The week of July 9th was my last working week in Switzerland that culminated with a work golf outing; therefore, it was a relatively easy last week. The most stressful part was getting home from golf at 5pm, showering in 30 minutes, and then getting to a bar to host a going away party by 6.
It was a long night out that was then followed by the movers arriving at my apt. to pack all of my household goods to be shipped across the ocean at 8AM. I had been preparing all week by packing one suitcase for 2 weeks of travel, another suitcase of clothing for the US before my shipping container arrives (up to 2 months), and wine that I would be flying home with as it could not be included in my shipping container. I was ready for the move, but it was an early wakeup call that left me with no bed to sleep or couch to sit on starting from then.
Once the movers finished packing and moving (3pm), I went to the airport for one of my last trips while living in Europe to Spain/Portugal with the Bellgraphs. I boarded a flight at 6:40pm and Kyle and Sam arrived the next morning on a red eye flight.
Madrid
After Kyle and Sam safely arrived, I toured the city on foot during a run and we did a walking tour with some light tapas tasting and Sangria tasting; therefore, we kept a lighter day to deal with the jet lag.
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| Takos Al Pastor |
For our 2nd day, we went on a tour of the Real Madrid stadium (San Bernabeu) and then did our own tapas tour throughout the city. For the uninitiated, tapas in Madrid and Southern Spain are served free with drinks. Although not supposed to be a meal, we made dinner of the many tapas bars that ended and ended the evening with seeing a flamenco show.
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| Jamon |
The following day, we rented a car to visit Segovia to see the aqueduct, cathedral, and Alcazar. Coincidentally, Disneyland California opened 68 years ago on the same day; the castle at the park was modeled after the castle that we were planning to visit that same day.
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| Alcazar |
Following the castle tour, we experienced with the local cuisine before driving to Rioja:
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| Yes this is a pig leg....when in Rome... |
The 4th day of our trip began in Logrono where we travelled to LaGuardia and Haro for some Rioja tastings. The area was reminiscent of other wine areas that I have visited since living in Europe with the only difference being the mountains and increased elevation.
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| The late night train station (Pampilhosa) |
Porto was a quick trip, but we tried to see some highlights with a walking tour when arriving and when sampling the local cuisine. The 2nd day we did a Douro Wine, Port, and Boat Tour of inland Portugal. The wine region of Portugal reminded me of Lavaux in Switzerland.
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| Porto |
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| Portugal Crew |
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| Douro Valley |
Following the boat tour, we took a late night train into Lisbon. I’ve been to Lisbon before; however, had forgotten the hills so there was going to be no marathon training occurring while in the city. We did a walking tour, tried Ginjinha, and went to a Fado show on our first day; the Fado was very different compared to the Flamenco of Madrid. The former being more sad singing whereas Flamenco was full of energy with the singers also dancing and stomping/tapping to create the music.
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| Ginjinha |
The last day in Lisbon, we did a Sintra Tour; I had done this with Alex on a previous trip. We then tried another local Portuguese food, the Bifano. Bifanos are basically pork chop sandwiches that are simple, but great; the meal was nice after going out and getting very large dinners for multiple days in a row.
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| Sintra |
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| Bifano |
The following morning, we went to the airport to fly to Barcelona to our last city of the trip. We stayed in an apt. near the Arc du Triomf and spent the first day relaxing and preparing for the remainder of the trip (getting driver’s licenses translated into Spanish for the follow days Vespa tour) before walking to the Sagrada Familia. Note for other travelers would be that tickets for guided tours of the church sell out very quickly; the first available tickets were for 2 days later so it was helpful that we had a few days in Barcelona.
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| Arc du Triomf |
The following day, we were awoke by a loud protest of taxi drivers that started outside our bedroom windows against Uber. There were fireworks, people yelling, and it was quite distracting although no risk of danger. During the day, we all went running, I jumped in the ocean, and then we began the Vespa tour. This was my first Vespa tour and it was a great way to see a larger city. We drove by the beach, Sagrada Familia, 1992 Olympic Stadiums, top of Mt. Tibidabo, and Casa Batillo. The protest moved throughout the city so this did cause us to need to change routes slightly, but we were able to see all the planned sights.
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| Biker Gang |
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| 1992 Olympic Stadium |
On our final day, we had planned to see Parc Guell; however, there were no taxis or Ubers due to the protests so we rented bikes to ride the 2.5 miles from our apartment. So....Barcelona is hilly and very hot during July! We did reach the Parc and walked around, but did not stay long as we were eager to cool off outside of the sun and relax before going to Sagrada Familia.
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| Taking the city by bike |
I’ve been to the Sagrada Familia on a previous trip to Europe while working in Slovakia before living here, but never been inside. The inside of the church was gorgeous with very colorful stained glass and we were lucky enough to arrive when the sun was setting so it was well lit.
The following morning we had flights home at 7am so we awoke at 4 to get an airport transfer at 4:30 AM so we were quite tired. Not having taxis or Uber’s created some additional complexities as well as we had to find an independent transfer company that we knew we could count on working given the strike.
We covered many locations during the 2 weeks and tried many types of different food throughout the regions. Even travelling within the Iberian peninsula, there was quite an array of diversity and we could have easily stayed much longer to see more locations; although, I'm not sure my body could handle trying to train for marathons while living in this climate!
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