ComfyShoes's Trip to Spain: Trip Report
May 21st, 2007, 01:06 AM
#21
hi, comfy,
great report- looking forward to the next installment.
glad you got into the Cathedral - it was shut for renovations [or the spanish equivalent, I forget the word] when we were there in Feb.
Have to say you didn't miss too much in teh palace - the most impressive part is the exterior, and its sheer size, IMO.
didn't think too much of the reina sophia, apart from the "guernica" and the picasso sketches - but glad I went.
like you we loved the chocolate - near out hotel was a choccolateria that only opened at in the pm - but then stayed open into the early hours. needless to say we never made it after midnight!
regards, ann
great report- looking forward to the next installment.
glad you got into the Cathedral - it was shut for renovations [or the spanish equivalent, I forget the word] when we were there in Feb.
Have to say you didn't miss too much in teh palace - the most impressive part is the exterior, and its sheer size, IMO.
didn't think too much of the reina sophia, apart from the "guernica" and the picasso sketches - but glad I went.
like you we loved the chocolate - near out hotel was a choccolateria that only opened at in the pm - but then stayed open into the early hours. needless to say we never made it after midnight!
regards, ann
May 21st, 2007, 06:18 AM
#22
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laartista, Welcome back.
josemccall, Yes, I distinctly remember the white houses with green windows on the left as you head towards Galapagar. Would be delighted to meet but in couple years.
Ann, Thank you. I don't know enough about contemporary art to be able to appreciate it much. I guess what I am trying to say is that your impressions of Reina Sofia is not so far from mine but partly because I am not a good judge.
josemccall, Yes, I distinctly remember the white houses with green windows on the left as you head towards Galapagar. Would be delighted to meet but in couple years.
Ann, Thank you. I don't know enough about contemporary art to be able to appreciate it much. I guess what I am trying to say is that your impressions of Reina Sofia is not so far from mine but partly because I am not a good judge.
May 21st, 2007, 06:30 AM
#23
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Day 4: Visiting Toledo
Since we all had slept rather well last night, we were quite relaxed in the morning. We had planned to visit Toledo, and wanted to leave by 8 am. Which we did! We took the same bus to Moncloa (yes, no delay in A-6’s bus/carpool lane!) and then a metro to one of Madrid’s southern most stations (15 minutes). I had decided to leave my camera bag behind and, had put my camera in my laptop bag. I felt I fit perfectly in the Metro crowd as a businessman, one needing serious encouragement in life because I probably looked too relaxed
, going to work in business casual wear with a laptop bag slung across his shoulders. From the Metro, we went on a bus that took an hour to get to Toledo. Since the entire trip was covered by the cheap Abono transport tickets, I thanked the Fodorites recommending this "limo" service, and settled in the seat. The scenery was nothing spectacular so I mostly read up on what to see there.
In Toledo, our first stop was a coffee house on Plaza San Gines. Can you tell we are getting used to the Spanish life style? DW and I had cups of great coffee, and the kids chose Zumo de Naranja, a drink they will order again, and again, and again! The waiter chose to speak to us in English despite DW asking for everything in perfect Spanish. I think it may have something do with the fact that I do not look like an average Spaniard At the end of the coffee, I wanted to leave tip, but DW indicated that since we were sitting out in the Plaza, additional service charges were included. So, Carlos, despite his english, didn't get any tip from me.
Out of the Café, we needed to exchange dollars (cash) that we had stupidly brought with ourselves instead of simply using an ATM as recommended on…. Where else? Right here on Fodors! As we walked into a Banco Santander (I think) branch, we found one long line of customers. However, this was vacation so none of us particularly cared and waited patiently in line. After staying in the line for a few minutes, we saw an anxious looking man carry a briefcase full of dollar bills, and slip immediately in front of another cashier completely bypassing the line. We stayed put for another fifteen minutes only to be told to go to that other cashier where there was no line right from the beginning. Oh well. The cashier was a mid-20s Spanish lady who spoke almost perfect English and, frequently smiled with nice dimples on both cheeks, likely strategically placed in that window to lessen the pain of an awful exchange rate. Okay, just kidding about the latter. Smooth transaction but given the exchange rate, we vowed to save the rest of our cash and simply use the ATM.
Next stop: the Alcazar. As we excitedly walked towards it, we found it was closed for repairs! The streets around Alcazar (Cuesta De Carlos V) took us to beautiful views of Rio Tajo, right across from an imposing building of Academia de Infanteria (it is obvious that military is big business in Spain.... come to think of it, so is the church.... Or at least it used to be). We took a few pictures near there, and then moved on towards the Cathedral via Calle de Los Pascuales and Calle de Locum.
We spent roughly an hour- and a half in the Cathedral. The primarily 13th-century architecture of Toledo cathedral was inspired by the Gothic cathedrals of France but the squat proportions give it a Spanish feel, as do the wealth and weight of the furnishings and the location of the elaborate choir in the center of the nave. The scale of the exterior of the cathedral, even with its grand spire and massive buttresses, is difficult to appreciate unless you go out of town, but let me tell you that it is pretty. So far as art, highlights include Goya's Arrest of Christ on the Mount of Olives and El Greco’s Twelve Apostles and Spoliation of Christ (El Espolio). As we will later find in Prado’s audio guides, El Espolio which is one of El Greco's earliest works in Toledo, offended the inquisition, which accused the artist of putting Christ on a lower level than some of the onlookers. El Greco was thrown into prison, where his career might have ended had he not by this time formed friendships with some of Toledo's more moderate clergy.
Out of the Cathedral, we decided to street-walk and head for our lunch destination, a restaurant called Hierbabuena located on Calle De Cristo De La Luz. After walking an uphill walk, which seemed like for ever specially with two kids in tow, we arrived at the street only to find a Cristo De La Luz but no Hierbabuena! So I called the restaurant and the man told us to take a street that was anything but Cristo De La Luz, but tired, sweaty, and very hungry, we moved on! We found it soon enough. Fodorite Josele had described it perfectly to me. It is a small, upscale restaurant that has a small Moorish courtyard, and prides itself for its famous Partridge dish. To be honest, I could have eaten just about anything by then but we placed our orders for a number of dishes to sample, and patiently waited for our food while hungrily nibbling on the bread and small appetizer plates (murcilla and chorizo etc) that the restaurant kept placing in front of us. When the entrée came, I must say I have never had such a partridge dish EVER. The dishes we tried were: braised partridge with sautéed saffron mild cup mushrooms, baked red onions with creamed peppers, leak and prawn crepes, salmon pate with Roquefort cheese and olives, etc (later on in the trip, I decided to stop being so anal about writing what I was eating and instead just enjoying it.... It just seemed really childish to flip out a note book to write down what the heck we were eating!). On the next table, a Spanish man, who I could have swore looked just like a young Saddam Hussein, kept alternately smoking cigars and drinking wine. He was in a very well cut, formal business suit (as a man, I notice stuff like that) and having his lunch during his lunch break. I so envied his lifestyle and likely town of work! Anyway, we spent a total of two hours, a whopping $175 Euros for a lunch (no wine!) for two adults and two kids, and moved on to shop for Toledo stuff starting from Plaza De San Gines, and walking down on Calle Del Commercio towards southwest part of the town.
Streets in Toledo are really interesting. It is obviously a very touristy place, but the prevalence of Moorish architecture everywhere seems to negate that effect. You can see cute and rather ornate balconies with all sorts of flowers hanging from baskets. A wide variety of shops abound: ceramics/pottery, sweets, cafes, restaurants, and of course, arts and what not. After much window shopping, we almost bought an ornate Abanico (hand crafted Spanish fan) which my nine year old seemed really interested in but decided to wait till Sevilla for better choices (good idea). We did purchase a small sword with much design, couple bracelets with engravings for the "girls" with me, a large marzipan for Jose and Maribel, and some other stuff including an engraved envelope opener for a dear friend of ours and a very nice looking, brass Don Quixote for my office display mantle back in the States.
