Month: June 2022

Today we are going to be a tourist in Barcelona! After a beautiful sunrise (I went back to bed after it waking me up) we had breakfast at a lovely buffet which was up to AC Hotel standards and even more as there is a conference in house, we decided to visit the Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona.

Originally, it was architect Francisco de Paula del Villar started the project for this church, which was to be in a classic Gothic style. However, Antoni Gaudí in 1883, at just 31 years old was given the commission . Gaudí completely changed the original design and began building his most famous work using his own style which made him known worldwide, and gave him the title of master of modern architecture.

From the time he took over the project until his death in 1926, Gaudí worked to build this unique temple that was intended to become a masterpiece showing different symbols of Christianity.

The Sagrada Familia work is financed by donations made by visitors and the public, which explains its slow construction. Gaudí even once said “The Sagrada Familia is made by the people and this is reflected in it. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people”. While we were there the display of the timeline of the Church indicated that in 2018 construction had ended, there was a crane on top of the church and several of the cylinders were covered and being maintained/fixed or added to – we are not sure what was happening. In other places, such as online, it indicates that construction still continues today and its completion is scheduled for 2026, a date symbolic of the centenary of Antoni Gaudí’s death.

As Barcelona is a city of transit and no a city of cars, we decided to take transit to the Sagrada Familia! We were supposed to take the Metro/subway but we could not find the entrance so instead we took a bus and walked about 15 minutes to the Basilica. We also had issues getting tickets online (which you sign up for specific times to visit)- despite using 2 cell phones and my laptop I kept getting a “form error” when I selected a ticket for a person with disabilities (33%) and their companion. Luckily it was a straight shot for the bus and we arrived at the Basilica in about 30 minutes! I went up to the Individual entry security beside the entrance line and asked where I can purchase tickets as I was not able to buy them online and he said to wait and talk to the ticket taker. The ticket taker was dealing with a lady in the line who was an hour late for their 12:30pm entrance (it was 1:45pm at the time) and he said no, their group could not enter. I thought great – we are going to be turned around too for not having bought tickets! The security guard explained in Spanish what happened and the ticket taker asked me how many tickets I needed and I said we were trying to buy them for 2pm and he said wait right here and came back with 2 free tickets! If I had bought them online Andrew would have had to pay 36 Euros! So then we were whisked into the Group entrance where the accessible security check is that leads to the elevator is (which was under repair) and then escorted around normal exit and up into the church – what an awesome experience! Here are my pictures – really they do not do justice to such an enormous building!

Today we are leaving Valencia and heading up to Barcelona where we will be staying at another AC Hotel – this time the AC Barcelona Forum – which is near to the beach. I THOUGHT it was a small hotel based on the pictures, however when we arrived – it is a high rise and definitely NOT small – it has its own convention centre which is pretty large! The 4 hour drive was pretty uneventful – some of it was overlooking the coastline and some of it was inland as we tried to avoid the toll highway.

Today is the Aquarium! Again, I had read what a great aquarium that Valencia had so we decided to partake in a visit! It is also located in the former riverbed that runs through the city and is an awesome sight to see. I did not realize when we arrived just how much they had both above ground and underground there was to see – all of it accessible too! Let’s get on with the show!

Well, we have been very busy! The concert on Saturday and then the zoo yesterday! Today we took off just to relax. No pictures taken! We hung out on the terrace for the hotel – I knitted and Andrew did what he does best – sat there and pondered life!

So let’s call this post Miscellaneous with two topics. Let’s start off with:

Graffiti or Tagging

In Spain it seems there is a LARGE problem with graffiti or tagging buildings, overpasses, sides of highways – you get the drift. Mostly it is on things that are not very accessible to be cleaned off or painted over it seems. I am finding it similar to how it looks in Los Angeles – there is a LOT of tagging that goes on there too – especially in certain cities in the Metropolitan area of LA. So this is a fact of life – kids these days like to spray paint as I guess they have nothing else better to do! However when does the “tagging” turn into art? We have also seen some beautiful artwork on buildings which I have included as I have gone along – however until now I refused to include pictures of the graffiti. I have come to the realization though that it is not the true Spain that I am showing – so here are some pictures of what we have seen in the last few days – the only thing I was not fast enough to catch was a train we saw that was completely covered in tags! Not sure if that was on purpose or not – it went by pretty fast!

