Tossa de Mar
27th April
Tarragona
28th April
Salou/Cambrils
29th April
Tortosa
3rd May
Valencia
8th May
Málaga
12th May
Sevilla
16th May
Madrid
18th May
Barcelona
16th May
At 10am we got on the coach that would drive us from Seville to Madrid. The coach ride was long and arduous.. but fortunatley the coach wasn't packed out or anything so we sat up the back, listened to music and I read a book out loud to entertain us. We only had a very brief lunch stop and then powered on, arriving in Madrid at 4pm. I felt incredibly ill from the trip, the bus was very rattly and shaky, and I'm sure reading for so long didn't help at all.
We got in a cab at the bus station and I picked a spot from the lonely planet book that looked like it had some good accomodation and out we got. After a few "sorry no room at the inn" experiences, we got a room in the Hostal T.I.J.C.M (I have no idea what that stands for!!) which was actually really nice. We had a telly and bathroom and a big bed, and it all looked very modern and new. Plus the man working there was very nice.
While having a bit of a nap we heard lots of music and noise coming from nearby and we decided to check it out. A huge stage was set up in the Plaza nearby us and all these bands were rehearsing for a concert that night. We took a seat at one of the many outdoor restaurants and sipped on overpriced beer and sangria and listened to the concerts and watched the people go by.
17th May
We had to move rooms this morning because a large group was goin to be arriving later on. No biggy... our new room was a bit smaller than our first one though.
We spent the first half of the daywandering around the city, firstly trying to find if there was a Barclays in town because the ATM's weren't accepting our Barclays card. So Rob went off to search for the bank and give them a serving, while I queued at the RENFE (national rail) ticket office to get our tickets to Barcelona. This is kind of like queing at the RTA at home.. you take a ticket and your number will be 556 while they are only up to number 445 type thing. I got us tickets to Barcelona with absolutely no trouble though... this was the first time I'd gone to buy train tickets and they hadn't said to me "completo" or no trains to their today or something like that so I was overjoyed!
When we mt up again Rob and I decided to get lunch and then I was going to do the museum thing and he'd go to the pub or something hehehe. We had an all you can eat buffet lunch for 1,000 ptas each which was pretty good value but not the nicest food we had eaten, but you get what you pay for
Well I had a great afternoon in the Prado museum and the Centre Reina Sofia.
Totally exhausted by the end. The Prado specialises in Spanish and Flemish works, such as Velazquez, Goya, and my favorite, Hieronomous Bosch. My favourite paintin there was Bosch's 'The Garden of earthly delights'. The Centre Reina Sofia specialises in more modern art. I saw Dali's 'El Grande Mastubator' amongst others, tons of Picasso as well as some dodgy 'modern art' . There was a studenty type exhibition called popcorn... I went in cos I thought the popcorn was free but I ended up having to pay for it :( (The sign said please eat the popcorn inside the exhibition so I thought that meant it was a free for all hehehe) Inside was a big tall gym mat type thing with pillows on and you sat on it in the dark to watch some stupid movie... it was really weird, like sending up the 80's except... well it's hard to explain except to say that it was stupid and didn't make any sense!!! That's art for you!!
After all that cultural experience I was buggered and still had a 20 minute walk back to the hotel, but I made it, and we spent the evening listening to the music festival again, and watching street artists and the like. And packing for our train trip that morning... yay!