Saturday, July 27, 2013

Day 89 to 91 - Madrid, Spain


We set off from Barcelona to Madrid with Spanish music playing in the background to keep us entertained. Madrid is in the centre of Spain and so the bus ride took us a whopping 9hrs! Lucky for us, our trip was broken up by a lunch stop in Zaragoza. As you can imagine, this was of even more importance to me than Ash - as 9 hours without a bite to eat is a scary thought. We were easing into Spanish life because after a lunch of tapas, it was back onto the bus where we had an afternoon siesta. We arrived in the north of Madrid, where our hotel was located, at about 7:30pm. Lucky for us, Contiki had organized dinner for us around the corner... with free sangria. We had a delicious meal with a number of different tapas before settling down to watch the U21 football World Cup final. The final was between Italy and Spain,nand Spain won which made the remainder of the evening extremely festive in the city.

Day 2

Our second day in Madrid was our last full day on Contiki before we set off to the South of Spain. We began our day at 8am with a tour of the Spainish royal palace which was unbelievable. There were rooms covered completely in porcelain and others which were designed to seat over 100 guests just for dinner. There was an entire room for "the ceremony of getting dressed" which I thought was very excessive. After giving it some more thought, the amount of time Ash  spends getting ready - there may be a need for a separate designated room. 

After a visit to the royal palace we hopped back on the bus and heading out of Madrid to The Valley of the Fallen. Franco, a dictator who ruled Spain for over 50 years, had this vision of building a massive church into a mountain side. The sight he chose is in a national park which also forms part of a memorial for the victims of the Spanish civil war. The size of the Cathedral is difficult to explain, but the cross statue on the top is 150 meters high. 

Apparently in winter, when it snows, the church is the most beautiful place to be in Madrid. We ended a full sightseeing day with a festive dinner and some salsa dancing. The salsa dancing club is something we had never experienced before. We got two salsa cocktails on entrance, and then joined in to some Salsa dancing which is guided and directed by a professional Salsa Instructor. Ash said that despite my long legs, I was surprisingly very good at Salsa. The two cocktails on entrance probably helped my dancing rhythm, never mind her cocktails probably blurring her vision. It was so much fun though, and one of our main highlights in Madrid! 

The 'last night festivity' kept us up later than expected so we almost missed our bus to Malaga. Luckily, we got on and we were off to the South of Spain for a week of relaxation. 

The palace 










Valley of the Fallen 











Going to miss this bus 
The South Africans on our tour 
Most of our group 

... Goodbye Mediterranean Highlights Contiki. We would definitely recommend this tour to everyone in the Summer! 





Day 83 to 86 - The South of France

1. Nice

Finally, Ash and I had arrived in sunny France after being in Italy for what will work out to be the most toured European country of our whole trip. We loved Italy, but we were excited for a new language, a different culture and french traditional meals. Nice is extremely famous amongst British tourists, including past royals, which is why it is situated on The Bay Of The English. Nice even has a Promenade des Anglais, yet not much English gets spoken here so we had to learn basic conversational French. It was tough forgetting about our little Italian words that became second nature - such as excuse me, please, thank you, how much etc. 

On our way into Nice we found out that the following day (Day 2 in Nice) we would have some free time to head over to Cannes. This was perfect because we were hoping to rub shoulders with the rich and famous from the Cannes Film Festival. We arrived in Nice around lunch time and were given the afternoon off to do some exploring on our own. We decided that the best place to start a quick tour of Nice would be to head up Castle Hill which overlooks the whole city and the bay. However, we were a bit lazy after a full day of traveling - so we chose the free lift rather than the stairs! I cannot explain the view from the top, but I hope the pictures below will do some justice. Everyone has a big picnic, a blanket and a few bottles of wine at the top. After spending longer than planned exploring Castle Hill with its awesome waterfall and view, there was only time for a short walk along the coast promenade before heading to dinner with the group. We joined our group for a traditional French dinner in the heart of Nice. This included pâté, beef and a typical French dessert. We stopped over at a pub for one drink, and then walked back to the hotel as we needed to get an early night for our Cannes adventure tomorrow. 























