A Winter Weekend In Barcelona

I just spent a weekend in Barcelona. And yes, I went to Barcelona again! This is a city where I will always go back to whenever I have the time. I love it!

I took a plane from London and the weather was OK in London. I happened to check on the weather forecast on Barcelona for the 2 days on BBC's website and saw the wind would be 80mph on Saturday. I was wondering whether 80 is good or bad but I didn't really think about it much after that. On the plane, the captain mentioned that the flight would be a little bumpy at Barcelona because of strong wind. That's when I remember about the 80mph. I don't fancy flying. No matter how many times I fly, I don't think I will ever get used to it. So I was already worried before we even got to Barcelona.

When the plane started to descend at Barcelona, it started to shake. It was a clear day. I could see the mountains covered with snow. I could see the little houses and buildings. I could see the sea. I could even see the shadow of the plane reflecting on the sea. Everything was really beautiful from up there. But it was really, really shaky. I was really scared. I held my hands tightly to my seat and was hoping the plane to reach to the ground soon. I could feel that the captain was trying really hard to turn the plane towards the runway as it was turning against the wind's direction. Everytime the plane turned a bit, it went down very deep. I heard people at the back screaming. It was really that bad. Finally, the plane touched the ground. It was not a smooth landing but I'm not complaining. I was so relieved and so was everybody else in the plane. It was the worst turbulence of my life.

At the airport, I heard announcements that flights were delayed because of the storm. Outside the airport, I could see why. The wind was intensely strong. It was told on the news that the wind caused a significant damaged in Barcelona where a roof collapse killed several people.

Moving on from the aiport, I took train to the city, went shopping for a bit and then had lunch at my favourite lunch place at La Rita. I visited Gaudi's Casa Batllo and spent quite some time in there. I still think Gaudi is a genious. The best room in Casa Batllo is the drawing room overlooking the largest window in the building where bone-like pillars attached to it. The mushroom fireplace is unique too. The rooftop is somewhat similar to the one in Casa Mila but in a much smaller scale. Gaudi used a lot of broken ceramics to design the rooftop, which is also similar to what he had done in Park Guell. Everything about it is uniquely his style and creation. There's no question on that.

The next day, on Sunday, the weather was very good. The sun was shining brightly and it's the best time to go to park. So I decided to go to Park Guell again. I was surprised to find the park was closed. Some people said the park was closed because of falling trees all over the park. I understood it but was still disappointed. Then I walked up along the border of the park and found the highest open area outside the park and saw a superb view of Barcelona. It was just incredible.

I wanted to end my weekend trip by shopping spree in Barcelona and was very surprised to find most of the shops in the city centre in Barcelona were closed on Sunday. I knew about some Spanish cities celebrating siesta and to see shops closed on Sunday in these cities was not surprising. But I'm very much amazed to see it in Barcelona! I thought being the second largest city in Spain, it would open as business as usual, even on a Sunday. Apparently, I was wrong. So I decided to just walk Las Ramblas and the old town area. The old town looked different when the shops were closed. I think the shops were distracting too much that I never noticed the old town as the old town. I usually just looked at what the shops were selling without realising that the old town of Barcelona is beautiful. It was actually a good thing that the shops were closed.

All in all, apart from my worst flying experience, I enjoyed my weekend in Barcelona. The winter weather in Barcelona was good. It was about 13-15 degree Celcius, quite warm for a winter, very much like most summer days in London. The sky was bright blue and the sun was shining. It was such a nice warm winter.

The effects of the strong wind, from the top: motorcycles parked at Passeig de Gracia, a falling tree in Park Guell, and almost a falling tree outside the Cathedral de Barcelona.

Gaudi's Casa Batllo

The fine view from the highest hill near Park Guell

The bullet shaped building, Torre Agbar, appears at the end of the road

Reflection at Placa de Catalunya

I'd say this is probably the most photographed icon in Ciutat Vella

The Weird Drop Box

We reached Segovia later than we expected and it was already dinner time. After carrying our luggages to our hotel and finaly meeting our two friends who were missing in action for the first few days of this trip, we decided to split up: some of us to go for dinner, while some others (me included) to return the rental car.

