Valencia: Second Time Around

At this point our 7-day cruise through the Mediterranean had begun. We set sail from Barcelona and the next day hit Valencia on the east coast of Spain.

I'll make another post later explaining everything about the cruise, though basically it was a week long, we stopped in Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, Marseille, Monaco (via Villafranche), Florence (via Livorno), and we got off in Rome.

Valencia is known for its City of the Arts and the Sciences, designed in large part by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava. The City is an entertainment based cultural and architectural complex, and it's the most important modern monument in the Valencia. Among the structures in the City is Europe's largest aquarium, L'Oceanogràfic, which you see in the picture above.

Here we are in front of the Imax cinema, L'Hemisfèric. It's also a planetarium and laserium.

I am sitting on a sculpture here inside L'Umbracle, a landscaped walkway filled with plants and vegetation native to Valencia.

Rachel is seated here on the outside of L'Umbracle.

We're standing in the Plaza de la Virgen with the basilica in the background.

I had to show Mom and Rae what real horchata tastes like; so I brought them to an horchateria in the center of old Valencia. The cafes are really cool, with lots of mosaic tile depicting the harvest and growing of tigernuts (chufas) which are used in Spain to make the horchata.

Horchata originally comes from Valencia and it's thought that the tradition of using tigernuts to make the drink came from the Muslims who presides there from the 8th to the 13th century.

Horchata is sweet nutty type milk that tastes wonderful on hot days. It's typically served with a sweet bread rolls called fartones.

Barcelona - City of Modernismo

This was the third time that I visited Barcelona, and it was my favorite time even though I revisited some places I already knew. That's the wonderful part about Barcelona though, it's spectacular enough that you don't mind seeing things a second time.

Here's a sample of some pinchos we ate at a local restaurant near our hotel on the ultra chique street Passeig De Gracia, just above the Plaza Catalunya in the center of the city and Las Ramblas.

The Barceloneta: the beach and surrounding neighborhood where tourists and natives alike flock to take a dip in the warm waters of the Mediterranean. I remember that we didn't swim that day, and that it was windy and sand blew all over us. Some days you just gotta go to the beach though.

The coast of Barcelona is packed with piers, parks, boardwalks, shopping centers, etc. Just past the statue of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) and the famous Ramblas streets is this pier called La Rambla del Mar.

I'm standing at the base of the Columbus' statue.

Here the girls are in front of Antoni Gaudi's unfinished master work: La Sagrada Familia (Temple of the Holy Family).

Gaudi was a Catalan architect who was extremely influential in the Modernist/Art Nouveau movement. His style in many occasions mimics patterns found in nature, like the winding spiral staircase in the Sagrada Familia.

In the north of Barcelona is Gaudi's famous park, Parque Guell, where there are a collection of interesting architectural designs and creations. The park was originally designed to be a housing site, though it failed, and today there are only two houses there. The park serves as an important tourist attraction, however, and millions of people go there every year to see great views over Barcelona and to explore the wonders of Gaudi's curious and naturalistic designs.

Another picture of Parque Guell: I'm sitting on a mosaic tiled bench with some cavern like walkway in the background.



Gaudi designed a great deal of buildings in his native Catalunya, and in Barcelona. This house is called the Casa Batllo.


Here we can see a close view of the scaled roof and cross turret. It looks like the back of a dinosaur or dragon. I have many pictures of the inside of the house as well, which was equally impressive and filled with unique angles and geometric designs. I didn't add these photos to my blog because many of them didn't turn out as well due to lack of lighting. The Casa Batllo is an expensive tourist attraction (12 - 15 Euros), but I think my mom, sister, and I would all agree that it's one of the most enchanting houses we've ever visited. Well worth it.

Another jewel of Barcelona's collection of modern architectural marvels is the Palau de de la Musica Catalana (Palace of Catalan Music). My mom invited us to go to a Spanish guitar concert at this concert hall that dates back to 1908.

The Catalan architect, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, created a space that could be entirely illuminated by natural light during the day, much of which comes in through the stained glass skylight 'sun' in the center.


Here's a view of some of the pillars that line the outside of the concert hall. The colors and lighting of the building are beautiful, and I would recommend a tour if you're ever in Barca, or definitely whatever concert you can get tickets to; the building alone is worth it.

