36 Hours in Bilbao, Spain

We spent a quick 36 hours in this city of northern Spain. Like most tourists, I assume, we came here to see the architectural artistry of the Guggenheim. We had a bit of time to explore more of the city, but the weather was awful the entire time we were there, so it didn't leave the best impression. What we saw was fine, but the city didn't seem to have a ton of personality to define it like many of the other places we've been. It is small, divided by a river, with an old town and new area. It was very cold (probably in the 30s to 40s at warmest) and rainy the whole time we were here (except for about 30 minutes one day when we got the blue-skied picture below!). It also hailed, thundered and we saw a few snowflakes as well.

Bilbao, Spain

I can’t say I wouldn't recommend visiting Bilbao because it might be a great place when the weather is decent and you aren't staying somewhere that smells like mildew. :)

Also, a visit to the Guggenheim was definitely worth it if you’re into architecture. Drew and I aren't huge museum people, but we both really enjoyed our time there and felt it was worth the 13 Euros it cost to get in (includes audio guide which made the entire thing that much better).

The Guggenheim peaking out at the end of the street

The Guggenheim and its "pet dog"

Inside my favorite exhibit, The Matter of Time

Inside the main area of the museum

Outside the museum

Another outside view 

Art, inside and out

Through the fog...

If you get the chance and are nearby, take a day or two to explore the city and definitely see the Guggenheim!

For more photos from Bilbao, click here.

A Walk from Spain to France

San Sebastian is a city located in the north of Spain, on the Atlantic Ocean, affording it beautiful beaches and views. Unfortunately for us, we visited in early spring so the weather was cold (and rainy one day) and we weren't able to see it in its entire splendor.

The boardwalk along San Sebastian's beach

Under the boardwalk, San Sebastian's beach

There is an old part of the city, which most Spanish cities seem to have, with narrow cobbled streets and beautiful old buildings flanked by churches on both ends. This area seemed to be bustling when we were there – around noon on a Thursday. Other parts of the city did not seem to be so occupied. I’m sure the beach area is packed in the summer, unlike the rainy spring day we chose to walk along its edge. The city has a ton of old architectural details, with its white metal railings along the beach, huge Victorian clocks, and other details, but whether it’s the sea air or simply lack of care, this city seems as though it is not as well taken care of as some of its counterparts that we visited along our Spanish adventures. No matter, we enjoyed our short time there, but feel to see it in its glory would require a summertime visit.

Carousel in San Sebastian

From San Sebastian, the French border is about 10km away. Naturally, we had to go! We jumped on a train which took us to the Spanish town of Irun, bordering the river that we walked across to get to the French town of Hendaye, a beautiful little city.

Looking back toward Spain

Us, in France!

The bay of Hendaye

When you first cross the river you walk along the bay, strewn with boats and parks and people walking about. If you follow that for a while and then cross through the streets you arrive at the ocean. There’s a wide beach that goes on and on (bigger than San Sebastian). The wind and air is cool, but the sun is hot and there are tons of surfers braving the frigid-looking water. There are hotels across the street from the beach, but the actual waterfront is primarily a wide sand beach and boardwalk with just a few restaurants sprinkled in.

We took a walk of about a mile and a half up a hill and visited a castle, Chateau Abbadia, with gorgeous views of the beach on one side and mountains on the other.

Back past the bay you can go into town, which apparently is busy at times, but not when we were there. We visited the famous (on Wikipedia) Hendaye Cross which apparently predicts the end of the world (in 2012).

It was very interesting to walk into France. There was no border patrol or any kind of barrier to let you know you were entering another country. We simply saw the sign and French flag waving at the police station once we crossed the bridge. Plus, the signs changed from Spanish and Basque to French and Basque (and still a little Spanish and even English occasionally). We encountered a lot of people speaking Spanish, but the workers at the cafes we visited spoke French to us. Very interesting. Another thing to note: cappuccino in France is topped with whipped.

Instead of walking and then taking the train back, we took the Euskotrain directly from Hendaye into San Sebastian (costing just a few Euros and taking about 30 minutes) for dinner.

Hendaye was a cute little French city and a nice day trip for us. It doesn't seem to be much of a place for tourists, except local tourists in the summer or for surfing. It was nice to go somewhere that we probably wouldn't go to otherwise, and add another country to our list!

Enjoying coffee on the oceanfront

The beach at Hendaye

Drew's crepe and cafe and my cappuccino (w/ whipped cream!)

