Benidorm: A very British adventure!

Today's the day that we meet the lovely Patricia (Christine's mum) in Benidorm. Christine has been before so knows what to expect but James is in for a surprise. Within 10 minutes we have seen at least 10 people with their big white bellies on display, yep we've definitely arrived in Benidorm. Its strange being in Spain and not having to make the effort to speak Spanish, even when James tries to he gets a response in English. After checking into our comfy rooms we head to the sea front for some dinner. Pat is ready to have stern words with someone who is staring at her until she realises it is actually a statue. Benidorm has a lovely beach and we spend the afternoon people watching before walking along to the harbour to see what boat trips we can sign up for.
Time for Benidorm night life, almost every bar is caberet so there's no chance of a quiet night. We see the "British Bulldog of comedy" and are apprehensive but he is actually quite funny and James gets to hear Pat's infamous laugh. It doesn't stop there as we see tributes to The Bay City Rollers, Lionel Ritchie, The Beatles and a very smiley soul group.
The next day the boat man convinces us to have a trip to Calpe and its a fight to grab one of the 10 seats on the top deck. Pat spends the whole trip pointing and laughing at James because he has to sit on his own, I'm sure I heard her shout "Billy no mates!"
Arriving in Calpe we wonder what there is to see. There is pretty beach and a huge rock. That's about it. With 3 hours to kill in the smallest town in Spain we have lunch and then take a dip in the sea. Its a beautiful clear sea and we see fish swimming around our legs.
After a siesta we get picked up by Pat's ex-boss Craig who takes us to Altea where he lives. Its smaller and quieter than Benidorm but still full of English people so we're not getting the Spanish vibe. Its nice to be treated to dinner by Craig and his kids have some entertaining stories for us. We'd better not put them on here in case the police are reading!
More strolling around and shopping today and after spending the last couple of days avoiding thousands of people on disability scooters we're pretty sure that most of them are just lazy (at €6 a day they're not really discouraged from hiring them!) James tries to get Christine to go in the sea but at the sight of 2 waves she declares it "too choppy" and goes in a sulk. We head to the nearby all day karaoke bar to see some errr... talent? The butch barmaid gives James a look that says "I eat geeks like you for breakfast" so its back to the safety of the hotel. More evening entertainment with the Commodores and Take That, you'd think they were the real thing the way some of the drunk women were acting. Stage invasions for a Benidorm tribute act?!
The next day we meet up with Pat's friend Jackie for a walk around the market and a brew.  A bit more window shopping (sorry James) and then out for a curry. One of the waiters takes a shine to Christine and serenades her with a Bollywood song. James gets the super glue out and attaches himself to Christine's side. More entertainment at The White Horse, James points out that its ironic that the ex-pats are making jokes about "getting our country back" and the amount of foreigners in England, ermm pot calling kettle mate! I'm sure Benidorm used to be a lovely Spanish town but its definitely been taken over by the British. Still, the beaches are stunning and the people are very friendly so I can see why people like coming here. Thanks to Mama Sealey for an entertaining few days, it was great to see you.

 Benidorm, you are one of a kind!

Valencia. Or as we learned, 'Valenthia'

What can we say? We loved it! The apartment, the city, the people, it was all great.

We checked in to our penthouse apartment with our hosts Ruben and Anne. Their place was awesome, especially the terrace compete with sunset view and BBQ so we made full use of it on the first day. After a bit of a walk round their town of Catarrojas we picked up some supplies and enjoyed a very chilled out evening on the terrace. Just what we needed after the craziness of Barcelona.

Our first day in Valencia and we decided to head to the Biopark as it's cheap on a Sunday. It took us a while to find the way in, somehow we managed to end up halfway between the entrance and the ticket office underneath a bridge we were supposed to be on. Oops! It's like a cross between a safari park and a zoo, and the best bit is definitely the Madagascar area where the lemurs are free to run around you. James was staring at the ones in trees, oblivious to the ones chasing each other a foot behind him! We had lots of fun watching them all playing, especially when we saw the babies. Seeing the people at the gorilla enclosure made us sad though. He looked so fed up and we're not surprised considering the amount of people ignoring the signs saying 'keep quiet' and 'no flash photos'. Christine found some aardvarks to sing to "there's a large, dark aardvark in the park" lalala! We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening starting to explore the city, wandering the side streets and enjoying a couple of cheap drinks. The city is even more beautiful at night, all the important buildings are lit from the ground and looked spectacular.

