Hi All,
We had to get back on track today before Madrid enchanted us again so we headed out on a self guided walk. We headed out at about 9am in light clothing as once the sun rises it gets quite hot but it was very cold in the shadows as we walked. Remarkable how cold the city gets in the morning at this time of the year. Somehow took us in the opposite direction that we intended on going but didn’t matter as we ended up at the Plaza Espanol and it’s lovely statues then onto an authentic Egyptian temple called Templo Debod. What? Yes it was a gift from Egypt, disassembled, transported, then rebuilt in Madrid!
Kept wandering and picked up the signs for the self guided walk which took us to the Palacio Real which is a testament to the excesses of the Spanish monarchy. Just around the corner was a roman ruin so plenty of history. Without researching I think that Spanish are a mix of moors and Romans.
Vanessa particularly liked watching the dogs playing off leash in the parks and then watching them tip toe through the flowers that were blooming to relieve themselves without squashing the blooms. The mounted police sat proudly on their strong white Spanish horses one hand on the reins ,one hand on their mobile telephone pressed to their ear and one eye on the palace. Don’t worry about those boring old buildings too many other things to see!.
This had us worn out so we had morning tea at 1030am before heading back to the centre of town, onto the Metro and out to the bus station for a break where we caught a bus to Avila which was leaving 5 minutes later. It wasn’t long before Vanessa pointed out the snow capped mountains which we were heading for in the bus and having our summer clothing on was some cause for concern at the time for obvious reason but it turned out that there was enough sun to offset the cold breeze if we kept out of the shadows once we arrived. The trip took for about 1.5 hr which was a nice country drive with plenty of snow capped mountains in the distance and lots of wind turbines on the crest of hills.
Avila is an well restored UNESCO 12 century fortress town with a large cathedral partly built into the defensive wall as well. We went for a look in the cathedral but didn’t pay as we could see fairly well through the mesh wall before the ticket office. Our money was better spent getting onto the fortress wall for some superb views over the enclosed town and great views of the nesting storks on the cathedral.
We finished looking around after a few hours and then headed to the shops to get something to eat but nothing much was open. Spanish siesta time. What was worse it was extended siesta time and we needed an energy booster. The working hours in the town were 10am to 2pm then 5pm to 8pm so no food for us for a couple of hours.
There was however a hair dresser open but Vanessa got a little nervous when the lady said she only spoke Spanish and no entiendo was mentioned. Very fussy about her flowing locks even after 9 months without a haircut. Guess a bowl cut wasn’t out of the question with language difficulties.
We headed back to the bus station and tried the water diet but it didn’t work and we were sitting waiting for the supermarket to open at 5pm.
Back at the bus station we had a drug addict getting a little too close for comfort doing the rounds begging for money. Think we must have been too scruffy or too smelly for him to try it on us.
The bus was via everywhere on the way back to Madrid and we got a great look at a lot of towns which no longer were dominated by mosques as in the recently left middle east and north Africa but by large churches.
Had another magical moment on the bus. We approached Madrid at dusk and there were a cluster of four super high rise buildings that caught and brightly reflected the red sunset while the city was relatively dark. It was an amazing moment.
So we have at least attempted to get back on schedule today. Emphasis on attempted. We have a trip into Portugal then onto Italy and Greece before France and can’t linger as the temperature is rising and the American tourists are here in numbers. Maybe we are already too late to beat the crowds.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
