Hola Spain! Part 8 - Final (Finally!)

Yes! This is the last part to my random pics of Spain. Phew! If I were to post all my pics here at the rate I am doing it, it'll probably last me for the next couple of years. Ha ha ha....Enjoy, and have a good weekend (or what's left of it...LOL)!

Plaza De Espana in Seville - this place was used (though digitally modified) as a setting for Naboo in Star Wars II - Attack Of The Clones!

A lovely courtyard within Seville

A shot of Alhambra in Granada

This was one of the best cake I've ever tasted during one of my coffee time in Granada - it's a whisky torte ice cream cake! I hope I got it right as I ordered pointing to a pic in the menu and I saw whisky torte written next to it.

Cute "tricycles", for the tired or lazy tourist who wants a view of town the easy way. Hee hee....

Souvenirs for sale in one of the many small lanes in Cordoba. Note the Mesquita souvenirs on the wall, below is a photo of the place itself when we took a tour there.

The famous La Mezquita Cathedral in Cordoba

The lovely tiles souvenirs sold in Cordoba. They also have mirrors, clocks or just plain decorative tiles.

And I shall end with one of my favourite photos from Spain. Came across this street performer in this lovely area in Cordoba. I like looking at this shot, serene and peaceful. Most houses in this area have little flower pots on the exterior wall of their houses. How pretty!

For more photos on Spain, please visit my other blog http://ugwugvisualwords.blogspot.com

Recaps : -
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than
I have seen. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Hola Spain! Part 7 - Weekend Spanish Pics

Here are some random shots of my trip to Spain. Click on the highlighted words for more details. Hope you all are having/had a good weekend! Mrs Pitt, you need to go on a vacation!

The famous La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona designed by Antioni Gaudi. Read more about Gaudi and his other works HERE.

Park Guell - also designed by the famous Gaudi

The row of balconies of this lovely hotel I stayed in Granada, Hotel Los Angeles. Despite its American sounding name, it was pure Spanish!

Gypsies' flamenco show in a cave (Granada) which I really enjoyed! Hola!

One of the many lovely sights in Sacromonte situated on a hill (Granada). One can only travel up to this area in a mini bus as the roads are narrow. After alighting from the bus, we traveled on foot along the many smaller paths.

A section of the Alhambra Palace, (Alhambra means red in Arabic) Palacio de Generalife located in Granada

One of the many Arabic words intricately carved pillars at Alhambra Palace

Another lovely fountain in Valencia

To be continued....

Hola Spain! Part 6 - Tapas At Midnight

Well, time for another Spain post! This time round, highlighting the different varieties of tapas we had. Often after dinner, the bunch of us would wander the streets either on our own or with our tour guide to get a fix for our addiction to the lovely sangria and tapas around town.

Plaza Mayor around midnight.

We realised only tourists like us would still want to sit in the open area out in the cold while most locals are in the indoor pubs. Ha ha....at midnight, we almost had the whole open area to ourselves (plus a few other tables occupied by some local lovebirds who gave us a show of some PDA - Public Display of Affection, something very commonly seen all around Spain). It was the same in other places where we had tapas, people would hardly sit outdoors, only we would! Here are some of the tapas we had....

Deep fried salmon ball...a bit on the dry side.

My fave, a must order at each tapas stop...Champignon, Fresh Mushrooms, lightly cooked with olive oil and slightly salted. Can't go wrong with this order.

Finger sized anchovies, battered and fried.

Smoked and thinly sliced anchovies served in olive oil. An acquired taste!

These were lovely! Like a flatter version of our Malaysian curry puff, these were filled with fresh tomato bits and puree instead. Not too sour nor oily! Yum yum!

Grilled octopus with baked potatoes, sprinkled with chili powder. Spicy and nice!

Jamon Serrano Ham.....Dry-cured Spanish ham. Slightly salty, like pork "jerky"! Read more about this unique tapas HERE.

The usual but favourite deep fried calamari! Note the olives, it's usually given free and according to those who eat olives (I don't), they were very nice. Apparently eating 10 of these in one sitting gives a youthful appearance to women (old wives' tale), I was told :o)

And lastly, we have the Sangria (countless times) of course. Ahhhh.....I miss these nights in Spain, they were some of the best moments of my life.

To be continued...

Hola Spain! Part 5

To bring some order to this blog (hahaha!) I will continue posting shots of Spain. We are now in another town, Avila.

In addition to the nice scenery around me, there was this particular dessert shop that caught my eye. As Easter was round the corner at that time, almost everywhere I went in Spain had lovely displays of chocolate and the likes. When I saw these on display, I just had to try something from this place.

