this port city became the trade hub of the country. Legend says that back in the day, Osakans used to greet each other with the phrase, "Are you making money?"

After taking pictures with Glico man's replacement billboard that features some famous Japanese actress while the renovation is going on, we started heading back to the Shin-Osaka station after taking three different trains.

After reaching the Shin-Osaka station, we got our suitcase from the coin locker storage and sat in the waiting area for our Shinkansen train to Hiroshima. The train started at 8:20 pm and we were so tired after walking 13 km today (and 11 km yesterday) that we fell asleep shortly after that. We reached Hiroshima after exactly two hours at 10:20 pm and after getting out of the station, we walked one minute to reach our hotel and checked-in. In our room, we ate the tomato bread and chocolate bread that we had gotten packed from Osaka and are now going to bed. I had thought about commenting on our general observations of Japan and the people of Tokyo but after changing our plan today, there wasn't enough time for it plus after seeing the people of Osaka today, I feel that it'll probably be a better idea to pen such observations at the end of the trip.

Till tomorrow's update, take care and good night!

Japan Diaries - Day 3 - Tokyo and Kamakura

We woke up just before 7 am on Sunday but relaxed and stayed in bed. We also decided to change our plan for today a little and do a day trip of Kamakura. We figured out how to use the water boiling machine in our room and had in-room coffee. Then we got ready and left for the day around 10 am.

We stopped at a bakery near our hotel for breakfast. We had a croissant, a lemon cake and a couple of chicken buns and latte. Then we took the JR Yamanote line train to the Tokyo station. This station is the oldest train station of the city and was one of the first ones that was built using red bricks and that gives its exterior a grand look. We took a couple of pictures and then took the next train to the station closest to our first stop of the day, the Edo-Tokyo museum.

The Edo-Tokyo museum chronicles the history of the city of Tokyo starting from 1590 all the way to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The museum uses small scale models to depict how the city used to be at various times. It also features a life size replica of the Nihombashi bridge which is quite imposing.

The current Imperial family of Japan came to power around 700 but didn't have any real political power till the Meiji Restoration of 1868 (more on that later). The political power was held by various local warrior lords, each with his own Samurai force. When Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power around 1600 and formed his "bakufu" (feudal government), he chose the city of Edo (the old name of Tokyo) as the new capital. His title was Shogun and his Shogunate (referred to as the Tokugawa period) was an era of peace in Japan during which all contact with the rest of the world was cut off. It's important to note that the Imperial Emperor still held a ceremonial role during all this time and the imperial line continues pretty much uninterrupted to the present day.

The bakufu of Shogun Tokugawa was a state that distributed resources to its people based on their income and collected taxes. They had split citizens into different castes and assigned them specific roles. This sounds socialistic but at the same time, the state was very functional economically with concepts of gold/silver/bronze currency, currency exchanges, highly specialized skilled jobs and welfare protection provided to the citizens.

The Edo period ended with the Meiji Restoration of 1868 when the real political power was returned to Emperor Meiji who opened up Japan to the rest of the world, upon pressure from the US. Edo was renamed as Tokyo. However, this democracy was problematic, specially in the 1920s and 1930s since the military was very powerful and kept challenging China, leading to all out war in 1937. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, US in 1941, it led to a war with the US and its allies that culminated in the horrific nuclear atomic bombings of 1945 that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After 1945, with the help of the US and its allies, Japan started modernizing and westernizing and the people eagerly adopted Western values of commerce and advancement - so much so that today they undoubtedly lead the world in technology. The 1964 Olympics were instrumental in the reconstruction and facelift of Tokyo and since then, the urban growth of this giant city has been happening exponentially.

The museum gave us a detailed insight into the agriculture of Tokyo and trade of crops. It also highlighted the woodwork skills, printing, dying and fashion choices of the city's inhabitants. There was a section on Kabuki as well. Kabuki is the Japanese form of theater in which only male actors perform, even the female roles. Elaborate makeup and dresses are a distinct feature of Kabuki.

After exiting the museum, we spotted a Sumo wrestler standing outside dressed in a kimono and talking on the phone. We discreetly took a picture of him. The area of Ryogoku that has the Edo-Tokyo Museum is also home to Sumo Wrestling. Unfortunately, we won't have time to see a Sumo Wrestling match during this trip.

Then we took the JR train to Kamakura, a town about 40 km from the Tokyo station. The train ride was about 70 minutes after which we boarded a local train. After that, we started walking to the temple. On our way, we had a halal chicken pita from a Turkish Doner shop. Then we continued walking and reached Kotoku-in, the temple famous for the statue of the Great Buddha. The bronze statue is 37 feet long and one of the most recognizable symbols of Japan. We took pictures and then left to head back to Tokyo. It was worth the one and a half hours of getting there to see this magnificent statue.

We got off at the Shibuya station. This is another of Tokyo's major stations and like the other major stations of Tokyo and Shinagawa, not only does it have scores of platforms and thousands of commuters but also many shops, restaurants and cafés adjoining the station. We exited the station into Shibuya's Scramble Crossing area, the so-called Times Square of Tokyo and definitely on par with its American counterpart in terms of the activity, the glitter, the neon signs, high glass buildings and high-end brand stores. The Shibuya Scramble Crossing is the largest in the world and when the pedestrian signal is green, you can see hundreds of pedestrians crossing the road from all 4 sides. Then we stopped at a Ramen noodles place and shared a noodle soup. After that, we walked to McDonald's and had fish fillet for dinner. Then we walked around some more and bought Tylenol and Samia bought some Japanese beauty products.

After that, we headed back to our hotel and reached our room a little after 10 pm and have decided to call it a night. We are checking out tomorrow morning to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima which is going to be a 5 hour ride. Since there will be 5 hours of traveling tomorrow, I'll write about our impressions of the people of Tokyo and the country of Japan. We have another day in Tokyo on Friday so we will explore the remaining things on our list that day.

Till the next update, take care and good night! :)

Japan Diaries - Day 2 - Tokyo

Owing to a bit of jet lag, we went to bed around 9 pm on Friday night and were up at 3:30 am on Saturday. We couldn't go back to sleep so just decided to start our day. After showering and getting ready, we started the day super early at around 6 am. It was a rainy day so we kept our umbrellas with us.

Our first stop of the day was Tsukiji Fish Market. First we took the JR Yamanote train to the closest station to the market. JR Yamanote is a circular track that runs within the city of Tokyo and connects the major stations with high speed train. After getting off, we asked for the subway train directions from someone. It was quite funny since he called two other people who we guessed to be his subordinates. All three of them were dressed in suites and probably going to work. They were all nice enough to check the directions on their phones and then point us in the right direction. We also visited a grocery store within the subway network and got a packaged waffle and a small pack of chocolate milk that we had during the subway ride. After getting off at the fish market station, we strolled around the market and saw fresh seafood of all kinds being sold for really low prices. We had missed the tuna wholesale auction that happens every morning at 5 am at this market. It's the largest fish market in the world. We had sushi at a restaurant at the market and it definitely was the freshest sushi that we've ever tasted.

