Madrid, Spain

Our last stop on our Spanish excursion was Madrid. Friday morning we took a train from Seville to Madrid via Rail Europe. We arrived in Madrid just after noon and to be honest, by the time we arrived in Madrid, we were exhausted; but, we persevered and continued on our journey.

One great thing about Madrid is their metro system. We were able to catch the metro at the train station and it took us pretty close to our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Quo Eraso which was pretty nice. It was close to several metro stops so it was easy to get where we wanted to go quickly.

After checking in to the hotel we ventured down to Puerto del Sol which is the most central point of Madrid. This is where the Bear and the Strawberry Tree statue is (also known as the "symbol of Madrid").

We then made a stop in a cafe called San Gines which is known to have the best Churros con Chocolate in town. This place was actually recommended to us by a native of Spain. One of my boss's friends grew up in Madrid and provided several "local" recommendations which was awesome. I'd have to say, San Gines did live up to its reputation; the Churros con Chocolate was pretty amazing.

We then took a walk around Plaza Mayor which is a well known spot in Madrid with a lot to see. There were a lot of great artists at work there which was cool.

On Saturday we did a hop-on, hop-off bus so we could fit as much in as possible. Unfortunately this one wasn't near as good as the bus in Barcelona. The sound on the headphones didn't work half the time and it was a rainy day, so we couldn't take all of the pictures of the various sites that we wanted to.

We made a stop at the Museo del Prado and took a walk through Parque del Retiro which were both nice.

Another great recommendation from my boss's friend was La Mallorquina, a pastry shop in Puerto del Sol that has been there for more than 100 years. We had a great snack and certainly recommend it to future visitors.

El Museo del Jamon was also recommended to us. It's a chain restaurant so there are plenty of options. We stopped in one and had every intention of eating there but when we looked at the menu and saw pretty much the same pictures we've seen since we arrived in Barcelona, we decided we just couldn't eat another jamon y queso sandwich, so we went elsewhere. We actually ended up finding a McDonald's because at that point we needed a taste of American food. Our time in Madrid was short but just long enough. We took the metro to the airport on Sunday to catch our flight back to Jacksonville, Florida. We decided for the next trip we're going to fly back on Saturday so we have an extra day to recover before returning to work.

When we arrived at the airport we noticed there were quite a few cancelled flights. Thankfully, ours was right on time and we had no trouble at all. We were completely oblivious to the volcano eruption in Iceland that had grounded many flights. When we travel internationally we like to disconnect completely and leave our phones behind. We didn't find out there about the eruption until we were on our layover in Philadelphia and Brian talked to his dad. We were extremely lucky because there were people across Europe stranded for weeks! Overall we had a fantastic time in Spain celebrating our third wedding anniversary. It was pretty busy though, so I think we're already planning a beach location for our fourth wedding anniversary trip!

You can check out the rest of our Madrid photos here.

Granada, Spain (Alhambra)

Mid-way through our time in Seville we took a day trip to Granada to see the Alhambra, a palace and fortress complex constructed during the mid-14th century by Moorish rulers. When planning our trip to Spain we were unsure if we wanted to add Granada to the itinerary since it is about a 6 hour round trip and we were already visiting three other cities. When soliciting advice from others who have visited the area, we were told it was a must-see, so we decided to go for it.

So on our anniversary (Wednesday, April 14th) we took a bus via ALSA from Seville to Granada. Each trip cost about 22 euro per person and the bus ride was about 3 hours each way. We were debating between the bus and train for this trip, but due to timing and availability the bus won out; it was actually a really smooth ride and not bad at all.

When visiting Alhambra you have to buy tickets and make reservations to visit the Palacios Nazaries, the main palace in advance of your visit. You have a 30 minute time slot when you can actually enter and aren't allowed entry if it doesn't fall within that time frame. From our experience, these reservations go pretty quickly, so the earlier you make your reservation, the better chance you have of getting a time slot that works with your schedule. Also, your entry time to the Palacios Nazaries determines the time you're able to enter the complex. For example, our entry to the main palace was at 6pm so we couldn't enter the complex until after 2pm. My good friend Rick Steves does a great job of breaking all of this down here.

