Trip to Spain: Tortosa, town of tiny jews.

Parador

Paradors are castles, monastaries, forts, etc. that have been taken over by the Spanish government and turned into upscale hotels. They were apparently very cheap but have gotten less so, although they were still reasonable. Now, they aren't what we would consider luxurious but they were pretty nice. The staff when we checked in late the night before wasn't that nice, althogh they warmed up eventually. After that, the front desk staff was helpful and one of the guys tried to show us the difference in pronunciation between Espanol and Catalan. One comment; the people of Spain are genrally very proud of the area they come from within Spain, especially in Catalan (the area in and around Barcelona). The language of Catalan is fairly different. We knew a few words of Spanish which allowed us to muddle through well enough, but Catalan...forget it. It also sounds very funny to an American ear. There are alot of "th" sounds which makes everyone sound a little like Sylvester the Cat or like they're lisping. So Barcelona become barTHelona. This casued us endless giggles through the rest of our trip, which I'm sure endeared us to the Catalan people.

The Castle was pretty cool and had some great views of the town.

The weather had improved slightly so we decided to explore the town a little and chance the rain. We started the day tryng to drive but quickly determined walking would be easier. (You are at the top of a hill, so just be prepared for the walk back up). We went to visit the cathedral but it had weird tourist hours (the siesta) so it was closed. We walked around town a bit. Tortosa is an odd mix of old and new. The ancient jewish quarter is supposed to be the oldest of it's kind. It was really just a collection of REALLY tiny streets (in a town of tiny streets) with a few non-working wells.

In addition to the old though, there are more modern stores and shopping areas in the center of town.

We visited Els Jardins del Princep a garden with really lovely plants and centered around the sculptures of artist Santiago de Santiago Herandez.

Some of his sculptures were cool:

some were odd:

and some were downright disturbing.

We had a very nice lunch at the resteraunt Pailet (http://www.paiolet.com/), which was very good (try the beet carpaccio salad) and seemed crowded with locals. Afterwards we visited the cathedral which was pretty cool. It was only a three euros and you get to tour pretty much the entire place, including the catacombs, again Denise resisted her fear of closed spaces and braved the dark underground area, but it was well lit and she did fine. The cathedral had alot of great artifacts, many of which were very close or even out in the open.

Back to the Parador for cocktails. Tortosa didn't seem like a party town, although the girls and I didn't look very hard, we were content to just relax. We had dinner atthe parador and had another excellent meal. A brief comment on the rooms; They were again failry small. We had reserved a "triple" which was a double bed with a oversized chair that was a pull-out bed. We opted to get an additional room. The girls shared a room and I had one to myself...which the girls probably enjoyed sonce I snore :) The bathroom was really big compared to the rest of ther room. The beds are VERY firm, verging on uncofortable...but again we weren't in Spain to sleep. I should also mention "Brunhilde". Of course, her name wasn't Brunhilde, but that name sums up exactly how she looked. She was our waitress a number of times and was great, she was like our Spanish mom and always took care of us. One night I just told her to bring me whatever she thought was good and had a delicious fish dish. She didn't speak very much English and we spoke no Catalan and only a little Spanish so we communicated through pointing, pantomime and just smiling, but it all worked out great. The parador also had a breakfast buffet that was really nice. I got hooked on the traditional Catalan breakfast of toast (or better yet grilled bread) rubbed with a clove of garlic, fresh sliced tomato and anchovies. The buffet also offered cereals, eggs, fruit, salad items, coffee, tea, fresh squeezed juices, pastries, Spanish meats and cheeses...it was pretty good and it was included in the price of our rooms. Spain has great pork products and delicious seafood pretty much everywhere you go. Of course try a paella dish, which is what Denise and Reed had this night, I had eel...yum.

