Europe Tour with A and M

What a beautiful city. We had been told along our travels that we would really love Barcelona and you don't want to get there and think 'what's all the fuss about' but the city does live up to expectations.  Barcelona is the capital of Spain's Catalonia region and is known for its arts and architecture.     Hotel Astoria is in another great location to explore the city. Iber Tours have been responsible for booking most of our accomodation on this trip and they have been fantastic providing us with not too expensive rooms in good locations in each spot.    All walls in the hotel are covered by a permanent exhibition creating a Parisian- style Art Nouveau ambience.    And the view from the rooftop small pool area introduces you to some of the architectural treasures found in Barcelona that span over 2000 years.    A stroll down La Rambla and you will find yourself in the busy Gothic Quarter. This area is the centre of the old city of Barcelona....

Today we flew from Madrid to Mallorca, a short one and a half hours. If you ever fly into Mallorca try to get seats A, B or C, the left side when seated in the plane as they have the view of the island on approach.     We stayed at Cala Major(circled above) not that far from the capital, Palma. Cala Major was just the perfect location for Nixe Palace our ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ hotel.    Room 720, fantastic view from the balcony. This was very hard to take but we tried hard to enjoy it!!!     Room 720 good spot in the hotel as it has views of the entire bay.    The hotel pool. We did manage to tear ourselves away from the view and explored Palma, the capital, which is only a short 15 minute, number 3 bus ride away.  The city itself is a lovely city with beautiful buildings and I did manage to buy the grandkids a few pressies. The bus ride was an interesting trip passing the Port of Palma and many poorer suburbs with very rundown buildings. The diversity o...

Last day with the car, thank heavens. The car has been fantastic getting us around Spain into places that we would not have ventured but at times it was very nerve racking. Having a GPS that would not pick up directions in the cities and thus we would be flying blind so to speak. The narrowest of streets or laneways to negotiate and not leave an imprint on the car and the old towns with no parking and nowhere to pull up, were all at times difficult. BUT one of the worst was about to beset upon us, driving in Madrid to drop off the car. Avis drop off point was situated at Atocha railway station with a million other cars, taxis, buses, bikes you name it every form of transport was hustling for a spot. OMG this was terrible and there were no directions, no signs. Atocha Station is in the middle of Madrid and when we finally went around the same roundabout twice with no lane markings and everyone cutting in on you, much like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris we found the station and there was n...

Holy Toledo another drive through the countryside. This trip was the longest between towns, four hours through not too many towns rather cultivated land which was like a changing pattern depending on elevation.     Think I have mentioned previously but am astonished at the use of every inch of land here in Spain for agriculture, right up to the rocky outcrops on hills and sometimes over the hills if not rock.    There are a few areas where they raise bulls but not too many sightings of cattle raising. Pork is the choice of meat on all menus. Not a fan of Spains food, think they might need a few lessons from us Aussies.    Have seen these 'watch out for deer' signs. Have been watching but none spotted.    Once you park in a parking station just inside the town's walls it is a short walk to the centre of town  and our hotel, The Navas. The city of Toledo is a no go zone for vehicles unless you have a pass,residents etc, and you wouldn't want to...