the adventures of jen and brian!

After rambling on and on, about my whirlwind solo trip to spain in 2004, jen and i decided it was time for her to see it herself. after staring at the intimidating schedule i tackled a few years earlier [LA> dallas, barcelona, figueres, granada, tarifa, tangier, gibraltar, and sevilla], we decided to drop the southern tip of the country + gibraltar & tangier, and thrown in lisbon- a place i'd never visited.

i played it a bit loose the first time, pre-booking only one hotel reservation, but we decided to nail down the room reservations and transportation in advance this time, since there was so much that we wanted to be certain to see.

this was the first time that we'd used google earth's hotel finding feature, which made it that much easier to make sure that our home bases would be as centrally located as possible [cutting down on travel time].

well- that's the set up! now here's how it went down...

Portugal...

After a brief layover in Philadelphia, our first stop in Europe was Lisbon, Portugal- A first for both of us, and of all the more interest due to the Portugese blood that runs through jen's very veins!

Winding staircases and a little bit of wandering led us to the Hieronymites Monastery, located in the Belém district of the city.

Dinner on our first night was at an authentic Portuguese restaurant. The food was good, but the tile work that covered the walls was the real star of the show. These tiles are found all over Lisbon, making the city so unique.

We couldn't resist a stop at a Ginjinha bar. It is the signature drink of Lisbon, and is a liqueur made by fermenting ginja berry (similar to cherry) in brandy. It's served as a shot, with a bit of the fruit at the bottom of the cup. It's potent...very potent.

The wandering continued on day two, and after a lot of aimless hiking up the many hills of Lisbon, thanks to Brian's keen sense of direction (that day at least), we finally found The Castle of São Jorge.

More cafe's, more gorgeous tiles...and Brian bought himself a new hat. (A hat you'll see featured in many photos to come.)

A quick ride up a hard-to-find funicular, led us to the Port Wine Institute. They offer literally hundreds of different ports to taste. It was a bit overwhelming, but delicious...

and that was just Lisbon- One city down, five to go!

Spain...

barcelona... sagrada familia, quatre gats, las ramblas, the cathedral [and its impressive collection of scaffolding], gaudi's casa batlló, casa mila, parc guell, etc.

figueres... was a quick half-day trip from barcelona, with the sole purpose of visiting the dali museum.

one thing that never ceases to amaze me, is just how versatile dali was as an artist & the variety of styles he experimented with before developing the unique style that is so quickly recognizable as "dali". the dali museum, which was conceived and designed by the artist in his home town of figueres, is an extremely difficult place to "capture" [i assume even for the most talented photographers with the best lenses]. hopefully these shots will at least pique your interest enough to check it out some day [or refresh your memory, for those that have had the honor of visiting]...