Having no GPS and no map, we asked the hotel reception for the directions to the AVIS rental car. The good news was we found the place. The bad news was it was not the correct AVIS rental car. Apparently, there was another one.

So we stopped at a few petrol stations asking for directions and it was funny to see my friend was talking with these helpful people at the petrol stations using a little body language and a little understanding of Spanish. They mentioned something about an Arch that we need to pass by before we can find the rental car.

After struggling a bit we found the Arch and finally the rental car. We parked the car and because the rental car office was already closed, we then looked for a drop box to drop the car key. But we couldn't find it.

The rental car was at a train station. We then asked someone who was working at the station about it. He thought we wanted to rent a car but after a few body language he finally understood that we were looking for a drop box. And he pointed us to the window of the rental car office which has a small square hole where we can drop the key. We didn't expect that at all. We were looking for a postbox or something like that but not a glass window with a square hole. It was so hilarious. So we dropped the key and we heard the key fell onto the floor and then we laughed. 

We went back to Segovia's old quarter and joined our friends who were having dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. It was already pass midnight. We were so exhausted that after dinner, we went to sleep immediately. And that's that.

Here's the small square hole as the drop box for the car key

Avila City Wall

On the way to Segovia, we detoured to Avila to visit the city medieval wall, which is amazingly still in one piece and surrounding the old town. This is another Spanish city that was declared a UNESCO Heritage Site.

The old town was quiet as we were there at siesta time. We were very hungry and went to a cafe recommended by the Lonely Planet. We were so happy to find this cafe was still open at siesta. We ordered simple bocadillos (Spanish bread rolls) with jamon serrano filling but the bocadillos were too hard to bite (they're not the kind that were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, they were simply very hard all over) and the jamon was far too raw and none of us could eat them. And a waitress working there was giving us a very unhappy look at the unfinished food. It was a terrible lunch. We left the cafe still with empty stomach.

Soon after, we paid a small fee to walk on the Avila wall and because of time constraint, we only managed to walk on one side of it. Some parts of it were under constructions but generally the wall was still in a very good condition. It was a hot afternoon. The sun was shining upon us and we were half baked up on the wall. But it was well compensated by the astonishing view of and from the wall.

On leaving Avila, we stopped by at Los Cuatro Postes, which is only 1 mile outside the city. This is the best spot to view the wall encircling the city. It was just absolutely indescribable!

Despite our very brief visit, we really had a good time in Avila (luckily the unpleasant lunch didn't spoil our experience there). As I say it often and almost on every ending of my blog for this Spain trip, it's too bad we didn't stay long enough to fully appreciate of what this medieval city has to offer.

The view from the top of the wall

As you can see, the wall is very much still in good condition

Los Cuatro Postes and the Avila city wall in the background - I love this photo

Posing at Los Cuatro Postes

The magnificent city wall, which is still intact and surrounding the city

Funny Thing about the GPS

On our last day of driving (from Toledo to Segovia), my GPS suddenly decided to stop working. It just died completely without any warning! Having owned this little thing for almost two years, I know that this could happen anytime and therefore I always have a safety pin attached to the GPS cover all the time so we can use it to poke the reset button hole in case it stops working.

The problem was I didn't know where the reset button was. I always thought the hole on the face of the GPS was the reset button. I was absolutely wrong! I poked and poked and poked, and nothing happened. All my friends were helping me poked it too. And still, nothing happened. Then all of us took turn to look for other possible reset button around the GPS and we couldn't find it. The only possible reset button was the one that we had been poking all along (or so we thought).

You see, even though I partly own this thing, my husband is the one who's using it. And I totally forgot about asking him where the reset button was or maybe I thought I knew where it was. So I tried contacting him but to no avail. He was on business trip in Denver at the time with a totally different timezone and therefore, I couldn't reach him.