Having a Disability

It has been interesting having a mobility disability in Italy and Spain. I was aware before traveling (based on our trip in 2019) that both these countries provide discounted (concession) rates for people with disabilities. Over 50% of the places that we have visited list the discounted rate as such – Person with 33% or 75% disability are eligible for X discounted rate. Now, in Canada, like the USA, we do not register nor do we assign a value to people’s disability in general. I have a rating that WorkSafe used to determine my pension, however that is different calculation. So luckily when we have been here as soon as I start talking in English and they see my “strange” walker (they do not have rollators here), generally give me the discounted rate or I pay the full rate and Andrew gets in free as my companion. It is a very strange system never the less. At the Vatican was the only place I had to actually show something related to a disability that had a number on it – so I used my HandyDart card and they accepted it as it has a registration number on it! Who knew that would come in handy in Italy! In Barcelona, where the Olympics were held, the accessibility is fairly good – most of the subway system is accessible – the stations that are not are marked on the map. The busses are accessible – after the disaster bus ride in Rome, I was hesitant to try again and on our 3rd ride the driver actually put the ramp down for me! All the other times I lifted my walker onto the bus. Hotels – well that is another story. I will save that for later when I summarize my hotel stays and experiences!

We went to the Zoo! I had researched the BIOPARC Valencia to ensure it was kind to the animals that it housed. It really bothers me when I go to a zoo and see polar bears in a hot environment! The BioParc is 100,000 m2 and features primarily nature of the African continent and Madagascar – both wetlands and the savannah.  The animals, vegetation and landscape together allow the visitor to learn about the relationships between the organisms and elements that make up the ecosystems, which also helps them understand their functioning and encourages them to conserve more. It was completely wheelchair accessible throughout and in fact, I got in for a discounted price and Andrew got in for free! He did his work helping me open doors etc. as we went through different “gated” exhibits – so he worked for that admission! We thoroughly enjoyed this experience. The day was medium hot – about 30 to 32 degrees compared to some activities that we have done in 40+ degree weather!

I especially liked the lemur area visit – it was in a gated area and they give you a personal talk before going in about not touching, feeding, and letting them pass in front of you. Well, that did not work for me. One lemur was just TOO interested in my walker! They wanted to climb it! Check out the picture below!

With the birds of prey demonstration at 2pm, we decided to see part of the park before that event…

It it time for the show! Let’s see what happened during the Birds of Prey and their Animals show!

After that thrilling show – we meandered back out onto the African safari to enjoy the other half of the zoo!

Thoroughly exhausted, we then attempted to catch a taxi back to our hotel. Now that was a bit of a challenge as either people kept stealing our taxi’s once Andrew waved one down (as they had to go round the traffic circle to pick us up) or they drove off. So as I was getting a bit hot sitting in the direct sun at the taxi stand, we decided to move to a hospital a couple of streets away and try our luck there! And bingo! Within 10 minutes we got a taxi! So back to the hotel we went. After resting for a short while, we then went out for dinner to Ris8tto (the 8 is there on purpose) and can you guess what I had for dinner? You guessed it! Risotto! Nothing like a seafood risotto! It was delicious and completed a wonderful day!