A tiny car(?!) we saw in Hendaye

Chateau Abbadia

Beautiful wildflowers on our walk to and from the Chateau

Hendaye looked more German than French to us!

The famous Hendaye Cross

A pizza machine...put in your money, out comes a pizza?!

For more pictures of San Sebastian, Spain click here

For more pictures of Hendaye, France, click here

Barcelona, Spain!

We spent six days in Barcelona and it's safe to say that it has earned a place among my favorite cities. So you might ask, what exactly did I like about Barcelona?

Here's a list:

• The Mediterranean Sea: any city located on water of any type is a huge plus for me, but the Mediterranean Sea?! Over four kilometers of beautiful beaches with an active and well-maintained boardwalk, great restaurants and clubs, easy access to many other countries by sea, and a great place for people watching or soaking up the sun!
• The architecture: First and foremost you've got a bunch of amazing buildings designed by Gaudi, who I am now more obsessed with. This is on top of the gorgeous old Spanish architecture, innovative new designs sprinkled about, and other inspiring pieces from the Gothic period and beyond. In addition to buildings, there are modern sculptures to be discovered all over the city, oftentimes placed just feet from historic old structures.





Gaudi's Casa Batllo (right) 

• Which leads me to the next thing I loved: there is no fear of meshing old and new in terms of design, architecture, art. Here's an example:




Drew in front of a modern sculpture in front of the historic post office 






Another cool piece in the city

• Many beautiful public parks. I grew up in a small town, green space is important to me!




Outside the entrance of Gaudi's Park Guell



Cool view of the city from inside Park Guell

• The Gothic quarter: An amazing old area full of cool buildings, narrow streets, public plazas, stores and restaurants with an endless supply of hidden things to be discovered.



The Cathedral in the Gothic Quarter 

• Ease of getting around: the city is big, but not that big. Drew and I walked most days. However, there's also a wonderful public transportation system of buses, trains and the  subway to get wherever you need to go.
• Gelatterias and patiserrias on every block. Literally...you can't walk a block without going past one!
• The energy: like most cities, I suppose, but there's always something going on here. The only quiet time that we saw was the early mornings which we experienced when walking to our train at 6:30am.
• The schedule: they don't go to work until 10am, allowing more time for fun at night. Athough, yes they get out of work later, but they still manage to fit in a lot more fun time than most Americans.
• The amazing places close to the city: from wineries to the amazing Montserrat





View from our hike at Montserrat

So basically, I'm just saying that I love Barcelona and I look forward to the time I return. AND...you should go! (Check out more of our pictures here)

Have you been to Barcelona? I'd love to hear your favorite things about the city!

What We've Been Up To

It’s been a little while since I’ve written as we’ve been very busy hopping from place to place, so I want to catch you up on where exactly we've been and where we are going. I plan to write more detailed posts about the specific places soon, but for now here’s an overview. 

Barcelona

We arrived in Barcelona on Tuesday night, after a six hour or so train ride from Sevilla. Our friend, John, who we met on our diving boat in the Galapagos invited us to stay with him at his flat in the Barceloneta area, which is right near the beach. We stayed until Monday morning when we left for San Sebastian, a town up on the northern coast which was recommended to us by one of our AirBnB.com hosts in Toledo. (I wrote this quick post about Barcelona while we were there, and this one after which has a little more detail about why I love the city.)

San Sebastian and Hendaye (France!)

We took a bus from Barcelona to San Sebastian on Tuesday morning, and arrived in the early afternoon. We took another bus from the city to our accommodation for two nights – another AirBnB.com stay. Our host, Elvira, was wonderful and her place was extremely clean, homey and welcoming. The only downside was her apartment is about a 50 minute walk into the city. You can catch a bus easy or a train after a 10 minute walk, but we tend to like to walk, so we made the trek a couple times. While in San Sebastian we took a day trip up to France because why not and Drew really was hoping to get to France so this gave him a small taste! (I have a full post on our time in the city and our excursion to Hendaye, France coming soon).

Bilbao

Thursday afternoon we took another bus (about 1 hour 45 minutes) from San Sebastian to Bilbao. We both wanted to visit the famous Guggenheim, for different reasons. I took an architecture class my senior year at Canisius where I learned about the museum and architect and thought the building was amazing. (This class is actually what sparked my interest in Gaudi as well.) Drew, on the other hand, is a big James Bond fan, and apparently the Guggenheim Bilbao was featured in one of the movies. (More to come on this soon).