War memorial 



My puzzle ring from Bruce, he gave to my by the waterfall
Dinner in Nice 
2. Cannes

It's day two in the south of France and we were up early and dressed in our finest as we rushed to catch the earliest possible bus to Cannes with another South African couple. We had not had a chance to do washing for a while so our finest, as you will see, just meant clean clothes. As we neared the bus station, we were met with a nasty surprise. It was The Italian Iron Man taking place in Nice and the bus station we were meant to find our Cannes Bus at - was on the Iron Man course. Just our luck! The only transport we could have arranged from there, was an Iron Man competitions bike. Ash wasnt too keen. However, after testing our best French on some local policemen, we found out about a train which took us about 20 minutes to get to Cannes. Bonus, we got a student discount too! We were lucky to arrive in Cannes at the end of the Cannes Lions Festival (The international marketing and advertising festival). We snapped a few photos on the red carpet, and explored all the infrastructure set-up for the festival - as well as strolled the famous promenade to see the exclusive hotels which host all the stars. We didnt spot any celebrities, but then again... We made use of the free beach - where they probably wouldn't have been spending their time. 

Waiting for the train to Cannes 

































3. Monaco

If a morning in Cannes was not enough for us, we then joined up with our tour group in the late afternoon and jumped on the coach to head to Monaco for sunset and dinner. The coastal road between Nice and Monaco is really special, but we were told that a number of accidents happen on the way into Monaco because drivers start to believe that they are in the Monaco Grand Prix. Our Italian bus driver could not avoid the Monaco fever, once he hit the race track he raced us up to the Royal Palace with blarring F1 sounds playing in the background. After months of hearing about how special Australia is, it was finally time for Ash and I to boast about South Africa! All the way through dinner and on our walk up to the famous casino, we reminded the Aussies that there is a South African Princess in charge of Monaco. We were very excited to see all the South African flags! We had a delicious three course dinner and a few bottles of wine, before heading over to the famous Monte Carlo Casino. 

From the outside, the Monaco Casino looked very impressive and the cars parked outside were only the very best of the best! After having our passports checked to ensure that Ash and I are not gambling masterminds or card counters, we made our way in. The inside casino floor was not as impressive as we would have thought, and we had also decided that the Principality of Monaco was doing okay for itself and thus we were not going to sponsor another yacht. Not that we had yaght budgets to gamble with with our rands, but we'll just stick with that excuse! In fact, we can say that we did purchase chips - but for golf markers. We explored Monaco for another hour before heading back to our hotel in Nice on our coach.




















































Dinner - Salmon in Monaco
Standing by the F1 track
F1 track sharp corner at night 
5 euro Monte Carlo chips



5. Avignon & Aix En Provence

We woke up early and headed off to the Old Papal city of Avignon. On the way we stopped off at a famous perfumery factory called Fragonard Parfumeur. We were given a tour of the perfume and soap making process, and left smelling like flowers. It was extremely interesting to see how everything is made, but definitely a place that our Mothers or Grandmothers would rather prefer. We jumped back into our bus (which now smelt like a flower shop) and headed for Avignon. We were told that Avignon is really famous for two things; firstly it was the home of the Popes before they moved back to Rome, and secondly for the Pont de Avignon. The Pont de Avignon is a famous* bridge which is part destroyed - so it now only stretches half way across the Rhone river. We arrived in Avignon in the evening and after exploring the Papal Palace and Pont de Avignon, we all sat down for a picnic in the park by the Papal Palace with the ducks and our group.

* According to our guide, the Pont de Avignon was built by an eleven year old boy. He had a dream where God came to him and told him to build a bridge over the Rhone river. When he told the people of Avignon, they laughed at him. However, after insisting - they challenged him to lift a massive rock and throw it in the river. They believed that an eleven year old could not do this and if he could it must be because he had heard from God. He was able to lift the rock and throw it into the river, so the bridge was commissioned.

Our final stop in France was for lunch on route to Barcalona -  Aix en Provence. Aix en Provence has a reputation for being quite posh because of all the financial institutions that are based there. We had an hour for lunch so we grabbed a sandwich and explored the beautiful little town. We visited the famous Puyricard Chocolate shop which was used for the filming of the movie Chocolat. We marveled at all the fountains on every corner, as this town is called "the town of one thousand fountains", before trying our first French Macaroon from a well known bakery called 'Paul.' It was absolutely delicious and puts any other macaroon to shame. However, we were told the the best macaroon in the world is found on the Champs-élysées in Paris - La Duree. We prevented ourselves from buying more, and are waiting for Paris! 











Perfume Soaps 

The best macaroons! 


So many fountains




Our day sheet for Avignon 


The original "Chocolat" shop 

The famous bridge 










Goodbye France, we'll see you again soon. 

Next stop: Spain, Barcelona.