10 months and 7 days (October 17, 2021). That is how long it has been since I booked the tickets. THEY announced a concert in Valencia, Spain for June 25, 2022 – when we would be in Spain! I had already planned a month in Spain driving west to east and had secured points plane tickets home from Lisbon along with booked 75% of our hotels already. Holy cow! Fast, re-do the whole trip and all my hotel points bookings along with plane tickets now home from Barcelona, so we could be in Valencia that night! Booked the concert tickets (which was another adventure using Google Translate to Spanish to get accessible tickets and proving that I had a disability). Don’t tell Andrew! THEN I found out that we were to see them in Seattle – forgot with all that happened to me in the fall of 2020, that I had tickets to a show that was postponed to November, 2021. Which was AMAZING and unfortunate as 4 weeks later, one of the singers, who is very popular with the women, a Spanish singer and bass of the group, passed away suddenly from COVID. I did not care at that time about the tickets – probably the concert in Valencia would be cancelled – it was the ONLY concert in Spain at that time. Our trip was good to go! Still did not tell Andrew though – he was so good to come with me to Seattle (as we had to fly due to COVID rules not allowing us to drive) that why bother him about another concert that probably would be cancelled? I was very careful when making my travel book (which Andrew has access to) – it has all our reservations, tickets, insurance etc. to NOT put the concert tickets in there – however it seemed the concert was going ahead! We left as you know in April – I had not heard anything to the contrary about the concert and I noticed that there were a couple more concerts booked in Europe now and that this was now an “In Memory” concert. I did not really focus on the concert until we were in Granada and we were walking down the street and Andrew said to me “look who is in concert on July 1st!” Oh my stomach sunk. He knows THEY are in Spain! I played cool and said something like – “too bad we will not be here.” We drove to Valencia – arrived at the hotel in good time and decided to go for dinner. While at dinner (it was 9pm) all of a sudden a high volume of distant screaming and roaring happened and it was obvious there was a concert going on nearby. AGAIN I tried to play it cool. I knew we were staying at the AC Marriott Hotel a block from where the concert was going to happen. I had purposely got us “lost” getting to dinner to miss the concert venue but I did not put two and two together that it was an open air venue! OOPS! We are in a hot climate! So on our walk back to the hotel I FORGOT to go the “wrong” way and we walked past the “Plaza de Toros de Valencia” (Valencia Bull Ring) on our way back to the hotel. Got back to our room and about 5 minutes later Andrew said “Did you know that Il Divo is going to be in town tomorrow night?”. There it was – secret was out of the bag! He had looked up who was singing in the Valencia Bull Ring that night (a young Latin singer thus the screaming) and then he saw Il Divo on the list for the next night. So what was I to say?

Here they are! IL DIVO in concert! The accessible seating was on the floor of the Bull Ring – there were only 4 of us with our “other person” and we were seated at the end of Row 12. It was AMAZING to be so close to the stage! We got there at 8pm when the doors were supposed to open (which happened actually at 8:45pm Spanish Time). To walk the route into the ring that the bulls take and to feel the fine dirt between my toes (I was wearing sandals) was bizarre! Pushing my walker was a bit hard – it was like being on soft, baby powder like sand which was on a hard surface somewhere underneath. We had beverages while we waited and it got darker…. At 9:30pm a pre-concert group played, which was interesting as they were singing in English with a Spanish accent! At 10:10pm the show started… yes there are 4 of them – they have an invited guest named Steven LaBrie, who has been signing with them for the last couple of months who does the baritone singing that Carlos used to fill. You almost cannot tell the difference. ALMOST.

Here are some of the videos that I took –
1. Spanish – Titanic Movie – Will Go On
2. English – Somewhere (Encore Number)
3. English – Time to Say Goodbye (Encore Number 2)
4. Spanish/English – Smile
5. English – Motown – My Girl
6. Spanish – Bodyguard Movie – I Will Always Love You

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n4nc14dseniygxn/20220625_235241.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wfhth6gpefuhpp8/20220625_235841.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3t3a37qubkcwvq2/20220626_000641.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7tzqxg9omciwubc/20220625_231613.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bhtu0k71zf93ibc/20220625_232736.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbkomapofull6kb/20220625_234355.mp4?dl=0

We were kind of slow to start the day today. We went for breakfast at the hotel which was a standard AC breakfast buffet. They provided me with 2 pieces of bread (not the whole round loaf that some places have given me) and some cookies. So I made a sandwich to eat later on in the day! In addition, I had fruit with nuts and seeds and yogurt along with the cookies and some Schar gluten free muesli that I had acquired along our trip.

We decided it would be best to “see” Valencia and therefore take a Hop On Hop Off bus tour. So off we went trying to find Stop #2 that was near the hotel – it said it was at the Valencia Bull Ring but we could not find it – so therefore we walked to Stop #1 which was only 10 minutes away and low and behold the bus was there just about to depart! Our timing was great as they depart every 45 minutes. The driver put the ramp down for me so I could get onto the bus and then the problem happened – he could not get the ramp to withdraw back into the bus (electronically). So he had to play with it for about 15 minutes. I guess I will not be asking for the ramp to get off the bus! That is the issue with these hot humid places – mechanical breakdowns if they are not used. The bus ride was good – not too many good pictures as there was a bar right in my way at my seat. We saw the riverbed that was filled in and now houses several attractions in Valencia – the Music Centre, Biosphere, Aquarium to name a few buildings. It also has walking trails. It is a very beautiful feature of the city! We then traveled to the port area, the beaches, back into Valencia town centre and then to the start of the route and finally got off at Stop #2 in front of our hotel – right under our noses! Here are the pictures that I was able to take:

Now, move onto Part II (separate post) to see what we did in the Evening!