Then we walked to our second stop of the day, the Hama Rikyu Gardens. Our day had started so early that when we reached the park entrance, we found out that the park hadn't opened yet as there were still a few minutes to go till 9 am. When the park opened, we bought tickets and got a free audio guide with it. The audio guide was GPS-enabled so when we reached the location of the next commentary item, it started playing automatically - another small example of Japanese electronic advancement. The park is primarily man-made and has ponds, flower gardens, small hills, tea houses and small islands connected by wooden bridges. Other features include gates to control the water level in the ponds inside the garden by controlling the flow of water from the Sumida river and even the Pacific Ocean. The main attraction in the park is a tea house on a small island where the shoguns and the royal family used to come to have tea, relax and have official ceremonies. It's called the Nakajima tea house. We stopped to have traditional Japanese green tea called Matcha tea in the traditional way - sitting on a tatami mat on the floor after taking off our shoes at the entrance and having a confectionery item before the tea and then picking up the cup with the right hand, placing it on the left palm, turning it clockwise twice and then finishing the tea in 3-4 sips. The whole affair was quite relaxing. After having the tea, we continued walking around the park and then reached the water bus dock. Our water bus journey started at 10:30 am and we were doing a cruise on Tokyo's famous Sumida river. The cruise lasted about 45 minutes and we disembarked in the Asakusa area.

A rickshaw guide tried to sell us a tour on the rickshaw to our next stop, the Sensoji temple. Initially we were a little hesitant so we told her that we would come back after lunch and went to the KFC across the road for lunch. Samia had a chicken burger whereas I tried a slight variant of the same burger with Japanese sauce on the patty. It was delicious.

We had decided to do the 30 minute rickshaw ride with the same guide since she spoke excellent English. Her name was Yuka and we later found out that she learnt perfect English from her American mother despite never leaving Tokyo in her 19 year life! It was a great decision to do the rickshaw ride since she took some very nice pictures of both of us together with some very interesting backgrounds. Whenever she stopped at a traffic light, she would tell us about the history of the Asakusa area. We saw a traditional Japanese comedy house, a geisha training center, a street lined with statues of raccoons (believed to have morphing powers in Japanese culture), shops that sell sweet potato ice cream and dessert, the location of the oldest theme park in Japan and other inner streets of Asakusa that we would've never explored otherwise. She also suggested us to try the tempura of the area since it's a speciality. We also found out about her background and that she is a university student studying languages and translation. She answered all our questions about Japanese religion, demographics of Tokyo and some phrases of the Japanese language. After the ride, she also gave us a small souvenir sticker and a postcard. She dropped us off at the oldest gate of the Sensoji temple after taking a very nice picture that included the 400 years old gate and a five storey pagoda, the second largest in Japan.

We entered the Sensoji temple. In Japan, when the word temple is used for a place of worship, it signifies a Buddhist temple whereas a shrine always refers to a Shinto shrine. Shinto is the folk Japanese religion which is more like a code of conduct for everyday life mannerisms than an elaborate spiritual philosophy. Back to the Sensoji temple complex. The complex of course has the Buddhist Sensoji temple but it also has a small Shinto shrine, a pagoda (a tall vertical structure with multiple roofs, each one smaller than the one below it) and a street Nakamise Dori with colorful souvenir shops lining the sides. The most recognizable image of the Sensoji temple are the large red lanterns that have black Japanese characters written on them. These were built to light the streets close to the temples so that the gods could see and thus their large sizes. We also saw gigantic straw slippers hanging from the walls, also for the gods. We witnessed some of the religious rituals of the worshippers - fanning smoke of burning incense over themselves, washing themselves and drinking the water of a fountain with the statue of a warrior in the center, burning incense sticks while bowing to the temple and praying after dropping coins in the offertory boxes in front of the temple (and even the Shinto shrine). After taking some pictures at the temple, we walked along Nakamise Dori and shopped for souvenirs.

We walked back to the subway station and bought fried shrimp tempura on our way. It tasted great and the shrimp seemed to be larger than the one we're used to in North America.

Our next stop was the Tokyo National Museum. We saw a nice collection of Japanese artwork and paintings from all eras dating back to the Heain period. However, the best collection was the temporary exhibition of Buddha statues from the Kamakura era that look very lifelike because of a technique used that make the eyes of the statues glitter like humans.

After the museum, we had ice cream cones from a roadside truck and then walked to the train station to catch the JR Yamanote to our next stop. After getting off the train, I had coffee and Samia had lemonade. Then we walked to the area that we had come to see, the Akihabara Electronic Market. Apart from being a heaven for gadget lovers and video games lovers, we also saw some other strange characteristics that have come to be identified with this growing subculture of Japanese new generation. We saw some disturbing 18 plus arcade games and maid cafés and the sad thing is that the clientele is not only young Japanese males but also older male adults. Apart from that, we saw manga and anime shops - definitely a unique experience.

After Akihabara, we took the train back to our hotel and freshened up for dinner. We asked our hotel concierge for recommendations at a walking distance and she gave us a long list of places within 5 minutes of walk from our extremely centrally located hotel. We had trouble finding our first choice (a Thai restaurant) and by the time we found it, they had just closed. So we dined at a Spanish tapas restaurant. The food was really good and we had patata bravas, fried mushrooms, a small personal sized pizza and a baked cheesecake for dessert. Then we walked back to our hotel. After a very long day with 15.5 km of walking, we are really tired now. Samia has already fallen asleep and I fell asleep a few times while writing this. Looks like I'll barely manage to finish this before sleeping. Hope you liked the detailed update. Tomorrow will be another day of exploring this ginormous city.

Till then, take care and good night!

Japan Diaries - Day 1 - Calgary to Tokyo

It's that time again - we're on vacation and sharing our trip details with you. We woke up in Calgary at 4 am on Thursday, August 28, 2014 after a two hour nap after we had finished our packing for the 8 day trip of Japan.

Sarim had offered to give us a ride to the airport so after quick showers, we were on our way to the airport at 4:30 am. It was just a 20 minute ride in the wee hours of the morning since there was virtually no traffic on the roads. After checking in with Delta airlines, we passed through US pre-clearance immigration and since I now have a NEXUS card, the usual mandatory secondary inspection because of my Pakistani passport was waived and we were at our gate well ahead of takeoff time. We shared a Tim Horton's bagel and coffee while waiting at the gate. Our first flight was to Minneapolis and it took off on time around 7 am. After a comfortable 2.5 hours of flying time during which we caught up on sleep, we landed in Minneapolis. We had a 4 hour layover before our next flight.

