Greg and Deb's Travel Blog

At about 8:40 we headed out for a half day tour of Seville, taking in the Cathedral, Royal Alcázars and to explore what makes the essence of Saville.
Unfortunately our tour company had changed our schedule and forgotten to tell us. We eventually rescheduled our tour for 2pm.
So we took a walk down to the river and found the Bull Ring was open, so we went in and had a look around. It was built in the 18th century, making it one of Spain’s oldest Bullrings. It was built in a blend of Baroque and Newcastle’s with an ornate facade and ma y archways. It is considered the one of the most prestigious bullring in the world and regularly hosts bull fights. It has a museum dedicated to bull fighting, its equipment people, costumes and of course the bulls. It was really interesting to look around. The seating is hard, all seats are concrete/brick, with the higher priced seats having a little more room. General admission cost from 20 to 60 euro with premium seats costing up to 200+ euro. The stadium seats around 12,000. The bullring itself was a raked orange clay, it looked similar to the colouring of clay tennis courts. You could very easily imagine the roar of the crowd when you sat in the stadium.
Continue reading →

Left the hotel at 9:50 and were at the train station at 10:00. We had to wait to find out what platform we were leaving from before we could go through security ,(a bit like airport style but very loose) and check in.
Well we did that, found our platform and on the train in our seats by 10:50. It took about 10 mins to complete all that, not quite the “sh!t fest” we were expecting.
The train left at 11:00, it is an AVE High Speed Train capable of speeds up to 300kph, but averages a bit over 120kph, and guess what, no seat belts! One of my GPS apps clocked us at over 278kph
In the countryside on our way to Seville there were lots of olive trees and quite a few large solar energy farms. I’m not sure why, but my ears popped several times on the journey, something to do with the speed I guess. Continue reading →

Some facts about Madrid
The city of Madrid has a population of about 3 million, greater Madrid around 7 million.
Madrid became the capital of Spain in 1561
Our day began with a half day tour of Madrid city. Our guide, Mari Luz, took us straight up to Plaza Mayor.
There we were given a quick history of Madrid. Continue reading →

It’s time to go to Spain. We were up at 4, ready for our 5am airport transfer at 4:50am.
We were at the airport by 5:10, but our check in counters didn’t open until 6:10! Our hour long flight took off at 8:30 and we were at our hotel in Madrid around11:30am (Madrid time), so a bit over 5hrs from hotel to hotel in different countries!
We were very grateful that our room was ready on our arrival, and we made the most of it with a few hours of relax time. Continue reading →

Today we headed east into the Douro Valley, the home of true Port wine. To get there we went through the longest vehicle tunnel on the Iberian peninsula, 5.7km long, Tunnel Do Maroa. There were scars on the hilltops and down some slopes from bushfires earlier in the year. Europe in general has had a bad year for bushfires.
The area has no discernible dairy industry, it’s too hilly and dry, so the gastronomy is all about wine, olive oil and bread.
The quote of the day attributed to Percy Croft of the Douro Valley Croft family is,
“Any time you don’t spend drinking port wine is a waste of time”. Continue reading →

We met our guide in the hotel lobby for a walking tour of Porto. His name is Goncalo.
We started our tour at the Porto Train Station , it was formerly a monastery but was resumed by the Portuguese government at the end of the Portugal civil war in 1834. In 1896 it was converted to train station when last nun died. The main entrance to the station has vast mosaics covering its walls. The mosaics tell the history of Portugal. It was a really interesting way to learn their history, by story and graphics. It covers the times since the fall of the Roman Empire, the Visigoths period, Moors, Christians, trading, wine, exploration and a few local legends. Without Goncalo, it would have just been a meaningless four walls of blue tiles pictures. Continue reading →

Today we drove from Lisbon to Porto, with a couple of stops on the way. Our driver was Peter, the same one we had on Friday.
We were picked from our hotel at 8:55am and headed north. There were wind turbines across the hills as we got away from the city. There were also plantations of eucalyptus and pine trees for paper production.
We drove to Obidos, 84km , 1hr, north of Lisbon. On the way into the town we saw a long low aqueduct that brought water to the town There were 4 or 5 buses there, but the bus tourists were reasonably spread out, so it wasn’t too bad. Continue reading →

Today was a free day on our itinerary, we were left to our own resources. That meant a slow start to the day.
Breakfast a bit after 9am, and we eventually made it out of the hotel some time after 11am. We walked down the street, Av. Da Liberdade, to have a look inside a big church that sat at Largo de São Domingos, just around the corner from Rossio Square. Egreja Sao Domingos is one of the city’s most historically rich and visually striking churches. Founded in 1241, it was the scene of a massacre of “new Christians” (converted Jews) by a mob in 1506. It was also tied to the Inquisition with Jesuit missionary Gabriel Malagrida executed there in 1761. It has survived earthquakes in 1531 and the great one in 1755, it was gutted by fire in 1959, destroying priceless art works. Instead of fully restoring the church after the fire they preserved the fire damage, including the scorched pillars and blackened walls, it looks very dark, but shows resilience at the same time. Continue reading →

We were picked up at 9am and drove about 136km east to Evora, about a 75 min drive from Lisbon. The speed limit on the Tollway/highway was 120km/hr. Our driver today was John, and he will also be our driver for our trip up to Porto.
Our route east took us over the 25th April Bridge. Lisbon suburbs extend for about 40km from the centre of the city, it’s rural after that.
We passed a VW car manufacturing plant, the largest in Portugal, it employs about 10,000 workers.
Cork Oak tree farms were dotted all along either side of the highway. Cork takes 25 years to get to a 1st bark harvest. Unfortunately, the 1st harvest is not good quality. The next harvest is after 9 years further growth and then every 9 years after that. Cork bark is removed from just above ground level to about 1.0 to 1.5m up the trunk. You can tell recently harvested trees by the red colour of their trunks. Cork farms are randomly planted, not like an ordered orchard. Continue reading →