San Sebastian, Biriatou, Pamploma, and Zaragoza

We started our road trip with a stop in Zaragoza, were we walked around the main plaza for a bit and then headed on towards Pamploma. Both are nice cities, we like Pamploma better and would suggest to anyone who wants to visit it to visit during the 'Running of the Bulls'; it would definitely add the excitement of the small city.


On each end of the square in Zaragoza, they had two identical fountains. THis meant that Eve had to spend twice as much time checking out fountains. Thankgoodness it was a warm dry day.


Because of the World Expo in Zaragoza, they had built a few new fountains, this was one that looked nice, but was a magnet for little kids and wasn't set up for their safety.


THe Basilica in Zaragoza; you can't tell in this photo but the roof is multi colored. Very cool


At least Tricia was excited to be in Pamploma, even if Eve couldn't care less.


THe streets of Pamploma


THis is the back of our hotel in Biriatou, a small town just on the french side of the Spain/France border. It was perfect. Quite, cheap, clean, nice, with great views.


San Sebastian. We liked how green San Sebastian is. We both agreed that it was the prettiest city in SPain, and the most unique. Different from the dry lands of Barcelona and Madrid.




Eve and Mark shouting hooray that they found another fountain, Eve loves fountains. She would have loved this one more if she could have put her hands in it.

Olive groves

One of the most spectacular terrains in the world is in the Sierra-Nevada area of Spain. Spain is the largest producer of olive oil in the word and the hundreds of miles of olive groves prove it. They are spectacular. the precision that they were built with, the perfect rows upon rows of olive tress is unbelievable at first.

You can drive for hours and only see the fields of olive trees. This was by far our favorite part of Spain. THere is nothing like it anywhere else.



THe town just into the area of Castilla and La Mancha. There was no one on the streets, not one store was open. It was siesta and they must take theirs very seriously.




I also added the Castilla- La Mancha area, Mark is a huge fan of Don Quijote and this is the area that it took place in.
There were a few of the old type of windmills left, but most have been taken down to make way for the new modern windmills.



This would be an M&M we gave Eve. Did they change the whole "melt in your mouth and not in your hand" idea? She was so proud of what she had done.

The Alhambra part I "the views and buildings"

THe Alhambra, a moorish fortress built in the 14th century, is built high on the side of a mountain. When the Moors were defeated by the Christians and forced out it was looted for metal and then left to decay, even as late as the 19th century Napoleon's army tried to blow it up, with little success. It is still one of the best preserved moorish palaces in the world.
These are different shots of the beautiful gardens they have recreated, the buildings they are preserving, and then the fabulous views from either the Alhambra or the Generallife (the royal palace built a small way off for privacy).






This photo is not in the Alhambra, it was taken in the City of Granada. The Alhambra is just outside of the city and we stayed in Granada. Their main street was almost deserted on a Sunday afternoon and we got some great shots of Eve.

This is the entrance to the Alhambra it was lined with Cypress trees and we were lucky to get this shot of Eve walking up the road with out any other tourists, it was busy that day.

The Alhambra part II "the detail"

This place is gorgeous. The detail on the walls is phenomenal; all carved, not painted. and it isn't simply carved as you will be able to tell in some of the photos.


One of the last atriums we went into. The sun was setting and they were rushing us out, but there was so much to take pictures of it was difficult to rush.





Eve and Mark in one of the doorways to one of the many atriums.

the day at Marbella Beach

Evie and Mark were exhausted from our day at the Alhambra so they spent the morning snuggling.


Eve, always the first one ready, waited for us while relaxing and watching a little TV. This is her favorite position (hands behind the head)


The only thing we regretted about Marbella was, we didn't bring our beach gear. The weather was so hot and the water looked so inviting. What were we thinking?!



What? This would be some exercise equipment bolted down to the boardwalk with compliments from the city of Marbella. I guess it is their subtle way of telling people to exercise.

Marbella and the Drive home

Marbella was beautiful. Flowers were gorgeous and the streets in the old town were so quaint.




On the drive home we saw so many old castles and fortresses. We wished we could have taken photos of them all, but unfortunately they don't have look-outs you can stop on when you are driving on a toll road.

27 degrees, sunny, and a perfect day at the Beach...

Today we finally put all of those rainy days behind us... it was a perfect day outside and although we didn't get a real early start we took a train to a nearby town about 35-40 minutes outside of Barcelona called Sitges. It is a very quaint little town with excellent shopping and incredible beaches. The beaches were much less busy than the Barceloneta beaches that we normally go to.

Eve had a great time in the water. This was her first time actually enjoying going into the waves. Each time that Mark brought her out of the water she would cleverly try to coax him into going back out again. 1) She would give dad a hug, 2) she would point out towards the water, and 3) she would say "mmmore! more!". She would repeat this exact sequence many times until finally Mark gave in and went back out with her. Here are a few pics of us at the beach...






We highly recommend Sitges to anyone visiting Barcelona. The town was a lot of fun to walk around as well and it is very well taken care of.