Another Season Comes To A Close

Here is Jay Sea Dee all put away for the winter in Gruisson, France. We couldn't ask for a better place to leave her. Pierre and Maryvonne at Nautiland were extremely helpful. We would recommend this place to anyone needing to leave their boat in this area of the Mediterranean for the winter. We had a great year and couldn't ask for a better boat. Au Revoir! Adios! Until Next Year!

Sagrada Familia Church

We felt we couldn't leave Barcelona without visiting the Sagrada Familia church designed by Antonio Gaudi. He architecturally designed it and started building it over 100 years ago. It is beautiful but very strange at the same time. See how Jesus has the Bible over his face on the crucifix? It is still a work in progress. The $10 Euro entrance fee helps pay for the completion.

Montjuic

Montjuic means Mount of the Jews. It is an elevated area of Barcelona perched up high giving one a 360 degree view of the city...magnificent!

The 1992 Summer Olympics were held here. The stadium is still used today. Notice the photo of the Olympic torch. Do you remember how they lit that in 1992? An archer flew an ignited arrow into it and it burst into flames...perfect! Outside the stadium laid in the concrete we found many footprint tributes to athletes of the games. I have included a few...do you remember them?

We visited the Castle as well. There are the "Magic Fountains" that we passed by but they only light up Thursday through Sunday so we did not get to see the show.

Holy Toledo!

Do you know where the saying, "Holy Toledo" came from? Well, Toledo had an educated, wealthy and cosmopolitan Jewish community...called Sephardic Jews. These Jews eventually immigrated to America and brought along that expression because to them Toledo was the holiest Jewish City in Europe!

Did you also know that Toledo used to be the Capital of Spain? And that it is a walled city?

They even had a river that served as a moat but they still have water problems to this day.

Toledo's craftsmen produce a Gold Inlaid Design applied to Steel and then fired in a Kiln for strength. The items are produced using 24kt gold thread or gold leaf. They really catch your eye as the gold shines brightly against the black steel. They are also noted for their sword making. There is also lots of Mazapan shops around the Plaza's...had to try it but it didn't grab our taste buds.

We were lucky to find a place to stay since it was a last minute decision to go to Toledo and it was a holiday weekend...Columbus Day. We used our Rick Steve's guide and called the Hostal Del Cardenal. Yes, they had a room and we got the 5% discount for using the Rick Steve's guide. So for only $85 Euros per night we were good to go. The best thing about it was that it turned out to be a 17th Century Cardinal's Palace built into Toledo's wall. And....get this, the walk up the big hill into town was simplified for us. There were five or six escalators all the way up to town from outside our hotel door since it was located at the old wall entrance.

Don't you just love how the Spanish men all get together in the Plaza's (see the photo of them lined up on the wall)! We took the Tourist Train around and got some great "outside of the wall" shots of town. We visited the Cathedral which was one of the best we've seen in Europe so far...and believe me, we've seen a lot of them. We visited the Victorio Macho Museum. He was a well known sculpturist (see photo of old lady and me). We wanted to see some of El Greco's work but everywhere we went the location was being renovated so we saw none of them.

What does this mean?

I thought it was one of the Three Wisemen not allowed to eat French Fries. John corrected me and said it was a No Eating, No Drinking (It is a Coca-Cola Bottle, not a wiseman). In the Eye Of The Beholder I Guess.

Madrid Day Two

Today, the plan was to see the Royal Palace. We took the long way around to get there so we could see the real Madrid and its back alleys, etc.

We found a costume store with a full variety of colorful Flamengo dresses for rent.

We also found a mask store that had a mask from every Greek mythology character and more.

On theway we passed Plaza Mayor with a long Spanish history in its walls (Photo #3). Many were tried and executed here during the Spanish Inquisition.

