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!