Spain

Wednesday 11th June
Time to head back to Spain, with a quick stop in Salamanca, then into Madrid. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived so our driving tour wasn't the best but we got a but of they lay of the land.

Thursday 12th June
The nightlife in Spain is something else, everything is done 2-3 hours later than usual... lunch in the mid-afternoon during siesta which means dinner doesn't happen before 9pm, so even a quiet night means midnight or later... clubs don't even open until 2-3am in some cases. So, last night we did a 'pub crawl' (although the Spanish version of a pub is most definitely a club scene at home)... needless to say there wasn't too much sleep had and it was a quiet day of sightseeing today. I did go to the 'Reina Sofia' (modern art gallery) and saw some of Picasso's works. Other than that, just wandered around a but of the city. As major cities go, Madrid is pretty nice!

Friday 13th June
Another lunch stop today, this time in Segovia (just another amazing city with amazing castles and an enormous aqua duct - sorry photos are on my camera).
Then it was onto San Sabastian. The scenery heading north chnages so dramatically... from very dry and relatively flat to mountainous and sooo green, and really beautiful!
Unfortunately we were welcomed to San Sabastian to World Cup losses for both Spain and Australia (the locals were not happy).

Saturday 14th June
This is a cute city and very different to the other places we've been (it has had a very independent history compared to the Roman and Arabic influences of pretty much everywhere else).

We have had such good weather for our free days for most of the trip but unfortunately that ran out at lunch time, becoming overcast, windy & cold... not the best for the beach. I still enjoyed the city though and spent the afternoon at the beach.

Sunday 15th June
One last stop before heading back to Barcelona, in Zaragoza. I'm not sure if there was a festival on or it was normal for a Sunday but there was a massive medieval-style market day which was pretty cool.

Then it was our last driving leg to Barcelona. It was strange to be going back to somewhere we had been before... it felt like we were coming home.
We had a big group dinner for our last night and then it was the beginning of 48 hours of goodbyes. With everyone having different plans, people just trickling away over the following couple of days.

Monday 16th June
Our tour officially ended this morning and with it brings the end of my plans!
I went to the Sagrada Familia and wow... I can see why it's so famous, it just isn't anything like you would expect inside... it looks more like something from the future rather than something that started being built over 100 years ago!

Tuesday 17th June
Finally figured out my next plan... booking a bus to Toulouse, France and a couple of nights accomodation. The plan is to do a couple of weeks of independent travel in France (probably mainly in the south before hopefully meeting up with a couple of girls from the tour in Paris). I think I'll try to book another tour after that, it's just so much easier to have all the planning done for you! It's just a matter of where and when.

I did a last bit of sightseeing around Barcelona once I had my next plan... I walked through the city, the massive city gardens and down to the beach.

Wednesday 18th June
My time in Spain is officially over. Time to get on a bus and head to France!

PS sorry, not many photos... I will find a computer at some point and try to upload my camera contents.