Days 26 & 27 – Return Home

On Tuesday we drove from Madrid to our hotel in Castelldefels near the Barcelona airport. We had to return from Barcelona as we got a much better airfare from there as compared to Madrid. The drive was supposed to take 5 hours but it ended up being closer to seven due to miles and miles of road construction between Madrid and Zaragosa. We wanted to see Montserat on the way but all the extra driving put an end to that. We had a nice dinner at a very local Catalan restaurant and flew home the next morning on USAir direct from Barcelona to Philadelphia. The flight was less than half full.

Couple of random final thoughts:

The food in Spain is good but not very highly seasoned. In fact, we were only given salt and pepper at our table at one meal. Even supposed spicy dishes like Papas Bravas were pretty bland.

The Spanish seem to be fond of shirts with American wording on them. We saw almost none with Spanish writing but a lot with “South Cali”, etc. on them. In Barcelona we of course saw a lot of soccer jerseys as they had just won the championship of Spain.

The climate, while not really desert-like, isn’t conducive to growing tall trees. We saw a lot of orange and olive trees but not really many large trees.

One thing I did not like was paying to visit a cathedral. I can't recall another country where you had to pay to get in. It wasn't cheap either. The entrance price was normally 7 or 8 euros.

Day 25 – Day trip to Toledo (Monday, May 23)

Today we drove to Toledo, which is about an hours drive southwest from our hotel. We are in the northeast corner of Madrid out by the airport so we ended up driving around Madrid for the most part. It was autovía (super highway) all the way so it wasn’t a bad drive at all. In fact, most of the driving we have done has been on autovías so it has been pretty easy except for last night when the GPS decided I need to drive through downtown Madrid, I suppose just for the experience.

Toledo is guarded on three sides by the Tajo River and has been a seat of power is
Spain for thousands of years. It is also one of the most picturesque towns in Spain (see picture) with its ancient cathedral and alcazar. We did one of the few touristy things we have done on the trip and took their sightseeing tram. We were crowded in like sardines and it was hot but it gave some great views of the city without doing a lot of walking. We had lunch in town complete with a surly waitress (really the first one we have had), toured the cathedral, and walked around.

Tomorrow we start for home by driving back to the Barcelona airport.

Day 24 – Day trip to Segovia (Sunday, May 22)

We drove to the royal monastery of El Escorial which is about 45 minutes from our hotel. It is at the foothills of a mountain range and in a very tranquil location. It was built by Philip II shortly after he moved the capital to Madrid. It was kind of a summer palace for him and he is buried there. For many years after Philip II, El Escorial was the burial spot for Spanish kings and nobility and there is a crypt with at least a dozen kings buried there.

From there we drove to Segovia which was another 30 minutes or so away. It features the castle where Isabel met Ferdinand and an old Roman aqueduct (see picture) that I believe is one of the largest spans still standing. We mostly just walked around town, did some shopping and I tried a sample of their roast suckling pig. I have had it before and Segovia, along with Madrid, is famous for it.

Day 23 – Good Times in Madrid (Saturday, May 21)

It was a bright, sunny day in Madrid and we headed downtown to the Prado Museum today. The Prado is one of the top museums in the world and their collection is essentially that of the Spanish kings when Spain was the world’s top power. They have good early Italian and Dutch paintings, but mostly their collection centers on Spain’s great painters such as Goya, Velázquez and El Greco.

From the museum we took a stroll through the center of old Madrid. We came across a large protest at Puerta del Sol. There are elections in Spain on Sunday and all protests are banned but that doesn’t stop them. We stopped in at the Museo de Jamon (see picture) for a look. The Ham Museum also doubles as a bar but you can see the hams hanging all around. We then walked through Plaza Mayor. Plaza Mayor is the main plaza in Madrid and famed for bullfights back in the day and of course public executions, especially during the inquisition when many “supposed” heretics were put to death.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool, went out to a very nice dinner at a local restaurant and finished the night with a toast of Cava (the Spanish version of champagne) to “good times.”

Day 22 – Drive to Madrid (Friday, May 20)

We drove to Madrid in a little under six hours today. It was a pretty uneventful drive, but we did pass through the plains of La Mancha and saw a couple of old windmills but no Don Quixote. The Hilton were we are staying in Madrid is first class all the way and we have a corner room on their executive floor. Nothing like using Hilton points. We drove to a shopping mall and had dinner in a Brazilian “Churrascarias.” We took the menu to translate what we were eating and then we decided we shouldn’t have translated it as we ate some strange items.

Day 21 – Flamenco in Seville (Thursday, May 19)

We have decided that the weather in Seville is a lot like in Florida. It is sunny one minute and cloudy the next and then it rains for 5 minutes. It is mild today, probably in the low 80s but I’m sure it gets very hot in the summer.

We are driving around the city using the GPS and that is working well. You can’t park very close to the old part of Seville, so once again we had to do a lot of walking. Today we first toured the Royal Palace (Real Alcázar) which was originally built in 911 by a Moorish caliph. Various kings of Seville (as opposed to the Kings of Leon) ruled from there until Isabel and Ferdinand united Spain and they lived in the palace for a time. One of the trips Columbus made to America was planned in one of the rooms we visited. We then toured the Cathedral of Seville. It is the third largest Cathedral in the world and is where Columbus is buried. We closed the day with a small but excellent Flamenco show. The performers were very good and had a lot of enthusiasm for the performance. I thought the one girl had a resemblance to Jennifer Lopez (see picture).

Day 20 – Roses in Granada (Wednesday, May 18)

What a nice surprise Granada turned out to be. It is definitely old but it has its charm. We started our touring with a visit to the Royal Chapel where Isabel and Ferdinand are buried. They also have a museum in the chapel with a lot of their personal possessions – crown, sword, clothing and art collection. We then did a lengthy visit to the Alhambra Palace. The Alhambra is generally considered the top sight in Spain and we would agree. It was built by the Moors more than 700 years ago and was their last possession before they were finally driven back to Africa in 1492 by Isabel and Ferdinand. They liked the Alhambra so much that they made it their own palace, which is why they are buried in Granada. The Alhambra is really several interconnecting and amazing palaces with intricate carvings of Arabic design, reflecting pools and beautiful gardens. We particularly liked the roses and shaped hedges formed into large walls with huge archways.

After the tour, we drove about 130 miles to Seville. The trip starts out mountainous and then quickly becomes large groves of olive trees which stretch as far you can see, lasting for at least 50 miles. As we got close to Seville, the olive trees disappeared and the landscape became more of a plain.