Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Barcelona and Pamplona

The took the high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona and stayed there for 3 days. After a few days we rented a car and took a day trip to Pamplona to see the running of the bulls.

Our hotel in Barcelona - Vincci Arena



Very elegant and stylish decor



Downtown Barcelona has a hugely popular bicycle loaner company



Amy in the Plaza de Catalunya very early in the morning



We got to go to a very nice market



I wondered why Amy is smiling. Is it because of the Metro?



The Antoni Guidi designed La Sagrada Familia is hard to describe



And pics can't really show how amazing this church is



We went to a bull fight in Barcelona but we both did not like it



Barcelona downtown was quite busy



Hmmm, why am I now smiling so much?



We had to take this picture. Have you ever seen such a big one before?



The next day we took a touristic bus tour after friends recommended it and it was great indeed



The architecture of Barcelona is almost worth a trip by itself



Another building by Antoni Gaudi



And another design by Antoni Gaudi



We are having a great time indeed



We finally were close enough to touch the beach



The entrance to the Guell Park designed by Antoni Gaudi



Nice view from the Guell Park over Barcelona



More cool Antoni Guidi buildings in the Guell Park



Well it may seem that we talk a lot about Antoni Guidi, but his touch is found in many places



We rented a car to go to Pamplona. Wow I can't believe what we got.



A new MINI Clubman and the same color as mine



The view from our hotel that night about 50km outside of Pamplona



The hotel was very neat indeed despite being in the middle of nowhere



The food though was amazing and could compete with the best stuff everywhere



We arrived very early in the morning in Pamplona after getting up at 4:45



We were very much ready to see the run, but have no good pics from it



What happens at the end is funny indeed and none of the bulls and cows get hurt



But some of the "runners" did indeed



We earned a nice Spanish breakfast



After breakfast we were off back to Barcelona



But we made a nice stop at the beach about 30km from Barcelona



The beach and a very white German

Saturday, July 05, 2008

More images from Madrid, Spain

On our second day in Madrid we saw several museums including the Prado and the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art



Amy also spend some time getting ready for boards



At night we had dinner and saw an amazing flamenco performance at Casa Patas



The next day Amy made a new friend



Plaza Major is stunningly beautiful



We also got to see Palazzo Real and the gardens behind it



Amy and I in front of Palazzo Real



On Saturday morning we caught an early train to Barcelona



Now that is some exciting speed and our train went actually as fast as 300km



Amy loves trains and riding in them

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

We are in Spain

Earlier today we arrived in Madrid, Spain for our honeymoon and we are really excited to be here. We used the subway system to get from the airport to our hotel Mate Alicia and Amy did a great job organizing this cool hotel and the logistics to get there. After a small lunch and a nice shower we took a long nap to recover from our overnight transatlantic flight, and it was quite clear that we really needed it. After the nap we walked around to check out the area and kill time, a here you don't really eat dinner before 8pm. It is now a little bit after 8pm and we are off to check out a typical Spanish restaurant.

Here are a few impressions of the day.

We are waiting for our bags in the Madrid airport



Out of the subway and on to the hotel



Our hotel Mate Alicia is very nice and modern



The Plaza Santa Ana is right in front of our hotel



Amy on the Plaza Santa Ana



Wow, lunch and dinner is a bit later here than in the USA