Coming to the US always reminds us of the most significant difference between the US and Canada - the super size effect. Everything in the US is bigger, more spacious and cheaper. We were at the terminal one of the airport which is the hub for Delta airlines. The terminal has a mall and a wide variety of restaurants and food court options. We had Chinese food at Wok n Roll and then walked around the airport. I checked my office email and had to reply to a few emails so did that and then we walked some more. Then we had a spicy chicken burger at Chick Fil-A which used to be our favorite chicken sandwich in California so it brought back some memories.

Then we made our way to the gate where all tables had iPads on them for free use. They were placed there by the adjoining bar/restaurant and you could even order something using the iPad and pay for it too. We browsed the internet till boarding at 2:20 pm and then boarded the plane.

It was a spacious Airbus 330 aircraft and our seats were close to the back of the plane. After settling down, we checked the options on the seat entertainment screens and saw a varied offering that looked promising to keep us occupied during the 12 hour long flight.

The flight took off on time around 2:50 pm. We decided to not sleep too much during the flight since it was night time in Japan and we wanted to avoid jet lag. We were served two meals, one snack and a couple of beverages spaced over the 12 hours and the food was decent. It wasn't as great as the food served on European or Middle Eastern airlines but was more bland like the food served on longer North American flights. We saw 3 complete movies and half of the 4th movie between the meal breaks. The first movie that we saw was "Million Dollar Arm" that is based on the true story of two indian boys' journey of traveling to the US and joining Major League Baseball. The second movie was the acclaimed Bollywood movie "The Lunchbox" that was also thoroughly enjoyable. Then we decided to watch "Memoirs of a Geisha" which is a chronicle of the life of a Japanese Geisha living in Kyoto around the time of the Second World War. It was quite instructive about how these misunderstood artists of an old way of life struggled in a complicated society conflicted between traditions and modern pulls. We'll share more about the Geisha when we visit the ancient Imperial Capital city of Kyoto later in our trip.

It was a relief to touch down in Japan at the Narita International Airport as the long flight took its toll, specially on our legs despite several stretching/walking breaks. The local time was 4:45 pm on Friday. Our disembarkation experience was very smooth and we were quite impressed by all the specially designed electronic machines used for different purposes by the officials. Everything is streamlined and organized. The most striking feature is the cleanliness followed by a close second - politeness/helpfulness of the people. Then we exchanged our pre-paid vouchers that we had purchased in Canada for Japan Rail passes. These unlimited ride passes for a week work on all Japan Rail (JR) high-speed trains throughout Japan and are much cheaper than buying individual train rides. We took the JR Narita Express at 6:15 pm and reached Tokyo at 7:26 pm. Narita Airport is actually on the outskirts of the Tokyo metropolitan area and is technically a different city. We got off at the Shinagawa Station and then walked to our hotel that's connected to the station through overhead walkways. The entire station and the nearby buildings are interconnected and have scores of shops and stores. Since it was a Friday evening, we saw hundreds of people dressed in suits briskly walking to catch their trains home.

Our hotel is very modern and we were lucky to get a high-floor room on the 31st floor that has the view of the tall buildings of Tokyo. The skyline comprising tall lit-up buildings looks very impressive against the dark sky. In size, the room is on the smaller side, specially compared to North American standards but it's very comfortable. There are several electronic features that we haven't seen anywhere else. For instance, the washroom mirror is heated in an oval section in the center so that the steam from a hot shower won't cloud the mirror.

Japan is an interesting country with a rich history and a unique culture. It's the 10th largest nation in the world with about 130 million people. It's the second largest island nation after Indonesia and most people live on the 4 main islands. We'll only visit 3 cities on the most populated island of Honshu during our trip. A 100 million people live on the Honshu island and most of them are located in the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas. With a population of around 38 million, Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world and has around 10 different downtown areas. If Tokyo was a country of the world, it would have a larger population than about 170 countries of the world! We are really excited and look forward to exploring it.

We went to sleep early since we were really tired after the long journey. Till the next update, take care and good night!

Europe Diaries - Day 20 - Lisbon to Calgary

After taking a nap for a few hours, we woke up at 2 am, got ready, checked-out and took the waiting taxi to the Lisbon airport. We were at the airport by 3:10 am. Most things were closed and only KLM's counters were open. We dropped off our bags - both weighed exactly 23.0 kg and included all the souvenirs and fridge magnets of all the cities that we visited on the trip. We passed through security and just waited for boarding to start since there wasn't anything else to do. Boarding started at 4:30 am and the flight took off on time at 5 am Lisbon time or 10 pm of the previous day in Calgary. To get rid of jet lag, we started following Calgary's time after boarding this Lisbon to Amsterdam flight. Since it was bedtime in Calgary, we tried sleeping through most of the 3 hour flight.

Our layover at Amsterdam's Schiphol's airport was 3.5 hours so we window shopped at duty free stores and had breakfast/lunch - vegetable stromboli, cheese panini, orange juice and cappuccino. Then we walked from the domestic section D for about 15 minutes to our gate in the international section F. On our way, we passed through passport control and got the exit stamps to officially mark our farewell to Europe.

At Schiphol airport, for international flights, there are security checkpoints at every gate and there was a huge lineup outside our gate which meant that it was going to be a full flight. It took us about 40 minutes to wait for our turn to pass through security and then we were finally on board. The flight took off on time at 4:30 am Calgary time. I slept for half an hour and since waking up, both of us haven't slept and it's almost 8:30 pm as I write this. KLM takes great care of its passengers and once again, we had several snacks, one meal and several rounds of beverages. We made sure to choose something caffeinated each time so that we could remain awake. For passing time, we saw two movies - American Hustle and 12 Years A Slave. Both of them were short listed for the Oscar awards and both are good in their own right. After the movies, there was about 1 hour left in reaching Calgary so I watched sitcoms (Family Guy and The Big Bang Theory) while Samia watched a documentary of The Lourve Museum. The 9 hour flight passed by quite comfortably.

After a very smooth landing in Calgary at 1:20 pm, we walked to passport control and after a swift clearance, we collected our suitcases and headed out. Sohaib uncle was waiting for us and he gave us a ride. We reached home at 2:40 pm. At home, we continued talking to Sohaib uncle for a little while and during this time Sarim also dropped by. Samia printed lecture slides and case studies for her MBA Marketing course and started studying. Sohaib uncle left to pick up Hani from squash and Sarim also had to leave for his own squash match.

