Marching Around Madrid

by | Oct 15, 2024 | Uncategorized

So far on this trip, I have been a very frustrated photographer. It’s not that I haven’t been able to take any photos. On the contrary, I have taken more than 1,000. But what is frustrating is that I have been unable to do my early morning photo walks and get pictures when the light is at its best. Regular readers know I love to shoot during the “blue hour” and the “golden hour.” Well, those barely exist in Madrid or in all of Spain because of a little-known time anomaly. It seems that sometime in the past, the Spaniards were trying to make peace with the British and one of the things they did to show how much they loved all things British was put themselves in the same time zone as Great Britain when actually they should be about a time zone and a half further east. So, if you fly straight north from here, you would be in Warsaw, Poland, but the time here correlates to London. This means that sunrise today was around 8:30 am. That’s too late for me to be out shooting photos when we have to be heading our on tours at 9:00. Yesterday, I was about a mile away and thought it was still around 6:30, and it turned out to be 7:50, and I was supposed to meet the rest of the group for breakfast at 8:00. YIKES…so I walked really fast and barely made it back—only a little late. Let me toss in the early morning shots I did get right here. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After we finished the breakfast that I was late for; it was time to leave the hotel for a one-of-a-kind Madrid experience—churros and chocolate. We had heard (YouTube videos) that there were two places famous for their churros and the hot chocolate you dip them into. The oldest and most famous is Chocolatería San Ginés. I found it on my early morning walk, so I led the gang down to try out the churros dipped in what is pretty much melted chocolate. It was awesome. But on the way down, Kathleen’s knee and neuropathy started giving her problems, so she and I walked back up to the hotel (the nearest Uber or Bolt was 20 minutes away) while the rest of the group walked ahead to find our guide for the day.

Speaking of walking, I did a lot of walking yesterday. My Map My Walk/Run app shows that I walked more than ten miles. Some of my walking was for exercise and photography reasons, but we had also booked a walking tour of Madrid through a company called The Tour Guy.

The Tour Guy company is a tour broker who books tours with different companies worldwide to do tours in a particular place…in this case, Madrid. Mike had used them before in other locations. Those who have read my posts in the past, you know that I am a massive fan of Tours by Locals, but since Mike had booked with them before, we went with them. I made the booking because if you are booking with The Tour Guy for the first time, you get a discount.

Our tour was assigned to a company called Touring Pandas. Even though we got a local guide, I did some checking this morning and the tour company we were brokered out to is based in Korea. That in itself is interesting.

I say all this to preface that we had a good tour guide. Her name was Taylor, and she is from Newcastle, England. She spoke with a beautiful British accent and has lived in Madrid for four years. She knew all about the city and shared great tips with us for food and drink after the tour.

The two anchor spots of this tour (places you really want to see and learn more about) are the Royal Palace and the Prado Art Museum. So we started by walking around, catching fun and exciting parts of Madrid between our meeting spot in the Puerta Del Sol and our big morning stop, the Palace. Everything was great right up until that point.

Then, the big surprise. Taylor told us that after we got in (with our pre-paid tickets—buy yours before you go because otherwise, the wait is very long), we could rent audio guides that would take us through the entire Palace. Mike said, “Well, we won’t need those since you will give us a live tour.” Taylor said, “No, I don’t come in with you. I’ll leave you here to tour the Palace and then have lunch on your own. I will meet you in a park on the other side of Madrid at 3:00 pm. We will tour the park, and then I will take you to the Prado, where you have pre-reserved tickets, and you will tour The Prado on your own as well.” You could have knocked me over with a feather. I know Mike was surprised as well. We had paid for an eight-hour tour (it says that on our reservation), but this meant we were getting about a three-hour tour.

That’s different from what we were looking for. We wanted what we had the day before with Fernando in Toledo: a guide who was with us from the time we got out of our van until we finished at the end of the day, who took us into museums and cathedrals and didn’t just drop us off outside of them.