To kill time before our entry into the Alhambra complex, we took the city bus from the train station to the city center where we checked out Granada and had lunch. The "downtown" area of Granada is a pretty neat area to explore and we could have actually spent longer there. Using the time we had we grabbed some lunch (I'm pretty sure it was another jamon & queso sandwich) and some snacks at a little shop with all organic dried fruit. We then took the city bus up to the Alhambra complex and began our journey there. As written by Rick Steves, the Alhambra consists of four sights clustered together atop a hill: Charles V's Palace (Christian Renaissance palace plopped on top of the Alhambra after the reconquest, free entry), Alcazaba (empty old fort with tower and views), Palacios Nazaries (exquisite Moorish palace, a must-see), and Generalife (fancy gardens).

We trekked around the complex all afternoon taking in the views. We were lucky and had a beautiful day to explore. Here are a few pictures from our visit:

in Generalife (the gardens)

at the Alcazaba (the fort)

leaving Palacios Nazaries (the main palace area)

You can see all of the pictures from our day trip to Granada / Alhambra here.

Seville, Spain

After two great days in Barcelona, we left for Seville bright and early Tuesday morning. When I say bright and early, I really just mean early -- we had a 7:10am flight so the sun wasn't even close to up when we started our venture to the airport. After taking the metro to catch a bus which took us to the airport, we arrived to see an extremely LONG line at check-in. We were very concerned we were going to miss our flight. I spotted some electronic ticket kiosks that for some reason no one was using, so Brian got in the long line and I went to investigate the kiosk. (At this point I totally felt like I was on the Amazing Race, trying to get our tickets before the other team. It was semi-fun, I'm not going to lie!)

Anyway -- thankfully I was able to navigate the kiosk and was able to get our boarding passes. We finally made it through security just in time ... only to stand around for awhile because our flight was slightly delayed (but not listed as so on the board). Don't you love when that happens?

We finally made it to Seville around 9:00am and took the public bus to our hotel (Silken Al-Andalus). The bus isn't very tourist-friendly. They don't like to tell you what stop you're approaching or where you are, so you just have to keep looking out the window, trying to find a similar street on your map and hope for the best. Luckily we asked the bus driver when we got on (in our broken Spanish) if he went to the hotel and he said yes so he let us know when it was the right stop (thank you nice bus driver)!

The hotel was nice -- it was really big with several restaurants, a piano bar, gift shop, etc. The only problem was it was about a 10 minute bus ride into the center of town (which often turned into a 20+ minute ride because of traffic). A cab to and from was anywhere between 6 and 10 euro which we had to take a couple of times when we were out after 11pm (the time the bus stopped running). That simple fact was interesting to us because people don't get to dinner until around 10pm. But then restaurants close at midnight. So basically you have a two hour window to get dinner and you're out of luck if you don't finish and hop on the bus before 11pm. We never quite got the schedule down, but it was sure fun trying! (This was different then Barcelona though. The restaurants closed later than midnight. We know this because we were trying to do as the Spaniards and went to dinner around 10:30pm. When we were finishing up, people were just coming in and starting to order at midnight -- craziness!)

So basically, it seemed like a fairly big production to get to and from town, especially considering the aforementioned. So while the hotel was pretty nice, I would recommend staying closer to the city center for convenience sake.

We started our Seville experience in the city center near Barrio de Santa Cruz which is a really neat area. We then wondered around checking out the sites. We stumbled upon the Alcazar palace which was really neat with a lot to see.

Later that evening we went to Aire de Sevilla, an Arabic bathhouse. This was a very cool experience. It's a "journey through three baths in different rooms at different temperatures" over a 1.5 hour time period. There's a really hot bath, a warm one and a really cold one. The bathhouse also included a hamman, a salt bath, a hydro-massage bath and a relaxation room. After the "bath" experience I got a massage as well. The whole experience was fantastic and extremely relaxing. However, not much English was spoken so there was a lot of hand gestures and confused looks trying to figure where to go and what to do next. But that was part of the fun!

After our incredibly relaxing bathhouse experience, we went for dinner at a great restaurant on one of the main roads (Mateos Gago). This was actually one of my favorite meals -- we had several tapas which were all amazing.

I tried to capture the cool atmosphere with this video, but it didn't quite work. None-the-less, here it is anyway.