After dropping off Samia at her 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm Marketing class, I got stuck in the rush hour so the 15 minute drive back home took half an hour. I did unpacking and laundry for almost one and a half hours and then went to Samia's parents' place to pick up food that Samia's mummy has prepared for us :) I started writing this final update as I was parked outside Samia's university to pick her up and I'm finishing it at home. Now we'll have dinner and then go to bed. Back to the daily grind from tomorrow!

Till the next time we hit the road, adios! Take care and good night.

Europe Diaries - Day 19 - Sintra

We were up at 7:30 am and got ready for our guided tour. We had the Pasteis de Belem custard tarts from yesterday for breakfast with in-room coffee. When we went down to the lobby at 9 am, our guide Felipe (Portuguese version of Philip) was waiting.

He is an interesting guy. He worked at Accenture as an IT consultant for 9 years before starting his tourism company that is now ranked first in Portugal on the travel website TripAdvisor (the most widely used website around the world for travel reviews). He has recently opened a second business - a cooking school - since he loves cooking.

He told us about himself and the area while we drove for an hour to Sintra, a city neighboring Lisbon. We went straight to the top of the mountain to the Pena palace. It is truly a fairy tale castle and was built by the German prince Ferdinand when he became the King of Portugal through marriage. Ferdinand designed the palace himself and included in the design all things medieval and from fairy tales that he loved. There are walls and towers around the castle's various wings, there is the statue of a sea dragon protecting the entrance, there is a medieval Moorish fort that you can see in the distance and there are forest-like gardens around the palace. All this was built by Ferdinand over his lifetime in the 19th century at the location of a 16th century monastery that he bought when it was in ruins. He preserved the original structure of the monastery so the rooms of the palace are small for a royal residence although still quite grand. The palace was used by three generations of the Portuguese royal family as their summer residence since Sintra is cooler than Lisbon during summer. When the royal family's line discontinued in 1910 and Portugal became a republic, the palace was turned into a tourist attraction. It started raining as soon as we finished our tour of the palace so we boarded the hop on hop off golf cart that drove us through the gardens and showed us various landmarks. We were dropped off at the entrance where Felipe was waiting for us.

He took us to a bakery that has been run by the same family for 4 generations and is famous for their desserts so we tried two of their famous desserts on his recommendation and cappuccino. Then we stopped at a store where we tried different varieties of cheese, definitely the best we've ever had. The food in Portugal continues to amaze us with its high quality.

Our next stop was a maze of a palace called Quinta Da Regaleira that was built by a millionaire in the 20th century. The palace itself was relatively simple but the gardens are marvelous. They reminded us of the enchanted forest we saw in British Columbia, Canada. It had tunnels and grottoes (caves) and winding cobblestone pathways and all of this was in a thick forest. Secret passageways and shortcuts and towers and a well with a spiral staircase. We loved traversing the structure to the top and then went to see the palace on our way down.

Then we drove for a while and stopped for lunch at a restaurant that is another family owned venture for a few generations. We had fish there - grilled codfish for me and grilled sea bass for Samia - and keeping with the tradition of high quality food, the fish was fresh and delicious. Felipe also talked to us about with culture of football in Portugal and about arguably the world's best player Cristiano Ronaldo and the best coach Jose Mourinho both of whom are from Portugal. He also told us about his Lisbon based club SL Benfica that has a huge fan following in the country and is the 5th best club in the world, according to what he told us. Quite impressive football portfolio for a country of only 10 million. His club won the Portuguese championship last week and according to him around a million people gathered to celebrate it in Lisbon! We also tried an interesting dessert on Felipe's recommendation - something called a cloud dessert that actually looked like a cloud in shape and texture and had milk, sugar, egg and cinnamon as its main ingredients - quite tasty.

After lunch, we stopped at the Western most point in Europe, the Cabo da Roca. It was windy although Felipe told us that it wasn't as bad as it usually gets. We took some pictures and enjoyed the scenery for a few minutes before continuing on our drive.

We drove along the sea back towards Lisbon and stopped at the city of Cascais. Beautiful city full of character with a lovely coast and impressive houses. We drove through Estoril that was similar to Cascais and then headed back to our hotel. Felipe showed us the stadium of SL Benfica from the outside that was a giant structure that can hold 65,000 people and is usually full for all games.

We reached back our hotel around 6:30 pm. After freshening up, we walked in the neighborhood to sample some Pastel de Nata pastries along with a chicken patty. This was our dinner. Then we walked back and were back at our hotel at 8 pm. We asked our hotel to book us a taxi for 2:45 am since the drive from our hotel to the Lisbon airport is 15 minutes and we have to reach at 3 am (2 hours before our 5 am flight to Amsterdam). We had already checked-in online this morning. In fact, that was the first thing I did this morning after waking up. We'll have a 3.5 hours layover in Amsterdam followed by a 9 hour flight to Calgary.

We have packed our bags and are going to take a nap now for a few hours before waking up at 2 am. Thanks for reading all the updates! Hope you enjoyed the stories we shared. The final one will be from our home in Calgary tomorrow :)

Till then, take care and good night!

Europe Diaries - Day 18 - Lisbon

We woke up at 9:30 am, got ready and checked-out of our hotel. There is a taxi stand right next to our hotel so we took a taxi to the airport for our flight to Lisbon. It was a 20 minute ride without much traffic that took us through modern highways of Madrid and we got a chance to see the newer areas of the city. We were at the airport at 10:45 am. After dropping off our suitcases, we proceeded through security to our gate, window shopping at the various duty free stores on our way. Once close to our gate, we had brunch - croissant, orange juice, cheese baguette sandwich and cappuccino. A quick note about European cappuccino and orange juice. Unlike North America, orange juice is fresh everywhere you go. Similarly, cappuccino is very high quality with just the right balance between milk and coffee. We haven't had bad cappuccino anywhere on our trip.

After that, we stood in line for boarding which formed around half an hour before the actual boarding. We had so much time that Samia kept standing in the line and I went to 100 Montaditos opposite the gate to get a bite-sized dessert sandwich - Oreos, cream and chocolate sauce in a chocolate cake bread. I joined her in the line and we had the delicious sandwich. Then I stood in the line while Samia went for a washroom break and when she came back, the line had just started moving. Once we boarded the flight, it was late and took off almost 50 minutes late. It's a short flight though - just about an hour. The time zone in Portugal is one hour behind so we reached there the same time as we left Madrid: 1 pm. After getting our bags, we had to wait for almost half an hour in the line for getting a taxi - that's how busy the airport was! We reached our hotel and checked-in around 2 pm. Then we made a walking plan using our guidebook, rested a little and headed out.

