Spain wrap up

Segovia-Atop the Alcazar Castle

After a long but uneventful day of travel, we arrived back on Anna Maria Island Wednesday evening.  It was a great adventure that gave us the opportunity to walk down memory lane a bit with our time in Salamanca, as well as create a bunch of new memories..
Until recent years, Portugal was somewhat of an "undiscovered gem".  In recent years it has become an extremely popular destination.  As it's popularity has increased it seems that prices have also risen.  We found Portugal to be slightly more expensive than Spain.  Both countries remain relatively affordable compared to other parts of Europe.

Retiro Park-Madrid

We found that English was much more widely spoken in Portugal than Spain.  However, we have never found any significant communication barriers anywhere in Spain.  Many signs at airports, train stations, hotels, and points of interest are in both Spanish and English.  Restaurant menus frequently are in both languages and can be deciphered easily, or with a smile you're sure to find a friendly server who is more than willing to assist.

Roasted Chicken-The house specialty at Casa Mingo

Spain has an excellent infrastructure of trains and buses, making travel within the country easy, efficient and affordable.  Locally, both Madrid and Salamanca have excellent city bus systems.  Madrid has a very extensive metro system that includes several options on getting to and from the airport.  Although we didn't use any, taxi's were readily available and my Uber app seemed to work just fine in Madrid.

Along the walking trail in Salamanca

Madrid is an amazing city.  In addition to museums and attractions it is filled with parks, pedestrian streets and neighborhoods to explore.  Hop On/Hop Off buses are everywhere.  However, if at all possible we would recommend exploring as much of the city as possible on foot.  There are numerous smaller cities such as Toledo, Segovia and Avila that are easy to reach from Madrid and/or Salamanca.

Tower and Gate entrance to the city of Toledo

Although not as common as it used to be, many businesses (including some restaurants), especially the smaller/ locally owned ones still have a "siesta time" in the afternoon.  As a general rule it is from 2:00 PM- 4:00 PM.  However, it does vary.  Hours are usually posted on or near the entrances.
Meal times are typically a couple of hours later than what is typical in the US.  The lunch rush isn't till around 1:00-2:00.  The evening meal is usually after 9:00.  The food is excellent and I hope you'll try some of it.

Chocolateria Valor-The place for Churros and Chocolate in Salamanca

Credit cards are accepted at most places, although we did find a few smaller restaurants that were "cash only".  ATM's are everywhere. Most of them have an English option button, making completing transactions easy.

No shortage of parks or benches in Madrid or Salamanca

None of the hotels we stayed in had 110 volt outlets so a currency converter is recommended.  One thing we have found helpful is that in addition to a converter, we carry a small power strip so we can plug in multiple devices at the same time.

We've found this small power strip to be very helpful in both foreign hotels and on cruise ships.

I hope you find this information helpful and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Kent.Tucker0731@gmail.com

I'm probably going to take a week or so off.  Details on the next adventure will be posted at that time..  Stay safe!

     

Day 5-Madrid...A visit to Toledo, the city of three cultures

Toledo from across the river

About 50 miles outside of Madrid is the city of Toledo.  Within the walls of the city center are more than 2000 years of history.  By comparison, Madrid which was founded in the 9th century is a mere child.  Although with less than 90,000 people (approx. 6,000 reside inside the walls of the "old city") it is much smaller than Madrid (over 3.2 million people).  They have at least one thing in common.  They have both been the capital of Spain.  Toledo served as the capital in the mid-1500's until Phillip II moved it to Madrid.
Throughout it's long history it has been under Roman, Jewish and Arab rule. This has led to Toledo often being referred to as the city with three cultures, the city with three religions or the Jerusalem of the West.  Another name that would be appropriate for Toledo would be "the maze city".  The streets within the old city are narrow, with many turns and intersections creating what seems to be a huge maze.  We learned this was intentional with the credit going to the Muslims.  It was the second line of defense in protecting the city.  If an invading army was to somehow penetrate the walls, which would be difficult,  the narrow maze like streets would be confusing, giving the home team a significant advantage.

If the invaders got over the wall...……….

they still had to deal with the narrow, crooked streets.  Although they probably weren't lined with shops back then.