The next day was our actual anniversary and that's when we took the day trip to Granada to see the Alhambra Palace. I'll save that for the next blog post though!

Our last day in Seville we checked out the Seville Cathedral where Christopher Columbus's tomb is. It was a beautiful cathedral and certainly worth checking out. You can also walk up (30+ levels) to get to the top of the bell tower. Although my calves were burning by the end, it was definitely worth the walk -- it was beautiful up top with great views of the city.

Here's a video from the top of the bell tower.

While we were inside I caught an artist at work which I thought was pretty cool.

After, we stopped in Flaherty Irish Pub for a pint of Guinness. I read about this place before our trip and it promised a great mix of locals and tourists and a great pint of Guinness. These claims were also backed up by my fellow Guinness connoisseur Elizabeth who has been to this pub before. Well, it certainly lived up to its reputation. It was a cool atmosphere and a great beer. It was a nice spot to take a break.

We then ventured down by Rio Guadalquivir (the second longest river in Spain) where Plaza de Toros, the oldest bullring in Spain is.

Just on the other side of the river is the Triana neighborhood; a really neat area with several great restaurant options. We ate at El Faro de Triana per a recommendation from Rick Steves. The restaurant is actually an old yellow bridge tower overlooking the Isabel II Bridge. We had hoped to utilize their outdoor seating, but the weather didn't cooperate so we had to sit inside. However, our waiter, Juan Pedro (now my Facebook friend) sat us at a table with a great view and opened the window so we got the outdoor "experience". Brian enjoyed the food more than I did. I don't think it was a matter of the restaurant's food, but more so my tastes not jiving with the local cuisine. We had great conversation with our waiter Juan and made a new friend! He practiced his English on us and we practiced our Spanish on him. By the end of the night we invited him to visit us in Florida!

We really enjoyed our time in Seville. It's definitely a smaller city with a laid back, quaint atmosphere, but with a lot of neat things to see. We had originally thought about doing a hop-on, hop-off bus here as well, but everything was pretty close together (everything we wanted to see anyway) so it wasn't necessary. This was my second favorite city and it battles Barcelona for Brian's most favorite city.

You can see more pictures from Seville here.

Next on the blog agenda -- Granada, Spain / Alhambra!

Barcelona, Spain

We started our third wedding anniversary trip in Barcelona. As I mentioned in my last post, we left Jacksonville, Florida around noon on Saturday and arrived in Barcelona at 8:30am on Sunday so we just kept going.

We stayed at Apsis Aranea (pretty decent hotel in a nice area and convenient to the metro station) which was really close to the La Sagrada Familia, so after we checked in the hotel we grabbed our first bite to eat near there. We actually went to the La Sagrada Familia several times (as you might be able to tell from the pictures), each time with the intention of going inside, but that never happened. Each time we went the line was extremely long and since we only had a short time in Barcelona (2 days) we wanted to make sure we saw as much as possible.

Our first day in Barcelona was absolutely beautiful! It was a gorgeous day with lots of sunshine, minimal clouds, and a nice temperature. After checking out La Sagrada Familia, we took the metro to the area around La Rambla Street. We walked down La Rambla Street to Port Vell. La Rambla Street was really neat with a lot of cool things to see. It's an extremely touristy area with street performers and tons of stands with various items to purchase, but probably overpriced. I would recommend just enjoying the street and waiting until you're in a different area to purchase souvenirs. I recommend checking out Mercat La Boqueria while you're on La Rambla; it's a really cool food market. (It's closed on Sundays though so we had to go back the next day.)

The Port area is really cool. When we first arrived there were lots of people dancing in the streets to American music just having a great time. We caught a jazz cruise on the Orsom which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was a 1.5 hour trip for 14 or so euro and well worth it. There are other boat trip options but this one was great because it was smaller than the others and less "touristy". We were able to lay on the front of the boat and just relax while taking in Barcelona from the water. I highly recommend this cruise.

After the cruise we checked out the Picasso Museum (which is free after 3PM on Sunday's). This is certainly a must-see if you're in Barcelona.

Since we were only in Barcelona for two days, we figured a great way to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time was to do a sightseeing tour on a hop-on, hop-off bus. There are a couple of different options but we went with Barcelona Bus Turistic and had a great experience. It's well worth the 22 euro. We used it to go around the city and stop at places / areas that were of interest to us.

