Long weekend in Spain & Portugal

Our friends' wedding invitation to Galicia was an excellent opportunity for us to explore western Iberia this summer: a perfect destination (Baiona, one of the best resorts at the Galician coast) and just as perfect timing (my birthday weekend)... The only challenge was getting to the right place at the right time. After extensive internet research we found the "best" flight connections: Zürich to Galicia in 3 days via Barcelona and Porto.

Never mind, at least we get the chance to add Portugal to our list of countries visited... and Barcelona, well, it's anyway a city where we wanted to return to, for two reasons: 1. our first visit was in February and the city in winter-time doesn't present its full potential, 2. to return to La Sagrada Familia, one of our favorite sites to check on the construction progress :D

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Barcelona

When we first visited it in 2007, we said we wanted to return when it was completed. We were now surprised to see how long we'd still have to wait...

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Barcelona

Since there was a very long queue and extremely hot outside, we gave up waiting for the tickets and went to the Güell park and the beach instead. Eh, well. This just gives us another reason to return to Barcelona again (perhaps with our grand-childeren :-)), waiting for the eventual completion of the La Sagrada Familia.

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Barcelona

As mentioned, we headed towards the Güell park, hoping for a bit of refreshment in the green. As always, the park was crowded by tourists, so pretty soon we ended up at the beach, enjoying a relaxing afternoon at the sea, followed by a gorgeous seafood birthday dinner at La Rambla.

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Barcelona

The next day we continued our journey to Porto, the city built along the hillsides overlooking the mouth of the Douro river, which offered a lot of pleasant moments: exhausting walks up and down the winding roads (not sure if it was the language, the hilly roads or the colourful houses, but there was something in the city that reminded us of Salvador de Bahia), followed by a relaxing 6 bridges river cruise and wine tasting of the famous Porto wine.  

From EUROPE - PORTUGAL - Porto

We spent couple of very pleasant days in Porto (see entire full album on Porto here) before heading along the coastline of North-Portugal towards the Spanish border.

From EUROPE - PORTUGAL - Porto

In the end, the purpose of our journey was to reach Baiona...

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Galicia

... and celebrate Thomas and Laura's wedding in the gorgeous Parador de Baiona castle.

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Galicia