But when Taylor arrived on time, she told us a lot about the Plaza del Sol, where the tour started, and the Bear and Strawberry Tree statue where we met. Then we left the plaza and headed towards Plaza Mayor, The Mercado, the Basilica, and finally winding up at the Palace, where we had tickets to the tour that I mentioned above. At this point, I was feeling bad about Kathleen being stuck in the hotel all by herself, and I knew she wouldn’t want to go out to lunch alone, so I decided to buzz through the Palace fairly quickly and head back to the hotel to take her out to lunch somewhere near the hotel while the rest of the group took a leisurely stroll through on their tour. Here are my photos from the morning part of the tour and my zoom through the Palace (the photo at the top of this page is the Spanish throne room). Enjoy, and you know the drill.

I should say that it was INCREDIBLY difficult to buzz through the Palace because it has a lot of choke points where the thousands of Asian tour groups just seemed to stop to listen to their guide in their earpieces…but at least they had a guide.

After I finally got out of there, I was off to the hotel and surprised Kathleen by taking her to an Italian place just down the block from the hotel so she didn’t have to walk very far. We had a nice lunch, and then after I got her back to the hotel, I walked off to meet up with Taylor and the rest of the gang at El Retiro Park, which is Madrid’s answer to New York’s Central Park. It is truly a beautiful place, as I hope you will see in my photos. By the way, the weather yesterday was hit or miss. It started out OK, switched to cloudy and cool, the sun finally came out, and within 20 minutes, it was threatening rain again. Go figure.

When I got to El Retiro Park, Taylor walked us around, saying she would take us to the Prado and drop us off there. To be honest, at that point I had been up since 1:30 am, I had walked more than nine miles and I am not that big a fan of Spanish art. So I bid my farewells and walked my way back to the hotel. The other four of our group had a very nice time seeing the Prado and made it back in time for all of us to go out for tapas at another place down the street. They have excellent food and what has become a favorite drink, vermouth on the rocks with lemon. We are sitting on our bed at the hotel (after our day—today—in Segovia—more about that tomorrow), drinking two of them. Let’s finish up our day in Madrid with my afternoon photos. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

That about did it for our day in Madrid. Today (I am writing this at about 8:00 pm on Tuesday), we were in Segovia, and it was AWESOME! We fly to Lisbon tomorrow to start our Viking portion of the trip tomorrow. More about all of that soon.

I never heard anyone say anything bad about Madrid.  —Antonio Ruddier

 

Transfixed by Toledo

by | Oct 13, 2024 | Uncategorized

I know. How can anyone be transfixed by Toledo? When it’s Toledo, Spain, that’s easy. Yesterday, that was our destination. Mike had arranged a tour through Destina Toledo for a full day excursion to Toledo, including round-trip transportation to and from our hotel here in Madrid and one of the best guides we have ever toured with (and that’s a lot of guides!).

We were waiting at the door of the hotel’s breakfast room when it opened at 8:00 a.m., had another excellent breakfast, got our stuff, and our driver met us right outside the hotel. It’s around a one-hour drive without traffic to Toledo, and since it was fairly early on a Sunday morning, we didn’t have any traffic at all. So quick as a flash, we were pulling into Toledo, where we met our incredible guide, Fernando.

Fernando and our driver did a wonderful job mixing touring in our luxury Mercedes van with walking. This really helps in a city built on a hill. Kathleen told me that when she first saw the city from far away, she was sure that she would be spending most of the day in the van. But it worked out reasonably well, and her knee was able to handle the walking that we did. It was pretty sore when we got back, so she iced it up and took her pain pill, and hopefully, she will be OK for today’s tour of Madrid.

When we met Fernando, he first suggested we hop out of the van and take photos of the entrance gate to the city. That’s the photo you see at the top of this post. Then it was back in the van and up the hill to two incredible viewpoints. One that showed us the Tagus River as it wound around the outside of Toledo, forming a natural moat-like boundary that repelled many a historical enemy of the city. Then, it was to a hill where the entire city was visible. Of course, Fernando was also willing to be our photographer by taking the whole group’s photo with this amazing city in the background.