SPAIN, SCHHMAIN

Ok...Day four. The day from hell. Every trip has one of these right? Well despite the bad luck/stupidity on this day we did do alot of laughing. The day began rainy and dreary. But trying to "look on the bright side of things" we thought it was a good day to spend the majority of our time in the car. We were driving from Madrid to Tortosa via a fairly direct (as direct as the roads of Spain would allow) route. This route did offer an opportunity to see some of the spanish countryside and we just thought, what the heck, lets drive through Spain. Now this all sounds good in theory, in actual practice it was less then an ideal trip. Now it is possible to rent an automatic transmission car in Spain but it is much more expensive. So Denise rented a manual car and since I was the only one who could drive stick, I was doing all the driving. Again, in theory, this was fine, it was going to be a few hours of driving, no big deal. And really it wasn't all that bad...on the highway. It becomes another matter when your in the middle of a major city with city traffic, or in the midst of a highly touristy area where people just randomly jump in front of you (it seems the people in Spain actually take that "pedestrians have the right of way" thing seriously. Or it becoms even more worrisome when the place your going to check into is a castle...perched on a mountain...with roads big enough for a large man on a donkey...that are rainy and slippery...and the driver hasn't driven a stick shift in about 10 years. Needless to say, less then ideal conditions. So my first piece of advice about driving in Spain, don't do it. Take a train. (We actually would have done this but Tortosa isn't really on any major train route). So things begin drearily as we leave Madrid in our rental car (oh, which I am driving illegally by the way becasue you have to pay more to have more then one driver). The clerk at the Hertz counter was really helpful and gave us great directions out of the city. And, really, things were going very well. The rain was on again, off again but wasn't too bad. We found highway signs easily enough and were on our way to Tortosa. Now I believe it was Denise who replied, when I said in planning this part of our trip "where will we stop for lunch?" with "Oh, at some quaint little Spanish town where can experience Spanish life off the beaten path." Again, this sounds all good when your finishing off a bottle of wine in your comfy Philadelphia home. We eventually pull off at some tiny town, I forget the name of it. There was a diner of some kind right off the highway but the girls believed we should search out "something cuter". This was a weird town, it was really small, there were bars on the windows and every door was covered by a curtain. We saw not a soul in the town nor another car. It was funny (and a little scary) trying to navigate these tiny tiny streets with someone not super proficient with a stick shift. Yeah it was all fun and games until I made a turn down one street which came to a T junction that I was pretty convinced I would get stuck in if I tried to navigate it. Reenie and I were concerned, but Denise was downright spooked. It seems she has a wee problem with enclosed spaces. This street was so small I don't think we would have been able to open the car doors all the way becasue we would have hit the walls of nearby houses. As we were panicking a little this old wizened woman peers out from befind lace curtains and the iron bars on the window. I immediately had a flash of that movie "Hostel" and thought, "We're going to be abducted, tortured and killed by these locals." It was a little crazy for 2-3 minutes. I managed to drive backwards the way we had come and eventually find our way back to the "main" (a bigger dirt) road. We stopped at the place we had passed when we first got into town and had lunch. It was actually pretty good and was full of locals, although we didn't see any of them walking anywhere...a little weird. So back on the highway, no problem. The girls were reading various touristy books and we were talking about things to do when we got where we were going and what not. We passed these big black bull signs accross the countryside. Turns out they are an advertisement for a Spanish liquor. Spain made a decision not to have any roadside advertisements and was going to get rid of them but apparently the people rebelled and this is now the only rodside advertising (along highways at least) you'll find in Spain.