There are several options to get to Toledo for a day.  The most common are trains and buses.  Today we opted to take a bus.  Along with the transportation, there were options of having a guide or "Toledo on your own".  We chose the "on your own" option which did provide a short (45 minute) walking tour.  We weren't expecting much as far as the walking tour went and it easily lived down to our expectations.  The bus with the tour was still a few dollars less than the train, so we really viewed the bus as simply providing an inexpensive way to get there and back.
Once we broke away from the tour group we wandered around a bit.  We made our way to Zocodover Plaza which seemed like "tourist central".  There was an information booth there that provided a very good map.  When we told the nice young lady that we had about 6 hours time she suggested the "tourist train" as a way to get oriented and to also get the best view of the city, which was from outside the walls and across the Tajo River.  Something named "tourist train" and the Tucker's generally doesn't go in the same sentence. However, she seemed so sincere and convincing, coupled with the fact that it only cost 6.5 euros each ($7.30 US) that we soon had tickets in hand.  The train was well worth the price and the investment of about 40 minutes of our time.  We got a little information, a little orientation and some magnificent views, just as promised.  The train leaves frequently from just outside Zocodover Plaza, and it's certainly something that both of us would recommend.

The Tourist Train!

The Roman Bridge taken from the tourist train

Toledo and the Tajo River

While waiting for the train we asked the train attendant for a recommendation of where we could eat and get the local specialty, carcamusas.  She suggested a restaurant just down the narrow road from where we were standing.  A few minutes later she came back and suggested another restaurant which was also very close.  We went for the second choice she gave us, a small place named Bar Ludena.  We arrived right around 1:00 and only a few tables were occupied.  We chose one of the 6-8 outside tables.  Within just a couple of minutes it was as if the lunch bell had rang.  Every table outside and inside was full and people were milling about patiently waiting for a table.  Now if you've never heard of carcamusas you're not alone.  Neither had we until last night when Beth did a little research on Toledo.  Carcamusas is a type of stew made with pork and peas cooked in a tomato base, flavored with white wine, bay leaves and other seasonings (they would probably tell you but then they'd have to kill you).  After the first bite I was so sad and disheartened.  I couldn't believe that I had spent so much time on this earth without tasting this incredible dish.  Lunch also includes a first course.  Beth chose paella (yellow rice, seafood and chicken) and I went with the White Spanish Bean soup (white beans and chorizo, very similar in taste to Spanish bean soup served in many of the Cuban restaurants around Tampa).  Both were very tasty!  As if both of those weren't enough, there was also bread, dessert and wine all for 15 euros each.  Needless to say, other than maybe a light snack we're finished eating for the day.

Small and unassuming, just off the Zocodover Plaza

Today's special and since it's in paint and bolted to a sign I'm assuming it's tomorrows special as well

Carcamusas……….simply amazing!

After lunch we still had several hours to explore before we needed to be at the bus stop.  At that point we starting roaming around and soon did just exactly what the narrow, crooked roads were intended to do...…….got lost.  No big deal!  We were inside a walled city mostly surrounded by water and usually getting lost leads to a great adventure or at least a humorous story.  Today it was a great adventure.  We made our way towards the Jewish Quarter (although we really didn't see it) and down to a really nice trail along the river.  The name of the trail was the Camino Natural del Tajo.  It's a part of a trail system that is over 600 miles in length.  Fearing we'd miss the bus, we only did a couple of miles, mostly following the flow of the river until turning back into the city.  Maybe next time we'll explore a few more miles of it or the more famous Camino de Santiago Trail.
Some views from along the trail:

