Madrid

Day 15 – Madrid

Today is our last day in Spain. We are free to explore the city on our own and we decided to walk around without worry and if we got lost we would take a taxi back to the hotel.

We made our way to the Plaza del Sol and the Plaza Mayor, both places we had been yesterday. We walked uphill & downhill & into some stores & had a small sandwich & walked some more. Apparently I had learned more from yesterday’s guide than I thought because we kept seeing the landmarks she pointed out and finding our way back to the Plaza del Sol. Last day 20160510_115257 web

In the Plaza there are lots of people dressed as characters and will take pictures with you, they would like a donation of course. None of them are exactly right and most if them are way too tall. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Pooh, Mario, Luigi, Olaf and more. There was also a guy balancing on a motorcycle. At first we though he was balancing on his arms but then we decided he was laying on something and just keeping his arms and legs extended.

Our farewell dinner was preceded by a Flamenco demonstration and learning time, the history of the dance is pretty cool. It is important to pronounce the “c” as a “k” and not a “g”. It is a dance and not a bird. At t 20160510_184656 he end Mom volunteered to learn the dance, she said she did it to embarrass me but she really did it to have fun.

We had a fabulous and incredibly loud dinner. The room had an oval ceiling and the sound was everywhere. I guess we sounded like a Spanish party. The food was good and of course there was plenty of wine. When we returned to the hotel, we all said goodbye and promised to email pictures.

All that is left is a long travel day.

#VickieTravelz

My mother and I are taking a trip called the Back Roads of Iberia: Spanish Paradores & Portuguese Pousadas. These are our daily adventures – written for our family while we were traveling – April / May 2016.

Day 14 – Explore Madrid

Tour of Madrid this morning. We started by bus and ended by walking.

There is an Egyptian temple of rah in the middle of the city.. I don’t know what that is about. She told us when it was moved here and all about that but she didn’t tell us why it is here.

Our guide’s voice made me sleepy when we were on the bus and when we were walking around she walked very fast and then stood and waited for us. There are some pretty steep hills and it is so crowded here that it is hard to stay together as a group. As she spoke to us, she kept turning around to make sure we all heard but instead, we all heard a little of it instead of all of it. She was not my favorite guide and I did not figure out how to go anywhere even though she kept giving us directions.

This afternoon there are no s palace web(2) cheduled activities so palace web(1) Mom and I decided to tour the palace. It is still an active palace and you can only tour it when the royal family is not using it. We only got to see about 20 of the 2000+ rooms but it was still a big place. The courtyard is huge and can open up to the cathedral next door. There is a large staircase when you enter and there is a huge courtyard in the center of the building that we got to look over from the windows. Every ceiling is painted but my favorite was a 3D ceiling. They would not allow pictures so I can only tell you that it was pretty cool. They also had umbrellas for us to use when we crossed the courtyard to the main building — that was a nice touch.

After a short siesta, Pilar took us for hot chocolate and churros. It is like a cup of melted dark chocolate and you dip fried bread into it. Much too rich for me.

Then mom and some of the other ladies went to the bull fight. She has described it to me and I am glad I did not go but she says she had to experience it one time.

We did not stay at a Parador or Pousada in Madrid, it was a hotel. At this hotel we had access to the rooftop gardens and pool — we went to look at it but the rain and the cold kept us from staying there long. We also had access to a club room with some snacks and drinks. I spent some time in this room with the other people from the group while Mom was at the bullfight. It was pretty cool to just hang out with these world travelers and find out about their other trips and experiences. It was also nice to stop by the club room for a cold water, coke or beer (no wine here because wine is associated with food) and little snack when returning from walking around Madrid — made a great place to meet people from the group and find out what they did that day.

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Day 13 – Overland to Madrid * Explore Toledo

Travel day…

It is first communion Sunday and our lunch restaurant was hosting 19 lunches starting around 2p.m. or later. The lunches are huge affairs that look much like a wedding reception and the little girls (about 9 years old & had their first communion today) are dressed in white frilly dresses and the boys (also about 9 years old & who had their first communion today) are dressed in sailor type outfits. We arrived at 12:30 and many of the family and friends were at the front patio area havi 6 escalators to top web ng a drink and just hanging out talking until the lunch time, the kids were running around playing. Interesting tradition.

On to tour Toledo (toe lay doe). Cool set of about 6 escalators going about 3/4 of the way up the hill and then we walked the rest of the way to the cathedral. Steep hills but they didn’t hurt as bad as they did on the first day… Finally getting used to it I guess. This cathedral had some pretty cool paintings that had all sorts of incorrect timing things wrong with it, for example a spanish suit of armor and a piece of paper during Bible times. Apparently that is was how Greko painted. Our guide, Carlos, was very informative and interesting.

After a few more stops, we drove to a point in the city where we could see the entire city. Very beautiful!

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Here we are in Madrid, our last hotel before we head home. Mom wants you to know that in her opinion, the bidet is a waste of bathroom real estate.

After exploring the backroads of Iberia, the city is loud and crowded. Many people here speak English and the Starbucks and Dunkin are next to each other across the street from our hotel. The waiter at the restaurant spoke to us in English and we said the words we know… Gracias, Cervesa, and Vino Tinto. I imagine the breakfast buffet will have choices of things we like to eat and maybe some good coffee (if not, I know where I can find some).

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