Towards the end of the day, we quickly visited the El Transito Synagogue and Sephardic Museum that had interesting artifacts from hundreds of years, Museo Victorio Macho (that was temporarily hosting many of El Greco’s paintings since the El Greco Home was under repair), and Iglesia de Santo Tome that had a huge El Greco painting at the entrance. Iglesia De Santo Tome dates from the twelfth century and was rebuilt in 1300. It boasts a beautiful Mudejar tower, but most of its visitors come mainly to see El Greco's most important painting, the Burial of Count Orgaz (late 1500s), which is housed in a side chapel with its own separate entrance. El Greco has done good stuff, it is just that (to me) they need to be seen in a Church instead of in Museums because they really seem to belong there.
Anyway, it was nearly seven O’clock, and we went back to the bus stop. As we were waiting for the bus, half a dozen men started having a very loud dialogue in Spanish and one-by-one they all lit up Marlboro cigarettes. Observation as a former smoker, this has got to be a hard place to quit smoking or to tell kids not to start! The driver showed up exactly on time, and without a glitch, we were back in Navata in time to have dinner.
In Navata, Jose who is an elderly gentleman but one with tremendous attention to details, carefully looked over everything we bought, made comments about the engravings I simply didn’t even notice, and promised making me a handmade little sign for the base of Don Quixote.
Just a general observation: I have always felt there is something very special about Spain in the way elders relate with kids. I better qualify it by saying: the folks I know. I think the difference is the level of enjoyment older people get out of doing stuff with kids as opposed to just being nice to them (then again, a large percent of world’s population doesn’t do even that!).
Anyway, lots of walk for everyone that day so another night of grasshoppers songs, occasional dog barks, and long, restful sleep!
Advice: I have none! Well, except that if you are in Madrid, consider spending a day in Toledo because it, sort of, transports you back to a different time.
Tomorrow: Madrid Musuems
Since we all had slept rather well last night, we were quite relaxed in the morning. We had planned to visit Toledo, and wanted to leave by 8 am. Which we did! We took the same bus to Moncloa (yes, no delay in A-6’s bus/carpool lane!) and then a metro to one of Madrid’s southern most stations (15 minutes). I had decided to leave my camera bag behind and, had put my camera in my laptop bag. I felt I fit perfectly in the Metro crowd as a businessman, one needing serious encouragement in life because I probably looked too relaxed
, going to work in business casual wear with a laptop bag slung across his shoulders. From the Metro, we went on a bus that took an hour to get to Toledo. Since the entire trip was covered by the cheap Abono transport tickets, I thanked the Fodorites recommending this "limo" service, and settled in the seat. The scenery was nothing spectacular so I mostly read up on what to see there. In Toledo, our first stop was a coffee house on Plaza San Gines. Can you tell we are getting used to the Spanish life style?
DW and I had cups of great coffee, and the kids chose Zumo de Naranja, a drink they will order again, and again, and again! The waiter chose to speak to us in English despite DW asking for everything in perfect Spanish. I think it may have something do with the fact that I do not look like an average Spaniard At the end of the coffee, I wanted to leave tip, but DW indicated that since we were sitting out in the Plaza, additional service charges were included. So, Carlos, despite his english, didn't get any tip from me. Out of the Café, we needed to exchange dollars (cash) that we had stupidly brought with ourselves instead of simply using an ATM as recommended on…. Where else? Right here on Fodors!
As we walked into a Banco Santander (I think) branch, we found one long line of customers. However, this was vacation so none of us particularly cared and waited patiently in line. After staying in the line for a few minutes, we saw an anxious looking man carry a briefcase full of dollar bills, and slip immediately in front of another cashier completely bypassing the line. We stayed put for another fifteen minutes only to be told to go to that other cashier where there was no line right from the beginning. Oh well. The cashier was a mid-20s Spanish lady who spoke almost perfect English and, frequently smiled with nice dimples on both cheeks, likely strategically placed in that window to lessen the pain of an awful exchange rate. Okay, just kidding about the latter. Smooth transaction but given the exchange rate, we vowed to save the rest of our cash and simply use the ATM. Next stop: the Alcazar. As we excitedly walked towards it, we found it was closed for repairs! The streets around Alcazar (Cuesta De Carlos V) took us to beautiful views of Rio Tajo, right across from an imposing building of Academia de Infanteria (it is obvious that military is big business in Spain.... come to think of it, so is the church.... Or at least it used to be). We took a few pictures near there, and then moved on towards the Cathedral via Calle de Los Pascuales and Calle de Locum.
We spent roughly an hour- and a half in the Cathedral. The primarily 13th-century architecture of Toledo cathedral was inspired by the Gothic cathedrals of France but the squat proportions give it a Spanish feel, as do the wealth and weight of the furnishings and the location of the elaborate choir in the center of the nave. The scale of the exterior of the cathedral, even with its grand spire and massive buttresses, is difficult to appreciate unless you go out of town, but let me tell you that it is pretty. So far as art, highlights include Goya's Arrest of Christ on the Mount of Olives and El Greco’s Twelve Apostles and Spoliation of Christ (El Espolio). As we will later find in Prado’s audio guides, El Espolio which is one of El Greco's earliest works in Toledo, offended the inquisition, which accused the artist of putting Christ on a lower level than some of the onlookers. El Greco was thrown into prison, where his career might have ended had he not by this time formed friendships with some of Toledo's more moderate clergy.
Out of the Cathedral, we decided to street-walk and head for our lunch destination, a restaurant called Hierbabuena located on Calle De Cristo De La Luz. After walking an uphill walk, which seemed like for ever specially with two kids in tow, we arrived at the street only to find a Cristo De La Luz but no Hierbabuena! So I called the restaurant and the man told us to take a street that was anything but Cristo De La Luz, but tired, sweaty, and very hungry, we moved on! We found it soon enough. Fodorite Josele had described it perfectly to me. It is a small, upscale restaurant that has a small Moorish courtyard, and prides itself for its famous Partridge dish. To be honest, I could have eaten just about anything by then but we placed our orders for a number of dishes to sample, and patiently waited for our food while hungrily nibbling on the bread and small appetizer plates (murcilla and chorizo etc) that the restaurant kept placing in front of us. When the entrée came, I must say I have never had such a partridge dish EVER. The dishes we tried were: braised partridge with sautéed saffron mild cup mushrooms, baked red onions with creamed peppers, leak and prawn crepes, salmon pate with Roquefort cheese and olives, etc (later on in the trip, I decided to stop being so anal about writing what I was eating and instead just enjoying it.... It just seemed really childish to flip out a note book to write down what the heck we were eating!). On the next table, a Spanish man, who I could have swore looked just like a young Saddam Hussein, kept alternately smoking cigars and drinking wine. He was in a very well cut, formal business suit (as a man, I notice stuff like that) and having his lunch during his lunch break. I so envied his lifestyle and likely town of work! Anyway, we spent a total of two hours, a whopping $175 Euros for a lunch (no wine!) for two adults and two kids, and moved on to shop for Toledo stuff starting from Plaza De San Gines, and walking down on Calle Del Commercio towards southwest part of the town.
Streets in Toledo are really interesting. It is obviously a very touristy place, but the prevalence of Moorish architecture everywhere seems to negate that effect. You can see cute and rather ornate balconies with all sorts of flowers hanging from baskets. A wide variety of shops abound: ceramics/pottery, sweets, cafes, restaurants, and of course, arts and what not. After much window shopping, we almost bought an ornate Abanico (hand crafted Spanish fan) which my nine year old seemed really interested in but decided to wait till Sevilla for better choices (good idea). We did purchase a small sword with much design, couple bracelets with engravings for the "girls" with me, a large marzipan for Jose and Maribel, and some other stuff including an engraved envelope opener for a dear friend of ours and a very nice looking, brass Don Quixote for my office display mantle back in the States.
Towards the end of the day, we quickly visited the El Transito Synagogue and Sephardic Museum that had interesting artifacts from hundreds of years, Museo Victorio Macho (that was temporarily hosting many of El Greco’s paintings since the El Greco Home was under repair), and Iglesia de Santo Tome that had a huge El Greco painting at the entrance. Iglesia De Santo Tome dates from the twelfth century and was rebuilt in 1300. It boasts a beautiful Mudejar tower, but most of its visitors come mainly to see El Greco's most important painting, the Burial of Count Orgaz (late 1500s), which is housed in a side chapel with its own separate entrance. El Greco has done good stuff, it is just that (to me) they need to be seen in a Church instead of in Museums because they really seem to belong there.
