Day 9 - 10, Zürich, Switzerland

AirBerlin continued to impress us, delivering us swiftly and without a hitch to Zurich, which had pretty much the same weather as Spain (=hot and sunny). Swiss public transport also did not disappoint and we dropped our bags at Claudia's place shortly after 3pm from where, without much ado, we headed out to Stephanie and Dennis to enjoy the first summer barbecue. The conservatory/balcony/terrace proved to be a great venue, with the sun blazing and the built-in fireplace producing tasty grilled fare right by the dining table. Between us, Claudia, Steffi, Dennis, Jens, Max, Claudia and Mark there were loads of updates to cover, so time flew by quickly. To top things up, Barca gave ManU a thorough beating in the CL final, which received widespread approval. Claudia and Gerard dropped by around midnight, just as the party was winding down - so on the way home the four of us stopped by the city center a quick exploration of late Zurich nightlife.

Making the best of the good weather, we decided to meet up at the Viadukt/Markthalle for an outdoor brunch the next morning. Very tasty food indeed, but a preview of what Swiss prices are like. Afterwards we strolled to a nice little place by the river, which Foursquare aptly refered to as the hipster place in Zurich, but which was very nice nonetheless. Despite being tempted, nobody decided to jump in, so we restrained ourselves to a drink and some more talking and lazying around in the sunshine. We also ran into Gerard and some friends, but didn't have too much time to chat, as our train to Montreux was departing in the early afternoon. Picking up our bags and saying good-bye to Claudia were the last things on our agenda, before heading south on the ever efficient Swiss train system.

Photos from Spain

Day 5 - 8, Andalucia, Spain

Maybe it was not the smartest thing to do at ~40 degrees in the sunshine, but we opted for an open double-decker bus tour of Seville before heading off to see the rest of Andalucia. The tour was actually very nice and informative, but at the height of the day, in what Sevillanos like to consider "springtime", we were melting. Around the corner from the Giralda, we escaped into the shade of a tapas place and then off to our rental car to drive to Cordoba. On our way there we stopped at the sleepy and charming town of Carmona, having a quick bite at "La Almazara" and enjoying the views and site of the Parador, a spectacular fortress turned hotel.

Traveler's luck was clearly on our side as we reached Cordoba, not only finding a cute little hostel in the middle of town (and right at the height of the Feria de Cordoba season), but also because our little evening stroll took us towards the Alcazaba de los Reyes Catolicos, which happened to open its doors that particular evening to welcome us to a sound, light and water show in it's regal gardens. Maybe because it was unexpected or simply because they put on a good show of music playing to the movement of the fountains and the colour-lights display, but we immediately felt enthralled by what Cordoba had to offer.

We followed this with a late dinner by the old city walls, and then headed over the Puente Romano towards the Feria grounds for a peak of some traditional customs and costumes. It was a real sensory overload with all sorts of music playing everywhere, lights, joyrides, the smell of food, and the colours of the flamenco dresses filling the area.

The following day we got up early, to avoid the midday heat and to make the most of a full-packed day. First item on the list was the Mezquita-Catedral and the Mosque of Cordoba blew us away. It's an amazing fusion of Islam and Christianity in peaceful, grandiose surroundings. If only this peacefulness replicated around the world. It is certainly a place to admire and worth spending some time to take in it's magnitude, its history and architecture. A quick stop at the Roman theatre ruins and we were off to Granada to our next Andalusian stop. Before moving on it must be said the we found Cordoba to be a beautiful unpretentious town, with incredible history and buildings to testify to it.

And Granada didn't disappoint either. After a bit of difficulty finding a parking place in its winding hilly roads, we made our way to hotel Palacio Santa Ines as recommended by Eva and Julian. As we had a pre-booked reservation to see the Alhambra (a necessity to pre-book by the way), we quickly moved on to grab something to eat - a nice kebab and some Moroccan peppermint tea in a typical Moroccan place common to the heavily Arab influenced Albayzin neighbourhood. We then speeded by bus to the Alhambra and Generalife, where we were able to enjoy two and a half hours walking through the gardens, courtyards, fortress and Carlos V's palace. Late afternoon was a great time to do this visit, with the sun a bit lower, the air a bit cooler, less people around and the colours of the red-stone palace (which is what Alhambra stands for) seem to come alive.

We ended the first part of the Alhamba visit and - following advice from Elena - went looking for a restaurant back in the Albayzin. Unfortunately the place was no longer there, but as good chance would have it we ended in a quaint plaza (San Nicolas maybe?) with the most amazing sunset views of the jewel of Granada and the snow-capped Sierra Nevada as a backdrop. We found a terrace to have our by-now staple diet of sangria and tapas and with luck still very much on our side, we got prime front-row seats to watch the Alhambra at sunset. And that is where we headed once again to enjoy a night time tour of the Palacios Nazaries.