Our second and last (aww) day in Valencia and we set off the explore more of the city. We enjoyed a bit of our usual aimless wandering finding some of the historic buildings, the old market was particularly nice - very Gaudi-esque. Since we made an early(ish) start today we treated ourselves to a 3 course dinner in the sunshine in a restaurant we stumbled across in a random square. Very tasty but very filling, we both wished we could have had a siesta after that but we went to walk it off instead. Valencia used to have a river running around the top of the city but because of past flooding they've redirected it and turned the old river bed into a series of themed gardens. We were aiming for Gulliver - an enormous play area shaped like the character when he was tied to the ground in Lilliput. He was great fun, covered in steps, slides and passage ways. We both definitely regressed a few years!

We finished off the day with our first trip to a beach. It was deserted and we had it all to ourselves to watch the sunset and have a bit of a paddle. A beautiful city and a brilliant couple of days, if only it was a bit longer.

Ole, ole, ole! Viva Espana!

Hello Barcelona!...hello?!  After checking into our studio apartment we realise arriving on a Sunday wasn't such a good idea, where is everyone? At least the local shop sells sangria, hurrah! Pasta in tomato sauce for tea with sangria on the terrace.

In the morning we decide to go to Park Guell to see some Gaudi designs, its a pretty and unusual park with great views of Barcelona but we've never seen so many people squeezed into one place before. The weirdest thing was that after we got past the famous mosaic salamander there were so many less people, why did no-one else want to see such a beautiful place? We could see a high hill with a cross at the top for all of our walk round so thought "that's going to be a top place to see the city". We were kind of right, once we managed to squeeze onto a tiny plateau with 20 other people including a couple intent on driving everyone else off by continually snogging (no it wasn't us!). We finally see why locals despise tourists in some places! We visit the cathedral and walk down a bit of La Rambla, see the food market but when Christine spots skinned lamb's heads we make a quick exit.

The next day we walk around Catalunya square where Christine faced her fear of pigeons, why are there so many?? Heading to the Segreda Familia we're glad we've pre-booked as the queue is huge. It's a beautiful cathedral designed by Gaudi. Lots of towers and intricate carvings. There were beautiful stained glass windows and the afternoon sun pouring through them made the floor light up with colour. It was definitely the grandest cathedral we've ever seen but we're still not convinced it was worth so much to get in. We take a lift to the top of one tower to see impressive views of Barcelona and James faces the fear of heights he didn't know he had once again. Back down on the ground and we find the old school that Gaudi had built for the children of the workers who were originally building the cathedral and James goes all teacher, yawn! :-)
La Rambla caught our eye for our evening meal but after a greasy deep fried tapas starter and a few mouthfuls of a bad pizza James throws up and refuses to pay full price. A big scene gets us thrown out but with an £11 discount, win (kinda). We know that everyone says not to bother eating there but we were just too tired to walk down more side streets hoping to stumble across a gem.

A trip to Labyrinth park today which was nice and peaceful apart from the class of photography students who seemed to have been told to take the most boring pictures they could find...click, here's a wall, click, here's a hedge, click, here's some water. We used our cameras taking photos of all the turtles we kept finding! We ventured into the labryrinth and found the middle in about 30 seconds. Booo. At least getting out was a lot harder, I think we tried every path before we made it! We spent the afternoon having another little wander round the city trying to spot some more of Gaudi's buildings and managed to find some nice peaceful squares away from the herds of tourists. Pretty buildings.

SCIENCE MUSEUM!! By far the best part of Barcelona for us. We both spent the day running around like excited kids and playing with everything we could find. The museum has a replica of a rainforest so you can walk around and see what lives above and below the water in the rainforest. It even rained in there! Elvis the pig got pecked by a bird and the Capybara came over to say hello to James. We spent ages in this part but still got to see most of the other exhibits in the museum too. Its brilliant and we'd definitely recommend it. Evening time and we find some cool bars, so cool that we don't leave until late and miss the last metro. We get caught in a rainstorm and it feels wonderful.