Budapest, Hungary

Heeeeey, Eastern Europe! How ya doin, buddy? Fourteen hours in train from Venice, Budapest is definitely worth the trip. Wow. I was totally blown away by the outstanding architecture and the beautiful old buildings in the Hungarian capital. It definitely left me hungary for more.

You liked that Hungary joke, didn't you? Read more, and I'll try to throw another one your way. I know you're hungary too.

I have to comment before we start that we met the coolest hostel owner ever while we were here. His name was Jim, and he was from "the Jungle," as he put it (yes, that's Chicago). So we had this cool Chicago guy explain to us the ins and outs of this incredible Eastern European capital, a city with an intense history of wars, occupations, and name-changes.

Hero's Square. These are the guys who fought the old Soviet Union to take independence. There was actually an old building on the main street leading to this square that today is known as the Horror House. This house (I don't think I have a picture) was a Soviet structure where they used to torture and kill suspects for years during their occupancy.

Today the people there seem quite subdued. Gosh... I wonder why?
(This point of view was substantiated by Jim, who told us a little about what he'd learned in his time there)

The old castle in the Pest part of town. Budapest used to be two different cities. Buda, the most ancient and important part, is located up on a hill on one side of the Danube River. Buda was very important in the old days because of the strategical positioning of its great castle and palace. Many great dynasties fought over Buda, and when it eventually came to be under Hungarian control, the authorities merged it together with the growing city of Pest across the river. The combination became the great metropolis of Budapest, ancient and modern industrial.

Ab with the lagoon and the castle. Sorry, this is not the castle in Buda that I was talking about. This is a different one.

Here is the Danube River. We climbed up a big hill in Citadel Park for this fantastic view over the city.

Here is the same view at night. In the center is the Chain Bridge, the most famous and oldest bridge connected Buda (on the left) and Pest (on the right). The left side of the photo shows the hill with the castle and palace. It's not a Walt Disney World looking castle; no, it's of a big castle grounds: an area of ancient ruins, a great cathedral, a grand palace, markets, shops, and tall castle walls surrounding it all.

I am standing in front of St. Steven's Basilica. Inside the basilica is actually the relic of St. Steve's right hand. Thank goodness they got the right and not the left.

Now I'm standing on top of St. Steven's Basilica. The hills of Hungary are behind me and the city in the background. We didn't see too much of Hungary on the train (seeing as how Budapest is in the western half of the country), but we did see several large lakes, a lot of farmland, no mountains, but a lot of hills around the Budapest area.

Sausages are big there. I was glad to see that. They're big everywhere in Germany and Eastern Europe, I think. We've got a couple different flavors of brats here; mine is slopped with a pond of Dijon mustard, and I also added a red pepper filled with sauerkraut.

Here's a wide view of the great Market Hall of Budapest. It's a massive structure for food markets, craft markets, and whatever else. They had all the freshest food, all the best sausages, meats, and lunches, and all the most typical handmade souvenirs and handicrafts.

Ab is standing with a big bag of cherries and another big bag o raspberries. We probably ate at least a kilo of fruit that afternoon...

Another example of some of the fantastic classical architecture. There are a lot of faces on the buildings. Jim explained to us how you could tell what kind of building it used to be by looking at the expressions on the faces. If the face is gargoylish, and snarling, angry, scary, whatever, it means that the building was a residence... beeecause the faces were supposed to scare away bad spirits. If the face was angelic, smooth, smiling, or generally pleasant looking, it was probably a building for the arts. Some of the grander statues and designs, like the one in my photo, were most likely reserved for government buildings.

Speaking of government buildings, here is Parliament. The stretch of the city along the Danube River has got to be one of the most beautiful areas of any city I've ever seen.

A statue of an ancient king on a horse is displayed here in the midst of an area in the hilltop castle district called the Fisherman's Wharf. These cool spiral topped buildings and nice lookout castle walls made this section of castle a unique attraction.

The church in the castle district is incredibly old also, and the decor is different from other churches I've been in. All of the walls and ceilings are painted in bright patterns of blues, reds, yellows and greens. My pictures of churches are always so dark, but I thought this one of the stairs turned out nice. You get an idea of the kind of painting I'm talking about.

