Madrid, Spain
Day 28
Segovia
We GOT UP EARLY this morning! We were not going to have a repeat performance of missing out on going to Sergovia. So off we go, to the metro, after we had our breakfast of toasted breaksticks, oil and tomatos (and yummy espresso coffee) to get to the ´hidden bus station´to Sergovia!
Didn´t tell you that yesterday did i..the reason why we also didn´t go to Sergovia yesterday is because we couldn´t find the station where the bus left from! No kidding. It´s hidden! Well, it´s stuck behind the main station, over the road and underground and the ticket guy said, just go there....!! (in spanish!) so we went just over there..and over there, was a huge shopping centre! ´
But today! Hola! We found it!
We travelled 90 minutes to Sergovia, did the repeat thing, got something to eat (bread stick) when we arrived at the station (what is it about these stations, they make us hungry!) and then headed off to discover Sergovia!
We went the wrong way..but what´s the right way. There´s nothing signposted. Weird really, the whole place is like a place a hundred years ago! In fact, we´re discovering the whole of what we´ve seen in Spain is like a hundred years ago! Smoke everywhere...people carrying breadsticks everywhere...Honestly it really does feel old and quaint and a bit out of date.
About the smoking. People smoke in restuarants! (restaurantes) And it´s socially acceptable whereever you are. Even the bus driver today was smoking. It´s so strange. A lady i was watching was smoking a cigarette just before she hopped onto to the bus and flicked the cigarette away and i just thought..whoa, she shouldn´t be doing that!
How conditioned are we.
How non conditioned are they.
Even in Africa they don´t smoke in cafes!
So! We walked and walked..to see what we could find in this magical, medieval town of Segovia. And...then, looming out of nowwhere we saw it...
The Aqueduct! it was right there in front of us and it looked fantastic! This is a water system that is 800 metres long, 30 metres high, that transported water to the town from a mountain spring. What an engineering feat! The designers at the time didn´t use an ounce of mortar to build the structure. Greg was impressed. Most of the architecture in Spain has been redesigned by the Roman architects and this is one example why.
Now that we were on track we found the Segonia Cathedral. The last gothic cathedral in Europe. What a fantastic site that is. It wasn´t as outlandish as any of the other cathedral´s we have seen but it´s still lavish. It took 200 years to build. The paintings, once again, are just wondrous. We saw the room of Saint Gregory! Of course we had to take a pic of that! With our very own St Greg in it!!
Walked the beautiful, narrow cobblestone streets, freezing our asses off i might add, stopped for a coffee to warm up and lapped up the ambience of the spanish bar. (We love these bars).
Then we found the Alcazar of Segonia. This is where Philip 11 married his fourth wife Anna of Austria. The room was worn and lavish.
We went through the old castle, fireplace and throne halls.
The paintings and flemmish tapestries are intricate and amazing. So many stories held within.
There were little windows to peer outside..to observe the enemy. We went throught the castle tower and observed the city ruins beneath.
I can see why the court moved to the Madrid as a royal residence. It seemed cold.
And afterwards it was turned into a prison.
In a way, castles and royal premises of the day, did seem a bit like prisons. You have to wonder how happy they were locked in these lavish castles.
We went up the Tower after that, 157 long, narrow and winding steps! Mum sent a text as we reached the top and i quickly tex´d back and put my gloves back on. So COLD. From the top we could see snow on the mountains!
We were hungry again after this and had dinner (is it dinner or just a continuation of a feast!?) at a place that was as homely as can be. Little girl watching Spanish Ninja turtles and the muppets on tv (weird how western shows are translated into euro languages here!) and families all mixing in the bars, or cafes that they are.
Our day in Sergovia ended up eventful. From a dismal start to a wonderful finish.
On the bus, we observed so much grafitti on the walls on the highway....and i started wondering where all that started. In the cathedrals and castles there is grafitti dating back to 1921 and you have to think...even the granfather´s were marking their names on monuments!
On the train back....we noted the shoes.....pointy, not unlike the pointed armour in the Segovia Tower.
All for protection i imagine!
Home for us now....almost curfew!
Friday, 30 March 2007
STILL IN SPAIN!