Here are a few more photos I took at these first two stops. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After our viewpoint stops, we headed back down the hill on the opposite side to begin our walking tour through the Jewish Quarter of old Toledo. It included some pretty interesting stuff: a Jewish synagogue, Jesus playing with his hula-hoop, a statue in white face, the world’s largest (as verified by the Guinness Book of World Records) marzipan statue and an art museum with a single painting by Toledo’s native son—El Greco. I think I can say this part a whole lot better in photos. You know my spiel. No phones! Slide show…etc.

After all that touring, we were getting pretty hungry, and to our total amazement (and Fernando’s skill), we wound up standing in front of the restaurant where I had made our lunch reservations at exactly 1:00 pm when they opened. The place is called Clandestine. We were quickly seated, met our server Jamie, and began a lunch that I will rank among this year’s top ten dining experiences. The eatery had come from a recommendation the tour company had sent us before, so we were still determining what to expect, but we got more food, wine and laughter than we deserved. There was so much food that no one ate again for the rest of that day and night. We were too full. We started with a beautiful Spanish rioja. The wine, which we intend to look for at home, was perfect. It was so perfect that we had to order another bottle. They then brought us a bowl of some of the best Spanish olives we have ever had and some whole-grain bread that we could dip into their incredible olive oil (at that point, the olive oil was the star of my meal). Jamie (the waiter—not to be confused with my sister-in-law Jamie) made some great recommendations, and we wound up with some superb entrées. Check out the photos below. Feel free to look at any of our food shots on your phone. That’s how we took them. Oh, and the desserts (which we split) were also excellent.

After lunch, it was down the hill to visit our last stop, the main cathedral of Toledo. This was the highlight for Mike because he loves taking pictures of churches. My other best friend (hi Bob) and I love kidding him about all the church photos. If you don’t believe me, wait until we are back and he posts his review/report of this trip, and you will see what I mean. I promise to come back and tell you when he does so you can see more of this incredible church. In the meantime, here are a few photos from your humble photographer ?.

After we were done inside (we were there for more than an hour), we went back outside to the square behind the cathedral to wait for our driver to pick us up. While we were waiting, there were throngs of people all around us, and with nothing better for me to do, I engaged in one of my favorite things—street photography. So here I present random shots of people who, one day (long after I am gone), my kids will wonder, “Who the hell are these people?” ?.

Sorry, no captions. Just the faces of Toledo visitors. Some I liked more than others, but all were good subjects. I took about three times as many as you see here. And one fellow perfectly typified how we all felt at the end of our very long day in Toledo. And here he is.

We got back to Madrid between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m., and I made the mistake of trying to work through all my photos and then falling asleep before 7:30 (I think we are all still adjusting to the time change). However, that turned out OK because I woke up at 2:00 a.m., finished the photos and wrote this post.

In summary, if you come to Madrid, go to Toledo, be guided by Fernando, have lunch at Clandestine, ask to sit at Jamie’s table, drink the right rioja, and take some great photos, you will (as we did) have had an awesome day.

Spain is a fascinating mix of people, languages, culture and food, but if there is one thing all Spaniards share, it’s a love of food and drink.       —Jose Andres

Madrid–Day 1: Soggy Start, Great Finish

by | Oct 12, 2024 | Food Experiences

We woke up and found everyone here! Yeah! It was fantastic to walk into the breakfast room downstairs in our hotel and see the whole gang. We hadn’t seen Jamie and Steve since they left for the airport in Norway in June, and we hadn’t seen Mike and Cathy since we sailed from Montreal to Miami a year ago this month.

I want to say right up front that the Hotel Preciados serves a fabulous breakfast. It’s just amazing. I could just eat the bread and the incredible jambon ham. Put that together with the outstanding coffee, and I was in breakfast heaven.