In the end, we gave up on poking it and with no map, we had no choice but to just follow the road sign. Having had to look at the road sign, we noticed that Spain has a lot of weird spots to put them up. Sometimes they were right before the turning, sometimes they were in the middle of the roundabout, and sometimes they were too small for us to notice. But other times they were normally placed at the spots where you expect to find them. So you would really have to be looking around in case you miss them. And that was what we did and amazingly, we got to Segovia without any problem.

When I was back to London I searched the net on my GPS reset button and when I found it, I was laughing my head off. Apparently, there is another button hole. It was somewhere hidden at the back of the GPS. Who would have ever thought? That poor thing had been poked at the wrong spot over and over.

So what's the moral of the story? Talking about my ignorance to this thing, is ignorance bliss? In this case, maybe not. It would have been better if I knew about it. We would have reached Segovia on time with no drama whatsoever. However, to my defence, it didn't turn out so badly. I mean, OK, we were late but everything was under control. And my ignorance was the cause of this memorable event to happen - something to laugh about when we talk about this trip ;-P. But still, my advice is: in case of emergency, remember to always bring (or at least read at home) the manual of your electronic devices everytime you travel. You might need it :-).

This was where we poked it over and over - the poor thing.

And this is where we supposed to poke it.

Shopping Day in Toledo

Continuing the Spain Trip story...

From Cuenca we drove to Toledo, which was another 3 hours of driving. Toledo is a Spanish city that is well known for its three cultures where Christians, Jews and Arabs settled there since a long time ago and therefore there are many historical and cultural things to see there. In fact, it is a UNESCO's World Heritage Site because of the mix of cultures and historical monuments.

Ok, so we had those many things to see and do in Toledo but we ended up only went to the Cathedral. We spent quite a while inside the Cathedral immersing ourselves with the history of the church, the rooms and of course, the paintings. Toledo Cathedral has quite an extensive painting works by El Greco, Lucas Jordan, and many others in the sacristy room. Too bad, photo taking is not allowed in this church.

I was very tired myself after driving for 3 hours. There were so many roads under constructions that I had to drive fast and slow, fast and slow on the highway. I'm not a driver person. To me, driving takes up a lot of energy because I have to use my full concentration when I'm driving. So, when in the Cathedral, I was resting and kind of half asleep for a bit.

After the Cathedral, we walked down the twisting cobblestoned lanes of this medieval old town. And without any planning, we suddenly were in a rush doing present shopping. My sister who we would meet the next day was having her birthday in a few days and we had yet got her anything. So we were busy in and out the shops in the old town until dinner time. I bought her a Damascene bangle and my friend bought her the matching necklace. They were handcrafted by the shop owner (search 'Damascene' in Wikipedia and you will find the clear explanation). It's a beautiful craft and Toledo is the place for this. I like it a lot that I bought a Damascene necklace for myself too. Another items that I noticed were sold in many shops in Toledo are swords. Apparently, Toledo is famous for its swords although they are not my kind of souvenir.

At dinner time, we went to a restaurant, Adolfo Coleccion, which was recommended by a travel book that my friend borrowed from a library. We only had a few tapas as we found the food there was quite pricey. The waiter recommended us to try Menchego cheese. He said this was the best cheese in the world. He also recommended us a very, very nice cava (Spanish sparkling wine) which when asked he said the price was only €12 a bottle. I have to say we had a very good time enjoying the nice food and cava there. I also have to agree that the Menchego cheese IS the best cheese in the world (I still buy it every now and then from the local supermarket here in London). And when the bill came, we were surprised that the cava was €40 instead of €12. And the waiter was nowhere to be found. But we just let it go and paid for it. I think it's probably the cava that made us let that go. We were still happy and even laughing about it on the way back to the hotel.

Although I didn't see much of Toledo, I really enjoyed the day we spent together there. There's just so much to see in this city and one day is definitely not enough. So Toledo is on my list of cities to come back to in the future.

