Since the weather has turned cooler it is only
natural to look forward to spring break. Okay, maybe it is too early to
anticipate springs arrival, I mean I do love fall and am in no hurry to rush
it. However, this blog post is going to take a look back on spring break 2014.
The cool thing about having a job in the field of education is that you always
get snow days, spring break and summer holidays! The most favored days, I think
everyone would agree. As an adult, living in Europe, with a week off of work it
would be silly not to take advantage. So Sam and I decided to take a trip
somewhere warm. We spent an entire week in April exploring Southern Spain and
Portugal! The southern part of Spain and all the cities making up the community
is known as Andalusia to be exact.
When Sam and I take tropical trips we have to find a
nice balance between lying on the beach and exploring the towns. We both enjoy
exploring cities as we travel but I also love laying on the beach and relaxing
if it is an option. The first stop on our trip was to the beautiful coastal
town of Cadiz. Cadiz is the oldest continually-inhabited city in Spain and one
of the oldest in Western Europe. Since this was our first town we decided to
walk around and explore. It was exactly like the movies. The buildings looked
just like I imagined, it even smelled like I pictured. There was a beautiful
church in the town centre and lots of sandy beach. After exploring the town we
had tapas for lunch, which was difficult to order because the waiter didn’t
speak any English and we weren’t comfortable with Spanish yet, but we made it
by and the food was delicious. After lunch we headed to the beach to soak up
the sun. It was a nice beach, minus all the topless Europeans, who shouldn’t be
topless. We even swam a bit and Sam didn’t complain once nor did he get sun
burned. Success!
 |
| Our tiny smart rental car |
Our second day in Spain was our favorite day of the
entire trip. We went to the city of Granada. Granada is a gorgeous city located
at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We spent the day strolling the
city, visiting a beautiful church and hiking to take in the view of the
mountains. We also ran into the secretary from my school and her family! Such a
small world! She congratulated me on getting a new position at the school,
moving from substitute teaching to being an AVID tutor. It was the first I had
heard about getting the job I had interviewed for before spring break so Sam
and I took it as an opportunity to celebrate! Our evening was spent at the Alhambra.
The Alhambra is absolutely breath taking. Alhambra is a palace, originally
constructed as a fortress in 889 and ignored into ruins until it was rebuilt in
the mid-11th century by the Moorish. The Moorish poets describe the
Alhambra as “a pearl set in emeralds.” I will let you be the judge based on the
pictures, but I highly recommend visiting the Alhambra if you ever find
yourself in Andalusia.
 |
| For Kevin |
You can’t visit Andalusia without visiting the
capital of Andalusia, Seville. No, it is not the capital of Spain, which would
be……(bonus points to anyone who gets it correct!) those who don’t…. well
revisit your middle school textbooks. Rachel and Josh happened to be visiting
Spain during this week as well and we crossed over in Seville! We met for a walking
tour and it was wonderful! Except we did ditch out early as it kept going and
going and going, so we had some lunch and had to look for tiles. We had a
delicious lunch, tapas and sangria of course. After the walking tour and lunch
we went to the Cathedral. It is a gorgeous cathedral and contains the tomb of
Christopher Columbus. We are making it a goal to visit the tombs of as many
famous dead people as we possibly can. After the cathedral we headed to the
Alcazar, which is basically a castle/fortress and is known as the little
Alhambra. It was beautiful but I still highly recommend the real Alhambra. We
were quite tired from all of the walking so we found some delicious Mexican
food. After dinner we headed to see a flamenco show. Flamenco is a form of Spanish
folk music and dance that originated in Andalusia. It was so much fun and
beautiful. We even bought a flamenco outfit for our niece Hazel. Unfortunately,
it didn’t fit :(. We had a great time in Seville. It was especially fun to
spend time with Rachel and Josh. It was the last time the Bairdbrooks were able
to all travel in Europe together!
Next on our list was Marbella. This was a relaxing
beach day for us. Sam picked this beach and it was the most beautiful beach we
visited. There were lots of amenities around. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy
day and not as warm as we had hoped. Okay, as warm as I had hoped as we
couldn’t get in the water. However, we relaxed and read books. After all it is
still spring break so beach days are a must.
The following day we visited the city of Cordoba.
Again, all I can say is it was a beautiful city. We went to The Cordoba Mezquita which is a
beautiful mosque in Cordoba. The architecture was breath taking and neither one
of us has been inside a mosque before. After the mosque we walked around the
city and ended up at the zoo. Anytime there is a zoo available we end up going
because we love zoos! It was a great zoo, but there were too many small
children there.
We decided to have
one final beach day, but we felt like we exhausted all of the beaches Andalusia
has to offer so we headed to Portugal. We never miss an opportunity to visit
another country on a trip if we can fit it in. So we headed for Santa Luzia. It
is a beautiful area. We had a delicious lunch and took a ferry out to an island
where we spent the day on the beach. Since it was April it was a beautiful and
warm day but not filled with tourists yet. In fact they were setting up for the
big tourist season. The only downside to this beach was when we went to put on
real clothes in the shower I found a giant human turd. Yup, it isn’t a true
trip in Europe if you don’t see poop.
We had one final day
in Spain and we had originally planned to go to the British colony of Gibraltar.
They are most famously known for a big rock and monkeys. I have heard mixed
reviews of this area, so we decided to go to Ronda instead and we are happy
with our decision. We had to get to the airport in the evening so we only had a
short amount of time to explore but it was well worth it. The city of Ronda is
full of so much history dating back to the prehistoric Neolithic time period.
It was picturesque, especially the gorge with a beautiful bridge over it. We
walked around, took pictures, bought souvenirs, had lunch and enjoyed ice
cream. Another beautiful day in a beautiful city, but alas it was time to leave
Andalusia.
We had a great spring
break and took our longest trip in Europe to date. I cannot recommend visiting
this southern portion of Spain enough, we loved it! Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Amanda