Anyway, it was nearly seven O’clock, and we went back to the bus stop. As we were waiting for the bus, half a dozen men started having a very loud dialogue in Spanish and one-by-one they all lit up Marlboro cigarettes. Observation as a former smoker, this has got to be a hard place to quit smoking or to tell kids not to start! The driver showed up exactly on time, and without a glitch, we were back in Navata in time to have dinner.
In Navata, Jose who is an elderly gentleman but one with tremendous attention to details, carefully looked over everything we bought, made comments about the engravings I simply didn’t even notice, and promised making me a handmade little sign for the base of Don Quixote.
Just a general observation: I have always felt there is something very special about Spain in the way elders relate with kids. I better qualify it by saying: the folks I know. I think the difference is the level of enjoyment older people get out of doing stuff with kids as opposed to just being nice to them (then again, a large percent of world’s population doesn’t do even that!).
Anyway, lots of walk for everyone that day so another night of grasshoppers songs, occasional dog barks, and long, restful sleep!
Advice: I have none! Well, except that if you are in Madrid, consider spending a day in Toledo because it, sort of, transports you back to a different time.
Tomorrow: Madrid Musuems
May 21st, 2007, 07:03 AM
#24
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By now, I have one thing crystal clear : you haven't starved while in Spain LOL
Probably Carlos is learning English and he didn't want to lose the chance to talk a bit It's not so easy..every tourist here wants to practise their Spanish !
Probably Carlos is learning English and he didn't want to lose the chance to talk a bit
It's not so easy..every tourist here wants to practise their Spanish !
May 21st, 2007, 07:42 AM
#25
hi, comfy -
you sound like a man after my own heart - or rather, stomach!
I loved your description if the meal in toledo, especially as we didn't really "pig out" anywhere - we were always too full of the irresistible tapas.[which don't work out all that cheap!] $175 = about 120E ?? - not bad for a meal like that, IMO. why no wine?
we never made it to toledo - too much to do in Madrid if you're only there three days, though if we'd been there another day, I think we'd have gone.
No, I don't know much about modern art either [or any art come to that] but "I know what I like". most modern art leaves me feeling like the little boy at the emperor's parade, but at least with Picasso, you know that he could draw and paint before he started on the avant garde stuff. I thought that the preliminary sketches for guernica were fascinating - the best bit of the whole gallery.
did you get to the other galleries at all?
looking forward to the next meal [oops, sorry, "installment"]
regards, ann
you sound like a man after my own heart - or rather, stomach!
I loved your description if the meal in toledo, especially as we didn't really "pig out" anywhere - we were always too full of the irresistible tapas.[which don't work out all that cheap!] $175 = about 120E ?? - not bad for a meal like that, IMO. why no wine?
we never made it to toledo - too much to do in Madrid if you're only there three days, though if we'd been there another day, I think we'd have gone.
No, I don't know much about modern art either [or any art come to that] but "I know what I like". most modern art leaves me feeling like the little boy at the emperor's parade, but at least with Picasso, you know that he could draw and paint before he started on the avant garde stuff. I thought that the preliminary sketches for guernica were fascinating - the best bit of the whole gallery.
did you get to the other galleries at all?
looking forward to the next meal [oops, sorry, "installment"]
regards, ann
May 21st, 2007, 11:47 AM
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Reading it now, I have remembered that me too ended up at Cristo de la Luz, to find no restaurant at all, but I made it there as well.
Service is always included, we tip for a good polite-professional service. Sometimes in restaurants, tax is not included, but it shows clearly in the menu (gen. 7%).
Service is always included, we tip for a good polite-professional service. Sometimes in restaurants, tax is not included, but it shows clearly in the menu (gen. 7%).
May 21st, 2007, 02:45 PM
#27
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Kend, Yes, I love Spanish food for sure!
Ann, I believe that stomach and heart are not too far apart for a reason And by "$175 Euros", I meant 175 Euros! $ sign came due to habit. Oh.... Like most people, love good wine but typically don't drink wine with lunches. Just old habit.
I agree with your assessment of contemporary art. It really is hard for me to understand who is doing what. Having a diligent six year old with you may help In my case, my son kept up with his commentary of "this is yucky" "here are clouds and a naked man" or simply "eew!" etc (Yes, I did move him away, very quickly, from Dali's The Great Masturbator because even I got that! Little too soon to explain that ).
I visited both Thyssen/Prado and will detail both in the next report.
Agreed, Josele. Tipping is a habit for Americans, and despite what the bill may says, most Americans likely feel awkward walking away. But yes, in Bush speak, "In Mijas one must do what "Mijasanians" do"!
Ann, I believe that stomach and heart are not too far apart for a reason
And by "$175 Euros", I meant 175 Euros! $ sign came due to habit. Oh.... Like most people, love good wine but typically don't drink wine with lunches. Just old habit. I agree with your assessment of contemporary art. It really is hard for me to understand who is doing what. Having a diligent six year old with you may help
In my case, my son kept up with his commentary of "this is yucky" "here are clouds and a naked man" or simply "eew!" etc (Yes, I did move him away, very quickly, from Dali's The Great Masturbator because even I got that! Little too soon to explain that ). I visited both Thyssen/Prado and will detail both in the next report.
Agreed, Josele. Tipping is a habit for Americans, and despite what the bill may says, most Americans likely feel awkward walking away. But yes, in Bush speak, "In Mijas one must do what "Mijasanians" do"!
May 21st, 2007, 05:16 PM
#29
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Gosh! Pressure... pressure!
Day 5: Visiting Prado and Thyssen in Madrid
We had kept today aside to do Madrid museums at a slow pace, and arrived at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum around nine am. Per Maribel’s guide, before Spanish Government purchased it for $350 Million, it was the largest private collection in the world and belonged to Baron Heinrich Thyssen. In 2004, the second set of almost two hundred paintings were donated by the Baron’s wife (former Miss Spain.... Yes, where there are good looks, many times, there is money.... Or is it the other way around? Just kidding ). This is a really well laid out museum with bright color walls and lots of well placed lights. It is also a quick lesson in the history of western art from the 13th to the 20th centuries, beginning with early Siena school and ending with Mondrin, Hopper, Pollock, Andy Warhol, etc. We were quite impressed with a large number of school kids in small groups sitting, quietly!, on the floor in front of several paintings with an instructor telling them more about the paintings than I would ever know! We followed Maribel’s instructions to the dot and were out of there in three hours. I specially enjoyed paintings of places I have visited such as Roman Fountains and Plazas, and Venice today versus as it was two hundred years ago. One thing that I found strange was that people were taking pictures with their digital cameras/flash everywhere! You would think someone would object but no one did!
By now, our nice and patient kids had begun to show mild signs of impatience and we realized that hunger might further acerbate it all! That Jekyll-Hyde type transformation that first starts slowly before all hell breaking loose, is truly a fun-killer for parents. So, anxiously looking at our younger kid’s face (a better, earlier barometer of our parental problems ahead), we walked towards Maribel’s recommended wine/Tapas bar La Plateria, across the Paseo Del Prado on Calle Moratin. On the way, we passed Fuente de Neptuno and took couple pictures of the buildings nearby. La Plateria was easy enough to find because it was right across from Prado’s entrance. With an outdoor terrace (which we didn’t care for... it was ten degrees celsius! Yes, much better from the snow flurries back home but still slightly chilly), it seemed rather welcoming. We were seated promptly. A family of six women was sitting at the next table, and I thought the older lady (60-ish) kept looking at me probably trying to figure out where I was from. The others included younger women with extremely complicated looking hairdos, and likely good upbringing (it is funny one can gage stuff like that without talking to people... Just the gestures of how one smiles and nods, tell so much about who we are.... most of the time).