I didn't take any photos when I was in Toledo as my camera was giving me a false message about flat battery and my battery charger was with my sister whom I was to meet the next day. The only photos I took in Toledo were the photos of the view of the city across the Tagus River. It was the next day and we were on the way to Avila. I couldn't stand not taking photos of the nice scenery. Then I saw that the message of flat battery was gone and my camera was perfectly fine. I didn't know why it was showing me the false message before. So most of the photos below were a mixture of photos taken by my friends: AW, JK and HM. Thanks guys!

The front gate of the Toledo Cathedral

A plate souvenir of Damascene handicraft being made

The lovely cava and food from Adolfo Coleccion, including the waiter who was missing in action at the end of our meal

This is the after effect coming out of Adolfo Coleccion - look how happy we were! 

The magnificent view from across Tagus river

Christmas Markets 2008

Since living in London, visiting christmas markets at christmas time has become a tradition for me. Last christmas (2007), I visited the christmas market in Nuremberg, Germany and this christmas, I went to Germany again for its another wonderful christmas markets - this time to Cologne, where I visited three of the six christmas markets the city offered.

But before I even started my trip to Cologne, I had been to a few other christmas markets without realising that it has become such a habit of mine to visit christmas markets during christmas time. I went to the Bath Christmas Market in the UK, Skansen Christmas Market in Stockholm, Sweden and Leuven Christmas Market in Belgium.

It's amazing what a christmas market can do for me. It gives me an excuse to get out there and embrace the cold weather (although I can't do more than an hour outside when the temperature is below 0 degree celsius). The cold winter weather, the warm mulled wine and the hot food, all combined creating a fantastic atmosphere to every christmas market. And not to forget the shopping spree if you are into traditional christmas cookies, decorations and traditional toys.

I enjoyed every moment of it and will definitely visit another christmas market come Christmas.

In this picture: the Christmas Market at Skansen.

Christmas Market at Skansen was located around the central square of this outdoor museum featuring the Swedish old town of the mid-19th century. The surroundings of the town really brought me back in time. The people were wearing traditional costumes of the era. The christmas market was very festive despite the wet weather. The music created a perfect atmosphere for people to participate in traditional dancing and it was fun too. The stalls were selling variety of hot food and drinks and other stuffs. I loved the glogg a lot. It's a Swedish type of mulled wine that has raisins and almonds in it. This is the sweetest mulled wine I've ever tried. The already perfect day was ended with carol singing for everyone to enjoy.

In this picture: Leuven Christmas Market in Belgium

Located at the town centre of Leuven, the christmas market was surprisingly quite big (I thought christmas markets outside Germany are usually smaller). The market was packed with people eating, drinking, shopping or simply just enjoying the whole thing. The kids were really happy with the many rides the market offered.

In this picture: Mark der Engel, Cologne

The Angel's Market is located at Neumarkt Square within the popular shopping areas of Cologne. This is Cologne's oldest Christmas market and some stalls were still there since early 70s. I liked the stalls. I think they were very beautifully designed. I also liked the star lights hanging on the trees. They shone magnificently when the night came.

In this picture: Christmas market at Cologne Cathedral

With the christmas tree at the middle of the market and the lights designed brilliantly hanging and coming out towards the stall, the Christmas market at Cologne Cathedral was beautifully lit. The atmosphere was unbelievable and the food was excellent too. It's a tradition to collect the Gluhwein mug and I collected one from this market. I think this is the most festive christmas market of all.

In this picture: Christmas market on the Alter Markt, Cologne

Located at the heart of the Altstadt (Old Town), the stalls were designed with timber giving the impression of traditional market. And on top of every stall was a crafted timber showing the theme of the stall. The traditional ginger cookies were the decoration of the trees around. There were many crafty items on sale here. I bought quite a few of christmas cake and cookies from this market as gifts for my friends.

Photos were taken by me and FH.