Some photos of the trip

The Post Office in Madrid

The Relecting pool at the Al Hambra, Granada

View of the garden from the Queen's room in Al hambra

The Monastery in Battalha

Spain, Portugal and Morocco are really beautiful countries , with a lot of similarities in climate and vegetation. The only difference is the culture and religion but even this you can see a number of similarities. Like Spain, Morocco too had been a Roman outpost a long time ago and till today there are any number of Roman ruins to be found. In Spain especially nearer Seville, we visited a Roman aqueduct and a site that had once been a Roman village. It is fascinating to see the modernity of these antiquities - much of the layout of these Roman villages were very modern and showed careful planning and design. In fact we can learn a lot by learning more about them, I think.

Seville

FRom Lisbon it was another 5 hour drive south to Seville, which was our  next stop. we had two short breaks during the journey, once to eat and a sceond stop just to stretch our legs. The view though was still as beautiful though as we drove further south  changes in scenery was inevitable. Instead of  the high mountain roads we now pass through farmlands - mostly olive but also oranges and other fruits. there are also more and more windmills - the ones that Don Quixote tried to topple in the legendary story of the Don from La Mancha.

The medieval city of Toledo in Spain

At Avila, walled city

Seville is even more beautiful than madrid, though in a different way. Oranges line the streets and for some one like me who has not really seen orange trees this is something. Much of Seville is made up of narrow streets which intertwine with one another and it is so easy to get lost here. Our hotel - Don Pedro - is situated in a quiet street but still very close to most of the sights that we want to see. For me, I had enough of churches and cathedrals and at the first opportunity Repin and I wandered off in search of other things to see and do. We walked towards the town centre and saw many shops and decided to do some shopping here.

That night we were treated to one of the highlights of the tour - a flamenco show and dinner at a really nice restaurant.



Fado singer



Batalha and Fatima

There's so much to see and do in Lisbon we all felt that there were not enough days to do it. That is the problem with guided tours - you are on a schedule and everyone has to follow that schedule. That first night we went for a real Portuguese dinner - complete with a fado - or a singer/ singers. This is in a way some form of Portuguese opera with the singer telling a story in a song. The singers were good - really strong and expressive so that even though we didnt know the language we still liked the songs. Then there were the Portuguese dances which is very similar to our own Portuguese dances here in Malaysia. I think I enjoyed this night very much and it was a good ending to a really wonderful day - the tour of Lisbon, the trip to Cascais and Sintra and finally the dinner and the Fado. We took a walk from the little restaurant and saw the yellow tram that is like a funicular train climbing up the hill. This was like icing on the cake - the tram was crowded but some of our group jumped up anyway and took a short trip down.

The church at Fatima

Next day we were supposed to drive to Seville but with a stop at Battalha and Fatima - two cities with a lot of religious significance. Fatima is a very small town and is only famous because of its saint - The Lady Fatima. It was said that the girl, Fatima who lived in the 15th century was the daughter of an Arab fisherman. She fell in love with a young Portuguese nobleman and of course there was a lot of anger on both sides of the family. In the end Fatima, because she loved her young nobleman passionately, decided to run away with him. They were caught and she was killed. However after she died the young nobleman wanted to take away her body and bury it himself. To his surprise, the body was intact and not even decomposed. He brought this to the attention of the town people and many declared that she was a saint. After this there were stories of people who saw her and they said that she always appeared to people who were in trouble and she would help them, which is why she is considered the patron saint of fishermen in Portugal.

Battalha is another small town with a beautiful and very old monastery. The day we arrived was a holiday so entrance was free and we all had a good look around. After 30 minutes though Repin and I went out and decided to have some coffee under the trees at one of the outdoor cafes.