The waitress was a South American immigrant who quickly brought what we ordered. That included a wide variety of tapas such as Smoked salmon with brie, Iberian ham, Chorizo de Salamanca, Sheep cheese with rosemary, Tuna breast with peppers, Galician pie with tuna, Spanish omlette, and croquette. She did almost everything right, even smiled several times as she would pass our table and see us gorging ourselves like there was no tomorrow. Okay, I am joking about the gorging part! The one and only problem with the service was that the server took a whole 45 minutes after we had finished everything to bring out a stone-cold Galician pie! I thought it was probably normal in Spain to make people wait for 45 minutes and then serve a frozen-cold pie, and even was about to tip the server but DW disagreed and said it actually sucked to have to wait forever even if we were eating tapas. So I didn’t tip. I remember a very short but elegant Spanish lady, roughly my age, rapidly eating through an appealing-looking potato/cheese dish of some kind. As soon as she was done, she slunk back in her chair, promptly smoked two cigarettes in a row, and then with a surprisingly loud voice from her small frame, shouted "la cuenta, POR FAVOR", dropped the Euros, and stomping her high heel boots, let out a confident "hasta man~ana!" to the manager before slamming the door! Hmmm... So being in a hurry is not just my obsession when I am working and multitasking too many things at the same time! Happens in food-heaven, too.
Finishing the lunch in roughly 2 hours put us at Prado entrance at 3 pm. We used our multi-museum tickets and walked in without any queue. I was in for a real treat here! Until now, nice as Thyssen and Reina Sofia had been, they really were memories I could chalk off in couple years. I was not usually a museum-goer, and had picked so many museums thanks to fodorites frequently discussing them. We started with the second floor and as we started walking through (armed with audio guides.... a MUST here), even amongst throngs of somewhat short Japanese tourists in odd felt hats and almost always led by some bilingual guide with a stupidly-meaningless smile, we went past marvelous pieces of work by Goya, Velazquez, Murillo, El Greco, Rembrandt, Rubens, and what not. Listening to the audio guides explain the history and the context, it was a total sensory overload for me. On the ground floor, we saw works by Raphael, Bosch, Durer, Titian and others. So, what do I remember? I keenly remember Velazquez portraits and depiction of workers etc. Ornate Christian works of Bosch are still fresh in my mind, as are beautiful (and well fed!.... nothing wrong with that) female figures by Titian. Finally, I will forever remember Goya’s paintings, specially what is called as the black painting genre. Really strange, odd creatures of the night. Sort of like a really bad nightmare in print. You have to see it to know what I mean.
Prado had a special exhibit of Tintoretto when we went there but our multi-museum tickets didn’t cover them. But after 4 hours of Prado (and time in Thyssen), it was time to reflect on what we saw than see even more! I kid you not when I say not once during this four hour visit did my kids complain! My wife and daughter walked hand-in-hand with one (intentional) audio guide between them, while my son walked with me giving his own explanation to things (such as "eew", "this girl is velly fat", "these are olanges and apples".... You get the idea!). We also entertained them by handing them one euro coins for every machine we saw in the museum (the machines puked out a bound 20-40 page booklet on a specific painter for one euro each) and it became fun for them to collect those. There was another reason why I was very generous with the one euro coins. I needed to read them too
The evening turned out to be nice and clear, and we headed to the Metro and took the train/bus combo back to Navata. Shower. Talk. Great dinner. Lo....ng deep sleep.
Advice: Buy multi-museum tickets because you will save a fair bit of money. MUST visit Prado but keep plenty of time and go slow to let it all in (also, it is unlikely you will remember everything!). Print and take Maribel's guides with you. Finally, don't be afraid to take your kids with ya because you can always stop and, as they say, smell the roses.
Next day: Segovia.
Day 5: Visiting Prado and Thyssen in Madrid
We had kept today aside to do Madrid museums at a slow pace, and arrived at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum around nine am. Per Maribel’s guide, before Spanish Government purchased it for $350 Million, it was the largest private collection in the world and belonged to Baron Heinrich Thyssen. In 2004, the second set of almost two hundred paintings were donated by the Baron’s wife (former Miss Spain.... Yes, where there are good looks, many times, there is money.... Or is it the other way around? Just kidding
). This is a really well laid out museum with bright color walls and lots of well placed lights. It is also a quick lesson in the history of western art from the 13th to the 20th centuries, beginning with early Siena school and ending with Mondrin, Hopper, Pollock, Andy Warhol, etc. We were quite impressed with a large number of school kids in small groups sitting, quietly!, on the floor in front of several paintings with an instructor telling them more about the paintings than I would ever know! We followed Maribel’s instructions to the dot and were out of there in three hours. I specially enjoyed paintings of places I have visited such as Roman Fountains and Plazas, and Venice today versus as it was two hundred years ago. One thing that I found strange was that people were taking pictures with their digital cameras/flash everywhere! You would think someone would object but no one did! By now, our nice and patient kids had begun to show mild signs of impatience and we realized that hunger might further acerbate it all! That Jekyll-Hyde type transformation that first starts slowly before all hell breaking loose, is truly a fun-killer for parents. So, anxiously looking at our younger kid’s face (a better, earlier barometer of our parental problems ahead), we walked towards Maribel’s recommended wine/Tapas bar La Plateria, across the Paseo Del Prado on Calle Moratin. On the way, we passed Fuente de Neptuno and took couple pictures of the buildings nearby. La Plateria was easy enough to find because it was right across from Prado’s entrance. With an outdoor terrace (which we didn’t care for... it was ten degrees celsius! Yes, much better from the snow flurries back home but still slightly chilly), it seemed rather welcoming. We were seated promptly. A family of six women was sitting at the next table, and I thought the older lady (60-ish) kept looking at me probably trying to figure out where I was from. The others included younger women with extremely complicated looking hairdos, and likely good upbringing (it is funny one can gage stuff like that without talking to people... Just the gestures of how one smiles and nods, tell so much about who we are.... most of the time).
The waitress was a South American immigrant who quickly brought what we ordered. That included a wide variety of tapas such as Smoked salmon with brie, Iberian ham, Chorizo de Salamanca, Sheep cheese with rosemary, Tuna breast with peppers, Galician pie with tuna, Spanish omlette, and croquette. She did almost everything right, even smiled several times as she would pass our table and see us gorging ourselves like there was no tomorrow. Okay, I am joking about the gorging part! The one and only problem with the service was that the server took a whole 45 minutes after we had finished everything to bring out a stone-cold Galician pie! I thought it was probably normal in Spain to make people wait for 45 minutes and then serve a frozen-cold pie, and even was about to tip the server but DW disagreed and said it actually sucked to have to wait forever even if we were eating tapas. So I didn’t tip. I remember a very short but elegant Spanish lady, roughly my age, rapidly eating through an appealing-looking potato/cheese dish of some kind. As soon as she was done, she slunk back in her chair, promptly smoked two cigarettes in a row, and then with a surprisingly loud voice from her small frame, shouted "la cuenta, POR FAVOR", dropped the Euros, and stomping her high heel boots, let out a confident "hasta man~ana!" to the manager before slamming the door! Hmmm... So being in a hurry is not just my obsession when I am working and multitasking too many things at the same time! Happens in food-heaven, too.
Finishing the lunch in roughly 2 hours put us at Prado entrance at 3 pm. We used our multi-museum tickets and walked in without any queue. I was in for a real treat here! Until now, nice as Thyssen and Reina Sofia had been, they really were memories I could chalk off in couple years. I was not usually a museum-goer, and had picked so many museums thanks to fodorites frequently discussing them. We started with the second floor and as we started walking through (armed with audio guides.... a MUST here), even amongst throngs of somewhat short Japanese tourists in odd felt hats and almost always led by some bilingual guide with a stupidly-meaningless smile, we went past marvelous pieces of work by Goya, Velazquez, Murillo, El Greco, Rembrandt, Rubens, and what not. Listening to the audio guides explain the history and the context, it was a total sensory overload for me. On the ground floor, we saw works by Raphael, Bosch, Durer, Titian and others. So, what do I remember? I keenly remember Velazquez portraits and depiction of workers etc. Ornate Christian works of Bosch are still fresh in my mind, as are beautiful (and well fed!.... nothing wrong with that) female figures by Titian. Finally, I will forever remember Goya’s paintings, specially what is called as the black painting genre. Really strange, odd creatures of the night. Sort of like a really bad nightmare in print. You have to see it to know what I mean.