Madrid, Spain
Day 27
Went in seach of Tapas! (hors dóeuvres) Which of course are not hard to find! At 12 oclock! OK we slept in!! We found a place that sold Tapas and we asked for the traditonal plate.
We got a fried assortment of squid, prawns, potato and other things that we didn´t quite know what they were. And we´re sure this was not a regular plate of tapas. Did they think we´d just like fried food cos we´re American´s? (Honestly, people don´t really know WHAT or WHO we are...
We´ve so far been mistaken for British, German (mostly) and American!) Perhaps they don´t know what an Australian is! Ok, a bit harsh, but we´re out of tourist season at the moment and from what we´re oberving, we´re the only non spanish people about! And we´re confusing everyone. Even ourselves! (who are we again!) Greg sounds a mix between african, spanish, italian and allsorts hahaha! He transforms with every country we go to! :-)
Today´s plan was Avila.
No busses.
Segovia.
Too late.
(Story of our life!)
SO! We got the last guided tour of the Madrid Palace! And we feel blessed!!! What a tour. The tiny little gnome of a spanish lady, dressed in black with clogged shoes (who told us she learned English in England) was the guide of our minority english speaking group. She was so funny, whenever anyone tried to join our group she shooed them away saying they didn´t belong!
But she was loyal to us, her little group and we got quite friendly with her. She shared information that was ´secret´and said although she thought she could show us what was under the dining table of the great room she wouldn´t out of respect! (a boring old ply table apparently!)
But what a site the palace was! Talk about over the top! If the Toledo cathedral was considered extravagent, this was as well. There was a lot of Italian and French influence as the King of the time (Carlos 1V) had ruled Naples in Rome so had a good knowledge of Italian design so he brought it with him. All but one of the chandeliers in the place were Italian or French! The only Spanish one was in the Queens (Isobel) writing room!´
This is because the original old castle burned down so he had to redeorate and rebuild. In 1788. Anyway, whatever the influence was, it was massive. Gold. Marble. Bronze. Imported goods.
Shall we talk about the starving people of the time, at this point, or just forget that?
OK. Just to justify the extravagence of the place, apparently 6000 people actually lived at the palace at the time. In the 16th century. Including royal family, servants etc. Of 3000 rooms we saw 32 rooms! It´s bigger than Buckingham palace and the palace of the verselles in France.
After all this..and all the walking..we stopped at Nice Cream and had an icecream!!!
What a day. Walked SO MUCH TODAY!
By the way, we only just got back to the hostal in time. Our hostallier locked the great iron doors 30 seconds after we arrived back!!! Phew.
I wonder what we would do if we were late for the 11pm curfew?
Day 27
Went in seach of Tapas! (hors dóeuvres) Which of course are not hard to find! At 12 oclock! OK we slept in!! We found a place that sold Tapas and we asked for the traditonal plate.
We got a fried assortment of squid, prawns, potato and other things that we didn´t quite know what they were. And we´re sure this was not a regular plate of tapas. Did they think we´d just like fried food cos we´re American´s? (Honestly, people don´t really know WHAT or WHO we are...
We´ve so far been mistaken for British, German (mostly) and American!) Perhaps they don´t know what an Australian is! Ok, a bit harsh, but we´re out of tourist season at the moment and from what we´re oberving, we´re the only non spanish people about! And we´re confusing everyone. Even ourselves! (who are we again!) Greg sounds a mix between african, spanish, italian and allsorts hahaha! He transforms with every country we go to! :-)
Today´s plan was Avila.
No busses.
Segovia.
Too late.
(Story of our life!)
SO! We got the last guided tour of the Madrid Palace! And we feel blessed!!! What a tour. The tiny little gnome of a spanish lady, dressed in black with clogged shoes (who told us she learned English in England) was the guide of our minority english speaking group. She was so funny, whenever anyone tried to join our group she shooed them away saying they didn´t belong!
But she was loyal to us, her little group and we got quite friendly with her. She shared information that was ´secret´and said although she thought she could show us what was under the dining table of the great room she wouldn´t out of respect! (a boring old ply table apparently!)