We had a nice, relaxing breakfast at the AC Hotel in Murcia. As I normally do, when we go for breakfast, I let the server taking care of the buffet know what room we are in and then that I need “sin gluten” items. This normally takes them to the kitchen area to get me some bread, muffins or crackers – something “bread-like” to have with breakfast. In all the AC Hotels it has been the same except Sevilla where they had the muffins and packaged cookies in a small container the 2 of the 3 breakfast cereals labeled as gluten free. So, not looking at the buffet first, I went ahead and asked the lady for some gluten free items – she gave me a big smile and lead me over to the buffet by the coffee machine and there was a whole gluten free section! It was like being back in Italy! There were chocolate pastries (to heat), Schar croissants, packaged bread, wrapped cookies, 3 gluten free cereals and wrapped muffins! Holy smokes – I was sorry we were only here one night! So I immediately cleaned the top grill in the toaster oven as I wanted to try the chocolate pastries, as I had never seen them before and they needed to be heated! I put them into the toaster for 10 minutes and boom! they were puffed and ready to eat! Very nice! There were 2 in the package – 1 to eat and 1 for a snack later in the day! Like normal, I took croissants and cookies in my purse to enjoy later for a picnic.

We then checked out a couple of hours later and were on our way to Valencia!

I took it easy on the pictures during our 2 hour drive to Valencia – I decided to focus on watching the scenery and knitting for a change! Here are the few pictures that I did take –

In the evening, we went out for dinner to Lemon Grass – a Thai restaurant on “Restaurant Row”. It was an interesting experience – they are more of a “fast food” and “tapas” restaurant – you actually build your dish instead of having a menu of all the wonderful Thai dishes that we normally get at Thai restaurants in Vancouver. So I had a shrimp vegetable dish with the not hot red pepper sauce and it was GOOD! Sort of reminded me of a sweet and sour sauce. Andrew had a chicken dish that was not sharable due to gluten in the sauce. We sat outside and had dinner – it was about 30 degrees out – a very pleasant experience except for the smokers! For more fun details of the night – see June 25th Part II description.

Well, we were up and early to get to the Alhambra tour ticket office by 9:30am to get our entrance tickets for 10am! Again, had an excellent breakfast at the hotel – nothing like a freshly made omelette! We got our tickets and our audio guide on our cell phones and off we went to see the Alhambra buildings during the day this time. We skipped Generalife as we saw it yesterday – our tour time of the Nasrid Palace was at 11:30am and we had to walk from the top of the Alhambra down to where the buildings were located still. Here are our daytime pictures (some might be a repeat…) for your enjoyment! Just to re-orient you, here is the layout again…

Back to hotel, pack and on our way! Good thing for these 4pm checkouts I get!

The drive to Murcia was uneventful and quite beautiful! We covered lots of different terrain from “Grand Canyon” like views from when we came down from the other side of the small mountain that Granada is up against, to prairies which were very dry to a green belt and then down into a valley that looked like it was a conglomeration of a lot of cities that had just spread out. That we took the highway around the side of which was interesting as there was a historic site on the side of one of the hills and I guess they did not want to disturb it but needed the highway so instead they tunneled under it! I am surprised that the tunnelling did not do some vibration damage however I leave that type of thing up to the engineers – the know best! We are just passing through Murcia on our way to Valencia – it seems to be a fairly big city and the AC Hotel is VERY nice – we were upgraded to a suite again! It is nice to be able to spread out, even if it is only for the night. Also we have now mastered Spanish TV’s – did you know there is a setting in TV’s so that you can show a program in it’s native language? Andrew of course figured that one out! So we are having fun in the evening watching some older shows like Big Bang Theory that are not on TV anymore.