Our last day in Barcelona and there's a thunderstorm. Watching the lightning right above us is amazing. We make it out in time to watch the magic fountains of Montujic, fountains that change colour and 'dance' to the music that is played. Time for tapas and although we can't read much of the menu we pick some nice dishes. We decide to pick some more and a plate of tripe turns up, wonderful. James watches in horror as Christine puts a bit in her mouth and chews...and chews before finally spitting it out. "Tripe is a type of fish isn't it?" "No Christine its intestines". BLURGHHH!! Luckily Christine remembers the Mr Bean steak tartar episode and manages to hide enough of it so the waiter doesn't see how dumb we are.
Goodbye Barcelona!

Munich - Part 2: Oktoberfesting

Time for a bit more exploring this week, including venturing down to the main Oktoberfest site. We decided that we needed to see a bit more of the real Munich and take in some of the sites so we walked in to the city along one of the main roads, seeing a lot more of the historical sites on the way (and trying to guess what they might be). One place we made it to that we did know was the Alter Hof, the original castle of Munich. Not that you'd guess by looking at it anymore - it's been continually built around and altered but the museum inside helped us work it out (and it was freeee!). St. Peter's church was a recommended visit because it's tower gives brilliant views of the city including the Rathaus with it's funky glockenspiel (see Thursday for more on that). Christine got a good laugh going up the tower because that's when she found out that James is scared of steps with gaps in between, and when James found out he is bothered by heights after all!

Tuesday was a write-off. Last night we tried a coupe of random dingy bars because we liked the music we could hear. Turns out we managed to spend a few hours drinking in a gay bar without even realising! At least we met a few friendly people, had a laugh and learned not to go drinking after only eating a cheese sandwich all day!

Finally...it's Oktoberfest day! The reason we wanted to come to Munich this particular time was to find out what all the fuss was about. It was huuuge! Each brewery had its own massive tent with thousands of people inside as well a funfair outside. We went for the Augustiner tent as that had been our favourite beer so far. The verdict...Oktoberfest needs to be enjoyed with a big group. It was partly down to where we had to sit (behind the band) and partly down to the beer tasting suspiciously unlike the Augustiner we'd had before but our Hofbrauhaus experience a few days ago was much more enjoyable. We did have fun on a few spinny rides though (wish you were there Metters?).

Thursday was our last day so we decided to do some proper cultural stuff. We found a free audio tour of the history of National Socialism in the city so started off with that but a combination of torrential rain and the fact it assumed we had more knowledge about the subject already meant we gave up on that one and followed one based on monuments and memorials around the city instead. Definitely a good choice, it was much easier to follow but still had all the important bits in. James even started remembering some of his GCSE history! Like Berlin there were some very moving parts and it makes you really angry that that Fascist groups like the EDL and Neo-Nazis are growing. We can't let history repeat itself!

So long Berlin, hello Bavaria!

Originally we were looking forward to our train ride to Munich. Having paid extra for first class tickets (even though we didn't have any other options) we were expecting a bit of luxury and some free stuff. Wrong. Instead we got other people's cheesy feet pointing at us and no internet even though there was supposed to be. Where was the free champagne and string quartet?

At least getting to our next 'home' was easier. James' uncle had very nicely agreed to put us up (or should that be put up with us?) so he met us at the station and after a quick taxi ride we arrived at his apartment. We definitely wouldn't have been able to afford this place on airbnb! He gave us a quick tour and took us straight out for a drink and a catch up, and in James's case a lesson in beer etiquette - don't pour any of your old pint into the new one. I think we both expected him to get a slap for that!

Our first full day was a quiet one. David flew back to Liverpool early to be with the rest of the family so we were left to relax with some English TV for a change. Given the past few days it was never going to be an eventful day for us.

On the Saturday we decided to start exploring a bit. We were looking out for lederhosen since it was Oktoberfest but neither of us realised just how normal it is to wear traditional dress in Munich. Christine wants one of the dresses but we didn't manage to find quite the right one and since James didn't get to wear lederhosen, he's just going to have to next time! Our first taste of the Oktoberfest tradition came when we found the Hofbrauhaus. We loved it. The beer was great (and huge) and the band were playing right in front of us, I think one of them was a bit taken with Christine! We did find out that our German drinking songs need a bit of practice when we had to mumble the rest of the words to 'Ein Prosit' but we made a promise to learn them. Turns out there aren't that many anyway. So we stumble back to the apartment a bit tipsy, stopping off for some Bratwurst on the way (mmm sauerkraut for James - yum!) but the fun wasn't over yet, a bit of a play fight waiting for the underground to get back left Christine with a bruised bum and James with tears of laughter. Beer and balance don't mix!