At one point someone was reading about Valencia, which we were going to pass close by. Valencia was trying to increase tourism and had just designed this new science center that sounded really cool. We thought, "Let's stop for an hour and do something touristy in Valencia, then we can say we visted Valencia." Again, it sounded good in theory. Here is my second piece of advice when considering visiting a major metropolitan area, for which you have no street maps, you don't speak the language and the driver is of limited recent experience with a stick shift: don't do it! We ended up lost in Valencia for two hours. We actually got lost on dirt roads (in the middle of a city). We got turned around and I thought the sign in Spanish meant "service area" turns out it was a "service road", you know the kind you find in Texas or Kansas, in the middle of nowhere...which go nowhere. It was like being trapped in the twilight zone, we could not find our way out of this place, and the roads were flooded from all the rain. Denise and I were giddy with fear, Reen was pretty concerend about the flooded roads and...I don't know, crashing into a hidden hole or getting the engine flooded...you know, little stuff like that. We stumble accross some Spanish nursery and the girls braved the rain to ask for directions. The men in the nursery are closing up for the day and want nothing to do with the gringo girls...some eight year old who speaks a tiny bit of English gives the girls partial directions. We eventually find our way out of the service area and are immediately lost within the metro area of Valencia. There are signs that point the way to Barcelona (which is the direction we want to go) but they literally point towards one another. In addition it is rush hour and the traffic patterns are not as neat and orderly as in the USA, they have these combination circles/intersections that are a terror. I am amazed I didn't: 1. Get into an accident 2. Stop and cry 3. Get pulled over by police, they discover I'm driving illegally and get arrested. By some miracle we find our way out and head toward Tortosa on the highway. As we leave we do ponder how three relatively inyelligent people EVER thought that was a good idea.

The partially flooded road in the Twiligh....ah, I mean Valencia:

The highway is fine, we shake off the Valencia fiasco and try to get positive again. We drive for a few hours and stop for a snack and gas. The girls buy a truck stop bottle of wine and enjoy it on our trip, I am now hooked on Orange Fanta so I have some of that. (The legal alcohol limit in Spain while driving is .06, lower then the USA...so I wouldn't advise it). It's getting late, the rain continues and it's getting dark. We are about 45 minutes away from the highway exit we need when we discover that the toll ticket, in some miracle of engineering, has fallen down behind the ashtray in the car, near the cupholder. We can see the ticket, but despite Reenie's Macgyver like manneuverings we are unable to retrieve it. This was the straw to my camel, and I admit it, I lost it a little bit. All I could picture was some burely, tourist intolerant, red-tape loving toll taker making us jump through rings of fire to fix the situation. As it turns out, the toll taker was a nice lady and although we struggled to communicate our disastor...we eventually navigate through the exit. We have arrived in Tortosa, where we are checking into a castle turned hotel. It is dark. It is raining. Our mood is less then happy. The roads are slippery. There are, initially, signs to the castle, which mysteriously disaapear. We now wander around this tiny town for a good 45 min - 1hr trying to find the giant castle on the hill. It was ridiculous. We eventaully find it and check in. The dining room is closing in five minutes. The front desk was nice enough to let us run to get something to eat then come back and check in, which we do. Then we all collapse in our beds from exhaustion and frustration. Thus endith the day from Hell of our Spanish trip.

Trip to Spain: Toledo, Mayor-o, Flamenco, OLE!

Toledo

On day three in Madrid we decided to go on a day trip to Toledo (pronounced Toe-lay-do). If you remember from my earlier post, one of the train employees tried to tell us one day was never going to be enough to explore Toledo. She was wrong. I mean we were toursists, it might be different if we were students of architecture or catholocism but we wanted to see some sights, visit some pretty buildings do some touristy things and that's about it. One day was plenty, and it was a great day. The train ride was very nice and only about 25 minutes from Madrid. Toledo is a mixture of Spainish and Moorish influences as well as Christian, Jewish and Muslims faiths, as well as being a well know producer of steel. You can read more about it here: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo%2C_Spain ). One of the most commanding structures of the city's skyline is the Alcazar:

The town is very hilly but everything you want to see is located pretty centrally. We started at the bus station and hopped on a tourist bus. They offered a package right in the train station lobby. It was 10 euros for an hour, partly on the bus and partly a walking tour of the town. The bus tour is all in Spanish but there was some printed material in English. Our guide was very nice and did try to tell us a few tidbits in English. The bus tour takes you around the city and stops for some nice photo ops:

The tour then continues on foot eventually dropping you off at the Plaza de Zocodover, sort of the central area which eveything is just a short walk away. Tons of great architecture to see:

Including the Toledo Cathedral:

We had a cool opportunity to watch some artisans work on a decorating technique originally from Damascus. The artists take incredibly fine gold thread and gold leaf and hammer it onto iron making amazingly complicated designs:

We had a very nice late lunch at Cason de los Lopez, jus a short walk from the Plaza de Zocodover. Our server was really friendly and although she spoke no English she really went out of her way to make us feel at home. We ordered the "menu of the day" which you can find all over Spain and usually consists of whatever they got fresh that day. We put our trust in our server and weren't disappointed. We had a delicious cream of zucchinni soup, fish with garlic and a sort of fruit smoothy for desert. It also included coffee and wine, all for 11 euros, what a deal!

