Hola!

We left Burgos and headed to Madrid allowing time for us to get lost, as has been the usual occurrence. We are still having problems programming the GPS; when we enter the name of a province we have to know the exact town. In this case we are headed to Madrid (province) and Madrid (town) the problem has been that when we enter a street name, the GPS pulls up the most commonly used names that are in its memory. I have been entering the name as it was given to me, such as Calle de la Coruna. Of course that name is not in the memory bank so I have been stumped. But somehow with a combination of Google maps, country maps and the GPS we have managed to find our way. Then after making a wrong turn or two in Madrid I tried just entering the street name, in this case Coruna, and it popped up! We were guided straight to our destination and as a matter of fact we were 2 hours early!

We have rented an apartment for 4 days in a district that is about 4 miles from the center of town. The apartment is a great little studio with all the comforts of home. My only complaint is that my internet connection has been sporadic. We have been able to do our laundry, which is a time consumer in itself. European washers are a lot smaller than the ones we are used to using. Four pairs of jeans and you have a full load that will take an hour and a half to wash; the dryer will take an equal amount of time to dry the clothes. Luckily we can start the wash and then do something else.

It’s great to have this little apartment; it’s located in a typical neighborhood with shops, restaurants nearby and a supermarket right around the corner. Living here for a few days gives us a real feel for living in a Spanish city. It also gives us a real convenient home base.

On Thursday we took a taxi down to the Plaza Mayor, which is the best place to start touring Madrid. At the Plaza there is the tourist information center where you can get maps of the city and any other tourist information you need. The Plaza is a huge public place with all kinds of life and activity going on; even the living statues are fun to watch.

There is a lot of construction going on in Madrid. Since Madrid lost their bid for the 2012 Olympics, they are making a bid for the 2016 games. Another thing I have notidced is that they gut the insides of old buildings; they take everything out right up to the walls. Then they rebuild from the inside out using new steel beams and new construction techniques. That way they preserve the facade of buildings while making them safe and modern. This is also part of their economic stimulus plan to put people to work to help with the 15% unemployment rate in Spain.

From the Plaza we head to the Palacio Real del Pardo; the Royal Palace dates from the 1700’s, has over 2800 rooms and had been the home to Spanish kings, such as Carlos V. It is no longer the home for the royal family but is open for tours except when there is an official state function. Walking the Palacio again you are struck by the beauty and the ornateness of each room. There are gold and silver items like serving trays, there are fine porcelain vases, there are ornate tables and chairs, tapestries that date from the 1600’s paintings by Goya. Goya was commissioned to do a lot of the artwork including portraits of Carlos V; doing basically sealed his credentials to become one of the greatest artists of his time. We wandered the palace for over 2 hours and the area that was the most impressive was the Royal Armory. Most of us have probably seen replicas of medieval armor, but nothing is as impressive as seeing the real thing. There was battle armor, jousting armor and parade armor there was complete armor for the horses. It was mind blowing, unfortunately there is no photographing anywhere inside the palace. There are guards in every area of the palace to enforce that rule.
After leaving the Palace we headed over to the Museo del Prado. Again this was an impressive place to see from outside. Since the lines were extremely long we decided to just look outside and then head out to see other areas of the city. We walked past other museums, official buildings and the Spanish military headquarters. We wanted to see Spanish neighborhoods so we kept walking, we walked and walked until we finally reached our apartment. When I entered our entire route into Google maps it showed that we had walked 23.5 miles. Not including all the walking we had done with the Palace and at the plaza! We were beat so we freshened up and went to a local place to eat then headed back to the apartment for the night. Tomorrow will be another day to explore Madrid, I can assure you that we will not be walking all that distance again!

Friday May 22

We have left our apartment after breakfasting on our usual cafe con leche and a light bread. This morning we are going back downtown, but we are taking the metro! The metro station is a nice easy walk from the apartment, the cost is 1 Euro to go anywhere in the system. The station is relatively clean and easy to find your way around. We get on the train and among commuters and other travellers and get off at the Sol station. Up at the surface we are in the midst of downtown life and activity. Sol plaza is the starting point for all addresses in Madrid as well as for all kilometer measurements in Spain.

We head over to the find the Hop on Hop off bus and find ourselves walking to the Palacio Real again. Good thing because we were able to get a good seat on the top deck, as the bus arrived at the Plaza Mayor stop, there were hundreds of people waiting to board. Today is just a day for riding the bus and catching up on some things that we missed yesterday. As it turns out we had covered a lot of things just by walking around yesterday. We rode the bus on its route for a few hours then headed back to the Plaza Mayor to people watch. It seems that everyone is out for a Friday afternoon. As it gets later in the day there are literally thousands of people out. There appears to be a heavy police presence to prevent any problems. In all this time we have not been bothered by anyone. There was only one guy who looked suspicious when we are at a restaurant having dinner. He looked like he might have been looking for an opportunity to grab something and run, but he soon left. I had my camera case fastened to my chair so he would have had take a big American with him if he wanted my camera!

