Porto, Part 1

Porto

Today we took the train to Porto. The seats weren’t as comfy as the ones on the Spanish trains we took, and overall it was a lot more relaxed (no luggage scanning, and the conductor didn’t even want to see our tickets — he just wanted to know our names. I had leftover pastel de nata for breakfast on the train  

We squeezed Porto into our itinerary, because several different friends loved it, and I’m glad we did! We walked around  had some savory pastries for lunch (randomly chosen on my end: I had no idea what kind of filling was in the mini-empanada I chose:

I spent the afternoon walking around, shopping for souvenirs and taking pictures of tiled buildings:

The world’s fanciest McDonalds:

Pastéis de Nata (Plus Some Sightseeing)

Lisbon

São Jorge Castle

I started the day with a walk around São Jorge Castle, a ruined 11th-century castle:

Nice views of Lisbon from the castle ramparts, including the 25th of April Bridge:

Olá Lisboa!

Lisbon

This morning we flew to Lisbon, since I discovered during my trip planning that there is no direct train service between Madrid and Lisbon. 

Today was set aside for walking around Lisbon, with no scheduled activities.

Rua Augusta Arch

 

 

Santa Justa Elevator

 

National Theatre

 

 

Daily gelato (mango & strawberry)

Holy Toledo

Toledo

Today Ralph and I did our own things. I like churches more than he does, and he likes modern art more than I do, so I took a day trip to Toledo, while Ralph stayed in Madrid and went to the Reina Sofia museum. 

Madrid

First stop today was a randomly chosen boulangerie. I have no idea what this pastry is called, but it was very buttery and tasty:

Next stop was the Royal Palace. It’s past my bedtime now, so come back in a week or two for captions:

One of FIVE Stradavarius instruments in the room!

Next up was the Prado museum, which doesn’t allow photos to be taken inside (which means we didn’t have to deal with the hordes of Instagrammers posing in front of all of the art).

After this, Ralph went back to the hotel, and I took a walk down the Gran Via:

Last but not least, we finished off the day with a tapas & wine food tour.

Build-your-own Iberian ham & tomato bread in a restaurant that looks like a coloring book

Stuffed mushrooms

Peppers

Plaza Mayor

Calamari sandwich (a Madrid specialty)

Shrimp with garlic (lots of it!) and olive oil

The trough under the bar for shrimp heads & napkins

Basque butter pastries, with our choice of fillings. These were much lighter than we expected.

Seville Sojourn

Seville

Seville Cathedral

Another whirlwind day, the second half of “Edna’s Death March through southern Spain”. We woke up in Seville this morning, and promptly hustled over to the Seville Cathedral. 

First stop was climbing the bell tower. Instead of stairs, they had 35 ramps winding their way up the tower, with one final flight of stairs. Each landing is numbered so you know exactly how out of shape you are 😆

The choir and the giant music stand in the choir:

The high altar:

Altar de Plata

Organ

Nave

Ralph for scale

Christopher Columbus’ tomb

Granada In 7 Hours (and Cordoba In Less Than 1)

Barcelona 

Today was what we have been referring to as “Edna’s Death March.” When we first started planning this trip, Ralph wanted to keep the itinerary manageable, so we only planned to visit Barcelona and Madrid. After delving into the guide book, I realized I really wanted to see the Alhambra, which is how we found ourselves meeting our Uber driver at the “Big Fun Museum” at 5:00 am. 

Granada

We caught a 7:00 am flight to Granada, dropped off our luggage at a storage place, and headed downtown. 

The Alcaiceria marketplace we did *not* visit. 

The Royal Chapel that we *did* visit, but weren’t allowed to photograph inside