Barcelona, Spain

We arrived in Barcelona mid-day Friday. We took the bus from the airport and made our way to the Gothic Quarter to check-in with the host of our airbnb. Our airbnb happened to be in a protected building in Barcelona so our room, and the building itself, were quite impressive.

After we checked in, we headed to pintxo bar, recommended by our friend Greg, for lunch. Pintxo's are basque tapas (snacks) served on toothpicks. At the bar, you help yourself to as many pintxo's as you wish and when you're ready to leave, you pay based on the number of toothpicks. We were both starving when we when arrived so we managed to accumulate a good amount of toothpicks.

After our late lunch, we meandered our way over to the Picasso museum. The collection in this Picasso museum is primarily Picasso's early and later works but interesting nonetheless. We were impressed with the talent that Picasso had at such a young age.

A bit tired from our travel that morning, and a tad slow after our lunch, we decided to do as the Spanish do and had a little siesta. We woke up refreshed and headed out to explore the El Born neighborhood and scope out a tapas bar to settle into for the evening.

The next morning, we were up early to check-out some of Gaudi's famous architecture throughout the city, most specifically, the Sagrada Familia. We walked to Sagrada Familia from our apartment making stops at Casa Batllo and Casa Mila. We purchased tickets to the Sagrada Familia prior to our trip so when we arrived we were able to jump the queue and begin our tour.

The Sagrada Familia began construction in 1882 and is still on-going. Construction relied primarily on private donations which slowed after Gaudi's death in 1926 and with the Spanish Civil War. The cathedral is planned for completion in 2026 for the centenary of Gaudi's death. The exterior and interior of the cathedral is truly unique and we found the symbolism prevalent throughout every aspect of the cathedral quite interesting.

After spending a few hours at the Sagrada Familia, we found ourselves ready for lunch. We decided to treat ourselves to a paella lunch. Even though Barcelona isn't technically known for its paella, our meal was good as the owner promised, of whom we could barely understand.

We explored the city by foot after our lunch before meeting up with our wine and tapas tasting tour in early evening. The wine and tapas tasting tour was probably our favorite activity during our time in Barcelona. Our guide, originally from England, was extremely knowledgable about the city, wine and food and we enjoyed learning from him. After the tour ended, we went to a wine bar, recommended by our guide, with a Kiwi who also lives in London was on our tour.  It was fun being able to swap travel stories and get advice on what we need to see if and when we go to New Zealand.

The next day, we explored Montjuic. We walked, and later climbed, to the top of Montjuic but opted for the cable car on the way down. We grabbed a late lunch at a small hole-in-the-wall type spot (at least from the outside) known for its fish. After lunch, Shane found an Irish pub to catch the Liverpool match, while I opted for a siesta. Later, we checked out a craft beer spot and local pizza joint - I couldn't eat another ounce of jamon iberico de bellota (a prosciutto-like ham from pigs that are only fed acorns) of which Shane had been ordering at every meal and bar.

On our last day, we spent the morning on the beach soaking up the last bit of sun before heading back to London.    

Seville, Spain

For the Easter bank holiday, we headed to Spain. Our first stop in Spain was Seville.

We arrived in Seville Wednesday evening. We grabbed a cab at the airport and our driver informed us that he would try to get us as close to our hotel as possible but it would be difficult because the city was crazy. We thought our driver was just being difficult but when we got close to the city center, we quickly learned that he wasn't being difficult - the city was indeed crazy!

We arrived in the city at the start of one of the processionals for holy week or Semana Santa. Processionals occur throughout the city from Palm Sunday to Easter with the largest of the processionals beginning on Holy Thursday. The processionals are organized by religious brotherhoods. The members are dressed in robes with tall pointed hoods with eyeholes designed so that the members could repent anonymously. The focus of each processional is the paso(s) (float) that are either a scene from the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary or a weeping Mary.

After navigating through the crowds, and stopping to view some of the processional, we made our way to the hotel and dropped our bags. As we landed in the evening, our main focus was food. We decided to take a stroll along the river and popped in a restaurant on the river for a bite.

The next morning, we were up early to meet up for a walking tour of Seville. We spent two hours strolling through the streets of Seville. After the tour our guide invited us to join him for a drink and snack at one of his favorite spots that was conveniently located around the corner from our hotel. Our guide introduced us to summer wine (red wine mixed with lemonade) and helped us order what he claims to be the best tapas on the menu. It was great to have the guide show us a 'locals' spot - we definitely wouldn't of stopped in on our own.

After lunch, we headed to Maria Luisa Park. We rented a bicycle and toured around the park for about a hour before relaxing in the plaza and soaking up the sun.

On our way back to the hotel, we got to witness another processional. The processional on Thursday was significantly larger than the processional we witnessed the previous night - chairs and viewing platforms lined the processional route. As the processional runs directly through the center of the city, we had a hard time navigating to our hotel. At one point, we found ourselves right in the middle of the hood figures. We followed a couple in front of us who cut through the middle of the processional while it was stopped - we tried to do the same and the processional started moving! Luckily, we were only in the middle for a few seconds.

That evening we booked a flamenco show. We grabbed an early dinner (early for Spain) prior to the show. The meal was fantastic and had we not had the flamenco show booked, we would of stayed there trying different tapas all evening.

For the flamenco show, we had booked tickets without a meal. As such, we were sat in the back of the room but on a platform that ended up giving us a perfect view of the stage. The flamenco show lasted about two hours and include a mix of both male and female flamenco dancers.

After the show, we headed back to the hotel as we had a flight the next morning to Barcelona.

We loved Seville and thoroughly enjoyed getting to see a couple of the Semana Santa processions.