There's lots of shopping in Toledo as well. From cheesey tourist trinkets, hand made art pieces, swords and knives of all kinds as well as Illadro, (http://lladro.stores.yahoo.net/willtocreate.html ) apparently another girly collectible I really knew nothing about, but Denise bought a really lovely piece. We kind of felt that we maxed out our time in Toledo and headed back to Madrid.

Plaza Mayor

We spent some time wandering around a bit and hung out in the Plaza Mayor which is this huge square full of little cafe's:

Then we decided to have dinner and go see a flamenco show. This dinner was really nice, we hadn't had the best luck with food since we got to Spain but this place was very nice and had good food. The Spainsh enjoy a nice long meal and never did we ever get rushed. They also don't really return that much to check on you like a restaurant in the united states. It's all very relaxed and casual. Another interesting observation about Madrid, we saw very few people walking around on the streets talking on cell phones or carrying around coffee. They just didn't do it. We saw some people on cell phones, but the majority of them looked like tourists. I don't think I saw anyone carrying around coffee in the morning. People actually go somewhere have coffee and drink it there

Flamenco

One of the coolest things we did this whole trip, for me at least, was going to the flamenco show. It was just great to watch. We went to a place called Las Carboneras (http://www.tablaolascarboneras.com/ ). Their postcard said they did two shows and we had our hotel call to make reservations, but the only had voicemail. We actually stopped by the place during our wanderings and spoke to someone there. It was good thing too, becasue they were only doing one show that night. You can eat dinner there as well as see the show, but we were very glad we ate elsewhere as their menu looked very much like the one from the other night which was terrible. Now we didn't eat there so I can't say for sure how the food was. The show fee, which I thing was about 25 euros included a drink of your choice. If you can get a table next to the stage that would probably be best, although the place isn't that big so you shold have a decent view wherever you are sitting. The show was great. Now I've never seen flamenco so it may have been the worse version of this style of dance ever and I would have never know, but I thought it was really cool. Flemenco is very much about the singing (although I thought it was about the dance) but the singers are well respected and the style of singing is somewhat odd to a westerners ear. While the music and singing are very much scripted and follow a precise format, the dancing and clapping are all improvised and follow the dancers instintcs as they listen to the music and follow the beat. Apparently there are two types of flamenco; those that are very informal and occur in local communities and are very spontaneous and those that are organized into theatrical shows or operas. The dancing was incredible to watch. The women were not young nor were they super skinny, but boy could you fel the passion in their dance. There was a male dancer as well who was really good. They all seemed incredibly expressive and sexy. I wish my pictures came out a little better, but I think you really need to see this in person to capture the true feel of the show. I highly reccomend checking one out if you get the chance.

Trip to Spain: The Prado, The Palace and the hunt for Espadrilles begins

Museum de Prado The next day we made a leisurely start and headed off to the Museum de Prado. This is another one of the great museums in Madrid. You can see greats like Venus and Adonis. There's works by Goya, Valazquez, Ruebens, Rembrandt and many others. The statue of Valazquez greets you as enter the museum.

You aren't supposed to take pictures in the museum but I snapped this one:

You can see an artists copying some artwork. There were a few of these people throughout the museum, many of them doing some amazing work. I was quickly snagged by a museum guide right after I snapped the pic. Not wanting to actually be thrown out of the museum, I didn't chance snapping any other pictures.

