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| 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.
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| 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.
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Roasted Chicken-The house specialty at Casa Mingo
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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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
