The Joy of Olive Oil

Today we toured a local village, Nigueles, which has been making olive oil since then 1600's. We first walked through an olive grove where we sampled the raw but bitter olives and learned about the many different varieties.

We stopped by the local fountain dubbed the Fountain of Youth as it supposedly keeps the elderly from aging. We all filled up our bottles and fizzled some just in case.

We also saw fig, pomegranate and almond trees. Then it was back to the old mill to see where donkeys were put to use to grind the olives and the old fashioned press system squeezed out the oil and bitter tasting vegetable juice.

The last part was the best: the tasting! Beatrice, our guide, led us through tasting five different local varieties. The differences were subtle but all were very good! We ended up buying our favorite varieties and rolling out pretty happy! As we didn't have any real destination in mind, we typed in Alicante and hit the road. This coastal town had a nice cheap hotel that we found before enjoying paella on the beach.

Ronda and the Mediterranean Coast

From Seville, Elaine sent us off with a great breakfast and we meandered to Ronda, an old city perched high of a cliff! Beautiful!

Then we road tipped via the coast which was beautiful! Road tripping offers us flexibility on where we go and when but it's also not as fun checking out sights from the car sometimes and it's definitely an adventure!

Not to explore Grenada!

Alhambra: The Jewel of Spain

This amazing fortress perched on the hill overlooking Granada dates back to the 8th century but reached its golden period during the 1200's when the Nasrid dynasty built this amazing structure. Although the exterior is rather austere, the inside palaces and gardens are absolutely exquisite. After hiking up the monstrous hill, we started in the Generalife gardens then ventured to the palace grounds. The palace was very unique for Europe as the Moorish influence is incredibly different than other palaces because its very middle eastern, almost like the architecture I remember from Morocco.

After a hot few hours in the sun, we siesta'd in the shwarma restaurant before walking around the city center. We watched a wedding arrive at the church and a long parade that seemed like a Spanish Occupy movement (they are responsible for a third of the EU unemployment rate) before heading back to Mariah's B&B to make dinner in our big kitchen

Seville

On the 9th, we picked up our car Mi Sou at the airport and hit the road! Our first stop was Toledo, an old walled city that was very beautiful!

Erika's awesome Backroads in Spain book led us to tons of cool off-road sites only accessible if you have your own car and one was the town that inspired Don Quixote and this bullring, one of Spain's oldest, dating from 1645.

Castles, churches and scenic plazas made for a great stop en route to our B&B outside Seville. Our British host Elaine was awesome! We had an amazing three course meal (with vino) waiting for us as we sat outside by the pool, winding down from the day. Then we spent the next day touring the amazing city of Seville. We toured the Cathedral, saw Christopher Columbus' tomb and climbed 91 meters for beautiful views over all of Seville.

These Spanish accordion players and plentiful and good. You better get practicing Pops if you ever wanna compete with their skills!

A tapas lunch and a stop by the old prison where Cervantes penned Don Quixote and then the heat was getting too much (over 100F!) so we returned to lounge poolside before another amazing dinner with Elaine.

Though we probably could've stayed here eating her amazing food for a few more days, we were off on the next leg!

Amore in Madrid

Well not really as we didn't find love in Madrid but I did fall in love with this beautiful capital! An easy flight later, my incredibly hungover self arrived in Madrid in time to find a doner stand (works to combat hangovers in Germany!) and a movie theatre (American Pie reunion-funny). Next day, we started with an excellent walking tour of the downtown plazas, churches and Royal Palace.

This restaurant serves dogs too! And featured Blu!

Meat is big on menus here so we sampled some local delicacies. Would be much harder to go veggie here than Asia. In the traditional Spanish way, we siesta'd for a few hours before scoping out an amazing flamenco show! Sangria and some amazingly passionate dancing: fantastico!

On our second day, we toured the famous bullfighting ring to learn more about this controversial part of Spain's rich history. I personally am not a fan of the concept of killing animals for pure sport but the Spainards (except in Barcelona where its recently banned) love this 400 year old tradition.

Noreen ran with the bulls and witnessed fights in Pamplona two years ago so I appreciated her take on things but still not sure I'd be up for one! Excellent last city day before our road trip!!!

Lisboa: Sangria and sun!

We arrived via train to check in to our hostel, meet Noreen and start exploring! Lisbon (Lisboa to the locals) is a beautiful city that's very hilly (like San Francisco, even has a bridge and trams like SF) but easy to get around walking or via bus.

We found a few sangria stops and finally ventured to a dinner place where Fado, the local type of singing, was our wonderful dinner entertainment. It's very sad supposedly but sounds nice!

On our second day, we all went running separately but after an hour, Erika still hadn't returned so we were starting to get worried. Turns out, the hills can be even pretty disorienting and she got quite the grand Lisbon workout trying to find the hostel again. Then we ventured to Belem to check out the old monastery, the monument in tribute to all the great explorers who left this very port to explore the world and the Belem Tower.

Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we were craving Mexican food! However, a wrong bus, lots of walking hills and a closed Mexican restaurant (the only in Lisbon) forced us to finally, three hours later, end up sitting at the Hard Rock Lisbon drinking margaritas and munching on nachos!

Next up: hostel pub crawl.

Needless to say, we had a good time even though we called it an early night (to Spainards at least) by coming home at 5:30 AM. On to Spain!

Faro Faro.... Portugal

We arrived to the southern sea town of Faro late Tuesday and explored the quant town. It's definitely is cooler here than it was in SE Asia. We met a 19 year old American who was sleeping on park benches and stealing food cuz he was broke so we bought him lunch in exchange for him walking us to the mall he saw 'cuz I needed more warm clothes! Once Jen came, we got an authentic Portuguese dinner (with sangria!) and saw Project X (kinda stupid movie).
On Day 2 we checked out a local bone church (not as big as Prague's Kunta Hora but still quite eerie!).

Then we trained to Trevina, another quant, clean Algarve city with a castle, old Moor church and bike rentals! We biked to Santa Luzia to check out the coast and grab some Portuguese beer.

Next: Lisbon to meet up with Noreen!