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

 

Beautiful Barcelona

by | Sep 28, 2022 | Food Experiences, Photography

After our fun ride in from Tarragona and our lunch at La Rita, we got a decent night’s sleep on the first bed I had been comfortable on in 21 days. The next morning all six of us had been scheduled to do a 5-hour tour of the city, and the Gaudi highlights with Olga from Tours By Locals. Sadly, my brother had eaten something that did not agree with him so he and Jamie stayed at the hotel, and the rest of us set off for what was to be an outstanding tour. It was outstanding, primarily because of the excellent Olga.

I know I have mentioned Tours By Locals before, as we used two of their guides previously on this trip, Hans in Amsterdam and George in Athens. Both of them were great. I have used them on many occasions, but Olga may have been the best guide they have ever sent our way. To start with, she was 10 minutes early. I love early. I got a call from the lobby saying that our guide was there. As soon as Pam and Dave were downstairs, Olga’s driver pulled up in a wonderfully spacious Mercedes van. It was so GREAT not to be stuck in a “luxury motor coach.”

Kathleen and I with Olga on the roof of Casa Mila.

When I first contacted Tours By Locals a month previous, it had been hard finding a guide that either wasn’t already booked or could accommodate some of the things we wanted to do because of the festival going on for the entire time we were in the city. On the other hand, Olga was completely willing to work with me on setting up a tour that would incorporate the best of Barcelona. That’s what I love about Tours By Locals; the guides will work with you to see the things you want to see. When you go to Barcelona, some of the things most people want to see are the works of revolutionary Antoni Gaudi, the most famous of which is La Sagrada Familia. We knew upfront that the church would be completely closed to anyone but locals, so seeing the inside was not an option. Olga made suggestions of things we could see that would be a good alternative, and I liked them all. We decided to do Gaudi’s Casa Mila, Park Güell, see the outside of the La Sagrada Familia and then tour the old town. Olga said she would try and throw in some surprises along the way.

La Pedrera—Casa Mila)

When Kathleen and I were here in 2007, we toured the beautiful La Pedera—Casa Mila building. The building is an entire block made up of two condominiums totally designed by Antoni Gaudi (who designed La Sagrada Familia) as well as many other one-of-a-kind buildings throughout Barcelona. We wanted to see it again and make sure that the rest of the group also got to see it. Kathleen had no problem touring this building in 2007 and thought she could still do it because when you did the tour, you took the elevator to the top of the building. And then you walked down and did the tour on the way.

Olga told us that this had changed since we were there last (what hadn’t ??) and that now you walked UP the stairs and then exited by way of the elevator. This just wasn’t going to work for us. So Olga jumped into action as soon as we got there, and in no time, Kathleen and I were going up the original apartment elevator (not open to anyone but employees) to the top floor to start our tour down. I wish I had taken a photo because it was one elegant elevator. It even had a Gaudi-designed, hand-carved wooden bench that Kathleen got to sit on while we went up. This is what makes local guides so good. They know the people to talk to (because Olga toured there constantly), and they know what can and can’t be done with the right request. We were blown away.

We had an awesome time touring the building. I am going to let the photos and the captions tell you the rest of the story. 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…

Park Güell

Our second stop on the tour was the beautiful Park Güell. This is another of Gaudi’s masterpieces that was originally built out in the country north of Barcelona, but over the years, the city has grown to swallow it up, and it is now almost in the city center. There is so much to see there, but I will just let you see it in my photos. Enjoy.

La Sagrada Família

Even though this incredible church was closed to non-locals due to the current festival, Olga wanted us to see it close up from the outside so she could explain the building and the significance of the art on the outside. You can’t believe the art on the outside of La Sagrada Família. Maybe you will have you see my photos. If you get bored with all the closeups, please feel free to jump out, but I did pair this down from more than 200 photos. 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…

The old city of Barcelona

Our next stop after the incredible La Sagrada Família was to head downtown (in HORRIBLE TRAFFIC) to the oldest parts of Barcelona. We walked by the original cathedral, which dates to the 13th century, while Olga pointed out a lot of truly remarkable sights. We saw a piece of art by Pablo Picasso that he drew with his usual minimalist style.

