My dream holiday to Spain & Portugal came true..!
Praise the Lord for blessing us with this Spain 🇪🇸 holiday... it's truly a dream come true!
A few items checked off my list in this trip -
1) visiting the Sagrada Familia checked ✅
2) travelling in business class with hubby checked ✅
3) exploring Barcelona in admiration of Gaudi's marvelous architecture designs checked ✅
Thank you Lord for your abundance blessings, Amen 🙏🏼
The next key attraction in Barcelona is the Park Guell which is an exhibition of Gaudi's marvelous works.
After a yummy Noodle Paella aka Freida lunch by the seaside & next to yacht area... we went for other sightseeing in Barcelona - visited the FCB Stadium where we took pictures with Messi & Suarez 😊, drove past the Espana area but weren't given time to visit the Museum of Arts 🎭 😪 then went on to take pics at the Olympics Park and Mountjuic, highest viewing point overlooking Barcelona city. Ended the day with walking along the famous Las Ramblas shopping street of 1.1km long.... hustle bustle as always...
Next stop after Barcelona was Valencia... enjoyed walking around the old city with beautiful architecture and interesting history told by the local guide 😊👍🏼 We were shown the tiniest house in all of Spain... see pic no. 4... see how narrow is the house, yes that's the whole house... After the old city, we visited the new city area where they are still constructing some new modern buildings meant for arts, sports and events. The guide said this project nearly caused the bankruptcy of the country... hahaha not sure how true 😬 well still prefer the old city...
We started our 'nomadic' experience of this trip, moving from city to city, staying only 1 night in each city... tiring but we managed to see many different interesting places within Spain 🇪🇸 The next one was Granada and was a great surprise. We went to Alhambra where we entered the Nazri Palace, majestic and the arts elements are just phenomenal... wood carvings...from floor to ceiling are just splendid.
Seville.... I read somewhere years ago that Seville is a beautiful city... but seeing is believing 😎 We were at awe when we came to this Plaza de Espana in Seville... such beautiful design and it's all original. This area used to be the main access to and from America, thus making Seville very rich back then 💰💰💰 Wish we had more time to spend here.
The beautiful Seville city... where the 3rd largest cathedral in Europe is located, the Seville Cathedral. Christopher Columbus' remains are kept there until today. Climbed 34 floors to reach the top of the Bell 🔔 Tower. We ended the day with yummmmmy rose-design 🌹gelato & dinner with flamenco 💃🏻 show.... another lovely day 👍🏼👏🏼🇪🇸
Entering the city of Lisboa, Portugal 🇵🇹 after 6 hours comfy-ride from Seville. The monument of Sebastian is at the heart of Lisbon city, he was instrumental in the history of this place. Portugal was a country of sea explorers back then - some names that may ring a bell with us Malaysians are Alfonso d Albuquerque & Vasco da Gama 🌊⚓️🚢🏰 We also tried the BEST portugese tart in all of Portugal, from Pasteis de Belem which started operation since 1837 💗
Next stop was Coimbra, a university town in Portugal. After taking some pics at the library 📚 front, we walked down the uneven cobble-stoned pathway towards the shopping boulevard area. The residence around this area have unique tiny colorful doors and houses are close by to one another, with narrow alleys - lovely ❣️Then we headed for lunch - a unique way of cooking cod fish 🐟 baked in creamy cheese and potatoes 🥔... after lunch, we headed towards Salamanca, back to Spain 🇪🇸
We woke up in Salamanca, Spain 🇪🇸 with -3 degree celcius weather 😲🌬🌥 all suit up with heat tech gears to keep us warm as the local tour guide brought us to visit Salamanca University, the oldest university in Spain. The whole town has the vibrancy of gold color all over it... such a great sight to behold. There is a legend here that students need to find a frog 🐸 figurine on the main door of the university and they will be blessed with good results! So yeah 🐸 character is famous here 🐸😝 We ended our morning tour with a lovely yummy serving of churros with thick chocolate sauce... super yums!
Segovia... was meant for a quick lunch stopover but turned out to be an awesome surprise. Had super delicious 😋 roast piglet 🐷 Spanish-style... it was very very good 👍🏼👍🏼💗❣️Then our local tour guide brought us to visit the exterior of Castillo Alcazar and walked around the Aqueduct, built by the Romans in the 2nd century. It is still standing tall & strong till this day... all original granite blocks, built without cement back in those days. Another amazing architecture marvel in Spain 🇪🇸
The main attraction site in big metropolitan city Madrid is the Royal 👑 Palace of Madrid. The royal family 🤴🏼👸🏼doesn't stay here anymore but still uses it for official diplomatic functions. After spending an hour here, we proceeded to visit the Bullfighting ring 🐃 and then the Real Madrid FC stadium which was a bore from the exterior as compared to FCB 😝 Took some pics and headed for Gran Via shopping street after lunch 👗👠👒👜👛 and El Cortes Igles shopping mall.
Last day in Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸 and we headed towards Las Rozas outlet village for some last-minute bargain. The ambience of this village is really nice 👍🏼 didn't buy much though haha... 🙃 After a quick simple lunch, we were sent to Madrid International Airport. Praise the Lord 🙏🏼 for fulfilling my desire to take a shower at the business lounge here... didn't manage to do so in Istanbul lounge that day 😤 nice and refreshing shower 🚿 😚🤗😎
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