Our plan was to see an old castle in the Alfama area and visit the area of Belem. We walked to the closest metro station that is a little less than a km and bought an unlimited day pass. The castle and Alfama are on a hill - Lisbon's city center is built on seven hills - so we got off at the station at the base of the hill and took an old tram up the hill. This historic tram is over a 100 years old so the ride was quite different. It went through narrow winding cobblestone streets up the hill and the outer facades of the houses had colorful tiles on them. This was the Alfama area. Due to some confusion, we got off a couple of stations earlier but then asked for directions and walked the rest of the way up the hill. On our way, we saw a viewpoint square that overlooks the sea with a backdrop of colorful houses on hills. After reaching the castle, we took a few pictures and then headed back down to the square for a chicken wrap. Then we took the same tram for taking us down the hill to the downtown area called Baixa. We were enjoying the ride so much that we decided to get off a couple of stations after the station that would've taken us to the Belem area, the idea being that we could walk back and take in the atmosphere of the neighborhood. But the next station was too far from Baixa so we decided to take the tram back in the opposite direction but for some reason, 4 trams passed by without stopping so we started walking back following the tram line. This took us to the inner streets of the area and exploring the hilly cobblestone streets on foot turned out to be very enriching. We finally managed to get on a tram after a couple of stops. After getting on it, we recognized the driver and a passenger that was sitting in front of me on our last ride - in the time between us getting off at that wrong station and walking back to this station, the tram had circled back and we were on it again! This time we got off at Baixa and waited for the tram to the Belem area. The square where we waited was called Praca da Figueira and had a dance performance going on at a stage so we saw that for a little while and then boarded the tram. Unlike the historical tram earlier, this was a modern tram similar to what we had seen in Amsterdam last year. The Baixa area seemed a happening place so we decided that after exploring Belem, we would come back here for dinner.

The ride to Belem was almost 25 minutes long and passed by an imposing 18th century palace called Palacio Foz and then went parallel to the coast of the River Tagus. There is a famous dessert of Belem sold at a store that started in 1850s - the Pasteis de Belem. The dessert takes its name after the shop and is essentially a custard patty. We first tried it at a copycat store along with cappuccino and chicken patty (Pakistan style) and then set off for a walk along the coast. It was a very refreshing walk and the river is calm and the area clean. We also saw yachts docked there. The best thing about the coast was that there were no tourists so it was very peaceful. It's not a beach and we were walking at the side of the river on a cobblestone path. We walked all the way to the Monument to the Discoveries that's a huge memorial for various important personalities in Portugal's history. Among them is Vasco de Gama, the explorer who sailed to India successfully (unlike Columbus) and is the reason why there was a Portuguese colony in the Goa area of India. The monument must be 100 meters tall and has a huge cross/sword in front and statues of about ten men on its side and they are all looking towards the sea. Then we crossed the road to walk in the park of the San Jeronimo monastery, a grand yet serene building. We didn't have time to go inside so we just saw it from the outside and headed back. We stopped at the original Pasteis de Belem store and got two dessert pastries packed. We'll have them tomorrow. Then we boarded the bus back to Praca da Figueira and passed through some more inner streets in a different part of the city but equally full of character.

We had dinner at a really nice restaurant in Praca da Figueira - Peri Peri chicken and cod fried rice - two typical Portuguese dishes. Yes, this is the same Peri Peri chicken that's sold at the Nando's chain throughout the world. Actually, Nando's also sells custard tarts which we are guessing are inspired from the Pasteis de Belem. The food was great and we realized that Nando's serves quite authentic Portuguese cuisine.

After that we took a few photos in the nearby square called Rossio that has the national theater and a couple of fountains and statues in the square. Lisbon is a city full of character, colorful houses and rich history. We are a little surprised that it doesn't have more tourists.

Then we took the subway back to the station closest to our hotel and walked back. Lots of walking again today at just shy of 11 km. On our way, quite close to our hotel, we saw Pakistan style houses with outer walls and a gate - thanks to Mohsin for telling us to look out for them otherwise we might not have noticed.

Time to go to bed now since our guide will pick us up at 9 am tomorrow for an 8 hour tour of Sintra and Cascais areas, within driving distance of Lisbon. It will be in a car with a guide since it will the last bit of sightseeing in our trip and we don't want it to be too taxing on our legs.

Till tomorrow, take care and good night!

Europe Diaries - Day 17 - Madrid

We woke up at 9 am and left our hotel around 10:30 am. After grabbing a sandwich from the shop next to our hotel, we took a taxi to Plaza Mayor. Our guided walking tour of Madrid was to start there.

When the tour started, our American guide gave us a brief history of Madrid. Whenever he referred to the history of Spain, it was a repetition of what we had learnt from our guide in Barcelona. The most interesting thing about Madrid's history is that unlike most other major cities of the world, neither was Madrid near a significant water source nor was it along a trading route. It used to be a small town at the border of the kingdoms of Leon & Castile to the north under the rule of Christians and the kingdom of Al Andalusia to the south under the rule of Muslim Moors. In the 9th century, the Muslims built a fortress here to keep a check on Christian invaders from the north. When the Christians started reconquering the area ruled by the Muslims, the town of Madrid was conquered in 1085. Till 1561, it remained a small town of about 30,000 people when Philip the second decided to move his court to Madrid and that sparked an evolution of the city. Later kings built many new buildings in the city and strengthened Madrid's status as the capital of the kingdom of Spain.

We saw the hiding place of the Robin Hood of Spain, next to Plaza Mayor. This Robin Hood stole from the rich but instead of giving to the poor, he just spent it partying. We also saw the world's oldest restaurant that is still open. The restaurant displays a Guinness book of world records' certificate in its window to confirm that fact. Then we saw the original statue of the symbol of Madrid which is a bear standing and picking fruit from a tree. In the Middle Ages, Madrid city used a bear as their emblem. When they had a dispute with the Catholic Church over who controlled the land of Madrid and won the dispute, they created this statue as a symbol of the bear of Madrid having right over the land and the right to consume whatever fruits the land bore. Now it has become the symbol of Madrid and can be seen everywhere in the city. Then we saw an old palace built by the Moors and also remnants of an old city wall from that time. After that, it was time for a break in the tour and we had a quick snack (of patata bravas and orange juice) at a restaurant.