Dinner was at a restaurant in the plaza. Gerri and I shared a paella, it was good tasting but I'm proud to say that Gerri claims that mine is better! Que suave! After dinner we walked around somemore, had dessert at a local place then headed back to the metro for our ride back to the apartment.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to El Escorial; The Valley of the Fallen and to Segovia. We'll see how that goes.

The Land of El Cid

Monday, May 18th

We have left San Sebastian after spending the morning taking in more of the sights, of which there are many. Our destination this morning is the area of Santander which is another coastal city further south. We pass through the thriving port city of Bilbao, past numerous factories that are contributing to a modern Spanish economy and follow our course to what is supposed to be our evenings rest.

Planning a journey like this has taken a lot of time. I have spent countless hours researching destinations and especially accomodations. Our next stop proves to be the challenge of all my planning.

Marie guides us on the autovista past towns and villages and directs us off the autovista in a town called Colindres. Another look at our confirmation and the Google map that I had prepared at home, shows our destination to be just outside of Santander and slightly in the mountains. The description of the hotel purports it to be a quaint, 17th century stone structure nestled between the sea and the mountains. We follow Marie's directions, read the directions from the hotel and pick up on the part that says to continue past the cows and turn onto a winding country road. Not having seen much signs of civilization to this point, cows out in a field leads us to believe that we are not too far away from spending the night in country charm. Marie guides us up a narrow winding road and at her final exhortation to "Turn left" and "You have arrived at your destination" we look around to find ourselves in the driveway of what appears to be a rundown home with some kind of large farm tractor looming in the way. We quickly decide that particular spot was not where we wanted to be at that moment so I put the Peugeot in reverse and backed out of there as quickly as I could. Once the tractor was past us, I called the proprietor of the "hotel" and told him I was looking for his property. He told me that his was a property beside an old church and it had a swimming pool. A little searching and I see the old church and the property. It appears that the only redeeming quality of this "hotel" is the swimming pool. The "hotel" looks like nothing more than someones house, there is not even a sign to estalblish this as a hotel or even a b&b. I place another call to tell the gentleman that we have found the property but thanks but no thanks we would not be staying the night. So we head back down the mountain and stop to set a new course at what was supposed to have been our next days destination, Burgos. A call to the hotel assures us that they had a room for me for 2 days and so we are on the way. So much for a day at the seaside! Rats!

We eventually get to the city of Burgos. I had been expecting a university town with quiet, cerebral streets. Instead what I found was a modern city bustling with traffic and activity. We find our destination, the Hotel Maria Luisa and check in for a 2 night stay. The hotel is in a large building that is part residential and with commercial stores at street level. The decor gives the impression of an old classic hotel. We get to our room and find that it meets our expectations completely. So we settle in and then go off to find a place to eat. Our quest for nourishment leads us to a little cafe near the old part of Burgos named La Celestina. The place is a somewhat noisy hangout for local people. We look at the menu and decide on a combination plate that includes a Spanish tortilla which is by no means similar to the tortilla of Mexico. This tortilla is made of eggs and potatoes, you can also get it with ham or countless other ways. It's intended to be a meal in itself and not just part of a meal. Along with this comes Spanish chorizo, which I have always favored, and something called morcilla. Morcilla evedently comes in large rolls and pieces are cut off to be cooked. The taste is absolutely tantalizing to the taste buds! That is something that I am definiteley going to have to find when I get back home!

A 2 night stay in Burgos is definelty the thing to do as we come to find out. The following day we get up have breakfast and set off to explore. We find ourselves in the old section of Burgos and are again amazed with a huge central square leading to what has to be the most imposing, impressive cathedral that we have seen since coming to Europe. The grandeur of La Catedral de Burgos rivals that of Notre Dame in Paris. It was from here that the political and religious will to fight the Moors and drive them from the the Spain that they had invaded and occupied for over 600 years. From the outside you see a confluence of designs, from Gothic to Romanesque to a contemporary design of 200 years ago. The towers themselves date from the 13th and the 14th century. Inside there are treasures to behold as you walk past chapels dedicated to various nobility of Spanish life from the chapel built and dedicated to the Granconstable of Burgos to the chapel built by King Alfonso to convince El Cid that he had nothing to do with the killing of his brother.

The chapels alone are gilded with golden altars or at least with fine woods in most cases. The main church which still functions as the worship place for many Burgosans is breathtaking with its main altar towering at least 20 feet high. We follow our self guided tour and marvel at the art work, the ancient processional crosses and we stand at the grave of El Cid el Campeador. The famous El Cid who mounted campaigns against the Moors to drive them from Seville, Granada, Cordoba and all of Andalusia to the south. At this moment we can almost feel the part of history that still drives most Spaniards today, for we are in the cradle of European civilization.

