Road to Relaxation

After 6 days into our tour of Spain, we were so happy to be getting into a rental car on the 7th day and driving to our next destination.  With my expert google map directions, we headed south out of Sevilla for a quick stop in Gibralter and then onto Estepona for some resort relaxation.  The road trip was going well, all enjoying not being on a train and seeing some of the countryside that we were driving through. About half way there though, there was an error in communication and an exit was missed!  We thought, hey no problem, we'll just get off at the next one and turn around. But then we realized the next exit wasn't for several km. When we finally did find another exit, it was a transfer to another highway. So we said, ok we'll get off at the first exit, turn back around and get back on the original highway. Well that first exit was another transfer to yet another highway!!  We were absolutely beside ourselves at this point and getting quite frustrated with the Spanish road systems. With a few tricky maneuvers by Travers, the driver, and lots of patience by all, we finally found a spot to turn around, about 20-30 minutes after we had missed the original exit. And with some expert memories and using our phones for live google map updates (don't want to know what the roaming charges are there), we were actually able to find our way back to the original highway and to the original exit that we needed to take. And on our way again.

The Rock

We finally made it to Gibralter a little later than planned, but still within lots of time to see what we wanted to see. Gibralter, for those that don't know, is a British territory in the south of Spain. Its famous for the Rock of Gibralter, which is a huge rock/mountain that looks so oddly placed as everything around it is flat for miles. There is only one way in and one way out of Gibralter, so we sat in a little bit of traffic to get us through border patrol. And the road that leads into Gibralter actually crosses a airport runway!  They stop traffic from time to time when planes are landing or taking off. Its crazy to drive across it and look left and look right and realize you are driving across a runway, and just hope they have their communication working so that no planes land on you and your car!  Once in Gibralter and parked, we made it into town just in time for a late lunch, at Burger King!  This is one of Mike's favorite places and we like to splurge on it when we're on holiday too, so it was a tasty treat for us all! We strolled the main street for awhile, checked out some local stores and then called it a day and headed back to our car and onto Estepona!

as good a pic as i could get of the runway

Us in Gibralter

Estepona is a beach town with tons of resorts that line the beaches of southern Spain. We stayed at the Kempinski Hotel Bahia and through connections with my company, got some fantastic rooms with some nice views of the property and ocean.  We checked in and being that the sun doesn't go down until after 9pm in Spain, we headed right out to the pool to get some sun and swim time.

Views of the ocean

Looking back at the hotel

Throughout the property there were several sculptures that for some reason I really liked, and Travers had fun posing with, so I took lots of pictures of them. Here are a few:






















We spent the rest of the day by the pool, then had a cocktail party in our rooms on our balconies, then headed into town for a nice beach-side dinner.









The next day we did more of the same, sat poolside, got tan, and relaxed as long as we could. It was a great relief to have this nice break during our trip to just sit and rest and not do any touring or walking. That afternoon, we hopped back in our rental car and drove just an hour away to Malaga for our final stop in Spain!

Slice of Pizza

Leaving Madrid, the four of us headed to Sevilla. We had less than 24 hours there and definitely made the most of it. I think I took more photos of this beautiful city than any other place we went to on this trip. The narrow passageways, the beautiful buildings, the river and the fun nightlife all made this one day stop a memorable one.

After we settled into our hotel (and after getting a bit lost on the way through the narrow winding streets), we headed out to see as much of the city as possible. We started with the Sevilla Cathedral, which is the third largest church in the world. It towered above us and promised beautiful views from the top.  Unfortunately it was closed for visitors, so we only admired it from the outside.  Walking around the cathedral, we stumbled upon a main drag that was filled with restaurants and cafes. Dodging some horse-drawn carriages and lots of people, the boys managed to find a restaurant that served smoothies, beer, and New York Style Pizza!! The owner (seen behind them on the left) is originally from NY and after marrying his Spanish wife, moved to Sevilla and started this pizza joint! Amazing!

We continued our tour of the city, stopping in Real Alcazar for a tour of the beautiful gardens and surrounding buildings. The architecture outside and inside had me snapping photos non-stop.





