After we all got caught up and fed up, we decided what to do yesterday. Mike and I (as your tour planners) had decided to go light on day one since we would all be a little jet-lagged. The only thing we had scheduled was lunch at Botin Restaurant—the world’s oldest, continuously operating restaurant. Really. They have operated under the same family’s ownership since 1725. The building has been there since 1590 (Isn’t Europe glorious). Their other claim to fame is that the wood-burning ovens they use to make their signature roast suckling pig have never gone out during that entire time. This might be an excellent time to show you our food pics from yesterday (with captions, of course). It is OK to look at these on your phone because I took them with mine ?. This is all of them, from the few at breakfast to the incredible lunch to the tapas Mike, Cathy, and I had to finish off the day.

Once we were done with breakfast, there wasn’t much to do anyway as the skies had opened up, and the torrential downpour Mike and Cathy had experienced the day before while transitioning planes in Lisbon finally got to Madrid. It just poured!  So far, the only thing I have forgotten is a small waterproof bag I use to shield my camera when wet. So before lunch, I wandered off to find a Googled photo store to see if they had something to keep my camera dry. I never found an actual camera store, but I found just about everything else in a nine-story department store. I settled for some small draw-string trash bags that should do the job.

After that, it was almost time to head to lunch (which I have already described), so we did that. Most of the group walked the mile or so to Bodin, but with Kathleen’s bad knee, she and I decided to take an Uber. The only problem is that yesterday was a national holiday in Spain and there were parades, crowds and traffic jams everywhere. (MASSIVE PET PEEVE: The Uber app says the ride is five minutes away. The Uber driver who accepts rides that are actually 15 minutes away and not moving.) We waited for almost half an hour before we gave up, canceled the Uber and got a Bolt (European rideshare company) that was there to get us in two minutes. But we made it, and that is all that matters.

After lunch, we sent Kathleen back to the hotel in another Bolt (lots more of those, so I will be sticking with Bolt in Madrid), and the rest of us went off to walk around the city for a couple of hours. We started at Plaza Mayor, which looked like it would have been very cool if there hadn’t been a big stage for a concert that afternoon. Hopefully, it will be gone when we return to our Madrid walking tour on Monday. After that, we walked down to the Madrid cathedral and palace. And, of course, on this walk, I took a lot of photos, so here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

 

After our walk back, I reviewed photos until Mike and Cathy asked if we wanted to go out for tapas and a drink. Kathleen and Jamie decided they were done for the day, but the rest of us headed out and found a cool tapas place about a block away. Steve decided he was just too tired and not hungry enough, so he headed back. Mike, Cathy, and I had a marvelous time trying their food, and we drank a glass of Madrid’s favorite drink, vermouth. Photos of the food are above in the food gallery. After the tapas, Mike and Cathy went out to explore. On the other hand, I returned to the room to check in on Kathleen, changed into my walking stuff, and headed out to take photos. I wanted to get a sunset shot of the Temple of Debod. This is a complete Egyptian temple (built in the second century BC) that the Egyptian government gave as a gift to the city of Madrid to save it from being submerged when they built the Aswan dam in the 1960s. It was truly beautiful. On the way there and back, I got some photos I am very happy with. Here’s the place where you can check them out. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

I want to make one last point about Madrid (and most other European cities we have visited). These cities are ALIVE! At night the populace is outdoors, walking around, eating, drinking, listening to music on the street…just living. In all our travels, I have found nowhere like this in the US except New York City and maybe Las Vegas. And the living goes on late. Last night was Saturday and we could hear crowds in the street below our hotel still going strong at 1:00 am. It’s phenomenal. Of course, they don’t eat dinner until 10:00 pm, so they have to stay up that late to digest their food ?.

Madrid is what I call home, but also the States.  —Penelope Cruz

Back to Europe next week…

by | Oct 3, 2024 | Uncategorized

It’s been a while, but I wanted to let you know to get ready for a plethora of posts as we leave for Europe a week from today. I know—we are going to Europe again. In our defense, when we were there in June, we were just up north in Scotland, England and Norway. This time, we will be heading south to Spain and Portugal.