When the tour resumed, we saw the old city hall of Madrid followed by the Cathedral of Al Mudena. The city hall is an example of the Spanish attitude of "tomorrow tomorrow" and was built 140 years after Madrid had officially become a city. The Cathedral of Al Mudena is unique since it was built very recently in 1993 and if someone is looking to see a modern cathedral, it's one option. They have used different architectural styles in its construction that can be seen at different places. After that we saw the memorial to honor the people who died when an anarchist attacked the wedding procession of Alfonso the 8th in 1906. It was the largest terrorist attack on Madrid's soil till the subway bombings of 2004. Then we walked towards the end of our tour to the Royal Palace. It's no longer used by the royal family and instead functions as a museum. It was styled on the model of the Palace of Versailles. As you can tell, Madrid's history is not that long - there isn't much to speak of before the 16th century and even after that, it has been a relatively uneventful period and whatever was worth mentioning had already been covered in Barcelona. There is no single monument like an Eiffel Tower or a Sagrada Familia that is the symbol of the city. It's a modern city and a huge financial metro area with a population of 6.5 million.

Once the tour ended, we headed back to our hotel to get some rest after lots of walking in the blazing sun.

We left our hotel again around 5 pm after resting for almost 3 hours. We had tapas at a new place we found online. It's a chain called 100 Montaditos and they serve bite-sized sandwiches. We later found out that they have some restaurants on the East Coast of the US too. Excellent food, the best we've had in Madrid.

After that we took the subway to the starting point of our personal walking route that included some other things we wanted to see. We walked for almost 5 km in the Retiro Park that's like Madrid's Central Park. The park is huge and used to be the royal gardens. As it was a Saturday, we saw lots of people in the park enjoying the weather that had become cooler as the sun had gone down a bit. A crystal palace and a monument building in front of a man-made rectangular water body were the highlights of this walk. There were people rowing boats in the water.

We exited the park to arrive at the Plaza of Independence that has a giant gate that used to be the entrance of the city and was built in the 18th century. We continued walking on the trendy Gran Via and then turned to walk through a street connecting Gran Via to Plaza del Sol, the so-called Times Square of Madrid. Let's just say that its a poor man's Times Square. The plaza itself had lots of people shopping, walking or just taking in the atmosphere and in that sense, there is definite resemblance with Times Sqaure. We sat at a cafe for a little while to have a snack.

Then we took the subway back to the station closest to our hotel. As soon as we got on the train, we saw hundreds of Atletico Madrid fans singing and clapping as their team had just been crowned the 2014 champions of the Spanish Football League or the La Liga. A correction to yesterday's update: today's match was between FC Barcelona and Ateltico Madrid (not Real Madrid as I incorrectly mentioned yesterday). Atletico Madrid is the second team of Madrid. That's what happens when the driver is saying half the things in Spanish and all you pick up is that the match is between Barcelona and Madrid, not realizing that there are two teams in Madrid!

It doesn't end here. Whenever Atletico Madrid wins, its fans celebrate the victory in the Neptuno Plaza (or the square of Neptune) and guess where this plaza is? It's where our hotel is located! So as we were walking back to our hotel, there were thousands of fans pouring in to the plaza to sing and dance to celebrate the victory. There were fireworks, there was music, there were drums and everybody seemed to be dressed in the red and white vertical striped uniform of Atletico. We went to the top floor of the hotel to see the celebrations. When we were back in the room, I wanted to call it a day after walking over 15 km but Samia wanted to take in some more of the festive atmosphere so we walked to the 100 Montaditos place again for some more snacks and people watching. It's about a 300 meters walk from our hotel and all we could see everywhere were merry fans. It's a big coincidence that we were in Madrid the same day their team won and a bigger coincidence that our hotel is right in the plaza where Ateltico fans always come to celebrate. Memorable scenes indeed. We didn't get a chance to see a live football match but this comes quite close. I can still hear the fireworks as I type this.

Now we're off to bed. We have a flight to Lisbon tomorrow that'll take off at 12:10 pm. We've already checked-in online with the airlines so hopefully it should all go smoothly. Our next update will be from Lisbon, our last stop of this trip. Till then, take care and good night!

Europe Diaries - Day 16 - Madrid

We woke up with our 5:30 am alarm and quickly got ready in 20 minutes. Our bags were already packed so the hotel check-out was swift. Our taxi to the train station was waiting for us. We didn't encounter any traffic and were at the station around 6:15 am. Since our 7:05 am train's boarding wasn't to start till 6:40 am, we sat in the waiting area and had a quick breakfast - chocolate croissant, cream croissant and orange juice. We stayed away from coffee to be able to sleep on the train.

On this trip, we have taken hi-speed trains for three different segments - round trip between Paris and Amsterdam, round trip between Rome and Venice and today's Barcelona to Madrid train. Today's journey between Barcelona and Madrid was the fastest with a top speed of 300 km/h although the other segments were also quick with speeds exceeding 250 km/h. This route between Barcelona and Madrid is relatively new and was started in 2008. We had a very comfortable ride that was helped by the fact that we had bought upgraded seats with the intention of making the tail end of our Euro trip more comfortable.

During the almost 3 hour ride, we must've slept for about 2 hours. Most of the ride was through plains - both green and dry - and some hilly areas where it slowed down. Our only stop was at Toledo and we were in Madrid at exactly 9:50 am.

Our hotel isn't too far from the train station so we took a cab that got us to the hotel in less than 10 minutes. It was an entertaining ride as the driver tried his best to tell us about the major attractions on our way with limited English vocabulary. He also told us that there is an "El Clasico" tomorrow - a football match between fierce rivals FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Too bad that the match is in Barcelona otherwise we could've seen it live. He told us that if Real Madrid wins, there will be celebrations and fireworks in the Neptuno square next to our hotel so we should look out for that. If we have time, we might catch some of the action on TV in a club to experience the atmosphere. Our hotel's location is across the road from Madrid's world-class Prado Museum.

After checking-in our hotel and freshening up, we grabbed a focaccia bread sandwich with coffee at the next door Starbucks. Then we crossed the road to enter the Prado Museum. There were no lines at the entrance but even if there had been lines, our advance-purchased ticket would've saved us the wait. No photos were allowed so our complete focus was on just appreciating the art.

The Prado Museum has one of the biggest collections of paintings in the world and our audio guide included narrations for over 300 selected works. We ended up seeing about 50 masterpieces that we picked from the museum's recommendations and our guidebook. Art is subjective and for us, the historical context is as important as the painting technique on display. Through that lens, we loved about half of the 50 pieces that we saw. It took us almost 5 hours of mostly standing, some walking and lots of commentary-listening to get to this conclusion. Overall, The Lourve in Paris has more paintings of the highest quality but the Prado isn't far behind. We are finally beginning to understand what it means when an art connoisseur talks about Venetian colors or Michelangelo's influence. We saw paintings that you can only appreciate when you stand at an angle and paintings that give a 3D effect. We saw the stylistic differences between painters such as Velazquez, Goya, Rubens, Titian, Greco and Murillo.