Prado had a special exhibit of Tintoretto when we went there but our multi-museum tickets didn’t cover them. But after 4 hours of Prado (and time in Thyssen), it was time to reflect on what we saw than see even more! I kid you not when I say not once during this four hour visit did my kids complain! My wife and daughter walked hand-in-hand with one (intentional) audio guide between them, while my son walked with me giving his own explanation to things (such as "eew", "this girl is velly fat", "these are olanges and apples".... You get the idea!). We also entertained them by handing them one euro coins for every machine we saw in the museum (the machines puked out a bound 20-40 page booklet on a specific painter for one euro each) and it became fun for them to collect those. There was another reason why I was very generous with the one euro coins. I needed to read them too
The evening turned out to be nice and clear, and we headed to the Metro and took the train/bus combo back to Navata. Shower. Talk. Great dinner. Lo....ng deep sleep.
Advice: Buy multi-museum tickets because you will save a fair bit of money. MUST visit Prado but keep plenty of time and go slow to let it all in (also, it is unlikely you will remember everything!). Print and take Maribel's guides with you. Finally, don't be afraid to take your kids with ya because you can always stop and, as they say, smell the roses.
Next day: Segovia.
May 22nd, 2007, 04:12 PM
#30
Guest
Posts: n/a
Day 6: Visiting Segovia
The plan was to visit Segovia today. Together with Jose and Maribel. We all walked over to the Navata-Galapagar train station, and patiently waited for the train to come. There were workers and businessmen in the station waiting for their train to Madrid, and not a tourist in sight except us! It started to gently rain, but not enough to make us go inside. My kids started doing kid stuff which, at the station, meant running fast to approach a bench and then trying to jumping across it. Within half an hour a two tiered train approached, we climbed to its upper, almost completely empty, compartment and took seats by the window. A heavy set, bearded conductor came, checked our tickets, and gave me a thorough look (and I really mean looking me up/down and then down/up! I gave him a smile and wanted to tell him that all it takes is six days a week at the gym Just kidding) before moving on. Two mid-20s women were sitting on the opposite end of the compartment and every once in a while I would hear laughter accompanied by words I could easily understand (I have a vocabulary of several hundred Spanish words so I generally can make out the context if spoken slowly).
The train passed through beautiful little hilly towns, with a backdrop of Navacerrada/Guadarrama range. Maribel went into details of Valley of the Fallen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Fallen). We could see people working in their backyards (something very cool about being on a train, watching others go about their daily routine), little chalets made entirely of granite slabs, and long winding roads and train-tracks around the bends of the mountains. Jose pointed out the hotel where he first met Maribel in a business meeting. Over forty years ago! As we went higher up in the mountains, the trees changed to higher altitude Scot pines that, to me, seemed greener. At one point, Maribel pointed out the shapes of the tops of the mountains and indicated that Spaniards believe it is like the body of a woman, with a face, breasts, tummy, and toes. For the life of me, and I must have stared for a full five minutes!, I couldn’t see it. I mean I saw an overweight man with a beer belly, a goat without a beard, even a pig and its tail, but no woman! Since I can’t speak Spanish well at all, fortunately, she didn’t ask me to elaborate what I was trying so hard to see!
When the train arrived in Segovia, Maribel promptly hooked up with a local lady and found out that a bus can take us to the ancient parts of Segovia, comes every fifteen minutes, and is right across the street from the train station. The bus was full of really short, old nuns who kept staring at me and my son. I respectfully nodded and whispered in my son’s ears that if one feels awkward due to a stare, the best solution is to nod directly at the person which he promptly tried but to no avail! Looking at the nuns, I remember feeling the differences amongst the choices we all make in life, our purpose as we define it, what we consider important, and how many times, despite our best tries, none of it really works out. I contrasted my own life back home as an ambitious, hard charger, and here are these people who (supposedly) want to serve anything but themselves. But I looked at my kids and felt my job, for now, is just as important. Or so I rationalized
Anyway, I feel when you begin to think about this sort of stuff, you are definitely having a good vacation.
The driver dropped us off at the entrance to the old city, complete with a stone arch and stone pathway leading upwards. We immediately found our way to the Cathedral. There were tourists but not too many. As we came to a rectangular Plaza Mayor where the Cathedral is, there was a farmer’s market going on! Much to my wife’s angst, off I went with my camera! I love visiting farmer’s markets in cities I have never been to. It is a quick glimpse into what locals do when we all depart. I saw fruits I didn’t recognize, teenage boys flirting with some girls, clothes on sale (which I won’t want to wear!), assortment of dry fruits, etc. After a few minutes of it all, we decided to do the Spanish thing of recovering from the trip by having some coffee. I do not recall the name of the café/bar but it is right across from the Cathedral. The coffee was excellent. I also ate a Napolitano which was good enough. I do not recall what others ate, and by now, had decided against recording every bloody meal that we all ingested (I will break this rule once in a while!).
After the coffee, we walked into the Cathedral where a kind lady behind the counter seemed to really hit it off with Jose and Maribel, and promptly abandoned her place to take us all, running!, to an on-going guided tour, in SPANISH! I looked at DW helplessly and she came closer to translate. The Cathedral of Segovia, previously, was built close to the Alcazar. This resulted in its being destroyed during the war of the Communities, and then it was rebuilt at its present location. Architect Juan Gil de Ontañon, who also designed the Salamanca's Cathedral, designed this baby, with the work beginning in 15th Century and ending in 17th century. It is one of the most well known Gothic churches in Spain, together with Salamanca's Cathedral (Dude Ontañon obviously had a theme going ). Its light, bare, and uncluttered interior was illuminated by 16th-century Flemish windows, with a large Gothic choir (15th-century, predating the cathedral) placed right in the center. Across from the choir, on the east end, was the high altar with an 18th-century altarpiece by Sabatini. The walls were lined with more than 20 chapels. Stained-glass windows were everywhere and so were elaborately carved choir stalls, and 16th- and 17th-century paintings, including portrayals of Christ by Juan de Juni. Great place to visit.
After the Cathedral, we walked to have our lunch at Josele’s recommended Meson De Candido (http://www.mesondecandido.es/ingles.html) and headed to the aqueduct. One of the greatest surviving monuments of Roman engineering, this aqueduct stretches from the walls of the old town to the edges of Sierra de Guadarrama. It is about 2950 feet long, and made of rough-hewn massive granite blocks, joined without! mortar or clamps. Amazing engineering although I gotta tell ya I won’t want to be under it in an earthquake! Just kidding about that.
The restaurant, Meson De Candido, is a Segovia institution and now owned and run by Senor Alberto Candido. One of the customs of the restaurant: if you order a whole Cochinillo (roast baby pig), Senor Candido will come out in formal looking clothes, cut the pig with plates, and then smash’em on the floor! So, we placed the order. For appetizers, we ordered Iberian pate on toasted bread, crayfish, mixed dish of green asparagus, and piquillos peppers stuffed with mushrooms. For main course, we ordered duck maigret a la candied orange, cochinillo (roast suckling pig), and cordero (roast baby lamb). True enough, Senor Candido came out to cut the pig with fanfare that the kids thought was a magic show, and later asked when will the pig start to walk again! Well, it showed up with its head and teeth intact in a plate in front of us….I was worried they would be grossed out but DD happily asked for a teeth a souvenir! She didn’t get it.
So we started our lunch with the aqueduct hovering over us through the windows. The restaurant is filled with interesting memorabilia from early 19th century, and happy pictures of patrons. No one took our pictures but, legends in our own minds, we made sure to take one of our own The table, on our west side, had a large group of Japanese visitors making a fair bit of noise with ladies promptly covering their mouths every time they would giggle, and men frequently taking pictures of walls of the restaurant making me wonder what the hell were they photographing! The table on the east had a Spanish man in his early 40s eating a lunch with a pretty but pouty (not a sign of good upbringing where I come from!) early twenties Hungarian woman (I know that accent and some words), and seemed interesting to me because the man was busy pulling every trick in the book to get the woman interested in him! Hmm….. We focused on our lunch, had the beers, the coffee, and the desserts, and then left the place. The whole affair was pricey but absolutely worth it!