But what a site the palace was! Talk about over the top! If the Toledo cathedral was considered extravagent, this was as well. There was a lot of Italian and French influence as the King of the time (Carlos 1V) had ruled Naples in Rome so had a good knowledge of Italian design so he brought it with him. All but one of the chandeliers in the place were Italian or French! The only Spanish one was in the Queens (Isobel) writing room!´
This is because the original old castle burned down so he had to redeorate and rebuild. In 1788. Anyway, whatever the influence was, it was massive. Gold. Marble. Bronze. Imported goods.
Shall we talk about the starving people of the time, at this point, or just forget that?
OK. Just to justify the extravagence of the place, apparently 6000 people actually lived at the palace at the time. In the 16th century. Including royal family, servants etc. Of 3000 rooms we saw 32 rooms! It´s bigger than Buckingham palace and the palace of the verselles in France.
After all this..and all the walking..we stopped at Nice Cream and had an icecream!!!
What a day. Walked SO MUCH TODAY!
By the way, we only just got back to the hostal in time. Our hostallier locked the great iron doors 30 seconds after we arrived back!!! Phew.
I wonder what we would do if we were late for the 11pm curfew?
TOLEDO
Madrid, Spain
Day 26
Riosol Hostal
Toledo
We had our last breakfast at the Regente and checked out in rainy dismal weather. Oh no! We had to trudge around in wet weather with our packs on board to get to our next accomodation. No worries though, it wasn´t far. Thank god! Greg did take a photo of me with my silly raincoat on tho..and i took one of him looking very ninja turtleish!
Those backpacks! Gawd....what we´ve discovered though, is their actually better than suitcases when it comes to going up and down stairs! (Metro´s etc!) And they´re waterproof! So, they´re not so bad afterall, and we´re getting used to them!
When we got to the hostal we got excited. So much cheaper and more like we´d intended for this trip (remember, we have our budget!). It´s so funny though, no one understands English. Even the guys at the hotels and hostals. They don´t seem to really know what on earth we´re on about, and what´s more, when we do try to say, in our stilted clear english, what we´re talking about..they answer in fluent long spanish!
We must just look like we´re standing there with our dumbfounded looks agreeing! Of all countries we´ve both been to, we´ve decided this country is the one that lacks communication with tourists. Not that that´s a particularly bad thing, it´just seems to be the thing that just ís´. Doesn´t help us though! When we asked the Hostal guy if there was a lounge or anything at the hostal..he promptly got his map out and circled the laundry, 2 blocks away and gave us a contented look!
OH DEAR!
And it´s the same everywhere here it seems. Spain is full of Spanish! Now i know that sounds very logical and of common sense..but it´s the only country that seems to lack multiculturalism! Very few other nationalities, from what we can see! Oh wait. Lots of South Americans tho..and what do they speak? (Spanish!) :-)
TOLEDO.
That was our plan for today.
We caught the metro (underground train) then the bus and it all worked like clockwork, thanks to Greg´s `´plotting´! We arrived in Toledo. The place to go according to the Lonely Planet. A old knights town that is situated behind a fortress wall.
Firstly, we were hungry so we trotted off to the Cafetaria. We looked at the menu and knowing people didn´t speak much english decided to point to the picture at the wall and go with that. It was a salad roll and a drink. He spoke Spanish back to us and we said, ´ce´. In a few minutes the roll came back..with 10 little sausages and no salad. We just looked at it! OK. Let´s just eat that. (i rarely eat, if ever eat, sausage!).
We take our massive sausage sandwich and because there´s no table and only two little tables at one end of the cafe Greg picks one up and pulls a couple of chairs and there we are. All set. To eat.
The next thing WE GOT A MOUTHFUL!
The spanish guy must have decided this was just not the thing to do. He yelled and screamed (LOUDLY) at us, in spanish, with us not knowing what a clue he was saying, and then he promptly came over, grabbed the table and pointed for us to ´sit thereª!It was probably more like...."$·$%$/%/&%(/&$ SIT THERE!"
The poor old guy that we had to sit with was flabbagasted. We were. And the rest of the cafe stared at us.
I wonder what they said?
He was probably saying ´"bloody tourists!"