One stop we're glad we made was at the Parc Güell; a park by the famous architect Antonio Gaudi. It was very cool to see and offers great views of the city from the top. There are also local musicians playing throughout the park which definitely adds to the experience. One of my only regrets from the trip is not buying the CD of a local guitarist playing there. I figured we'd have other opportunities throughout our trip, but we didn't. Oh well, maybe next time! Since pictures don't do cool sites like this justice, here's a quick video at the park:




Another cool stop was the Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC); it also has great views of the city. It's close to the Montjuïc area (where a lot of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games venues are). This is definitely worth checking out as well.

Another cool area is the Barri Gotic Quarter (Gothic Quarter).

Overall Barcelona was my favorite city. I really could have spent the entire week there and been happy. Like I previously mentioned, it would have been better if we were there when it was warmer and could have taken advantage of the beach, but overall we had a fantastic time and I would highly recommend a visit to Barcelona.

Here is a link to all of our pictures from Barcelona if you're interested in seeing more. Next post on the agenda -- Seville, Spain!

Our 3rd wedding anniversary trip to España!

We had a fantastic time celebrating our third wedding anniversary in Espana! Thank you to everyone who provided suggestions and input for our trip, it was very helpful.

We left Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday around noon and arrived in Barcelona, Spain around 8:30am local time on Sunday (2:30am Jax time). We started the day as if we'd gotten a full nights sleep and had one extremely long day! We were definitely exausted by the end of it, but I think that's the best way to combat jet lag when you're only visiting somewhere for a short time.

I'll blog about each city separately, but overall we had a great time. We ended up visiting four cities in eight short days -- Barcelona, Seville, Granada and Madrid. If we had it to do over again, I think we would have stuck to two cities. While we had a fantastic time, we were worn out by the time we made it to Madrid, our last stop. I think we could have actually spent a full week in Barcelona -- that was our favorite city. It would have been even better if it were a little warmer and we could have enjoyed the beach a bit.

We booked our trip through EuropeanDestinations.com and found it to be an excellent website. We actually stumbled on the website looking for a potential trip to South America on LatinDestinations.com. We were able to find a pretty reasonable deal and it made the planning very easy. It gives the option to book your travel for the trip (to the country and within the country), lodging and even activities while you're there. We used it for booking our hotels and travel within the country and we didn't have any problems once we arrived. (We were able to find a better flight to and from Spain by booking directly through U.S. Airways.) I don't love U.S. Airways by the way -- while they do feed you a meal on the long flight to and from Europe, they don't give you any snacks! Of course there are some you can purchase, but you would think the $700+ we spent on each ticket would entitle us to at least one free snack for the 8+ hour trip! Sorry, just a quick rant on U.S. Airways ... I'm used to flying Southwest and Jet Blue who are great about keeping you fed!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:

Parc Guell in Barcelona

Alcazar Palace in Seville

Alhambra in Granada

Beautiful tulips in Madrid

Spain trip -- are we missing anything?

We're only days away from our trip to Spain! We've made a list of things we'd potentially like to do / see in each of the cities and I'd love to hear from those of you who have been -- are we missing anything; is something not worth our time? Here is our tentative schedule / points of interest:

Barcelona

• Hop on, hop off bus to see the major sites
• Picasso Museum
• La Barceloneta (I hear there is good seafood in this area)
• Port Olimpic
• Port Vell
• Montjuic (potentially take a cable car from Port Vell?)
• Palau Guell (only Gaudi house open to the public)
• La Sagrada Familia
• La Rambla street (just a quick look)
• Placa de la Seu to see a weekly Sardana dance at noon on Sunday
• Els Encants Vells flea market
• Jazz sunset cruise
• Camp Nou, home to Barcelona's futbol club

Seville

• Day trip to Granada to see the Alhambra
• Hop on hop off bus tour to see the major sites or maybe rent bicycles?
• Local Flamenco show
• Seville Cathedral (where Christopher Columbus's tomb is)
• Alcazar
• Barrio de Santa Cruz
• Rio Guadalquivir
• Parque de Maria Luisa
• Plaza de Espana
• Arabic Bath / massage at Aire de Sevilla
• Flaherty Irish Pub (what can I say, I like Irish pubs! This is apparently Seville's first and best Irish Pub)

Madrid

• Hop on hop off bus to see the major sites
• Museo del Prado
• Parque del Retiro (maybe rent a row boat?)
• Puerto del Sol (most central point of Madrid)
• Plaza Mayor
• Iglesia de San Gines (one of Madrid's oldest churches)
• Palacio Real
• La Latina
• Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida (where Goya's tomb is)
• Plaza de la Cibeles

Thanks in advance for your input / feedback!