We close out our day with another dinner at La Celestina and head back to our hotel for a nights rest before heading to our next destination, Madrid.

Ongi Etorre --- Bienvenidos

Sunday May 17th

We have left the beautiful,lively city of Bordeaux. Our destination this day is San Sebastian, Spain. Driving out of the city we passed beautiful buildings. Architecture in Europe is a treat to see, in most cases it requires an artists eye to create what we now enjoy. Bordeaux is a city that one would want to spend at least a full day to explore the city, and another day in the vineyards.

Marie guides us past the waterfront and onto the autopista. We navigate through picturesque countryside under cloudy skies with occasional rain. Driving in France has been a pleasure so far and the workmanship of the Peugeot is evident in the fine details as well as the engineering of this machine. The French are a lot more civilized in their driving, at least they are when away from Paris.

About an hour and a half later, as we have been climbing the Pyrenees, we have now crossed the national boundary which will thrust us into a new culture, Spain. This first presentation of Spain shows the gains that have been made by the Basques since the death of Generallisimo Francisco Franco. Road signs are now posted in the Basque lanquage as well as in Spanish. During Franco's regime the Basques were forbidden to teach their language much less practice their customs. We have now been welcomed in Basque, "Ongi Etorre." Driving into this part of Spain you can't help but feel that you have somehow stepped into a postcard. The hills are vibrantly green, a product of the Atlantic storms that kiss this part of Spain.

Soon,after having been treated to many dazzling visual delights, we arrive in San Sebastian and our hotel The Silken Amara Plaza, a luxury hotel not far from the city centre. The first thing we do is to get over our impression of this modern hotel with more amenities than the typical European hotel. We have an elevator to take our baggage up! And --- we can fit all our luggage, and ourselves in and still have room for more!

Then a quick trip to look for something to eat. Arriving on a Sunday afternoon, at what is typically what we call siesta time, is not the most conducive to finding a place for dinner. We are too hungry to sit at a cafe for coffee, so we end up at the hotel's cafeteria. We order a simple meal, and a simple red wine. The waitress brings a bottle and leaves it in my care. Mistake! But what the heck, wine is a staple here, right? Dinner is a leisurely affair, the perfect complement to a near perfect day. The wine is perfect too, not too dry with a nice mellow nose. I have a glass, Gerri has a glass, I have another glass, Gerri has a half a glass. I then have another glass, then another. Ohhhhh! Somehow I now feel sleepy, can't understand that, I was feeling fine before. Dinner is capped with off with a fine cup of Spanish coffee and then off to our room we go. I lie down on the welcoming bed, the best since coming to Europe and a second after my head hits the pillow I am out for the count.

An hour later I awake, refreshed, rejuvenated and raring to go. Gerri, the poor thing has to wash her hair. Heh - heh - heh!!!! Hey, I don't have that commitment, alright?

Anyway, I figure I will go out in search of an ATM to get some Euro. I don't find a machine until I reach the centre. I find a machine, treat it gently and get my cash. I then figure that what the heck, my hair is fine and I'm down here, so I might as well make the most of my time and see some of the sights. So I wander here and there, a left turn here, a right turn there, another left another right and soon I have walked through another amazing plaza filled with hundreds of people enjoying their evening socializing. More sights and golden beaches bordering on emerald seas. And then it's time to get back to the hotel. Let's see, a left here a right there and another left --- or was that a right here then a left then a right or ????? I wander around like I really know where I am. I really did mean to walk down that street that ends at another. Which way, left or right? Oh well I can always back track can't I? Where is Marie when I need her? Anyway, 2 and a half hours later I am back to the hotel. I think I should have done my hair. Gerri is waiting, she was the smart one, she did her hair. The local irtzaintza (police) have not been called out to find this lost American and all is well. Or it will be as soon as I atone for my errant ways --- yes dear.

Two and a half hours later, here he comes...what turned out to be just a visit to an ATM, turned into sightseeing (without ME!!) and, of course, getting lost. Something strange has happened here in Europe...John, who ususally has an excellent sense of direction and a good internal compass, gets turned around quite easily...and me, who is well known for being "directionally challenged" usually finds our way back to our hotels!! This doesn't mean we haven't gotten lost together, it's just that I usually figure out when we are going in the wrong direction. No more walks alone!! The next morning, we decide that San Sebastian is too beautiful to leave without visiting more of its sights, so we head out and enjoy this picturesque, historical seaside city. We are impressed with the work being done to preserve the ancient structures and the efforts made to maintain the old world charm of the city. Heading back to the hotel after a few hours, we get a little lost, again, but by now we decide it's part of discovering more of a city, so we take it all in stride. Now on to Santander and a new adventure.