Day 12 - Hasta Luego

It's the last day of our trip in Spain and it's been a great one. K smartly made our flight a late one - 4pm, which meant we could take our time getting up and making our way to the airport.

The newer additions on Barrajas airport (terminal 4) are very interesting - very Gaudi-like.

We had plenty of time before our flight and K kept trying to decide whether or not to get the Torres Mas La Plana from the Duty Free. She thought Total Wine had it, but now thinks she was mistaken. Damn it!

We met up with the guy we met flying over to Spain, the one with the $75 bottle of Scotch that got trashed. He was returning on the same flight.

Luckily, our flight wasn't full, which meant we had plenty of room to stretch out and be comfy. And as much as we hated Iberia for the first legs of our trip, this flight somewhat redeemed them. The crew was nicer, the plane was nicer, the food was better. Still, we're probably not going to partake of their services again, if we can help it. We'll find another way to get to Barcelona next year.

(1) dinner or lunch - pasta, pate, cake, bread (2) dinner or lunch - chicken, potatoes, beans, pate, cake, bread (3) snack - turkey, ham & cheese and dessert

We waited forever to get through customs. There were only 2 people working the U.S. side and there were 2 other big international flights that came in along with ours. Budget cuts, I guess. When we finally got back to the apartment, we ordered up some Thai food and enjoyed with some Spanish wine and Amontillado I picked up at Trader Joe's.

We may do a wrap up of the trip tomorrow, but for now, it's late (almost 6am Spain time), so time for bed. Adios.

Day 11 - Shopping and Being Lazy

Since the only plans today were to eat lunch, go shopping and eat dinner, we didn't head out until about 1. I tried to get a picture capturing a scene we've seen here all week, but it didn't quite turn out. We couldn't figure why the people were lined up around blocks for a freakin' lottery ticket. It seems it's not just any lottery, but the world famous Spanish El Gordo lottery. It's 20 euro a ticket but 1 in 6 is a winner with a top prize of about 2.2 billion euro or so.

Lunch was at La Barraca, which is famous for their paella, but since C wasn't interested in paella, we opted for the Veal Scallopini and the Beef Madrilena style (which was like a cordon blue with veal instead of chicken).
(1) Sangria, of course (2) Callos A La Madrilena (Tripe) (3) Escalopines de Tenera (4) Madrilena de Ternera



Then it was a stop at a clothes store K has been dying to go into - Punt Roma.

Time for siesta and more shopping later.

For dinner, we opted for a neighborhood Cuban restaurant, Zara. It was 8:30 and we were still the only people in da house. I guess that's why they immediately knew to offer us the English menu. Since their daiquiris are legendary, we opted for banana and mango daiquiris to accompany our ropa vieja and no lo se whatever C had, but it was a minced meat with rice and fried banana.



Tomorrow, we're flying back home. So, we'll probably have one last update. It's been fun and we've already decided that returning to Spain again is a MUST, especially Barca. Hasta Manana.

Day 10 - Avila & Segovia

We took the all-day tour to Avila and Segovia today, leaving our hotel at 9:15am this morning. There were only 8 people in our tour group, so it was a nice small group, which seemed like a United Nations convoy, as we represented the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, and our guide was originally from Argentina.

The first thing our guide, Sofia, said was I hope you dressed warmly because where we're going, it's snowing. Yes, SNOW, NIEVE! And we weren't far out of Madrid before the road signs warned of snow and soon after, it was obvious, Sofia was right.


It was about an hour drive to Avila. Our first stop was Iglesia de San Vicente.


Sofia really knew her history, unfortunately, all I can remember was no pictures (which I disobeyed only for a few quick snaps - a sign said "No Flash", which doesn't mean no photos and I didn't use a flash). The church was originally designed in the Romanesque style (i.e., the floor plan resembling that of the cross with low ceilings) but was finished in the Gothic style (i.e., very high ceilings).



Then we walked the streets of Avila toward St. Teresa's Convent. St. Teresa was one of the Church's counter-reformation saints, a doctor of the church, a mystic, and from legends, was a very witty dame. The 4th picture in this set is a plaque noting Pope John Paul's visit in 1982. The bone of her right ring finger is preserved in the convent, along with a lot of her relics which included a rosary with beads the size of a cherry!



And of course, how you can go to Avila and not see the famous city walls. At the river Adaja's side at 1630 meters from sea level, Avila is the highest city of Spain and possesses the longest city walls which still today surround the city (with a longitude of 2,526 mtrs, with a medium height of 12 mtrs, and 3 mtrs thick). (courtesy http://www.cyberspain.com/ciudades-patrimonio/fotos/avimuri.htm)


We stopped at a mirador outside the city for a better view of the walled city. It's that area behind K.


Then it was off to Segovia, another hour or so drive. Somehow even moving on the bus, I was able to get this great shot of the windmills.


Segovia is a town of about 56,000 inhabitants and about 19 or 20 churches. This is just one of the regular churches, not the Catedral. I guess even back then, size did matter: the richer and nobler you were, the bigger your parish. The peasants and proletariats had to contend with capillas. Who knew the "importance" of the House of God was measured by square footage?


But Segovia is probably most famous for it's aqueduct - a magnificent structure almost 8 stories high, with nary anything to glue the stones together, just pure engineering genius.


By then, it was 2:30 and time for lunch. We didn't buy the tour ticket that included lunch, so we went out on our own and actually went to "the famous restaurant" - Candido. Its namesake founder has a statue at the city limit; he invented the cochinillo asado al horno dish. The food was okay but nothing too special. We were going to try their suckling pig specialty, but I saw them cutting one to serve and the pig's eyes were staring right at me. Sorry, I just couldn't eat little Babe! (He was only 21 days old before he met his Maker!!!) So, we opted for veal bistek and cordero asado (baby lamb, another Candido specialty) along with Ribera Del Duero house wine (2.50 euro a glass) and for postre - ponche, a traditional Segovian dessert made of ground almonds, sugar, and lots of other bad stuff for you.



We met up with the group at the Catedral, which looks very similar to the Catedral in Seville. We arrived before the rest of the group which was good because K got to take pictures before Sofia said "no photos".




Then we walked through the snow to the Alcazar. Along the way, we saw this posted outside a store, which looks remarkably like a young George Bush. You know he'll be out of a job on 20th January... maybe this IS his new gig...


And finally, the Alcazar.




It was a long day, but fun and educational. It's amazing to see all these churches in every corner of even the smallest medieval towns (I think now, they've been replaced by El Corte Ingles?) and how Catholicism has shaped the Iberian Peninsula, and how the Spaniards in return changed the world. History is really fascinating.Catholic tradition says that you can ask for 3 wishes when you visit a Catholic church for the first time. In which case, Spain is a 3-wisher paradise!