Lisbon / Lisboa

We flew from Barcelona, Spain to Lisbon, Portugal and stayed there for 3 days

We stayed at the very nice Sofitel Lisboa hotel (quite possibly the nicest hotel during the whole trip)



The Praca de Comercio is in the heart of downtown Lisbon



On our first stroll we stumbled upon the very beautiful Se Cathedral



Se Cathedral dates back to 1147 and was built on the site of the Moor's main mosque



We really liked the beautiful organ



After Se Cathedral we hiked up towards Castelo de Sao George



We noticed a very beautiful rooftop garden and were inspired for our home



This is the impressive Castelo de Sao George



On the grounds near the castle they were setting up for a big party



Since we were not invited to the party we stopped at a cool roof top bar



That night we met a bunch of triathlon friends at a nice vegeterian restaurant called green pepper



The next day we came past this very nicely designed bull fighting arena



This bridge connects Lisboa over the Rio Tejo



The Tower of Belem used to be a defensive outpost for Lisbon



The Maritime Museum of Lisbon is housed in a very cool building



We also visited the botanic gardens



I had to do a silly touristy picture



We ran across a few peacocks and they were beautiful and quite loud



That afternoon we went to check out the modern art museum of Lisbon



Amy gave some money to this street performer with the cute little dog



We took the Elevator de Santa Justa and got to see a great view of Lisbon



Amy was amazed by this superbly clean public restroom



There is lots of great shopping in Lisbon



The Tram 28 is a quite well known Lisbon feature



My friend Sergio Marques owns Lusobike with his partner Julio



Here I am with Sedi, Helder and daughter Ines and Sergio



Amy at a great vista near Cascais (Helder and Ines were great tour guides)



This area is called hole of inferno



One nice beach in Cascais with small fishing boats in the background



The eastern most point of continental Europe is Cabo de Roca in Portugal



Just in case you don't believe us :-)



A nice view from Cabo di Roca, but it was very windy



Sintra is a cute little town in the mountains



We had some great pastries in Sintra

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