After a few hours at the museum we strolled up the Paseo De Prado, passing some beautiful scenes:

We stopped for a nice lunch (sardines in vinegar...yum!). Then some shopping in the Cheuca district...my friend Denise was on a quest for Espadrilles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espadrilles ) which apparently some people are fanatic about. Then we made our way by metro to the Royal Palace. This place was gorgeous and had a few nice cafe's around it so you could relax with a beer or some wine in this idyllic setting.

We had a terrible dinner at some little place we wandered onto...we made it all better with some delicious gellato before we called it a night.

Trip to Spain: Madrid Zoo

The Madrid Zoo

As I mentioned, the girls siesta'd while I made my way to the zoo. I used the metro. Both the # 10 and #5 lines go to Casa de Campo which is the stop for the zoo. It's a little off the beaten track and I wasn't sure I was in the right spot when I first go there. The signs pointing to the zoo are small, yellow, dificult to see and worn with time and the elements. If you get off at the Casa de Campo stop, go through the exit turnstiles and take the elevator to the street level. When the door open you will be facing in the direction of the zoo. It exists in a park and the street you are facing has foot paths on either side that you can follow right to the zoo. It's about a 10-15 minute downhill walk from the metro station, just stay next to the road and it will take you to the entrance for the zoo.

One of the coolest things at the zoo are the electric golf carts you can rent. You can see one in the reflection of the glass in the picture of the Mandrill. I didn't have alot of time to spend at the zoo, o this was a great option. I got to zip around the zoo really fast. They also seemed good for families who brought coolers and picnic baskets with them. The zoo wasn't very busy the day I was there so the carts were no problem, but I could see problems if the zoo was crowded. These would never fly in the litigous USA.

They seemed to use alot of water features in their enclosures, which really gave you an unobstructed view of the animals. The fences were more to keep the people off the grass and from going closer to the animals then actually containing the animals themselves. The hippos certainly don't seem to want to escape anyway, they were happily wallowing in a big muddy hole.

The zoo was pretty nice, clean and the animals all seemed well cared for. The staff was very nice, especially the woman who helped me wit the electric golf cart. She spoke no English (and I speak only a few words of Spanish) so she was very patient with me. Here's a few pics to enjoy:

Giant Panda...they're adorable! (even though they'd rip you limb from limb if given the chance)

An enormous albino rattlesnake, one of the biggest I've ever seen.

Cassowary. I never saw one of these in person. The are a big kind of dinosaur looking bird. From what I've seen/read about them, they are fierce birds that can inflict alot of damage if cornered.

Mata Mata...one of the weirdest, coolest turtles in my humble opinion

They also have an aquarium on site with dolphin and seal shows which I hear are very good, although I didn't have time to see them. So if you are a zoo person and find yourself in Madrid, check out the Madrid Zoo.

Trip to Spain: Madrid, Museums, Metro and more...

Trip to Spain, May 2008

Some friends and I recently decided to vacation in Spain...why you ask, oh gentle reader? Well my very good friend Reenie turned 50. Now no one believes that of course because she looks so fabulous, but it was a good enough excuse for us. My other very good friend, and hottie herself, Denise rounded out our Tres Amigos.

The girls started the trip off with drinks at the airport bar. We flew out of the Philadelphia International Airport and flew into Madrid. Our flight left around 6:30pm and we would get into Madrid around 7:00am local time.

As is par for the course, Reenie ran into people she knew at the airport. It's a bit of a running joke, that no matter where she goes (at least in the United States) Rennie runs into someone she is either a) Related to b) Works with c) Went to school with d) Is someohow connected to the NJ shore or e) she has slept with (just kidding about e). So Patty and Rich were on their way to Paris and their flight was leaving a few minutes after ours. They joined us at the bar before our flights took off.

Our flight was pretty uneventful. I lucked out and had two seats to myself. Denise and Reen had nice gentleman who sat next to them whom they had nice conversations with. The girls both slept a little. I, unfortunately and despite the benedryl, doxalamine succinate and valerian root, could not find sleep. The meds did leave me dehydrated and very sleepy the entire day...nice.

Best Western Carlos V, Madrid

The Madrid airport wasn't too difficult to navigate, the hardest thing was finding a working ATM machine. We hopped in a cab and off to our hotel we went.