After 5 hours of sensory overload of art, we walked back to our hotel with aching feet and decided to rest. Samia worked on making a collage for Sohaib uncle's birthday while I took a nap or as the Spanish call it, a siesta. Around 7 pm, we went down and had tapas at our hotel's restaurant. We tried a fancy looking Spanish omelette in a cup (egg foam and fried onions), Russian salad (more like a dip with crackers) and of course, our favorite patatas. This time we tries two different varieties of patatas, the regular mayo/garlic version and a spicy version with hot sauce. We finished off dinner with some tiramisu for dessert and then started walking to our next big attraction of the day - live Flamenco dancing performance at the best tablao restaurant of Madrid called Cardamomo.

In short, the performance was excellent. The first half when people were eating (and we were sipping on our free juices) was not as engaging but the second half was exceptional. The stage was small and made of wooden floor so when the dancers wearing shoes with heels tapped their feet on it, it gave off a significant audible sound. The walls were lined with two singers, one drummer and two guitarists. There were 4 dancers in total - 2 women and 2 men. Each of the dancers took turns to perform and there was only one little performance where more than one person was dancing at the same time. The dance is so intense and so taxing on the performers' feet that each performance cannot exceed more than 2 minutes. The Flamenco is a traditional dance of Spain and Madrid has some of its most acclaimed performers. The first half performances were by one man and two women but then we saw the 4th dancer in the second half. His hair was completely gray and he was their star performer, perhaps the director for the other three dancers too but we are not sure since announcements were only in Spanish. His mastery of his feet can be judged from the fact that he was the only dancer who performed without music as well and you could hear every single tap distinctly. Amazing performance!

After a day of appreciating audio visual arts, we are back at our hotel and off to bed now. Till tomorrow, take care and good night!

Europe Diaries - Day 15 - Barcelona

Today was another unhurried start to the day - we slept in and woke up without any alarm. I was up around 9:30 am and decided to upload the diaries of the previous 14 days to this online blog. Samia has given me the idea to also add to this blog the diaries that I had written for Turkey and Peru last year. I'll get to that when we are back in Calgary in a few days.

We got ready and left around 1 pm for a day of exploring Barcelona's Montjuic mountain and La Barceloneta beach. Since we had a late dinner last night, we didn't feel like having breakfast and just had lunch around 1:30 pm. We asked our hotel's helpful reception desk for another tapas restaurant recommendation and were given precise directions to a new and trendy place a few blocks away from our hotel. We decided to walk to soak up the sun. No tapas meal is complete for us without patata bravas (potatoes with garlic and mayo) so of course, we ordered that and also tried Spanish omelette (they call it tortilla), eggplant tempura with honey and calamari. Everything was decent and you could tell that there was thought put into the presentation of the food. It wasn't an overly fancy place but was quite popular and by the time we left around 2 pm, it was completely full with every table taken.

We then took the subway to the station closest to Montjuic and from there, we got on the Funicular train up the mountain to roughly its middle.  Montjuic is not a huge mountain but is rather a gently inclining hill and its name translates to "Jew Mountain". Then we took a short scenic cable car further up the mountain to the Castle of Montjuic. This fort was built around the 17th century and is primarily a military fortress with numerous cannons still on display all around the fort. It was also used by General Franco's regime as a prison and for executions. The Catalan leader Lluis Companys was executed there in 1940 after he was handed over to Franco's government by Nazi Germany. We went to the top of the fort to get a nice view of Barcelona's skyline and the harbor. Sagrada Familia stands out since there aren't any towering skyscrapers close to it - they are mostly near the coast.

After taking in this bird's eye view of Barcelona and sitting in the sun for a while, we started making our way back to the middle of the mountain and took the return cable car. The plan was to walk to another cable car that would've taken us to the heart of the La Barceloneta beach district. When we reached there, we found out that they did not accept credit cards. As fate would have it, we were out of cash and the nearest ATM was at the base of Montjuic! So we took a bus and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. On the bus ride, we saw an abandoned Bullring that is now a tourist attraction. Catalonia has banned bull fighting so bullrings are no longer in use. The last stop of the bus was Plaća Espanya and we are glad we got a chance to see it. It is the largest square in Barcelona and is more like a roundabout with an elaborate statue fountain in the middle. It also has two giant towers known as the Venetian Towers. There are a couple of impressive buildings that were built for the International Expo of 1929 that was held in Barcelona. But perhaps the most imposing structure in Plaća Espanya is the Les Arenes bullring that used to be a grand bull fighting ring but has has now been converted into a shopping mall. We then took the subway to the Barceloneta station.

By this time, it was 7 pm and we were hungry so we walked to a restaurant that was recommended by our hotel's reception desk as the best place to have Paella in Barcelona. It had a view of the harbor and the weather was excellent so we decided to sit outside. Paella is a dish that originated in the region of Valencia and is somewhat of a Spanish specialty. The most famous variant has rice or noodles with seafood. Samia had the vegetarian version of Paella while I had it with cod fish and vegetables. It tasted unique since the rice are baked and are then cooked in gravy. Definitely something to try once but probably it's an acquired taste and we couldn't acquire it in our first attempt.

Then we strolled along the broad boardwalk and observed the people. We saw many people running and jogging. Others were walking their dogs, playing beach volleyball or just chilling near the water. We walked for almost 2 km enjoying the sea breeze and the relaxed atmosphere. The La Barceloneta beach was given a facelift for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and is in great condition. It's a very clean beach and not smelly at all. During our walk, we saw a garbage truck and cleaning staff picking metal objects from the sand so perhaps regular maintenance is the reason that the beach is in such great condition. We walked to the edge of Vila Olimpica or the Olympic Village and saw a giant modern-looking metallic artwork structure. We have an early morning 7 am train to Madrid tomorrow so we didn't have time to go explore the Olympic Village. We boarded a bus back to the Barceloneta subway station and then took a train back to our hotel.

Now it's time to pack our bags and go to bed. Barcelona has been the most relaxed part of our trip so far and it was intentionally planned this way. Having said that, we still ended up walking more than 10 km today (as we did yesterday). In total, we have walked 160 km so far in the last 15 days!

Our next update will be from Madrid, the capital and the largest city of Spain. Till then, take care and good night!

Europe Diaries - Day 14 - Barcelona

We woke up around 9:30 am but decided to relax today so stayed in our room. We left for our touristy day at 1 pm.

On our way to the 2 pm guided walking tour (by the same company whose walking tours we did in Berlin and Potsdam - called Sandeman), we stopped at the French chain Paul to have a baguette sandwich with cappuccino. Then we took the subway and joined our guided walking tour group at 1:50 pm.

