First Day Out in Montpellier

Following the advice of Jean-Luc and Anne, we headed out this morning and walked along the St. Clement Aqueduct towards the city center.  When we first rode the bus to the B&B, we thought that we were staying quite far from the city center, but it’s actually only about a twenty minute walk to get to the edge of city center and about another five to get to the Place de la Comedie, Montpellier’s main square. (more…)

Last Day In Barcelona

Although I’m looking forward to heading to France tomorrow, I am also sad that we are leaving Barcelona.  There is so much to see and do that we could probably spend another few days here!  Fortunately, we managed to zoom around today and see most of the remaining sights we haven’t done yet. (more…)

More Gaudi and Some Time At The Beach!

Because yesterday’s lack of planning and late start led to a very rushed visit to the Sagrada Familia before closing, we decided we would go out together again today, but with much more of a plan, especially since it was Jill and Micah’s last full day here before departing to London. (more…)

Saturday in Barcelona – Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia

This afternoon, with Jill and Micah who we befriended last night, we headed out to see the infamous Sagrada Familia – a massive Roman Catholic church designed by Spanish Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi that has been under construction in Barcelona since 1882 and will not be complete until 2026!  We decided to walk to the Sagrada Familia via Passeig de Gràcia, a large street full of expensive stores and home to a couple of other famous Gaudi buildings, such as Casa Batlló and Casa Milà, so that we could see the architecture this area is known for.  Although we all were interested in seeing the Gaudi buildings, there were long line-ups to tour both Casa Batlló and Casa Milà, so we took some pictures of the outside and kept going. (more…)

Visit to Real Madrid’s Home Turf

Since our schedule today probably won’t time out right for us to catch a football game (soccer in North America), we decided to do a tour of Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.  It was either tour this stadium or the one for Manchester United, and the Santiago Bernabeau Stadium tour got better reviews online so we decided to just go for it.

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Portuguese Tarts @ Pasties de Belem – My New Favourite Treat

We bumped into Uwe at breakfast today and found out that we were heading in the same direction - the district of Belem to check out the Jeronimos Monastery – so we traveled together again.  We went to catch the tram, but it turned out the tram to Belem was not running today so a tram driver told us we should catch bus #40 across the Plaza.

After waiting 25 minutes, we became frustrated with the bus system and decided to share a cab with another random person Paul met at the bus stop who was also going to the Monastery.  We never learned his name but he told us he’s a history professor from a college in Chicago, here on his sabbatical and he gave us a few good tips on places in the world he has traveled to. (more…)

Daytrip to Sintra

Today with our new friend Uwe from Germany, whom we met at the hostel, we decided to take a train and daytrip to Sintra (about 45 min from Lisbon) because several other guests at the hostel said Sintra is a must-do day trip.  We’ve pretty much decided to rely on other people’s recommendations for what to see/do so far because we came to Europe without planning our activities so that we could have a flexible schedule.  Considering how enjoyable this daytrip was, we might want to reconsider using guidebooks and any planning in general…. (more…)