Today we are going to the Alhambra! I had tried to buy what I thought were tickets on the real Alhambra website however I could not figure out how to do it – I know that I could get a discounted ticket but it was not appearing anywhere! So we decided to just go there and purchase a ticket at the ticket office which is where I needed to go anywhere to validate my discounted ticket. I asked the hotel what was the best route to take to walk there (it looked simple enough) and the front desk agent was so polite to me and was trying to suggest we take a taxi, however make it sound like it was my idea! Beating around the bush instead of being direct! Sometimes that frustrates me! Once we got into a taxi we saw why – the switchbacks and hill we had to go up – we would have been exhausted before we even started! So now about getting the tickets – the Nasrid palace which is the main attraction was sold out! So instead we bought tickets to the gardens, and as suggested in the Lonely Planet book, we had brought a picnic to have while we were there. The whole area is beautiful – so well laid out! A lot of the upper gardens are not accessible however Andrew was able to run up the stairs and check things out for me and let me know what he saw – basically great views! We had a bit of a run in with a security guard (mainly myself and another lady in a wheelchair), as he interpreted the “rules” for the Generalife palace to be no one with wheels could go into the palace area. When really the rules state not Baby Strollers can go into the palace area. VERY different from walkers and wheelchairs! So we had to sit in the Stroller parking area and watch the people enjoy the palace area (despite there being a ramp down)! Here are the pictures from the Generalife area.

Then we proceeded to walk down the slope from Generalife (J) along path that runs on outside by I and D which is throught the Medina towards the main attractions (A) on the map which are the Church, Palace of Carlos V (Museum of Fine Arts), Nasrid Palace and the Alcazaba. The Medina is an area where there used to be houses and is now more of a archeological site.

Now down in area A, we were able to walk around and get acquainted with the rest of the Alhambra. We decided at that time to buy tickets for the next day (which the ticket office was sold out of) through Viator (tour company) for a self guided tour of the Alhambra. This is also the day we leave Granada so we are coming back at 10am – luckily we had already arranged a late check out from the hotel! So then we walked back to the hotel down the hill = much better than going up! That took us about 45 minutes of walking down roads that are not usually used within the park area which was quite nice – no sun beating down on us!

Now back at hour hotel RESTING, not that we had not walked enough today, I had the BRILLIANT idea, as it was such a nice day and there were very few clouds, meaning it would be a clear night, unlike yesterday with the rain, that why do we not buy the Alhambra (Nasrid Palace) at Night tickets from the official website? So we made a quick decision at 7pm to do so – which meant we had to be there at 9:30pm and we still needed dinner! We were lucky as we got some of the last tickets as when I went back onto the website to look up accessibility information it was sold out! So off we flew in a Spanish world where they do not eat until 8pm and eat very SLOW dinners! We had already had a picnic today so we were looking for something a bit more substantial after all our walking. The hotel restaurant did not meet our dining tastes so we went to find a restaurant I had seen on our walk back from the Alhambra and much to my normal directional sense, I could not figure out where I had seen it. However we happened on another restaurant that would suit us just fine and they did gluten free too! By now it was 8:45pm so we explained to the waiter we needed a fast dinner and he complied – I had caprese salad and Andrew had pasta – both very fast meals. We were right next to a taxi stand and got a taxi very fast up to the lower part of the Alhambra and got to the check-in post at 9:45pm – phew! Only one problem – all the staff where quite excitedly talking to me in Spanish and I did not understand! Ah, I get it – there are stairs down to where I need to be. They will help me and I will go first – so basically that LONG line of about 100 people that have waited for an hour to get in? They can wait until I go down the stairs! I was very thankful that we did have someone interpret this to us – the lady was very nice and helpful! So down the HIGH stairs we went – I was dreading going back up them at the end of the night as my body was tired! Oh wow – it was worth it though – what a beautiful building! Here are our pictures of the Nasrid Palace at night. Oh and one thing to add – after the first 4 pictures below, they whisked us away around the back of the pool area and where it was ramped into the courtyard where the spitting dogs were. We were the only people there plus a security guard. That is why there is no one else in the pictures. We thought this very strange – we were alone for about 30 minutes – we later found out from a different security guard who spoke English that the other 98 people would be joining us – they went on a tour of the back that is not accessible – so take lots of pictures now! We then tried to find a taxi to take us down the hill and could not find one so we started walking! Luckily the Alhambra bus came by instantly, rumbling along so we got on – it was a very rough ride down into the main square of the town through little streets and around corners (it was now 11pm) however we made it in one piece! We then walked the 4 blocks to the hotel with one urgent stop along the way…

And for those paying attention – to get out of the Nasrid Palace there was a ramp at the exit which I took up to the courtyard where the entrance is during the day. So now I know where to go tomorrow for our tickets to see the Palace during the day! Good night!