Spain
All of our dinners in Spain include all you can drink wines. Too bad my mom and I don’t drink at all. People pour out onto the streets at night around 10pm, like Le Loi street in Saigon on Christmas, or Georgetown on Halloween.
Barcelona
Gaudi’s famous Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) – a gothic Catholic cathedral, all costs have been covered by donations. Construction started in 1883, scheduled to finish in 2020. But the opening date actually depends on how much people donate. The more donations there are, the faster the construction.
Montserrat – The sacred mountain of Catalonia with spectacular panoramic views and the Basilica of Black Madonna. The rock formations have unique shapes, some look like human figures, some look like animals.
Buffet dinner & Spanish Flamenco Show – Buffet includes all you can drink wines (red and white) and Spanish specialty cocktail. Contrary to others’ opinions, I find the buffet food only OK, not great. But it does offer tons of choices, all authentic. We were the first (and only people!) in the restaurant at 6:30pm, and still remained the only group there when we left the restaurant around 8:15! Spanish eats dinner late. They usually start their night with tapas (small plates, ranging from veggies, cheese to meat and seafood) around 9:00. Real dinners don’t start until 10 or later. Then we headed to see the Flamenco show. Flamenco is a very sad dance; the dancers express the pain, miseries and injustice suffered by the minority (the Gypsy) throughout history through their music and facial expressions. The show was great, but had they explained the story line behind the dances, we would be able to appreciate the whole thing more.
Madrid – Capital of Spain, virtually created from scratch by Philip II in the 16th century. Dinner in Madrid was very good. Worth noting – the Spanish fish soup, with clams, fish and shrimps. It’s very different than most soups I’d had, but oh so delicious!
I needed hot water for Theraflu, and the hotel wanted to charge us 3 bucks for it! Kids are sent home from school from 1 to 3 for naps. They then return to school until 5. We were told that most shops in Spain are closed from 1 to 5 pm, they call it “siesta” time. But we didn’t expect a 24hr store would close for napping too! We had such a hard time finding something light to eat in the afternoon, because most restaurants are closed after lunch, and won’t open until 8 at night for dinner. Can you imagine this? Having trouble buying food in the middle of a big city??