San Martin Bridge

The top of the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes

Another view of the San Martin Bridge and Tajo River

We made it back to Madrid.  In a few hours it will be packing up time.  This will take about 3 minutes.  Simply throw everything into the suitcase.  While most things have been washed in the bathroom sink (or bathtub if we were doing a large load), they are really in need of a real washing machine and detergent.
Also, based on what I've seen the last few days, I think it's a good time to be getting out of Madrid.  Not knowing hardly anything about soccer I didn't realize the significance of the Champions League Final which is being held here this coming weekend.  It was explained to me that it is held every two years and is the culmination of a tournament of Europe's top league teams.  TV broadcast trucks are being set up everywhere.  The Plaza Mayor has been converted into "soccer central" with stands, huge TV screens and even a mini field (I think the correct term is "pitch").  There is now a huge concert stage in the Plaza Sol near our hotel.  Soon the fans of Tottenham and Liverpool will begin arriving and I'm sure taking over the town.  I did a quick search for tickets and they are going for Super Bowl prices, with the cheapest ones I could find being around $5,000.  I don't guess I'd be making the game (I think "match" is the correct term) even if we were here a few more days.
It's been an incredible three weeks.  I am going to try to get out one more blog as a "Spain wrap up".  It'll probably be a few days before that one is posted.  As always, thanks for following along!

Adios!

Madrid Day 4-The Royal Treatment

The Royal Palace from the back side.  It was a nice view for the King!

Throughout most of the history of Spain it has been ruled by some type of monarchy.  Being King or Queen had it's perks, but back in the old days it seemed as if somebody out there was always plotting to overthrow whoever was on the throne.  Sometimes these coups would work, sometimes not, but they were generally messy situations.
From it's inception, back in the fifth century through 1930, Spain usually functioned quite well as a monarchy.  In 1931 things started to change politically as more and more elections were won by candidates favoring ending the monarchy.  This ultimately gave rise to what became a dictatorship under Francisco Franco.  As Franco was losing power (and slowly dying) in 1975 he appointed Juan Carlos I as his successor, with the title of King.  Carlos successfully led the transition from dictatorship to democracy.  In 1981 there was a short lived attempted military coup that was quickly put down.  The form of government is now considered a constitutional monarchy and operates much the same as England.  There is still a royal family, but the power is in the hands of leaders elected to parliament which is overseen by a Prime Minister.  In spite of some tough financial times a few years ago, Spain has been stable for close to fifty years now.  Juan Carlos is still alive, but he gave up the title and cool perks that go along with being king to his son Felipe in 2014.
Today we had a chance to get a glimpse of the way it was back in the 1700 and 1800 hundreds when the Royal Family really got the Royal treatment.  The Royal Palace of Madrid is about a mile and a half from our hotel so getting there was an easy walk.  Construction on the palace began in 1735 and I'm not sure if it was by design or they just had trouble finding a place to stop.  When they did finally finish they really had built quite a palace.  It's listed as being 1,450,000 square feet in size and contains 2,800 rooms.  Needless to say it's quite impressive from the outside and even more impressive  inside.  We have plenty of pictures from the outside but photos were not allowed inside the palace so you'll just have to take my word for it.  The rooms were immaculately decorated.  Many of them with silk tapestries from ceiling to floor (and the ceilings looked to be about 30 feet high).  The dining room table which was set seemed to have seating for around 100 people.  There were royal chairs in many rooms, a royal dressing room that was about the size of our house in Burleson and so much more.  The royal family no longer lives in the palace.  Actually, I read the annual budget for the monarchy is currently around 8 million euros per year, making it one of, if not the lowest, for any country with a king or queen.  It’s still good to be king, just not as good. In addition to being open for visiting, special government functions such as state dinners and entertaining leaders from around the world are still held in the palace.

The Royal Palace (front view)

Every royal palace has to have a royal garden

The ceiling inside the entrance to the Royal Palace (pictures were allowed in this area)

Main entrance into the royal palace

View from the royal gardens

Admission was around $15 per person for a combination ticket that included the palace as well as an interesting temporary exhibit on Spain's involvement in World War I.  If you are planning on going I would suggest purchasing your tickets on line, otherwise you will probably find yourself standing in a long line.  I'm not sure how the on line tickets actually work but I think there is a limited number of them sold per day.  We bought ours this morning.  Several time slots were shown as "sold out" while other time slots showed just a few remaining.
Next door to the Royal Palace is the Cathedral of Madrid, which is also known as the Cathedral de Santa Maria la Real de Almudena.  I think I prefer the Cathedral of Madrid.  As Cathedrals in Europe go it's fairly new, having recently celebrated it's 25th anniversary.  Being a few centuries newer than most cathedrals it certainly had a more modern look while still maintaining the same attention to detail.  Below are a few pictures from inside the cathedral:

We finished the day back in Parque Del Retiro enjoying people watching, as well as showing off our navigational skills by renting a rowboat for a peaceful paddle around the man made lake.
Also, I added one more picture at the end of the previous blog.  I just wish the photographer would have been in it!