I was also told that we should try some Yemas (egg yolks in Spanish). Since we were running out of time as the bus was coming to pick us up, I decided to get some without really knowing what it was. I tried asking what it really was but the shop keeper and I had some problem communicating. Either way, I was the duck and she was the chicken or vice versa. I mean the language, not the profession! Anyway, I got the gist of it that it was a type of candy; egg yolk mixed with sugar! Let's just say that it's an acquired taste, you'll love this is you love egg yolks. For me, it was just average and a bit too "yolky" and sweet.

The next day, we had a free day in Madrid and we went around the city on foot. We did most of our shopping at El Corte Ingles departmental store, Zara and souvenir items off the stalls on the side street.

A unique looking building in the city, just opposite one of the many El Corte Ingles in Madrid

We stopped by this lovely place for coffee, located smack in the middle of a street. Very French looking, I had this urge to practice my rusty French language, speaking to myself. Ha ha ha...Loved this cafe.

I came across this magazine kiosk and couldn't help taking a pic of it.

To be continued - Tapas at midnight....

Hola Spain! Part 4

It's back to Spain for a break from food. I had thought that I had lost my photos for good when my external hard disk died before I uploaded the pics elsewhere(thank goodness I manage to salvage most of my Spain photos from my friend who has copied it from me earlier!).

After a short bus ride, we arrived in Segovia and at The Alcazar. I think I have raved enough about the beauty of Spain and its structures/buildings. I'm blogging my trip as a form of record of the places I've been to. So, I shan't elaborate further (I've provided links for those who would like to know more, so click on those highlighted words if you're keen).

Pics of The Alcazar, looking in and looking out

Stalls around the Segovia Cathedral
Roman Aqueduct
The only shot I took of this beautiful structure, was distracted by my quest at this point to look for some ice-cream! Would have love to have taken more shots of the Roman Aqueduct but we had to leave this place shortly for lunch.

To be continued ...

P.S. Decided to add this after I was asked. Note there are two changes to my main page. Namely the photo above my blog title. Past Post Photo Pick shows a photo from one of my past post. Click on the image and you will be directed to that particular post. Secondly, I have decided to have the blog links done up as drop down menus. The list seems to be growing and growing...LOL. Wanted to tidy it up a bit.

Hola Spain! Part 3

Continuing with Spain, here are some pics of some Spanish food we ate. Since most food was organised by the tour agent, we didn't have much option but to eat whatever we were given. With the tight schedule that we were on, the only time we could venture out on our own was at night. One of the food we had was Paella Seafood Rice; the staff would come to our tables, holding a big plate of it and scooped the rice onto our plates.


The rice grain is rather big and I would have preferred if the rice was not that soft. It was rather "fishy" for me but squeezing a large slice of lemon helped made it more edible. It was quite disappointing but maybe this is how authentic Spanish Paella Seafood rice taste like.





After lunch, we made a visit to Valley Of the Fallen, a memorial site for the fallen during the Spanish Civil War. Up on the mountains, this was one of the coldest area I went to in Spain.
With strong winds blowing, my teeth were chattering and I quickly made my way indoors together with the rest who sought for some escape from the cold brutal wind.
Once inside, I was again surrounded with beauty and serenity as I made my way through. You could hear the oohs and ahhs from our group as we walked along the corridors. Here is just another one of the many wonderful places found in Spain.


To be continued...

Hola Spain! Part 2

The food in Spain provided by the tour company wasn't too exciting. We had some Chinese food but since the restaurant cooked for the 100 of us each time, quantity prevailed over quality. We had local meals too and I came to know that Spanish people seems to love meat.
The only food I looked forward to was tapas and of course, accompanied by Sangria. I had tapas and Sangria almost every night! Sangria is a mixture of sorts, with different types of alcohol added to it at different places, so, we had Sangria of different strength level.
Our daily breakfast was at the hotel and was the usual fare of scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, sausages, and all sorts of ham! Enough of food for now, let's go on with the tour, next on the itinerary was Toledo. Here are some photos of this town.

Toledo sits on a mountaintopTargus River flowing through the city of Toledo
Closer view of Toledo

A happy shopkeeper, a bunch of us gave him some business. I bought Nougat from him.

A statue within the courtyard of El Greco's house, who was sculptor, architect and painter for which he was more famous for. We weren't allowed to take photos of his famous art pieces that were on display. He drew people in a thin and stretched style, his purpose in this was to make them more spiritual looking; that's according to what our Spanish guide said.

To be continued ...