Last October, we sailed on Oceania’s Vista from Montreal to Miami. On that trip, we were joined by our good friends Mike and Cathy from Wellington, Florida, my brother Steve and his wonderful bride Jamie from San Juan Capistrano, California and our good buddy Jocelyn Hartwell from Chelan, Washington. Sadly, Jocelyn won’t be joining us for this adventure, but the six of us (Mike, Cathy, Steve, Jamie, Kathleen and I) will all be back together. (Just an aside, Mike and I were talking about three months ago that we should always vacation together in October, so next year, we are cruising the Columbia River, and in October 2026, we will cruise the Great Lakes.)

As I mentioned, a week from tonight, we will board British Airways flight 48 from here in Seattle, non-stop to London Heathrow, where we will have about three and a half hours to either rush or relax (depending on how late our flight from Seattle is) before we head south to Madrid, Spain. Although we have been to Spain before, all our visits have been on the Mediterranean coast, where we have visited Tarragona, Barcelona, Málaga and Valencia. But this will be our first time in Spain’s capital.

We are in Madrid from October 11 until the 16th. During our stay, besides seeing Madrid, we will go on day trips to Segovia and Toledo. Since we are traveling with the king of shore excursions and tours, Mike Preisman, we will be on some of the best tours in all of the Iberian peninsula.

After five full days in Madrid, we will catch a plane to hop over the mountains to Lisbon, Portugal. From the time we land there and for the next ten days, we will fully enter the world of Viking River Cruises. We will spend two nights in Lisbon and then board a “luxury motor coach” for a ride north to Portugal’s second city, Porto, where we will board the Viking Torgil for a six-night cruise up and then back down the Douro River. From the riverboat, we will do excursions to Salamanca, Spain, as well as Regua, Barca d’Alva, Pinhão and Lamego, Portugal. (See the map above–you can click on it to enlarge it) We are sure to have fun, food and a great time!

After we are off the cruise in Porto, we are taking a private airporter-type coach south and back to Lisbon, where we will spend another four days at one of our favorite hotels—Hotel Portugal (really original name ?). On the 29th, we will board a flight back up to London Heathrow, where we will spend the night at an airport hotel before flying home the next day. So this means we are gone from the 10th to the 30th! It will not be quite as long as last June, but it will still be long enough for us to have a great time.

This post tells you only a bit because I plan to blog as often as possible. So get ready for another bunch of posts with photos. Of course, as always, my posts will be totally dependent on Wi-Fi. That means good coverage when we are in hotels and, who knows, what we will get on the boat.

In Spain, the dead are more alive than the dead of any other country in the world.  —Federico Garcia Lorca

 

We are loving Leeds

by | Jun 1, 2024 | Food Experiences

This post will be a personal one as opposed to my usual travel stuff wherein I complain about something ?. We are spending the first four days of our current trip with our good friends Paul and Gail at their home in Leeds, England.

After our ride with Welcome Pickups we arrived at Kings Cross station to take the train north to Leeds. If you are unfamiliar with European trains, I can only say that I LOVE them. They are a wonderful form of transportation that I wish we had more of at home. Clean, safe, on time and more.

We had pre-purchased a three-day (non-consecutive) rail pass before we left home. It allowed us to travel on any train in Great Britain for three days in a 30-day period starting on the day of first use. It took me a few e-mails with the folks we purchased it to understand how it worked, but I finally got it. You have to activate the pass for a particular day in advance. You can also purchase assigned seats for a very small amount ($5.00 each), and I did that for two of our trips, but I couldn’t for this one to Leeds because we were not sure what time we would get to the station from the airport. We know what time we will be leaving on our remaining train rides, so we have reserved seats.