The first stop was a square where there is an old royal castle where the Spanish King was staying when Christopher Columbus brought back slaves from America in 1492 after he had accidentally discovered America when he had originally set sail for India. At the time, Spain was ruled by King Ferdinand whose wife was Queen Isabel. A brief history tour of Barcelona is in order to give some context to this royal couple.

Barcelona today is a metro area comprising 5 million people and is the second largest city of Spain, after Madrid. However, historically, Barcelona has always maintained its separate Catalan identity because it is part of the region of Catalonia (still an autonomous region of Spain) that speaks the distinct Catalan language and has its own culture and traditions. This is quite similar to the French-speaking province Quebec of Canada. Like Quebec, Catalonia wants to secede from Spain and form a separate country and this separatist sentiment has a very long tradition dating back centuries. Spain has various nationalities living in one country (much like Pakistan) that have their own languages and culture. Of the 19 regions of Spain, Catalonia and Basque Country are two that want to secede from Spain.

Barcelona was founded in the 3rd century BC by the Barca family and they named the city Barcino. Then it became a part of the Roman Empire around 15 BC and the oldest neighborhood of Barcelona, called the Gothic Quarter (or Barri Gotic) still has remnants of the old Roman gates to the city of Barcino. The grid-like street structure of this quarter is also very Roman in its design. When the Roman Empire was in decline in the 5th century AD, the inhabitants of Barcino invited the Visigoths from North to come and live with them so that these militarily superior giants could protect the city against other barbarians who were pillaging the Roman Empire during its decline. Then the Arab Moors of North Africa conquered this city in the 8th century and Barcelona remained a part of their Al Andulus empire for 90 years before being conquered by the French. [Side note - the Al Andulus empire did not end however and stayed in power in the Southern part of Spain (in Cordoba, Granada, Seville) for 8 centuries.] The French installed a Count of Barcelona to rule the city as their representative. The Counts of Barcelona started becoming independent and expanded their territory over time to include all of Catalonia. In 1137, the Count of Barcelona and the Count of the neighboring Aragon were combined by marriage that became the Crown of Aragon when their son got the throne in 1162. Barcelona is a coastal city adjoining the Mediterranean Sea and it became a financial and trading hub of sea trade. However, Barcelona's importance diminished when Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile married to combine their territories and the political power shifted to present-day Madrid and to this day, the city of Madrid is the capital of Spain. Columbus was sent by Isabel and Ferdinand in to find India but when he discovered America in 1492, Spain's trade focused more on the Atlantic coast than on the Mediterranean coast, thereby reducing Barcelona's financial value relative to Madrid. From 1640 to 1652, Catalonia revolted against Spain trying to gain independence and Barcelona was at the forefront. However, plague hit Barcelona towards the end of this revolt that halved Barcelona's population and also finished off the resistance movement. In the Napoleonic Wars of the 19th century, the city suffered major damage but after the war, a period of industrialization started. In 1936, a general of the Spanish army General Francisco Franco led a coup that started the Spanish Civil War. He was supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy that wanted a united Spain. The war went on for 3 years and in 1939, General Franco emerged victorious and ruled Spain for the next 36 years till his death in 1975. Catalonia sided with General Franco's opposition (Soviet Union and Mexico who wanted the regions to have to right to self-determination) hoping that if the opposition was successful, they might gain independence. When Franco won, as retaliation, he banned the Catalan language and generally suppressed Catalonia and its people. Three years after his death, democracy returned to Spain in 1978 that saw general progress for Barcelona. Hosting the 1992 Olympics accelerated Barcelona's revival and now it has emerged as Europe's 4th most popular tourist destination (after London, Paris and Rome). Okay, back to the walking tour.

Our second stop was the Barcelona Cathedral which had its building constructed from the 13th to 15th century but the outer facade was done quite recently in the 19th century. It is dedicated to the lady patron saint of Barcelona, Saint Eulalia who was martyred by the Romans when Barcelona was a part of the Roman Empire. This church is the seat of the Bishop of Barcelona. The next stop was a square that has the remnants of the gates to the city of Barcino and an aqua duct from the Roman times. This square also had a public work by Picasso in which he has portrayed Barcelona's festivities. After that, we saw another peaceful square that has a church, a school, a shoe museum and a cafe. A couple of Hollywood movies have used this square in their scenes and it was also the site of a bomb that was dropped by Mussolini's Italian troops that were helping Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Bomb damage is still visible on the outer wall of the church. Then we walked to a big square where the city council of Barcelona and the government of Catalonia have their buildings. Our British guide Ruby told us that there are a lot of protests in this square since Barcelonans love to protest.

Then came time for a short break in our walking tour. As it was a very hot and sunny day, we rehydrated ourselves and rested in the shade during the break. Everything that we saw before the break was in the Gothic Quarter but now we moved on to another section of the city, El Born district. Our guide pointed out a few good Tapas restaurants in the area and then we saw the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar. The unique thing about this cathedral is that when some restoration work was being done here after Franco's death, the renovators put the FC Barcelona emblem on a stained glass inside the cathedral. The significance is that when General Franco had banned the Catalan language and the Catalonia flag, people could only speak the language at FC Barcelona's football matches (since it wasn't possible to arrest that many people) and used FC Barcelona's club flag as a symbol of their identity. Even the club's motto "more than a club" hints at this. Therefore, the football club's emblem finds a place inside this cathedral to recognize the role played by the club in Catalonian history. Then we walked a long way to our last stop that was a huge park close to the La Barceloneta beach. There used to be a military base at the site of this park that was meant to keep a check on Barcelona and was installed by General Franco. After the tour was over, we walked towards the statue of Columbus that was built at the coastal location from where Columbus left to find India and came back when he had discovered America. Perhaps to hint at that irony, the statue of Columbus points incorrectly away from America!

By this time, we had been walking for almost 5 hours so we turned towards the touristy avenue of La Rambla and stopped at a Burger King for a quick snack. Then we continued walking on the two km stretch of La Rambla towards our hotel. On the way, we stopped at Plaća Reial for some pictures. We also got waffles from a stall on La Rambla to savor during our walk. When we reached Plaća de Catalunya, we took the subway and then came back to our hotel.

We unwound in our hotel's sauna and then rested for an hour before going out for a very late dinner. The great thing about the location of our hotel and the neighborhood is that it has excellent Tapas places that are open late and it is safe to walk around. We walked three block down from our hotel to a Tapas bar where we had patata bravas (fries potatoes with garlic and mayo), green peppers and cod fritters. We finished off with Creme Catalonia, a local take on the French dessert creme brûlée.

Off to bed now to recharge our batteries for our last day in this beautiful city. We have loved everything so far about the city and will definitely like to visit again. But before that, we have a few things on our list for tomorrow. Till then, take care and good night!