About this time, we were starving. So Olga recommended we try pintxos. If you have never been to a pintxos restaurant, it is almost worth a trip to Barcelona just to try it. Olga took us to her favorite place, Bilbao Berria Barcelona. Pintxos are topping of every kind placed on slices of awesome bread, and they put different colors and styles of sticks into the stack. The stack includes either cold or hot toppings. Hot ones might include melted cheese, roasted tomatoes, sausages, and serrano ham and the cold ones include cheeses, veggies, and so much more. There are even dessert pintxos. These are all set up on a number of buffet tables, and you choose what you want. Then after you eat them, you put the stick into a small metal container on the table, and when you are done, they count the sticks (different prices for different colors) and give you your check. Five of us ate a BUNCH of these, and the total bill was less than $80 and that included a bottle of wonderful Catalan wine. An amazing value, and every one of them is delicious. Here are some pictures from this part of the tour.

After lunch, we walked from the cathedral campo towards another campo where Olga was hoping she had a surprise for us, and she did. Hopefully, you remember a couple of posts ago when I wrote about the human pyramid building contests in Tarragona. Sadly, I could not see any of the actual pyramid building itself when we were there. I only got to take photos of the parade before the competition, which got rained out.

But when we walked around the corner in Barcelona, there it was, a castella (the Spanish name for the human pyramids) right in front of us. We got to watch this team (who were doing a demo, not a competition) build a three-story high human pyramid. Just look. It’s amazing.

A walk on my own

After watching the amazing human pyramids being built, our tour time was over. Olga had released our driver when it got to five hours, but she stayed with us to walk the other Kathleen, Dave and Pam to Las Ramblas to grab a cab and walked with me as I headed back to the hotel about four miles away. I wanted a few more photos to show you the huge crowds and incredible craziness that is Las Ramblas, the main tourist street in Barcelona. Here’s my last set of pics for Barcelona. 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…

That about did it for our day in Barcelona. It so far exceeded my expectations and gave us a wonderful end to this incredible 29-day adventure that had started in August in Amsterdam. I guess you could say that when it comes to European cities, we went from A to B on this trip. I have one more trip-related post for you. Hopefully, I will have it up by tomorrow. It will be my review of the entire cruise and what we loved and didn’t love on Viking Sky. Then after that, I promised a post on how I shoot my photos. I so appreciate all the comments I have gotten on them. They are my pride and joy. If you want to see more of my pics, please follow me on Instagram (jimbellomo13) or Facebook (Jim Bellomo) where I post a single travel photo every day. Just one. Or you can see a lot of my photography that I sell here on my Picfair site.

Barcelona is my life, and I do not plan to leave.   —Gerard Pique

Disembarkation and our trip to Barcelona

by | Sep 27, 2022 | Food Experiences, Photography

When we cruise, the first thing the real cruisers want to know about is the food. But the second is the embarkation/disembarkation. It’s been my experience after more than 30 cruises that if things are going to go wrong, one of these two times is when that will happen.

With this disembarkation, I am happy to say that nothing went wrong…except to say that they made us get off the ship (this is every cruiser’s lament). Pretty much everything went off without a hitch getting off the ship. We got up, had breakfast, and were asked to be out of our stateroom by 8:00 am. Sat for an hour in the Atrium, got our tag colors called, grabbed our luggage, took it to a van (since we were doing Viking’s post-cruise two-day extension), it was loaded into a van that followed our “luxury motor coach” into Barcelona from Tarragona.