We stayed at the Best Western Carlos V, Madrid. (Follow this link and click on 'traveler photos' to see a bunch of pictures of the hotel that people have posted: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187514-d190158-r6781111-Best_Western_Carlos_V-Madrid.html ). We stayed in a "triple" room which consisted of two twin beds and a couch with a pull-out bed. The beds were not all that comfortable but the rooms and the bathroom were a decent size. The room also had airconditioning that worked pretty well. (Oh, if you are traveling from the US, you'll need an outlet converter plus a transformer to plug in electric devices. Denise had a converter so we made due, although we thought the hairdryer would explode at any moment, until the girls figured out there was a different volatge setting on it). The staff were fairly nice and most spoke a good bit of English. Our reservation also included a breakfast buffet which was nice. They offered fresh fruit, cereal, juices, pastries, cheese and of course multiple pork products...which you find all over Spain. You can also have coffee, tea or hot chocolate. An important Spanish phrase to learn was "Coffee con leche" or coffee with milk. Their coffee in spain is served very strong, more like esspresso. Overall we liked the hotel itself...I mean it wasn't the Ritz but it met our needs well.

Plaza Puerta del Sol

The hotel was located just off of Calle de Preciados which is a large street that lead right into Plaza Puerta del Sol. In the late afternoon/early evening Calle de Peciados becomes packed with people and street perfomers, especially "living statues". It was a major shopping street as well. But the street as well as the Plaza Puerta del Sol had a somewhat gritty "Times-Square" kind of a feel with lots of toursists and locals rushing about to work. There were Mcdonalds and KFC's and local newstands amidst the stautary and fine buildings. The picture to the left is of a statue of Bear and the Madroño Tree, heraldic symbol of Madrid. Read more about the Plaza Puerta del Sol here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerta_del_Sol

Some more pictures of the Plaza Puerta del Sol...

Madrid seemed much more urban and very "city" like then we expected. Which we shouldn't have been surprised by as it it is the largest city in Spain. for some reason we just thought it wouldn't be so...gritty?? But our first day or two seemed that way. Many people in Madrid spoke some English and we did very well (throughout our trip actually) knowing just a few words in Spanish.

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Well we wanted to make the most of our first day in Madrid so we dropped off our bags at the hotel and made our way to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_Reina_Sofia ). As you can see, Willy Wonka aint got nuthin on the Reina Sofia with their great glass elevator. So you like Picasso? Well you'll have Picasso out the ying yang here. Now I like art and I love museums in general and there was alot of great work to see here but I was Picasso'd out by the end of the museum...it's failrly overwhelming with the nunber of Picasso's here. Of course the most impressive piece of his to see here is 'Guernica' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_%28painting%29 ). It really is amazing to see in person, it's a very powerful piece and you can't help but feel...something...something terrible and greif-stricken and yearning...something overwhelimingly sad and just plain wrong. I was glad to have seen it in person. There are also works by Solana, Dali, Miro and others here and is overall a nice museum. See the small kiosk with the orange dot in the picture to the left? That's a tourist information booth, they were helpful in giving us a train schedule as we prepared for our day trip to Toledo. Oh, there are two other major museums that you may be considering visiting; the Museo del Prado and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. You can purchase a toursit ticket at any of these museums that gets you access to all three. It saves you a few euros if you're going to visit them