Off we headed to Toledo sites. And when we got behind the wall (trudged up a million steps to get there) we got into the quaint and so beautiful town. It was like going back a hundred years. Or more. What a place. Just beautiuful. We went to the Toledo Museum and Cathedra. Is the Cathedral a man made wonder of the world?
The art work, the design, the gold, the statues, the whole place was just AMAZING! We were treated with the works of Greco, Goya, Raphael. The leadlight was just wondrous.
One has to wonder about the extravagence?
Did people starve while this was being built over 300 years?
The town of Toledo was just exceptional. The bars abound. What is it about the Spanish bars? They are so appealing. Every window has the lure of wine and tapas. And so delightful.
We decided we had to head back to Madrid. At the hostal we´re at there is a 11pm curfew! So we had to get back, have something to eat and get in before curfew!
We found a gorgeous bar in Madrid where we had nuts and wine. We took pics and the barman was so friendly. A cute little place.
We also bought the book, Iberia (Spain) by James Mitchener. And from what i´ve read, he has a great perspective on Spain. Not unlike how we feel as well. It´s a place that is not that friendly to ´foreigners´but it´s a place of passion, of intense loyalty and arrogance and a place that is certain to grow on us.
Which is why we´ve decided to stay another week!
Day 26
Riosol Hostal
Toledo
We had our last breakfast at the Regente and checked out in rainy dismal weather. Oh no! We had to trudge around in wet weather with our packs on board to get to our next accomodation. No worries though, it wasn´t far. Thank god! Greg did take a photo of me with my silly raincoat on tho..and i took one of him looking very ninja turtleish!
Those backpacks! Gawd....what we´ve discovered though, is their actually better than suitcases when it comes to going up and down stairs! (Metro´s etc!) And they´re waterproof! So, they´re not so bad afterall, and we´re getting used to them!
When we got to the hostal we got excited. So much cheaper and more like we´d intended for this trip (remember, we have our budget!). It´s so funny though, no one understands English. Even the guys at the hotels and hostals. They don´t seem to really know what on earth we´re on about, and what´s more, when we do try to say, in our stilted clear english, what we´re talking about..they answer in fluent long spanish!
We must just look like we´re standing there with our dumbfounded looks agreeing! Of all countries we´ve both been to, we´ve decided this country is the one that lacks communication with tourists. Not that that´s a particularly bad thing, it´just seems to be the thing that just ís´. Doesn´t help us though! When we asked the Hostal guy if there was a lounge or anything at the hostal..he promptly got his map out and circled the laundry, 2 blocks away and gave us a contented look!
OH DEAR!
And it´s the same everywhere here it seems. Spain is full of Spanish! Now i know that sounds very logical and of common sense..but it´s the only country that seems to lack multiculturalism! Very few other nationalities, from what we can see! Oh wait. Lots of South Americans tho..and what do they speak? (Spanish!) :-)
TOLEDO.
That was our plan for today.
We caught the metro (underground train) then the bus and it all worked like clockwork, thanks to Greg´s `´plotting´! We arrived in Toledo. The place to go according to the Lonely Planet. A old knights town that is situated behind a fortress wall.
Firstly, we were hungry so we trotted off to the Cafetaria. We looked at the menu and knowing people didn´t speak much english decided to point to the picture at the wall and go with that. It was a salad roll and a drink. He spoke Spanish back to us and we said, ´ce´. In a few minutes the roll came back..with 10 little sausages and no salad. We just looked at it! OK. Let´s just eat that. (i rarely eat, if ever eat, sausage!).
We take our massive sausage sandwich and because there´s no table and only two little tables at one end of the cafe Greg picks one up and pulls a couple of chairs and there we are. All set. To eat.
The next thing WE GOT A MOUTHFUL!
The spanish guy must have decided this was just not the thing to do. He yelled and screamed (LOUDLY) at us, in spanish, with us not knowing what a clue he was saying, and then he promptly came over, grabbed the table and pointed for us to ´sit thereª!It was probably more like...."$·$%$/%/&%(/&$ SIT THERE!"
The poor old guy that we had to sit with was flabbagasted. We were. And the rest of the cafe stared at us.