From the restaurant, we walked over to the Alcazar. The streets are different from Toledo but just as interesting. In a way, they are sort of a hybrid of Toledo and Andalucian streets, so far as houses and balconies. The Alcázar is on the top of a rock shaped by the rivers Eresma and Clamores. The oldest testimony of the Alcázar is a document dating from the 12th century, a short time after the town had been recaptured by Alfonso VI, which refers to the fortress as a hill-fort on the Eresma. A short time later, it was already being referred to as "Alcázar". However, there is speculation that the fortress had existed in earlier times, possibly since the Roman occupation, because granite blocks similar to those of the Aqueduct have been found in the course of recent excavations. We visited all of its rooms including the old fortress room (complete with Canons, balls, and what not), fireplace room, throne room, king’s chamber (surprisingly small bed for royalty in those days!), its chapel, armory, etc, before climbing on to the Tower of Juan II to get a great view of the City of Segovia. Enjoyable visit except the passage to the top of the tower is tiny for two way traffic, and despite being in perfect shape, I had a hard time keeping track of my rapidly climbing kids thanks to the traffic!
Later on, we purchased beautifully lettered, yellow tiles with numbers for our house back in States, and some other small stuff that I simply don’t recall right now! It was nearly 5:30 pm so we hopped on to the train heading back to Navata. I sat near a young teen who had about a dozen piercings in her face, and still managed to eat a giant bocadillo. She must have seen the look of amazement on my face because when she left the train and went outside, she turned around for a moment and gave me a great smile. Anyway, rest of the journey was unremarkable. Back in Navata, we did the usual stuff, and the only unusual item to write is that four colts showed up on the fence to the house, and the kids just loved feeding them bread and sugar cubes until I took a picture with the flash and the colts ran away.
Good dinner, and sleep.
Next day: Family time. But the following day, on the road to Sevilla and in it!
The plan was to visit Segovia today. Together with Jose and Maribel. We all walked over to the Navata-Galapagar train station, and patiently waited for the train to come. There were workers and businessmen in the station waiting for their train to Madrid, and not a tourist in sight except us! It started to gently rain, but not enough to make us go inside. My kids started doing kid stuff which, at the station, meant running fast to approach a bench and then trying to jumping across it. Within half an hour a two tiered train approached, we climbed to its upper, almost completely empty, compartment and took seats by the window. A heavy set, bearded conductor came, checked our tickets, and gave me a thorough look (and I really mean looking me up/down and then down/up! I gave him a smile and wanted to tell him that all it takes is six days a week at the gym
Just kidding) before moving on. Two mid-20s women were sitting on the opposite end of the compartment and every once in a while I would hear laughter accompanied by words I could easily understand (I have a vocabulary of several hundred Spanish words so I generally can make out the context if spoken slowly). The train passed through beautiful little hilly towns, with a backdrop of Navacerrada/Guadarrama range. Maribel went into details of Valley of the Fallen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Fallen). We could see people working in their backyards (something very cool about being on a train, watching others go about their daily routine), little chalets made entirely of granite slabs, and long winding roads and train-tracks around the bends of the mountains. Jose pointed out the hotel where he first met Maribel in a business meeting. Over forty years ago! As we went higher up in the mountains, the trees changed to higher altitude Scot pines that, to me, seemed greener. At one point, Maribel pointed out the shapes of the tops of the mountains and indicated that Spaniards believe it is like the body of a woman, with a face, breasts, tummy, and toes. For the life of me, and I must have stared for a full five minutes!, I couldn’t see it. I mean I saw an overweight man with a beer belly, a goat without a beard, even a pig and its tail, but no woman! Since I can’t speak Spanish well at all, fortunately, she didn’t ask me to elaborate what I was trying so hard to see!
When the train arrived in Segovia, Maribel promptly hooked up with a local lady and found out that a bus can take us to the ancient parts of Segovia, comes every fifteen minutes, and is right across the street from the train station. The bus was full of really short, old nuns who kept staring at me and my son. I respectfully nodded and whispered in my son’s ears that if one feels awkward due to a stare, the best solution is to nod directly at the person which he promptly tried but to no avail! Looking at the nuns, I remember feeling the differences amongst the choices we all make in life, our purpose as we define it, what we consider important, and how many times, despite our best tries, none of it really works out. I contrasted my own life back home as an ambitious, hard charger, and here are these people who (supposedly) want to serve anything but themselves. But I looked at my kids and felt my job, for now, is just as important. Or so I rationalized
Anyway, I feel when you begin to think about this sort of stuff, you are definitely having a good vacation. The driver dropped us off at the entrance to the old city, complete with a stone arch and stone pathway leading upwards. We immediately found our way to the Cathedral. There were tourists but not too many. As we came to a rectangular Plaza Mayor where the Cathedral is, there was a farmer’s market going on! Much to my wife’s angst, off I went with my camera! I love visiting farmer’s markets in cities I have never been to. It is a quick glimpse into what locals do when we all depart. I saw fruits I didn’t recognize, teenage boys flirting with some girls, clothes on sale (which I won’t want to wear!), assortment of dry fruits, etc. After a few minutes of it all, we decided to do the Spanish thing of recovering from the trip by having some coffee. I do not recall the name of the café/bar but it is right across from the Cathedral. The coffee was excellent. I also ate a Napolitano which was good enough. I do not recall what others ate, and by now, had decided against recording every bloody meal that we all ingested (I will break this rule once in a while!).
After the coffee, we walked into the Cathedral where a kind lady behind the counter seemed to really hit it off with Jose and Maribel, and promptly abandoned her place to take us all, running!, to an on-going guided tour, in SPANISH! I looked at DW helplessly and she came closer to translate. The Cathedral of Segovia, previously, was built close to the Alcazar. This resulted in its being destroyed during the war of the Communities, and then it was rebuilt at its present location. Architect Juan Gil de Ontañon, who also designed the Salamanca's Cathedral, designed this baby, with the work beginning in 15th Century and ending in 17th century. It is one of the most well known Gothic churches in Spain, together with Salamanca's Cathedral (Dude Ontañon obviously had a theme going
). Its light, bare, and uncluttered interior was illuminated by 16th-century Flemish windows, with a large Gothic choir (15th-century, predating the cathedral) placed right in the center. Across from the choir, on the east end, was the high altar with an 18th-century altarpiece by Sabatini. The walls were lined with more than 20 chapels. Stained-glass windows were everywhere and so were elaborately carved choir stalls, and 16th- and 17th-century paintings, including portrayals of Christ by Juan de Juni. Great place to visit. After the Cathedral, we walked to have our lunch at Josele’s recommended Meson De Candido (http://www.mesondecandido.es/ingles.html) and headed to the aqueduct. One of the greatest surviving monuments of Roman engineering, this aqueduct stretches from the walls of the old town to the edges of Sierra de Guadarrama. It is about 2950 feet long, and made of rough-hewn massive granite blocks, joined without! mortar or clamps. Amazing engineering although I gotta tell ya I won’t want to be under it in an earthquake! Just kidding about that.
The restaurant, Meson De Candido, is a Segovia institution and now owned and run by Senor Alberto Candido. One of the customs of the restaurant: if you order a whole Cochinillo (roast baby pig), Senor Candido will come out in formal looking clothes, cut the pig with plates, and then smash’em on the floor! So, we placed the order. For appetizers, we ordered Iberian pate on toasted bread, crayfish, mixed dish of green asparagus, and piquillos peppers stuffed with mushrooms. For main course, we ordered duck maigret a la candied orange, cochinillo (roast suckling pig), and cordero (roast baby lamb). True enough, Senor Candido came out to cut the pig with fanfare that the kids thought was a magic show, and later asked when will the pig start to walk again! Well, it showed up with its head and teeth intact in a plate in front of us….I was worried they would be grossed out but DD happily asked for a teeth a souvenir! She didn’t get it.