That’s where thing kind of went bad. Viking now had to do something with the 35+ people on the “luxury motor coach” from 9:30 am when we got on until 1:00 pm when the Nobu Hotel in Barcelona would be ready to check us in. So they arranged a “luxury motor coach” tour that would drive us from the ship to Barcelona and then drive around Barcelona, showing us some of the sights. This started with them getting us lost before they even got the “luxury motor coach” out of the port (Seriously!).

Then they sent us a guide who admitted up front that he usually worked with Japanese tourists, so his English was not very good. On top of that, he also (like other guides we had previously toured with) felt like they had to fill every moment of the three-hour sojourn with the sound of his voice. He even started singing at one point. I overheard another passenger say, “I thought the guy with the flute yesterday was bad, but this guy is so much worse!” I had to agree. And since he was not confident in his English, he seemed to be much less confident in his directions and tour facts.

It took us about 70 minutes to get from Tarragona to the outskirts of Barcelona. He talked about 90% of the time. Mostly gibberish to us because his English was so poor. Our first stop in Barcelona was at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. This gorgeous art museum we thought was built high above and far from the city and not near anything. I took the header photo I am using today from in front of it.

We later learned that we were less than a mile from our hotel but that it would take almost three full hours to get there. And we didn’t stop to see the museum, just to use the bathrooms. Viking had bought tickets for us to get into the museum, but then we had 15 minutes to use the bathrooms and get back on the “luxury motor coach”…so we could be driven around and mumbled at while seeing the sights through a “luxury motor coach” window. As a photographer, this is my idea of torture. Seeing things I want to shoot but not being able to shoot them because the reflections in the “luxury motor coach” make it impossible to get a good shot. I did take a few when we got off at the museum. Here’s what they look like. 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…

Once we arrived at the hotel around 1:15 pm, we were told to go up to the second floor and that we would be checked in at a special desk just for Viking cruisers. When we got to the second-floor room they were using, there was about an hour’s wait to get registered. This is because they had planned well by sending the first “luxury motor coach” off and then not sending the second one for about 30 minutes. That way, we should have been staggered when we reached the hotel and able to check in without any lines. But this was not to be after our “luxury motor coach” driver got lost getting out of the port, and by the time he figured out how to get out, “luxury motor coach” number two was ahead of us, and we were not that far ahead of “luxury motor coach” number three. That meant we all pretty much got there at the same time. Viking had close to 250 people staying at the Nobu Barcelona. It was very much like the Marriott where we had done our pre-cruise extension in Athens. Both of them were four or five-star, high-rise hotels that were well outside (not in easy walking distance) of the main attractions of their respective cities. The rooms were nice, and the included breakfast at both places was delicious, but I would have traded that for something a little closer to where I wanted to shoot pics.

So instead of standing in line to register, we left our bags with the bellman at the front desk and took a taxi to a wonderful restaurant that Kathleen and I had eaten in when we were here in 2007—La Rita. The restaurant had been there for about 10 years before that and is still going strong. The menu was exactly as we remembered it. I made reservations almost a month in advance because when we go to Spain, we make our main meal, our lunch. People in Barcelona eat dinner around 9:30 pm, and we just can’t eat that late. So we have our main meal at lunch (around 2:00) and then grab some tapas in the evening.

After lunch, we came back and were able to check in easily, with no lines at all, and our rooms were ready. We unpacked, I did some posting on this blog and some photo processing, and we hit the hay for a very busy day on Sunday, our only full day in amazing Barcelona.

I had thought I could wind up the entire cruise with two more posts, one about Barcelona and disembarkation and one to sum up the cruise. But once I started talking about disembarkation, this one got too long to include our awesome day in Barcelona, so you will have to read two more. See you tomorrow. (BTW: we are home in Redmond after a hellacious day of flights and being up for 26 hours straight.)

You’d have a hard time finding anything better than Barcelona for food, as far as being a hub. Given a choice between Barcelona and San Sebastian to die in, I’d probably want to die in San Sebastian.  —Anthony Bourdain