INTERESTING TIMES
(in Spain, Portugal and UK)
Madrid to Cordoba
Thursday 16th May, 2019
Friday 17th May, 2019
Saturday 18th May, 2019
Thursday 16th May, 2019
Mac at the Station, Barcelona
ags out at 0700 and a relatively early start to our journey to Madrid. The coach took us to Barcelona's main railway station for our three hour trip on the AVE, Spain's version of the TGV. This was an extremely comfortable, smooth ride, very fast of course, sometimes up to 300 kph!
Farmland en route to Madrid
ut it was smooth enough to see and appreciate the passing scenery. Mountains, bridges, gorges and fertile farmland growing crops of vegetables, fruit and olive trees and lots of grapes. It is essentially arid ground, reminded me a bit of South Australia, a great trip.
Park in Central Madrid
n reaching Madrid we were taken straight to the inner city and the Prado Art Museum but were given an hour and a half for finding lunch which we did at a tapas bar. They may only be small portions to share but they seem quite large to us, and we ordered a much larger meal than we had intended. However, we then walked it off, first in an attractive park near the centre and then at the Prado, where we had a couple of hours with a specialist guide who really knew her stuff.
Saint Jerome Church near Prado
e saw what she termed the "masterpieces" of the Prado, which meant of course that we only just scratched the surface. But we saw the originals of some paintings which I have known forever - Bosch, Goya, Velasquez, El Greco, Titian and Tintoretto. Marvellous, but quite tiring on the feet.
Heading for the Prado
fter leaving the Prado we were taken to our hotel, much more modern than the El Palace in Barcelona, but very spiffy, decorated with huge blow-ups of Velasquez paintings - we have
"The Surrender at Breda" over our bed!
e had an hour and a half to shower and change for our specialty dinner in the "oldest restaurant in the world" in the old town. This was interesting - a huge meal (again!) The restaurant was indeed very old, full of beams and creaky uneven floors in very small rooms, very picturesque.
The others ate upstairs, four flights of very narrow, steep steps, but our trusty Christine organised a table on the ground floor for us and Wendy, who walks with a stick, because she was worried about us coming down. She sat with us herself so we didn't feel neglected. She is a lovely woman. We had ham, cheese, calamari, garlic prawns, suckling pig ribs and a tasting plate of four desserts, with wine, water and coffee. Amazing. I slept like a log!
Friday, 17th May, 2019
Rooftops of Madrid
Cathedral from the Rooftop
n easy morning after our good healthy(!) breakfast. We did some housekeeping on the i-Pad and got in touch with Geoff on Viber. There was an orientation walk at 10:00 but we opted out because there is another walking tour at midday, followed by a visit to the Royal Palace and we considered that that would be enough for one day. But we did take the opportunity to go to the rooftop pool area and take some photos of Madrid from above.
Later:
Plaza Mayor, Madrid
San Miguel Market, Madrid
got lost in the Old Town this morning when I stopped to take a photo outside the hugely crowded San Miguel Market - everyone moved on and I could not see Christine's APT flag anywhere. However, they found me eventually, I could hear on my audio system that they were looking for me so I went out the nearest exit and waited..
Old Town, Madrid
he Old Town is very picturesque, old buildings,wide plazas and lots of tourists, therefore lots of souvenir shops, cafes etc.
Royal Palace, Madrid
e soon moved on to the Royal Palace, which was quite impressive. We saw it clearly from the roof swimming pool of the hotel yesterday. The Royal family does not live there anymore, they moved to a smaller, more comfortable and private mansion outside the city as soon as the Royalty was restored after Franco's death. The palace had the usual over-the-top decor of conspicuous excess . It was not ancient, only being 200 or so years old! so the decor was baroque, reminiscent of Schonbrunn, and funnily enough, the first kings were Hapsburgs, replaced by the Bourbons later. Never seemed to be an actual Spanish king!
One of the Ceilings, Royal Palace, Madrid
espite being spoiled by being taken in a lift up to the main floor, it was quite a trek around for me, but there were some lovely artefacts and spectacular painted ceilings.
We walked back to the hotel to crash, but the room had not been serviced. The girl came in while we were resting and changed the bed and towels, but I told her mañana was good enough for vacuuming.
Later Still
e went out to find dinner and an ATM. The ATM charged €4-50 which makes Australian banks seem fairly reasonable.