Here Abby and found someone to take our picture again. That is the Chain Bridge behind us (we're on top of the hill in the castle district) and you can see St. Steven's Basilica beyond the bridge.

I am on the Chain Bridge here, and you're looking at the Danube River with Parliament on its eastern shore.

Again, the Chain Bridge; this time looking the other direction toward the castle, which you can see in the top left corner.

Jim had us visit a old church that was built inside a cave on a hill near the river. It was dark inside, so my photos weren't the best, though it was definitely worth our time to see it. If I were ever to attend a service in Budapest, this would be the place.

When in Rome...

We bought a Eurail Global Pass to go on our European train trip. The pass gave us unlimited journeys inside a 15-day period of time. We could have jumped on international or local trains everyday during our 15-day trip, though we took breaks in various cities along the way; still, in total, we visited 9 different cities in 6 different countries, excluding Spain.

A couple words about the Eurail: I think that it's a great deal if you plan your trip out ahead of time. There are many newer high speed trains that require reservations. You'll need to plan ahead a little bit if you want to make other reservations you might have, like hotels/hostels and flights. It's best to make these train reservations with a travel guide, because in Europe it's more of a hassle. From Europe you can look online to find where you can make these reservations in whichever country.

Travel by train is fantastic. I loved it. You get to see the countries you're going through, and when you arrive in the next city, you arrive in the center, not at some airport an hour out of town. The Eurail Pass was easy to use and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to tour Europe.

Though we did tour Europe by train, we started by plane. We flew to Rome from Barcelona, and stayed there for two days. Rome is the capital and largest city in Italy. What they say about Rome is most definitely true: the city is an open air museum. The picture above is the inside of the famous Coliseum. The is the arena where the gladiators fought against lions and tigers and other foes in front of Caesars and millions of cheering Romans. As you can see, the ground level has been taken off, revealing the dungeons and underground passageways that wind beneath perhaps the oldest most famous fighting ring the world has ever known.

Here is the outside of the Coliseum. It is bigger than it looks. The stone walls have tons of holes bore into them so that they could support flags and banners and many other things.

Right next door to the Coliseum is the Roman Forum, a collection of ancient ruins from the heydays of the Roman Empire. This mass of spectacular columns, arches, and stonework used to be the old center of the city.

Me standing down in the Roman Forum.

This is neoclassical Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II. It is the home of the grave of the Unknown Soldier for all those killed during World War I.

Another one of Rome's most famous sites includes Trevi Foundation, with fantastic statues of Neptune the God of the Sea and horsemen submerged in its waters. If you throw a coin in this fountain, you're destined to return one day. It's worth going back, the area has lots of nice restaurants.

Our second day in Rome, we got up early and made our way over to the Vatican. These are statues that line the top of St. Peter's Basilica, the largest Christian church in the world.

Here is the plaza that stands in front of St. Peter's Basilica. The Pope makes appearances outside here, and there are thousands of chairs lined up for those very occasions.

It's tough to take pictures inside these dark churches, but this is inside St. Pete's. The sheer magnitude of everything inside this basilica was astounding. Peter, apostle of Christ, is actually buried inside, along with the first Bishop of Rome and the first Pope.

Here's the view from back to front.

The street leading to the front of the St. Pete's was a great shot also.

Of course we visited the Vatican Museum. The Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's masterpiece, is indeed within its walls (although you can't take pictures of it... or talk loudly... or sit down... or dawdle while you're in the Chapel--they push you along after about 15 minutes). Though the Chapel was incredible, my favorite rooms were the Maps Room (shown above) and the Library (shown below). Lotsa gold.


Here is the library. I loved the center columns and the way the texture and diversity of the ceilings showed off the paintings. It was such a bright room, it was far and above my favorite.


Another room in the Vatican Museum. This is the Hall of Statues.


We are standing here on top of the Spanish Steps, a famous stairway that connect two sectors of the city (one on top of the hill, the other below). The street straight in front of the steps is probably the most fashionable in all of Rome.

Here's a large square in central Rome called Piazza Navona. In front is one of the large fountains in the plaza, and behind is a church and an Egyptian obelisk. Very pretty.

Here are a couple more shots of St. Peter's Basilica, one of the most famous and awe inspiring sights in Rome.