I wonder what they said?
He was probably saying ´"bloody tourists!"
Off we headed to Toledo sites. And when we got behind the wall (trudged up a million steps to get there) we got into the quaint and so beautiful town. It was like going back a hundred years. Or more. What a place. Just beautiuful. We went to the Toledo Museum and Cathedra. Is the Cathedral a man made wonder of the world?
The art work, the design, the gold, the statues, the whole place was just AMAZING! We were treated with the works of Greco, Goya, Raphael. The leadlight was just wondrous.
One has to wonder about the extravagence?
Did people starve while this was being built over 300 years?
The town of Toledo was just exceptional. The bars abound. What is it about the Spanish bars? They are so appealing. Every window has the lure of wine and tapas. And so delightful.
We decided we had to head back to Madrid. At the hostal we´re at there is a 11pm curfew! So we had to get back, have something to eat and get in before curfew!
We found a gorgeous bar in Madrid where we had nuts and wine. We took pics and the barman was so friendly. A cute little place.
We also bought the book, Iberia (Spain) by James Mitchener. And from what i´ve read, he has a great perspective on Spain. Not unlike how we feel as well. It´s a place that is not that friendly to ´foreigners´but it´s a place of passion, of intense loyalty and arrogance and a place that is certain to grow on us.
Which is why we´ve decided to stay another week!
MADRID - REGENTE
Monday 26th March 2007
Madrid - Regente Hotel
Day 25
Uh oh! Greg woke up with a cold! We dragged ourselves out of bed (afterall, yesterday was a BIG day!) and had our buffet breakfast. We booked another night at the Regente so we didn´t have to bother with arranging accomodation. A reprieve for a day! And so Greg could sleep.
Isn´t it awful when you´re away and you get sick! Wa´n´t long ago, hey sis, that you and Graeme were in Europe with your dreaded colds! Same thing. I think i had a bit of a dose when we arrived and i just wanted to sleep, but i wasn´t sure if that was jet lag (after missing that whole night´s sleep from Joburg to Madrid) or if it was a cold. Greg says he caught it from me....so there you go. My fault! haha!
Anyway, we stayed in bed all day and i finished my book,´´A Wedding in December´ by Anita Shreve (about a group of school friends meeting for a reunion - reminded me of ours Jilly...by the way, thanks for the email!!) I loved just ´being´to tell you the truth, so i was glad Greg was sick and had to sleep! Watched a bit of CNN as well. Caught the bit about a cyclone up north and got worried about Sam at the Abrolhos but it didn´t come down that far.
Oh yeah. My foot was so sore it was good to rest!!! (OK CEd (Suzie!) I mentioned the ´bloody foot!´´) By the way, how are you guys going? I believe you´ve started the regional road safety weeks now! (How was Bunbury Bob?) I have to tell you about the South African roads (excellent roads - great sign posts, well set out!) in an email!!! (Don´t want to bore everyone talking about our passion - ROADS - now do we!)
Back to Madrid!
We spent the afternoon with Greg waking up...plotting...and me writing! We decided we´re soul mates because he likes to plot and i like to blog! :-) Nah, not only cos of that, we know we are, because, well, we just are! And we travel so well together too! Day 25 and no concerns at all. I think we could do this forever!
We ventured out in the evening in search of the Tourist Centre in the end to find a hotal for the next few days in Madrid. And we found one! Booked it as well. 42 Euro each night! (Just found the Euro key...i tell ya, spanish keyboards are murder!) € OK. Got it! €€€ (Thanks Greg!!) He´s sitting here looking at the keyboard!!! Anyway, to continue...it´s a good price. A third of the price of the Regente! That perked us up a bit!
Also found a place that´s like Myer. Can´t think of the name at the moment but it´ll come to me. El Cortez something or rather.....anwyay, we found some Beautiful Perfume! And bought it. El Cortes De Engleis. That´s it (thanks Greg!)
At the moment, we´re in the internet cafe on the corner of where our accomodation is. It´s such a gorgeous little..well, not so little, place. Restaurante Zahara Cafe. When you come in here..there´s a bar (where we´ve had beer, olives, peanuts) and there´s a place where you have meals (chicken sanwich) and you go upstairs and put coins in for the internet. €3 for 50 minutes! (which is why i´m going to start my next blog!)