Rowing the lake

We did go back!  Lunch at Casa Mingo.  Today we skipped the salad and added a bowl of Fabada (White Beans and Chorizo)

Memorial Day 2019

Never Forget!

   

Madrid-Day 3 A side trip to Segovia to meet up with some very special people

On Friday afternoon as Beth and I were making our way to our hotel in Madrid I received the above text.  If you're family, you already know the Whites.  If not,  just a brief introduction.  Richard White is Beth's cousin.  He's a fine gentleman, scholar, fisherman and now I guess we have to add camel jockey.  Along with him on the camels are his equally amazing wife Mei-Ling and two of their three children, Richard and Phillip.  Their daughter, Juliana is currently living in Seoul, South Korea and missed out on the camel ride  The White's are travelers, who have wandered across much of the globe themselves, so we weren't completely surprised to get the text from them riding camels in Marrakesh.
They were in Northern Africa on one side of the Strait of Gibraltar.  We were in Spain on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar.  We were practically neighbors!
As fate would have it they were going to be flying to Madrid on Saturday afternoon.  They would be staying Saturday night in Segovia, which is just a thirty minute ride on one of the express trains from Madrid.  At this point planning the rendezvous was pretty simple.  Beth and I were planning a day trip from Madrid for one day.  We had narrowed our choices down to a few places and Segovia was one of them.  So this morning we were off to Segovia!
We met in front of the huge Segovia Cathedral, one of Segovia's three main landmarks.  There were hugs, high fives and handshakes all around.  After catching up on each others adventures, as well as Richard and Phillips recent accomplishments (Richard completing his undergraduate program and Philip graduating from high school) we were off to explore the city and it's other two main landmarks, the Alcazar Castle and the Roman Aqueduct.

The Whites and The Tuckers meeting up in front of the Segovia Cathedral 

The first reference of the Alcazar Castle was in 1120.  It's original purpose was to serve as a fortress protecting the city of Segovia.  Over the centuries it has also been a Royal Palace, state prison, college and military academy.  The original castle was destroyed by fire on March 6, 1862 and has since been rebuilt. It now serves as a museum and in 1985 was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (we seem to be coming across a lot of this on this adventure).  Some of the pictures below may remind you of another castle, and that's not a coincidence.  Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World was partly inspired by the Alcazar Castle.

Looking up at the Alcazar Castle from the banks of the Eresma River

In front of the Alcazar Castle.  In this picture make note of the top of the castle tower....

...….. this picture was taken from the tower you made note of in the previous picture,

Happiness is spending Sunday afternoon with the White Family in Segovia

After visiting the castle and climbing the 156 steps up the tower, it was time for lunch.  A quick trip advisor search and we were off to the Restaurante El Sitio.  The restaurant was located on a side street away from the main tourist streets.  While it's not always true, this usually means better quality food at less cost.  This certainly was the case today.  After a toast to travel and adventure, we enjoyed a great meal of roasted suckling pig, which is the regional specialty of Segovia.  For as good as the food was, the fellowship was even better.

A toast to travel and adventure!

We also enjoyed visiting the Roman Aqueduct, which is the symbol for the city of Segovia.  The original construction of the aqueduct was believed to have been in the first century AD.  Until the twentieth century it supplied water from the Frio River, which is located 11 miles away from the city.  There are a total of 167 arches from the point the aqueduct enters the city until it reaches the Plaza de Diaz Sanz.  It's an impressive site to see and to imagine the engineering that went into designing such an important structure so many centuries ago.

Supplying water to the city for centuries

We had a train to catch back to Madrid and the White's had other places to see before reaching their destination for tonight. Which ironically is Salamanca.  I passed along my Salamanca map and a few recommendations.  We said our good byes and we were off our separate ways.
We'll see all of them but Phillip at the beach house in a few weeks, but crossing paths in Segovia was extra special.  It's likely to happen again since we did the same thing in Hawaii about 15-16 years ago.