We found dinner at a local restaurant called De Mario Parilla, generally Italian, I think.
We sat at an outdoor table looking out at the Plaza Opera. It was cool, but they had heaters going and it was very pleasant. A guy was playing an accordion outside, very atmospheric.
We ordered modestly, Mac had spaghetti bolognaise, and I had lemon chicken and a green salad, and one glass of verdelho each. They brought us complimentary cava (fizzy rose, delicious), plus bread, cream cheese and croutons, pumpkin soup in a shot glass, then after the meal, a liqueur, two chocolates and a little taster of yoghurt and mango, then we had coffee. Lots of extras and it cost €60 . Not too bad and the food was delicious - a good choice in a plaza full of restaurants and bars.
Back to the hotel for showers and bed. A good day. I think I am feeling better. I hope so but it may just be the wine!
Saturday 18th May, 2019
Toledo, Spain
e packed up and set off at 8 am this morning, leaving Madrid and heading for Cordoba. First stop, about an hour later, was the hilltop medieval town of Toledo. The town is hugely photogenic and is set on a mountainside overlooking the Tagus River. The bus could not make it and had to stop in a park at the bottom of the hill. The views on the way up were fantastic even before we had got into the city itself.
Sword Showroom in Toledo
Mac Chooses a Sword in Toledo
he first stop was at the Toledo Sword Factory, where we watched a couple of guys damascening steel with gold and silver into wonderful patterns. This was incorporated into items as diverse as armour and huge swords and wonderfully intricate jewellery.
There was also a blacksmith who showed us how the steel was tempered before being made into swords. Their shop was like Aladdin's cave, glowing with gold and silver and fantastically designed weapons, not only weapons, though, lovely jewellery, pill boxes, rings and bracelets. We couldn't resist a few items, like cufflinks for Geoff and a pill box for me.
In the Old Town, Toledo
fter parking the bus most of the group went on a walking tour with guides, which climbed on foot up to the town, but we opted, with Wendy who walks with a stick and a few others of the "aged and infirm" to do it the easy way, up a series of escalators. We were there well before the others.
Cathedral, Toledo
oledo is ancient, full of tiny steep lanes and cobbled roads. We went down to the Cathedral square and admired the lovely old building surrounded by equally old houses dripping with flower boxes. There were lots of shops selling the typical damascened stuff which we had just seen, and marzipan (a local delicacy) and cafes where the only choice is ham and cheese on rolls. We had a ham and cheese roll at one of them with coffee, then wandered up to the main square and had an icecream sitting on a bench in the sun. I bought Anne a lovely fan, which is also typical of the region.
Unusually, in the main square there was a very loud demonstration going on in support of local emergency workers. Apparently the firefighters don't get paid very much and certainly need at least danger money.
"Don Quixote Tavern", Spain
hen we left we went on for four hours to reach Cordoba. The land is dry and planted with mile after mile of olives. There were a couple of quite wide rivers but the land in Andalusia could equally well qualify for "sunburnt country" status, like our own.
Also planted along the highway were miles and miles of oleander bushes in pretty flower. Christine told us they were planted because the foliage is poisonous and discourages wildlife from accessing the highway. Maybe something like that would keep kangaroos off the roads back home.
"Don Quixote Tavern", Spain
n the way to Cordoba we stopped at a little town whose name unfortunately has slipped my memory, but is in the heart of Cervantes country. They have made an attractive tourist trap purporting to be the inn where Don Quixote (a fictitious character!) tilted at windmills. There are some genuine ancient windmills in the area as well, so that added to the illusion. We walked along the sleepy main street where Mac saw his first cat- a very scruffy looking street fighter of a moggy. Even Mac decided not to pat him!
Cordoba Hotel Gate
e didn't see much of Cordoba this evening but it is world heritage listed and we will have walking tours tomorrow. The hotel is built in the remains of a monastery I think, and the main dining room has a glass floor to show the Roman ruins underneath. Today we really understand how young Australia is.
We had a very nice communal dinner tonight - tomato salad, stewed Iberian cheeks (!) and chocolate fondant cake. Lots of wine - very nice too. We celebrated the birthday of Jennie from Tassie and enjoyed the night.
I am now feeling pain, not only from my injury, but my knees and left hip which is a new one. Hope it goes away soon.
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