Honeymoon in Negril, Jamaica

Brian and I did a ton of research when planning our honeymoon. We knew we wanted a beach locale, but didn't want to venture too far from Florida for lack of time. We talked with a travel agent to get some ideas, and that's how we stumbled upon the all inclusive resort Couples Swept Away in Negril, Jamaica. Different resorts vary, but this particular all-inclusive resort included everything from food, drinks, snacks, a mini bar in the room, onsite activities and even transfers to and from the airport. I highly recommend this approach, especially for a trip such as your honeymoon.

Right before we booked through the travel agent, we did a last minute Google search to check out the resort, and stumbled on an online booking service All Inclusive Outlet where we found the exact same vacation package for $500 cheaper. We checked with the travel agent to see if she could match it because we really wanted to book through her, but she couldn't, so we ended up using All Inclusive Outlet which we were extremely happy with.

We felt bad for not booking through the travel agent since she had done a lot of the research for us, but she understood and just asked us to write a review upon our return that she could share with other customers. So following is what we gave to her, a very detailed description of our trip:

From the time we arrived at the Montego Bay airport, until the time we departed, Couples Swept Away afforded us the perfect honeymoon.

Upon arrival at the airport, we were directed to a “Couples Resort” lounge were we were served with our first authentic Jamaican Red Stripe beer. There we waited only a short time before our shuttle bus arrived. We then boarded the bus and took the hour and a half ride to Negril, Jamaica. There are several reviews online regarding this “scary” ride, and we want to set the record straight that it really isn’t bad. Jamaicans tend to drive a little faster and more aggressively than most Americans, but it is important to remember you are no longer in America, thus “when in Jamaica, act like a Jamaican.”

The shuttle ride over was pretty quick and easy. Once we reached our final destination, we were escorted to the reception lounge where we were greeted with a glass of champagne and a wet towel. We then got checked-in, received a run down of the lay of the land, and were taken to our room by a bellman who took great care of us. Since we were a honeymooning couple, we received a free bottle of champagne and coupons for a 30 minute couples massage. We were also given a packet of information which contained a list and description of all six restaurants and eight bars located around the property; a schedule of the water sports; a map of the property; and recommended activities offsite.

When going through the packet filled with information, it does get just a bit overwhelming with all of the options. Some water sports you are able to show up and do (like a windsurfing lesson) and other water sports require a reservation, like snorkeling. We knew we wanted to explore and try as much as possible, while at the same time making sure we rested and de-stressed like we needed to do (which is why daily naps in a hammock was a top priority of ours). With that in mind, we simply went through the list and noted the activities we really wanted to do and made tentative schedules for each day, including our daily hammock nap!

Some fears that seem to come to mind when considering an all inclusive resort for a vacation destination are quality of food; ease of getting food and drinks, over crowdedness, and how closely the pictures online resemble reality. We would like to alleviate all of those fears concerning Couples Swept Away. Every meal we had was exceptional. Even the poolside, low-key Cabana Grill had great food, especially their specialty hamburger! There was also a “snack bar,” Seagrapes Café, with great afternoon snacks that we took advantage of daily! The lines were never long and we were always able to get food and drinks fairly fast. We were also able to easily find a hammock for our daily nap on the beach. Couples Swept Away is a large resort, but it does not feel that way. It was not uncommon that we would run into the same people. Couples Swept Away looked exactly as it did in the pictures. The beaches had crystal clear blue water and snow white sand.

Our first morning we ordered room service for breakfast (the only meal it is available.) It was great for our first morning in Jamaica when we wanted to relax and keep it low-key in our room, but once we experienced the other breakfast options, we did not order room service again.

