Spain and Portugal for Visitors

(Do bear in mind that these are taken from blogs, not written documents, and what's more they were written on the move, so don't inspect them for grammatical correctness, good punctuation or correct spelling.)

Spain:
"I have fallen in love with this country, its people and their life style."
"I must say that traveling around Spain was the greatest experience ever."
"The feel of Spain is like no other, the sights are beautiful."

Madrid:
"Madrid is truly amazing, for a city this big it is incredibly clean and organized. It even smells different, as if the air is clean too."
The Palacio Real:
"I saw the King’s Throne Room!"
"El Palacio Real is probably the most pretentious place I´ve ever seen."

Burgos:
""Tell me more. I want to know all about it," I said. "I am very interested." "Well of course you are." she said. "You are a descendant of Spaniards." With that I began embracing the culture, the Spanish culture. It is my culture."

San Sebastián:
"I think this is the first place that I have been to where they have one-hundred and thirty-five bars in a single place. You would think that they would not be packed all at once but they are."

Pamplona:
"Pamplona was a really cool city."

Barcelona:
(Let's shall draw a veil over the run-in with the prostitutes of varying sexes on Las Ramblas)
"...a modern city, which right now seems to be going under a mayor renovation there is a scaffold in almost every corner, the streets are being worked on and building going up."
The Sagrada Familia:
"I was amazed by the creative and lifelike trees, fruit, shells, and animal carvings. There were also birds, snakes, snails, sea-snails, lizards, salamanders, frogs and tadpoles."
" It looks like Gaudi was having a fun time with all the designs he made up."
"(The Parque Güell) resemble very much a childs playground, combinng nature and architecture to blend together, as if the buiding grew into the park."

Valencia:
"People everywhere were wearing... stylish clothing and the backdrop of beautiful buildings just caught your eye."
"I got the chance to see the Holy Grail which was by far the most fulfilling thing I´ve done during my tour of Spain."
"...the arm of Vincent de Martyr, that was a Little creepy to say the least."
(In Valencia Cathedral, everyone was impressed by the Holy Grail (for different reasons, including religious sentiment, its appearance in an Indiana Jones film or its role in The Da Vinci Code), but only Mariela and Victoria seem to have found the latter, more gory relic.)

Granada:
"Granada is one of the most beautiful cities in the world... of incomparable monumental weatlth, exquisite parks, gardens and rich history... located between the Mediterranean Sea and the peaks of the Sierra Nevada.

Torremolinos:
"Torremolinos also known as Costa de Sol... The beaches are stunning."
"People flock to this city to lay out in the sand all day either topless or covered. Kids play a game that I couldn't figure out that involves patting a ball back and forth while their parents sip drinks and read."

Seville:
(In the Real Alcázar) "Many rooms and courtyards seem to be hidden from your sight; you enter one room and view its beauty, not seeing any other room or courtyards. Then you exit the door and see another gorgeous room with its courtyard that contains fountains and gardens."

Food and Drink:
"The food tasted weird, and I have no idea was alot of it was, but at least the second course had steak."
"I am not a big fan; althought if you love sea food you´ll be in heaven over here."
"...since the locals here are acustomed to eating dinner later the owner of the restaurant had to open it in order for us to eat."
"I am not going to want eat type of cured meat for a long long time." (There was a general overdose of jamón)

Language:
"It seems like everywhere we go in this country, the people speak a different form of Spanish. Its really annoying because I can barely speak and understand one dialect, much less four."
"The taxi cab driver (in San Sebastian) was very nice, he taught us some words in Basque like: nilinche polita means pretty woman, and aguro means bye."

Asking for Directions:
"When we asked people for help, the most common response was ¨down the street and turn to your right.¨ When we first heard this, we walked down a street for a considerably long time. It took us a while to figure out that it wasn´t always the truth."

Spanish Women:
"To my surprise (the Spanish lady customs agent) is gorgeous she has a warm smile and a calming Spanish speaking voice thank God I understand her and shes makes me feel welcome..."
"Its hard to find an unattractive woman here."

There's a lot more, of course. Not all their encounters with Spaniards were entirely happy, the food wasn't always to everyone's taste, things were more expensive than they had expected, and so on. Nor is it surprising that they didn't quite understand everything, and on a couple of points their ideas are about 180º away from reality, given the "Knowledge Overload" to which they were exposed. And I have not included references to their assignments (the most memorable being the day they were ordered out to eavesdrop on other people's conversations, a fine skill for future reporters or any other kind of writer to acquire).

You'll find all the Palo Alto students' blogs linked to from that of Dr. Denise Barkis Richter, here.