So we started our lunch with the aqueduct hovering over us through the windows. The restaurant is filled with interesting memorabilia from early 19th century, and happy pictures of patrons. No one took our pictures but, legends in our own minds, we made sure to take one of our own
The table, on our west side, had a large group of Japanese visitors making a fair bit of noise with ladies promptly covering their mouths every time they would giggle, and men frequently taking pictures of walls of the restaurant making me wonder what the hell were they photographing! The table on the east had a Spanish man in his early 40s eating a lunch with a pretty but pouty (not a sign of good upbringing where I come from!) early twenties Hungarian woman (I know that accent and some words), and seemed interesting to me because the man was busy pulling every trick in the book to get the woman interested in him! Hmm….. We focused on our lunch, had the beers, the coffee, and the desserts, and then left the place. The whole affair was pricey but absolutely worth it! From the restaurant, we walked over to the Alcazar. The streets are different from Toledo but just as interesting. In a way, they are sort of a hybrid of Toledo and Andalucian streets, so far as houses and balconies. The Alcázar is on the top of a rock shaped by the rivers Eresma and Clamores. The oldest testimony of the Alcázar is a document dating from the 12th century, a short time after the town had been recaptured by Alfonso VI, which refers to the fortress as a hill-fort on the Eresma. A short time later, it was already being referred to as "Alcázar". However, there is speculation that the fortress had existed in earlier times, possibly since the Roman occupation, because granite blocks similar to those of the Aqueduct have been found in the course of recent excavations. We visited all of its rooms including the old fortress room (complete with Canons, balls, and what not), fireplace room, throne room, king’s chamber (surprisingly small bed for royalty in those days!), its chapel, armory, etc, before climbing on to the Tower of Juan II to get a great view of the City of Segovia. Enjoyable visit except the passage to the top of the tower is tiny for two way traffic, and despite being in perfect shape, I had a hard time keeping track of my rapidly climbing kids thanks to the traffic!
Later on, we purchased beautifully lettered, yellow tiles with numbers for our house back in States, and some other small stuff that I simply don’t recall right now! It was nearly 5:30 pm so we hopped on to the train heading back to Navata. I sat near a young teen who had about a dozen piercings in her face, and still managed to eat a giant bocadillo. She must have seen the look of amazement on my face because when she left the train and went outside, she turned around for a moment and gave me a great smile. Anyway, rest of the journey was unremarkable. Back in Navata, we did the usual stuff, and the only unusual item to write is that four colts showed up on the fence to the house, and the kids just loved feeding them bread and sugar cubes until I took a picture with the flash and the colts ran away.
Good dinner, and sleep.
Next day: Family time. But the following day, on the road to Sevilla and in it!
May 22nd, 2007, 06:01 PM
#31
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Comfyshoes,
I am so enthralled by your report. We leave in October for some of the very same places. I have been cutting and pasting all your advice tips. Very useful....
Please hurry up and post more. Not sure I can wait to read it all.
I am so enthralled by your report. We leave in October for some of the very same places. I have been cutting and pasting all your advice tips. Very useful....
Please hurry up and post more. Not sure I can wait to read it all.
May 22nd, 2007, 07:38 PM
#32
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ComfyShoes-
I've been relishing your report. It brings up some many wonderful memories. You're blessed to have family and an "excuse" to visit regularily.
Sigh...<i>Me encanta Espana...</i>
I've been relishing your report. It brings up some many wonderful memories. You're blessed to have family and an "excuse" to visit regularily.
Sigh...<i>Me encanta Espana...</i>
May 23rd, 2007, 01:34 AM
#33
hi, comfy -
more great meals - segovia just got higher on my "to do" list!
ref being stared at abroad [you are not alone] our family joke is that they've spotted our second heads.
[it must be the way I tell them].
regards, ann
more great meals - segovia just got higher on my "to do" list!
ref being stared at abroad [you are not alone] our family joke is that they've spotted our second heads.
[it must be the way I tell them].
regards, ann
May 23rd, 2007, 02:26 AM
#34
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Hi again, the mountain you talk about is called "The Dead Woman" (La Mujer Muerta), and yes, it's difficult even for me to find that woman
About the Alcazar, it's said that WaltDisnay designed his casttle following the Alcazar one. Though, I don't know if it's true.
I love Segovia, as far as I was studying there business administration.
About the Alcazar, it's said that WaltDisnay designed his casttle following the Alcazar one. Though, I don't know if it's true.
I love Segovia, as far as I was studying there business administration.
May 23rd, 2007, 06:50 AM
#35
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kristina/sbrownwell, Really appreciate your nice comments. I need it because I still have ten more days to go! I will try to do a day at a time. I have a basic framework for the remainder of the days done but really important for me to write slowly and think about it a bit before posting it.
Ann, I don't mind. When in doubt, I basically assume people are admiring my looks Just kidding.
Josemacall (and everyone), Here is link for the La Muerta Mujer. http://tinyurl.com/2akla3.
You are right about Disney Castle. I have a very nice shot of the Alcazar and Disney Castle, and they are identical. Come to think of it, I think I need to find a way to post pictures somewhere. I took about a thousand shots and roughly 50 or so are about as good as "I" can take'em.
Ann, I don't mind. When in doubt, I basically assume people are admiring my looks
Just kidding. Josemacall (and everyone), Here is link for the La Muerta Mujer. http://tinyurl.com/2akla3.
You are right about Disney Castle. I have a very nice shot of the Alcazar and Disney Castle, and they are identical. Come to think of it, I think I need to find a way to post pictures somewhere. I took about a thousand shots and roughly 50 or so are about as good as "I" can take'em.
May 23rd, 2007, 07:12 AM
#36
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Comfy: Great trip report. Wonderful detailed descriptions, bringing back lots of memories. I love your dry sense of humor, too.
My very first trip to Spain was to visit friends who taught at the Segovia campus of a NH prep school. I fell in love with Spain on that trip and have returned 4 or 5 times. Can't wait to read your Sevilla and Granada descriptions. Keep up the good work.
My very first trip to Spain was to visit friends who taught at the Segovia campus of a NH prep school. I fell in love with Spain on that trip and have returned 4 or 5 times. Can't wait to read your Sevilla and Granada descriptions. Keep up the good work.
May 23rd, 2007, 08:35 AM
#37
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Comfy, I'm pretty sure people stares at you because you are a very handsome man
But I also think that after this time in Spain you will probably have to turn back to the gym to get rid of so many big meals
And yes, there are LOTS of stressed Spaniards...even though we have some kind of ability to hide it , LOL
But I also think that after this time in Spain you will probably have to turn back to the gym to get rid of so many big meals
And yes, there are LOTS of stressed Spaniards...even though we have some kind of ability to hide it , LOL
May 23rd, 2007, 04:04 PM
#39
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Thank you guys (Kend and Rachele) for really nice comments. Kend, despite eating so much good food, I actually came back at nearly the same weight! I told my wife that it is because when the quality is good, quantity takes care of itself
Day 7: Plaza de Espana and rental car pickup
Today was our day off from trips to spend time with the family, and to pick up our rental car from Pepe Cars in Madrid’s Plaza De Espana’s underground parking. After an "early" lunch, we left Navata around 2 pm, and went directly to Plaza De Espana. A-6 wasn’t as crowded as during rush hour, but since we were using the bus, we didn’t care. Off of the bus, we hopped on to the appropriate metro and as we came out of the station, a pregnant homeless woman asked me for money. I didn’t give any but I felt very sorry for her. Really, of all the things one worries about, a lack of priorities or opportunities can turn someone’s life upside down to a point where begging may be the only way out.
It was raining hard, and we really didn’t have an opportunity to see much. I held Maribel’s pink umbrella in my hand, and felt thoroughly conspicuous! Chola was supposed to have taken the afternoon off, and waiting for us at the Plaza. But she wasn’t there. Since the rain had eased up somewhat, I took a fair number of pictures. Plaza de España is a large square, and popular tourist destination, located in central Madrid at the western end of the Gran Vía. It features a monument to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (yes, the author of Don Quixote) and is bordered by two of Madrid's most prominent skyscrapers. The Palacio Real is a short walk south from the plaza. The plaza was designed by architects Rafael Martínez Zapatero and Pedro Muguruza and sculptor Lorenzo Coullaut Valera. Most of the monument was built between 1925 and 1930. The tower portion of the monument includes a stone sculpture of Cervantes, which overlooks bronze sculptures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Next to the tower are stone sculptures of two representations of Don Quixote's "true love", one as the simple peasant woman Aldonza Lorenzo and one as the beautiful, imaginary Dulcinea del Toboso. Cervantes clearly believed in inner beauty or more-the-merrier, let me tell you! I admire the former, for sure. Haven't made up my mind about the latter Just kidding!