Hey, thanks for all your emails...Deidre, Jilly, Helena, Marguerite (bub is GORGEOUS!)..! I just love hearing from you! And of course from all my family. You´re great. What would we do without you! Aiden. The pics of down south were gorgeous! Anyway, thanks to you all. We love coming to the internet and seeing your emails. And thanks for all the info Jaak.
And Silvia...how wonderful to hear from you!!! When we get to Italy, you´ll have to tell us where to go!!! :-) Hey..i reckon you´d do so well with your jewellery here!!!
Okies, next blog xxx
Madrid - Regente Hotel
Day 25
Uh oh! Greg woke up with a cold! We dragged ourselves out of bed (afterall, yesterday was a BIG day!) and had our buffet breakfast. We booked another night at the Regente so we didn´t have to bother with arranging accomodation. A reprieve for a day! And so Greg could sleep.
Isn´t it awful when you´re away and you get sick! Wa´n´t long ago, hey sis, that you and Graeme were in Europe with your dreaded colds! Same thing. I think i had a bit of a dose when we arrived and i just wanted to sleep, but i wasn´t sure if that was jet lag (after missing that whole night´s sleep from Joburg to Madrid) or if it was a cold. Greg says he caught it from me....so there you go. My fault! haha!
Anyway, we stayed in bed all day and i finished my book,´´A Wedding in December´ by Anita Shreve (about a group of school friends meeting for a reunion - reminded me of ours Jilly...by the way, thanks for the email!!) I loved just ´being´to tell you the truth, so i was glad Greg was sick and had to sleep! Watched a bit of CNN as well. Caught the bit about a cyclone up north and got worried about Sam at the Abrolhos but it didn´t come down that far.
Oh yeah. My foot was so sore it was good to rest!!! (OK CEd (Suzie!) I mentioned the ´bloody foot!´´) By the way, how are you guys going? I believe you´ve started the regional road safety weeks now! (How was Bunbury Bob?) I have to tell you about the South African roads (excellent roads - great sign posts, well set out!) in an email!!! (Don´t want to bore everyone talking about our passion - ROADS - now do we!)
Back to Madrid!
We spent the afternoon with Greg waking up...plotting...and me writing! We decided we´re soul mates because he likes to plot and i like to blog! :-) Nah, not only cos of that, we know we are, because, well, we just are! And we travel so well together too! Day 25 and no concerns at all. I think we could do this forever!
We ventured out in the evening in search of the Tourist Centre in the end to find a hotal for the next few days in Madrid. And we found one! Booked it as well. 42 Euro each night! (Just found the Euro key...i tell ya, spanish keyboards are murder!) € OK. Got it! €€€ (Thanks Greg!!) He´s sitting here looking at the keyboard!!! Anyway, to continue...it´s a good price. A third of the price of the Regente! That perked us up a bit!
Also found a place that´s like Myer. Can´t think of the name at the moment but it´ll come to me. El Cortez something or rather.....anwyay, we found some Beautiful Perfume! And bought it. El Cortes De Engleis. That´s it (thanks Greg!)
At the moment, we´re in the internet cafe on the corner of where our accomodation is. It´s such a gorgeous little..well, not so little, place. Restaurante Zahara Cafe. When you come in here..there´s a bar (where we´ve had beer, olives, peanuts) and there´s a place where you have meals (chicken sanwich) and you go upstairs and put coins in for the internet. €3 for 50 minutes! (which is why i´m going to start my next blog!)
Hey, thanks for all your emails...Deidre, Jilly, Helena, Marguerite (bub is GORGEOUS!)..! I just love hearing from you! And of course from all my family. You´re great. What would we do without you! Aiden. The pics of down south were gorgeous! Anyway, thanks to you all. We love coming to the internet and seeing your emails. And thanks for all the info Jaak.
And Silvia...how wonderful to hear from you!!! When we get to Italy, you´ll have to tell us where to go!!! :-) Hey..i reckon you´d do so well with your jewellery here!!!
Okies, next blog xxx
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