As I write this we are over the Mediterranean north of Marrakech and south of Madrid. Our wonderful adventure that was the (Peregrine) Highlights of Morocco, has ended. We are over hand-touching stall owners, starving cats, kamikaze motor cycle riders and a lack of cold drinks.
Having said that the highlights are too many to list. However, I must re-mention the Sahara Desert & camel experience, the food, the mountainous scenic beauty, the souks & shopping, the cultural learning experience and the quality of our tour leader Aziz. If you are prepared to embrace the Moroccan culture your visit will be that much richer. We did, and we are.
We met some lovely people from New Zealand, Sydney & NSW, Geelong and Melbourne. I have not mentioned names (for privacy reasons) but I can probably mention that one of our group was a medical man and he was called on a few times to provide advice and provide pharmacy interpretations. He is a bonzer bloke.
We now look forward to majestic Madrid and the wines of Portugal.
We had a leisurely breakfast before the airport transfer picked up Shirley, Fay and myself. We had enough Moroccan dirhams to have a light lunch and coffee. The Airbus A-319 departed on time and before we reached cruising height Shirley and Fay were snoozing.
Some of Madrid from the Airbus A-319
There was little fuss in arriving, getting our baggage, and being transferred to the hotel. There was also little fuss in going for a walk, finding a coffee shop/bar, some shoe shops, and ultimately a great tapas bar. We relaxed, ate and drank for a while before wandering back to the hotel, and some well earned relaxation. Sam Stosur was playing a match on TV – in the French Open. Correction – was playing – she just won.
It was around midnight before the lights went out.
Day 29 – Wednesday 1 June 2016 – Madrid
After some bacon and eggs for breakfast it was off for a walk designed by Shirley and Fay. The morning will be remembered for monuments, statues, birds, gardens and roses.
The first photo was of Plaza de Cibeles or more specifically Cybele Palace – City Hall.
Day 29 – Wednesday 1 June 2016 – Madrid
After some bacon and eggs for breakfast it was off for a walk designed by Shirley and Fay. The morning will be remembered for monuments, statues, birds, gardens and roses.
The first photo was of Plaza de Cibeles or more specifically Cybele Palace – City Hall.
Cybele Palace – City Hall
Next was Carlos III.
Status of Carlos III
Then we saw the magnificent Puerta de Alcalá.
Puerta de Alcalá – Monument to Carolo III
On we went and entered the magnificent gardens that is Jardines del Buen Retiro, containing gardens, palaces, roses and birds.
Computer Generated Collage of the Roses we saw
Two Birds – Unknown to the Photographer
The afternoon will be remembered for food. Shirley planned a walking trip to the medieval part of Madrid – about 1.5 km away. She thought that we may also see a market. Well, the market at San Miguel plaza (about the size of a smallish Aussie house) was a food and drink hall.
There were a wide enough range of beers, red wines, whites wine, bubbly and fortified to satisfy 99% of tastes. There were tapas of many combinations of meat, fish, crustaceans, cheese, olives and many other food items, There were cakes, cakes and more cakes.
There is limited seating and lots of standing room. Guess where we are going for dinner tonight.
On the way there we sauntered via Mayor Plaza and admired the architecture.
One Side of Mayor Plaza
Then we admired some of the older street that were still in excellent condition.
The Old (above). The New (below).
By the time we called for another rest, we had walked around 13 km for the day.
It was not long before refreshments and dinner were the order of the day. However, it is amazing how dinner and drinks can be delayed by the ever-presence of shoe shops. And so it was a slow walk. We soon had standing space, and soon after had seating positions, and soon after that white sangria (Fay), red sangria (Shirley) and dry red wine (me/Chris). Life was good.
One Tapas/Wine bar. Two Lovely Ladies. Three Fine Drinks
A Wine Waiter
Life got even better as we (in turn) visited the tapas bars inside the building and gradually started to stem the hunger pains. We chatted to residents of the USA, Scotland, Tasmania and the lovely lady who sold the red wine.
We loved the waiter who posed for a photo and reminded us of a dear Aussie friend who also knows how to carry a tray and pour a glass wine. The tray contained bottles of wine, glasses, ice and (most importantly) a sense of humour.
Around three hours later we arrived home in a good mood – because of the great time and food we had had. Life was still good. To add to the pleasure someone told us that there is a similar place in London. Bring it on.
Day 30 – Thursday 2 June 2016 – Madrid
It was Shirley’s birthday so Fay and I took her out for breakfast – at the hotel restaurant. I gave Shirley a card and some € and so the three of us set off for a specified shoe shop. It took a while to find the place, but we did.