And the gardens outside were just as photo-worthy that I was sure to run my camera battery down. We saw as much of the property as possible, having fun along the way regardless of the hot temperatures outside.

I think that's Mike's head!

We went inside to another part of the buildings and were overwhelmed with the amount of tile work and design.





















Leaving the Real Alcazar, we headed towards the river, passing by the Torre Del Oro and then crossing the river to walk past several riverside restaurants and see Sevilla from the other side.









Finding another bridge to cross back over, we popped into the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza and then finally exhausted from all the walking, hopped on a bus to the Plaza de Espana. As soon as we stepped into the Plaza seeing the beautiful structure and the man-made moat around it, we heard a scream and a splash! Some woman that was sitting on the wall surrounding the moat somehow fell into it!! I'm not sure how she fell in, and I really try not to laugh at others' misfortune, but it was HILARIOUS!!  The water is only about waist deep and luckily she wasn't hurt. I think more embarrassed and upset that her handbag had fallen in as well!  She struggled for a good 10 minutes trying to get out of the moat the way she fell in, up over the wall, with the help of her family. She could have easily walked across to the lower bank and walked out, but for some reason she really wanted to get back over the wall.  Finally she was able to be pulled back up over the wall from where she fell. Hilarious!

She had just fallen in here.

Trying to pull her out of the water!

So we continued to visit the Plaza de Espana, enjoying standing in front of the fountain as a breeze blew the running water on us to cool us off a bit. Again, the architecture was really interesting here, and running along the walls of the building were tile alcoves depicting the different provinces of Spain.


















We were all pretty tired of walking around at this point, so we headed back to the hotel to rest, shower up and get ready for the evening.  After an hour or two of rest, we headed back out to a nearby tapas restaurant, enjoying the liveliness of the locals and the relaxed atmosphere of the city.












We then continued our tour and headed to Plaza del Salvador where a couple bars opened up their doors and lots of locals and tourists were hanging out outside enjoying beers and good conversation. We joined them for a bit then headed on to the next Plaza de la Encarnacion, where a huge structure was recently built that most of the locals hated when it was under construction, but loved it afterwards as it gives you beautiful views of the city.


















We found a nice restaurant for a late dinner after that, and being exhausted from all the touring, we walked slowly back towards our hotel and fell asleep quickly. We had a leisurely breakfast the next morning in front of our hotel and then headed to the train station to pick up our rental car so we could get to our next destination, Estepona!

It is possible to see Madrid in a day!

After Pamplona, all a bit run down from the lack of sleep, it was a bit daunting to be showing up in one of the largest cities in Spain: Madrid.  But we found our way from the airport, through the metro, and to our hotel, the centrally located Emperador Hotel.  Upon entering our room, however, were overwhelmed with the smell of pinesol! Usually Travers and I rarely ever complain about a room to the hotel, and we debated on saying anything this time. But the longer we sat in that room, the less I wanted to be in there. The smell was horrible, the wall-paper was peeling, the room was dark and it felt like a miserable place to be. So we drew straws and decided Travers should call the receptionist to see if we could change rooms. He was extremely polite about it, but the woman was not budging, saying that all the rooms were the same, and that none of them had views or were bigger. Well, we weren't calling about the size or the view. We were calling about the smell!  That fired me up, so we grabbed our bags, went downstairs and I marched up to the desk to talk to this woman in person. And I was very polite, but also very stern emphasizing that I could not stand the smell of pinesol and that there needed to be another room for us. After a few hesitations, she finally gave us a new room on a higher floor that really wasn't that much better looking, but the smell was much better, and there was actually a bit of light that entered the room through the window so we didn't feel like we were in a dungeon anymore. Yay!

After finally getting settled, we immediately put our swimsuits on and made our way to the roof deck pool area, which was one of the reasons we decided to stay at the Emperador to begin with. It was a decent sized pool with a lot of lounge chairs in various areas, playing Coldplay over the speakers, and a drink server to bring us some cool refreshments. And after the long night in Pamplona, all we wanted to do at that moment was relax in the sun, so we did just that.

