First stop, Madrid. We visited Toledo, followed by a city tour and a bit of city adventuring, soaking up the fact that shops are open well past 5 and having our first authentic Spanish tapas in the Plaza Mayor.
Next stops, Avila and Salamanca. Here we visited an amazing old school university and some botanical gardens.
We stopped past Fatima and visited the 'Sanctuary' before heading to a bodega to sample some red wine, port and almond and coffee liquers. From Lisbon we took a day tour to Cascais, a lovely seaside town where we sampled authentic Portugese grilled chicken and Peri-Peri sauce. I thought it was pretty interesting that the Nandos rooster logo is basically Portugal's national symbol and wonder whether they're getting royalties haha! Before heading back to Lisbon we stopped in Sintra and had a look at a beatiful national palace. That night we decided to go to a bull fight but I had no idea how gory it actually was! Naive little me thought all they did to the bulls was make them run through the capes, but there's actually some stabbing and blood involved so mum and I decided to leave after the second fight. I was glad I went, but probably wouldn't go again, I just wanted to rescue the poor bulls :(
We're currently in Seville staying in the Macarena area and the hotel here is gorgeous! Last night we had more tapas and went to a flamenco show (Ole!) which was just amazing and now I know how castanettes sound when played properly as opposed to the way we'd used to just clack them around in music class in primary school haha. Today we did a tour out to some ruins and then a quick whiz around the city before having the afternoon to ourselves (which of course we spent shopping and napping) and I'm currently sitting cross-legged in the corridor like a hobo since the wifi signal is a heck of a lot better than in our room. We've got an early morning tomorrow (off to Morocco!) so I'm off, but if you want to read up on what we've been doing in more detail and all the history involved, I highly recommend visiting Gilly In Europe.
TTFN :)