The following day saw us driving through the foothills of the Sierra towards the Mediterranean. Up and down it went and we climbed up to 1280m at our highest point, enthusiastically tracked through the MyTracks app. The only interuptions of the drive where a simple lunch (which we payed with our last remaining coins) and a brief excursion into no-mans land for emergency refueling (don't trust a Mercedes board computer!). After a much longer drive than initially expected, we finally made it to Nerja where we spent the night, not without having had a tasty tapas dinner, of course.

With a good few hours worth to kill before hitting Malaga airport, we dedicated the next day to lazyness. A deckchair session at the beach was followed by an extensive Paella lunch, followed by a leasurely drive to Malaga, where we returned the car and arrived at the airport 2.5 hours ahead of time. Or so we thought. Unbeknownst to us, AirBerlin had reverted the announced change of flight time and our plane had left 5 hours previously. Luckily, AirBerlin proved to be very friendly (danke, Susanne!) and we ended up spending the evening and the night in the crew hotel with a room overlooking the sea, with dinner and breakfast paid. Not too bad for a forced layover! So we weren't too unhappy, when we boarded the replacement flight at 9.30am the next morning, which would bring us to Zurich via Düsseldorf.

Day 1 - 4, Sevilla, Spain

The first official event of the weekend was on Friday evening. Joined by Eva, Julian and Claudia we headed out at around 9pm to Puerto de Cuba for drinks with the bride and groom, meeting a number of Danish friends of Henrik and Elena's two brothers. We were still a bit wrecked from the sleepless Thursday night so we took the opportunity that Elena was leaving (to get her beauty sleep for the big day) and concluded the night at "José Luis", for some delicious tapas, setting the theme for the weekend.

The next morning the girls went for hair & nail beauty appointments, whilst the boys slept in and did some shopping. In the end we were all united for lunch together with Borja - fashionably taken at ~3pm. After a few wardrobe issues on the male side (wrong suit jacket, missing tie), we were all off to the ceremony. The moment had arrived: Elena entering the church led by her father, walking towards Henrik. We actually could not see her at first as the photographer and video guy were blocking our view, but once we did, we saw how beautiful she looked in her long embroidered dress. The ceremony was in Spanish with the sermon translated into English, and a few prayers in Danish too.

We were then off to the Hacienda to start a full 10 hours of eating and dancing. Besides the bride and groom, the other star of the evening became the Jamon Serrano, which we were strategically standing by during most of the reception. After substantial appetizers we moved on to the main reception room for dinner, but thankfully this was paced, as per good Danish tradition, there were speeches throughout the meal. They were a mix of heartfelt funny and loving words for Elena and Henrik, again in Spanish, Danish and English. Another cute tradition we all followed was that when the bride left the room, all the ladies in the room ran towards the groom to kiss him, and the same was done to Elena by the guys when Henrik left the room. The night then included the cutting of the cake, the first dance, Elena singing "Don't Stop me now" by Queen and dancing until 5am. All in all, a really good evening to celebrate a great ocassion!

Day 3 and 4 were necessary to recover, relax and realize that we are not just on a long weekend away, but actually on a 100 day mega-trip. Following the wedding day we met the newlyweds, friends and family for some more amazing Andalucian food. The trouble with tapas-style is that you don't realize how much you eat - but hey, we're on holidays and are meant to be enjoying these kind of things. On Monday we went with Claudia to Cadiz to enjoy the beach and... you guessed it, more great food! We also visted Arcos de la Frontera, a typical white-painted town on a hill common to Andalucia, with small winding roads and a great view of the country side. More food awaited us in Seville on return (at 11pm), followed by late drinks with Henrik and Elena to see them once again before they headed off to their honeymoon. Besides the clear focus on food we have had in the first days of this trip, one other thing must be said about southern Spain: Everything seems to happen 3 hours later. Breakfast leisurely at 11am, lunch around 3 or even 4pm, dinner at 11pm and off to bed at 3am on a normal Monday night...TGIM!

Day 0 - 1, Heading out!

So, the day has finally come! We are off.

Actually, the day started roughly 12 hours early, with a small get together in our apartment with the goal to empty the remaining bottles and for everybody to take away what food we hadn't been able to consume in the days and weeks before. The get together turned into a phenomenal all-school-nighter party, with final guests leaving at 5am (thank you Sandra and Jens) and one pair of very bruised knees (thank you Bon Jovi and Alex). Given the time of our departure flight (7.30am) we decided against sleep, closed our bags and headed straight for Terminal 2, Dublin Airport. Surprisingly, the flight to Malaga was on a large plane (A-330), fully packed with Irish eager for a bit of warm weather and sunshine. We were eager too, but for sleep, so that's what we did all flight long.

On arrival in Malaga we took the train to the centre (helped by very friendly people at the station) and stored the bags and made off into the city. Contrary to popular belief, familiar drizzle welcomed us to Spain and while we'd love to say more about Malaga we can't as we didn't see much. After a quick lunch it was back to the station, where it was time to collect the bags and catch the train to Sevilla. We navigated the obligatory luggage screening and were ready for another 2.5 hours of sleep, crossing the ever more sunny side of Andalucia. On the other side of the train waited our first port of call, Elena and Henrik's wedding.