Sunday was a chilled out day for obvious reasons! A good day to Skype home and catch up on all the news back in Manchester. George kept us entertained with an impressive dance routine that had more couch jumping in it than either of us has ever done. We did manage to make it out in the afternoon though and had a walk round the English Gardens and a sit by the lake watching the Sun gradually go down.

PS Sorry for the delay but the internet has been a bit hit and miss so we've had to prioritise! Pictures to follow soon

ich bin ein berliner too!

Day 2 and we are all set to go on a free tour of Berlin but yet again we are running late. We get to the met stop just in time to see our metro go past. James kicks a bollard and I stifle a giggle, southerners are funny when they are angry heehee! All is not lost as we realise we are still in time for the free Alternative Tour which explains the meaning behind some of Berlin's street art and provides facts that you wouldn't hear on a normal tour. It was a good tour (especially for free) but we felt cheated when it was explained that street art is usually painted on to paper and then pasted on the walls to save time and reduce the risk of  getting caught by the graffiti police, grow some balls Berliners!

                

Little Lucy - different ways
to kill a cat

Street art outside the
 Anne Frank museum

Owls and dogs

We walked along the East Side Gallery, looking at all of the brilliant artwork  on the longest strip of the remaining wall. My favourite was the Pink Floyd art obviously!

All this walking has made us thirsty so we find a cool bar to chill out in and look forward to our trip to the top of the Reichstag later...oh wait...we're running late again! We get to the building just as the door is being closed, doh. Maybe the lady will let us in on the next tour if we're lucky? 20 minutes later and a few smirky looks from the security guards we decide to give up. Walking around the corner we see the actual Reichstag, we'd been waiting at the wrong building. For those who have seen the Reichstag you know that it is impossible to mix it up with any other building but we somehow managed it. No bollard kicking from James this time though.

The next day we have a stroll down the Ku Damm Avenue and then make our way to the memorial on Bernauer Street. The houses on this street were the border houses which were used as escape routes through the wall. Once this was discovered the first few floors of the buildings had the doors and windows bricked up forcing people to move. We watched some footage of people jumping from higher floors into the street below which just shows how desperate they were to escape. Upsetting stuff.

Next to the memorial was one of the remaining watchtowers which was still in between both sides of the wall so we got a peek of 'no mans land'.

 It was then time for our turn to visit the Reichstag (the actual one) which is a very impressive building with great views of Berlin.

Inside

Outside

Inside out

We've heard that Berlin has a great nightlife so we find a very cool bar called Kptn which is full of locals, perfect! After that we moved on to a bar called Kunsliche Beatmung, heehee silly German name. We wish we could stay for longer but Munich beckons.

Berlin is awesome.

 

Ich bin ein Berliner!

Within half a day of being in Berlin we know we're going to love it here. The people are really friendly and the atmosphere is very happy and positive. We walked down to the Batenberg gate (oh OK, the Brandenburg gate) passing a few pieces of the Berlin wall on the way. After realising how cool I was doing the 'east side, west side' hand gestures James decided to have a go himself, it took him a while to work it out.

 

Just the sight of the huge Holocaust memorial is enough to make us both feel emotional, if we hadn't already been thinking about the tragedy that had happened here then we most definitely are now.

A bit of a wander round the city saw us end up at Checkpoint Charlie, the last remaining crossing point between east and west Berlin and another sombre reminder of a city divided although it does make it all the more impressive that Berlin and it's people are so unified now.

All these history lessons make you hungry so we decided it was time to try and find some proper German food (but not currywurst...yet) so to anyone who goes to visit and stays in Prenzlauer Berg we definitely recommend Cafe Prenzlau, and also suggest picking something off the menu at random. Despite seeing the place packed the night before, we had it all to ourselves and even though Christine had to pick out a bit of ham from her strange beef roulade thingy our point and hope strategy worked very well. It helps when the beer is cheap and awesome too (Jarosever - it's top, especially the dunkel. Hehe).

1 day down, 3 to go!