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.