A few hours later, it was time to meet up with my cousin, Melissa and her husband Greg. They happened to be in Madrid for one overlapping day with us, so we decided to meet up with them and have dinner that night before they caught their flight the next morning back to the states. They came over to our hotel and we introduced them to Mike and Shelley, and had some champagne in the lobby while we all caught up.  We then found this restaurant in a guide book that is supposedly the world's oldest restaurant, Restaurant Botin. We strolled through Plaza Mayor, and past lots of shops and people and street performers, and found the restaurant behind the plaza.

The restaurant was in a several stories tall building, and they brought us up to the top floor. The building definitely looked old, with big wooden beams and creaky floors, but the decor was nice and authentic feeling, the service was very friendly and the food was delicious.









Since Melissa and Greg had to get up early the next day, and the four of us were all tired from Pamplona still, after dinner, we called it a night, and said our goodbyes. It was great to see my cousin and catch up as she lives in St. Louis and I rarely got to see her when we lived in SF.

The next morning, after a very restful nights sleep, we decided to see as much of Madrid as possible. Travers mapped out the city and basically became our tour guide for the day. We only got lost a few times (according to Travers we were never lost, just missed a turn here and there), and with a little help from Shelley, we went on a tour of the city, seeing lots of plazas and buildings along the way.

Travers and Shelley mapping our route

Not sure what Mike's doing behind us

We walked for several hours, through tons of plazas that were a bit underwhelming at times, all the while Travers giving us a brief comment or history about what we were seeing. We went through different neighborhoods, and made our way across the city, sweating in the heat. All getting a bit tired, we decided to head towards the high-end shopping district, where there were supposedly some good restaurants and a few nice streets to walk down. We ended up taking a wrong turn, making the walk a bit longer than necessary, so were extremely relieved to eventually find a place to eat: a fun asian fusion restaurant. We had tasty thai and asian dishes and enjoyed the air conditioned restaurant and the relief on our feet by sitting down for an hour while we ate.

After lunch, Shelley and I did some window shopping, and then some actual shopping in the Zara store, while the boys tried not to get too bored. We decided that we were all a bit exhausted, so the boys headed back to the hotel to sun-bathe, while Shelley and I shopped a bit more, then finally calling it quits to join the boys on the roof.

We rested for a couple hours, sun-bathing, sleeping, and swimming, then got ready for our evening. We were headed towards Museo Del Prado, which had free entry between 6p and 8p (thanks to a tip from my cousin!). By the time we got there we only had about 45 minutes to walk through the museum, which was plenty for the boys, and enough for me and Shelley to get our fill as well. As one of the more well-known museums in Spain, we figured we had to go and check it out, at least to just say that we'd been there. As we're not normally big museum goers, this was a big accomplishment.

After the museum, we walked to the nearby Parque del Retiro, which had a large pond in the center where people could rent boats and hang out on the water, while others sat along the pathway that surrounded it. While we didn't get in the pond, we sat on a bench nearby, watching all the people, wondering if anyone was going to fall out of their boat into the water. Unfortunately, no one did.

We made our way for a traditionally late dinner back to a neighborhood that we had gone to earlier in the day, choosing a restaurant that had pizzas and asian fusion and nachos on their menu. It was perfect for our group and it was a more modern restaurant that was the total opposite of what we had the night before. After dinner, we wandered the streets, enjoying the city as much as we could. We found an old bar called La Venencia where they are known more for their sherry than their whiskey. The boys enjoyed both, while Shelley and I got scolded for trying to take a photo! (Shelley still managed to get this one though!)

Still a bit exhausted from our tour earlier in the day, and a bit sluggish from the heat, we opted for some chocolate dipped churros for dessert at the famous San Ginés, then called it a night.  While Madrid is a nice large city, and we saw some great things, I will say it wasn't my favorite of all the places we visited. I will probably go back, but more for a specific event, like a football match (that's soccer to all of you), or a bull fight (which we weren't able to see in Pamplona, but that are very popular in Madrid as well).  The next day we were headed to Sevilla, our 4th city on this 10 day trip, and now one of my favorites. Stay tuned...