Before we left, I downloaded the schedule and knew there was a train to Leeds every half an hour for most of the day. It was almost noon when we were in the car about a mile from Kings Cross. There was a train to Leeds at 12:03, 12:33 and 1:03. Since it was noon, I figured that by the time we got there and got our luggage out of the car, into the station, found the train platform, we needed to be on, we could get the 1:03. Nope. We walked into the station at 12:20, got quick directions, walked to the platform, used our passes to get through the gates, and talked to a nice lady who directed us to our first-class coach. and we were aboard and sitting in our seats on the 12:33. Can you imagine doing that at an airport?

The ride north was just short of two and a half hours. We only made four stops, and they were quick ones. The midday train was about half empty, so we had no problem finding seats. Our “first class” ticket came with lunch, which turned out to be a drink, a sandwich and crisps (almost typed chips ?). It was not gourmet, but we were hungry after that horrible Virgin Air breakfast, so we were happy to get it.

Once we got to Leeds, we quickly got off the train, and Paul and Gail met us as we left the station platform. We got into their car and drove back to their house. We had visited them pre-pandemic before our cruise from Dublin to Iceland, but they had moved since then, so we got to see their beautiful new home. It is really very nice and just perfect for the two of them and the grandchildren who visit often.

Most of you who read my posts know that I am an early riser, but I have to tell you that yesterday, I don’t think I was up and moving until well after 8:00 a.m. I slept a full nine hours after being up for almost 30 hours, Thursday through Friday. We were both wiped out. Today, I seem to be back on schedule, getting up at my usual 5:30 a.m., which gives me a chance to write this. Win-win!

Our day yesterday was leisurely as Paul and Gail planned to let us recuperate from our flight. We went into nearby Harrogate midday and did a short walk through a beautiful park and around the city center before we stopped for lunch at the amazing Bettys Tea Room (no, there is no apostrophe). We had been to Bettys before as it is a Yorkshire institution. And the lunch was delicious. I had a rarebit that came with my choice of three chutneys (Onion, tomato and apple), but I asked for all three. Yum! But as good as lunch was, what you come to Bettys for is the Fat Rascal. The photo at the top is us holding the Fat Rascal that we split. After having lunch, there is no way to eat an entire Rascal on your own. Think of a Fat Rascal as a kind of giant scone (about that consistency) with raisins and maybe currants inside and almonds and cherries to make a face on the top. They are delicious and a must-eat treat if you come to Yorkshire (the general area where Leeds and Harrogate are located).

After lunch and another quick walk around the town, we were back to Paul and Gail’s, where Kathleen took a nap, and Gail and I went out on a 3+ mile walk around the area (which is beautiful). I did take a few photos while we were walking around Harrogate so those of you who follow me for those had something to look at. Nothing that will make my top ten, but certainly some things I liked. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Then it was off to dinner at Murgatroyds, where they boast they have the “best fish and chips in England.” We have to agree, although I think the atmosphere was better at The Magpie, where Paul and Gail had taken us on our last visit. It is in the beautiful village of  Whitby, but that was a complete day out, so this was close enough to just run over there for dinner. After dinner, it was back to the house to catch the final half of the Champions League game on TV. It’s funny that when we were here in 2019, I had no idea about football (soccer for the Americans) at all. No clue as to what was going on. But thanks to the amazing Ted Lasso, I can now ALMOST figure out what offsides is. And I can definitely follow the game.

Back at the house, we even got a proper English Trifle that Gail had made for dessert. They have been feeding us very well, and we certainly will give them high marks on Trip Adviser after we leave.

Later today we are off to the Wensleydale Heifer for lunch. If you are a fan of the Wallace and Grommet animated films, they are set in Wensleydale, and they have a world-famous cheese store there. But we are only going as far as the Heifer. On our last visit, we went north through the Lakes District and spent the night at the Heifer (where every room has a theme) and had a wonderful dinner at their excellent restaurant. But this trip we aren’t going to be here in Yorkshire for that long so lunch will have to suffice ?. A full report on our drive north and lunch will follow tomorrow. See you then.

Remember that the most valuable antiques are dear old friends.  —H. Jackson Brown, Jr.