The Framptons' Blog » Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Ken — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:07:08 +0000

We recently returned from a week in Barcelona. We had a great time and what a fantastic city! The week didn’t start off so well though. When we arrived at the Barcelona airport we called the owner of the appartment we had rented only to learn that it had been double booked! The rental agency worked hard to find us another place for the week. It turned out to be a dump. The only heat were two plug-in rediators, the hot water didn’t work, the bed sheets stank and the neighborhood sucked. So the next day we found an internet cafe, logged on to one of those “last-minute-hotels.com” sites and booked a suite in a 5 star hotel (at a pretty good price). We did get our money back for the crappy appartment too.

One of the coolest parts of the city is Las Ramblas, a street through the heart of the old city. It is packed with street performers, shops and weirdos (besides us).

We spent New Years Eve at our hotel having a very nice din

ner. We capped off the year by setting our table on fire with som

e of the confetti we were given!

Holiday in Spain

Ken — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 05:10:00 +0000

We spent 10 days in Spain during the kids Easter break. We stayed one night in Seville, two nights near Gibraltar and then 7 nights near Cadiz (see a map). We had a great time, ate really good food and enjoyed the chance to see Spain.

First stop was Seville. We didn’t realize it when we mad our reservations, but in Spain, the country of festivals, the biggest festival of the year is in Seville during Samana Santa (Holy Week or Easter). Throughout the week all of the churches put on parades that wind their way through the city. Each parade has one or two pasos (floats) depiciting various scenes from the passion. The climax of the festival occurs very early Friday morning (like midnight to 5am) when the city is packed with people dressed like their going to Sunday church.

We were fortunate enough to see one of these processions on Friday morning. It was spectacular.

Here is a close-up view of the float. Mary’s tears are made of diamonds.

Southwestern Spain

Ken — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 19:04:00 +0000

After Seville we drove south to a hotel near Gibraltar (see map). We didn’t visit “The Rock” but we could see it from the hotel balcony. We took a day trip up into the mountains to visit Ronda. This is a very neat city that has a deep gorge running through the middle.

The drive up and back through the mountains was nice too.

Along the way were a few “pueblos blanco” or white villages. Here is a picture of Jimena de la Frontera. See the old Moorish castle ruins at the top of the hill?

These villages are built in a Moorish architecture. The influence of the Moors (north African Muslims) is still strong 1700 years after they were kicked out of Spain by the crusaders.

The next day we drove along the southern coast towards Tarifa. We stopped at an overlook with a view of the Straits of Gibraltar and Africa.

Some very strange flowers grew in this area. They say it is because this is the windiest place in Europe.

Next we drove around the coast to Baelo Claudia, an old Roman town and ruins. Unfortunately we arrived just as the siesta began so they were closed.

However there was an awesome beach there so we hung around for a while.

Then we drove on up the Atlantic coast (passing near Cape Trafalgar) to Conil de la Frontera. More on that later.