Great Picture!  The only thing missing is the photographer.

Madrid Day 2- A Saturday in the Park(s)

The fairest rose of them all!

Weather wise, it was a beautiful day in Madrid.  The high temperature was around 72, the humidity was low, and there was an occasional passing cloud to provide a little shade.  It was a perfect day to be outdoors and that's pretty much where we spent the entire day.
If you look at a city map of Madrid there are patches of green throughout.  Madrid is a city filled with parks.  Some large, some small. On a day like today I'm sure they were filled with people of all ages enjoying the weather and each other.
Yesterday we spent time in the Parque Del Retiro, which I described as Madrid's version of New York's Central Park.  Today's adventure took a us a little further from the hotel to another large park, Parque del Oeste.  To get here it was an easy 35 minute walk up the Calle Gran Via, one of Madrid's main streets.  Since I've already used one New York analogy, we'll compare Calle Gran Via to 5th Avenue.  As we were making our way, the city was still coming to life so it wasn't too crowded.
Once we reached the park we discovered two surprises.  Inside the park was an Egyptian Temple, the Temple of Debod.  It was estimated to have been built in 200 BC.  In 1970 it was disassembled, shipped to Madrid and reassembled.  It's small in size but contains numerous hieroglyphics that are in amazing condition.  Admission to the temple is free, which is certainly an added bonus.  The temple itself is fairly small so they only allow groups of around 10 people at a time inside.  Our waiting time to get inside was only around 20 minutes and it was well worth it.

Parque del Oeste

The Temple of Debod

The second surprise was the parks' huge rose garden (La Rosaleda) which was in full bloom.  According to the signage the garden contained around 200,000 plants and more than 600 varieties.  We've seen some impressive rose gardens in our travels but none that were more impressive than La Rosaleda.  It was easy to see why the Worldwide Rose Federation awarded it the"Garden of Excellence" designation in 2006.  I know the difficulty involved in earning such a prestigious designation.  In 2010 my yard in Texas won a similar award from the Worldwide Weed Federation!  Below are a few more pictures from La Rosaleda:

Another feature of Parque del Oeste is that it is connected to another park by an aerial cable car.  The ride is about 10 minutes long and takes you over residences, a river and highway before reaching it's destination, Casa de Campo.  This park, which was once a hunting estate for Spain's royal family is close to seven square miles in size, easily making it Madrid's largest park.  As the cable car approaches the station you can see miles and miles of trails that crisscross through the rolling hills.  The park also contains a lake, tennis complex, large amusement park and the Madrid Zoo.

The aerial cable car connecting the two parks

The rose garden.  This was taken from the cable car.  That's the Royal Palace in the background.  It's on the agenda for Monday.

Casa de Campo from the cable car

Mi casa is under a shade tree in Casa de Campo

As we made our way back into town we walked for a while along the Calle Gran Via.  The same walk that we shared with a few people in the morning we now shared with thousands, making it really seem like 5th Avenue.

Calle Gran Via in full swing

Back in town, we had another freebie on the agenda.  The Reina Sofia, another of Madrid's famous art museums offers complimentary admission.  Tonight's hours were from 7:00 until 9:00. The hours vary, so if you're planning a free visit double check the schedule.  The art in this museum is all from 20th century artists.  The most familiar to us were Picasso and Dali.  I'll have to hand it to both of them, they were unique!

Reina Sophia

Art, is in the eye of the beholder

Of course during the day we had to eat, and boy did we eat.  Steve had recommended a restaurant that just happened to be a short distance from the rose garden.  The name of the place is Casa Mingo.  He advised us that we had to get the roasted chicken, so of course we complied.  After one bite we agreed that it was without question the best we had ever eaten.  They've had time to perfect this dish since the restaurant has been around since 1888.  Somehow they've taken a simple dish and turned it into something extraordinary.  Roasted chicken, salad, bread and cider...…...what more could you possibly need?  According to Trip Advisor there are 10,514 restaurants in Madrid.  I doubt we get to try them all over the next few days, but we may just have to double back to Casa Mingo!

A simple dish perfected

We arrived early for lunch by Spanish standards.  It was just a few minutes past 12:00.  By the time we left every table inside and out was full.