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NO ONE knows how to do summer better than Australians. Sometimes we don't make the most of it. Hey, life can get busy.
For a recent big-deal birthday we committed to getting out of the country, looking for beaches, good food and wine, good company, music, dancing, all the usual.
But somewhere to feel relaxed and alive and not preoccupied with the horrors of turning down the straight into another decade.
And it had to be affordable. That's another thing Australians get right about enjoying summer.
We landed right in the heart of Spain – literally and metaphorically. And the first thing my partner did was leave his wallet in the taxi. How Australian. But because this was downtown Madrid, Chueca district, the streets are only big enough to fit one-way traffic (the direction depends on who enters the street first) which meant the cab that had sped away was now jammed in at an intersection 400 metres from us and my partner sprinted to retrieve all his credit cards and ID, if not his dignity.
Something about the attitude of all the onlookers caught my heart. No one scowled, everyone smiled, I could see several alerting the cabdriver and remonstrating for him to wait. No one rushed because everyone knew it would be all right. My partner got his wallet, someone clapped, another high-fived. I knew we were going to enjoy this country.
The weather was wonderful and dining outside was the rule of the day. It drizzled just twice during our whole month in Spain. Our first discovery was a gorgeous tapas bar around the corner, where each plate was about 2€ ($3) and a glass of wine 1€ ($1.50).
If that's too expensive for you, you could buy a bottle of local red or white at the supermercado for 3€ or 4€. We're talking great quality wine, not the $5 bottles you can get in Australia which are undrinkable.
Tapas are smallish plates of hot food; patatas bravas (potatoes with spicy homemade sauce), quaint 5cm mini-hamburgers (clearly an American influence), egg-and-potato tortilla, mini-meatballs in spicy tomato sauce, marinated chicken skewers and croquettes with the local specialty – shaved home-cured jamon or ham. Even slivers of crusty bread with local manchego cheese and strawberry jam – delicious, surprisingly!
Tapas is the staple diet. It's small, it's affordable, delicious and filling. We also found tapas bars which served all this for free – the idea being, but not policed, that it comes with the drinks. And when drinks are only 2€ or 3€ . . .
Conversation runs easily at these bars. We struck up a friendship with three guys – an Aussie, a Brit and a Canadian – all students travelling Europe together and enjoying what they called a break from all the expense, suspicion and insecurity they'd experienced outside of Spain.
We walked everywhere in the Spanish cities we visited. The underground train in Barcelona is magnificent but even there it was usually easier and more enjoyable to walk.
And there was plenty to walk to.
Thankfully, we had our guides from Rainbow Tours, based at Barcelona but with guides also available for Madrid and Sitges. We would've been lost without them, literally.
Not that there's anything wrong with being lost in a foreign city, but if you like to know where you are, where you should be and how to get there and, importantly, how to get back to your unit, linking up with knowledgable friendly guides is a great investment.
We did several tours with Rainbow guides in Madrid, Barcelona and Sitges, all invaluable.
Carlos took us on a walking tour of old Madrid, taking in the King's Royal Palace and his personal basilica right opposite – he didn't want to walk far to church – and the extraordinary Egyptian temple of Debod which had been transported stone by stone many years ago.
It was built in 200BC at Aswan in Egypt and would have been flooded during the building of the Aswan Dam.
In 1960 Madrid answered the call of the Egyptian government to transport the temple and preserve it, and it was rebuilt in Madrid’s Parque del Oeste, Western Park, a stone’s throw from the Royal Palace.
There were other stately buildings, not ornate like those in Florence or Rome, but beautiful, impressive and functional.
There was a stunning closed nunnery where the residents remained silent and locked away by choice to give themselves to prayer and self-denial.
A true feat, given the preponderance of magnificent food and wine markets surrounding them.
We found we slipped easily into the Spanish practice of grabbing a few hours' sleep mid-afternoon – all the shops were closed anyway – recharging for the night ahead. And what a night was ahead!
Carlos met us at midnight to go clubbing, and that was early. None of the clubs get into gear until about 2am.
We did 13 clubs in all, a Hollywood cocktail lounge frequented by Hugh Grant and, in her day, Audrey Hepburn and other celluloid royalty; small intimate bars with dance floors; mid-sized clubs built for 150 people but crammed with twice that number; exclusive open-air clubs atop tall buildings; and, our favourite, an underground club several flights down that was a massive cavern with mainly patrons in their 20s and 30s – all dancing, bright blue drinks in hands; we were exhausted and had to go home to sleep at 5.30am.
All through the night spruikers on every street corner offered vouchers for free shots to entice passersby into whatever club they were pushing at the moment. We tried the shots once but to us they tasted like metho. An acquired taste maybe.
The Francisco de Goya and Salvador Dali works on show at the Museo del Prado were extraordinary but none so spectacular and moving as Pablo Picasso’s massive Guernica at the Museo Reina Sofia.
We got caught in a sun-shower as we walked between art galleries but it was more refreshing than wet.
The art in Barcelona is mainly Antoni Gaudi, an aggressively original artist whose works range from several frankly odd grand houses in the middle of the city to the beautifully designed tiles on the footpaths lining both sides of the Gran Via, main road, to the magnificent Sagrada Familia, an extraordinary basilica, the building of which was started when Gaudi was 30, in 1882, and is still going.
The finish date is currently 2026 but there's some question whether a special papal decree will allow it to be finished because one of the spires is daringly planned to be taller than St Peter’s in the Vatican. Size matters.
Gaudi was an architect with an aversion to straight lines, which often got him into trouble. In fact one of his most expensive homes was done as a project for a wealthy Barcelona woman who refused to live in it when it was done.
Barcelona is extremely proud of Gaudi. His works are their main tourist attraction. Ironically, when he died, at 73, said our knowledgeable guide Eloi, his body lay in the street for days, thought to be the body of a pauper.
Seven of his works have been World Heritage listed and there are calls to make him a saint.
The summer highlight of Barcelona was a day trip, by train, to Sitges, the famous gorgeous seaside village, with centuries-old architecture all beautifully, authentically maintained, scores of beautiful tapas restaurants and 17 beaches.
The longest is several kilometres and runs the length of the town, from sheltered and nude at one end to clothed and touristy at the other.
Gelato stalls dot the length of it and, thankfully, tapas and wine bars are all within easy walking distance from the sand.
A stunning cathedral stands on the hill overlooking the beach and has become the symbol of the city, dominating the famous Sitges Film Festival posters.
We passed a stone museum with the famous Bacardi bat device out the front. Marc explained that was the home of Facundo Bacardi, the famous businessman who established the rum label.
Who’d have thought.
And that’s the surprising thing about Spain. We have more cultural links to this passionate friendly country than you’d expect.
The one overwhelming impression of Spain that we took away with us was the warmth and openness of the people.
Everywhere we went, people greeted us with not just open arms but a kiss on each cheek. Alarming at first but you must reciprocate, so get used to it. It was a habit we'd have to break when we got home. ❏
■ The writers were sponsored on this trip by British Airways and supported by Rainbow Barcelona Tours in Madrid, Barcelona and Sitges.
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BRITISH AIRWAYS' PREMIUM ECONOMY
The laid-on Moet and Veuve and five-star dining options of first and business class, frankly, are mere trifles compared with the e-x-t-r-a r-o-o-m for your legs, and arms, and neck, and back . . .
Until recently it was either economy or prohibitively expensive first or business. The introduction of another mid-class of travel has changed that.
Premium economy is an affordable mid-way point which brings measurable extra leg-room and increased comfort.
British Airways calls it World Traveller Plus and it's available on selected British Airways long-haul routes. More here. ❏
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