Chola showed up half an hour later. She was dressed formally but very elegantly (side comment: I felt Spanish women dress in a far more feminine manner than their U.S. counterparts. They also seemed to act more feminine, whatever that may mean to you, likely due to the completely different recent histories of the two countries. This is obviously based on a highly unscientific observation!). Since she hadn’t her lunch yet, we decided to quickly visit a restaurant with her before heading to Pepe Cars. We walked over to Lizarran, a restaurant chain that serves basque-style tapas, and is considering opening outlets in Mexico City and California. Lizarran's repertoire spans across 350 appetizer combinations for its rotating-item menu (I think they will be quite successful where I live I can guarantee them one frequent customer). Each dish, known in Basque dialect as a pinxho and priced around $1, presents the ingredients speared with a toothpick atop a slice of bread. The drink menu to accompany the snacks lists small, medium or large servings of wines, beers and hard cider. Like dim-sum restaurants that add up the tab from the number of used plates, servers at Lizarran calculate the bill from the number of toothpicks used, typically three to four per person, along with the beverages consumed. I do not recall what she ate! We mostly had coffee and beers. Heading towards the Plaza, Chola proudly pointed out a Dunkin Donuts and a McDonalds nearby! I didn’t know if I should have smiled or not. So I politely shook my head sideways, leaving the ambiguity in the air Not knowing the language well has some advantages!
After the lunch, we walked over to Pepe Cars located on the third level in the Plaza. There was a couple behind the counter, who didn’t speak a word of English! The man kept giving me funny smiles and looks that said "I am so sorry for you because you don’t speak the local language"! and I almost wanted to take his picture but decided it would have been too impolite. Anyway, Pepe Cars gave us a Mercedes Vito van, a tank-like stick shift for NINE people, for an outrageous rate of eight hundred euros for eight days with 500 km/day limit on the miles (I again thanked not having to use a rental car in the first week!). That price included an eighty dollar surcharge because we were paranoid we might have an accident. Chola joked that when we returned, since everything was covered, we should just give them the keys and say "oops" I said I would much rather give them just the maps because I planned to keep the keys as souvenirs Thanks to this sort of intelligent conversation, too much laughter, and the narrow-narrow way out of that garage, we promptly scraped its passenger side mirror! We really had a very hard time driving this monstrosity for the first couple hours, and I declared to my wife that anyone who WANTS to drive a Hummer has got to be a moron.
Out of the parking lot, we first filled the (diesel) tank. As I went in to pay, the man asked me to sign the credit card receipt. For some reason, I kept confusing between "there" (alli) and "here" (aqui) in Spanish and we both chuckled after I finally signed it at the right place. Chola, who is an Architect, invited us to visit her office which was located in a large office complex where Microsoft, Oracle, etc maintain giant operations. Her office was surprisingly elegant by American standards, and had fixtures in the restroom that were truly pretty. We met her colleagues who seemed thrilled to meet people from an alien land After visiting her office, we drove back to Navata to pack for the next day trip down to Sevilla.
Next day: Off to beautiful Andalucia...
Day 7: Plaza de Espana and rental car pickup
Today was our day off from trips to spend time with the family, and to pick up our rental car from Pepe Cars in Madrid’s Plaza De Espana’s underground parking. After an "early" lunch, we left Navata around 2 pm, and went directly to Plaza De Espana. A-6 wasn’t as crowded as during rush hour, but since we were using the bus, we didn’t care. Off of the bus, we hopped on to the appropriate metro and as we came out of the station, a pregnant homeless woman asked me for money. I didn’t give any but I felt very sorry for her. Really, of all the things one worries about, a lack of priorities or opportunities can turn someone’s life upside down to a point where begging may be the only way out.
It was raining hard, and we really didn’t have an opportunity to see much. I held Maribel’s pink umbrella in my hand, and felt thoroughly conspicuous! Chola was supposed to have taken the afternoon off, and waiting for us at the Plaza. But she wasn’t there. Since the rain had eased up somewhat, I took a fair number of pictures. Plaza de España is a large square, and popular tourist destination, located in central Madrid at the western end of the Gran Vía. It features a monument to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (yes, the author of Don Quixote) and is bordered by two of Madrid's most prominent skyscrapers. The Palacio Real is a short walk south from the plaza. The plaza was designed by architects Rafael Martínez Zapatero and Pedro Muguruza and sculptor Lorenzo Coullaut Valera. Most of the monument was built between 1925 and 1930. The tower portion of the monument includes a stone sculpture of Cervantes, which overlooks bronze sculptures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Next to the tower are stone sculptures of two representations of Don Quixote's "true love", one as the simple peasant woman Aldonza Lorenzo and one as the beautiful, imaginary Dulcinea del Toboso. Cervantes clearly believed in inner beauty or more-the-merrier, let me tell you! I admire the former, for sure. Haven't made up my mind about the latter
Just kidding!Chola showed up half an hour later. She was dressed formally but very elegantly (side comment: I felt Spanish women dress in a far more feminine manner than their U.S. counterparts. They also seemed to act more feminine, whatever that may mean to you, likely due to the completely different recent histories of the two countries. This is obviously based on a highly unscientific observation!). Since she hadn’t her lunch yet, we decided to quickly visit a restaurant with her before heading to Pepe Cars. We walked over to Lizarran, a restaurant chain that serves basque-style tapas, and is considering opening outlets in Mexico City and California. Lizarran's repertoire spans across 350 appetizer combinations for its rotating-item menu (I think they will be quite successful where I live
I can guarantee them one frequent customer). Each dish, known in Basque dialect as a pinxho and priced around $1, presents the ingredients speared with a toothpick atop a slice of bread. The drink menu to accompany the snacks lists small, medium or large servings of wines, beers and hard cider. Like dim-sum restaurants that add up the tab from the number of used plates, servers at Lizarran calculate the bill from the number of toothpicks used, typically three to four per person, along with the beverages consumed. I do not recall what she ate! We mostly had coffee and beers. Heading towards the Plaza, Chola proudly pointed out a Dunkin Donuts and a McDonalds nearby! I didn’t know if I should have smiled or not. So I politely shook my head sideways, leaving the ambiguity in the air Not knowing the language well has some advantages!After the lunch, we walked over to Pepe Cars located on the third level in the Plaza. There was a couple behind the counter, who didn’t speak a word of English! The man kept giving me funny smiles and looks that said "I am so sorry for you because you don’t speak the local language"! and I almost wanted to take his picture but decided it would have been too impolite. Anyway, Pepe Cars gave us a Mercedes Vito van, a tank-like stick shift for NINE people, for an outrageous rate of eight hundred euros for eight days with 500 km/day limit on the miles (I again thanked not having to use a rental car in the first week!). That price included an eighty dollar surcharge because we were paranoid we might have an accident. Chola joked that when we returned, since everything was covered, we should just give them the keys and say "oops"
I said I would much rather give them just the maps because I planned to keep the keys as souvenirs Thanks to this sort of intelligent conversation, too much laughter, and the narrow-narrow way out of that garage, we promptly scraped its passenger side mirror! We really had a very hard time driving this monstrosity for the first couple hours, and I declared to my wife that anyone who WANTS to drive a Hummer has got to be a moron. Out of the parking lot, we first filled the (diesel) tank. As I went in to pay, the man asked me to sign the credit card receipt. For some reason, I kept confusing between "there" (alli) and "here" (aqui) in Spanish and we both chuckled after I finally signed it at the right place. Chola, who is an Architect, invited us to visit her office which was located in a large office complex where Microsoft, Oracle, etc maintain giant operations. Her office was surprisingly elegant by American standards, and had fixtures in the restroom that were truly pretty. We met her colleagues who seemed thrilled to meet people from an alien land
After visiting her office, we drove back to Navata to pack for the next day trip down to Sevilla.Next day: Off to beautiful Andalucia...
