We started our visit to Spain with Merida, just across the Portuguese border. We hopped on a bus in Lisbon and, without any passport or customs nonsense, there we were just a few hours later - in a whole new world. Straight away, the streets were cleaner, the people were more affluent and things generally were more organised, although the drains still smelt! The bus trip was interesting even if the landscape was very arid, brown and barren.
There were lots of pretty villages to admire out of the windows and a few characters on the
bus. As so many Spanish and Portugese smoke, most of the passengers tried to mow us down ( we had the front seats) in the rush for the doors at every little stop, so they could grab a few drags on their fags. Loads of laughs, especially when they then had to finish up quickly and began abusing the poor driver for wanting to leave on time!
We chose Merida as it's a World Heritage Site. Back in Roman days, it was a really important city and there is lots of it still left and very well preserved.
We had a small glitch the night we arrived when our 'Luxury Bed and Breakfast ' turned out to be a small room with just a bed, shared bathroom across the hall and the pool, terrace and BBQ that had been advertised were 'not available'. It was actually a flat on the 17th floor of a residential building and the woman's neighbours had pulled the plug on so many people constantly using the communal facilities, that were really meant for residents only. However, the woman arranged a booking elsewhere for us and took us there herself...as she should indeed! After that, Madrid was a dream and we loved walking around and discovering the different parts of the city that our feet, and later the metro, took us to. We were the ultimate 'anti-tourists' and went past the Prado and not in, ditto the Thyssen and ditto many other 'must-see' sights in Madrid, in favour of the tiny Sorallo art museum, which we both enjoyed, mostly because we had never heard of Sorallo before and also because he had loads of neat 'stuff' in what used to be his house. Very cool. Many interesting but expensive shops about - good to look in the windows, but bad for the pocket and the travelling light thing!
Madrid to Barcelona happened at great speed as we took the very expensive, but very worth it bullet train. It did the trip at speeds exceeding 300 kph, yet it didn't seem any faster than driving at home. Crap hotel the first night with noisy guests, a rude receptionist, a robbery and the police at 6.30 am, none of it anything to do with us, but as our room was right opposite the reception desk, no sleep was had. We were delighted when our 'real' hotel (the one we had booked when we were staying 3 nights, instead of changing our minds and making it 4) had a room ready and we were tucked up in bed at 7 am, sleeping through till lunchtime.
We have been for a couple of good walks already, despite the heat, and have been mightily impressed by the Gaudi works we have seen sprinkled around the city so far. There is a palace just down the road, next to the fruit shop actually, with amazing Gaudi towers, even though you can hardly see them as the street is too narrow to get a view! We have been to the immense Sagrada Familial church which defies description - see pic below - we haven't seen anything like this ever - so exciting and clever and wonderful and we feel so fortunate that we have the opportunity to have these experiences. Tomorrow is more Gaudi - in the park, in a couple of plazas and also two very special houses - one with no corners.
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