Wedding Blog

Honeymoon pics at last!

It was very easy to travel in Spain because it felt like California in many ways - the weather, the palm trees, the architecture. My high school Spanish came in handy, but it’s pretty easy to get by without speaking the language.

Our Spain itinerary:

Day 1 - Arrive Barcelona. Sleep. Eat.

Day 2 - Half-day bus tour of Cathedral, Olympic Stadiums, and Spanish Village.

Day 3 - Walked around La Rambla and Gothic Quarter. Half-day bus tour of Gaudi’s famous buildings and Guell Park. Picasso Museum.

Day 4 - Fly to Malaga. Drive to our hotel in Marbella.

Day 5 - Drive to Mijas.

Day 6 - Drive to Sevilla.

Day 7 - Drive to Granada.

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This is our hotel just north of the Plaza Catalunya near the Gothic Quarter.

The view of Barcelona from our window.

The Cathedral in the Gothic Quarter.

See the rainbow in the fountain?

The view of Barcelona from Montjuic - the main area for the ‘92 Olympics.

The Spanish Village. Has replicas of common types of buildings/architecture found throughout Spain. Also the number one field trip destination.

Plaza Catalunya - pigeons galore.

Pic of this man’s painting and the building he was painting.

View of Plaza Catalunya from a restaurant on the top floor of the El Corte Ingles mall.

My food was delicioso. Black rice with lobster and prawns.

Dinner later that night at El Denorio. Very yummy. Coffee means tiny cups of espresso in Europe. No grandes here. Though they do have Starbucks of course.

The buildings on the corners of streets in Barcelona are all shaped like this.

The famous street “La Rambla.” Street names are posted on buildings instead of on street corners. Mickey says hello to me.

There are tons of street performers on La Rambla. This witch was soooo scary. After I took a picture and didn’t leave any money, he/she gave me the most evil glare and pointed at the money jar.

There’s a bird market on the second block of La Rambla but you can find all kinds of animals from hamsters to fish to turtles to lizards on this street. Here a pigeon steals food from the caged parrots.

Mercat de la Boqueria - the famous and colorful market.

A Korean store!

Pictures of the animals above the meat.

Walking around the Gothic Quarter.

Look Karen… a Kendo supply store!

A sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein (the first pic).

A statue of Christopher Columbus pointing towards his hometown of Malaga.

Resting for a refreshing beer on a warm day.

More street performers and 3 card monty.

These angels were so freaky. Mr. Bee gave them some money and the one on the right said to me in a super high-pitched, “Here is a star for all your wishes to come true.”

Gaudi’s buildings Battlo House and La Pedrera.

Guell Park. Gaudi designed this entire Park. He lived in the pink house below. The little black things are big ants…. not real ones.

These houses look like something out of Hansel and Gretel.

This is a turnabout for horses with carriages to make a u-turn.

This is Gaudi’s masterpiece - La Sagrada Familia (the Sacred Family). He died in 1926 while designing this building. The building still isn’t finished though Barcelona hopes to complete it by the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death.

Gaudi was extremely religious and the building is covered in religious monuments.

On the plane landing in Malaga.

The view of the Mediterranean sea from our hotel.

We rented a car and drove to Marbella - a seaside resort town where we were staying. If you’re not hanging out on the beach though, there isn’t that much to do here.

A boat turned into a barbecue pit. I love the smell of campfire.

Tons of stray cats in Spain. But they’re much friendlier than the ones we have here. These are 2 different cats.

Hotel pool. There were even fireworks on the beach the first night we arrived!

The drive to Sevilla from Marbella is about 50 miles through a mountain. It was soooo foggy that we had to turn back because the roads are super curvy, we couldn’t see, and Europeans don’t know the meaning of speed limit. I think the speed limits posted are merely “suggestions.”

So instead we went to Mijas - a mountain village with typical whitewashed Moorish architecture.

The next day we headed through the mountains to Sevilla again. It has to be one of the most gorgeous drives I’ve ever been on. We even saw wild Andalucian sheep!

There were miles and miles of green meadows. It looked like the windows xp wallpaper.. I think it’s called Bliss?

Bridges of Seville.

The Cathedral. (There’s a major one in every city).

There are tons of orange trees in Seville… and all throughout Spain.

Driving to Granada the next day. It was another gorgeous drive along the coast. Here we pass by a dam and windmills.

The Alhambra in Granada. It was closed so we only got to see certain parts of it, but it was nice that there were so few people. It’s usually jam packed with tourists like us.

More stray cats.

Dogs even wander around. They’re not strays though. This husky drank out of the fountain and the jack russell looks like the dog from The Mask!

Toasting our last night in Spain. Food and drinks would have been cheap if only the dollar weren’t so weak.

If I could visit only one city in Spain, it would be Barcelona. It’s a city that’s thoroughly modern yet is still able to preserve it’s history and culture. My favorite parts of the trip were the Rambla, Gothic Quarter and Guell Park in Barcelona… the drive from Marbella to Seville… and the Alhambra in Granada.

The not so good….

• The dollar was so weak against the euro. Something like .65 euro to 1 dollar.
• Though we had some good meals, overall we didn’t like the food. Everything was soooo salty and they hardly eat any vegetables. It’s all meat and bread. We had some major constipation action going on.
• I’d read on chatboards about how friendly Spainards were - we didn’t find this to be the case for the most part. The hotel staff in Barcelona were first rate but they sucked ass in Marbella. A stewardess pushed me out of the way to make way for a wheelchair she was pushing. People shove, cut in line, and are generally impatient. You know when you exit a plane you let the people in front of you exit first? You have to push your way into the aisle in Spain.
• People really speed. Highways are 2 lanes and they use the left lane only for passing. When you’re not going fast enough, even if you’re only in the left lane for a couple of seconds to pass, they ride your ass and keep flicking their highbeams. One time a guy yelled, “Puto!” as he passed us. That wasn’t very nice. The signage is also extremely confusing. 4 names for the same freeway. By the time we left though, I felt pretty comfortable with all the roads. On the plus side, the roads are in great condition - not a pothole to be seen so they’re easy to drive on.

Still we had a wonderful time. Spain is very beautiful and very clean everywhere. Makes you realize how dirty New York is. You really do need a vacation after the stress of a wedding. Though there wasn’t that much to do in Marbella, it was perfect because it gave us a chance to relax. We’d done a lot in Barcelona and didn’t recover from the jetlag and postwedding stress until we had a nice 12 hour sleep our first night in Marbella. Spain is a beautiful country. I’d definitely go back… but I’m bringing kimchi with me next time.