Madrid Metro

The Reina Sofia also had a lovely garden inthe middle of the museum where we took a few minutes to relax and plan the rest of our day. I should note that we got around in Madrid almost exclusively by Metro. It's very easy to use if you have any experince using public transportation. There are automated machines at each metro stop where you can buy tickets. all of the machines I encountered were multi lingual and a one-way trip in town basically costs 1 euro. If you're going to be using the metro for multiple trips you may want to consider the 10-trip ticket which will save you a few euros, they are available at the automated ticket machines as well. I would encourage you to have a good map that includes metro stops as you will probably do (as we did) alot of walking and metro-ing about town. I used the Mapeasy Guidemap series (http://www.mapeasy.com/search.cfm?searchtext=MapEasy%20Guidemap ) which I generally found great for walking around, although some of the metro stops were not listed (especially in the Barcelona map) so I supplimented with a seperate metro map. Whatever map you use, make sure it has street level detail as there is a good deal of walking to do. The metro doesn't use North, South, East, West directions; it's always a specific line and the direction will be listed as towards a specific end of that line. If you are familiar with the metro in Washington DC, it's much the same. The metro runs alot. The most we had to wait for a train was 4 minutes. One odd little item is that if you want the metro door to open you many times have to push a button or a lever to have the door open at a specific stop. Like any large city, be aware of your surroundings and keep an eye on your belongings. (See my Barcelona Crime post for more info)

Madrid Train Station and RENFE Trains

We were planning a day-trip to Toledo and we had read that the trains can fill up quickly so we visitied the train station which is very near the Reina Sofia to try to arrange for tickets to Toledo. We arrived in Spain on a Monday are were trying to arrange for tickets on Wed. The "lobby" of the train station is pictured to the left. It's a giant rain forrest that has giant misters spraying water over the plants...it was like walking into the Amazon, it was hot and moist everywhere. The train station was a madhouse, with people everywhere but all three of us are fairly expereinced travelers and weren't deterred. In addition, when we were there, there was construction so there was a constant jack hammering. Think Union station in Washington DC, it's busy and people are running everywhere as well as people just having lunch or picking up travelers...then add the jack hammer...then the misty forrest...then you can't speak the language, so it was a bit overwheliming. The train system is called RENFE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RENFE ) and operates commuter and high speed trains. There are agents who stand by the autmated ticket machines (the lines to actually speak to a human being were incredibly long) but they spoke little English and the machines seemed to be having a technical problem so we couldn't actually get our tickets that day. We did eventually meet an agent who spoke very good English. She tried to tell us that one day was not nearly enough to spend in Toledo. She was adamant about it actually...so much so that we reconsidered going. We returned the next day and the machines were working and then it was fairly easy to get our tickets. The automated machines are in Spanish, with no English option, but it was easy enough to figure out if you have a English-Spanish dictionary...or a helpful agent. The round trip tickets cost about 14 euros and you have to pick your departure and return times. We chose a later return time thinking we could get on an earlier train if we needed. Important note here, you can't get on an earlier train just because you want to. However this is where the "I'm a stupid tourist" act comes in handy. We were able to talk our way onto an earlier train, although the train steward wasn't very happy about it. He told us we'd have to stand, but eventually found us seats. The high speed train from Madrid to Toledo takes about 25 minutes and is a very pleasant trip. Oh...one other thing, when you get your ticket you have an assigned seat in a specific train-car. And the travelers actually sit in their assigned seats. This is definately different then say AMTRAK in the US where you just get on and find your own seat.

Siesta Time

So after a few hours at the Reina Sofia and a failed attempt at the train station, the long flight and time change was catching up with us. The girls returned to the hotel room for a siesta. I was tempted but thought I wouldn't wake up on a more normal schedule so I caught a metro out to the Madrid Zoo. (Check out my seperate Madrid Zoo Blog for more info). I do want to comment briefly on the whole "siesta" thing.

I had read that the Spanish take a siesta in the afternoon, and that is true. However, it seemed less true in Madrid. There were things that would close but it didn't seem as intrusive to us in Madrid as it became in Tortosa and Barcelona. Many things in Madrid seemed to stay open during the day, although you would find the odd thing that would close. So it's always a good idea to check open and close times wherever your going to go in Spain. When things do close it's usually from 1pm to 3 or 4 pm. So generally things open at about 10am, close around 1pm and reopen around 4pm. This doesn't really apply to eating establishments (although to some it does) but it certainly does to "toursty" type things, especially in Tortosa and Barcelona...but not always. (Sometimes even he people in Spain don't know when things are open. Our hotel desk clerk assurred us something didn't close for siesta, but it did.) So...check times beforehand if you can, that's the best advice I can offer.