I said adios to the ladies and set off for destinations unknown. I found (in turn) a great department store and then a bank that seemed reliable (not always the case, it appears).
We reconvened about 11:30 and compared purchases. Shirley won. We packed our bags and carted them about 600 metres to the Palace Westin Hotel – something upmarket from where Shirley and I normally stay. It was excellent, and soon we were in our room.
Happy Shoppers
Soon we were back out walking, this time with a serious mission – lunch and shopping. A ham roll and cappuccino did the trick and I introduced Shirley and Fay to the department store and their eyes opened very wide. Seventy minutes later we emerged – less a few Euros and with purchases in hand.
KM Zero
We returned to hotel after coffee an cakes for the birthday girl. We check in with the tour/cruise people, and had a short rest before a 75 minute Around central Madrid walking tour.
Although we had already seen most of this area, we did find a few more tapas bars and the location of KM Zero – the place in Madrid where all distances in Spain are measured from. We also found out that the bear is the symbolic animal of Madrid.
Apparently Madrid was founded by the Arab emir Muhammad in the 9th century.
The tour/cruise briefing was at 6pm, complete with free drinks and nibbles – olives of course. The tour director, Luis (who is Portuguese), was later on his own so we had a chat and made ourselves known (could be handy later).
After the briefing Fay and I took Shirley out for a birthday dinner. She chose an open air paella place. It was excellent. The temperature was still 26 degrees at 8pm.
Birthday Girl, Bubbly & Cake
Day 31 – Friday 3 June 2016 – Madrid
Tour Day 2
Ceiling of Dining Room
We started the day, a little seedy (thanks to the bubbly), with a good breakfast in the beautiful dining room.
At 8:45 we were on the bus for a panorama bus tour of Madrid.
Madrid has a population of 4 million and is 2000 feet above sea level.
The bus took us around the central area while our guide, Carmen, explained the history of the city, the inner suburbs and a number of the historical buildings.
As we drove around the famous Madrid bullring Carmen explained the art of the bull fight. The matador is dressed in feminine apparel as he is imitating a woman seducing a strong man – with the 500 kg bull representing the strong man. Bulls who cower before the matador are taken away and slaughtered like a cow, whereas the fearless bull dies like a champion warrior – with pride. Apparently bull flights are advertised in the arts section of the newspaper – not the sports section.
Plaza De Torros [Photo courtesy of Fay]
We also drove past the Madrid Cathedral which took 100 years to build from 1893 to 1993.
Madrid Cathedral
Prado Museum with a Status of Goya in the Foreground
At 6:30 the entire tour group filled two buses as we headed to Corral De La Moreria, noted in the book 1000 Places to see before you die, for dinner and flamenco dancing. Dinner was effectively a 9 course tapas meal and a five chocolate desert all accompanied by three different (small) bread rolls and fairly continual wine. The entertainment was two female dancers, three male singers, one drummer and two flamenco guitarists. The female dancers are in the top three in the world and the male dancer is not far behind.
Flamenco Entertainers [Photo courtesy of Fay]
It was an excellent night, and allowed us to meet a few more of the group.
Trivia question. We met some people tonight who live in Canada and have to drive north to travel to the USA. Where do they live? Amazingly, we also met another couple who live in the USA and have to travel south to get to Canada. Where do they live?
Day 32 – Saturday 4 June 2016 – Toledo
Tour Day 3
We had a normal great breakfast and were on the bus to Toledo at 9am. Toledo is the centre of Catholicism in Spain, and is sort of the Vatican City of Spain. Like other cities we have seen on this trip in Spain and Morocco it was established by the Romans (as a soldier’s garrison), expanded by the Jews, overthrown by the Muslims and retaken by the Christians. So it has churches, synagogues and mosques, and a sort of cross-pollination of ideas with the passing of time. The head of the Catholic church in Spain lives in Toledo.
Toledo
The walk to the top of the hill took only 10 minutes, courtesy of modern-day escalators. Our guide took us into a mosque that has had multiple facelifts over time, then into the Cathedral which is linked to the Cardinals Palace by a second story bridge.
Inside the Cathedral, Looking towards the Altar
The Cathedral is another amazing church, that was built mainly for the rich and powerful, but allowed room for the others in the congregation. It has a window in the ceiling that allows natural light to shine on to the altar. Again, the stain glass windows are amazing. Most of us touched a carefully guarded stone that legends says was touched by the Virgin Mary.
