Travis got a text one day from our friend Darin Rentz, he asked Travis if we wanted to got to Spain in 4 weeks?! No way would Travis say yes to something so far fetched as that, right? Well, to my surprise we landed 4 weeks later in Spain. Thanks to that little text we experienced on awesome adventure!
Our first night out in Marbella Spain
Travis, Meredith, Lisa & Darin Rentz
After 23 hours of traveling and much jet-lag we toast to SPAIN!
Our view from the Marriott, the Mediterranean Sea is in the back round, something I never knew if I would see in my lifetime!
DAY 2
Our next day we drove up an hour into the mountains to a quaint town named RHONDA, SPAIN. This place had breathtaking views and captured out hearts! Love this place.....
This bridge Puente Nuevo is over 200 years old.
Many cities in Spain had these white washed homes with beautiful churches.
Last night in Marbella we went to a cute ritzy beach town
with lots of yachts along the Mediterranean Sea.
DAY 3
Our next town to explore was GRANADA, SPAIN. This is a well known palace and fortress called Alhambra. It was built in the 13th century by the Moorish Monarchs. Incredible day. We took a picture of our feet in every city by the drains.
Inside the palace. I was amazed at the structure.
The detail was insane. Who chiseled all this? So awesome.
In those times it was popular to have the appearance of a "floating palace". To accomplish this they have a reflection pool, you can find many palaces that have this.
This view was my most cherished in all of Spain. It literally gave me heart palpitations, good thing Darin is a doctor! We had a special tour guide that took us on this balcony, and inside a small room that had ancient paintings on the wall that were beautiful!
The original paintings are preserved so well.
The gardens in Alhambra Palace.
The gang at the Fortress Wall.
A bit of Spanish pleasure......(that was one of many KEY words on the trip)
We then drove 2 hours north to a city called SEVILLA, SPAIN. I think this had to be my favorite city out of the four we visited. It had everything. Quaint cobblestone roads, shops, churros, and beautiful buildings.
This is the street our condo was on......awwwww.
This is the cute little main street that leads to The Cathedral of Sevilla.
Heaven......dipping churros into thick hot chocolate. This was one of my favorite things about Spain, along with all the cute scarfs they wore!
DAY 4
This was our day to explore Sevilla. We made a churro run and discovered this lady in the middle of the street singing a song. She sang the words "Las Ferias" over and over in her song all on the same note. We thought it was so hilarious we had to get our picture with her. After each photo she wanted to make sure she looked good.....We truly laughed the entire trip about it, especially when Travis would sing her tune. One time we lost track of Travis and the only way we were able to locate him was from the sounds of him singing this "Las Ferias" theme song! Little does she know that she won our favorite person award in Spain.
La Cathedral de Sevilla. It is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world!
Inside......it was awe inspiring.
Christopher Columbus Tomb.....that was incredible to see!
Plaza de Toros, a bull fighting ring seen from the top of the cathedral.
Visiting Plaza de Espanya in Sevilla--a government building built in the 1920's. It was so awesome. We couldn't fit the whole building in one shot. It had a cute canal that boats could row through.
Visiting Alcazar Palace in Sevilla. It reminded us a lot of Alhamra.
Fountains in the Palace gardens.
San Marcos- an Italian restaurant that was such a fabulous place to dine. It is set in an old Turkish bath. I think this place won best ambiance!
DAY 5
On our fifth day we boarded the AVE train headed to MADRID. It is the fastest train in Spain and reaches just under 200mph. It was a great way seeing the country side.....
WELCOME to MADRID SPAIN.......We only had about 7 hours of daylight to see this beautiful city. We really maximized our time although a huge rainstorm came through for about 30 minutes. There was lighting while we were taking these pictures, I thought for sure we would get struck with our umbrella in the air!
Plaza de Cibeles......this is now used as their main post office. Really? Have you seen my post office in my home town.....it doesn't look anything like this!
The Bakery's on every corner were always a nice treat!
hmmmmm...decisions? Where are the churros and chocolate?
The Almudena Cathedral behind us. They first layed stone in 1883 and it took over a 100yrs to complete.
A lady offered to take our picture and she told us to look at each other.....It was so funny, but slightly awkward under the direction of a stranger!
Going inside the Almudena Cathedral........
Touring the cathedrals was one of our favorite parts.
This was a beautiful park, the monument is called Parque Retiro. We decided to try and rest our feet and let them dry out from the torrential down poor earlier that day!
All day I looked for a sign that said Madrid that I could take in front of....this is as good as it got. Thanks Madrid for a whirlwind day of beauty!
DAY 6
Jumped on the next AVE train headed to BARCELONA. This country side had more mountains to see.... when we arrived to our apartment, this was the view from the balcony!
The famous Sagrada Familia by Gaudi....
inside...it was insane architecture!
Note to self: Never where stripes while on vacation AGAIN!
Montjuic Museum......Isn't this building awesome! Did I mention not to wear stripes??
This is one of his many "Travis Tricks" he performed for us on the trip.
Over looking Barcelona!
DAY 7
Our last morning to explore Barcelona......
The famous Las Ramblas Street
There market was full everything you could imagine.
Every corner we turned there was some incredible structure......
I love this little street in the Gothic District of Barcelona.
This is the Christopher Columbus monument the queen gave to him when he returned back from finding the America's.......He is pointing to America, so I decided to join him.
We went up to the park Gaudi designed.....it was really funky....the buildings looked like they were from Whoville on Dr. Seuss.
To end our last night in Spain we went to dinner and then to the famous Montjuic Fountain show......they fountains that change color and movement to music, it was breathtaking....and totally romantic!
Front row seats.....
A view a bit higher up.
Another Spanish pleasure....
This is where the guys stood to get a view.
As we started to leave, we turned around and this is literally what we saw. They had beams shooting from the Museum with the fountains......this was the perfect ending to our unforgettable adventure in Spain! Thank you Rentz's for one heck of an adventure.....all because of that "little text".