Madrid

Saturday morning we took another bus (just under five hours) back to Madrid. Before we left the states this winter we opened up a Marriott Rewards credit card which gives us no international fees and points towards nights at hotels and other perks. One such perk was a free night at a category four Marriott hotel. We had booked a night at the AC Marriott in Madrid (for free!) before we left and boy did it come at the right time! We’ve been staying at some decent places, some hostels and some people’s homes through AirBnB.com, but in Bilbao our accommodation was pretty terrible. The location was fine, but the apartment smelled like mildew and mold and was pretty much disgusting and we couldn’t wait to leave. On top of that, the weather the entire time we were in the city was the coldest we’ve experienced on the trip thus far, and rainy. Cold, cold rain. Oh, and hail. And we did see snowflakes. Yuck. So anyway, when we arrived in Madrid we were so excited for the fancy hotel room awaiting us! It was gorgeous: king bed, beautiful bathroom, washcloths (!) (read my post about One Month In: What it Feels Like to be a Backpacker if you don’t get my excitement about that one), a nice hair dryer, a bidet (lol), I could go on.

Anyway, we checked in and quickly made ourselves comfortable before heading into the city. There were a few things we knew we wanted to do (mostly for me and my gluten free food needs). We found a Pizza Jardin restaurant near our hotel and had a late lunch there. We ate at another location of this restaurant for dinner on our first days in the city because I had read about their gluten free pizza (yay!). So we had pizza and then headed to the wonderful Celicioso Bakery which is also completely gluten free. Drew stopped at a regular bakery for a treat for himself afterwards, and then we stopped at McDonald's because I had heard that all McDonald's in Spain have gluten free rolls. It’s true. I’m really not a big fast food person, ever, but I felt I had to get and try one of these rolls, so I got a plain hamburger to have for dinner later. (It was ok…a little hard. I guess if you really loved McDonald's in the first place you would probably be more excited than I was).

What’s Next

And now, I am writing from the airplane. We are on our way to Rome! Spain has been absolutely amazing; fun-filled, new sights and amazing places, beautiful architecture, good food including many gluten free options, moving around a lot. I've enjoyed every part of it, but I can’t help but be excited for all that’s ahead, beginning with Rome.

The details aren't set yet, but we’ll be in Rome, then Sacile to visit family of our friends, up to Venice and into and around a few places in Austria, making our way to Prague. From Prague we fly back to Rome where we have two days before we depart on our Mediterranean Cruise! Yes, that’s right. We booked an eleven night cruise which will take us from Rome to several Greek isles, Turkey, Sicily and Naples. We found a good deal online a few weeks ago and decided we wanted to do it!

After the cruise we will fly to Romania, where we will go to Transylvania and somehow make our way down to Istanbul before we fly to Dubai on May 27. We are two months in, halfway through our adventure, but we have so much ahead, lots to figure out, and heaps to look forward to. I’m afraid time is going to fly by because we will be so busy, but I’m excited to take it all in and experience all of the places we are going to go! Stay tuned for more…

Update (Monday, April 8)

We're currently in Rome and it's AMAZING! I am finding lots of awesome gluten free food (including pizza and pasta!) thanks to Trip Advisor and some other great websites. This is where technology really comes in handy! Lots to say about this wonderful place...hope to post blogs and pics soon. Here's a couple, just to hold you over!

Drew and I at the Colosseum

The Trevi Fountain at night

The Pantheon at night

Barcelona! What a City!

Happy Easter! It's been a while, and I finally posted about Sevilla, but currently we are in gorgeous, exciting Barcelona staying just blocks from the Mediterranean Sea with a wonderful friend that we met while diving in the Galapagos!

I hope to write more soon and share more photos, but I just have to say that this city is wonderful and share a couple pics to hold you over! One thing I just love: Barcelona isn't afraid to mix old and new...and it works!

Gaudi's Casa Battlo

Gaudi's Sagrada Familiar

Outside the Cathedral

Famous Lizard at Gaudi's Park Guell

Us at Guell Park

Guell Park

Overlooking the city at Guell Park

Montserrat

Inside Montserrat Cathedral

Us at Montserrat

Drew climbing 

View from our hike at Montserrat

Drew's the King of the World

Back in the city: The Cathedral at night

I love the dichotomy here of an old door that is a work of art and the
graffiti artists' modern work

Another example of the old and new:
old post office, new sculpture (and Drew)