The cathedral features an El Greco painting of Jesus Christ and a sacristy that is nearly a replica of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The ceiling of the sacristy was painted by Italians and was funded by the local Jews.
Ceiling of the Sacristy
A Toledo Craftsman at Work
We walked on and admired the gold, silver and steel craft work of the local people.
Our guide left us in Plaza Zocodover so that we could wander, eat, drink and maybe purchase. We did all four. Our last purchase was some local marzipan that was originally made by the nuns to raise money. It was excellent.
As we got back on the bus for the drive back to Madrid our guide suggested that it was time for a siesta. Most people complied.
Luis informed us that over 50% of Spain is higher than 900 metres above sea level, making Spain the second most mountainous country in Europe, after Switzerland.
Around 6:30 the three musketeers went for a stroll, check out a market and then found a bar as it was then time for a drink. It was my misfortunate to then find out that it was Madrid Beer Week. Not only are we leaving tomorrow but the appropriate web page is only in Spanish – my weak subject. Anyway we all had 300 ml drink (2 x sangria and 1 x beer) for around $A8 in total.
We decided to wander back to the hotel and eat at the flash al-fresco restaurant over the road from our flash hotel. We soon established that the restaurant was more like a fast food place with great food, excellent drinks, all at dirt cheap prices. We ate/drank very well for minimal cost.
Home we then went and packed our bags for an 8am departure tomorrow. We head for the cruise ship via Salamanca.
Day 33 – Sunday 5 June 2016 – Madrid to Vega De Terron
Tour Day 4
We were on the bus at 8:15 ready to say goodbye to the Palace Westin Hotel and Madrid, after having our bags ready at 7am. The drive to Salamanca takes us from the Madrid region to the Castillo-Leon region, via a 3 km tunnel under the mountain range that separates the two regions. The snow peaks on that mountain range were visible before we left the Madrid metro area.
We have enjoyed our five nights in Madrid, comfortable that we have visited 72% of shoe shops and walking past 90% of the tapas bars. Our three main visited Spanish cities – Barcelona, Seville & Madrid – have all been vastly different and well worth the time we had in each city.
We have had many a chuckle, in both Morocco and Spain, as to the versatility of the humble motor bike. IT can be used as a plain motor cycle, but more often it has some conversion to carry goods or passengers.
The country side, either side of the mountain range, consisted of rolling plains that look quite fertile – judging by the amount of quality grass and crops. There were very few trees any higher than our bus. Earlier we had passed an extensive wind farm.
Our coffee stop was at the walled city of Avila, famous as the early playground of St Teresa, Spain’s much loved saint, along with its patron St James. The impressive wall stretches for 2.5 km around the city. As we left Avila the most popular agriculture seemed to be grain crops. Again the roads were superb, and we seemed to float along the motorway.
We arrived at Salamanca around 11:15 and were delayed by around 45 minutes by a marathon being held through the city streets. The marathon was part of a religious festival where runners are sprayed by a coloured power-like substance.
A “Modern” Restoration on the Cathedral
Salamanca is a university town, perhaps a bit like Oxford or Cambridge. It is also called the Golden City, because of the yellowish sandstone that was used to build a substantial part of the city. Soon we were on a guided walking tour of Salamanca, taking in sights of the university and the cathedrals and learning some of the history.
The old cathedral was built in the 11th century and the new adjoining cathedral was built in the 16th century. The new cathedral had some restoration work performed in 1995 by a restorer who had a sense of humour – one of the gargoyles on the façade was replaced with a more modern spaceman.
Salamanca Cathedral
The main square is also very impressive although my photo does not portray the majesty of the second largest square in Spain.
Salamanca Square
We had travelled the better part of 370 km through predominantly rolling farm land that seemed to be used for crops and food production, rather than meat production. We saw a small flock of healthy looking sheep and a small mob of contented looking cows. A number of areas had sufficient rocks to produce internal and boundary rock fences. Trees became more common as we moved towards Portugal, but they were large-olive-tree sizes, rather than Aussie-gum-tree sizes. All of the roads were excellent. All of the pastures were green and looked lush.
Spanish Countryside
We had found out that we were still in Spain, although we could see Portugal 100 metres to the west (across the water) and 300 metres to the north. The border between Spain & Portugal runs down the middle of the river.
The bridge in the distance made a good backdrop from our window.
*** This Post is Complete ***
Post Updated 11 pm Sunday 5 June 2016
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