Bec's Birthday

I felt very lucky to have such a nice birthday! Thank you to all who sent me birthday wishes from both Sweden and Australia- I really appreciate it :-) My wonderful man cooked me pancakes for breakfast, and then we felt like we needed a walk so we walked to the beautiful canola (raps) oil fields nearby. I had fun choosing a 'Treasure Chest Cake' from the internet, which we made together and Martin decorated it while I ate some of the 'spare' lollies. We had a lovely dinner in the evening with Martin's dad and partner, and Martin's grandma.

Dougie and Johanna's wedding

We were stoaked to be able to be in Sweden for the wedding of Johanna and Dougie- one of Martin's long time mates, who has also visited us in Australia. It was a beautiful wedding, with the ceremony held in a 900 year old church and the reception in a Swedish style barn decorated with candles and flowers. Johanna looked stunning in a long pearly gown complete with bright red high heels, and Dougie looked rather dapper all decked out in tails. We feasted on a delicious buffet for dinner, cooked by the talented groom himself and some of his family. It was great to catch up with everyone and help celebrate the occasion, and we spent the rest of the night chatting and dancing well into the morning!

Marvelling at Miro

We were impressed by the gothic style of the Catedral in Barcelona- a 5 min stroll from our hostel- inside, we felt compelled to slow down and whisper while taking in the magnificent soaring roof and elegant pillars.

The highlight of the day though, was definitely the Fundacio Joan Miro, with over 450 paintings, sculptures, and textile works all done by one of our favourite artists. We couldn't help but be fuelled and inspired by the mass of reds, yellows, and blues filling the canvasses and bringing the quirky creatures in the artwork to life. There was also a fantastic view of Barcelona from the gallery, which made the hike up the hill well worth it (although it was also a good way of using up some of the calories from the delicious tapas the night before!)

We said farewell to Barcelona, and to our 10 weeks of backpacking around Asia and Europe, and hopped on the plane to Sweden ready for some settling in and also more fun and games...

Gaudi and Tapas

The next day we set out for Gaudi's masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia, which is still under construction and has been for the last 100 or so years. This seems to be a trend for us, with most of the big monuments we've seen having been under re-construction just in time for our visit. We were amazed by the height of the cathedral towers and impressed by the vibrant colors of the glowing stained glass windows inside. We did our best to ignore the bulldozers, jackhammers, and sparks shooting from the welding equipment inside, and tried to imagine how peaceful and tranquil it must be without all this mayhem.

The highlight of the day was definitely the gourmet tapas, in front of the beautiful old church 'Santa Maria del Mar'. We indulged in bite sized tortilla de patatas, mushroom croquettes, patatas bravas, mozzarella-basil-tomato stack, garlic breadsticks with gazpacho, plump juicy olives, and a perfect bottle of Rioja. We finished off with a triple scooped ice cream cone- ferrero rocher, after 8, kinder surprise flavors.... mmm....

Waking up in Barcelona...

Waking up in Barcelona smack bang in the middle of the Barri Gotic (gothic quarter) there was no shortage of action to be had! Stepping out of our hostel, we were washed away in the throng of bustling people and blinded by the beautiful sunshine that we'd been waiting for for days.

After spending 4 days in the car on our road trip, we wanted to stretch our legs and soak up as much sunshine as we could- so we spent the day wandering the narrow antique streets checking out Gaudi's work, breathing in the fresh air of the Mediterranean, gawking at russian oil barons' luxurious yachts, and trying to get our heads around the fact that the 2000 year old Roman constructions dotted around the city were still standing.

We finished the day at our favourite buffet, 'Fresc Co', feasting on vegetarian goodies and home grown wine, 3 euros per bottle- nice!

Mountain Views

Heading towards Barcelona, we drive through beautiful snow capped mountains and luscious green valleys, carved out by the icy rushing rivers. We take some notes so we can learn for future road-trips...

1) Do not drink 2 litres of water just before getting into the car to set off for a 6 hour journey.

2) In the mountains, proper toilets are few and far between (although we don't mind a mountain side view- we just hope the passing cars don't mind a different kind of mountain side view with 2 white hills squatting beside the edge of the car).

3) If buying olives in a rush, remember to check that they're not stuffed with anchovies!

4) Do we really need a whole camembert cheese to ourselves?

Picnic in the Pyrenees

Stoaked to wake up and see sunshine and blue skies for the first time in many days- we can´t wait to go hiking in the Pyrenees...

Foggy and -2 degrees!

After about 300 kms driving through the French countryside, we start our proper ascent up through the Pyrenees to Andorra. The thermometer quickly drops from +10 to -2, and we find ourselves in thick fog limiting our vision to 10 metres, being boxed in by 2 metre high snow walls.

All of a sudden we break through the fog at the top of the mountain, where the sun warms us and we are awed by the view. The rest of the way is easy going, but once we reach the capital, Andorra-la-Vella, we get a rude awakening, with the craziest driving we´ve seen so far- even worse than Bangkok!

We battle our way through the narrow old streets (built for horse and cart), hoping not to scratch our lovely rented Merc. Finally, hungry at the hotel, we realise it´s still another 2 hours until the restaurants open for dinner at 8pm...

220 kms to Lourdes

After a couple of rainy days in San Sebastian, the weather hasn´t improved much when we´re picking up our rental car. Bec thinks it´s a bit of a novelty to try to order our breakfast in Spanish and our lunch in French.

After 5 hours driving through pretty little towns in the French countryside, we finally reach Lourdes- our stop for the night, where Winter has returned and the mountains are white.

The next day we wake up to a beautiful morning (no rain and 8 degrees), and decide to go for a walk to check out the grand cathedral and the castle of Lourdes, which dates back to the 8th Century. Never in our lives have we seen so many nuns and monks, bustling down the streets, and shops filled with flashing flourescent lights shining on the statues of the Virgin Mary.

We would have loved to investigate this phenomenon more closely, but we needed to get into the car and be on our way.

Shivering in San Sebastian

We spend the afternoon wandering through the old part of San Sebastian and admiring the tiny cobbled streets and old churches. We duck into one of the many pintxo (tapas) places and are glad to be warm and cosy, despite the air full of smoke. We stroll from tavern to tavern and sip on tinto, and indulge in tortillas de patata, olives, and fresh bread.

To get away from all the smoke, we head out to the beach and stand with the icy wind freezing our core, watching the waves crashing up onto the beach and can hardly believe our eyes when two middle aged women in bikinis emerge from the water. We look at each other and decide to go for another glass of tinto and pintxo, to try and make sense of the strange vision...

Sopelana Beach

The last day we took the train out to the beaches around Bilbao and also had a look at where Martin used to live when studying here. We finished off the day in the street where there are so many bars they don´t have names, only numbers. People were out in force to support the local soccer team, El Athletic, and the energy was amazing.