Orientation is offered several times throughout the week. We highly recommend taking part in this as it helps you get a good feel for where everything is, since the property is fairly large. After orientation Monday morning, we were ready to conquer Couples Swept Away and make the most of our trip!

We planned a snorkeling trip for that afternoon and a massage for that evening. We then made reservations for one of the two “fine dining” restaurants. Lemongrass Restaurant is Thai Cuisine and Feathers is Continental Cuisine, and both are amazingly good! Guests have to make reservations at least a day in advance for these two restaurants. It is fairly hard to get earlier dinner reservations, but not difficult to get a reservation, as long as you are willing to eat dinner at 9pm. This was not a problem for us because we just utilized Seagrapes Café as an afternoon snack to hold us over until a fantastic dinner!

The next morning we ventured out for breakfast at the Palms. A large buffet breakfast is served and the only problem is choosing what you want to eat because there are so many great options! And everything tasted as good as it looked.

Tuesday the water was a little choppy, so we made Tuesday a very relaxing day. We laid out on the beach, took a walk to nearby shops along the oceanfront, took our daily nap in a hammock on the beach and then dined at the other “fine dining” restaurant, Feathers which provided an equally fantastic meal.

Wednesday we were a bit more active and started our day with windsurfing lessons. This definitely isn’t an easy sport, but we sure had fun trying! After lunch we took a sailing lesson, and then were able to take the sailboat out by ourselves. Later that afternoon we took a sunset catamaran cruise. We boarded the boat and were quickly served up a “Love Potion” drink and we were on our way. A local played live music for us when we were on our way to the cliffs (the destination of the cruise). Once we arrived at the cliffs, guests had the opportunity to cliff jump, swim, or take a ride on the slide attached to the boat. As we were sailing in, we were able to see the beautiful Jamaican sunset, it was a great experience. For dinner we decided to try the Palms Restaurant and again, were not disappointed. After dinner, the resort had a bonfire on the beach which was really neat.

Thursday we went to Patios Patio for breakfast and had another great meal. Every meal at all of the restaurants, guests are served a plate of fresh tropical fruit. What a great way to start a meal! After breakfast we then took the bike tour down to downtown Negril where we were able to shop. At a certain store, we were able to simply pick out the items we wanted to purchase and they were then waiting for us at the resort once we returned from the bike ride and we paid for them then. This made purchasing multiple items a lot easier! We later took a couple’s massage class which we both really enjoyed and then dined at Feathers and had another phenomenal dinner.

We were a bit sad on Friday when reality set in this was our last full day. We wanted to make the most of it, so we took our first and only offsite “extra” excursion. We took a two and a half hour horseback riding trip in the hills of Negril and along the beach. This trip cost $75pp, but was worth every penny. Once we arrived back to the property we took another snorkeling trip. The resort throws a large “Shipwreck Party” every Friday night and the only dining option is dinner on the main beach. A stage was set up with entertainment, tables were set up for eating and several large buffet tables of food were set up for our eating pleasure! The Shipwreck Party was a great ending to our fantastic trip.

When guests first arrive at the resort, guests are told not to worry about their departure date. The resort leaves information on your last day with your current flight information and departure times from the resort. Guests are told what time to have their bags outside the room, and they are picked up and brought to the bus used to transport guests to the airport.

The staff at Couples Swept Away was so personable and friendly. We met one staff member on Monday and saw him again on Thursday and he remembered our names! Another bar tender we met at the beginning of the week and he would always ask how his “honeymooning” couple was doing. It was astonishing to us because tips are forbidden. But yet, the staff always had a smile of their face and always wanted to know what they could do to make your vacation better. They were willing to at least try to fulfill our every request with a simple, “No problem mon!”

The room was great. We had a king size, very comfortable bed with an ocean view. The room was filled with easy-to-open wood blinds that allowed fresh air to flow into the room. The sound of the ocean as we fell asleep and woke up each morning never got old. There was mini bar in the room with liquor, beer, wine, soda, juices & water that was restocked daily. A maid came in twice a day; once to clean the room, and once in the evening to do a “turndown” service where he/she would turn on the lamps, close the blinds and turndown the sheets.

From the time the plane lands and takes off in Montego Bay, Couples Swept Away ensures guests have the PERFECT vacation. We could not have asked for a better honeymoon.