Then we followed a suggestion from Rick Steve and found the local convent "Monasterio del Corpus Christi". We knew there was supposed to be a door with a buzzer to ring but we couldn't find it. So we went into the church to see if we could find it but no luck. The beggar lady sitting outside the church offered to show us the way so we paid her a bit and she showed us where the "dulches" are. You ring a buzzer, a sister answers on the intercom and lets you in. Then you follow the signs to "torno" (the lazy susan). You choose an item, place your money in the lazy susan and it turns behind some small doors and in return out pops your dulces (we bought a 1/2 kilo of Cherry Shortbread Cookies for $8 Euro). They were VERY delicious!!! The fun thing is you NEVER SEE A PERSON. They are not allowed to be seen...I'm not quite sure why. After coming out with our cookies, I opened the box immediately and gave some to our beggar friend who had helped us find it...she was very appreciative.

Finally, we made it to the Royal Palace and the line was over 1/4 mile long. We found out that the first Wednesday of the month, the Palace is free to locals. It is a huge palace, up there with Versailles. It has more than 2,000 rooms and no photos are allowed...again only memories. We waited in line and enjoyed an accordian player and dropped a few coins on his bag...I couldn't help myself (for those of you who don't know, I play the accordian myself). So there is always a fall back if I find myself in the unemployment line. It is a beautiful palace and well maintained. Our final stop was to the Royal Armory. You were not to take photos but the security guards (one male, one female) were too busy visiting with each other to notice so I took advantage.

We got back to the hotel, took a siesta and headed out for a Kebop for dinner (similar to a Greek Gyro). Another awesome day! We enjoyed Madrid but not as much as we Love Barcelona. There is much more of a cross section of people here and it is a bit dirty. Unfortunately one of my memories of Madrid will be the many young girls hanging out at every street corner strutting their stuff. Pimping is illegal here but not prostitution from what we understand so they are everywhere.

Madrid

John decided we HAD to get to Madrid and got tickets online for the fast train for $58 Euro one way. I got online to book the hotel and found a deal at Senator Gran Via, included breakfast and internet, what more could we ask for. I always ask for a high floor in the comments as well so when we showed up and the high room wasn't ready, they asked if we could wait an hour and so we headed to McDonalds across the street. It was worth the wait!!! We got the Penthouse Suite with a separate sitting area and a whole patio with a view of the Gran Via to die for.

Being the tour director I am, I immediately pulled out the Rick Steve's "Spain" for our itinerary. I noticed the Prado was free from 6pm to 8pm (closing time) so decided that was what we were going to do. Then got our list of tapas bars together, mapped them out and found a Flamengo show with an opening for that night and made reservations.

The Prada has more than 3,000 paintings so we really had to plan well. Rick Steve's book gives a quick Self tour that we used and saw all the important and most famous paintings in the two hours. Again, no photos are allowed so only memories can be taken away.

Tapas are like small dishes of appetizers. It is fun because you can taste quite a few things. Some of the places charge you on the honor system by counting the number of toothpicks left on your plate...one toothpick equals one tapas. We had ham sandwiches, olives and tapenade at one place then had Gazpacho soup, chorizo sausage and bread next.

We walked to the Flamengo show at Casa Patas. Due to our last minute reservations we were near the back but it was a small enough venue to enjoy it. We just wanted to see the feet tapping on the floor and had to stand to see that part. It is a very emotional dance. There was a lot of singing by two gentlemen also there were two Spanish guitar players, one drummer (drumming on a hard sided cube) and a percussionist. Two women did all the dancing, no men that night. We had a full day and got back into the hotel around 2am...early for the Spanish.

Figueres and Salvadore Dali

Oh, Dali. I don't know about you but when I think about Salvadore Dali, I think of a crazy man who was also an artist. We couldn't resist this day trip from Barcelona so we hopped on a train and two hours later were in Figueres and hiking to the Dali Museum.

The town is all about Dali as you can see from the light pole that reflects the picture from the ground. If you looked at the ground, it looked nothing like the perfect photo on the light pole...amazing(see photo #3). I wonder how it changes throughout the day as the sun moves the shadow.

At the museum, in the ballroom, Dali is buried. In the same room there is a colorful photo made up of many pixels but when you focus your camera on it, it turns into Abraham Lincoln. I found it kind of amusing when I tried to show a Spanish couple the trick, they just didn't get it...maybe they didn't know who Abraham Lincoln is????(see photo's #4 and #5).

There is also the Mae West room which is more famous.

The whole museum just makes you walk around going HMMMM as you try to understand what he was trying to portray or get across. Very fascinating...worth the long train ride!